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Dracula Untold (2014)
Supernatural tale of the necessity of evil with great action
Dracula Untold is a story about the necessity of evil.
An ex-soldier Dracula was renowned for his brutality in warfare, something he justified due to the terror he inflicted in his enemies resulted in their surrender rather than death. This difficult choice, that a man must become evil and inhuman to ultimately defeat an even greater evil is the focus of the story.
An even more subversive idea is the worship of evil by men due to the power it holds. Something which ensures it will never die.
These ideas breath new life into the Dracula tale and vampire myth in general.
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Quite boring, saved by its two leads and a bit of blood.
Jennifer's Body seems to suffer from a bad script and directing, not sure which is worse. It's only saving graces are Amanda Seyfried who manages to insert quite a lot of depth and emotion into her character named 'Needy', alongside her is Megan Fox who although not as successful still manages to give her incredibly cliché and unoriginal written character of a bitchy cheerleader and best friend, some weight and impact. Every other character in the film apart from a nice Adam Brody playing out of character is either farcical or forgettable.
Without Megan and more importantly Seyfried this film would have been unwatchable.
The main problem is the director can't figure out what type of movie this is (blame the stupid script), is it about teen friendship or romance?, is it a comedy?, is it at times a thriller? a horror? skin flick? No one, me included really knows. The director showed similar problems although to a much less degree in Aeon Flux.
As a tale of friendship between girls, it is either nonsensical or cynical. As a romance it is superficial. As a comedy it is not funny. As a satire it isn't funny and not deep enough. As a drama it has unbelievable elements and bad dialogue. The film does have some interesting scenes and themes but they are too deeply buried in boring irrelevancy or 'hip' contradiction to muster the necessary interest required to dig them up.
What can I say, it was a good idea, but it's just a bad film and left me feeling empty and cheated. I think the writer and director should go back to indie school.
The Last House on the Left (2009)
Self reflective and surprising - A nice horror film
Audiences are very familiar with the revenge film and torture porn. 'The last house on the left' is conscious of this knowledge and it being a horror film that is a member of the club. But rises above it's roots and offers real insights into violence and its consequences, even if admittedly few audiences members will get the message.
It does this with it's play of violence. Frighteningly realistic, gratuitous, over dramatic and then finally fun. Each scene is understood and enjoyed for what it is. The films closing scene questions whether we have really learned anything after all? Insights over the threat of death, pain and violence against the body is technically speaking a fruitless enterprise.
Illiades opinion, that films can only offers so much but you can try anyway, simultaneously reveals a hope in humanity and almost a disgust with the cinematic medium as form of communication. This may be why his title project is a coming of age story of two girls and their friendship in the world of teen prostitution. A man's ignorance on all counts cannot be stressed enough, yet Illiades continues to search and look at what is so divorced from his experience.
"A little understanding is better than none" is his motto. And so 'House on left' is full of cinematic skill to get it's perceived understanding of phenomena. My suspicion of what rape really is, are here supported by Illiades camera. In many ways Illiades work is straightforward and even in spite of its subject matter feels very familiar, Illiades doesn't appear to be teaching us anything new so much as reminding us of what we already know. In this sense he is a moralist, appealing to our better natures.
This is shown in the various responses to the violence we see on screen. Instead of accepting each scene for what they are, in a horror remake film no less. Audiences and reviewers instead take a moral stand on a specific depiction of violence on the screen. They say it's cartooned, yet they enjoy boxing, action movies and wrestling. They say it's too realistic when they applaud the realism of violence in moral war movies. Too gratuitous they say when the enjoy advances in film gore. The 'house on the left' aims to appeal to every taste for cinematic violence, yet it is the audiences moral stand and ignorance of reality, that makes them reject and approve of only certain forms of violence on screen. The last scene of the film points fun at and affirms this narrow view of the audience.
Illiades direction is fine, certainly superior to ever horror film in recent memory. But it suffers from its analysis and tonally different views of violence. In many way's its 4 or 5 tonally different films in one. The influence of the writers, Craven and the original film is also unclear. But he is a sure hand under the directors seat, bringing great performances from his actors and some visually dynamic scenes, perhaps in the future he will attempt something more sustained in tone and will achieve something less schizophrenic, more affecting and ultimately less forgettable in large part.
It is unclear whether Craven knew what he was getting himself into when he hired Illiades or if Illiades has managed to pull the rug under Craven's whole career, while at the same time not devaluing it in any way. Something tells me Craven would approve of this sleight of hand. Whether Illiades has more cards up his sleeve in his subsequent films (I haven't seen his debut 'Hardcore'), is yet to be seen.
Bandslam (2009)
An entertaining film, suffers from some pacing issues.
Like many viewers. I enjoyed the movie, its difficult not to given the smart script, great and perfectly appropriate music, great performances, engaging characters and interesting plot developments. I actually enjoyed it more the second time round than the first. Its main problem is its pacing, which is too fast and doesn't allow one to savor each scene and its music. Since the second time around I already knew the plot, I felt much more comfortable and was laughing out loud before something happened. While my first viewing had me in a constant state of bewilderment, the film is in too much of a hurry.
The film also suffers to a degree from Vanessa Hudgens as Sa5m, there is just not enough of her! Her romance with Will Burton is undeveloped and it seems they develop into a couple overnight. Not to mention her involvement with the band is never shown, even though she ends up being a critical part of it by the end of the film. Also her effect on Wills self confidence is never shown, but it obviously exists. Of course the film is already long at 1 hour and 50 minutes, but if anything I think it will only make the movie easier to follow and more amenable to our faculty of reason.
Overall a good film that suffers from pacing issues and an underwritten character. I want a directors cut! -------- After seeing it 5 times, you can scratch my complaints and upgrade my score to a 9 cause this is the best teen movie I've ever seen. Profound, iconic and affecting this is the film that just keeps giving, can't wait to see Todd Graff's next movie.
Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)
Enthralling and at times boring, bold and uncompromising tale of a 9 year old.
I've just finished watching 'Phoebe in Wonderland' and for the first time I can remember I can't wait to see the movie again. It speaks volumes for his powers as a director that he can so fully engage a masculine 25 year old man on the focused tale of a precocious, imaginative and slightly troublesome 9 year old girl. I'm announcing a future Academy award winning director right here folks.
Here are my criticisms after seeing the film again.
CRITICISMS
Use of music is old fashioned and out of sync with our times. I think its almost a turn off for the young and restless in their twenties (Not to speak of teenagers). Timeless is a word, it doesn't actually exist in real life, a director should try to make his movie as relevant as he can for as long as he can. In this case I'm talking about the sound in the film, which is exclusively violin and piano, with stereotypical entries from the xylophone and wind chimes.
Another problem, is his static documentary camera work when filming his actors in dramatic scenes are basic and fail to engage the viewer. This is crucial, since the opulence and density of his film, leaves one unprepared for the sparse and solitary environment one finds oneself in, making one turn into oneself in introversion and contemplation, when face with these relatively empty dramatic actor scenes, thus making us miss out on these parts of the movie. (Or perhaps the actors lack sufficient charisma, but that is still only partly an excuse) In short, the scene changes are too quick, especially and detrimentally when switching to crucial actor dialog closeups.
On a lesser note, from that serious problem. Is that his camera shots in the film are too basic and static. They fail to engage the viewers attention on the cameras focus and like I said, this is crucial due to Barnz's visual image being dense and rich with meaning on its own. The pan & scan format of the film might also have exacerbated this problem.
Also related to all of the above. His films are challenging, in the sense of being fully understood and in the sense of being fully enjoyed as entertainment. A lot of people will miss out on what this movie has to offer as they will only pick up the surface, which is still impressive nonetheless. This may be a genuine cost of directing such a high caliber movie but I nonetheless feel that Steven Spielbergs early genius for storytelling can nonetheless be imitated and what will result will be a slightly stronger movie, certainly a movie more affective and accessible to the layman. In short there is a lack of storytelling focus. Or more accurately the simultaneous focus on many stories overwhelms the viewer leading to confusion, boredom or impatience. I think it needs a stronger central story so that the rest of the film meanings are complementary instead of distracting and overwhelming.
On another line of thought, the dialog in the film is so genuine and the acting of such high quality, that one sometimes gets the feeling that one is a covert observer. But just like in real life, it suffers from the same weaknesses that we all must bear in real life. Failing to understand, not being able to hear or decipher, misinterpreting and becoming distracted from someone speaking directly at you. Very rarely have I felt such an experience in a movie, but in this film it is standard. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
And finally. The principal, psychiatrist, father even the future gay basher/criminal little boy are all forgivable and admittedly effective. And as a counter balance of sorts the director offers us one decent male character, but this character is not enough. Why? Its not because he is obviously gay, but it is because he is weak and not masculine in the least.Fearful of others opinions and lacking confidence he does not embody a single masculine value. Phoebe's sister is also not masculine, her two primary traits are being outspoken and being petulant. This spoiled the movie for me once I realized it, as I find it difficult to enjoy a film that ridicules and disparages my entire metaphysical world view, without so much as offering a shred of affirmation for the male gender. I hope in your subsequent films you will be able to remedy this.
The Faculty (1998)
Great simple fun
Tired of teenage movies TRYING to be smart? TRYING to be deep?
The faculty was underrated by my cousin who recommended it to me. It goes back to the Indiana Jones day although with more women, swearing and violence which are all ticks in my book. Though predictable if you really want it to be the faculty is also pretty suspenseful with characters that are surprisingly engaging and pretty neat special effects. for what it is it gets a 9 out 10