Harrisons Flowers

Harrisons Flowers

Plot:

A wife searches for her supposed kidnapped and/or killed husband during the Balkan war.

Review:

Sarah Lloyd (Andie Mcdowell) travels to Croatia in the 1991's to find her journalist, whose mission it is to document the conflict, husband Harrison who presumably is dead( Brendan Gleeson). This is in a sense a somewhat classic "search and rescue" themed film but it does not necessarely center around it and actually is about the perspective of journalists trying to depict some sort of objective truth about something as, often anyway, complex, as war is.

Adrien Brody plays the paradoxical young journalist ( Kyle Morris ) who is both cynical and bitter and brave and idealistic at the same time and is in front line of the conflict. There are other supporting actors that are doing a excellent job aswell. I appreciate the fact that Andie Mcdowell's character is a bit complex and not always likeable. That to me shows a genuine portrait of someone who is searching for an important person in their life, far away from the safety of her her own country.

As for how it documents some sort of fair view concerning the both sides ( Croatian and Serbian) is not something I've gotten an impression of. As someone who isn't affected in any way, or know anyone who is, by this conflict, I could say "Its just a film" but im sure its a different story if you are or know someone who is. My experience watching this film is not that it puts emphasis on which side is good or bad, but rather, as I've already stated, a conflict from a journalists point of view.

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Half Nelson

Half Nelson

Ryan Fleck's debut film.

Plot:

A young teacher that leads a double life with his teaching by day and doing drugs by night.

Review:

Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a teacher in the innercity of New York. Being driven by a passion and typical leftwing ideas he's a well liked on the school in general. Like his own parents who were involved politically he too wants to make a change in society. Dan is a somewhat troubled individual, maybe due to direction the world is going in his eyes, and does drugs whenever he has free time. He has a girlfriend but that doesn't work out that well being disillusioned and addicted to drugs. One day the facade falls as a student (Shareeka Epps) finds him in a school toilet being induced but does not tell anyone and they form a different kind of teacher-student relationship. 

I appreciate this young mans acting alot. Has done several interesting roles including this one and in The Believer. A somewhat quiet film and it avoids all the clichees of the theme "Teacher in innercity enviroment with all the struggles that comes with it". The focus is different than these typical films that we've seen before.

Half Nelson, the name, refers to a move in wrestling where you overpower your opponent in a certain way. If it has any relevance to the film whatsoever is something that is clouded in mystery. Unless they are refering to Goslings characters drug struggle which obviously might be possible.  

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Monsters

Monsters

A different take on the classical theme "Alien invasion".

Plot:

A journalist agrees to escort his boss's daughter from Mexico to The US through an "infection zone" that is said to contain aliens.

Review:

Six years years after NASA sends a probe to investigate extraterrestrial life in another galaxy Mexico is harboring alien lifeforms that followed the probe. The border to the US is enforced by a gigantic wall and the Mexican military as well as the USAF are doing bomb raids during the so called " infected zone". A somewhat cynical journalist by the name of Andrew Kaulder ( Scoot Mcnairy) is sent to Mexico on a mission to get some interesting photos (hopefully of the aliens). The boss of the company he works for has a daughter in Mexico, Samantha Wynden, ( Whitney Able) and her father decides that Andrew needs to get her back safe to the US.

This is not a classic action movie as the theme might suggest. It probably goes into the genre drama and has a slower pace than other films with the same theme and focuses alot more on the characters and the haunting atmosphere that an alien invasion might create and the director has captured this atmosphere in a brilliant way in my opinion.

This film has a very low budget and manages to reach through to the audience without the clichees and the dramatic scenes that go along with hollywood films. I got the feeling that this film grew in my mind even after I had seen it, which is something quite rare. I got totally surprised by this film ( this is a common theme among the films I review and perhaps thats why I appreciate them to the extent I do but thats for a different Psychology 101 post).

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Buffalo 66

Buffalo 66

Vincent Gallo is the lead actor and director in this film.

Plot:

Man is released from prison and the first thing he does is kidnapping a girl and take her on an adventure.

Review:

The short plot sentence is quite enough as far as the story goes. Billy is a quirky and introverted person and comes from a very dysfunctional family and thats probably why he's had a troubled life. Layla (Christina Ricci) and Billy meets in town after Billys been released and he makes up a lie about him having a wife and thats part of the reason he's been away for five years. The other is that he was away living a successful life elsewhere and he's had his friend Goon write his parents the made up letters. He kidnaps Layla, with some mild resistance, and takes her home to meet the parents. Layla is an emotionally confused young woman who gets a touch of the stockholm syndrome.

Apparentely the typical Buffalo Individual that Gallo is portraying is spot on. He comes from there and should obviously then come somewhat close. This is a low budget film where he even used his old house as the house in the film.

This is quite a one man show from Gallo. Ricci does a good job indeed but it's really from start to finish about this man and the decisions he make. If you like obscure and grimy films that make an impression I recommend Buffalo 66.

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Network

Network

When my broadband limit was reached and I went to a video store to rent some movies this is what I came home with.

Plot:

The medium Television.

Review:

Taking best film of 1976 doesn't mean I had high expectations on it. Films, as I've already mentioned in another post, tend to get less interesting as the years go by and it was a while since 1976.

This film evolves around Howard Beale (Peter Finch) who is an old tv-anchor whom, according to his network UBS, has seen his expiration date a long time ago. He gets a two week notice and does something quite unexpected. He goes on air and says he's going to kill himself. This then, also takes an unexpecting turn, as the networks falling ratings goes up dramatically. Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) and Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) portrays the UBS executives that does a 180 spin and gives Howard Beale his own show on the network where he rants and raves like a madman. Howards friends clearly see this is an explotation of a mentally ill man. An interesting view on how far people in high positions can go to "sell" their product and how individual human lives are often just bricks in that scheme.

The Howard Beales ranting is a very genuine display of one mans view on the whole phenomenon of television and how people do everything that it tells them. These scenes really stand out for me in this film and its very close to a prediction over the years to come. Much like 1984 by George Orwell.

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Ex Drummer

Ex Drummer

Belgian director Koen Mortier has made this very interesting film.

Plot:

Follows a couple of individuals who start a band together.

Review:

I was on a mission a year or so ago to look into the peripheral of films that exist. Which continent they came from was of second importance, as long as they had something that sparked an interest. Its always very pleasant to be surprised and Ex Drummer definetely surprised me in alot of ways. It also happens to be from Europe which often makes them lack the clichees used even in indie films coming from the US.

Having looked through some obscure list of films that may shy away from the public spotlight I found this film, Ex Drummer. Dries ( Vanhegen ) plays a famous writer who lives in a little town by the coast named Ostend in Belgium. Enjoying the good things in life Dries is not interested in living a quiet life and whether out of curiosity or for selfish reasons in mind he decides to accept an invitation to join a local band. The band comprises of three physically challenged. Two slightly different perspectives meet as the bandmembers and Dries have lived in different ways. Dries takes on the role of a leader, which is not so surprising, and finds himself trying to instigate everything in the band.

This is an non-politically correct film and has quite a harsh tone against basically every group in society and perhaps thats why it didnt reach a bigger crowd. Very unorthodox film in alot of ways, the characters, the dialogue and the plot are not at all what you would expect from watching a film. I do however find that this is a quality film with a high production value. It does not feel like a scruffy indie film. 

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