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On the Road

Cars and roads can take you from one place to another, which is nice.

I saw this star vehicle in the glorious EYE film institute on the north bank of the IJ river in Amsterdam. This new film museum is a true must see location for any film buff visiting the city. However if you are pondering whether to catch this cinematic rendition of Jack Kerouac’s masterpiece, the answer is simple: don’t. Just find a nice spot on EYE’s huge terrace and read the book instead. It will take you just about as much time (this is a loooong movie) and offer a much more satisfying experience.

The film never even comes close to capturing the spirit of the novel, it is neither romantic nor wild, has no sense of beat nor freedom. What the exact problem is, is beyond my scope of caring. Sometimes it’s interesting to ponder where a film misses the mark, in this case not. Perhaps it’s the casting: was “On the Road” really all about a bunch of seemingly spoiled brats just moving from place to place and trying to look moody? “Twilight” meets a 1947 Hudson?

Methinks that American cinema is in serious danger of losing it completely by bowing the the call for exclusively “beautiful people”. Exception is the lead Sam Riley. He can’t carry a film like this though. Who could?

My advice: keep driving, nothing to see here.

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Festen retro review

I’ll keep it short, as do these brilliant Danes. Festen aka “A Celebration” is a cinematic masterpiece. I just watched it again, 14 years after catching it in an Amsterdam cinema.

For those of you who have been hiding under a blanket of Hollywood super hero fodder, “Festen” is a character study of a fictional Danish family with some nasty secrets. The story focuses on the 60th birthday of the pater familias Helge. Son Christian, whose twin sister has recently committed suicide, has something rather different planned than a happy birthday.

Supposedly the main attraction of the film is the infamous dinner speech scene, in which Christian breaks a long silence. And to be fair, it is that visceral yet underplayed moment that I remembered most all those years after first seeing it. Ye,t on revisiting the film, I was amazed at the attention to detail, keen observation of character in the film that builds to that very moment. Indeed the groundworks laid before the great reveal carry the film forward after that moment. The greatest “trick” the film has up its sleeve is the acute observation on the sheer amount of time it takes for the truth of Christian’s speech to sink in with the revelers.

The acting is naturalistic brilliance, the film is film in an intentionally ugly, hand held style that just adds to its voyeuristic appeal. In its time much was made of the fact that the movie was shot according to self imposed “Dogma ’95” rules. Since then, Festen director Vinterberg, Lars von Trier the other Dogma founding members have admitted that Dogma was more of a gimmick that an actual serious idea.

A true masterpiece in every sense of the word. If you haven’t seen it yet, please do: it will open your eyes to European film forever.

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Prometheus review

Ok me hearties, strap into your safety harness and prepare for take off!

Prometheus – I have been awaiting it for a long time and finally I’ve seen it. In 3D, which to be honest didn’t really blow me away. But the rest of the film kept me very thoroughly entertained and intrigued for its entire running time. A propos running time, this one came in at around the two and a half hour mark, which didn’t feel too long at all.

For those who have been locked in a stasis chamber: Prometheus is the prequel to the original Alien series and deals with the original mission of a human craft to the home world of our supposed ancestors, the “Engineers”. Those travelling there all have their motives for doing so, motives that obviously will lead to conflict. The story unfolds well, a bit slowly at first, but as it’s sci fi I’m always willing to have some ground rules explained.

The tension builds gradually and does ask for both patience and some willingness to suspend disbelief. Especially the way the entire crew seems comprised of ill disciplined misfits that go into a weird abandoned strucure willy nilly begs some serious script questions. But hey, it just gets better from there, so quit complaining!

To divulge more about the story line would bring us close to spoiler territory so I’ll just say that in general a couple of major plot points were still up for discussion as the audience left the cinema, which goes a long way in explaining the mediocre reviews the film has enjoyed so far. But I just assume these queries will be handled in the inevitable sequel; to me at least they didn’t spoil this picture at all.

Some special mentions:

First special mention goes to the unsung heroes of such films, the art directors/set designers. It was all really great, a total immersion into a sci fi world, with plenty of nods to the original Alien series. A fine mix of hi and lo tech and good believable costume and special effects.

Then Michael Fassbender, proving once again that he is head and shoulders above the rest of his crop. A brilliant, mysterious role as the cyborg/android David 8 – with a chilling own agenda, or not? For me the star of the picture, and perhaps even the actual lead?

Finally kudos to both Charlize Theron and Idris Elba both providing really strong support. I found Guy Pearce strangely off, and am still wondering about Noomi Rapace who took care of the actual lead role. No Sigourney Weaver here alas.

All in all, I could go on gushing for 400 further words, but instead I’ll just say: go see the thing. Even the missus loved it, which is saying a lot considering what she asked me during the opening titles: “So this is the prequel to Star Trek, right?”

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Writing all night 48 hour film project Amsterdam

Okey, so Elwin and I thought up a great short for 48 hour film project. I wrote the script – 5 glorious pages. Doesn’t sound like much but believe me, normally a good day is one or two pages.

Then, just about midnight we decided that the whole thing wasn’t producable in one day.  What followed was a mutual brain freeze and frankly a major panic attack which lasted for about an hour.

Then lightning struck and now we’re wrapping up our second effort as the clock approaches 3 am. Just 41 hours to go.

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Just a few hours to go….

And then we’ll kick off the 48 hour film project here in Amsterdam. I’m teamed up with director Elwin Bes, in the “Untitled Walter Hill Project”

Elwin has assembled a great team and we’ve set our sights on making a weird and wonderful little film.

Tonight at 18.00 we hear which genre, prop, single line of dialogue and character we have to play with. Then I’ll probably be working all night on the screenplay. Can’t wait!!


48 Hour Filmmaker: Amsterdam 2012

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Martha Marcy May Marlene

I get it, but do I care?

In this psychological thriller/character study we follow the slow (!) unravelling of sect escapee Martha – or as the sect knows her: Marcy May. Martha is played convincingly if slightly lethargically by debutant Elizabeth Olsen.

After her escape from the communal farm out in the sticks, she stays with her estranged sister and brother in law, in a luxurious lakeside manse. Her meandering days there are intercut with flashbacks and dreams/nightmares of sectarian life.

Slowly but shurely we learn the nature of her trauma: a two year immersion in an abusive sect. Though well paced and accurately observed, the way the sect worked was to me almost like reading a text book on sectarian life. We never really see why the leader of the sect has such a following. He looks more like a burnt out hippie, if anything. There are some very strong moment though, but to venture into that would be to enter the forbidden land of spoilers.

Anyway, back at her safe house, Martha’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic as she is unable to talk  with her older sister about the trauma she has experienced. They share a troubled past themselves and it is left to older sis to despair: “why can’t we talk?” This, to me, was the most intriguing question of the movie.

All along you wait for the breakthrough moment. For me that was where the tension of the movie lay. And because it was such a waiting game, with neither character really seeming to want to achieve the goal, I found the film to be too slow. Trimming about 20 minutes out would have helped enormously and yet, it’s just plain difficult to make a movie tick when all the main character does is sulk – justified though the sulking may be.

As the movie enters the third act, thing liven up considerably, and you finally have the feelings that the action is headed in a direction. Which leads up to a – for me – frustrating ending. I left the theatre feeling that the moment the movie really began, it ended.

All in all a well made film, with some good parts, some good observation and strong dialogue, but not memorable. This is one you may just want to let slide on by.

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Take Shelter

“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t after you” – Joseph Heller 

Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols) is a frightening character study of Curtis, a seemingly solidly middle class man, who slowly slides into insanity.

Plagued by disturbing dreams – that are really scary for the viewer – he realises that he is going round the bend. Yet, and this is where the film really shines, that self knowledge cannot stop him from acting ever more irrationally. A chilling example is when Curtis reads a book on mental disease at night, in the storm shelter in his back yard.

The storm shelter in his back yard is the physical symptom of his troubles. He is unable to stop himself from enlarging it, at great cost – financial, moral and emotional.

His wife, played convincingly by Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life, The Help), is slow to pick up the signs. Instead she focusses on the well being of their young daughter who is deaf. But when she does twig on, her role goes from strength to strength in all its hopelessness.

Already in danger of moving into spoiler territory, suffice to say that Michael Shannon who plays Curtis, steals the show. At times I wondered whether he was actually that well cast in the role. But overall his slightly “not there” quality added a lot to the part.

My favorite scene involved a visit by Curtis’ older brother, who – when faced by his brother’s troubles is so unable to cope that he instead offers to lend him a hand in the building of the storm shelter.

The film is beautiful, if slightly uneven at times. The imagery reminds us that we are watching an indie and not a slick studio movie – not necessarily a bad thing.

Some negatives then: the movie does take its time, at a full two hours. Trimming about 20 minutes out would have done it no harm. And, at danger of giving something away, the very final finale was something of an anti-climax and to me undermined the whole premise and meaning of the film.

Summing up: Go See – but don’t expect to leave the theatre humming a showtune…..