Hey folks, Harry here... The American Film Market is a huge endeavor. Over some 400 films will display themselves in hopes of finding a distributor in these United States or Overseas... There are pitches being sold for films to be fiananced. There's all sorts of news to be had on the floor of the AFM, in the screening rooms of the AFM and in the bars around the AFM. If you have heard, seen or witnessed anything that makes you think... "Coooool" then by all means send in a report, a pic or an update to let us know what tickled your fancy or rubbed ya wrong... Frankly all three of these films I'm dying to see. Especially the last one, which sounds plum brilliant. Here ya go...
AFM REVIEWS
Hi Harry,
I ventured to Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade to see some of the latest
that AFM had to offer. Last year included such goodies as GHOST WORLD,
BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF and DONNIE DARKO. Knowing I had one day I could
attend, I woke up bleary-eyed on Friday to beat the rush hour for a day that
would include Andrew Nichol's SIMONE, the docu-drama BLOODY SUNDAY and my
main reason for going- GODZILLA MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH!
SIMONE
There was a smart-assed quality about the Nichol-scripted THE TRUMAN SHOW that really turned me off. Even if it was set in a media-saturated future, how could an entire world be a willing party to such a horrendous practical joke as seeing a man live a fake life? Filled with shots of dumb butkusses lapping up Jim Carey's unknowing misery, I had the sense that Nichol had nothing but condesension for the unwashed masses that weren't at his elevated level. Even though it's premise is much like TRUMAN, SIMONE gets it right. It's like hearing the satirical points loud and clear without the bullshit.
Al Pacino is wonderful in a rare, underplayed comic turn as a frazzled "art" director (a Nicole stand-in with a Russian name no less) whose career is destroyed when a mega-bitch actress (Winona Ryder, very funny) walks out on him. Given a computer disc by a mad genius (Elias Koteas), Pacino gets an unexpected gift- the perfect Aryan actress who will do anything he wants. No fuss. No demands for green M&M's. The "hitch" is that Simone (short for Simulation One) is a "cynthespian." And with Pacino as her cyber-puppeteer, Simone becomes bigger than Madonna, ultimately taking over Pacino's life with none of her own.
The very funny point of SIMONE is how do we know that
"stars" are real- as the entire world is fooled into thinking she is. With
impecably chic staging and photography that shows what a gifted visualist
Nichol is (as if his brilliant work in GATTACA didn't already tell you)
SIMONE deftly satirizes the Hollywood culture of flash with real
intelligence, wit, and most important of all- believability. Simone is a REAL
woman, not cool fake like FINAL FANTASY. And the film never takes you in the
direction you expect, like Simone developing her own consciousness. Instead,
this film is about a burn-out striving for consciousness in a town without
much of one, and Nicole pulls off his observations with unexpected heart.
BLOODY SUNDAY
Told in a docu-drama style that's reminiscent of Ken Loach, BLOODY SUNDAY is the kind of powerful, outrage-inducing film that we see too little of. Shot in shaky, cinema-verite style, director Paul Greengrass charts the infamous Catholic peace march in Northern Ireland that led to the Brits shooting 23 protestors, killing 13 of them. Though this generation thinks of BLOODY SUNDAY as a U2 song (which plays on the end credits), director Paul Greengrass effectively shows the tragedy behind the lyrics. While the film tries to set up individual "characters" out of the valiant march organizers, protestors and pompous British officers, the first 30 minutes or so of BLOODY SUNDAY is pretty bloody confusing. Fade-out edits, loud sound effects and accents make the set-up for the march hard to follow, preventing us from making the "human" connection that would have made the film even more devastating. But once the march starts, BLOODY SUNDAY is nothing less than enthralling.
Like most directors with an agenda, Greengrass doesn't give enough time to both "sides." Even though he shows how the British soldiers are pumped up for biblical payback at the end of their tour (which has cost them 48 lives), they are most definitely the bad guys. And it's hard to argue that point with the senseless violence they mete out on the protestors- whose younger members make the mistake of starting the commotion with rock throwing. What follows is pure, horrifying anarchy an unarmed marchers are repeatedly shot, even as they run out with white flags.
This is BLACK HAWK
DOWN in reverse, and just as effective. As the hospitals fill with blood in
the aftermath and the soldiers lie about their actions, BLOODY SUNDAY
generates the kind of outrage we rarely feel from movies today. The sense
that non-violence is destined to fail when the other side has more guns, and
the whole, utter pointlesslessness of Northern Ireland- a situation which now
thankfully appears to be getting better. But BLACK SUNDAY is a powerful
reminder of how military atrocities always seems to pay off for the
perpetrators.
GODZILLA MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH
This is the kind of balls-out GODZILLA film that we've been waiting for, and we've got GAMERA director Shusuke Kaneko to thank for it.
With incredible effects, good plots and a body count, his revisionist updates of the big green turtle beat the Big G with no contest. You can't blame Toho for getting the best director in the giant monster business, and Kaneko does wonders for the moridbound GODZILLA franchise.
This is essentially the same plot as his GAMERA films, with monsters representing the "earth spirit" battling a demon- in this Godzilla in full, white-eyed chaotic evil mode.
And Kaneko has big balls indeed, re-writing GODZILLA mythology to make this the first true G film to take place since the first picture (and he gets in some hilarious swipes at the rancid American remake in the process). Baragon, Mothra and King Ghidorah are the good guys here- unless you happen to be the punk teenagers who get smooshed when they appear. Like the awe-inspiring opening of GAMERA 3, this GODZILLA shows what it's like to be caught in a full-on monster mash. And it's no fun to get blasted by heat breath, stomped on or have a mountain tumble on you.
At last, a Godzilla film with a body count!, and one with a delightfully twisted sense of humor no less.
But though he redoes Godzilla history, Kaneko pays homage to it at once. Even with this installements state of the man-in-a-suit effects, there's a cool, mid 60's feel to this movie- no doubt helped by the appearance of Baragon from FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD. Every creature's got character here, as do the humans as well. It's the first time the Japanese Defense Force hasn't behaved like Acme Inc., and we actually give a shit about them and want them to win.
My only problems with this top-flight GODZILLA is that the set-up takes a mighty long time, baby Mothra is only in one shot, and too much of the battle takes place in the dark. But overall, this GODZILLA produces the kind of elation that's like seeing the WWF do it for real. If only this film had been released stateside as opposed to the dull GODZILLA 2000, then people might see beyond the camp. As is, Kaneka has given the Big G the shot in the tail he needed to take the franchise in a new direction, and how many stars like James Bond and Batman can ask for someone as cool to shake their franchises up?
Wez
