Category: Trailers

TIME LAPSE – Official Trailer from TIME LAPSE on Vimeo.

By Joe Bendel. It is too bad the late, great James Garner never got to take this Polaroid camera out for a spin. It has been specially modified. The big bulky mainframe spits out a picture of whatever is in its field of vision, twenty-four hours into the future. Unfortunately, its inventor no longer has a future, which allows his underachieving neighbors to put it to dubious employment in Bradley King’s Time Lapse, which screens during the 2014 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Finn fancies himself a painter, but he is really the super of a suburban condo complex. He is the guy who has to check up on the eccentric Mr. Bezzeredes when the retiree’s papers start piling up. His girlfriend Callie is a writer who works as a waitress and their housemate Jasper is basically a degenerate gambler.

It turns out the former scientist was compulsively snapping photos through their front window before he met with death through some mysterious form of misadventure. From Bezzeredes’ journal and the evidence of the photos, the trio quickly deduces the nature of his breakthrough and concludes he was burned (literally) because he tried to pull a fast one on time. Therefore they resolve they must always conform to whatever future comes spitting out of the machine. Of course, it always seems to provide Jasper the daily winners at the racetrack. It also shows Finn the paintings he had been struggling to produce.

We do not need a crystal ball to predict Jasper’s bookie will get suspicious when he keeps picking race after race. However, that is just the start of the complications for the trio. For one thing, they essentially lose all free will once they commit to conforming to the nightly 8:00 photo. It becomes a compelling dramatic constraint King and co-writer B.P. Cooper wriggle in and out of quite cleverly.

In fact, Time Lapse represents a continuation of the renaissance for low budget, high concept indie science fiction, successfully following the example of James Ward Byrkit’s Coherence, Hugh Sullivan’s Infinite Man (a fellow Fantasia selection), and Darren Paul Fisher’s Frequencies. Like those films, Time Lapse is not about special effects. Instead, they start with a fantastical Macguffin and trace its effects on realistic, everyday people. Arguably, Time Lapse is the most character-driven of the lot, presenting the dark side of a Three’s Company-like situation.

Danielle Panabaker is terrific as Callie, pulling off some nifty pivots that really make the film. George Finn also relishes Jasper’s increasingly erratic behavior, chewing scenery like a genre pro. Matt O’Leary sort of draws the short straw as the painfully reserved Finn (the painter character), but he holds up his end, keeping the action moving forward.

One of the cool things about Time Lapse is it is the sort of science fiction film you could adapt as a stage production without it suffering from a lack of SFX mumbo jumbo. Tightly executed by King, it is a worthy addition to the growing time travel canon. Recommended with a good deal of enthusiasm, Time Lapse screens again tomorrow (8/2) as part of this year’s Fantasia.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on August 1st, 2014 at 6:20pm.

By Joe Bendel. There is a different rhythm to life in the Quchi countryside. Chang Tso-chi acclimates viewers to it far quicker than his ten year old protagonist. Kuan Hsiao-pao is used to Taipei’s high speed internet, but a summer spent with his traditional grandfather will have lasting significance in Chang’s A Time in Quchi, which screens during this year’s Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

At this point, Kuan is used to his parents’ chaos, so their likely divorce is not exactly shocking. He will spend his summer vacation with his paternal grandfather, so his folks will have more time to quarrel, but he is rather put off by the old man’s highly structured lifestyle. He is also less than thrilled when his chop-busting younger sister “Seaweed” arrives sometime later.

Since this is Taiwan, kids still go to school even during summer vacation, so Kuan is duly enrolled at the village primary school. Not surprisingly, he is initially rather standoffish, but Kuan soon forms his first real friendship with Huang Ming-chuan, an aboriginal classmate. Unfortunately, just as Kuan embraces Quchi, tragedy strikes.

Quchi is a subtle and wistful coming of age story that showcases some extraordinarily natural young actors. However, it must be completely compartmentalized from Chang, who is essentially the Taiwanese Polanski, except he is not being sheltered from justice by the French government. Frankly, it is a little creepy to realize the incident he was convicted for occurred at a party for Quchi, but that is not the fault of Yang Liang-yu and his co-stars.

While Yang’s work might be too understated for those who like to bring their Fault in Our Stars branded hanky to the movies, he keeps what could have been a saccharine melodrama feel mature and grounded. He also rather graciously allows Lin Ya-jo to steal all of Seaweed’s scenes. Nonetheless, it is veteran actor-screenwriter Kuan Yun-lung (a.k.a. Kuan Kuan) who really gives the film its heart and integrity as the gruff but wise grandfather.

Even at the height of young Kuan’s city slicker culture shock, he can appreciate the natural beauty of Quchi’s rivers and foothills. Cinematographer Yuan Ching-kuo certainly did as well. Visually, it is a much more arresting, big canvas film than you would expect from the coming-of-age genre. It represents nice work from a large cast and creative crew that should not be tarnished by Chang’s subsequent scandal. Recommended for those who appreciate quiet but telling family dramas, A Time in Quchi screens this coming Monday (7/28) at the Village East, as part of the 2014 AAIFF.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on July 28th, 2014 at 12:20pm.

By Joe Bendel. You will definitely recognize Al Leong. He was the henchman Sgt. Riggs strangled with his legs while he was administering electroshock torture in the original Lethal Weapon. That is a typical day at the office for Leong. PBS’s National Film Society set out to pay tribute to Leong and his fellow character actors with a web-series that turned into a festival film. Prepare to show all due respect when Stephen Dypiangco & Patrick Epino’s Awesome Asian Bad Guys screens during the 2014 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Internet video producers Dypiangco and Epino are on a mission to assemble an Expendables-like team of Asian action movie heavies, who will finally have the chance to be the good guys. They have two good reasons: they must protect Tamlyn Tomita (from the Karate Kid 2) and prevent commercial actor Aaron Takahasi from trying to permanently eliminate all his casting call competition.

The cool thing about AABG is how it deftly satirizes Hollywood’s Asian stereotyping while still lovingly honoring actors like Leong and George Cheung (Rambo II, Rush Hour) for making the best of a less than optimal job market. It is also mind-blowing to hear Tomita plays somebody’s mom on Glee (is that show still on?). Naturally, she makes a great damsel-in-distress and/or femme fatale. However, there is just too much of Dypiangco and Epino shticking it up as themselves. Frankly, there probably ought to be more action and less comedy, because that is what an Al Leong fan would want to see. Nevertheless, it is entertaining to watch the Awesome Asian Bad Guys finally get a curtain call.

Since AABG clocks in just under an hour, the AAIFF has paired it with a short featuring two fairly awesome bad guys. A pair of Yakuza are driving deep into the Mojave Desert to bury a body in Robbie Ikegami’s Pull Over to Kill. This will be the final errand for Watanabe, the soon to be retired strawberry farmer, but hot-headed Yasumoto is just starting out as a retainer. Needless to say complications ensue.

Viewers might predict the general trajectory of this two-hander, but Ikegami and cinematographer Alan Vidali make it look awfully stylish. Nor can anyone argue with Tatsuya Ito’s world weary steeliness, as Watanabe. The use of Michiko Hamamura’s “Tabu” and Saori Yuki’s “Yoaki No Scat” also vividly evoke the 1960’s vibe of many classic Yakuza pictures. In fact, POTK could even serve as an effective music video for them, inspiring post-screening downloads. It is a satisfying short that nicely fits with AABG. Recommended as a good festival package, Awesome Asian Bad Guys and Pull Over to Kill screened this weekend at the Village East and Saturday at the Made in NY Media Center, as part of this year’s AAIFF.

Posted on July 28th, 2014 at 10:58am.

By Joe Bendel. Yes, intelligence gathering sometimes involves cloak-and-dagger work, but there is also a lot of bureaucracy. That has always been a side of the secretive business novelist John le Carré has been closely in touch with. For better or worse, all the hallmarks of a le Carré bestseller are to be found in Anton Corbijn’s adaptation of his A Most Wanted Man, which opens this Thursday in New York.

Hamburg was the city where the September 11th terrorist attacks were planned—a fact German intelligence is keenly aware of. It was not Gunther Bachmman’s territory at the time, but the spymaster is still in need of redemption. He was transferred to the port city after his Beirut network was exposed. The who’s, how’s, and why’s remain murky, but there is no question regarding damage done to his career. However, the world weary scotch drinker has big game in his sights: Dr. Faisal Abdullah, an ostensive philanthropist and advocate of Muslim tolerance, whom Bachmann has reason to suspect is furtively funneling funds to terrorist organizations.

Being old school to his bones, Bachmann eschews interrogations or anything physical. He prefers to trap his prey and then turn them into assets. That is the plan with Abdullah, using the poor hapless Issa Karpov as bait. The son of a Chechen woman and a high ranking (and therefore corrupt) Soviet military officer, Karpov understandably identifies with his mother’s side of the family. Escaping his Russian torturers, Karpov has been branded an Islamist terrorist, but Bachmann is skeptical. Dieter Mohr, a more politically sensitive rival from an overlapping agency, would prefer to arrest the Chechen with great fanfare, but Bachmann sees the newly arrived asylum-seeker as an opportunity.

As it turns out, Karpov’s despised old man had an account in Hamburg—an account large enough to be a chip in Bachmann’s game. However, to play it, he will have to handle Karpov’s immigration attorney, Annabel Richter, and Tommy Brue, the banker holding his funds. Unfortunately, Bachmann is a le Carré protagonist, which means he must spend a great deal of time in boardrooms convincing dim-witted ministers to go along with his plan. For now, Martha Sullivan, the regional CIA string-puller, will give him time, but her patience and Bachmann’s trust are limited.

If you like your thrillers talky, you are already a le Carré reader and therefore thoroughly primed for Wanted. On the plus side, Corbijn’s is fully stocked with intelligent characters and meaty dialogue heavy with meaning. Conversely, le Carré’s moral equivalency between all parties is present in full force, as well as an aversion to cinematic action. Although its running time clocks in just over two hours, the ending still feels unsatisfyingly unfinished, leaving viewers to wonder if everyone would really leave things as they are.

Of course, the primary, if not only reason to see Wanted is the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who fits into the role of Bachmann like a comfortably rumpled suit. Le Carré has said Hoffman is the only American who could play his iconic George Smiley—and it is easy to see what he means. Bachmann and Smiley are clearly cut from same cloth, while Hoffman, Gary Oldman, and Alec Guinness were/are some of the smartest, most engaging actors in the business.

Hoffman’s mushy German accent also works rather well in context, but Rachel McAdams is not nearly as convincing as Richter, the slumming daughter of privilege human rights attorney. At least Willem Dafoe certainly looks at home as Brue, the self-loathing banker. Sadly, Nina Hoss does not have much to do as Bachmann’s lieutenant, Irna Frey, but she classes up the joint, nonetheless. Most of the German cast-members largely serve as window dressing, especially Rush’s Daniel Brühl, who is about as easy to spot as Tony Curtis in The List of Adrian Messenger playing one of Bachmann’s surveillance specialists. Arguably, it is Robin Wright who best hangs with Hoffman, warily sparring with his Bachmann as the suspiciously smooth Sullivan.

Wisely, Andrew Bouvell’s adapted screenplay somewhat waters down the criticism of post-9-11 American foreign policy, but anti-Americanism is baked into the fiber of le Carré’s source novel. Yet, it is the film’s brief but explicit criticisms of Putin’s Russia that feel timelier now. Corbijn has a good eye for the project, capturing the cold, cerebral world of intrigue and modernist architecture. There is much to admire about it, but aside from Hoffman’s haggard everyman performance, the film does its best to keep viewers at arm’s length, like a film that does not want to be wanted. Recommended for knowing fans of le Carré and Hoffman, A Most Wanted Man opens this Thursday night (7/24) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on July 22nd, 2014 at 11:47m.

By Joe Bendel. As a soon-to-be retired coalminer, George Marsh’s way of life is slowing dying. So is he, but maybe not as slowly as he assumes. Naturally, there is an epic cave-in on his last day in the mine, but there might be more pressing concerns for his stranded party than their dwindling oxygen supply in Ben Ketai’s Beneath, which opens this Friday at the IFC Center.

To celebrate his retirement, Marsh’s daughter Samantha has returned from New York to attend his send-off. Perhaps she shouldn’t have. True, her father’s lungs are as black as, well coal, but he resents being pressured into retirement. After all, he never missed a day’s work in the thirty-one years since the mine opened. He also takes her environmental law practice as a not so subtle rebuke. Despite her new life, she can still relate to the guys relatively well, particularly her former high school sweetheart. She tries to convince them, she is really in their corner. It is the corporations she is against. However, they seem to think they wouldn’t have jobs without the mining company. As the discussion gets heated, she accepts a dare to come down with them the next morning.

That would be her father’s last day on the job, which pretty much guarantees some sort of movie disaster. Add in his fish-out-of-water daughter and a rookie with only a few weeks experience into the mix and you have the makings of a perfect subterranean storm. Indeed, something duly goes drastically wrong. As Ketai’s primary characters hunker down in the shelter awaiting rescue, strange things start to happening, risking their survival.

When it comes to genre films set within mine shafts, Beneath leaves Abandoned Mine in the dust. Ketai certainly creates a claustrophobic mood, but the real strength of the film is his sympathetic grasp of the working class environment. Never condescending, Beneath conveys the pride of the miners, derived in no small measure from the dangerous conditions they face each day. Yet, the film is almost too subtle presenting the question whether supernatural forces are plaguing the survivors or it is a case of rampant oxygen-deprived psychosis.

Unfortunately, the film also focuses on the wrong Marsh, following Samantha’s POV and largely sidelining the perennially under-rated Jeff Fahey, as the grizzled George. Kelly Noonan is perfectly fine as the rebellious daughter, but her perspective is pretty standard issue woman-in-horror-movie-jeopardy stuff. Amongst the supporting miners, Brent Briscoe definitely stands out as Marsh’s jovial buddy, Mundy. Witchblade’s Eric Etebari also glowers memorably as the uptight, chauvinistic Masek.

Without question, Beneath is one of the moodiest films acquired by IFC Midnight. While it is certainly a genre film, it never comes across as exploitative. Nevertheless, it leaves an intriguing side-plot regarding a similar 1920’s disaster frustratingly under-developed and closes with the clichéd eye-roller of a denouement. Better than the gruesome poster would lead you to expect, Beneath is recommended for those who horror films that cross-over category labels. It opens this Friday night (7/25) in New York at the IFC Center.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 22nd, 2014 at 11:47am.