alexfnm Reviews

Them (2006)

Where did all that terror go?

[3/10 · 30 September 2006]

I tried so hard to be scared by this film, but still failed. Now, I do not want to slag off the film just on the basis of that. Most people here seem to like it, and I recognize it could have worked for them.

Still, I am going to try and list the facts that made this film a disappointment for me. First of all, it is supposed to be based on real events. Whereas I am not against such intentions, I dislike the idea of basing a film on real events and then 95% of it consisting of two people running around scared in a house, over attics, in the forest etc etc. If the makers' intention was to record the actual events, they should have made a little more effort to deal a bit more with the actual 'villains' ("ils"), and their motives or whatever. Instead of that, we only get to see their victims running around for most of the movie and nothing much else. I'm sorry, but we only really get to know about them in a 20-seconds' closing shot, and an explanatory text that needs 3 different screens to fit. That, for me is just LAZY.

On the other hand, as a pure shocker/thriller (provided the makers just wanted to use the story as a mere backdrop, which could have worked equally well for me) it also failed to interest me. I don't know how people can be scared by a camera moving through stairs, round walls etc. only for a light or a bang on the door to come up scarcely between the painfully long scenes of people hiding and walking around the place. That could have worked in the 60s/70s probably, as people hadn't been overexposed to shaky cameras and dark corridors. A small indication is the fact that in the full theatre I watched this in, as the film progressed silence gave its place to scattered laughter from different places.

Pure disappointment. On the bright side though, the lead lady was pretty ;)

Wolf Creek (2005)

A film with good potential that fails to deliver

[4/10 · 20 September 2006]

This is a horror film that tries a bit too hard to be different but falls flat on its face for different reasons. I'm not going to mention the synopsis, since you can find it somewhere else. What didn't work for me was that, although the director obviously tried to drag the first part of the film as much as he could without any violence/horror incidents (to make us get in touch with the characters), it drags unnecessarily slowly, plus it doesn't really give the characters much substance and depth to identify with or at least care a bit about them.

On the second half, there are a couple of intense, well-shot scenes (involving the 2 female characters), but other than that, you see the people chased taking all sorts of ridiculous and irrational decisions in more than one occasion (I wouldn't mind, if the director wasn't going for characters a bit more intelligent than the average Scary Movie American kids).

All in all, it's not mindlessly entertaining as a cheap horror flick, neither convincing & satisfying as an art-theatre indie movie. At least the Hostel (a highly overrated thriller) was more consistent on its goals.

Performance (1991 Video)

An impressive, daring and very rewarding visual experience

[10/10 · 30 September 2005]

A live gig disguised as a theatre performance, this was a very bold experiment that turned out to be a huge success. The Pet Shop Boys have always been very keen to experiment visually, proving that pop music, if handled correctly, can also become a work of art.

Using a string of their songs, they created a storyline, vaguely beginning from school years and ending in paradise. They worked with opera designers D.Alden & D.Fielding and a group of classically trained dancers. The choreography (by J.Marley) is just staggering. The dancers roam around the stage endlessly constantly changing costumes (from schoolboy uniforms to pigs and demons) and the atmosphere created is unique in every single song played (eg. from teenage guilt in "This must be the place..", to melancholy in "My October Symphony", to pure joy in "You were always on my mind").

The whole performance is very theatrical, and the Boys get to do a lot of acting and dancing at times. They choose to ignore the audience (at least until the closing song) and there are no musicians on stage (just guitarist J.J. Belle and keyboardist Scott Davidson playing out of view). The end result is fascinating, and easily watchable even from people who are not familiar with the duo's music.

The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2004)

Beautiful to look, difficult to enjoy

[6/10 · 22 September 2005]

I watched this film in the Athens Film Festival, having just watched "Institute Benjamenta" a few days earlier. The effect both of these films had on me was quite similar - as movies they were incredibly dull and boring, but as visual experiences incredibly beautiful. The main problem is that the Quays are mostly animators, and most of their work has been short films. If I'm not terribly mistaken, these are their only full length movies. They have beautiful images in their minds and an amazing talent to materialize them, but not the ability (or perhaps the desire) to transform them into a watchable 2-hour movie.

The brothers were also present at the screening of the film. They admitted they were quite disappointed with the end result of the "Piano Tuner...", mostly because they had been forced to direct it with limited funds and in a shorter time than what they would have wanted. Because of the above problems, they had to film it in Liepzig instead of Portugal, and they had to wrap it up about a week earlier than it had originally been agreed. Also, they weren't afraid to admit that they have never been able to finance a full-length animation movie, so they thought that a "regular" film would be a good excuse to squeeze some of their own animations in. Indeed, there is a puppet showing up regularly in the film that does not really have anything to do with the happenings.

All in all, both these films make excellent memories when you recollect them some time after the screening. You have, however to put up with the actual screening. If these phenomenally talented guys could find themselves a sharp screenwriter, and most importantly, some better financing, they could easily create some timeless masterpieces.

Wild Animals (1997)

Uneven but satisfying

[6/10 · 20 September 2005]

Kim Ki-Duk's second film is the story of two illegal immigrants in Paris, a North-Korean former soldier and a South-Korean street painter, as they both struggle for survival in the French metropolis. Eventually, they develop a strong friendship whilst their association with the local underworld will have dramatic effects on their lives.

Definitely not equal to the director's latter efforts, but nonetheless charming and bittersweet, the film contains clear evidence of the unique style Kim Ki-Duk would eventually develop. Set in the streets of Paris, where the director had previously studied arts and worked as a street painter (just like one of his main characters).