LFM: Libertas Film Magazine

By Joe Bendel. Pak Awang’s Malaysian dream is a lot like the American dream. He wants a better life for his daughter. He hopes to realize his ambitions with the “American House,” so-called because it was originally painted white (White House, get it?). Unfortunately, superstition will thwart him at every turn in Liew Seng Tat’s Men Who Save the World, which screens during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Pak Awang’s daughter is moving back from the big city to get married and settle down in his provincial village. She will need a house, but he just happens to own a spare. The problem is the American House is buried deep in the jungle and has fallen into a state of disrepair. It also happens to have a reputation for being haunted. Pak Awang needs the help of his fellow villagers to carry it off its foundations and into town. Even given their work-resistant nature, forty or so the men ought to be able to handle the job. Oddly though, as soon as they start the arduous task strange things start occurring, playing into the villagers’ supernatural fears.

Of course, nothing uncanny is really afoot. Most of the unexplained phenomena are actually attributable to Solomon, an undocumented African worker, hiding out in the formerly white house. There are plenty of other subplots to further complicate matters, including the town’s Tom and Huck, who are determined to free the camel designated for the annual sacrifice. Soon the American House is stranded midway, while the men don drag to hunt down the “Oily Man” demon, as per the dubious counsel of a local shaman-confidence artist.

Initially, MWSTW starts out like the sort of low-key slice of life village comedy that used to be the bread-and-butter of indie film distribution. However, it takes a surprisingly dark turn, skewering the superstitious balderdash of the town’s Muezzin and the regional political boss. Islamic faith does not exactly move mountains in Liew’s film and it certainly doesn’t move Pak Awang’s house. Perhaps that is why reviews coming out of Locarno were bizarrely dismissive, roundly criticizing Liew for not politicizing Solomon’s plight as a migrant worker.

Instead, Liew delves into the dynamic of the not so tight little village, focusing on Pak Awang’s mounting frustrations. Wan Hanafi Su is absolutely terrific as the maybe too-gruff-for-his-own-good father. He brings real dignity to the film that convincingly evolves into visceral anger and bitterness. Frankly, the supporting cast looks a bit shticky in comparison, except the wide-eyed camel-rescuing youngsters, whose energy and innocence represent substantial contributions.

Granted, MWSTW is a bit uneven, but its humor is organically derived from the specific realities of this Malay community. It is true the film is Y chromosome affair, but it is set smack dab in the Southeast Asian Muslim world, after all. Such complaints lose sight of the film’s satiric bite, vivid sense of place, and several cleverly staged scenes that neatly play games with viewers’ perspective. Indeed, it is quite a distinctive package thanks to Teoh Gay Hian’s richly evocative cinematography and Luka Kuncevic’s rhythmic, genre-defying score. Recommended for the somewhat but not overly adventurous, Men Who Save the World screens again this Thursday (9/11), and Saturday (9/13) as part of this year’s TIFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on September 10th, 2014 at 10:14pm.

By Joe Bendel. A man who survived a violent attack on his family will seek revenge largely by relying on his sense of smell. That will very likely be as problematic in practice as it sounds. Indeed, the protagonist’s memories and perceptions are all subject to question throughout Frank Ternier’s stylish but unsettling animated short 8 Bullets, which screens during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Gabriel is a French expat living in Taipei. His backstory remains mysterious, but as we learn from the disembodied bystanders, he was the victim of a red-headed gunman’s vicious assault. Evidently, he wife was killed and his daughter was wounded in the leg, but Gabriel somehow survived a shot to the head, or at least that is the version he believes. Regardless, he has not been the same since that fateful day.

For the last six months, Gabriel has prowled the streets looking for a red-headed gangster who smells of fried food. He carries an equalizer, fully loaded with said bullets for when he finds his prey. It is all very hardboiled, even though Gabriel’s sanity is clearly rather tenuous.

Ternier’s stylistic approach suggests the sort of films David Lynch makes are better suited to animation rather than live action. Although Ternier tells a strictly linear narrative, his visuals dramatically reflect the warped and unreliable perspective of his protagonist. He also nicely expresses Gabriel’s sense of otherness as a Frenchman in a foreign land.

While Ternier lays on the closing irony pretty heavily, his hip noir sensibility is rather cool overall. Most importantly, the animation is quite distinctive, evoking traditional watercolor techniques as well as contemporary comic art. Recommended for fans of animation and film noir, 8 Bullets screens again this Saturday (9/13) as part of Short Cuts International Programme 4 at this year’s TIFF.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on September 10th, 2014 at 6:25pm.

By Joe Bendel. Edo Celeste’s bestselling sleuth Felipe Aranda is supposed to be the good guy, but he might be more akin to Stephen King’s Dark Half. The man who posed for a series of pictures inspired by Celeste’s books seems to take the role way too seriously, especially when the author hints he may soon end the popular series. Celeste begins to suspect the man of crimes both new and old in Javier Fuentes-León’s The Vanished Elephant, which screens during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

The one case the ex-cop turned mystery novelist never cracked was the 2007 disappearance of his fiancée Celia Espinoza. The timing was particular unfortunate, occurring during an earthquake that rocked coastal Peru. It turns out it also coincided with the presumed death of Mara de Barclay’s first husband. Celeste was blissfully unaware of this fact until the remarried Barclay had her strong arm servants arrange a meeting. She was rather baffled to receive an envelope addressed to Celeste bearing her supposedly late husband’s handwriting.

The assortment of cryptic photographs inside does not immediately stimulate Celeste’s curiosity, but he will get to them in good time. However, he is instantly struck by Rafael Pineda, the tough talking model, who is a perfect dead ringer for the Aranda Celeste he always imagined. As he investigates the shady Pineda, events start to parallel his Aranda novels, including the one he is currently writing.

How much viewers will enjoy Elephant depends on what they value most in mystery-thrillers: the structure and conventions, or the trappings and atmosphere. Fuentes-León creates a terrifically moody vibe, but the film evolves into a series of increasingly intricate Lynchian mind teasers, which are quite clever if you enjoy that sort of gamesmanship. More conventional audiences should be warned, Celeste will never gather together his suspects to give them the “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve called you all together” talk.

Nevertheless, there are really intriguing clues dispersed throughout the film, such as the titular subplot revolving around a pachyderm shaped rock formation in Paracas that supposedly really crumbled into the ocean during the earthquake, but remains unconfirmed by google. There are similarly strange bits and pieces that stick in your head even more than the grand revelation it all builds towards.

Salvador del Solar might set a new world’s record for jaded world-weariness as the haggard Celeste. He convincingly carries himself like an ex-cop and looks reasonably intelligent doing some reckless things. Likewise, Lucho Cáceres projects the right sort of vague, hard to define menace as Pineda (or should that be Aranda).

While Fuentes-León’s feature debut Undertow was quite a nice little film, nothing about it would lead viewers to expect a follow-up like Elephant. He smoothly stages some remarkably complicated scenes, while maintaining a satisfyingly noir vibe. Cinematographer Mauricio Vidal gives it all a soft, mysterious look, while art director Susana Torres provides a lot of cool stuff, like a painting of the Vanished Elephant. It all makes for quite an effectively strange film. Recommended for mystery fans with a taste for postmodernism, The Vanished Elephant screens again Sunday (9/14) during this year’s TIFF.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on September 9th, 2014 at 4:32pm.