Hey folks, Harry here... Here we have The Flying Monkey chiming the alarm over another selection of films right from under the dreadful gaze of those Mounties! Luckily, aviation-minded simians pass with little notice this time of the year! I radically disagree with TFM on JUON: THE GRUDGE, which I absolutely love (review coming shortly), however I am majorly intrigued by his coverage of Guy Maddin's new flicker show... THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD. Guy Maddin is a name I'm coming to adore hearing in association with New Films. Love his DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY... really wonderful... his shorts before that were hypnotic. The key to this film is... well... how sad is the music? Heh... Here ya go...
Hi Harry,
More capsule reviews from yours truly, The Flying Monkey, circling high above the Toronto International Film Festival. Enjoy!
THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
The Saddest Music in the World: Guy Maddin's new film, in that late '20s/early '30s style he's so fond of--and with film grain as big as paper plates--is set in wintry Winnipeg in the Great Depression, and features Isabella Rossellini as Lady Port-Huntley, a glamourous double-amputee beer maven, holding a contest to determine which country produces the saddest music (sadness encourages beer-drinking, as one might suppose). Mark McKinney of 'Kids in the Hall' fame plays the American with a Canadian past, and Maria de Medeiros is his beautiful girlfriend who was once his brother's beautiful wife--though this seems to have slipped her mind. Not Maddin's best film, but his most accessible. Worth it to see Rossellini refer to 'Winnipeg' in a sentence, and later on pronounce the word 'tundra'. Oh, and for the stunning set and costume designs and the sheer daffiness of it all.
THE GREEN BUTCHERS
The Green Butchers: Despite the glowing reviews and positive buzz from plays at other festivals in Europe, I didn't have many expectations for this, but it was delightful from start to finish. It's that classic story of the owners of a butcher shop that find success by serving meat from an accidentally-killed human being, and then maintain success by killing a few intentionally. Sharp smart writing, agreeably eccentric characters, excellent performances, a steady stream of funny lines and situations and some clever twists make this time-honoured scenario fresh again. And it's Danish! Well worth hunting down in limited release or if/when it gets to DVD.
ELEPHANT
Elephant: I suppose it's possible that someone might stumble into this not knowing a thing about the Columbine massacre...and if that person exists, they would likely be bored and confused by the first hour, and shocked and angered by the last twenty minutes. If you are not that person, you will be overcome with dread within moments of the opening credits, and that anxious anticipation will knot up in you until, when the shooting starts, you can barely breathe. Flawlessly performed by a cast of non-actors, brilliantly choreographed in a succession of long steadicam takes, honest in its spare, subtle and incisive depiction of suburban high-school life. (Much of the dialogue, it turns out, is improvised by the actors within set scenarios, a la Mike Leigh.) Beautiful cinematography, outstanding sound design. And every time someone enters the cafeteria or the library, you will cringe and hold your breath. Challenging and provocative, and altogether shattering--not exploitive or sensational as some have suggested.
JU-ON: THE GRUDGE
Ju-On: The Grudge: This film, as many die-hard horror fans already know, is based on a Japanese direct-to-video non-chronological haunted house film and its sequel, both of which were huge successes...and hugely scary. This big-screen version is unfortunately less accomplished--the reasons for the hauntings is somewhat muddled in comparison to the original, and the ghosts themselves are overused and less effective as a result. Also: can we have a moratorium on Sadako-like ghost-girls with long black hair? Still, a few creepy moments (a young woman washing her hair in the shower and finding an extra hand behind her head helping her was one high point), but you might be better off finding the DVDs of the TV version on eBay. People who love cats (or hate them) should proceed with caution.
OSAMA
Osama: An excellent cinema-verite portrayal (with some nifty break-the-fourth-wall moments) of a young girl in Afghanistan forced to cross-dress as a boy and conceal her true gender from the Taliban and the other males in her community in order to support her mother and grandmother. Her situation grows ever more desperate as another boy shares her secret, and as others are suspicious about her apparent femininity. How this got made at all, I'll never know. Amazing performances, frighteningly authentic. Punctuated with stunning dramatic imagery. You can't tell at times what's real and what's not. No wonder this won the Youth prize, the AFCAE award and a special mention for the Camera d'Or at Cannes.
I'M NOT SCARED
I'm Not Scared: More outstanding performances by children, this time in an Italian film about a young country boy who finds an abandoned house not far from his village, and a covered hole near the abandoned house, and a frightened young boy in the covered hole. The mystery surrounding the boy's captivity tears through the village and through his family, changing things forever. This was a very fine piece of mainstream cinematic storytelling, with few flourishes but a clear vision and great heart; reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone, but without the supernatural element. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Time for some Visine,
TFM
