Article first published as Movie Review: Pandorum- In Space No One Can Hear You… No, Wait, Wrong Movie on Blogcritics.
In Pandorum (2009) Bower (Ben Foster) one of the crew members of the Elysium wakes up from his hypersleep only to find that the ship does not seem to be in very good shape. There are no lights, no other crew and no welcoming committee. The initial scene is surprisingly painful to watch, more like a birth than a peaceful awakening. It is clear that Bower does not remember where he is, or why, but all his technical knowledge and his mission specific skills are intact. Shortly after Bower’s awakening another crew member, Payton (Dennis Quaid) wakes up to the same confusion.
They set about trying to contact their superiors, figuring out where they are and what’s gone wrong with the ship. It’s not as easy as it seems.
Elysium is overrun with vaguely humanoid carnivores that may have started out human, but have now evolved into something more primal. They hunt in packs and they more or less have the run of the ship. Their favoured prey is the newly awoken crew members that emerge from their sleeping pods and summarily get eaten. There are still bigger problems, though. First of all, the reactor is acting up and needs to be manually restarted. Secondly, the ship has received a transmission that Earth is done, gone and over, and the ships crew is all there is left of mankind. Thirdly, there’s a space sickness called Pandorum which affects those that have been in suspended animation for too long. Or those that have been in space for too long. It starts as the shakes and graduates into full-blown paranoia and violent tendencies.
Elysium was on its way to Tanis, the only habitable planet in reasonable reach, when it launched and now there’s literally no way of telling where she is or if she’s just lost in deep space. Bower sets out for the bridge to try and open the door to the room he and Payton find themselves in when they wake up. The monsters roaming the hallways try to eat Bower a couple of times until he forms a tentative alliance with Nadia (Antje Traue) and Manh (Cung Le) a couple of crew members that have been awake for a while and managed to stay alive. Restarting the reactor becomes a more pressing matter half-way through this little jaunt.
In the end it turns out things are even more complicated than that, of course. The maneaters are probably a result of genetic enhancement meant to help the crew in their biological transition to their new home planet. The ship is run by a madman, one of the officers present when Earth’s last transmission was received, and a victim of Pandorum. Or maybe just megalomania, who knows? The ship is where it was supposed to be and not where is was supposed to be at the same time, meanwhile; this viewer is mostly going “huh?”at this point.
The environment is atmospheric, I will give it that. The mise-en-scene is darkly gorgeous. I like The Elysium, in all it’s gloomy, overrun, beleaguered and begrimed glory. It’s not one of those pristine, white and shiny ships, which I like. There’s an impressive sense of scale to it, too, without it losing its claustrophobia. The monsters mostly leave me indifferent. They’re fast and vicious, but the actual hunting and fighting feels a little too much like a computer game for me to invest too much in it. You can probably argue that gravity is different on board a spaceship, but still.
Both Ben Foster’s and Dennis Quaid’s performances are surprisingly layered and played straight, which definitely lends this the gravitas it needs not to descend into complete pulp fiction. The movie is ambitious, but maybe that is part of the problem. It wants to scare the viewer with dark things hunting the hero through long, dimly lit corridors, supply a creeping psychological horror and question the way memory works and the effects of long distance space travel. It’s a veritable cornucopia of fears to tap into, claustrophobia, loneliness, alienation, memory loss, fear of the dark and the things in the dark that can eat you, what we are reduced to when pushed to extremes, cannibalism… The overall effect is surprisingly un-frightening, though. There are better movies in this genre, like the Alien-movies, Solaris, Sunshine, 2001: A Space Odyssey just to mention a few obvious ones.
This is still good enough to merit a viewing, but it isn’t all it could have been if it had sharpened its focus a little and not tried to overreach itself.
Pandorum (2009) directed by Christian Alvart stars Ben Foster (Bower), Dennis Quaid (Payton), Cam Gigandet (Gallo), Antje Traue (Nadia), Cung Le (Manh), Eddie Rouse (Leland), Norman Reedus (Shephard), André Hennicke (Hunter Leader), Friederike Kempter (Evalon), Niels-Bruno Schmidt (Officer).
The Notorious Betty Page – Pretty Betty Without The Sleaze
March 16, 2011
Article first published as Movie Review The Notorious Betty Page – Pretty Betty Without The Sleaze on Blogcritics.
The Notorious Betty Page is one of those movies that really has all the potential in the world for gratuitous nudity and all around lasciviousness. It would be so easy to go that route that it’s all the more surprising that it doesn’t. We follow the iconic Betty Page (Gretchen Mol) through her adolescence and early marriage in cliff-note style and it’s clear that we are dealing with a young lady who is in possession of a substantial intelligence as well as beauty. She is also surprisingly naïve, despite the hints at child abuse and spousal abuse and the tastefully showed gang rape she is subjected to when she first tries to make it on her own.
Betty wants a career as a model/actress, but finds that there is a more lucrative way of making a living posing in “special clothing” and all the trappings of sado-masochism and fetish ware. At the time having an interest in leather corsets and boots that go all the way to there, was not considered fashionably chic, the way it is today. It was considered aberrant and deviant sexual behaviour to such a degree that it was illegal.
Betty is offered the job by Irving (Chris Bauer) and Paula Klaw (Lili Taylor) and she poses for a good many pictures and even some shorter films that feature fetish ware and various scenes that include spanking and bondage. What strikes me as interesting about this particular movie is that all this is portrayed as dressing up in good fun, kind of light-hearted and not particularly sinister. Things only get sinister when Betty is called to testify at a 1955 hearing investigating the negative effects of pornography on the youth of America. She never actually makes it in to the courtroom, but that certainly means the innocence is gone.
Betty tries to get regular acting jobs as well, but she is too well-known, hence the notorious part, and finds herself drifting in Miami where she ambles in to a church and is saved. That part s a little peculiar, but then, real life often is. Betty puts her modelling days behind her and goes on to work as a Christian missionary, and yes, there’s a joke in there somewhere.
Some of the sensibility of the movie most likely has to do with the fact that it has a female writer/director, as well as a female producer. Most of it, except the scenes that take place in Miami, is shot in black-and-white, which really does something to capture the 1950s feel. Gretchen Mol is a very pretty Betty, and a good look alike, too. One of the things said about Betty Page was that she somehow seemed more dressed when naked and that she always seemed very comfortable when in front of the camera, and that is certainly not an easy feat to pull off. There is something about this kind of attitude to nudity that de-sexualises it, no matter how explicit the scene, ironically.
1950s pornography is surrounded by some kind of nostalgia, clearly, and there’s more than one classic pinup girl pose here that just seems quaint. This Betty Page is very much portrayed as smart, sensitive and playful, very much a real person, which is, again, surprising. There are many instances where things honestly could have gotten much grimmer for Betty, which is not to say that she doesn’t occasionally get herself into trouble. To my mind there is still a very carefully calculated objectivity to the overall feel of the movie which shows that this is not done for sensationalism, but it is not offering any conclusions either.
At the end of the day I am not sure if we are left with a drama, a kind of documentary, a piece of social commentary, a cautionary tale or none of the above. And I am strangely okay with that.
The Notorious Betty Page (2005) directed by Mary Harron stars Gretchen Mol (Betty Page), Chris Bauer (Irving Klaw), Lili Taylor (Paula Klaw), Jared Harris (John Willie), Sarah Paulson (Bunny Yeager), David Strathairn (Estes Kefauver), Norman Reedus (Billy Neal), Cara Seymour (Maxie).
Dark Harbor – Where are we going with all this?
April 11, 2010
Dark Harbor (1998) directed by Adam Coleman Howard stars Alan Rickman (David Weinberg), Polly Walker (Alexis Chandler Weinberg) and Norman Reedus (young man).
The Weinberg couple are driving through the rain to catch a ferry when Alexis spots a young man by the roadside. She urges her husband to stop and help and find a bruised and battered young man in need of assistance, who insists on them not calling the police. Through a series of circumstance the young man winds up on the couples island, staying for a few nights and as a result the couples life gets turned upside down.
Okay, so as a summary that looks kind of cliché, right? A couple picks up a drifter and strange things happen. It is cliché.
What’s worse is that this movie is one of those Pinteresque slight-of-hand things. It drags on in its own pace and you feel the tension under the dialogue the whole time, but it isn’t until at the very end that the twist is revealed.
And here’s the catch – once you know what the twist is – the subtlety of the acting and all the little strange things that catch and ping on your radar suddenly make it all better. But – and this is the problem too – you actually don’t get there until the very end of the movie and by the time you do, you actually need to watch it again to really get and enjoy the many little things that these three actors give you along the way.
Reedus is perfectly cast, slim as a whippet, and with something hidden in his brooding eyes, he can seem boyishly innocent and at the same time there’s something vaguely menacing about him, and that’s not only because he carries a knife and lounges around in the background, whittling.
Alan Rickman and Polly Walker play a disaffected couple with so many strange emotional undercurrents going on that there at times seems to be a third party to their every conversation that calls up things like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, not that it’s anywhere near that intense, but still. I find my references sidle towards theater, but that is probably easily explained by the fact that most of the action is just the three of them in various constellations.
Still, that doesn’t mean this is in anyway an untroubled production. There are a couple of blatant goofs that even I react to, and I’m not usually bothered by that stuff. And I would really, really like to have a talk with the person who scored this movie. There are some really smart choices, but mostly the music fails badly. It’s overly dramatic when there truly is no need for it, and that always makes me feel like the film-maker isn’t confident in the material carrying it’s own weight.
There are also a couple of really cheesy camera tricks, like gliding along a corridor to a door while the music tries to build suspense, failing spectacularly.
The biggest problem, though, lies in the fact that in order to fully appreciate and enjoy this movie you have to watch it twice – and it’s not entirely certain that the average viewer will want to. It’s not good enough for that. Hardened movie-watchers, like myself, might but the regular viewer will probably dismiss that notion right out of hand.
It does bring to mind Polanski’s Knife in the Water (1962) but it’s nowhere near as brutal. It has art house and Noir sensibility and it is, like I said, really well acted, but there are still quite a few things missing. I find myself a little conflicted about the whole thing. That can sometimes be a good thing, but you really have to be in the mood for that sort of challenge.
Mule
Directed by Troy Duffy, starring Sean Patrick Flanery (Connor), Norman Reedus (Murphy), Billy Connolly (Poppa MacManus), Clifton Collins Jr. (Romeo), Julie Benz (Eunice), Bob Marley (Greenly), Brian Mahoney (Duffy), David Ferry (Dolly), David Della Rocco (Rocco), Peter Fonda (The Roman), Gerard Parkes (Doc), Judd Nelson (Concezio Yakavetta) and so on.
I am a Boondock Saints fan. The first movie, that is. It’s one of those unpretentious things made with brass balls and a rock’n'roll sensibility behind it that I just can’t help liking. It’s not particularly deep or profound, but it has everything that will establish a cult following – which it did.
Troy Duffy has been surrounded by massive rumours and controversy all the way through the process of trying to get the second movie made. He attributes the making of the second movie to the fans and it’s not surprising that he wants to give the fans a big pay off with this movie. You have to bear that in mind.
Flannery, Reedus, Connolly et al. all reprise their roles, which is in and of itself an accomplishment. They are having a lot of fun and you can tell. There are a few newcomers, like Julie Benz, Clifton Collins Jr., Judd Nelson and Peter Fonda, which says something about the popularity of this world.
The storyline follows the arc of the first movie, expanding and complicating the vendetta side of the Saints, especially Poppa McManus, and that’s fine, that makes sense. The McManus brothers have put down their weapons and gone into hiding on Ireland, growing prophets beards and herding sheep, how very symbolic of them. They get drawn back to Boston when someone assassinates a priest and uses their MO to gain attention. It is a Saints mission, no question about it.
Once they arrive there they are dragged into the same kinds of situations as they were in the first movie, violence, gangsters, bloodshed and drinking hard. Their new sidekick is the Mexican guy Romeo, who qualifies by showing his ability to fight and shoot when he meets the Brothers on the boat.
The tree everyman cops Greenly, Duffy and Dolly struggle with the new FBI liaison Special Agent Eunice Bloom (Benz) who has unbeknownst to them been sent by Paul Smecker. It’s all very convoluted.
What all this boils down to is an extremely elaborate plot that basically hinges on the simple idea that the sins of the father are revisited upon the sons.
There are numerous shout outs to the fan base, like the reprisal of Rocco’s character in a dream sequences (with a cat, no less), the bar owner Doc with his Tourettes, the Irish Gun Dealer – who incidentally has one of the best one liners in the whole movie.
You will get everything you can possibly ask for as Boondock fan in this one, including off colour humour, violence en masse, revenge motifs and everything else that you could reasonably expect.
Somehow, though, despite all that, this is not the movie I was hoping for. There are some things missing and I think it is in part the fact that Duffy is so in love with his own characters that he wants to give everyone their moment. It’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t always serve a purpose. Also I miss the connection between the brothers. There is a lot of rough housing and physical humour, but personally I miss that sense that they are moving in synch like a pair of good hunting dogs, which was one of the things that made the first movie for me. It’s not that they aren’t synched up, but I would have liked to see something of the protectiveness and warmth that was evident in the first movie.
The other thing that made me tilt my head and scrunch up my face is a bit more tricky. One of the things that appealed to me in the first movie was the fact that Connor and Murphy were regular working class, blue collar guys working in a meat packing place, that happened to have a destiny and abilities and a get out of jail free card from a higher power. They succeeded in their mission mostly by blundering in and getting it done as if someone or something guided their hand. That’s still true to some measure, but it’s self-consciously done here. And again, it lacks the simplicity of the first movie.
I know I’m asking for too much. I do. I want the rock’n'roll mood of the first one coupled with the intricacy you can expect when someone has had ten years to think of a project and I’m not saying Duffy isn’t breaking an arm and a leg to give it to the viewer, but there is such an emphasis on giving us more bang for our buck that some of the small things that made the first movie so great get lost in the sheer ambition and size of this one.
Also, this is the most blatant cliff-hanger “there will be a sequel” ending you could have been given. And that lacks … poetry. I know, it seems incongruous, but there was a certain poetry to the first movie.
We all know the sequel is never as good as the first movie. And yes, there are exceptions, most notably The Godfather. But in general the sequel always lacks something. Sometimes it lacks a lot of somethings, sometimes it isn’t able to recapture the spirit of the first movie.
Boondock Saints II is over the top, shoot ‘em up and profanity abounds. It has some moments of intensely good acting and some incredibly campy and regurgitative moments that make me cringe. It is so preoccupied with having balls that it forgets about the head and the heart. And that’s too bad. I like it well enough, but it’s doesn’t hold a candle to the first one. Sadly. And I feel like I am being really harsh with Duffy here, because he wants this to be bigger and better so badly you can feel it infuse every frame. I get it. I get what it is he’s trying to do, I can see it, but for some reason it just doesn’t get all the way there.
Mule
Beat – Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr and the Boys (and girls)
February 24, 2010
Beat (2000) written and directed by Gary Walkow stars Courtney Love (Joan Vollmer Burroughs), Keifer Sutherland (William S. Burroughs), Norman Reedus (Lucien Carr), Ron Livingston (Allen Ginsberg), Daniel Martinez (Jack Kerouac) and Kyle Secor (Dave Kammerer).
This is a weirdly unassuming little movie that should clearly have a cult following. Its highly stylized opening sequence signals exactly what you’re in for even if you don’t know the key players. You get a still life series of shots depicting the most stylish fifties objects, typewriters and bangles and scripts and cigarette cases that put you in mind of an Edward Hopper painting.
The action itself focuses mostly on the two least overtly famous characters of this particular set, Lucien Carr (Reedus) and Joan Vollmer (Courtney Love). The authors of the Beat generation should be tolerably well known even if the viewer is not a huge fan of the Beats, or even a big reader. Kiefer Sutherland might seem like an odd choice for Burroughs until you see him, and more importantly, hear him. He has captured the signature speech patterns that make Burroughs unmistakeable very well, and that’s not an easy trick to pull off.
I’ve read all these guys and I know a little bit about them, but I’ve never been big on the autobiographical aspect of writers’ lives, seeing as how there’s always an aspect of the fantastic to autobiographical material anyway. Personally, I always find the opening statement “this is a true story” in any book or movie an open invitation to snark. And possibly glee. The very nature of truth and objective reality is something that the Beats had fun with anyway.
I get a huge kick out if the fact that Joan and Burroughs reference the article in the newspaper that gave the title for the book “And the hippos were boiled in their tanks” that Kerouac and Burroughs used for the novel that talks of the events that transpired between Kammerer and Lucian Carr.
Kammerer had what can best be described as an unhealthy attraction to Lucien Carr, who he fist met while being his boy scout leader. It’s difficult to work out how intense that got, but looking at it from the outside it seems like a bad case of stalking. Carr, who was straight, tried repeatedly to get away from Kammerer who followed him from school to school, seemingly becoming more and more unhinged.
Kyle Secor who plays Kammerer manages to get across the clammy-palmed desperation of someone who is coming to the end of their rope as Lucien tries to ship off as a sailor with Kerouac, largely to get away from him. Burroughs takes Lucien aside and tells him to set Kammerer straight before something bad happens. There’s the proverbial gun on the wall for you.
Of course there are a couple of things that most beat-readers know, like the fact that Burroughs played William Tell with his wife above a bar in Mexico. Or, that Lucien Carr, who was never a fiction writer himself introduced Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg to each other. They were the core of the Beat-generation. Lucien killed Kammerer, probably in self-defence when he tried to ward off the advances of Kammerer who was simply too far gone to be able to handle Lucien trying to get away from him.
These are all seminal moments in the collective lives of this group and they have inspired some of the most well known works of the Beat generation, like Ginsberg’s “Howl” or Burroughs Naked Lunch.
“This is a true story”, says the movie as it starts. And it might sort of, kind of, be. But that is neither here nor there.
There are no women among the Beats, or none that haven’t been just at the margins of the main events, but the choice to focus of Joan is intriguing. Even more intriguing is how perfect Courtney Love is for the part. And I mean that. She is ridiculously good in this one. Her angelic face, her long lashed mock-flirting and the searingly sharp tongue she uses when displeased… all this is underscored by a wild-at-heart darkness that seems sad and desperate and self-destructive at the same time.
Norman Reedus version of Carr makes a good foil for Joan’s “staring into the abyss” with his somewhat self-serving and indifferent bohemian attitude. Of course there is more to Carr than meets the eyes, which is probably a good thing, seeing as how he can be ridiculously pretty at times.
This is one of those reviews that could just go on and on, because it is too easy to get mired in all the semi-factual detail and mock-authenticity, so I’ll try to cut to it.
The visual style is very much affected, very much a series of deliberate still life picture postcard pretty backdrops to the very ugly and sometimes desperate actions of these characters who are more or less real, even to themselves, I might add. If you like the Beats, if you know anything about them, this is a must-see.
The performances are solid throughout. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by Courtney Love, as I was. And Keifer Sutherland is more of a Burroughs than I thought he would manage to be, given that even Burroughs himself has had problems playing that part at times.
This movie deserves a cult following. I mean that in all sincerity. Go to it.
Mule.
