black bag

In addition to Presence, I also enjoyed the (very different) Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp collaboration of Black Bag.

My Film-Forward review is here.

the souvenir

There's an on-the-nose moment in Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir where the protagonist graduate film student Julie (Honor Swinton Bryne) dissects the fragmented nature of Hitchcock's shower sequence and the lingering shot of Janet Leigh's body afterwards. The Souvenir, a hazy account of Julie's new studies in film interlaced with her relationship with a troubled gent Anthony (Tom Burke), is fragmented in of itself. The film chooses to withhold information and takes visual and sonic leaps: shots of Christmasy London, with strewn lights twinkling and Chrissie Hynde's plantive vocal wailing away on The Pretenders' "2,000 Miles," suddenly cut-off. "Sometimes in a dream / you appear," is one of the lyrics to that song--apt to Hogg's film, which feels like pieces of memory stitched together, often in closed interiors (Julie's apartment, the tight bedroom--with its amusingly drawn line between the couple in bed, the film studies warehouse, the editing rooms, a railway car). When the film chooses to breathe outside--we see two memorable shots in particular--a line of trees and high, grayish blue sky (a visual motif) and the bucolic, rambling fields of a country estate. The muted, pastel-ish palette of Jean-Honoré Fragonard's titular painting, which is referenced directly in the picture, is integral in Julie's posh, hushed settings.

Though the aloofness, the fuzziness, the slow pace, the repetitious nature and the frustrating aspects of Julie and Anthony's relationship can be trying, it's undeniable that Hogg has crafted a finely-tuned, dreamy story of a woman from privileged means coming into her own. As a counterpoint, Julie's mother Rosalind (the always distinctive Tilda Swinton) in her pristine, perfectly costumed get-ups (breakout work by Grace Snell) seems similarly stifled and inexpressive--watch her try to voice her concerns in a dinner scene, and you feel all the build-up of her character's thoughts trying to be set free--it's a fantastic moment. Julie seems to be trying to carve out a different path for herself and later, Rosalind seems inspired by Julie to place some of her energies elsewhere as well. Even though Rosalind is a small character in theory and Anthony is a much bigger, parading prescence, I ultimately felt that the story emerged most effectively as a mother and daughter tale--what they hide and reveal to one another and what is understood. ***1/2


-Jeffery Berg

take it off!

Intentional or not, the marketing of Drive made those hungering for another Fast & the Furious walk out of theaters.  But some, including myself, ended up being genuinely surprised how fun, riveting and stylish it was.  Just when I thought 1980s-nostalgia was played out, Drive created a world that was dark, violent, moody but blended with richly detailed, contrasting L.A. settings, and that hot pink title font and that catchy electropop soundscape.  Knowing in its humor, Drive embraced its tropes while purposefully being irrelevant compared to talky and loud action pics of the day.  Director Nicolas Winding Refn and actor Ryan Gosling's follow-up Only God Forgives is a tepid and rather uninteresting neo-noir journey into a stylized version of Bangkok's criminal underworld.  This time the joke is on the Drive fans.  Those hoping for similar atmosphere, great music, and another quietly electric performance from Gosling, will likely find little here to get lost in.

Julian (Gosling) runs a boxing club that's a drug smuggling front.  His brother Billy (Tom Burke, in a dreadful, albeit thankfully brief turn) rapes and kills a young prostitute. Billy is arrested and killed. Frosty mother (an icy, unrecognizable and largely squandered Kristin Scott Thomas) comes to pay respects and see revenge on Billy's killers.

Only God Forgives is a melding of Western and Far Eastern revenge flicks, filmed quite nicely by Larry Smith.  Smith was the lighting cameraman on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, which is what this movie sometimes reminded me of, with its stoic, nightmarish fairy tale quality.  Shooting in Bangkok (chronologically) gives the film a dingy, neon allure.  Cliff Martinez returns with another good score--the centerpiece being a spooling electro riff in the "Wanna fight?" sequence--one of the rare moments when the pic jolts to life.  Thomas is a compelling presence and a weird one, especially for movie buffs, since it's unlike anything she's done before.  Her scenes are the most arresting in the movie: her testy hotel arrival, moments between her and Julian with some Oedipal and Lady Macbethian shades, and when she gets to describe violent Julian's past (is she trustworthy or literally, with her long skinny cigarettes, just blowing smoke?).

Lacking in tension, this "Angel of Vengeance" tale seems to "try" to be offbeat though it ends up feeling a bit preciously-plotted and watered down.  Gone is a wide array of quirky, engaging characters (which is what we found in Drive and what is usually found in the movie's influences: film noir and Westerns) so there isn't much to be invested in except the style.  I'm an unabashed fan of Gosling as both an actor and a sex symbol but his dispassionate staring did little for me (maybe Refn's intention?).  Gosling called the script (by Refn) the "strangest thing" he's read. And it's also probably one of the easiest for him to remember, since he barely has any lines or emotional cues.  The high point for him is when he wails "take it off!" to his "woman" (Yayaying Ratha Phongam), which is what I was hoping she'd yell back at him.  **


- Jeffery Berg