Demndiary Blog

A Fantasy Film Unique in Vision

Demndiary — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:13:07 GMT

If you haven't heard about Ink, you soon will. When I first heard about it, I was hearing comparisons to The Matrix, Dark City, Sin City, and many more of the films that have revolutionized scifi. Ink is a fantasy film taking place in the real world, and the dreamworld. A fight is going on between the incubi, who cause nightmares, and the storytellers, who cause dreams. Their fight is over Emma, a little girl kidnapped by Ink. Emma's father, John is a vital player in this battle, but doesn't know it.

The film is beautiful and very fast moving. The action is done is a version of quick cuts that is sharp and fast. The story is a slow developing puzzle. I'm seeing Ink for my THIRD time tonight and may see it again. This is a mainstream indie film that you will remember.

Performance Over Setpieces

Demndiary — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:15:58 GMT

Klaus Haro's Mother of Mine is a bittersweet drama about a Finnish war child’s childhood in Skane, Sweden. Eero is sent to Sweden to protect him during WWII and the consequences haunt him and his mother throughout his adulthood. The film portrays that same alienation of a stranger in a strange land as seen in Sweet Land.

Mother of Mine is filled with amazing performances. Eero (Toni Majanuemi) is cold and lonely, and hard to reach yet still exhibits the innocence of youth. Signe Jonsso (Maria Lundqvist) performs well beyond her character. She is resentful of Eero and hides her secret why, but when she opens up is a loving mother without blinking. Michael Nyquist’s Hjalmar is a friendly father and male role model for Eero. He is a friend before father and humanizes the unusual situation. Majaana Maijala’s Kirsti, Eero’s Finnish mother, is stiff and seems directionless with a role that does not encompass the entire story.

Haro sets the story in obvious set pieces, and amazing landscapes. Skane, Sweden is surreally beautiful with too green grass, and a seascape that draws the eye in. Everywhere in the town, and in Finland the set pieces seem painted like a school plays that, if not for the actors’ phenomenal performance, would seem amateurish.

In conclusion, Mother of Mine is a schizophrenic movie. The performances and the story are breathtaking but the environment seems less. It is a tearjerker, but it lacks a solid punch all the way through.

The Road Trip of Denial

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:20:30 GMT

James C Strouse's Grace is Gone is the story of Stanley Philipps (John Cusack) finding out that his wife died in Iraq, and having to deal with informing his two daughters: Heidi (Shelan O'Keefe) and Dawn (Gracie Bednarczyk).

This is an acting film hidden in a road trip to Enchanted Gardens (which bares a resemblence to another large amusement park in Florida). John Cusack's Stanley is a wondrous range of emotions and contradictions. What was taboo before the news now is done on a whim. Stanley is unsure and hiding his own fear, and has few golden moments to break down. He is undenialably human.

The daughters are spectacular. Shelan O'Keefe's Heidi is the older responsible one who wants to be a kid, but is already becoming that adult. She is the one prodding Stan about why everything is happening. It is role filled with range that O'Keefe never wavers in. She is an actress to watch. Gracie Bednarczyk's Dawn is simplier. She is a kid and wants to be just that. She wants to have fun: whether it is joking with Heidi or finding a way around dad. She is the innocence this film needs.

Strouse paints a road trip that not beholden to the road. A department store is a dream palace with flourescent lighting. Stan's mother's house is traditional, but a fleeting haven. There are few shots of driving without dialogue. The car is just another place, not a cramped environment from one destination to another.

Strouse has also made a war story that is not dominated by the war. It is the flip side of Home of the Brave. It is the family who has thoughts about what is happening but is not dominated by it. Even Stan's support of the war and why is not an issue. This is life, not politics.

Grace is Gone is a strong, personal film. It is about the strength of one family. It grabs the audience by the soul and never lets go. It is beautiful and heartfelt and should not be missed.

Mysterious Art

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:54:58 GMT

A young woman being stalked by her ex, has an affair with a handsome venture capitalist. Christian Petzold's Yella is not that simple.

Yella is remarkable with a strong cast. Nina Hoss is Yella from first scene. Yella is independent and intelligent. She is moving on with her life and moving away from her father and ex, Ben (Hinnerk Schoenemann). Schoenemann makes Ben a personality nightmare as kind and begging one moment, and violent the next. Philipp (David Striesow) is the knight in shining armor who offers a challenging job, and real love.

The film has clues to the story hidden throughout. Subtle suggestions come from music, sounds and light. The deeper meaning is not revealed until the end. It is as big as The Sixth Sense.

Petzold's style is stark and minimalist. Rooms are simple and seem close to natural lighting. Shots are composed to add an unnatural edge. The effect molds the story from simple to sublime.

Yella is an enigma. It is bold and risky in story. Nina Hoss makes it a joy to watch like watching Run Lola Run for the first time. Yella is entertaining mystery to be enjoyed.

A Long Torturous Run

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:36:48 GMT

It is the summer of 1958 and young David (Daniel Manoche) meets Meg Loughlin (Blythe Auffarth), the new girl next door in Gregory Wilson's Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. Meg's parents were killed in a car crash, and now Meg, and her sister Sharon (Madeline Taylor) are forced to live with Auntie Ruth Chandler (Blanche Baker) and her sadistic children including Wille (Graham Patrick Martin) and Donny (Benjamin Ross Kaplan). It is a summer that haunts David in his adult life.

The film starts out as a coming of age story like Stand by Me or Stephen King's It. It develops in a different direction that is more unsettling. Meg is punished for every wrong thing and that builds until Meg is strung up to be tortured. It then becomes Saw and tries to make the audience blink.

The acting is varied. Daniel Manoche's is good early with scenes of budding love, but loses character as he is forced to watch Meg's degradation. Blythe Auffarth's Meg suffers the same problem. When she is friendly and normal she shines. Blanche Baker's Ruth is not given any range to move and stays her hard talking sadist running the circus. She also can't seem to hold her character to the end and speaks her lines listlessly.

Jack Ketchum's Girl Next Door is a disappointing film. It is painful to watch as the audience loses the characters and is forced to watch torture for most of the film. By the end one is ready to see the characters die just to end the monotony.

The Next School of Horror

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:07:23 GMT

Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage is a scary film about a family moving into a former orphanage and being haunted by its former charges. The film is driven by Belen Rueda's Laura as a caring mother desperately seeking her child.

The film has many elements. It is a ghost story in the vein of The Changeling. It incorporates both shadows and ghosts as humans as good as any J-Horror. It also has the best scene with a psychic medium since Poltergeist.

The cast is filled with standout performances. Roger Princep is Simon, Laura's son, and is unaware that his imaginary friends are more than that. Fernando Cayo is Carlos, Laura's husband, who fights tooth and nail to come up with logical explanations for everything. Montserrat Caralla is Benigna, the spooky former worker at the orphanage who knows too many secrets. All make an ensemble cast that brings realism and fear to this story.

Bayona has a beautiful style from location to lighting that enhances the story and performance. Del Toro's influence can be seen in lighting hazy sunshine similar to The Devil's Backbone. CGI is used sparingly. The best scares are truly bump in the nights. The isolated house on a seaside cliff surrounded by trees and a beach is foreboding. The one fault is some more editing was needed near the end.

The Orphanage is a horror film from the old school. It is spooky and scary and makes you look at every corner to see if there is something there. Perfection is hard to find in horror. This is practically it.

Linear Chaos

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:39:36 GMT

Ellen Page is Tracey Berkowitz, an outcast in her school, family and life who ends up on the streets of Ontario in this surreal drama. Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments is based upon Maureen Medved's book. The film is linear and dreamlike as the screen is filled with multiple images reflecting Tracey's thinking.

The film is astoudingly compelling. The speed is quick and gives broad and repetitive views of the same events as Tracey explains her reality. In her mind Billy Zero (Slim Twig), the hot new guy at school, loves her. He didn't rape her. Tracey's family is a horror story of a father (Ari Cohen) who doesn't listen to her, and a mother (Erin McMurty) who is disconnected to reality. Sonny, Tracey's younger brother, is her only ray of hope even though she hypnotized him to believe that he is dog. Sonny has gone missing, and Tracey is looking for him.

Tracey Berkowitz is one of Ellen Page's edgiest characters. She is liked by no one. She narrates her story as a child who is years older. The langauge has beautiful metaphor and similie expressed profoundly. Page is strecthed from the street scenes of Ontario to the bleak family scenes.

It is impossible to explain The Tracey Fragments. It is a film that is disturbing and hard to forget. It is worth multiple viewings. It should appeal to any fan of Charles Kaufman and David Lynch.

Sandpaper for the Soul

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:18:51 GMT

Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland is a character study of a sad, miserable person named Keith Sontag. Keith stammers when he talks. He begins every thought as an unfinished metaphor and never gets to the point, even when at his angriest. He has a lot of reasons to be angry. His roommate Charles is composing music loudly, and not paying his share of the rent. His girlfriend Laura is stabbing herself, and him, for no apparent reason.His boss, Carmine, is unsympathetic to his inability to sell coupons door-to-door.

Keith is played by Dore Mann.Mann makes Keith uncomfortable to watch. Whether it is with a running nose, or a silent lack of protest when everyone continually pushes him away and down. Strangely, his performance generates a sympathy for him. It is a hard part, but Mann, an amateur, makes it work.

Frownland is rough, close, and loud. Bronstein purposefully uses close ups in close spaces (apartments, buildings, etc…). It is uncomfortable and gets worse throughout the film. Bronstein also uses an unconventional script. He even switches his main character to Charles for a half hour for a change. In addition, Bronstein has made a noisy film. Quiet moments are filled with background noise of the city. It is unnerving, long and wandering.

Frowland is a challenging film. It is not likeable. It is not nice. It leaves its audience asking questions of the characters and story.

A Few Minutes of Relationships

Demndiary — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:12:17 GMT

Stephane Brize’s Among Adults is a kaleidoscope of twelve characters in relationships. The film was done as a film exercise that becomes more. The various couples have ten minute scenes in which they had an hour or less to rehearse the script. All of the actors are amateurs. The film looks are everything from prostitution, to adultery, to sexual harassment, and breakup.

Among Adults should be fun, and light tempered with drama and emotion. Instead it is moody, uneven and limited. Since each actor has two scenes, and is improving their lines, some dialogue repeats itself. Genuine performances are in it, but are not given time to be explored. In addition Among Adults doesn’t take risks in the relationships themselves. Everyone is a heterosexual with burdens of secrets. It becomes boring much faster than anticipated. It is filmed in limited sets: an apartment, office, car, and so on. There are no grand structures in it both physically or emotionally.

Among Adults is good by itself, but longs for more. It had the potential to become a deeper Paris Je T’aime and stayed pedestrian. The drama, emotion, and love left early.

In Search of a Voice

Demndiary — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:17:08 GMT

Craig Zobel’s Great World of Sound is an account of a scam by the fools instructed to orchestrate it. It is a moral film about two men desperate for a job that seems to give hope to others. Martin and Clarence meet in training and hook up for the road trips. It is Clarence who delivers the final revelation.

Pat Healy’s Martin is self- deprecating and moping in his life. Kene Holliday’s Clarence is a powerhouse of emotion and slick sales. Together they function on the road signing new artists. The auditions they conduct are reminiscent of the audition scene in Miike’s Audition where the good and bad are seen so fast it is both humorous and sad. It is also the standout point of the film. Martin’s girlfriend Pam (Rebecca Mader) seems under used on film. Their relationship is not fleshed out in the scenes it is given. Robert Longstreet’s Layton is slick and clean, and the hard sell.

Great World of Sound is filled with many problems. The pacing of the film never seems fluid. Pat Healy’s Martin seems wooden in performance throughout. The film plods along in search of a meaning and waits too long to find it. It doesn’t reach out to the audience but stays stagnant. A stronger production budget might have helped, but it appears that the screenplay never reached the high drama moments. Great World of Sound is like the performers who audition in it, wanting something bigger, and not reaching it.