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Film: Needle
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 13th June 2011
Distributor: High Fliers
Certificate: 18
Running time: 90 mins
Director: John V. Soto
Starring: Tahyna Tozzi, Jane Badler, Travis Fimmel, Michael Dorman, Ben Mendelsohn
Genre: Drama/Horror/Mystery
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Australia
Language: English
Review by: Kevin Ilett
John V. Soto follows his debut, the 2009 mystery thriller Crush, with another Australian feature, the supernatural horror film Needle. The flick won a best makeup gong at LA’s Screamfest 2010, followed by a few more awards at the British Horror Film Festival.
The film will win no awards for its storyline, however. Set on a university campus, seemingly populated entirely by mumbling, confused-looking Calvin Klein models, the plot focuses on the mysterious deaths surrounding Marcus (Travis Fimmel), his love interest Mary (Tahyna Tozzi) and his friends: the jock, the nerd, the black guy and the sexy lesbian couple.
As each member of the group is killed off in bizarre circumstances, Marcus must uncover the truth around a supernatural death box (think the Lemarchand boxes in Hellraiser) which appears to be at the centre of the mystery and the re-emergence of Marcus’ suspicious, estranged brother Ben (Michael Dorman). As Marcus gets closer to the killer, he must also travel deeper into the darkest parts of his family history…
Horror has always been a genre with self-esteem issues. Ridiculed and reviled in equal measure by the mainstream, it’s an industry which is nevertheless a fertile breeding ground for potential talent. Inexperienced teams can obtain funding and distribution for their horror project because, if it ticks certain boxes, there will always be a market for the product. Horror films sell on the promise of sex and violence (in other words, basic human needs).
Whilst this offers fantastic opportunities for new talent to gain experience, the market is flooded with films so remarkably, so blandly average, because you don’t need a good idea to get your film made. Expectations are so low in horror that bad films win awards and critical faculties are repressed or even rendered irrelevant. Needle is a good example of such low standards. There’s such a void of originality displayed here, such an amateurish level of acting and production that in any other genre Needle would never have come even close to existence.
Needle is essentially a US-aping teen slasher, with the gimmick being that instead of a masked madman killer, we have a wooden box voodoo doll being operated by an unseen antagonist. The main problem here is that this motif removes all potential excitement, tension and surprise from proceedings. No-one gets chased, no-one jumps out at anyone, there are no iconic killer visuals and no opportunities for the victim to fight back. All the killer has to do is insert a photograph of his victim into the box, stab a doll a few times and, hey presto, job done.
Now, if you’re going to go with such a dull, predictable and unoriginal premise, there are still avenues open to the clever horror director to raise the film above the mire. Firstly, the film could rely on an ironic tone, with witty, knowing dialogue, tongue-in-cheek twists and clever nods to older, better films. Admittedly, this approach was already overdone by the time Scream 2 came out in 1997, but it can still raise the odd smile during a bad film. Unfortunately, Needle is utterly straight-faced (apart from a cameo by John Jarrat as a heavy-drinking coroner) and entirely humourless; its serious tone jarring absurdly with the ridiculous plot and terrible acting.
The other redeeming feature could have been the kills, an area of potential artistry, imagination and delicious invention. A bad horror film’s sins will always be forgiven by fans if there are fun kills to be had, but, again, Needle falls short. Despite winning the aforementioned makeup award, there is nothing special or inventive to be found here, just dullness repeated.
The only strand of interest to be found in Needle is in Michael Dorman’s portrayal of Ben, Marcus’ mysterious brother. Dorman plays the unhinged forensic photographer with a wild abandon and off-kilter glee, a cross between Nic Cage’s Bad Lieutenant and a stoned surfer dude. Ben’s bizarre and inappropriate behaviour is never explained and this idiosyncrasy, whether intentional or not, is strangely amusing.
Apart from Dorman, however, there’s a real lack of verve to be found in Needle. The acting is predictably wooden, but it often appears that they’re not even trying. Whole sequences are mumbled in an offhand, embarrassed fashion, potential subplots are forgotten or ignored and the denouement is offensively stupid even for a film this bad.
Needle is a poor film, which will be quickly forgotten. Its mild success up to this point is a damning indictment of the inexistent standards in the horror industry. KI
Film: Triple Dog
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 23rd May 2011
Distributor: High Fliers
Certificate: 15
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Pascal Franchot
Starring: Brittany Robertson, Alexia Fast, Scout Taylor-Compton, Janel Parrish, Emily Tennant
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Canada
Language: English
Review by: Robyn Simmons
An array of high school stereotypes are brought together for a birthday celebration they won’t forget. Pascal Franchot’s girlie comedy sees a juvenile party game go a step too far, and take a revealing turn for the truth in this teenage whodunit.
The pink-obsessed popular girls of school are joined by the obligatory goth girl and led astray by the head-strong skater when newcomer Eve turns sweet 16. Pushed together by their Stepford-mothers, they’re left to entertain themselves. Content with talking about boys and playing with nail varnish, they are soon shaken up by the arrival of Chapin on her trusty board.
Introducing the girls to Triple Dog, a version of truth or dare with the added threat of hair clippers, flashbacks ensue that build up character profiles and narrative. Via these glimpses of prior events, viewers are enlightened and characters reminded of accusing evidence that suggests an answer to their school’s darkest secret: why did Stacey St Clare jump?
At least, that is presumably the intention. Whether Franchot achieves this in his second feature length effort is another matter, as plot gives way to trivial antics and cheap laughs. Perhaps his chosen genre and audience unavoidably limits character and story development, but they seem to have slipped from his priorities completely. Admittedly, a story centred around a group of friends is character-led, but apparently that doesn’t make it character-driven, and the cast are hardly satisfying. The only girl with a bit of spunk, Chapin, turns out to be an unbearably irritating rebel without a cause. She lives to make life a laughing stock for everyone else, and her “spunk” is in fact just bad attitude. As for her friends, if they did the Macarena naked, no-one would notice. Some of their dares aren’t far off this, but it’s hard to imagine such sheltered girls actually pulling them off in reality.
Audiences are likely to be frustrated by a lack of protagonist. Several possibilities are thrown up by the troupe, but a central point of view is the only thing in Triple Dog that is not made blindingly obvious. With no-one to lead this superficial journey and no-one to share perspective or insight with, there is no safety net that viewers can fall back on, no reliable focal character for viewers to identify with. It is therefore difficult to actually care about any of the girls, much less get involved in the story. After all, who are viewers meant to be rooting for, and why?
Absurdly given a 15 certificate, Franchot has missed out on a captive teenage audience: how many 14 year olds these days haven’t heard about third-base? With the script’s immature humour, and flat character and plot development, one can’t help but get the feeling that Franchot was aiming strictly at pre-teens, or at least one hopes so, for that is the only way to justify Triple Dog.
Schoolchildren probably will relate to the clichés of school life, or enjoy pretending that they do. If they don’t know someone like Eve, Chapin or Liza, then they’ll have seen them in countless other films. And, let’s face it, which school doesn’t have the preps, the skaters and the token loner goth? In terms of setting, too, Franchot may have succeeded in engaging an audience younger than 15. The school corridor, the family home, and the house party are all standard environments that young viewers will recognise from their own lives. With such familiar settings comes familiar situations, like the older brother and his smelly friends, and the locker conversations between lessons. Adults are, of course, kept to a minimum, and when they do crop up, they are naturally flimsy figures of authority to be flouted and laughed at. No doubt this will delight and enthral youngsters.
Also for the pre-teen viewer there is a collection of scenes that sees Franchot interact with them on a level that is almost meaningful. Eve’s home situation isn’t as perfect as her two-point-four upbringing would imply. Although far from original, tensions between her and her father are likely to touch many viewers. Her passive resignation to her lack of power over her circumstances is moving in its transparent way. Similarly, the all-American (or should that be Canadian?) house party provides viewers with a window of either escapism or identification. Booze, peer pressure and the opposite sex makes a recipe for teenage anxiety, and this is only made worse for the characters by the omnipresence of Triple Dog. Viewers can’t help but sympathise with the naïve girls and their discomfort, although it would have been nice if Franchot had made more of it. Instead, characters comply all too quickly, and Eve’s transformation from pure innocence to lusty predator is beyond belief.
Triple Dog is ideal for little girls who want to be teenagers; but not for the market that its 15 certificate restricts it to. What would be considered weaknesses to older viewers would be happily acceptable to pre-pubescent girls, and would in fact strengthen the film. As it is, Triple Dog is yet another forgettable high school movie lost in the depths of teen cinema. RS
Film: Balibo
Year of production: 2009
UK Release date: 25th April 2011
Distributor: High Fliers
Certificate: 15
Running time: 107 mins
Director: Robert Connolly
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Anthony LaPaglia, Bea Viegas
Genre: Drama/Mystery/Thriller
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Australia
Language: English
Review by: Katy Stewart
Anthony LaPaglia worked with politically-conscious director Robert Connolly in the 2001 thriller The Bank. Here, they join forces again, along with rising star Oscar Isaac (Che: Part One) for this hard-hitting portrayal of real events in terrorized East Timor.
Balibo is based on the true story of the Balibo 5, a group Australian journalists who went to East Timor in 1975 to report on the imminent Indonesian invasion and disappeared. With both the Australian government and the wider international community turning a blind eye to events in the tiny Portuguese territory, Jose Ramos-Horta, the Foreign Minister (Isaac) asks veteran Australian journalist Roger East (LaPaglia) to head up the national news agency to bring the crisis in East Timor to wider attention. Reluctantly, he agrees, although his initial motivation is simply to find out what happened to his fellow countrymen.
His early interest in the case quickly turns to obsession and he doggedly traces the steps of the Balibo 5 against the implorations of Jose. His story is intertwined with that of the Balibo 5, scenes alternating between the two. However, as his search progresses, Roger cannot help becoming deeply involved in the national crisis, the impending invasion and the story that the missing journalists were trying to tell…
This is a story which director Robert Connolly felt needed to be told and from the opening scene, the testimony of Juliana (Viegas) about the horror she witnessed as a child in 1975, it is clear that is not necessarily going to be an easy watch. However, Connolly does not let the raw politics of the real events overpower the film. It is a well-crafted thriller, which racks up the tension as it progresses towards the climax. At the same time, he does justice to the East Timorean people and does not hide his own political leanings.
Roger East is brilliantly portrayed by LaPaglia as a flawed hero; he does not have particularly noble or ideological aims, he is easily persuaded to give up under gunfire and he is very reluctant to tell the story of the troubled nation. This makes him incredibly human, someone we can relate to and perhaps ultimately admire. It is Isaac, as impassioned leader Jose Ramos-Horta, who provides the fire; the passion and rage of an idealist trying to protect his people and his country. However, it is East who shows a dogged resilience to his cause, covering miles on foot through jungles, destroyed villages and deserted towns, in his search for the journalists.
The interwoven story of the journalists is a concept which in some ways works brilliantly, but which also jars slightly. The constant switching of stories is sometimes disruptive to the flow and to the tension which Connolly otherwise builds up so well. At the same time, it feels as though more time should be given to the journalists and their journey, which is only lightly sketched - the viewer does not really get to know these key characters. However, these are minor points; this dual plot is almost poetic in its powerful symmetry and contrast between the two geographically identical journeys. The village, where the journalists stayed, answering questions and listening to stories, is littered with corpses and ruins when Roger passes through. The pool where they laughed and splashed around with locals is still and silent. Connolly’s research and attention to detail also pays off in the subplot; the locations and speeches of the journalists’ broadcasts are faithfully based on the little surviving footage, giving a real authenticity and chilling power to these scenes. They are also shot with the slightly washed-out colours of ‘70s footage and the telltale wobbles of handheld cameras, which also creates a slightly ghostly feeling.
As the film draws us towards the end, we feel like we have been on every step of the journey with East. At this point, Connolly creates almost unbearable tension and it is impossible to look away, however much we might want to, from the barrage of pure horror that he releases. If we did, it would make us just as bad as the Western governments and organisations that Connolly so forcefully indicts. He implicitly asks some very difficult questions, provided by the contrasting characters of East and Ramos-Horta. Why should the deaths of five white Australians get more press coverage than 180,000 East Timoreans? Why were all outside observers so reluctant to step in or even comment on the Indonesian invasion of a powerless nation?
Not just a well-crafted thriller, then, nor simply a political statement. This is a complex and haunting film about a country many people will never have even heard of. The lead performances are understated but stunning, and though it is not an easy film to watch, it burns with a kind of fury which palpably conveys the feelings of the director and writers and the fact that they care about the story they are telling. Because of this, it has great integrity and a real power. It is not a film that you can dismiss after watching; it demands action, even if that is just acknowledging what happened in East Timor in 1975. Above all, it offers a new generation the chance not to turn a blind eye.
Balibo is a triumph of Australian cinema. It is unapologetic in its brutality and has a few minor flaws, but it is a powerful and important story exceptionally well-told. KS
Film: Operation Valkyrie
Release date: 28th March 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Jo Baier
Starring: Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Hardy Krüger Jr., Christopher Buchholz, Nina Kunzendorf
Genre: Drama/History/War
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
The story of the Stauffenberg plot to kill Hitler has long been a source of fascination and discussion for historians and filmmakers. Following the Hollywood release of Valkyrie, Germany’s own version of the story has now been released in the UK.
This short film follows the story of Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who began as an idealistic young soldier, rising quickly through the ranks under Hitler’s rule. However, as his career progresses so too do his doubts about Hitler’s regime and his brutal acts of genocide. A few brave and foolhardy whispers start speaking against the Fuhrer and Stauffenberg finds himself in a dilemma: unwilling to follow orders in Germany, but unable to bring himself to act against his superiors.
As a way out of this quandary, he accepts a posting to North Africa, where he is badly wounded. On his recovery, he makes the decision that something must be done about Hitler and, with a select few compatriots, orchestrates a plan to kill him. It is a plan fraught with danger, but Stauffenberg becomes increasingly obsessed with his aims at the expense of his relationship with his family and, ultimately, his own life…
This made-for-TV German film may be seriously overshadowed in box-office terms by the Hollywood version, but it shows an attention to detail and historical fact that gives it real integrity. Baier deftly racks up the tension towards the climax of the film until the viewer is paying the utmost attention to every ring of the phone and every knock on the door. He also portrays a side of the war against Hitler that is less known – the secret, internal one being waged by his own officers. As a film made in Germany for a German audience, it is perhaps not a surprising choice of story to tell, but for the wider world it represents a reality that we rarely allow for: that even within Germany there were many people fighting against Hitler’s tyranny and cruelty.
Sebastian Koch gives a dynamic and powerful performance as Stauffenberg which carries the film. The story and action focuses around him but he is supported by a strong cast. Nina Kunzendorf gives a restrained and believable portrayal of his long-suffering wife while Ulrich Tukur offers a steadfast and quietly courageous image of General von Tresckow, the leading voice of dissent in the early part of the film.
The film was originally part of a larger TV documentary about Operation Valkyrie, which may explain its condensed nature and short running time. It offers only a cursory view of the events leading up to the assassination attempt. The first part of the film covers an entire decade at breakneck speed with almost every scene taking us forward by a year. While this might have worked well alongside plenty of other background information, as a standalone film, it leaves the viewer feeling a bit short-changed. There are a lot of themes and characters ripe for development, which we see very little of, particularly some of the other officers involved in the plot and Stauffenberg’s wife. We only see her twice, briefly, in the first half of the film, then suddenly there are four children in the picture and we are expected to accept Stauffenberg as a family man. Similarly, as noted above, there are some tantalizingly good performances from many of the actors in this film, but we only get to glimpse their potential rather than seeing it realized.
Having said that, it is a masterful film which remains true to the story it is telling. Some performances are actually notable for their briefness and understated impact, such as Udo Schenk in the role of Hitler. It would have been tempting to give the infamous figure more screen time, but in fact, the one scene which he appears in, without even speaking, comes at a moment of high tension and the performance is absolutely chilling – it sends shivers down the spine.
The catalogue of atrocities is also not laboured over as it might have been. Because the drama centres around Stauffenberg and not Hitler, we hear reports of the mass murders just enough to remind us of the horror of it all, but not so much that it devalues the impact of it or takes away from the main story.
Baier has a very clear vision and keeps focus throughout the film. The mix of high-action wide-view shots and close-ups with more subtle action is just right. The short length of the film means that no moment is wasted and the quieter moments are all the more intense because of that. No scene in this film is there just to pad it out. Although we already know the story, Baier changes the pace with a fluency which carries the viewer along. We lean in for a better look as the scene with the figure on the stretcher is slowed down and replayed, and we feel the sense of despair mixed with blind and desperate hope that it might still work out as everything begins to unravel.
This is a picture of Nazi Germany from the inside at a unique moment of an indelible section of history. It is only right that there should be a German production of this story and this film does it real justice. KS
Film: Savage
Release date: 14th March 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 84 mins
Director: Brendan Muldowney
Starring: Darren Healy, Nora-Jane Noone, Ryan Andrews, Karl Argue, Marisa Armstrong
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Republic of Ireland
This is an English-language release.
Savage is fear, control and anger and savage is one man‘s pursuit of these. Savage are the streets of Ireland, but savage revenge is bloody sweet. One man, subject to all of these, is on a quest to rediscover identity and masculinity in this unconventional coming-of-age story.
Paul (Healy) is a comfortably settled bachelor, content with his photo-journalist career but concerned for his ill father. Work currently sees him join the media frenzy around the latest crime that has disturbed his city and he joins his fellow press minions at the honey pot of misfortune - in more ways than one.
When he convinces love-interest Michelle, his father’s nurse, to accompany him for a drink one Friday night, everything runs smoothly. Following a successful date, he walks across town on his way home, dodging the alcohol-fuelled hedonism and chaos of a typical inner-city night, allowing Muldowney and his cinematographers to extinguish any flame that viewers might hold for the Emerald Isles. Approached by two thugs, he is promptly dragged down the oft-used dark alley, where his knife-wielding assailants carry out their brutal wishes. When he suffers the indignity and torture of the trade-mark castration that has shocked Ireland, it is an ironic twist of fate that he has fallen victim to the infamous criminals funding his career.
From this point on, Savage essentially tracks his recovery and little more in terms of story. But so much does happen, for self-discovery is no walk in the park. Dictated by the four principles of fear, control, anger and revenge, Paul fights his way to masculinity without a scrap of sentimentality or pity. Plot is structured stage by stage according to each of the four phases that he experiences, each chapter illustrating its purpose completely…
Paul’s journey is in fact refreshingly realistic, almost factual in its presentation. It makes the hero human, but not romantically so. Muldowney doesn’t omit emotion; far from it, for what could be more harrowing for a man than to have his masculinity literally stripped from him? But the way in which such immense feelings are dealt with by the director and his cast is far removed from romanticism. Paul’s sexuality is not just stripped physically, but mentally as well, ¬and Muldowney shares his character’s psychological strain rather than that of the heart.
The transformation of Paul is mind-blowing. From a quirky and slightly aloof protagonist, he utterly loses all composure. Muldowney’s self-penned script provocatively betrays the depth of the photographer’s anxiety, both to the viewer and victim. Take a trip to the local shop, for example: utterly feminised, he has resorted to carrying an alarm, and, upon being startled by an old man, he is compelled to use it, much to the amusement of the teen gang lurking on the street. Outraged and humiliated by the mass of nerves that he has become, Paul’s consequent search for control is utterly understandable. But viewers are invited to ask how far is too far?
Savage, unsurprisingly, is a character-based film, and a single character at that. The responsibility placed on Healy is huge; he has an entire script to pull off, virtually appearing in every scene. Yet he never falters; he is consistently Paul, a powerfully convincing casualty of crime, a man simply trying to find his identity on a mission that could never really be that simple at all. It is impossible for viewers not to form a relationship with him, for the gifted Healy makes him such a believably empathetic character. Bringing authenticity to an already innovative script, it’s not just the extreme development of his role that Healy masters, but the little subtleties of expression, of instinct, that truly engages the audience.
Muldowney himself seems to altruistically fade into obscurity; which is not the same as failing at his job. Entirely to the contrary, his invisibility lends him an impressive omnipresence that makes itself known through the very seamlessness of his film. Savage is stylised, but not jarringly so; it is polished but not glossed. Astoundingly, this is just his second feature film, but the emerging director fulfils his duty so well that Savage could easily be the work of a much more experienced creator. Triumphantly overcoming the barrier between production and consumption, he lures audiences into his cinematic world, which isn’t so far from the real one; viewers will forget that they are watching a film, so absorbing and accessible is the final product.
Savage is a satisfying film that utilises all of the cast and crew’s capabilities without excluding the viewer. Little wonder that 2010 saw Healy and Muldowney go head to head at the Irish Film and Television Awards for Rising Star. Gritty setting, bursts of shocking violence and its head-over-heart slant makes Savage a creditable chick-flick for boys that girls can enjoy, too. RS
Film: Darfur
Release date: 28th February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Uwe Boll
Starring: Kristanna Loken, David O'Hara, Noah Danby, Matt Frewer, Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Genre: Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Canada/South Africa/Germany
This is an English-language release.
World-renowned Director, Uwe Boll, takes a step away from adapting video games into big screen features and focuses on a project which highlights the massive humanitarian shortfalls in Darfur, Sudan.
The film - previously called Janjaweed, and also known as Attack On Darfur – centres around six journalists visiting a small village in the Darfur region of Western Sudan. Their intentions are to photograph and interview the inhabitants of a small village, taking accounts of the ongoing conflict and suffering in the region.
The journalists, accompanied by the Nigarian commander of the African Union (AU), Captain Jack Tobamke, interact with the village inhabitants on a very personal level. The group learn of the harsh realities surrounding the treacherous attacks by the Janjaweed, a militia funded by the Sudanese government, whose intentions are to wipe out the African tribes of Darfur.
Having obtained some insight into the lives of those suffering in the small village, the group begin their journey back toward camp. En route, however, the group learn that the Janjaweed will imminently be descending upon the village they have just left. The group must therefore make an almost spontaneous decision, to either continue on course for camp and document their findings for the world, or return to the village in the hope that the presence of international journalists will prevent the Janjaweed from inflicting any violence upon the inhabitants.
When the group agree to return to the village, they are soon faced with the reality of the conflict, and with the commander of the Arab Janjaweed. When forced at gunpoint to leave the village, the journalists have little choice but to head back to camp. However, two of the journalists, Freddie Smith (David O’Hara) and Theo Schwartz (Noah Danby) are unable to simply return to camp and allow the inhumane Janjaweed to slaughter innocent people.
Swartz and Smith therefore, along with Captain Tobamke, return to the village, armed and seeking to prevent the murder of innocent men, women and infants. Outnumbered and inexperienced in combat, their task is unquestionably courageous, yet exceptionally dangerous…
Uwe Boll’s fans and critics – and there are many of each – will note that this film is not a typical Boll production. Better known for transferring the thrills and gore of computer games into live action films, Boll has taken on a somewhat different project. The docu-drama centres around the conflict within the region of Darfur, which despite being well documented, remains largely unimpressed upon the world. To consider that UN intervention has occurred on a larger scale and with greater haste than occurred in the Darfur region of Sudan, is evidently Boll’s intent in making this film. Boll does not want the world to remain ignorant to the genocide that took place, and his movie makes perfectly clear the type of crimes that were committed.
The film starts at a very slow pace, with the group travelling in a jeep towards the village, stopping along the way to observe a mass grave. This scene, whilst disturbing and impacting upon the audience, still does not quite set the tone for what is to come.
The early scenes in the village, whereby the African victims of the conflict tell their stories, are filmed very carefully, and capture just the kind of emotion and disclosure as is sought by the characters themselves on their visit. Filmed in the style of a documentary, the audience gain some background knowledge surrounding the conflict, as well as a harrowing insight into the victims’ lives. These early scenes assist greatly in building the audience’s empathy towards the victims.
When the film picks up pace, and the horrendous realities of what actually occurred within these villages is shown to the audience, the initial shock coupled with the anticipation of what is to come will undoubtedly have the audience at their most attentive. The soundtrack is constant and brilliantly fitting at this stage of the film, managing to maintain a sombre mood whilst simultaneously sustaining a fast-paced and heavy beat.
The script takes a downward turn following the second departure of the journalists, and Boll seems to take a similar approach to that of producing one his video game ‘shoot ‘em up’ films. The dialogue becomes weak and lazy, and there are some scenes which really lack authenticity. For instance, when the journalists make their way back into the village and cautiously seek out the Janjaweed, the pair appear to have undergone some intense Special Forces training just prior, enabling them to professionally pursue and target the militia.
Nevertheless, Boll sustains his shocking imagery of rape, murder and infanticide through to the conclusion, which may seem a little over the top at times, but which is wretchedly accurate all the same. There is not a hint of caution shown by Boll in his approach to the subject matter, and certainly those with little knowledge on the subject of the Darfur conflict will be appalled by what they see on screen.
Boll could certainly have developed more upon the religious, political and social problems which resulted in the conflict commencing and being maintained, as it is somewhat simplified as an Arabs versus black Africans war. That said, the film focuses more on the consequences of the war as opposed to just the background to it, and Boll succeeds in highlighting these consequences to the audience.
The film is shot using a mixture of close up and distance shots for varying effects. The zoomed shots enable the audience to feel up close and personal with the victims of the conflict, and to really develop that sense of empathy which Boll requires for the film to work. Yet, in the same scenes, Boll will use a long range shot to show the audience just how detached and abandoned these inhabitants really are from anybody else, and this creates a vast sense of hopelessness.
“That we have not stopped the genocide means we have not learned from history” read the final words on the screen. This would be an apt conclusion had the film carried slightly less Hollywood-style drama to it in the final scenes. That said, the lasting impact of the film is more than enough for the audience to take away as food-for-thought on the conflict of Darfur.
A deeply disturbing portrayal of the atrocities committed in Darfur, which understandably will not be to everybody’s taste. The plot may be a little on the Hollywood side and the characters less than convincing, but love him or hate him, Boll should be given credit for this harrowingly accurate and compelling feature. TMO
Film: A Shine Of Rainbows
Release date: 14th March 2011
Certificate: U
Running time: 101 mins
Director: Vic Sarin
Starring: Connie Nielsen, Aidan Quinn, John Bell, Jack Gleeson, Tara Alice Scully
Genre: Drama/Family
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Canada/Rep of Ireland
This is an English-language release.
Vic Sarin’s Irish family drama, A Shine Of Rainbows, has received notable recognition on the International Film Festival circuit. The screen adaptation of Lillian Beckwith’s novel of the same name has picked up numerous awards, including the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature at both the 2009 Heartland Film Festival in Indiana and the Ibiza International Film Festival.
Tomás (John Bell) is an 8-year-old boy residing in a dull and hostile orphanage in Ireland. He is bullied by his peers and his outlook on life is bleak. However, Tomás’ life is dramatically changed when he meets Maire O’Donnell (Connie Nielsen; Gladiator, One Hour Photo), a beautiful and charming woman adorned in brightly coloured clothing. Maire, unable to have children of her own, takes Tomás away from the city orphanage to her home on the wonderfully scenic Corrie Island, where she lives with her bearded and somewhat intimidating husband, Alec (Aiden Quinn; Legends Of The Fall, Unknown).
Tomás warms immediately to Maire, who teaches him that happiness can be found in the simplest of life’s experiences, such as talking to sea lions and splashing around in puddles. Alec, however, is less forthcoming in his efforts to bond with Tomás, and cannot hide his disappointment that Maire did not choose a more physical and boisterous child to adopt.
Nevertheless, Tomás soon makes Corrie Island his home, making friends with local siblings Seamus and Nancy and experiencing what Corrie Island has to offer. Tomás gradually develops a relationship of sorts with Alec, and the pair decide to care for a sea lion pup that is stranded on the beach.
However, Tomás’ attempts to build a relationship with Alec suffer when things take a turn for the worse, and with Alec delaying signing the adoption papers, Tomás’ time on Corrie Island could soon be brought to an end. Only by listening to the words of Maire, and sharing her uniquely positive approach to life, will Tomás discover where he truly belongs…
It is difficult to see how Nielsen and Quinn, both talented and established actors, would take on their roles in this production having read the script. The storyline is so thin on the ground that it is almost non-existent, and whilst there are certainly some important life values to be shared with the younger members of the audience, it is unlikely that they will be captivated for long enough to actually learn them.
The first half of the film is spent observing a frustratingly shy and almost ill-mannered Tomás, as he becomes used to his new life on Corrie Island. As you would expect with a family film, there are some quite charming, if not cringe-inducing moments between Tomás and Maire as the pair bond, and we notice Tomás’ outlook on life changes for the better. Maire teaches Tomás about the magical folklore with which the Island is laced - the joys of playing in the rain and the divine nature of rainbows. Unfortunately, whilst it is admirable of Sarin to try and show his audience that joy can be found in the most obvious places or mundane tasks, jumping in puddles and feeding chickens, neither advances the plot nor entertains the audience.
Alec, on the other hand, does not gel with Tomás quite so easily, and he makes it clear to Maire that he is unhappy with her selection of such a weak and timid child, who stutters whenever he converses with Alec. This scenario in itself is difficult to relate to, as it requires the audience to simply accept that Maire has gone to the city on her own and handpicked a child to bring back to the family home, without first meeting him, and with absolutely no input from or consultation with her husband.
Certainly, the prominent themes and values of the production are so patent that the audience will feel as though they have been slapped across the face with a big sack of morals, but the storyline itself is bland and rarely engaging. The film offers up one or two sub-plots that serve to mildly interest the audience, but these are so brief and under-developed that they become merely incidental to the main plot. One example of such is when Tomás cares for an abandoned sea lion, which has been left on the shore by its family. Tomás is told that this is to ensure that the sea lion is tough enough to survive at sea, and the plot serves as a parallel to that of Tomás’ trials on Corrie Island. Unfortunately, this story is only lightly touched upon, and the sea lion itself is so noticeably an animatronic prop that it takes much away from the sentiment which is sought.
It would be unfair, however, to say that the film is wholly bad, and Sarin has utilised the talent at his disposal well to aid him in his feature. Nielsen is excellent as Maire, and captures every quality of the character that is required to make her both credible and likeable. Her mothering of Tomás is incredibly natural, and the younger audience will undoubtedly warm to her colourful and caring nature.
Quinn, too, is well cast as the stony and disappointed Alec, and certainly the audience will empathise with Tomás in respect of his precautionary approach towards Alec. That said, there is very little for Quinn to actually do in order to make his character a success. Quinn’s natural appearance aids him in his task, with his piercing eyes giving the audience some insight into his character, permitting his bearded face to remain largely expressionless throughout.
John Bell, unlike Quinn and Tomás, was a newcomer on the scene and the result of a wide search by John and Ros Hubbard, the casting directors. The pair, renowned for discovering such young talent as Kate Winslet and Colin Farrell, clearly had their work cut out with the part of Tomás, as he is not a simple character to portray. Tomás essentially has two sides to his character during the film; the coy, bullied orphan with nobody to care for him, and the blissful, colourful son with a new found appreciation for the simplest things in life. Bell, therefore, has the difficult task of depicting a boy with two very contrasting outlooks towards life and people, often both in the same day of filming. Unfortunately, whilst Bell excels in certain aspects of his performance, on the whole it is somewhat patchy and lacks authenticity.
Bell should certainly be given credit for his performance in the latter stages of the film, following a dark turn in the plot, as he draws the audience into the most engaging scenes of the production. Regrettably, his portrayal of a stuttering and withdrawn Tomás is rather awkward and uncomfortable to endure, and audiences will struggle to empathise with the character early on in the film.
Both Nielsen and Quinn stated that their reasons for taking their respective roles in this production were that they wanted to be part of something that their own children could watch, and their heartfelt performances do undoubtedly increase the quality of the feature. Nevertheless, the film still suffers from a distinct lack of quality in other aspects of production, and more importantly, the root material upon which the screenplay is based.
The visual effects and wardrobe serve as further evidence of the film’s inferiority in comparison to better known Hollywood productions. Dermot Shane of Sepia Films was the Visual FX Supervisor on A Shine Of Rainbows, and while his experience leads to some of the effects being implemented very professionally - in that they go largely unnoticed and blend nicely with the scenic backdrop - others, such as the CG rainbows and the robotic seal, are blatant and amateurish.
Sarin’s use of colour in the film serves to illustrate how Tomás’ life changes emotionally from the moment he meets Maire. When the film commences, Tomás is being bullied by some of the other children at the orphanage, and the audience immediately takes onboard the sense of loneliness and unhappiness which Tomás feels. The institution itself, however, along with the clothes worn by everybody present, is so overtly dark and drab that it is almost embarrassing when we are presented with Maire in her brightly coloured clothing. As the film progresses and Tomás becomes more outgoing and fond of his new home, the use of colour becomes more evident. Sarin uses colour as a tool to emulate Maire’s personality, and to symbolise the pleasures of life itself. When the film takes a tragic turn, the use of colour quickly fades, and dark clothing and bad weather become the prominent features of each scene.
Such use of colour, as a means to portray emotion, personality and circumstances, is something that is done regularly within the film industry, but typically with more subtlety. The contrasting use of colours and dark tones is a technique which can certainly affect the audience’s outlook towards different scenarios, but the contrasts made by Sarin are so excessive and obvious that it borders on condescending.
A Shine Of Rainbows is an admirable attempt at a heart-warming, family film, which imparts some important values upon the audience. Fortunately though, these same values can be learnt from much more entertaining and high quality films, with similarly talented casts, yet far more substance. TMO
Film: Rampage
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Uwe Boll
Starring: Brendan Fletcher, Shaun Sipos, Michael Paré, Matt Frewer, Lynda Boyd
Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Canada/Germany
This is an English-language release.
For those of a nervous disposition when it comes to screen violence, this film is very likely to make you feel more than a little queasy. The fourteenth of twenty-one Uwe Boll directed works over the past decade or so, Rampage is surprisingly a little more than it appears on the tin; particularly when considering Boll’s somewhat unfortunate cinematic notoriety.
Bill Williamson (Brendan Fletcher) is an angry young man. He appears to be stuck in an aimless and downtrodden existence, working in a poorly paid job whilst living at the mercy of his parents (Matt Frewer and Lynda Boyd) in small town USA.
Bill feels the pressures of modern life in America which continues to creep towards boiling point in his mind. Surrounded by a TV and media backdrop demonstrating the world’s wars and violence, he feel likes a victim at the hands of society at large, where even poor service in a low grade fast food restaurant and the radical views of Evan Drince (Shaun Sipos), who seems to be his only friend, seriously affect him.
When his parents tell him it’s time to move out, and after being poorly treated by his boss at work, Bill decides to take action into his own hands. He believes that his town, and the world as a whole, is an overcrowded place, and he must reduce the population in the most brutal way possible. Thus in his pursuit of vengeance against society, Bill builds up a suit of bullet proof Kevlar armour and goes onto the streets armed to the teeth with sub-machine guns on a devastating killing spree to establish his dominance…
An Uwe Boll film does not create great expectations, since he has gained (and indeed earned) a reputation as a maker of mostly video-game inspired straight-to-DVD schlock. It is indeed a surprise, then, that Rampage is not an adaptation of a video-game with the same title, but an ultra-violent examination of modern societal pressures in the USA in the context of a violence and gun culture.
The film is shot almost in a documentary style, with hand-held cameras and some elements of ‘shaky-cam’ adding a disturbing dimension to proceedings. There is a real sense of dread in the early sections of the film as the pressures of modern living begin to build in Bill’s mind. This is largely down to the unflinching performance of Brendan Fletcher in the central role, who is horrifyingly believable as a 23-year-old man willing and able to commit such shocking acts of brutality.
The pressures of everyday life in small town America are well illustrated by Boll, and a large part of the disturbing nature of the film is that many viewers can empathise with someone who lives such a downtrodden, stuck in a rut existence (which Bill takes to shockingly murderous extremes). For instance, in one scene, reminiscent of an even more unhinged Falling Down, Bill orders a coffee “with extra cream.” His coffee is not served to his liking, and you can tell that in Bill’s mind a mental note of his server has been taken, with terrifying results later on in his killing spree.
The main problem with Rampage, however, and this may seem strange given the film’s title, is the extent of the violence and prolonged destruction on show. When Bill is running around the streets of his town causing general mayhem and chaos (including blowing up the entire police department with the use of a remote bomb), there is a sense that the build up to the events has been downgraded to a typical Uwe Boll nasty.
Indeed, the over-the-top carnage Bill creates in some ways feels like a live action Grand Theft Auto (which may be partly intended). This isn’t as clever as Boll may have intended – instead it comes across as though these events are only happening with a clear design to shock, where they really only offend. In many ways, the relentless television violence that the film is targeting as a trigger for these events is present itself ten-fold in Rampage, where the wanton destruction and levels of implausibility combine and begin to add up. Why aren’t the police better protected in the face of a Kevlar coated madman? Does no-one else in small town America carry a weapon to fire back at Bill? Would a bingo hall full of elderly people and staff really not notice a gun wielding maniac walking in their midst?
Still, Boll does add some stylistic flourishes to the film, which add to the ‘documentary-style’ filming of events and therefore add to the realism of Brendan Fletcher’s central performance. Interspersed periodically throughout the film are small snippets of hand-held camera footage (akin to Bill’s video diary), which highlight Bill’s disturbing motivation for committing such atrocities. It is only at the very end of the film, however, that these videos are somewhat nullified, where the ending itself is more than a little implausible and, at worst, downright ridiculous. Strangely, the film does appear to be left open for sequel opportunities, and it is perhaps surprising given Boll’s prolific output that one has not been made already.
Rampage is a film which starts promisingly with the build up of fear and tension as to what is to come, but the horrifying results of Bill Williamson’s killing spree are not for the faint hearted and seem overly concerned with causing shock. Yet Brendan Fletcher’s central performance is disturbingly realistic in terms of character motivation, where Matt Frewer and Lynda Boyd (as Bill’s parents) ably support as they show genuine concern for the future of their son. DB
Film: Holy Money
Release date: 24th January 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Maxime Alexandre
Starring: Aaron Stanford, Ben Gazzara, Karel Roden, Joaquim de Almeida, Valeria Solarin
Genre: Thriller
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Italy/Belgium
This is a majority English-language release.
Holy Money tackles a story set in Italy touching on themes of immigration, loss of cultural heritage, religion, crime, and greed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film is the brainchild of a solicitor and a lawyer; however, unlike in the law courts, fate can play a big hand when miracles are involved.
The two protagonists are Anthony Tregonis (Aaron Stanford) and Dario Barattas (Luca Angeletti), childhood friends from an Italian immigrant community in London. The film starts with a funeral on a rainy day in England; Dario sleeps with the fishes after mysteriously dying in a car accident.
A flashback reveals Anthony writing a love letter for Dario to a woman called Charlotte (Suzanne Bertish), and when Anthony sees her at the funeral, he decides to track her down as things just don’t add up. She reveals that Dario had been playing her for money, and that his will, made only two days before his accident, states that newly bought land in Italy in the form of vineyards have been left to Anthony.
When an Italian stranger bangs on the door at five in the morning, making an offer for the land in cash, Anthony decides to go and see the vineyards for himself. He travels in his red Italian vintage convertible to Sant’Angelo, original hometown of the Tregonis and Barattas families, and where his promised land awaits. As it turns out, the wine made from the grapes on Anthony’s bequeathed vines is undrinkable, which leaves him to ponder why Dario bought the land in the first place.
After a spot of romance with Bianca (Valeria Solarino), caretaker of Anthony’s inn, he decides after all to stay in Sant’Angelo, and hatches a plan to put the town “on the map,” as Dario apparently always wanted. Without prosperous wine from the vines, he decides to construct a miracle in the little church on his land instead. However, the plan backfires, as many dodgy dealers near and far suddenly come out of the woodwork to obtain the land from Anthony, by whatever means possible…
With Holy Money comes the example of too many influences getting in the way of a good story; a story that incidentally comes from award-winning novelist Tonino Benacquista’s book Holy Smoke. When lawyer Gauthier Broze and solicitor Benedikt Van der Vorst read the novel, they thought it a good idea to buy the rights for the film; and it was a good idea – in theory. It has potential to be an entertaining exploit involving romance and intrigue with a twist, or a tongue-in-cheek romp about an Italian/Englishman around estranged Italian countryside; or even a deeper critique on Italian religious and mafia underworlds, but instead the film tries to incorporate all of these films in to one, creating a work of many genres with visible seams.
Nearly all films these days mix genres; it is a necessity to keep making new and entertaining films. We have rom-coms, the comedy-drama, action-adventures, crime-comedies, crime-dramas, etc. However, what is perhaps essential in achieving coherence and stability within genre mixing is the tone that is established and maintained throughout, and what confuses the tone in Holy Money lies in the acting, script and score.
Essentially it is a crime-thriller, but apparently no-one told leading actor Aaron Stanford. It seems his confusion doesn’t come from the plot’s ambiguous twists and turns, but the film itself. One minute he’s a cocky young Englishman denying his Italian roots, the next he’s frolicking around the backwoods of Italy swept off his feet in a romance, and by the end of the film, he’s reaping the just desserts of getting mixed up with criminals, mafia-lords and the Catholic church whilst he lies in a hospital bed with a bullet in his head. If Stanford approached each part of his character’s story as if he were in a crime-thriller, perhaps there wouldn’t be a problem, but instead the acting seems shallow and the tone is not maintained. He doesn’t play a believable character in the film, but an obvious actor in it.
Blame cannot be pinned on Stanford alone - after all, the script barely holds its own. Even Suzanne Bertish only just manages to portray her albeit brief part in the film without embarrassment. It could all lie in the Italian/Belgian production of a predominantly English script, and we have a case of (talent) lost in translation. The music also confuses the audience as to what kind of film they are watching. A thriller needs suspense; fast, slow, teetering music to match the action, but instead there’s a soft, endearing, repetitive guitar melody that wouldn’t be out of place in a light-hearted family caper, and it’s more annoying than charming!
Holy Money proves that although you may have a darn good story on paper, it won’t be enough to plonk a film on top if you haven’t got the matching skill and capacity in production. The potential was lost in this film somewhere between Italy and Belgium, or perhaps just misplaced in the script. What’s for certain is that Benaquista’s book seems a better bet for entertainment value. MI
This is an English-language release.
Uwe Boll directs this harrowing drama set in Sudan.
A group of six international journalists travel to a small village in Janjaweed territory in Darfur to report on recent atrocities there. On arrival, they begin to question the villagers, and are shocked by their accounts of rape, torture and murder inflicted by the government and the rebel militia.
When the Janjaweed militia subsequently attack the village, threatening to kill the journalists if they do not leave, they are confronted with the awful dilemma of whether to return home to report on the events they have witnessed, or to stay behind and try to help the villagers.
Film: Darfur
Release date: 28th February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Uwe Boll
Starring: Kristanna Loken, David O'Hara, Noah Danby, Matt Frewer, Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Genre: Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Canada/South Africa/Germany
Film: The Stoning Of Soraya M.
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 116 mins
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marnò, Jim Caviezel, Navid Negahban, David Diann
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: USA
In 1990 a book was published whose revelations about a shameful aspect of Iranian society radiated waves of shock throughout the entire world. The book, by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam was banned in Iran and condemned by Islamic Mullahs. The book became the basis for a major film in 2008 by an American director Cyrus Nowrasteh, who is of Persian descent. Released to critical acclaim, The Stoning Of Soraya M. tells the story of an Iranian woman at the receiving end of a small town’s corruption and religious brutality.
James Caviezel plays a journalist whose car breaks down outside a remote Iranian mountain village. While he leaves his car with the local mechanic to be fixed, he is taken aside by one of the village women, Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) who implores him to record her story of the terrible events that have happened recently in the little village, and take it to the outside world.
Zahra recounts the story of her niece Soraya, married unhappily to Ali, an abusive and violent bully who seeks to divorce Soraya and marry a young girl he has met in the city. Soraya, fearful for her children’s wellbeing under the destitution that the divorce would cause, refuses, and so Ali cooks up a plan to end the marriage quickly and finally; to accuse her of adultery, a taboo punishable by execution in Islamic culture.
With the help of the corrupt village holy man played by Ali Pourtash, Ali spreads rumours of his wife’s infidelity, stirring up righteous hatred in the strongly religious community until the entire town is gradually turned against her. She is summarily tried and convicted of the crime, condemned to death and executed by a public stoning…
Contrary to what the title may suggest or the impact it has made, this is not a film about stoning. It is a film about misogyny, corruption, and a society which encourages paternalism, and the extent to which frightened men will go to reinforce this dogma - but it also happens to feature a stoning. The issue of stoning as a barbaric and immoral form of punishment is not what this film is primarily interested in, but rather how easily the strictly religious societies can be corrupted by evil men who see its rigorous dogmas as a means to their dastardly ends. And the film has more than its fair share of evil men.
One of the fundamental flaws in fact with The Stoning Of Soraya M. is how black-and-white things are, and how little credit Nowrasteh give us as an audience. We are walked hand in hand through the moralities, and left in no doubt how we are supposed to think and feel. It’s easy to root for the angelic, bullied Soraya, and to boo and hiss the demented Ali, the corrupt Mullah and the weak, manipulated Hashem. Things are nice and straightforward. But all this begs the question: what if Soraya had been guilty of the crime she is charged with? What if the men involved were not so outrageously evil, or possessed with a specific ulterior motive? What if it wasn’t so easy to pass a clear judgement on the rights and wrongs leading up to the event?
Nowrasteh certainly doesn’t bottle out when it comes to the horrors of the execution itself. The stoning is depicted in protracted, agonising detail, and full credit must be given for not shying away from the revolting reality of this barbaric practice. He masterfully builds up the tension in the scenes beforehand to unbearable levels, which undoubtedly owe something to the final scenes of Lars Von Trier’s Dancer In The Dark. There can be few more gut-churning sights committed to celluloid than a woman’s own sons gleefully collecting barrow-loads of stones alongside the other towns-children to be shortly used in her execution. It’s a shame that after masterfully building the tension for a good fifteen minutes, leading up to the stoning itself, Nowrasteh is guilty of a technical slipup, and fluffs it by giving Soraya a defiant speech to the crowd of baying, murderous townsfolk. Given the circumstances, it just doesn’t ring true, and the tension is sadly somewhat diffused.
The film is unashamedly religious. Several scenes are included of specifically religious significance, such as Soraya’s vision of heaven as she nears death, and the implication of divine intervention as the execution itself draws close. It gives an interesting colour to a film which is about the abuses of religion, and it’s as if Nowrasteh is keen to distinguish between God and the men who use him as an excuse to justify their own ends.
The Stoning Of Soraya M. has a lot going for it. It is frank, forthright, and in it Nowrasteh has managed to transfer a clear vision to the screen in a bold, uncompromising way. It’s a shame that he couldn’t have afforded the audience a little more credit and presented a story with less definite shades of black and white. We would inevitably have drawn the same conclusions about this horrifying form of torture and its corrupt perpetrators without having the morality spoon fed to us. LOZ
