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Undertow
Directed by: David Gordon Green.
Written by: Joe Conway, David Gordon Green.
Adapted from a story by: Lingard Jervey.
Cast: Jamie Bell, Devon Alan, Josh Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen Stewart, Shiri Appleby, Robert Longstreet, Eddie Rouse,
Patrice Johnson.
Cinematography: Tim Orr.
Edited by: Zene Baker, Steven Gonzales.
David Gordon Green's third film, "Undertow," uses a series of cinematic idiosyncrasies; not to touch your heart,
but to torment your soul. The film starts with two young people talking tenderly if disconcertingly, around the issue of love.
"We should disappear," says Chris. "Go someplace where we can say everything." "Let me see your knife,"
answers Lila. "Can I carve my name in your face?"
Whether riled by his daughter's precocious sexuality or outrageous use of non sequiturs, Lila's father is soon hot on
the heels of her young paramour, and it's one of the most excruciatingly tension-filled chases you'll ever see that doesn't
involve police cars, exploding gas tanks or giant plates of glass being carried across the street. It's just two people and
a lot of country - one of them a barefoot kid fleeing furiously through a backwoods country bristling with commonplace dangers.
What follows is a story which is slightly reminiscent of the classic "Night of the Hunter" both emotionally
(true) and visually (less true). Chris (an outstandingly mature performance from Jamie (Billy Elliot) Bell, already turning
into a beer-drinking, hell-raising Dixie rebel and becoming well known to the local authorities, and his little brother Tim,
a sickly boy who compulsively eats paint, dirt and oil and leaves pools of vomit around the property, live in a remote cabin
with their dad ever since their mother left. Trouble starts when their uncle shows up needing a place to stay, and the boys
soon find themselves in a battle for their lives.
On this evidence David Gordon Green has developed an individual cinematic voice that he can turn even this kind of classic
- almost biblical - story into an original, personal creation. His film is suffused with a specific sense of unspecified place
- generally somewhere in rural North Carolina. The area is populated by people with no money or formal education, but the
characters have a feeling of unadorned authenticity, neither overdramatised nor condescended to. Also Green has a technique
so simple and yet so unexpected that it still catches the subconscious mind off-guard. He starts/stops his scenes in the middle
of the dialogue - some scenes are just one or two lines long - giving his films the almost-dreamlike quality of a partially
overheard, half-understood conversation. There's hardly a special effect to be seen - technically, this film could easily
have been made forty years ago. but in terms of imagination, it's as fresh as the latest Tarantino, and twice as human.
This is a film of suspense moved towards an extreme - not by spouting more blood and dreaming up new ways for people to
be mutilated, but by connecting with a place down in the cellar of the psyche.
We Don't Live Here Anymore
Guest Review: ANTHEA SIMPSON
Director John Curran
Writer Larry Gross, based on the stories by Andre Dubus
Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts, Sam Charles, Haili Page, Jennifer Bishop, Jennifer Manwhinney
Certificate 15 Running time 101 minutes
By the time of introduction the unfolding brings a non-descript, rather dismal American neighbourhood with a rather exhausted
future. Each character is self absorbed in their own pre-occupancy as they sneak around doing errands, search vacantly at
a computer screen, cry guilt onto their beds and sit lost in a darkened room with another red wine ....each character in their
heads, trying to differentiate between their lies, avoiding their feelings, and becoming unaware of what else is happening
around them.
The beginning of "We Don't Live Here Anymore" however, brings an initial element of intrigue as the first scene
displays a dreamy Naomi Watts and a keen Laura Dern dancing playfully to four lustful eyes, played by Mark Ruffalo and Peter
Krause. The following scenes strategically open the placement of the characters, leaving you questioning their choices, their
interaction and the element of seriousness that coat Edith and Hank Evan's (Namoi Watts and Peter Kraue) daughter and Terry
and Jack Linden's (Laura Dern and Mark Ruffalo) two children.
If you're going to be escorting a date to the cinema this is only one to choose should car-crash TV appeal - looking for
someone in a larger pickle of lies than yourself. However, should your interests lie in human behaviour "We Don't Live
Here Anymore" does try to express the wide differences of emotions that are fuelled and shown in the searching of acceptance
through acts of lust, love and adultery. The conflict and the confusion begins to tire though as Terry Linden's sucked into
a void of frustration as her husband cowardly watches passively over her pain
As much as Laura Dern's character tries to stock the fire, the other characters are quite despondent to the flames, as
they are to the magnitude of what is actually developing in their lives."We Don't Live Here Anymore' shows how underground
desire, attraction and adultery are within our Western society and how easily one can be lost without notice when day to day
errands, and hour to hour neurosis can prevent us from seeing what's the key to ourselves.
The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse
Director: Steve Bendelack
Writers: Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith
Cast: Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Michael Sheen, Danielle Tilley, David Warner, Bernard Hill, Victoria
Wood, Peter Kay, Simon Pegg
Armageddon comes to Royston Vasey. As fireballs plummet from the sky just like the images on an old fresco in the 'local'
church, the inhabitants realise they are in big trouble. To save their skin, they must venture through a portal from RV into
contemporary reality and meet up with the actual League of Gentlemen - aka their creators!
This big-screen outing opens with Tubbs and Edward Tattysyrup harassing Jeremy Dyson (played by Michael Sheen) and hounding
him over a cliff to his apparent doom, as three more characters sneak through the door to the other side. They are: German
exchange master/perv Herr Lipp, downtrodden businessman Geoff Tipp and the psycho butcher Hilary Briss. They discover that
the town's existence is under threat because the League have abandoned Royston Vasey in favour of writing a historical comedy
set in the seventeenth century called 'The King's Evil'. They pursue their creators - Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece
Shearsmith - in order to convince them to make a film version of the series instead and ensure their continued existence.
However, as they discover, the boundaries between the real and fictional world of the League of Gentlemen are porous in
both directions, and when the bad guys from the Seventeenth century cotton on to the nature of their universe, they too are
keen to meet their makers with apocalyptic consequences.
The League of Gentleman's Apocalypse takes the theme, characters and humour of the television series and transposes them
into a more filmic structure. Gone are the sketch-based rhythms of the series, replaced by a more cinematic plotline of problem-solution-resolution,
with added smut, scatology and sinister absurdity beloved of their cathode ray-tube bound fans. Sadly however, the plot is
pretty ropey, and the idea of having the fictional characters enter the real world tends to jar at times - the pleasure of
the TV series comes from the fantasy being a hideously plausible reality - and this conceit rips apart that fantastically
chilling enigma at times in favour of predictable humour.
Despite this, the 17th Century subplot confirms what brilliant actors the League are and it does have some terrific comic
moments.
The film does attempt to create some more depth of characterisation in the trio of Royston Vasey characters who stagger
over into the real world, I guess partly to make the film accessible to non-fans of the series who might lack any background
knowledge of the series. The main thread wraps around Herr Lipp, who ultimately proves to be a sympathetic figure which adds
another dimension to the film. When called on to impersonate his kidnapped creator, he finds that straight, regular real family
life is to his liking (and that he is a slightly more successful at it than the real Steve Pemberton). His distress at realising
he is one big pun written across two dimensions is actually quite touching and lends some poignancy to the amusing but obvious
double-entendres he is lumped with. This character development is all part of the transformation of Royston Vasey from a vehicle
for television comedians to a fully-fledged film story. The other two characters also grow as the story progresses, though
in a less coherent and ultimately uninvolving way. Geoff, for his part ultimately realises that he can transcend his total
mediocrity to save the day, while sociopathic butcher Hilary Briss gives his life for the survival of Royston Vasey. These
attempts at depth don't really work, and come across as irrelevant or annoying depending on your frame of mind.
Apocalypse has the obligatory twisted punch line ending, suggesting that the world is a figment of the League's mind in
the person of Jeremy Dyson (here played by an actor as he is reluctant to appear on screen). If that were so, the world would
be a place of loud but uneasy laughter and little substance, as, in the end, is the cinematic version of the League of Gentlemen.
Sin City
Starring Bruce Willis,Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Mickey Rourke, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson and
Brittany Murphy.
Written by Frank Miller
Produced by Elizabeth Avellan
Directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.
Produced by Elizabeth Avellan
After every atrocious comic book adaptation, fans of graphic novels have invariably asked, "why couldn't they just make
it like the comic?" Sin City is Hollywood's hardboiled response, and proof that every so often, geeks do know what they're
talking about. The film is a comic book which has come alive, and you'll love it, from beginning to end. It uses the panels
and artwork from Frank Miller's graphic novels as its storyboards and it rips Miller's dialogue and characters straight from
the page. It brings the tough-talking, scantily clad/nude female characters from the book to ravishing reality. It cuts
the gruff, pockmarked thugs from the pages and pastes them into a tawdry 3-D world. Every single moment of the film is maimed,
malformed and possessed by a crooked beauty that will tantalise the twisted and vex the virtuous. Classic isn't word enough
to describe this unflinching look into the dark side of the comic book world. It flirts, fondles and teases its audience
right through until the end.
Sin City is ike kissing a woman when you have chapped lips, razor burns and a five o'clock shadow - this film wants to
leave you with scars. But (Ba)sin City is a black and white metropolis, as envisioned by Frank Miller - a world the film's
director, Robert Rodriguez didn't want to mess up. "When I read the books," says Rodriguez, "I loved that the
dialogue didn't sound like movie dialogue, that the visuals didn't look like anything you usually see in movies. So I wanted
to bring Frank's vision on the screen as it was. I didn't want to make Robert Rodriguez's Sin City. I wanted to make Frank
Miller's Sin City. I knew we could make it look and feel exactly like the books."
Hadn't it been for Rodriguez's determination to keep Miller's shadowy world black & white, with only the occasional
splash of colour, visually, this would be a gruesome two hours. Limbs chopped off, hatchets in crotches, decapitated heads,
hungry canines feasting on living humans, bare hands ripping off male genitalia - this film seems unable and unwilling to
compromise. And, because of that, you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen for 126 minutes. It doesn't shy away
from the nudity found in the Sin City comics, either.
The film doesn't rest on its laurels and let the spraying arteries and exposed breasts do all the work. Many films have
tried to claim the title as their own, but Sin City truly is the next Pulp Fiction. The movie begins (after a brief wraparound
story featuring Josh Hartnett as The Salesman) with John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) - a down on his luck cop with a bad ticker
- pursuing Junior (Nick Stahl) a serial rapist, who happens to be the son of a prominent Senator. Hartigan is desperate to
catch Junior before he takes his next victim. As his heart begins failing on him, Hartigan prays that he doesn't hear that
dreaded scream. Apparently Junior can't get it up until he elicits a scream from his victims. Without spoiling the story,
Hartigan finds that Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) has pulled out all the stops to prevent an arrest of his violent sex offender
son - right down to buying the policemen whose job it is to serve and protect. One of those detectives happens to be Hartigan's
trusted partner, Bob (Michael Madsen), who isn't above taking part in the framing of his friend. It's not looking like the
best day to be a good bobby in Sin City.
The second (or third, if you count The Salesman's) story is where the film really shines. Based, almost word for word,
on Miller's The Hard Goodbye, it tells the story of Marv (a sensational performance from Mickey Rourke) and his quest to avenge
the love of his life's murder. It didn't take much for Marv to fall in love - all he needed was a hooker looking for protection
from the biggest brute she could find. Her name was Goldie (Jaime King), and, by making love to him on a tacky heart shaped
bed, she made him feel like something more than a monster. And that was the best feeling Marv - a man so grotesque, he couldn't
get sex if he paid for it - ever had. Marv's going to make sure the men behind Goldie's death pay for what they did. He's
going to make sure that, after he's through with them, the Hell he sends them to will seem like Heaven. When asked why he'd
sacrifice everything for a woman he spent just one night with, Marv answers, "she was nice to me." Marv works the
streets and slowly pieces together the puzzle, and all signs lead to Goldie's death being ordered by Senator Roark's brother,
Cardinal Roark (Rutger Hauer). A top contender to be the next President of the United States, before devoting his life to
"religion," Cardinal Roark has surpassed even his brother, becoming the most powerful man in Sin City. Marv could
care less. Marv isn't going to stop until he sorts out a comeuppance to any and every individual that messed with his Goldie.
However, to get to the Cardinal, he needs to battle Kevin (Elijah Wood). Kevin's a creepy little sod with the nasty habit
of hunting down hookers and eating their flesh, along with their souls. He also moves like a ghost and is next to impossible
to lay a finger on. In the comic, Kevin was a slightly older gentleman with whiskers. In the movie, he's a clean-shaven
Elijah Wood with some funky glasses that, in combination with Wood's seemingly lifeless eyes, pile on the creepiness. Wood
couldn't have asked for a better role than the one he received in Sin City. Any chance of his being typecast as Frodo has
been thankfully (for the longevity of his acting career) demolished. And Mickey Rourke as Marv? He's utterly spectacular. His
performance will remind people of just why he was about to be a star, before a few bad decisions and a fussy public nearly
ruined his career. Taking on the role of Marv has given Rourke a comeback to match Travolta in Pulp Fiction.
The Holy Trinity of actors portraying the Roark family are fantastic. Powers Boothe oozes corruption as the Senator.
Rutger Hauer somehow manages to take one of the most devilish characters put on screen and give him a confused sort of sympathy
as the Cardinal. And Nick Stahl is as gleefully evil as a yellow bastard/Senator's son can be.
Another story revolves around the misadventures of Dwight (Clive Owen) - a man hiding from his past. This section has
the sickest humour of the film and some of its most memorable moments. We get to meet the exotic and pernicious local prostitutes
in charge of Old Town. Led by the unwavering tough cookie Gail (Rosario Dawson), the working women have made a deal with
Sin City's finest - they stay off the police's back, the police stay off their backs. The problem is that, after seeing Shellie
(Brittany Murphy), the flirty bartender friend that's been putting him up, being abused by Jack Rafferty (Benicio Del Toro),
Dwight decides to follow Mr. Rafferty into Old Town, to see that he doesn't do any more damage. Jack starts causing problems
harassing one of the hookers and learns the hard way about a woman scorned - especially if said woman has an army of tough-as-nails
female friends, wielding weapons ranging from swastika shaped ninja stars to machine guns. Things heat up when Dwight discovers
that Rafferty was a cop. If it's discovered that the girls murdered him, the pact with the police will end and Old Town will
eventually wind up in the hands of the mob. Dwight develops a plan, but when Irish mobsters get involved, everything goes
comically haywire. Again, I won't let you know how things turn out, but there's lots of blood and lots of bullets.
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