La Léon

La Léon

Dorected by Stantiago Otheguy

Another Argentinian film to go with XXY, this one indebted to Terrence Malick's slow, contemplative style, while enjoying a stark sense of individuality derived from its authentic supporting cast and location. An abstracted tale of a repressive, quietly violent community that resides in Argentina's remote wetlands, Otheguy's directorial debut is presented in luminous, enveloping black-and-white, unapologetic in its use of long takes and quiet contemplation to create an all-encompassing pall of despair and dread. The use of real-life locals to make up the supporting cast adds to the feeling of otherwordliness as we witness their ceaseless routine - ride the titular boat down to the reeds, swing the machete, rinse and repeat. If you want to catch the particulars of its plot, you'll need a magnifying glass, and it moves at a pace that could be called "deliberate" at best, but the engrossing visuals and pervasive atmosphere make it an intriguing debut.

* * *

Simon Howell

Otto, Or Up With Dead People

Otto, Or Up With Dead People

Here is a movie that uses the zombie genre cliche has a flexible methaphor for aids and gay bashing, but also explores themes of schizophrenia. Bruce La Bruce`s films are always interesting and worth a look and Otto is no exception. His films dangle along the lines of smut, art, the underground and the indie scene and he remains a true disciple to Andy Warhol. If blood, gore and blowjobs can be stomached, I say give it a try. Taking from the pages of Vagabond, Cecil B. Dimented, My Own Private Idaho and Shadow of A Vampire, La Bruce delivers his most disciplined film in his oeuvre.

*** 1/2

Alex Ross

mulligans Mulligans

Mulligans

Directed by Chip Hale

2008

For a film that has one of the biggest budgets in this year's Image+Nation film festival, Mulligans sure does disappoint. A gay boy falls in love with his best friend's good looking dad who just so happens to be gay. Of course, the son and the mom both walk in on them in the act. What did you expect? Who locks doors anymore anyway, right?

The film exhibits a batch of deal-breaking irritants - among them, a deeply repetitive soundtrack, near-invisible character development and forced, unnatural writing. Many of the performances are rote and much of the dialogue is laughably silly. The only positive comment I can make is the choice of casting for the lead role; Charlie David is not only easy on the eyes but has a great screen presence. Hopefully for his sake (and ours) he will in future stick to acting, and not writing.

**

Alex Ross

The Lost Coast

The Lost Coast

Directed by Gabriel Flemming

2008

The Lost Coast begins with a lousy voice over to describe the events of a lousy Halloween night in which the narrator goes on to say how he discovered a dead body. The film has been described as "moody" and "dreamlike," but I would rather call it shoddy and forgettable.

The film's plot is centered around an e-mail that Jasper (Ian Scott McGregor) is writing to his fiancée overseas. The email explains what happened the previous night. We gather from his tone that the events were of some importance, but the film never convinces us to care. If you are interested in HandiCam moviemaking that seems to come directly out of a bad film school, then this film is for you. The sound appears to have been taken directly from the camera, and the cinematographer went missing. Even if you're able to deal with its Dogme 95-like like approach it still suffers from below-average performances and little character development. Thankfully the film is only 74 minutes long.

*

Alex Ross

The Blob (review)

THE BLOB (1958)
Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.
Writers: Irvine Millgate, Theodore Simonson, Kay Linaker
Prod: Jack H. Harris
Starring Steven (Steve) McQueen and Aneta Corsaut
CRITERION DVD release #91
16X9 Anamorphic transfer in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1
Let’s get straight to the meat and potatoes of this DVD; the digital transfer is unlike anything you’ve ever seen of this film before. The color just jumps out at you and the contrast in the night shots are just perfect and enhance the creepiness of the scenes.
It is one of the earlier Criterion DVD releases as you can see by the spine number of 91, and is just about the time they had started releasing their catalog titles with anamorphic enhancement which makes viewing this particular DVD on widescreen plasma/LCD such a treat.
The film is one of McQueen’s earliest headlining roles and you can clearly see in his performance shades of later mannerisms which would make him the coolest actor around in the 60’s and early 70’s; watch how he uses his eyes and breaks eye contact by looking down a lot (that particular detail would become his trademark in later films i.e. Bullitt, The Sand Pebbles and The Cincinnati Kid). His acting is a little over the top and doesn’t come across too well in the romantic bits, but he definitely shines over the other cast members. The flaw is to cast 30 year olds to play teenagers, it just makes it harder to believe and you shouldn’t have that issue in a Science-Fiction context where the nature of the material also has to be made believable for the story to work; the film can distract your attention because of this.
The story revolves around a shooting star that impacts near a mid-western American everytown, and unleashes an alien substance that will end up wreaking havoc in the city. The crash is witnessed by McQueen and his girlfriend (played by Aneta Corsaut) as they are romancing each other at “the point” (where 50’s teens and cars used to congregate in many Hollywood films of the 50”s). Thinking he knows where the rock crashed, McQueen heads out in the direction of the site.
A farmer discovers the rock and uses a stick to touch it, and it opens revealing a gelatinous mass inside which attaches itself to the stick defying gravity as it moves up and engulfs his hand; he screams in pain and runs amok among the trees and winds up almost being hit by McQueen’s car. The “kids” bring the farmer to the local doctor who tries to examine him and now we see the mass has grown larger and now covers the farmer’s whole arm. The main plot point is established right there, the thing feeds on human flesh and is getting larger as it ingests more victims, and if it is not stopped it will cover the town.
Once that point is established, it remains for the “teens” to wake up the town to the danger facing them and as this a 50’s film, the adults are hard to convince. The film becomes a typical exploitation rebellious teen story from then on as the kids create a loud commotion to wake up the adults in order to gather them all to McQueen’s fathers’ convenience store. The police, firefighters and townspeople al show up and believe the whole story to be a prank until “the blob” invades a local theatre showing a horror film double-bill sending the patrons screaming for their lives out onto the street.
Now convinced, the authorities take over the situation to restore calm and devise a plan to destroy the alien. McQueen discovers the creature is allergic to cold, so the teens led by the prim and sexually repressed school principal rush to the high school to gather as many Co2 fire extinguishers as they can carry; finding the doors locked, the principal (with utmost repugnance) breaks the window with a rock, and the teens cheer him on. He has committed the ultimate act of defiance of the time, breaking a school window; little did the nation know then that worst civil unrest was just around the corner outside their living rooms.
The blob is frozen and dumped in the Artic where it will remain frozen for ever?????
The story moves fast and is never boring to watch; it’s classic sci-fi still enjoyable to watch in late night TV land (make it a 42 inch Plasma).
The print shows very little damage, just a few speckles at the edges of the frame in a few scenes. There is no discernable digital artefacting that distracts the eye, however I’m inclined to believe there was a bit of image boosting and edge enhancement employed in the transfer. There are 2 excellent commentary tracts, one by producer Jack Harris and film historian Bruce Eder which is really great, it covers most aspects of the production and his memories of working with McQueen (which proved to be very difficult indeed); one of the better commentaries I’ve heard a producer give regarding a film. The second track is with the director Yeaworth and actor Tony Fields which is OK, but not as entertaining as Harris. There is an image gallery that collects photos and blob paraphernalia from a private collection owned by Wes Shank, and the original theatrical trailer; there is no making of included.
Fantastic to see Criterion restoring a “B” film like “The Blob” as if they were working on an Ingmar Bergman DVD. It would not end there for “B” films and Criterion as they recently released another such film, “Robinson Crusoe on Mars” directed by Byron Haskin to be reviewed soon, till then pick up this disc before it goes out-of-print as such Criterion titles have a tendency to do, and happy meteor hunting!
Mark Penny

The Descendant

The Descendant

Philippe Spurrell’s feature debut is an intriguing story revolving around a small community, and its shared secret past history, and how an outsider pushes those secrets to the surface for all to see.

Since the film does rely on the element of surprise for it to work as a mystery, I will not be too explicit on the story itself, but will concentrate on the crafting of the film.

I saw the film digitally projected in a setting that did not in any way detract from the lush images on the screen. Mr. Spurrell was available for a short Q and A after the show, and explained that due to financial reasons up to this point, he could not produce a sub-titled 35mm print to exhibit yet; although I hope that with increasing interest in the film by Quebec historical scholars as well as film critics and/or professors, that situation will lead to an influx of extra funds required for this to be remedied soon.

The story begins in Montreal with the main protagonist, James, finding a few details of his past via an old shoebox, left to him by his mother, full of old photographs and birthday cards from his grand-parents whom he had no contact with since he was 3 years old. His partner, Kim, suggests that he should go and visit them to re-establish contact with his past, and possibly find answers to the reasons his mother exiled herself from her family.

When James reaches the small isolated community of St-Harmonie, Quebec, he finds himself warmly welcomed by an old friend of his Mother’s, but looked on with suspicion by others in the local bar.

James meets up with his Grand-Parents at their farm, and intends to stay for a few days. He proceeds to unearth stories about his Mother’s past, and finds deep secrets that the community collectively keeps buried deep in their history.

The film makes for a very good mystery, and succeeds on many other levels as well; but to reveal those would be to give too much away.

The cinematography by Lorenzo Negri and Ivan Gekoff (CSC) is quite sumptuous and serves the story well. The muted colours and close attention to the surface details and textures of the surroundings is very reminiscent of Kim Ki-Duk’s “The Isle” (the look of the farmhouse and the wood specifically).

The art direction, the costumes that were created for the inhabitants of the little community (literally transports the viewer in a past era; trucks and vehicles being the only details of a vague contemporary setting once James is at the farm.

There are fabulous shots over the farm’s windswept cornfields that beg the question of how they were achieved with such a small budget (I did not want to ask the question of how they did it in order to maintain the illusion in my mind).

The actors delivered very convincing performances that at first glance appear off-kilter, but as the film progresses, you realize how true they are for the characters involved; I would say almost Lynchian in subtlety (specially the grand-father played by Jim Reid).

The sound design by Dan Lagacé and music by David Kristian are absolutely outstanding; he does not overwhelm you with recognizable themes, and the background sound effects are so subtle that they induce the mohawk effect (as one of “The Exorcist”’s sound designers was referring to his own sound work was meant to achieve in that film); the hair at the back of the neck definitely rises.

For a film that was shot over the span of 5 years on a shoestring budget, the continuity is spot on and doesn’t betray the lack of funds.

Philippe Spurrell has really achieved a great deal with this film which is garnering interest across a broad spectrum of History and Film scholars, and the public at large.

The story explores a little known part of our local history, and makes a strong case for re-examining it in greater detail so that future generations realize how similar we (as a nation) were to our American neighbors.

The filmmakers should congratulate themselves on a job exceedingly well done.

I strongly urge the public to go and see this film wherever possible; one of the best Quebec English Canadian films (yes they are distinct from the rest of English Canadian films) I’ve seen in a long while.

Mark Penny

Production Team

Executive Producer: PHILIPPE CHABOT
Co-producer: DAVID RIGBY
Producer/Director: PHILIPPE SPURRELL
Written by : PHILIPPE SPURRELL & JOEL MILLER
Cinematography: LORENZO NEGRI & IVAN GEKOFF (CSC)
Editor: ERIC LAVOIE
Music: DAVID KRISTIAN
Sound design: DAN LAGACE
Make-up FX: CJ GOLDMAN, (DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY AFTER TOMORROW, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN)
Special Participation: SERGIO MACHADO

Entre Les Murs

Entre les Murs [The Class] (dir. Laurence Cantet)

* * 1/2

Hey, have you seen the fourth season of The Wire? If you have, there's nothing for you here. Laurence Cantet's Palme D'Or winner is unfailingly realistic, yes, but seems reluctant to draw in the viewer as thoroughly as it should. It could pass as a documentary, certainly, but that wouldn't have made it a better film. As it follows the life of a homeroom class in inner-city Paris over the course of a scholastic year, and we find ourselves engaging with the often distanced personalities of the students, there's a nagging sensation that there should be an added layer of subtext to be found - yet there's little to be derived from the old process of trying to turn "animals" into reasonable young people. The presentation is novel, but the content is too familiar by half.