Tag: Film Review

Categories
Cinema

Is it worth a trip to the Cryptozoo?

I got a screener link straight from 2021 Sundance Film Festival. A nice surprise these days during a never ending lockdown to know filmmakers are still working. For some reason I did not receive the press release for Cryptozoa. The short description read “cryptozookeppers struggle to capture a baku,,, or should mystical creatures be displayed at a zoo or hidden”. An unusual premise to take in on first reading. The animated feature by Dash Shaw also came with a not so familiar but intriguing looking poster of characters standing in front of an entrance gate. Initial research on IMD found the film garnered nice reviews at the Utah Fest. 

Creatures and more

Taking the plunge, I clicked the link for the 90 minute film. Certainly after the first few minutes, Pixar was out the window. Dash decided to set himself apart. The director’s world is filled with well known and not so well known mystical creatures. Lauren and Joan have charged themselves with the task of finding all the crypts for safe keeping in a Zoo type amusement park. Also on the trail is Nick with the duty of securing the beings for military use.

The premise has a core moral message inside a story that gets tangled up with so much happening at once. However, the constant bombardment at times feels as though Mr. Shaw decided on the heavy handed approach to compensate for some short comings in his story telling ability. There was a not a single laugh in the Dash’s second feature film. Why the heavy dose of cynicism?

Cryptozoo offers some stunning visual renderings for the viewer. Taking a chance to challenge viewers on the definition of animation still does not compensate for a script that needed a smoother impetus.

3 stars out of 5. 

Running Time of 90 minutes

Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival from The Match Factory

Categories
Cinema podcast

REVENGE

A preview if the short film The Women’s Revenge. Stay tuned for the Chat Cinema podcast from the IFFR.

Categories
Cinema

The Next Chat Cinema Chat

Yes. Chat Cinema gives it two cents on these streaming hits.

Categories
Cinema podcast

Why the Fuss?

Senegalese-French filmmaker Maimouna Doucoure unwittingly stepped in the middle of the American Culture Wars.  Her small film has gotten a lot of attention.  “Cuties” is the story of a girl from a poor Paris neighbourhood trying to find her way in life.  

Ignore the Outrage! 

According to some, it promotes Child Sexuality. On social media many  are calling for canceling Netflix.  The streaming giant acquired the production earlier this year.   Senator Ted Cruz wants the company investigated calling the film “disgusting”.  Why the Fuss? Has the film become the latest victim of  “Outrage”? 

I chatted with Chat Cinema Contributor Kristin about the controversy.  Kristin thinks people should see the film before condemning it.  “After the Berlinale screening we discussed “Cuties“, she says.  The overall opinions,  “We liked it”.  “Admittedly, it is not a great film, but enjoyable”. 


“Cuties” is available on Netflix. 

Kristinloves going to the movies.

Categories
Cinema

Venice Film Festival-Length

Lengths 

One intriguing entry into the Venice competition program this year is Lahi, Hayop (Genus, Pan) by Lavrente Indico Diaz (better known as Lav Diaz). Those already familiar with the work of the Filipino director will know he is synonymous with slow contemplative cinema. His earlier films Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004) is ten hours long, one of the longest cinematic narrative films of all time. While some of his more recent prize-winning films, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (2016), feature high on the longest ever films list. The director, a former film critic, drew from influences of work by the proponents of art cinema as Michangelo Antonioni and Robert Bresson. 

Lav Diaz is also no stranger to the Venice Film Festival. His 2016 filmThe Woman Who Left won the Golden Lion. Lahi, Hayop, for the director comparatively modest in length at just over two and a half hours, still contains his trademark allegories of human greed and brutality, shot in monochrome with long takes. Dismayed by the working conditions at a gold mine, three workers journey to their home village on foot through the isolated wilderness of the mythical island Hugaw.

The weariness creates a hallucinatory effect for the three main protagonists; two mature men and a younger more capricious colleague. From here, with money, envy, and narcissism as the central themes, their relationship and events become more unpredictable and dramatic. As the recent back story unfolds, with scenes  of contemporary Filipino society set against notions of the long-term effects of Japanese and American occupation. 

Still Developing 

Drawing allusions to the formal elements of Bertholt Brecht in its steady rhythm.   Lahi, Hayop consistently uses the static camera, and almost always films at the same distance. With virtually no reference to the present, the film could be set at any time in the last 50 years.  Given weight by the fact, when speaking of the film, the director’s inspiration came from a question asking him to define the human species. His urgent reply: “Despite being the better developed species, most of us still retain the demeanor and comportment of the chimpanzee or the genus Pan”.  Transposed to capitalist society, the film depicts the destructive effects of the human animal, not least through greed. However, the director also finds optimism because the human brain contintues to develop.  Diaz believes we will eventually become a self-actualized species, following the examples of Buddha or Gandhi. 

Lahi, Hayop has been playing in the final three days of the Venice program. It was in contention for the Main Competition (Orizzonti) prize. 

~ Steven Yates contributes to Black and Paper

Categories
Cinema

Venice Film Fest 2020

The Shorts 

Along with the more high-profile feature films, we should not overlook the short film entries in Venice.  I commend those that have been selected.  The short film competition in Venice has programmed a total of twelve entries this year.  The selection represents all regions of the world except South America. 

Si 

Two further films selected are screening out of competition. One, an intriguing piece titled Si by Italian director Luca Ferri. Running at just under 20 minutes, it has a split screen effect; the left side for the visuals, the right for text. In his notes, the director talks of Si as the first of five planned films representing absence. Here, a man studies a series of encyclopedic images from the Prelinger Archives, illustrating the creation of the cosmos.

Si 

Humanity is conspicuously absent, represented only in its works and ruins. The man falls asleep and sinks into a nightmare of arctic hunters killing polar bears, while the compellingly melancholic soundtrack features two pieces of contemporary music by the composer Agazzi with the text linked to the director’s personal childhood memory of a suicide. Hope and redemption are also tellingly absent in this unique and pessimistic appraisal of the contemporary human condition.

The Shift 

The sole entry from the United Kingdom, a Scottish film called The Shift, directed by Laura Carreira. It is a candid snapshot of contemporary social dependency in an ever increasing insecure world of employment. A young woman called Anna takes her dog for a walk in the woods, then goes to the local supermarket. Waiting at the checkout, she gets a phone call telling her she has lost her shift as a temporary worker.

The Shift 

The director stated that he felt the need to represent this common but largely unaddressed social situation. The film conveys this poignant vulnerability as representation of an increasing amount of people. Shift,  represents the temporary shift work and also the poignant shift in personal situation and security, as a powerless young woman sees her life change spontaneously and inexorably.     

~ Steven Yates loves cinema. He is a frequent contributor to Black and Paper

Categories
Cinema Fashion

SAMP-A Film Review

Imagine Frank Zappa (who was no stranger to acting, or the absurd) in his prime starring in a debut film like Peter Jackson’s Braindead(1992) combined with Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi(1992).  Chuck in  elements from the anarchy of El Topo(1970) by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Alex Cox’s Repo Man(1984), but with an original take on everything.  This pretty much sums up what is taking place here in SAMP, a high octane, no-rules feature by Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza. However, although it is the case with the other aforementioned directors, this is not their debut film. In fact they have been making films for nearly thirty years. This is their sixth feature film, alongside various television programs and countless short and medium-length films. 

The Plot 

The basic and immediate plot of a man called Samp, who, in the midst of wild dancing somewhere in old Puglia, leaves the ceremonial proceedings to inexplicably and insanely kill his mother, before ranting about her superficiality and how she somehow had failed him. After this, he visits some powerful crime boss who commissions him to start doing the same to ordinary people. The objective is the suppression of tradition and human feelings.

Without any moral justification, Samp starts taking down men, women and even children indiscriminately. Along the way, he gets paid by a pedestrian guarantor, meets poetic figures, seemingly normal people and a musician with whom he seems to form a genuine friendship. More than this, he even falls for various problematic women  further causing him loose sense of reality.

INSANITY! 

The director’s explaination of SAMP, a film with the pace of a journey, the dynamics of a performance, mixing traditional archaic Puglia with a modern world inflicted by violence due to economic power. SAMPis therefore a metaphor of cultural disintegration without perspective, something they claim we have always experienced. Worth noting:  SAMP took nineteen years to make and the characters age together with the authors.

The stark color images of the film enliven the action. There seems to be more bullets fired here than even John Woo’s Hard Boiled(1992). The frantic pace barely slows down, only when Samp briefly pauses to monologue, justify his actions or falls in love again.   The insanity of what takes place, projected in such an anarchic way.  I could compare to Luis Bunuel at his most extreme.   SAMP is a road movie on foot that shatters the script, captures the locations, and takes no prisoners. 

SAMP is screening at Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days section. The  film is out of competition in the Special Events side bar. 

Steven Yates is a cinephile.  He regularly contributes to Black and Paper. 


Categories
Cinema podcast

ON PAUL

 Director Paul Verhoeven made a certain film that has outlived the most savage reviews. Why? A bad film we love.  

Director Paul Verhoeven 

Stay Tuned for the next Chat Cinema Podcast. 

Categories
Cinema

I finally saw Skywalker

I saw the latest Star Wars film: Rise of Skywalker. I know the film has been out for a while. Contributing to the discusion seems pointless. The Rotten Tomatoes reviews are right. 

Episode 5 

Once again I ask the fallback question: How does it compare to The Empire Strikes Back? At 2 hours 23 minutes, the answer; please end this film soon.

There are so many problems with this film. The original Star Wars played it simple, a story of good versus evil. 2019, the world has become more complicated. That is one problem with the latest sequel. Filmmakers have not figured out a tone for the films. It has become weighed down trying to please everyone, not offend, stay modern, and hold true to the formula.  A heavy order to fill.

JJ Abrams and team combed through an old Xerox copy machine recycling box at Lucasfilm for a story. The entire movie is a reference to other films lacking original ideas with a repeated premise that comes off as lazy and vague.

Repeating Better Works 

The evil Sith Emperor returns to reconquer the galaxy. Off the band goes jumping from planet to planet chasing clues on where to find, then stop Palpatine. Guess how it ends? No spoiler needed.

Some character interaction scenes were painful.  Just saying the lines, woodenly interacting each other. I could almost hear the word “action” to the actors. I had little empathy for these characters.  There were groans in the large cinema, not a single laugh.  

Chewie, the reliable comic relief character in Episode 4, seemed more of an overly contrived plot device for nostalgia sake.

CGI is what you would expect from a Star Wars film.  However, even this did not propel the story in an awe inspiring way.

How will the next Star Wars team move forward? I have no clue. No advice to give. But the future instalments cannot continue to rely on the good will of the fanbase.

2.5 out of 5 stars. I could push it to 3 stars.

StarWars: Rise of Skywalker is playing in local cinemas. 

Categories
Cinema

Chat Cinema Reviews

Check out our latest episode of Chat Cinema Podcast.  What is new at the movie theatres this weekend? We give you a rundown.