Category: Watch Movies!

LFM Reviews Pandora’s Promise @ The 2013 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Nuclear energy does not burn fossil fuels, nor is it intermittent. Appreciation of these obvious, incontrovertible facts led documentarian Robert Stone and five well known environmental activists to reverse their longstanding opposition to nuclear power. Stone convincingly lays out their green case for nuclear in Pandora’s Promise (see clip above), which screens during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Stone made his name with the anti-nuclear doc Radio Bikini and would further burnish his green credentials with Earth Days. Very concerned about global warming, Stone could no longer accept the environmental movement’s unrealistic claims about solar and wind power. As his primary POV experts argue, any power plan with a significant wind or solar component will by necessity be heavily dependent on big, dirty fossil fuel plants as a back-up. The simple truth is that the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow, but coal burns 24-7.

To his credit, Stone tackles the Fukushima disaster right up front, rather than let it fester in the minds of skeptical audience members. While the devastation of the area gives pause to noted British environmental author and nuclear convert Mark Lynas, the background radiation levels they record are considerably less than what anyone flying on a transatlantic commercial flight would be exposed to.

Building a nuclear power plant in France.

Stone’s battery of experts cogently explains the safety benefits and relative cleanliness of nuclear. Yes, radioactive waste is a potentially inconvenient by-product, but the volume is a fraction of what the public widely assumes. Furthermore, next generation reactors will increasingly be able to recycle the existing nuclear waste, as is already happening in France. Of course, there have been disasters, but Chernobyl was the worst by far. A sterling example of Soviet safety engineering, the Pripyat plant completely lacked any basic containment dome, whereas Western reactors have multiple domes with elaborate, built-in contingency systems.

Surely some will try, but it is impossible to dismiss Stone as a right-of-center partisan. Clearly the Pandora contributors are entirely satisfied global warming is a very real and alarming phenomenon. Indeed, that is largely the impetus for their nuclear apostasy. Considering how many cold shoulders Stone, Lynas, and company are likely to get from former comrades at cocktail parties, their conviction cannot be questioned. Their logic is also sound and consistent. Highly recommended for anyone with an open mind who self-identifies with the environmental cause (broadly defined), Pandora’s Promise screens again on Saturday (1/26) in Salt Lake as a Doc Premiere at this year’s Sundance.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 24th, 2012 at 11:07pm.

LFM Reviews What Isn’t There (Ang Nawawala) @ The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Alt-pop music used to be great at expressing young amour and heartsick yearning. Evidently, it still does in the Philippines. Some remarkably catchy tunes perfectly accompany a damaged teen’s first significant love in Marie Jamora’s What Isn’t There, which screens again today as part of the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.

Gibson Bonifacio stopped speaking. He could if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. He blames himself for his twin brother’s death and assumes everyone else does, too. His mother’s overbearing behavior does not exactly help bring him out of his shell, either. Unfortunately, his beloved little sister Promise bears the brunt of her control freak parenting. Bonifacio’s only solace comes from his brother’s ghost conjured from his imagination and his vintage music, until he happens to meet Enid del Mundo.

Much to his surprise, del Mundo does not seem to mind his silent ways. She is also a vinyl collector, whose tastes include British New Wave and traditional Harana ballads. She is cute, too. Viewers can hardly blame Bonifacio for getting hung up on her, even though we know by now young love almost never runs smoothly.

You can dog WIT for being sentimental, but it takes its characters and situations refreshingly seriously. Jamora and co-writer Ramon De Veyra clearly think getting dumped is a pretty rotten thing to happen to a sensitive teenager, which indeed it is. She also has an ear for hummable and thematically appropriate pop songs and Haranas.

Dominic Roco’s Bonifacio is supposed to be introverted, but there are times when he seems to literally shrink on camera. In contrast, Annicka Dolonius lights up the screen as del Mundo. While the large supporting ensemble all looks right, Boboy Garovillo and Sabrina Man both add a memorable sense of earnest down-to-earth-ness as Bonifacio’s father and younger sister, respectively.

WIT is a lot like a Filipino John Hughes movie, but with less comedy. Those who like bittersweet teen dramas will really dig this one. Recommended accordingly, What Isn’t There screens again this afternoon (1/22) at Treasure Mountain Inn, as part of this year’s Slamdance.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 at 11:55pm.

Snow White in the Bull Ring: LFM Reviews Blancanieves

By Joe Bendel. It often seems like the Academy’s rules for the best foreign language category are obscure and arbitrarily applied. Frankly, the only language spoken in Spain’s official submission is body language. Yet Pablo Berger’s silent film qualified. In fairness, it is about as Spanish as it gets, earning eighteen Goya nominations for combining the Snow White fairy tale with the rich tradition of bullfighting. Unfortunately, Blancanieves will not repeat The Artist’s Oscar success, failing to even reach the foreign language shortlist. However, it should still find considerable arthouse love when it opens this Friday in New York.

Antonio Villalta was a great matador, but one day he faced one bull too many. As the paralyzed Villalta lies upon the operating table, his beloved sadly dies in child birth. Recognizing a ticket to the easy life, the cold, calculating nurse Encarna sets her sites on the weakened widower. Yes, you could say she is an evil stepmother to young Carmen. Initially raised by her grandmother, Carmen is forced to become a servant on the Villalta estate after the kindly old woman’s death. Though forbidden to see her father, she starts paying furtive visits to the equally miserable Villalta. Even confined to his wheelchair, Villalta teaches her everything about the family business. It will be a useful skill when things come to a head with Encarna.

Suffering from amnesia, Carmen falls in with an itinerant company of diminutive novelty bullfighters. When her innate talent and extensive training are revealed, the troupe is quickly redubbed “Blancanieves and the Seven Dwarfs.” They seem to be one dwarf short, but they are never sticklers for details in Spain. Obviously, the act is a hit, which perturbs Encarna and you know what that means.

Blancanieves is the third Snow White adaptation in about a year’s time and by far the best. Yet it will draw far more comparisons to Michel Hazanavicius’s Artist than to Kristen Stewart’s home-wrecking Huntsman. Without question, Berger is a much richer visual stylist than the Oscar winning director. On the other hand Hazanavicius’s elegantly light touch, flair for physical comedy, and old fashioned romanticism are ultimately a tad more satisfying. Nonetheless, Berger frames some stunningly expressionistic tableaux and his transitions are a show unto themselves. However, he embraces all of the tragic heaviness of the Brothers Grimm and almost none of their macabre fantasy.

The cast is also quite strong (but again The Artist’s ensemble would narrowly take the honors in a face-off). Daniel Giménez Cacho’s work as Villalta is particularly poignant and the dwarfs stand head-and-shoulders above their more famous counterparts in Huntsman. Sofía Oria is also quite touching as young Carmen (while Macarena García’s older incarnation is somewhat less so).

Watching Blancanieves, one is struck by the painstaking composition of each shot and the care taken to perfectly match every note of Alfonso de Vilallonga’s score (featuring both sweeping orchestral pieces and some infectious flamenco-inspired songs). Furthermore, the lack of award season recognition for Kiko de la Rica’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography is nothing less than a crime. A work of true cinematic artistry, Blancanieves is recommended for all real movie lovers when it opens this Friday (1/25) in New York.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 at 11:54pm.

LFM Reviews S-VHS @ The 2013 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Have you ever watched something so disturbing that you wish you could un-see it? Like maybe A Serbian Film or Barbra Streisand’s Guilt Trip? That is sort of the premise behind the follow-up to last year’s horror anthology V/H/S. While S-VHS is very definitely a film for horror diehards, it is not a similarly soul-shredding experience. In fact, it should be a heck of a fan-pleaser during its midnight screenings at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The only place S-VHS repeats V/H/S is during Simon Barrett’s interstitial framing arc, Tape 47. Once again, strangers have broken into a sketchy looking house, finding a mysterious assortment of VHS tapes. This time around, a detective and his assistant, Ayesha, are looking for a missing college student, who evidently became obsessed with his collection of macabre found footage. It seems he believed the cumulative effect of watching certain tapes consecutively would have a transformative effect on the viewer. Naturally, Ayesha does exactly that, utilizing the monitors conveniently provided.

Adam Wingard’s Clinical Trials might be the most conventional of the four tapes the intruders watch, but it still delivers plenty of creeps and jolts. After an accident, a man has received a bionic optical implant to replace a lost eye. The experimental treatment is free, but his initial experiences will be recorded for analysis. (How such advanced technology was transferred to an obsolete VHS tape is not a question worth asking.) With his artificially boosted vision, the man starts seeing things he never could before, like the dead people haunting his home.

In a bit of a departure, Edúardo Sanchez & Gregg Hale’s A Ride in the Park aims more for gross-outs than edge-of-the-seat scares, but it delivers accordingly. Recorded through the protagonist’s bike helmet-cam, it could be described as the “zombie vomit” installment. What more do you need to know?

Not surprisingly, the strongest constituent film comes from Gareth Huw Evans, who helmed the spectacular martial arts shoot-out The Raid. Also set in Indonesia (a refreshing change of pace for the franchise), Safe Haven, co-directed with Timo Tjahjanto, consists of the footage shot by a documentary film crew visiting the compound of a reputed cult leader. Initially, the well-spoken guru cooperates in the apparent hope of counteracting some of his bad PR. However, their presence seems to ignite something evil.

Evans and Tjahjanto sure understand how to pace a film. Steadily escalating the degree of wtf-ness, they throw in just about everything but the kitchen sink, culminating with one of the best composed closing shots you could ever hope to see in a genre film. The ensemble cast is also first rate, from top to bottom.

While not quite as inspired as Haven, Jason Eisener’s Alien Abduction Slumber Party still ends S-VHS on a high note. This is truly a descriptive title. However, the dialogue and relationship dynamics are cleverly written, without sounding like an attempted Scream rip-off. It is also a good example of how brief, blurry images seen out of the corner of one’s eye can be far more unsettling than front-and-center special effects shots.

Like its predecessor, S-VHS is pretty scary stuff, but by offering more humor and gleeful gore, it happens to be more fun. A rare case of a sequel surpassing the original, S-VHS is enthusiastically recommended for midnight movie veterans (perhaps exclusively). It screens again Tuesday (1/22) and Thursday (1/24) in Park City and Sunday (1/26) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 21st, 2012 at 9:57pm.

LFM Reviews The Institute @ The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. What’s more fun than global conspiracy? If you ask former “inductees” of the Jejune Institute, you will likely get radically different responses. It seems it was all just a game, or was it? Indeed, truth is deliberately difficult to separate from fiction in Spencer McCall’s ostensive documentary The Institute, which screens during the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.

Once upon a time, in 2008 to be exact, some strange leaflets began appearing around San Francisco—strange even by that city’s standards. The Jejune Institute was trumpeting its revolutionary scientific breakthroughs, like the personal force field, and inviting interested parties to inquire at their local offices. It turns out the Jejune Institute was headquartered in the heart of San Francisco’s glass-and-steel financial district. However, the office was nothing like Bank of America’s. Visitors were directed to a trippily appointed room, where they watched a video greeting from Jejune founder Octavio Coleman, Esq.

After a mind-bending intro to some of the basic Jejune buzz-words, inductees were sent on a scavenger hunt throughout the city, finding secret signs and clues amid the urban environment. Before long, inductees found themselves aligned with a rival faction seeking to liberate the power of “nonchalance” (the rough Jejune equivalent of The Force) from the megalomaniacal Coleman. Or something like that.

The thing is, it was all just a game, engineered by a conceptual artist to foster a sense of play in the city. Yet as soon as the behind-the-scenes architects come clean, McCall introduces a former player, whose tales of misadventures in the Bay Area sewers have to be part of the mythology. I mean, seriously.

Reportedly, McCall was brought in to document the final stages of the game and recognized a doc-worthy story when he saw one. By the same token, it seems safe to assume he is to some extent an accomplice to the mythmaking. There are enough digital tracks to suggest that the Jejune Instituters truly were running an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that some players took very seriously. As for everything else in the film, maintain a healthy skepticism.

The thing of it is, the Jejune mythology is a great story. McCall taps into our deep, abiding interest in secret histories, conspiracy theories, and urban legends, as well as our fear of cults. For scores of players, the ARG was like submerging themselves in an Illuminatus! novel. Yes, some of them might have become obsessed to an unhealthy degree, but they might also be playing the parts.

While openly inviting comparison to Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Institute will appeal to viewers who enjoyed Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. It might be strange and unreliable, but it is never dull. Recommended for those who appreciate postmodern fables, The Institute screens again tomorrow morning (1/22) at Treasure Mountain Inn, as part of this year’s Slamdance.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 21st, 2012 at 9:53pm.

LFM Reviews The Summit @ The Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. For climbers, the math surrounding K2 is daunting. Twenty-five percent of those who reach the summit perish on the way down. It is a factor of altitude plus exhaustion. Nevertheless, the mortality rate for the international expedition scaling the mountain in August of 2008 was unusually high. While the sudden blizzard and subsequent avalanches obviously cost the climbing party dearly, many of the details of what transpired up there remain murky. It is a mystery that survivors and loved ones try to resolve in Nick Ryan’s The Summit (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Out of the twenty-four who ascended K2 that fateful day, eleven never made it back. That is forty-four percent—or sixty one percent of the eighteen who reached the so-called “death zone.” Gerald (Ger) McConnel became the first Irishman to summit K2. However, his ultimate fate is the driving question of Ryan’s documentary.

From "The Summit."

The tragic 2008 climb was not the first controversy surrounding K2. In fact, there was quite a bit of back-biting and finger-pointing after the first successful summitting. Esteemed Italian mountaineer Walter Bonatti never received proper credit for his contributions that allowed his countrymen to stake their claim for glory. Viewers learn this from journalist Concetto La Malfa, who intermittently tells the tale in the persona of Bonatti. Actually, that is not very clearly established in Summit, which is problematic for a documentary – but good golly what a rich voice he’s got.

Despite the flashing backwards and forwards, Summit keeps the audience riveted throughout. Incorporating home videos and footage shot during the climb, as well as staging some surprisingly cinematic dramatic re-enactments, Ryan conveys the personalities of most of the party members, often through their own words. This also increases the suspense as the mountain takes the ill-fated eleven one by one, And Then There Were None-style.

Visually arresting (with ample credit due to cinematographers Robbie Ryan and Stephen O’Reilly, as well as the climbers themselves), The Summit is a perfect doc for viewers who prefer narratives. It is about as story-driven as films get. Ryan’s documentary vividly captures a sense of the punishing Karakoram-Himalayan environment as well as the spirit of adventure that draws people to it. Enthusiastically recommended, The Summit screens today in Salt Lake (1/20), Wednesday (1/23) and Friday (1/25) in Park City, and Tuesday (1/22) in Sundance Resort as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 20th, 2012 at 4:39pm.