End Of The Week Shorts #34
Today's shorts: Let The Right One In (2008), Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014), No (2012), Premium Rush (2012), The Innocents (1961), When We Were Kings (1996), Hell Or High Water (2016)
Spectacularly subtle, it is unquestionable that Let The Right One In is one of the greatest vampire movies ever made - after all, it ranks high among the very few films of the genre that aren't supported by nostalgia, cult acclaim, the status of classic, etc.
A study in realism and subdued cinematic language, Let The Right One In is about the vampire as a not just a predator, but also a saviour of sorts - thus this is a romantic horror. The conflict of this narrative, both literally and subtextually, is then a question of if there is a balance, or even if there can be a balance, between the savior-predator dichotomy.
With terrific performances and only a few questionable bits of CGI and wire work, Let The Right One In is well worth the watch if you haven't seen it yet.
Whilst it is imperfect, this just gets better and better with each re-watch. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is scene after scene of evocative and multi-layered drama that plays upon the thematic relationship between knowledge, good and evil that is present throughout the trilogy. The writing is subtle and whilst the direction, sound design and editing do not resonate with the script as well as you'd hope, it shines through the film masterfully. All the motion capture performances are tremendous. And whilst the CGI has already begun to age after 3 years, the apes are far more compelling than the humans. On this watch, however, I have to say that the supportive role that the humans play wasn't as grating as I thought.
As I've said before, alone, this isn't a masterpiece, but combined with the two other films of the series, this is one of the greatest slices of contemporary Hollywood cinema.
No is a film that manages to simultaneously tell a straight story and stand outside itself. In such, whilst the Chilean plebiscite (electoral vote) of 1988 is the focus of this narrative with the "no" vote against the re-installation of Pinochet, the Chilean dictator, being the side the narrative assumes, there is a constant atmosphere of discontent, confusion and discord about the film. So, though the democratic overthrow of Pinochet is celebrated, this film maintains a blunt critique of the manner in which the "no" vote was campaigned for with horrifically cheap advertising, politics, ideologies and philosophies.
What makes No worth seeing is its ability to weigh the good against the bad and see revolution for what it is: a mere pathway to further difficulty, struggle and change that involves a whole nation's self-awareness.
Premium Rush, whilst it is a bit of a throw-away movie, is a film that feels very fresh. Lightening up the chase, crime-thriller and dumping it on the backs of NYC bike couriers, this film then utilises a dense, multi-layered and intricate plot structure alongside a group of likeable and well-motivated characters to take you on a brisk ride of excitement. This film does very well in masking clear tropes and cliches whilst harnessing their virtues; we've all seen the antagonistic romance, the want-to-be-free main character, the corrupt cop and the ludicrous network of conflicts before in many movies, but this feels distanced enough from other films so that there is that mentioned freshness.
So, all in all, despite a few minor flaws and a general sense of good-but-not-great, Premium Rush is a fun movie worth seeing.
The Innocents is an overwhelming masterpiece of anxiety and dread. Though this presets itself as a ghostly horror, this is a psychological thriller about a governess (played perfectly by Deborah Kerr) who has to step into a broken household and assert herself as a teacher and mother figure that must overcome the remnants of tragedy and corruption that lie within the children she must care for. In confronting these 'ghosts', the governess comes to question her ability to give herself to, and completely accept, the children so she can nurture them into adults. Thus, she fears the death of herself and the children as innocents, but also knows that they cannot remain naive, and so open to the corruption of lies, fear and a broken past, leaving an implication of an inevitable death - whether it be the symbolic end of innocence or literal end of growth.
Ultimately, the innocents is a film about change and inertia; about a young woman attempting to induce a positive change in a miserable situation.
Tremendous. As multi-faceted as Ali himself was, this documentary explores his famous Rumble In The Jungle match with Foreman as a piece of sports history and political history. In such, this carries much of what Ali embodied: powerful, undeniable negritude - which stems from the sports side of this narrative - and a sense of pan-Africanism that reached out of the content and into America - which stems from the political side.
Whilst I can't say I fully agree with the politics of this film, its power is irrefutable; Ali's opening poems alone sell this movie as a force of counter-cultural fervour. It is then hard to not be sucked into this narrative and accept it as a voicing of an individual and a time in history that made incredible waves across the world. Highly recommended.
Hell or High Water is a strong realist neo-western that, as almost all westerns do, deals with change; a change in the land and a refusal to change in some of its people.
Given life by a subdued exploration of good an evil (another inherent aspect of the western) and a set of crisply written characters, Hell or High Water is silky smooth; it understands its genre, and enough to approach it quietly and humbly - much like No Country For Old Men did. There is a then a brilliant sense of harmony in this picture. Whilst we've all seen versions of this film, its intuition, morality and narrative structure are timeless and ever-pertinent. After all, times are always a changin. A brilliant film.
If you, like me, missed this last year, don't let it slip by completely.
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Every Year In Film #31 - The Abyss
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Sakawa Boys - Approaching Ghallywood
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