Friday, June 13, 2008

by Erik

As I've mentioned before, this summer has been a bit underwhelming thus far. Two big releases have me very excited though: the July release of Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, looks amazing. Can't wait for that. Also, David Gordon Green's (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels) fifth film, and first foray in to mainstream cinema (a stoner comedy no less), The Seth Rogen / James Franco (reuniting from their Freaks and Geeks days) comedy Pineapple Express. Both of these films have great trailers (I highly recommend watching the Red Band Trailer for Express). The Dark Knight should easily be the best summer movie since, well, Batman Begins in 2005. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for mainstream cinema right now, I did make it out to a smaller summer movie called The Strangers.

This is the best horror movie I've seen at the theater (key word here, as I never saw Rob Zombie's great The Devil's Rejects in theaters, but that's more of a psycho road movie than straight horror anyway) since The Descent. The opening credits are completely unnecessary and stupid, a narrator tells us (in a voice that pays homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) that what we are about to see is based on a true story (is anyone as sick as I am of hearing this for movies?) First-time writer / director Bryan Bertino (his first film) is smart enough to know what scares audiences is not excessive blood and gore (and, hey, I like a bit of the old ultraviolence in my cinema as much as the next guy, as long as it's not the only reason for the movie to exist ala Saw and Hostel and every other supposed scary movie that's flooded the market in recent years), but creepy images (I don't know about you but masks freak me out, especially kids masks on knife and ax-wielding psychopaths out for a bit of fun and torture), mysterious motivations (or none at all) by the villains, a tightly-constructed (this thing flies by in less than 90 minutes), simple plot (couple goes to cabin, is stalked by three crazy people who want to kill them for no other reason than they were home), and an ending that doesn't cheat or hold back in any way.

This is a throwback in many ways to seventies classics like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (don't even bring up the horrible remake or it's prequel) and Halloween (again, don't bring up that remake, why Rob Zombie, why?). While it never reaches the heights of those classics (but how many really do?), I think Bertino has made a scary movie, nothing more than an exercise in terror and suspense. That's what he set out to do, and he nailed it. While it isn't the most original of horror movies, I had fun watching Bertino toy with the genre and use the tools effectively (ex: characters in this movie actually use their brain, turning on lights when entering a dark and scary room, grabbing a gun immediately after a sign of danger, etc.). Bonus points awarded for not being a remake of something better that came out 30 years ago. The remake insanity must end!!!! Only way to do that is by seeing new horror movies like this. Oh yeah, the movie stars Liv Tyler (who admittedly is pretty bad here, but I've never been a fan, and her poor performance also adds to the seventies horror feel) and Scott Speedman, but that's not the reason to see the movie. And look for a cameo by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and co-creator Glenn Howerton (he plays Dennis on the show, and if you haven't seen it, do so, it's hilarious, basically the alcoholic's answer to Seinfeld, but for a new generation).

I recently joined a film club with some friends of mine, and so far we've seen three films: Godard's classic first film Breathless, Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers, and most recently South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder. Murder is a very good film. Joon-ho's most recent film, The Host, was an interesting and smart, but ultimately unsatisfying take on the monster movie genre, complete with some brilliant satire of American policy (some would say anti-American, but I disagree, I think the film is really just poking fun at us, and deservedly so). Murder is the better film in my opinion, a take on the serial killer / cop procedural genre. If you enjoyed David Fincher's brilliant film from last year, Zodiac, then this is something you probably will like. Joon-ho's biting sense of humor is even better here than in The Host. The humor is often unexpected, but always welcome, relieving the tension from a very dreadful subject matter. In 1986, in the province of Gyunggi, in South Korea, a second young and beautiful woman is found dead, raped and tied and gagged with her underwear. Detective Park Doo-Man (Kang-ho Song, a great actor who played the dumb brother in The Host, and has also shown up in three Chan-wook Park films) and Detective Cho Yong-koo (Roe-ha Kim, hilarious here as a cop whose sole method of interrogation is ninja kicking the suspect unexpectedly), two brutal and stupid local detectives without any technique, investigate the murder using brutality and torture, without any practical result. Detective Seo Tae-Yoon (Sang-kyung Kim) from Seul comes to the country to help the investigations and is convinced that a serial-killer is killing the women. When a third woman is found dead in the same "modus-operandi", the detectives find leads of the assassin. (italics attributed to IMDB) This is a fresh, well-made police film from South Korea, one of the top countries right now in world cinema.

Lastly, I checked out a really inspiring film, Four Eyed Monsters. Real-life couple and artists / filmmakers Susan Buice and Arin Crumley tell their story: meeting each other in New York through the internet. But there is more to the film than that simple plot. They decide to turn their budding relationship in to an art project, which in turn becomes the film you are watching. I know, very meta, but not the least bit pretentious. This is the kind of movie for early 20 somethings out of school trying to find their way in a world that doesn't care about them right now. The inspiring thing about the film is its do-it-yourself quality. What I got out of it was if you want to be a filmmaker, then make a film. Anyone can do it today with the relatively inexpensive and high-quality editing programs and digital cameras out there. It's also very touching, showing an honest look at what us young folk go through just to meet someone, and then dealing with all the other stuff that comes along with it (unprotected sex, STD's, career aspirations, lack of creativity, honesty, etc.). It's a good film, though it may be a bit dated in, say, 10 years time. And I love the film's tag line, describing the formation of a couple: "Four glittering eyes, two pink mouths, and eight limbs wrapped around itself taking up two seats on the subway."