FILM REVIEWS:
LES TROIS MOUSQUETAIRES: D’ARTAGNAN (The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan)
(France/Germany/Spain/Belgium 2023) ***½
Directed by Martin Bourboulon
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BLOOD VESSEL (Nigeria 2023) ***1/2
Directed by Charles Okpaleke
BLOOD VESSEL should not be confused with the 2019 German film about a vampire ship that shares the same title. That was a camp horror comedy while this one, from Nigeria’s Play Network Studios (Nollywood) tackles more serious issues - both personal and political. This is Nigeria’s highly anticipated film that debuts on Netflix on Friday, December 8th.
The film opens with an aerial shot, of the beautiful landscape of Africa, which one assumes is part of Nigeria. The audience sees a butterfly followed by greenery. The voiceover praises the beauty of the earth, that is until oil destroys it. Oil pollution results in contamination. Water that brings life, the voiceover claims now brings death as one scene shows a mother carrying a dead child.
The setting is the seldom or hardly-seen Niger Delta region. The story revolves around six individuals brought together by chance. Escaping a town devastated by oil pollution, they inadvertently become stowaways on a mysterious ship, unaware of the dangers that await. The hope for a better life does not come easy, as the film instructs but comes with trials and tribulations. On the road to paradise comes a fight for survival - testing the key human elements of among others, friendship, betrayal, romance, desperation and dignity.
Director Okpaleke creates a delicate and successful balance between the personal and political issues in a drama-packed thriller with an authentic unfamiliar but exciting setting.
The film is shot in the original language including some English and a of other languages The film, is now available on Netflix and is worth a look.
Trailer:
CHRISTMAS AS USUAL (Så Var Det Jul Igjen)(Norway 2023) **
Directed by Peter Holmsen
This Christmas holiday romantic comedy of cultural differences aims at being a GUESS WHO’S COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. A few updates in that the person bringing home the surprise guest is a strong-willed female, Thea (Ida Ursin-Holm) who is Norwegian and the guest is Indian (or rather Hindu). Thea and Jason (Kanan Gill) are also engaged which the family is yet to find out. Also father is left out of the picture, recently passed but fondly remembered and the mother is also strong-willed and tradition-bound. The family Jashan meets includes Thea’s mother, her brother and sister-in-law (the funniest of the lot) and her niece.
The family wants CHRISTMAS AS USUAL with all the Norwegian traditions but Jashan's visit brings trouble to paradise,
All this sounds like a good opportunity for comedy but unfortunately falls flat because of unfunny humour and a really bad blending of drama and comedy. It does not help that the Indian character is just awful in his personal manners, despite the script trying to make him sympathetic and right. The best example is him sneezing at a key moment while attending church while a solo is sung. He sneezes loudly not once but many times during the solo performance Any decent-mannered person would have sniffled the sound of a sneeze with a tissue or if without one with his closed hand. It is also a known fact when one is invited to a home to meet the family, one does not try to cook a meal as Jahan does. One quietly and politely takes in the festivities.
The only winning thing about this film is the audience’s discovery of what Norwegians do during Christmas - that is assuming that what is seen on screen is typical Norwegian Christmas practice. This includes eating crispy fat with fat sauce (this actually sounds unhealthy but delicious) and jumping in outdoor ice-cold water for a polar dip. Jada, however, cannot take in the Christmas food and ends up becoming a loud and obnoxious drunk after downing several potato-liquor shots.
The film is hardly funny though there are a few admirable comedic set-ups like the fight between Jashan dressed in Indian garb on Christmas Eve and Thea’s ex who is dressed as Santa Claus. But many other scenes could have been funnier but there are lots of missed opportunities for laughter. With all the drama, the audience tends to take the Norwegian side instead of the Indian side which a story like this should lead.
This, however, being a Christmas romantic comedy falls into the trap of harlequin-type Hollywood romances. This calls for the couple to quarrel and make up with a happy ending. This one calls for the hurried drive in the ice and snow to the Oslo airport to prevent Jada from flying off.
CHRISTMAS AS USUAL is a Norwegian Netflix original film that opens for streaming on Netflix Friday December 8th.
Trailer:
CONCRETE UTOPIA (South Kore 2023) ***
Directed by Um Tae-hwa
In the opening moments of Um Tae-hwa’s riveting new disaster epic, an earthquake renders much of Seoul a smoldering ruin. But as survivors begin efforts to restore order, it seems the real calamity has only just begun. Apartments are the convenience of housing One apartment building and the residues miraculously survive the earthquake while all other structures are demolished. The special effects show the one apartment building standing alone amidst the rubble. The tune of “There’s No Place Like Home” is heard on the soundtrack.
An earthquake renders much of Seoul a smoldering ruin in the opening minutes of this riveting post-apocalyptic epic from director Um Tae-hwa (Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned). But as survivors begin efforts to restore order, it seems the real calamity has only just begun. Human beings show off their worst when it comes to survival.
From their balcony at the Hwang Gung apartment complex, Min-seong (Parasite’s Park Seo-jun) and Myeong-hwa (Park Bo-young) look out on nothing but corpses and rubble. A stranger and her small child soon arrive at Min-seong and Myeong-hwa’s door (not from the building) begging to be let in, followed by dozens of others from the surrounding area desperately seeking food and shelter. As days pass and no rescue teams turn up, the tenants assemble, survey their limited resources, and vote to evict the “outsiders.” When Yeong-tak (I Saw the Devil’s Lee Byung-hun), the tenants’ elected leader, announces that the outsiders must leave Hwang Gung, all hell breaks loose. From this point on, tenants must be prepared to protect their property by any means necessary. It is a matter of survival of the fittest. The delegate and the head of committees form rules on rations, security from outsiders, repair and humorously, waste management. They shit into a plastic outline in a toilet bowl and dispose of the waste without the use of precious water.
Based on the second part of Kim Sung-nyung’s Cheerful Outcast webtoon, Concrete Utopia is a sobering parable, following its characters’ gradual descent into ruthless tribalism in a way that eerily mirrors so many contemporary global events. When all hope is lost do human beings glimpse the possibility of generosity and some much-needed self-determination?
CONCRETE UTOPIA suffers from many unanswered questions, or rather it omits many obvious issues. First of all how devastating is this supposed earthquake? Surely, rescuers would have reached Seoul quite soon. Is Seoul the only place suffering from the earthquake? What about the rest of Korea and the rest of the world? Where did all the canned food come from and it seems that there is an unlimited supply of canned food.
The story of the survivors and the hierarchy of order is quite minimal. There is only one person in charge, nicknamed Mr. Delegate. The leadership should have been more detailed. The entire ruling process is quite pitiful, like a pauper version of George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM.
CONCRETE UPTOPIA is the Official Selection of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and also South Korea’s entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award.
Trailer:
EILEEN (USA/UK 2022) ***½
Directed by William Oldroyd
Set in a small town in 1960s Massachusetts, the film centers on Eileen Dunlop( New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie), a young woman working in a corrections facility for teenage boys. At work, she is shunned by her colleagues and fantasizes about one of the guards, while at home she lives with her widowed and alcoholic father, Jim (Shea Wigham), a former chief of police who suffers from paranoia and is emotionally abusive towards her. Eileen daydreams frequently about killing herself and her father.
There are many threads in the story. One is the coming-out of Eileen who discovers love (the old Doris Day song SECRET LOVE playing on the soundtrack) with another woman. Secondly, it is a father-daughter redemption story, with Eileen and her father having trouble getting along. Thirdly, the film played like a psychological thriller - and a clever one at that, balancing dead-pan humour, dark themes and a forbidden romance.
The script is always steps ahead of the audience. Not one really knows the character of the protagonist Eileen - whether the lady is good or evil, though she shows both sides, This makes the film more intriguing as no now can figure her out even past the halfway mark of the movie.
The film contains a few dreams or rather nightmare imaginations, that do not achieve much but reveal what Eileen is thinking.
The disturbing incident of a son, Lee Polk killing his father, a cop, while the father was asleep in his bed beside his mother is milked for full effect. The boy has not spoken a word since and is housed in Eileen's correctional facility. A guard tells Eileen not to be sympathetic towards him as he killed a cop, to which she replies: “This is not true, he killed a father.” Eileen’s own father tells her that she has no guts to kill him as she is a girl
The film is a female-strength film with strong female characters, a female director and a female-to-female romance. There was one time when feminists complained of insufficient female material in films. It appears the opposite is true these days - a triumph for the females. “People are so afraid of their desires. Especially the men, “ says Rebecca, the new prison psychiatrist (Anne Hathaway) at one point in the film. Why did Lee Polk kill his father? What did his father ever do to him to make him stab his father multiple times? That is the question no one bothered to ask Lee, which Rebecca the prison psychiatrist did and found the disturbing answer - not mentioned but with the audience's assumed tone able to guess the answer. Mrs.Polk leaves in disgust when confronted with the truth and chooses to disbelieve it, though she is responsible for letting it all happen. She spits in Rebecca’s face, a scene not shown in the film.
The story takes a twist in the last third when the Polk murder blends in Eileen and Rebecca’s relationship.
EILEEN has nothing much that is festive or joyous for the festive season, yet it is a solid psychological thriller, made with care and brilliance blending a disturbing theme with humour and suspense. The film opens at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and is worth a look, for sure.
Trailer:
FAST CHARLIE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Phillip Noyce.
This film follows the very often used tactic that begins with a scene from nowhere, often a crucial one, and then flashes back to the incidents that have led to this state of affairs. In FAST CHARLIE, the film opens with Charlie held at apparent gunshot range by an unseen assailant, and forced to take off his shirt and trousers. How did Charlie get to this point when he was about to be shot by some unseen assailant? He says he would not normally care if this incident occurs. This scene is revisited 15 minutes before the film ends. It is then that he decides otherwise, that he would use some magic trick to get out of the predicament. This forms the film’s climax.
The film is called FAST CHARLIE for the reason that Charlie is quite fast at what he does. And his last name is Swift.
For twenty years, Charlie Swift (Pearce Brosnan) has been a fixer and hitman for a mob boss named Stan (James Caan). After a rival boss puts a hit on Stan and his crew, Charlie is the sole survivor. Charlie decides to avenge his friend and teams up with Marcie (Morena Baccarin), the ex-wife of a mobster he killed.
The film is about old people. The director Noyce is in his senior years and the main actor Pearce Brosnan, ex-James Bond is also in his later years. He portrays a hitman and fixer, also I’m his later years who should plan a good retirement.
The story is also about achieving a person’s dreams. When life moves along, Charlie, a brilliant Italian cook wishes to live the rest of his years in Italy. Marcie, a taxidermist, wishes to have teaching tenure at a university to pursue her career. And Stan retires in a big and lush facility. The film also stresses loyalty and hard work.
There are two reasons to watch FAST CHARLIE. Firstly, it is the final film of the late actor James Caan, his best role being that of the violent son Sonny of Don Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER. In FAST CHARLIE, Cain plays Stan Mullen, the protagonist’s most respected aging boss. Secondly, the film is directed by Australian Phillip Joyce, who has several memorable credits in his portfolio. His film NEWSFRONT, is my personal favourite Australian film of all time. He is also remembered for Hollywood films like RABBIT PROOF FENCE. His films are always interesting to watch, though FAST CHARLIE is not one of his best.
Despite the film title FAST CHARLIE, FAST CHARLIE is a lazy and slow action thriller with more shootouts than unarmed combat scenes showing the later years of both the film’s director Phillip Noyce and main actor, Pearce Brosnan.
FAST CHARLIE premiered at the 2023 Mill Valley Film Festival on October 7, 2023. The film is scheduled to be released in select theatres and video on demand on December 8, 2023
Trailer:
NAGA (Saudi Arabia 2023) **
Directed by Meshal Aljaser
NAGA follows a young woman stranded in the Arabian desert who races to be home before curfew under the threat of extreme punishment from her scary and strict father. When it comes to disobedience in Saudi Arabia, a country where everything is much stricter than the norm, the repercussions can be extreme. And the young woman knows it. And so when Sarah (Adwa Bader), a young Saudi woman, is given a strict curfew by her conservative father for an approved shopping trip, she knows that she must meet his expectations by any means necessary. Especially since Sarah’s shopping plans are actually subterfuge for a secret date with Saad, a young suitor who just sent her an invitation to an underground party in the desert. The best-laid deception goes quickly awry, and Sarah, now high out of her guard, gets stranded miles away from home. Dodging a parade of arrogant and creepy men, not to mention a bloodthirsty, rabid camel, Sarah sets out on a wild adventure through distinct spheres of contemporary Saudi society in a desperate race against a ticking clock.
The synopsis above all sounds prime for a pretty good madcap adventure from Saudi Arabia of all places, but director Aljaser’s film misfires from the very first scene.
The first scene is a hospital where a masked man with a machine gun runs through the back staircase before opening fire on the staff in a hospital room with a patient. The scene is filmed with a rotating camera that goes for an upside shot. The reason for this is obviously to show how crazy the situation is, though the tactic is totally unnecessary, least to say redundant.
Other odd scenes follow, like Sarah screaming in the desert, a very annoying and loud scene, the apparent taking of drugs by Sarah and so on. Whether the film aims at social satire to to make a solid statement about the ruling patriarchy of families, one can never be sure, and whatever goals the director might have are totally lost in his untamed stylish mayhem of filming.
At the end of the exercise, one would wonder what everything is really all about or what the purpose of the film is. The film has been described by TIFF as similar to Martin Scorsese’s AFTER HOURS, a film that is also one that is too madcap, and one that I never liked either, (though many critics did).
. Though many individual segments of the film are well shot, they do not come together as a cohesive whole nor does director Aljaser make any attempt to do so. Stylish thoughts aim might be, but style without direction here results in a total miss.
NAGA had its premiere in the Midnight Madness Section of the Toronto International Film Festival where odd and crazy films like this one have a chance to debut. But this one, unfortunately, does not make the cut. NAGA opens for streaming on Netflix this week.
Trailer:
THE SACRIFICE GAME (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Jenn Wexler
It is bad enough that boarding school students Samantha and Clara can't go home for the holidays, but things take a deadly turn when a murderous gang ( gang of four) arrives on their doorstep - just in time for Christmas.
THE SACRIFICE GAME, the film opens in the setting of December 22nd, 1977, 3 days before Christmas. Why 1977 and not the present? The obvious absence of cell phones is the answer. There are sounds of carol singing and just as the Christmas jolly singing stops, the music changes when a group of 4 rings the doorbell of a house. “Merry Christmas,” the greeting comes from the man who opens the door, only to be greeted with a stab in the throat. As the group - of 3 men and one woman attack the lady by stabbing her while she lies on the kitchen table, a scene that will definitely make the audience winch, the scene ceases and a new segment begins with a new character, Samantha attending boarding school. So far so good, this BLACK CHRISTMAS-like horror flick holds one's interest so far. The killers are dubbed ‘the Christmas Killers’. This film is shot in Montreal, Canada though the country of origin is the United States.
The school stands where a fire wiped out the entire town and then a new town was built. This is what Samantha is taught in her class, in the school that now stands on the burnt remains.
The film also plays like the recent Alexander Payne film THE HOLDOVERS in which a few students are held over and stay on the college grounds under a reluctant teacher. The same goes for THE SACRIFICE GAME. Samantha and Carol have no option but to stay over at the college for Christmas under supervision by a reluctant teacher, Rose who wants to get a posting to a public school away from the ‘boonies’. As it turns out, it is now 2 days before Christmas and the Christmas Killer now strikes a church. According to the news, the Christmas Killers hit different towns. Rose has a boyfriend who also reaches the school later when the gang has entered the premises.
The story ties everything together with a third of the film. The Christmas Killers appear at the door of the boarding school. Rose, who looks after ‘the holdovers’ is freed to let them in. The Killers quickly subdue the three including Rose’s boyfriend, terrorizing them at the same time. The script creates some audience sympathy for Samantha and Carol. Samantha’s mother died recently from a car accident and her step-dad wants nothing to do with her, the reason she is bit returning home for Christmas. Carol has attempted suicide.
The story takes a turn to reveal the reason the film is called THE SACRIFICE GAME. No one is as innocent as he or she seems as the story contains a few twists, though not all satisfactory,
Director and co-writer Jenn Wexler does a relatively good job at this Christmas horror, which is quite violent at times, which opens for streaming on Shudder the horror streaming network just in time for Christmas. The film garnered the audience award for Best Film at the Fantasia Horror Film Festival in Montreal this year.
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