2015

45 Years

Posted on by moviebloke

(USA/UK 2015)

45 Years— my lifetime, and about how long it felt like it took to get through this. On the eve of a huge party to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary, Geoff Mercer (Tom Courtenay) receives a letter informing him that the body of a past lover from before he met his wife Kate (Charlotte Rampling) has been recovered after 50 years– she fell off a cliff while they were vacationing in Switzerland. He is absorbed by this news, which does not sit well with Kate.

45 Years isn’t bad, but it is tedious; I found myself growing more and more restless as it went on. A lot happens during the course of the film, but it’s mostly mental– thoughts, feelings, and struggles within the characters. Sure, these all manifest themselves physically, but mostly in a quiet way. I wanted more action here. The big thrill for me was recognizing Geraldine James from Little Britain– she played the mother in the “Bitty” skit.

(AMC River East) C-

Chicago International Film Festival

http://45yearsfilm.com

The Club [El club]

Posted on by moviebloke

(Chile 2015)

Pablo Larrain’s The Club is intense. Fr. Garcia (Marcelo Alonso), a Jesuit counselor for the Vatican, is on assignment investigating an incident that occurs at a home for wayward clergy tucked away in the hills of La Boca, a fishing town on the coast of Chile. The home, where four scandalized priests live, has many rules– no cell phones, no showers longer than five minutes, no self-pleasuring– and is run by sweet but cunning Sr. Monica (Antonia Zegers). Animosity quickly develops between methodical Fr. Garcia and the others during the course of his investigation, complicated by unstable local day worker Sandokan (Roberto Farias) and his odd habit of showing up outside the home and loudly recounting in disturbingly graphic detail the sexual abuse inflicted upon him as a child by another priest, Fr. Lazcano (Jose Soza).

Moody, heavy, and intricate, The Club tackles not just the Vatican’s handling of scandal but survival in a culture of denial, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciling one’s faith within the confines of an imperfect human institution. The acting is flawless– Alonso and Alfredo Castro are particularly great– and the cast works as an ensemble. An excellent allegory of dogs as God, explained by Alonso himself after the screening, and Sandokan’s rants– a weird mix of medical terminology and porn– will haunt me for a long time.

(AMC River East) B+

Chicago International Film Festival

http://www.musicboxfilms.com/the-club-movies-127.php

Nahid

Posted on by moviebloke

(Iran 2015)

Single mother Nahid (Sareh Bayat) is kind of a mess. She works a menial job as a typist. She can’t manage money to save her life. Her prepubescent son, Amir Reza (Milad Hasan Pour) is getting out of control. Her no good gambling drug addict ex-husband, Ahmad (Navid Mohammad Zadeh) keeps professing his love two years after their divorce. Mas’ood (Pejman Bazeghi), whom she dates on the sly, is a man of means and wants to marry her. However, her divorce decree grants Ahmad full custody of Amir Reza if she remarries. To top it all off, she’s developing a nasty case of some upper extremity affliction: carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, deQuervain’s syndrome, whatever. She’s over it all.

With echoes of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Nahid might sound like it has all the makings of a comedy. It’s not– though it does have a sense of humor. Introducing me to the concept of “temporary marriage,” it explores cultural stigma in a way I haven’t seen before. Ahmad is vice and Mas’ood is virtue, neither of which particularly appeals to Nahid. Bayat plays her as sympathetic yet flawed– she’s no heroine, and we don’t know for sure whether she’s any better off at the end than she was at the beginning of this film. But one thing is clear: she wants to live on her own terms in a society that doesn’t make that easy for her to do so. Nahid also shows Iran how I don’t picture it: cold, wet, and grey.

(AMC River East) C+

Chicago International Film Festival

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/7e2de8ed-6f0c-4341-bad3-e857b55d641c/year/2015.html

The Red Spider [Czerwony pajak]

Posted on by moviebloke

(Poland 2015)

It’s 1967 and a hammer-weilding serial killer is loose on the streets of Krakow. 19-year-old military diver Karol Kremer (Filip Plawiak) puts two and two together after he finds a bloody body at a carnival and spots the killer, a middleaged veterinarian (Adam Woronowicz), leaving the scene. His obsession gives way to a strange relationship that can’t end well. Grim and peculiar, The Red Spider unfolds deliberately and slowly– at times painfully so. But it pays off in the end.

(AMC River East) C+

Chicago International Film Festival

http://md4.eu/en/films/red-spider

The Laundryman [Qing Tian Jie Yi Hao] [青田街一號]

Posted on by moviebloke

(Taiwan 2015)

We all have demons, but not quite like those of the Laundryman (Joseph Chang). He is an anonymous hitman with a serious problem on his hands: the ghosts of his victims are following him around everywhere, rattling him and interfering with his job—which is done behind the scenes of a dry cleaning and laundry front. He enlists the help of funky, sassy medium Lin Hsiang (Wan Qian) to rid him of his demons, upsetting his boss, the icy hot femme fatale ex-psychiatrist A-gu (Sonia Sui), in the process. Danger, Laundryman, danger!

A dark comedy romance action thriller with the supernatural thrown in, I loved The Laundryman—and it has so much to love. It’s fun, colorful, and full of great energy. The story and the characters are clever and wonderfully strange, yet somehow plausible despite pushing the limits of ‘suspension of disbelief.’ The cinematography is sharp. The sets are loaded with delightfully tacky details without distracting from the action. Director Lee Chung plays with gender roles and archetypes, making his women fierce and the Laundryman the recipient of unwanted sexual advances. It all adds up to a ghastly good time: never cheesy or boring, The Laundryman is packed with action, suspense, and subtle humor that kept me through the end.

(AMC River East) B+

Chicago International Film Festival

http://ablazeimage.com/the-laundryman-info/

Mia Madre

Posted on by moviebloke

(Italy 2015)

Mia Madre is Nanni Moretti’s semi-autobiographic story of a director (Margherita Buy) in the midst of shooting a heavy film about labor relations at a factory while dealing with the impending death of her mother (Giulia Lazzarini), who grows more frail by the day. A quiet, contemplative film loaded with tender moments, it’s a weird mix of drama and humor– I can’t call it comedy.

Plagued by a sense of distance, I found Mia Madre tough to get into. It could have been more moving had the characters been brought closer to the audience. As it is, Mia Madre lacks intimacy. The relationships, especially between the female characters of the family, are underdeveloped and beg for more information. Too many scenes, especially those at the hospital, fail to realize their dramatic potential and end up a snooze because I’m not sure who these people are. Perhaps that was strategic with a character like Margherite, but being removed and kept outside proved to be an obstacle in fully enjoying this film. I did not get involved or invested.

On a positive note, John Turturro, as usual, is great: his take on a narcissistic, loose cannon American actor who makes up shit about his credentials and seems incapable of remembering his lines adds much needed relief. I didn’t hate Mia Madre, but I didn’t find it all that interesting. It is not a film I would peg as the opener to a festival.

(Auditorium Theater) C-

Chicago International Film Festival

http://www.palacefilms.com.au/miamadre/

Yakuza Apocalypse [極道大戦争]

Posted on by moviebloke

(Japan 2015)

According to Wikipedia, Yakuza are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. Notorious for their strict codes of conduct and organized nature, they have a heirarchy of bosses, advisors, and lackeys. They also have a number of rituals– stuff like cutting off fingers and getting full-body tattoos. Mmmm. In Yakuza Apocalypse, lieutenant Akira Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara) is turned into a vampire when his beheaded boss, Genyō Kamiura (Lily Franky), bites him just before he dies, passing on his “powers” presumably so Kageyama can avenge his death. For poor Kageyama, however, being a vampire sorely tests Kamiura’s mantra of “no harm to civilians” and upsets the status quo both in the city where the gang operates and within the syndicate.

I love a dumb movie as long as it’s fun, and a little bizarre goes a long way. Yakuza Apocalypse certainly is both, but despite a strong enough start it is fun only to a point. Too bad. I love the melding of genres: mafia, kung fu, gore, action, end of the world shit. It struck me that I witnessed something come full circle: Yakuza Apocalypse so obviously was influenced by Quentin Tarantino, who in turn so obviously was influenced by martial arts films. Plus, making the deadly monster everyone fears a guy in a fuzzy muppet-like frog suit is a small stroke of genius. However, the plot is choppy, confusing, and hard to follow. I’m not sure what the deal is with “The Captain” or Masuda, to name just two “what the fucks.” The joke gets old, fast: the film goes on about 45 minutes too long and repeats the same tedious, drawn out battles, chases, and other nonsense. The audience loved it, but I got lost and bored; at just about two hours, I thought it would never end.

(Gene Siskel Film Center) D+

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/yakuzaapocalypse

Irrational Man

Posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

Woody Allen movies never totally suck, but they’re either really great or just ok. Irrational Man is the latter. Joaquin Phoenix is Abe, an angsty, drunkard philosophy professor who’s lost his zest for life. He takes a teaching position at a college in Rhode Island. All the fly women are making a fuss (even though he’s gross) but he can’t get it up. With a plot twist that I didn’t see coming, he gets his groove back– until things start to unravel.

Irrational Man makes an interesting comment on freedom: act or leave things to chance. There are a few bright moments here– the Russian roulette party scene, for example, had me on the edge of my seat for a second. It’s also nice to see Parker Posey and Emma Stone in action even if I’ve seen them do better. The problem here is, the execution is bland; the story plods along without ever taking off. Even the final scene plays out in a blasé manner. Intentionally existentialist or not, Irrational Man is a yawn.

(Gene Siskel Film Center) C-

http://sonyclassics.com/irrationalman/

Trainwreck

Posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

Trainwreck is a snarky romantic comedy that starts out promising but loses steam. Amy Schumer—who falls into a group of female comedians who bank on their guy humor sensibilities—is perfect as a detached trollop working as a writer for a men’s magazine. Her boss assigns her to a story about a sports doctor (Bill Hader) who perfected a new knee surgery, and a spark develops. Hilarity ensues—at least until the movie takes a serious turn.

Trainwreck is loaded with potty humor and sex jokes, and many of them are laugh out loud funny. I related to a few scenarios here, I should be ashamed to admit. John Cena and his ass are great as Amy’s lunkhead gay-but-doesn’t-know-it boyfriend, Tilda Swinton is unrecognizable as Amy’s boss, and LeBron James is a much better actor that I gave him credit for—his little sermon on Cleveland’s many perks made me smile. Sadly, though, Trainwreck derails once the romance develops and Amy gets more sober—the ending is happy, neat, and too cute. Gag.

(AMC River East) C+

http://www.trainwreckmovie.com

Listen to Me Marlon

Posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

I’m stating the obvious here, but Marlon Brando was a strange bird. It’s only fitting, then, that his “autobiography” be strange, too. And it is. With narration from the man himself taken from cassette recordings he made in private, he reminisces and philosophizes and prophecizes and lets his ego run loose. Footage of career highlights and personal tragedies round out his story.

At times creepy—that digitized head is a lot to take—Listen to Me Marlon gives some insight into why Brando was the way he was. Still, he remains as enigmatic as ever, even after seeing this.

(Landmark Century) B

http://www.listentomemarlon.com