Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a couple of films that are making their way into art houses around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…
GEORGE A. ROMERO'S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
I was not a hater of George Romero's last effort, DIARY OF THE DEAD, although I will be the first to admit it was by far the weakest of movies focusing on the walking dead. And if you would have told me that from the womb of that film would issue forth something as so utterly whacked out and unique as SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, I would have been the first to apply the electrodes to your brain and certify you as insane. But if nothing else, Survival proves that Romero is wise enough to explore genres outside the zombie world while still forwarding that same genre in new and interesting ways.
The protagonist in SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is Sarge Crocket (Alan Van Sprang), a military man (I believe he was a National Guardsman in DIARY), who was seen in the last film stealing supplies from film students shooting the early days of the zombie apocalypse. This film shows us that encounter and branches the story to follow a few of the soldiers as they find an armored car, take it to a ferry, and float away to a place called Plum Island, which we're told is off the coast of Delaware. What we've learned from a prologue is that Plum Island is made up of the O'Flynn clan and the Muldoon clan (led by Seamus, played by Richard Fitzpatrick), both of whom speak with Irish accents and dress like ranch hands. The Muldoons have an interesting take on "right to life": they believe that a family should not shoot zombies but keep them isolated and continue to treat them like a member of the family. Meanwhile, the O'Flynns shoot on sight. And what is clearly an age-old feud continues.
The military types arrive on the island with the patriarch of the O'Flynns, Patrick (Kenneth Welsh), who has been exiled to the mainland. He has come back for revenge, while the rest have come to clear out the remaining zombies and live in relative peace. And for a time, we're not sure who is the bigger threat: zombies or humans. As he is prone to do, Romero has a few angry messages he wants to get across, mostly about religion. I'll admit it was amusing to see soldiers portrayed as the good guys, when Romero clearly set them up as the boorish villains in DAY OF THE DEAD. I've always loved that unveiled, naked aggression that Romero brings to every film. He's not attempting to hide his metaphors. He's pissed off, and here's why.
The old-West quality of life on the island adds such a great dynamic to the film. In this age of injecting zombies into Jane Austen novels, it's fun to see what is essentially a a cowboy movie with zombies. Having the soldiers in the mix almost makes it feel like a time-travel adventure story on top of everything else. And for the most part, Romero gets it right. And he still has a flair for some of the greatest zombie kills I have every seen. I'm still a touch bugged by the use of CGI for blood and head explosions, but I get that Romero is working on a tight budget. That said, the CG gore is pretty great, and after a while, I barely noticed it.
Romero also slyly injects the potential for a love story between Crocket and O'Flynn's daughter (Kathleen Munroe), and then deals with that in a clever way that makes it clear that this is a hardcore zombie movie and not a chick flick. It's my understanding that Romero plans to make a couple other zombie films that branch from the characters met by the film students in DIARY. And if they're as much fun as SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, I'm all for it. The possibility for creativity appears endless. I don't need to explain Romero's importance to the world of film and horror storytelling; you either know it or you don't. I've written about it countless times, and there's no need to repeat myself. The bottom line is, when George A. Romero makes a new zombie movie, you pay attention. You don't have to like it, but you watch it to see what ideas he's come up with and what plot choices he has come up with that others will soon mimic. SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is wall-to-blood-soaked-wall entertainment, and as much as I would like to see Romero try other films on other subjects, if zombie movies are the only way he can get a film financed, it's good to know that he hasn't lost his playful, creative spirit of critical thinking. I completely dug this movie.
THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION
It's been a while since 82-year-old director James Ivory has made a film that has stood up to the standard he himself creative with his producing partner Ismail Merchant over the course of such works as THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, HOWARDS END, A ROOM WITH A VIEW, and MR. & MRS. BRIDGE. And while his long-delayed latest work THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION does not quite hit that high benchmark, it is the closest he's come in quite some time. Based on the novel by Peter Cameron and adapted by Ivory's usual collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, this film covers some familiar territory for Merchant-Ivory works as it provides a glimpse of the idle rich in an exotic location, seen through the eyes of an outsider who begins in awe of what he beholds and slowly begins to see the flaws in the veneer.
When American professor Omar (MUNICH's Omar Metwally) receives a letter from the trustees of the estate of an author whom he would like to write an authorized biography telling him his request is denied, he decides with more than a little prodding from his bossy girlfriend (Alexandra Maria Lara of THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX) to head to the late author's estate in Uruguay to persuade them in person. The dead author wrote only one novel, based closely on his younger life and love, and Omar wants to know more about both the circumstances that went into writing that book as well as why the author killed himself at a relatively young age.
Upon his arrival at the palatial Ocho Rios estate, Omar meets the three executors: Adam (Ivory regular Anthony Hopkins), the elderly gay brother of the author; Caroline (the dead man's prickly but still quite lovely wife, played by Laura Linney); and Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg, the writer's mistress, who appears to have a fairly amicable relationship with Caroline. Arden has a young daughter, Adam has a Japanese partner ("Lost's" Hiroyuki Sanada), and Caroline has nothing beyond her water colors to keep her company in this self-imposed exile. Following the rules that only eccentric rich people follow in movies, the three are baffled by Omar's unannounced arrival, but take him in and allow him to stay and attempt to convince them to change their mind about the biography.
What follows in THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION is a series of vignettes as we get to know each of the players and how they revolve around each other or get sucked into each other's gravity--depending on the circumstance. Omar is a bit of an naive idealist, but he's also aware that his charm and good looks could have some sway over all three family members, especially Arden who is still young and desperate for new experiences and faces. As I've said before, sometimes with a film, even if the story is lacking, sometimes you can derive a great deal of joy from simply watching first-rate actors in relation to one another. I was especially delighted to see Hopkins just existing and clearly enjoying playing such a free-living character, rather than some artificially melodramatic goof ball as he did in THE WOLFMAN. One of Hopkins' many hidden talents (in addition to his more overt gifts) is the ability to make everyday conversation so engaging. The stakes are not particularly high here, but with a well placed smile or laugh or hesitation, Hopkins gives you no choice but to hang on his every word.
Linney and Gainsbourg play two sides of the same woman. What Caroline lacks in flexibility and soft edges, Arden makes up for almost to a fault. She's too timid, too easily influenced by stronger wills than hers (which is pretty much everyone she meets), but her ability to see the best in people makes it impossible for you or anyone to dislike what she brings to this story. Both actresses are two of my favorite working today, but if you compare this role to what Gainsbourg pulls off in ANTICHRIST, you get the truest sense of her unbelievable range. Linney has played this hard-edged type of person before, but Caroline is the character in this story with the most secrets, so Linney gives her a little something extra behind the eyes.
Much like the characters in it, THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION exists in a vacuum, a place where most citizens of the world simply don't exist. The story is set in South America, yet there's almost nothing of that culture represented in the film, nor should there be. That's kind of the point. Adam at one point in the story articulates that such a lifestyle is quite easy for rich Europeans in South America, and I think that, more than anything about a biography, is what this story is about. Sure, this is a movie about rich white people with no relatable problems, but these extraordinary actors made me care nonetheless, and I truly enjoyed James Ivory's latest--hopefully not last--effort.
THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN
With the 2010 Cannes Film Festival having just wrapped up last weekend, it seems only right that last year's Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize winner THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN is making its way across the country. It's even more fitting since the film is about a small film production house that is struggling to make ends meet. The first half of the movie centers on the head of the company, Gregoire (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), who is attempting to balance the artistic needs of his various filmmakers and productions shooting around the world with the financial realities of a company that is millions of Euros in debt with no means in sight be even begin to pay creditors or vendors. Since Gregoire's company mainly deals in art-house releases, the potential for even a modest hit are slim and probably wouldn't do the company much good anyway.
While I would have been happy to spend the duration of the film watching the inner workings of such an establishment and character, writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve has something else in store. Without giving too much away, circumstances in Gregoire's life change, leaving his wife Sylvia (Chiara Caselli) and three children with the unenviable task of taking stock in the company and figuring out if there is something worth saving.
THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN does something that might qualify as remarkable: it manages to keep a cool, strictly business approach to much of its telling, especially as Sylvia is forced to take a crash course in film production and accounting to get a true assessment of the company's value, while still having a solid emotional core with regards to Gregoire and his family. De Lencquesaing does a terrific job playing a character who maintains his cool under unimaginable pressure, while still allowing us to see his concern and anxiety. The end result is an engaging work that feels authentic and all-too believable given the world's economic climate and the state of independent film and boutique production companies.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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