Swiss Army Man

                   

The feature length debut of two guys who make music videos for a living, 'Swiss Army Man' mixes fart jokes and gross-out humour with a surprising level of depth and character development on the wonderful wet west coast.

The music video origins of the directorial pair show stylistically through the abundance of montages (that are beautifully choreographed, and segue scenes seamlessly into one another). Music pervades the entire movie, but it's all originally diegetic. The main character makes his own awkward humming mumble, and then it grows non-digetically, building with his spirit and crashing with his failure. The result makes an echo chamber of the entire film, filling it with his mind and helping us to be sucked into his world. 

                    

                 

Plot-wise it's a fairly simple film. We open with Hank seemingly alone on a desert island, trying to kill himself. He's interrupted by the arrival of Manny, a corpse who washes up on the beach. The rest of the movie follows the pair's adventures. There isn't a whole lot of unnecessary dialogue, and much of it does a lot of heavy lifting. There are lots of double meanings and set-ups to pay-offs. An example: the very first shots as the film starts are of Hank's creations with an overlay of music. Both of these components are huge parts of the film, and are running themes throughout. Another example: early on Hank says how he thought his life would flash before his eyes right before he dies. This is referenced to several times later on, and is a good set up to the connection he has to Radcliffe later on. 

'Swiss Army Man' is funny in an extremely unconventional way. Apparently there were lots of people walking out of first screenings - fools. Paul Dano does well as Hank and Daniel Radcliffe is amazing as Manny the corpse. What range he has, I love the guy. 

It's a very personal movie about hope and loss, and is an excellent introspection of Hank's character as the philosophical self-examining aspect of himself is thrown out into a corpse. During the film Manny starts looking and acting more and more alive, until we finally see him from the point of view of outsiders at the end, and see how sodden, pale, and clearly dead he is. My favourite shot of the whole film was Manny's metemorphosis into a skeleton; a quick simple take in a timelapse style, not intended to scare but simply to show Hank and us all that we really are. I like this film for many of the same reasons I love 'Hamlet'.

                   

                

The one thing I would have changed was the way that Manny farted off into the sunset at the end. In proving Hank right it was a little too light-hearted for me. I'd have left it at the little girl seeing him talk earlier on, then had the chase at the end, but to end in nothing more than him begging a dead body to come to life. Much like the end of 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' this would have been so perfectly bitter, with just an ounce of hope, as they could have maybe thrown in a shot of the kid insisting that Manny was alive all along, or something.

Because whether or not the rest of the world believes him doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if they think he's mad, because it doesn't change what he's experienced and learnt. It doesn't make him wrong, or the events of the film to be any less real for him.

                  

Swiss Army Man: 89.6

The VVitch

              

"Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

                        
This is the debut of director Robert Eggers, and if he sticks to this level of quality I see great (though not necessarily popularly famous or money making) things for him. He has quite a Ben Wheatley (who is one of my favourites) style about him, which works well for period pieces and trippy witchcraft stuff especially (see 'A Field in England'). On the whole this feels like the product of a veteran film maker, and was one of my favourite films of the year. It was packed with really great imagery, was often pretty unsettling, and I loved the cinematography.
Shots like the one where the eldest daughter is playing peekaboo with the baby, before it disappears. We see the empty bundle from what we think is the daughter's point of view, but then the camera pans up cleanly to the woods on the horizon line. A dark, bleak blotch that sucks in the viewer's eye. It's an extremely unsettling shot, as we hear the daughter shrieking and running past the camera towards the treeline, quickly shrinking into the distance to be lost in darkness.
The film centres on a family in British imperial America, that have been banished for being too religiously kooky and annoying. The father stubbornly takes them out into the wilderness and they attempt to fend for themselves, unaware of the corrupting presence of a coven of witches in the forest around them.

                 

                    
The child actors were awesome (especially the eldest daughter) and I really appreciate the authentic dialogue. Most period movies are either too lazy or seem to think us too stupid to use it.
The main problem most people will have with this film is that it's slow. It's also very artsy, but I love both of these aspects here, cause they just work with the general feel (General Feel), you know? The actual story is structurally simple, with no real twists or turns. This film is all about the gradual build up to an inevitable conclusion. The unease is ladled on until it becomes unbearable, before closing in a way that isn't too showy and that feels right for the tone of the story.
They don't elaborate too much on any of the creepy little details, or tell the audience how to feel. They treat us almost as if we're smart, reasoned people. Thanks Eggers!

                  

The VVitch: 81.8

I Am Here.... Now

                 

Alright, here we go.

                

So cyborg-alien-zombie-Jesus comes down from space in a big marble, steals some guy's clothes, and proceeds to ineptly criticise everyone for not embracing solar power enough and for having fun. He's sort of like an innefectual Cromwell who can also pause people and then for some reason make their eyes bleed.

                   

                    

It's utter garbage, and lacks an intelligible script or any acting whatsoever. It does have something resembling a plot though - more than Neil Breen's first "movie", anyway. Also the effects have gone from nothing so something, as mussle flashes can now be seen when people shoot their guns, so I guess it's a little better...?

One thing I did like his first movie for more is it's hilariously rediculous nature. This one, by stint simply of being of very slightly better quality, is less funny (though both films remain deadly serious throughout). While this is a better movie than the last one, 'Double Down' is simply more fun to watch, while this often is tediously boring, without being quite so funny.
          
By the way, I actually have no idea what the title of this movie technically is. on most sites it's listed as having three dots, but on the titles in the actual film it has four. I went with four in the end.

            

I Am Here.... Now: 0.9

Double Down

          

What the FUCK did I just watch?

            

                  

I'm serious, I have no idea. There was no coherent plot, nothing recognisable as acting, literally about 40% of it was stock footage - much of it repeated over and over througout the film. The guy spends most of the movie walking up and down hills, eating tuna, or tapping at one of many broken laptops. I'm honestly not understating it here. The attempts at art or direction were all so laughable that by far the greatest enjoyment I got was laughing at how shit and self-serious and masturbatory it all was. Towards the end I just wanted to blow my brains out though; no person should have to endure this alone and sobre.

                 

Double Down: 1.2

Seven Psychopaths

  

An awesome cast (including Christopher Walken and Colin Farrell - and while I haven't particularly noticed him as being good before, Sam Rockwell was great in this too) and a plot that wouldn't look out of place in a Tarantino movie (one of the earlier, better ones), 'Seven Psychopaths' is an interesting mixture of a classic American mobby thriller and a British crime comedy.

It's an interesting blend of styles, and a very engaging plot. It moves in ways that few Hollywood films do (which is arguably because, other than the setting, it is effectively a British film, but oh well). Though the meaning of the title seems clear, and a basic Tarantino style premise appears to be set up in the first half hour, the film begins to branch out as the psychopathic condition itself is explored.
   

  

The central character is called Marty, and is an unemployed writer. The script he is trying to write is a shadow of the plot of the movie itself. So does he represent the real-life writers of 'Seven Psychopaths', and their struggles to create the plot, or does he represent the viewers? A bit of both, I think. He is the writers while he is asking his friends about his script. In these scenes Billy and Hans are different aspects of the audience, with Billy wanting to end it all in a final showdown with explosions and gun fights, and Hans wanting more intelligent female characters. These two embody stark contrasts in personalities, and each sits on Marty's shoulder like a little angel and devil. But which is which? Well, they're both psychopaths, and this is what lends the movie an intriguing surrealist twist. At other times, though, Marty is us, as he watches mighty actors clash and events unfold around him in a state of frightened disbelief.
Colin Farrell does an amazing job as Marty, and the director, Martin McDonagh (who also directed the brilliant 'In Bruges') handles him perfectly, letting him sit back and let the likes of Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell do their thing, while having him show his own style (which is so refreshing that I'm honestly surprised that he's in a movie set in Hollywood). Like 'In Bruges', the movie makes fun of the absurdity of guns, and violence in general. My favourite example of this was the scene where Hans is threatened by an armed mobster, who says "Put you're hands up!" to which he replies "no." "But... I've got a gun!" And Hans snorts slightly "I don't care." The whole cast do very well, with Walken creeping towards the edge of self parody before expertly saving himself with some quality acting.
   

  
It's filled with self-parody, and it definitely knows that it's a movie. There's the movie-within-a-movie aspect, but the subtle way that this is expressed negates any cliche that this could create. It's also both not afraid to kill off it's characters, and able to kill them off in meaningful ways before the climax of the movie, which I appreciate. The death of Myra I found particularly sad, at which point I realised that this film had somehow got me to care for it's characters - a rather rare trait these days.
The ending was exceptionally delicate, and while I imagine some to get annoyed about the slight trick that was played on them, I loved it. The first end, with the burnt flag, the view, and the upbeat music, was too perfect. That was the ending to The Movie, not the end of the story. We still had to see how Marty had grown, and we are the bunny man at the end. That last scene was really touching, and I'd go so far as to say that it was one of my favourite endings of any film.

I'm not going to say that you're stupid if you don't like this movie, but you definitely aren't not stupid if you didn't.
   

Seven Psychopaths: 89.9

A Field in England

   

This is the 100th review I've done. If you've stuck around and read a few of these then... thanks, I suppose. This is an extra special one. I can't do this film justice. It is an overwhelmingly potent work of art. It was directed by the brilliant Ben Wheatley on the shoestring budget of £300000, and was the first movie to ever be released simultaneously in the cinema, on TV, online, and on DVD.
   

  
I'm going to go into detail here, as I think this is a seriously under appreciated movie, and there are few comprehensive reviews out there.
   

On a basic level it is the story of several deserters from a battlefield in England during the civil war. Detailed spoilers follow. Whitehead is the servant of a wealthy alchemist, and he has been tasked with serving Commander Trower as he fights in the civil war and simultaneously attempts to track down O'Neill, who was once a trusted associate but has recently stolen a large amount of the master's literary work. Whitehead openly admits to being a coward, and he is first shown hiding from battle and escaping Trower through a hedge row. The enraged Trower is following him, only to be run through from behind and then shot by Jacob, another deserter, who then stumbles away after a proximate cannon blast and rests on the seemingly dead body of Friend.

When Friend wakes up, the three are met by Cutler, apparently a fourth deserter, who tells them of a pub somewhere over the rise. Cutler then drugs Friend and Jacob with mushrooms, while Whitehead refuses to eat. Reality begins to degrade as the three are forced by Cutler to pull on a rope, freeing O'Neill, who Cutler has been working for. O'Neill uses his stolen work and Whitehead as a sort of divining rod to find the location of buried treasure.

Jacob and Friend are forced to dig, but start fighting one another, and Cutler laughs at them and urinates on them, before shooting Friend. Cutler is then told to dig by O'Neill, while Whitehead and Jacob escape. O'Neill finds the two men gone, and berates Cutler, revealing to him that there never was a pub over the rise. O'Neill sets off across the field to find Jacob and Whitehead, while Cutler hysterically continues to dig. To his horror, Cutler finds nothing but a skull, and scrambles out of the pit and shoots at it.

When Cutler confronts O'Neil he is shot to death, as Whitehead attempts to eat all the mushrooms and break the curse on them all. Jacob then takes Cutler's gun from his corpse, and him and Whitehead run back to the camp where they find Friend, alive, who mistakenly alerts O'Neill to their position. O'Neill shoots Jacob in the gun, but as he returns fire he ruins O'Neill's leg. Friend charges O'Neill with a pike and is shot by his second gun. Whitehead finally kills O'Neill, dons his hat and cape, gathers his master's literary work, and makes his way back through the hedge row.
     

   
The plot could have been set at any time. Though the costuming and speech patterns are accurate, few characters are in the movie and it could really have been any war going on in the background. This is part of the point, as the film is about human nature rather than a historical drama.
  

  
Some of the best shots have the actors posed as if for a painting of the scene, but a still is not used so that you can see their hair blowing in the breeze and them trembling as they try to keep still. these are not supermen in a painting, they are real people who are struggling through life. For such an abstract movie, there is a great deal of realism.
Everyone is so dirty and unhealthy. Jacob is a good example of this. He is very much a normal human, but of the three protagonists he is the best hardened for war. Yet while he is the most physically able, and the most violent, he is quite insecure at heart. As well as this, he is representative of just about every illness that was common at the time (the shitting scene isn't much fun to watch, and the medical inspection had some unexpected nudity).
The black and white works perfectly, and the sound creates an undertone of writhing menace, churning faster as the film descends in abstraction and flitting in and out as does Whitehead's certainty.
  

  
The black circle is good image to sum up this movie. It is both a scrying mirror, and so a representative of the pervasive ignorance at the time, and a mirrored sun in negative. The sun is the centre of our solar system, and the black void is the centre of the universe of 'A Field in England'. Instead of everything revolving around light - knowledge, goodness - it revolves around darkness, ignorance, satanism and evil. There is no solid core or foundation to feel safe on here, all is chaos.
Cause and effect are an illusion that humans force onto random occurrences for which there is no explanation. The film doesn't bother showing you how something has happened, only the effect. How does the rope work? we don't know, but it frees O'Neill. What happens to Whitehead in the tent? We don't know, but he's screaming in there, and when he comes out he's smiling. It's one of the creepiest scenes I've ever seen in a movie, the way he staggers like a damaged puppet, staggering ahead of O'Neill as a nursery rhyme plays. Is the world falling apart because of the mushrooms? Possibly, but then what is happening in "reality"? It could be magic, which is as real to these people as science. In fact the two are interchangeable, and O'Neill is known to be a man of chemistry.
The point the film is making is that our nature to reason everything into neatness is absurd, that these men will kill each other over such worthless things as gold or land. They trick themselves into believing in reason and purpose, when they live in a black reasonless void that the mirror can reflect.
    

   
The final blow is that there is no treasure, that Cutler finds nothing more than a skull to remind him of his own mortality. He has put his trust in the devil but whoever you place your trust in, all that will happen is death. He wants treasure, but it doesn't matter if he finds it or not, because riches aren't treasure, and he will die. Maybe he thinks that he'll go to hell because of O'Neill, maybe O'Neill thinks the same thing, or maybe they all think that they'll go to heaven. Maybe they think that nothing will happen, and that they will just float around for ever. None of it matters though, because they'll be dead. All the pain and manipulation that O'Neill and Cutler put the others through is for naught in the end, as they are rewarded with a skull: a grinning memento mori that mocks their pitiful treasure hunt.
I've heard several say that this movie is almost indescribably original in style. It shows us the basic chaos of lives that end inevitably in death without treating us to any ways to keep going, or reminding us of any of the good points of that whole "being alive" thing.
I know it's in black and white but it works, and I know there are a lot of trippy strobe sequences, but they work too. Probably not for everyone, but it's right in my movie Goldilocks zone. It's difficult to pick out exactly what I love so much about this film. I think it's a mixture of it's themes, style, and the spirit in which it was made. Possibly my favourite movie of all time.
  

A Field in England: 96.8

Inferno

  

What the fuck was that?

  

You may ask, if you had never seen an Argento film before. Largely incoherent, visually striking, and fairly enjoyable. It's a film for the fans, really, and it's quite a bit out there. The colours are bright, the deaths random. Then it turns out the witches were all death... or something. And finally, of course, the inferno that we had been promised by the title.

It's all pretty trippy, and I wouldn't advise watching it unless you were under the influence of something, but while the plot doesn't necessarily make sense the cinematography is great. Plenty of wildly contrasting shots here, lots of jarring cuts from music to silence and vice versa, muchos random and overly gory death scenes. The rat/hotdog guy death scene may have been my favourite, purely for it's randomness and over-acted hilarity. The acting is fairly poor in areas, and some scenes are a huge drag (don't bother watching the first half hour unless you actually want to follow the plot - but trust me, you don't).

   

  

Cool, though. My main two exclamations (main in that I made each of them once) were "what?!" and "whaaaaaaaaat?"

To be honest, it's pretty dumb. The super 80s music is often laughable, and it's a very musically-based movie. It feels even more dated because the music of the time is mixed in with classical pieces, and while classical music obviously continues to age like wine, 80s music... uh... I mean I like it, but it's not Bach.

  

Inferno: 32.5

Memento

"I have this condition..."

Possibly the best thriller that I've ever seen. It is simply astounding. The writing is fantastic, the mystery complex and engaging, the reveal shocking and unexpected.

"I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do I believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I'm no different."
  

It follows several days in the life of a man named Leonard who has severe short term memory loss, after his brain was damaged as his wife was raped and murdered. His whole life revolves around finding the murderer. He remembers everything up to that night, and has retained all the skills he had before that, but now every few minutes he's back to square one. He doesn't know when his wife died, he doesn't know how old he is or what he looks like anymore. He has collected tattoos of things he apparently considers facts, reminders about what happened to his wife, and to remember a man in his past life with the same condition that he has, so that he can learn from the other man's tragedy. He can't grieve properly and he can't get over his wife's death. As he says himself: "if we can't make memories, we can't heal." Leonard is a beautifully tragic character who has turned himself into a weapon in his quest for vengeance.

 

 

The plot is not linear. At first we are more lost than he is, as he at least knows his past up until the attack. Gradually though, as all the disjointed fragments from the past few days are fed to us, we begin to understand more than he does. People are using him, and he can do very little to help it. You cant only write so much down.

Old friends might as well be enemies, enemies can be taken too easily for friends. The guy at the reception desk of the crummy motel scams him out of renting more than one room, and even openly admits it to him, as he will just forget about it in a few minutes anyway. This is an important lesson for Leonard. It's just a shame that he won't remember.

  

Leonard is brought to life brilliantly by Guy Pearce, and the lead roles played by Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Anne Moss are also done very well. The script is excellent. While the conversations are so bizarre, they are grounded very well as being believably how Leonard would be reacting in this situation. Since he is continuously starting the story, his personality throughout the movie changes very rarely, and when it does it never lasts. The result is a character that is always both emotionally and physically exhausted, but who doesn't know why. He is often looking down an his hands and being vaguely surprised at what he finds in them. It is not just physical surprises though, if he is angry one moment, seconds later he no longer remembers the reason behind the emotion, and his repeated looks of weary confusion are heart breaking.

The plot is complex and filled with twists. The jumbled timeline means that we are often watching events in reverse, discovering the cause of a broken window, a scratched face, a burned picture, a gun. This movie trusts you with a lot, and really makes you work.

The twists at the end were shocking. It is a huge spoiler, so please don't read anywhere around here if you haven't seen the movie. I won't even risk stating it outright, but the pointlessness of Leonard's struggle is brought to a peak to brilliantly, so tragically. Does it really matter who killed his wife? Or is the only real reason for him to exist, for anyone to exist, to believe in a reason? To struggle for something, anything, to distract ourselves from life's ultimate pointlessness?

I believe so.

Leonard is no different from anyone else in that respect.

  

  

This is a must see. I don't understand why it isn't more acclaimed. In many ways it is the new 'The Usual Suspects'. A masterpiece by Christopher Nolan, based on the short story that his brother wrote.

  

"Now... where was I?"

Memento: 89.0

Gentlemen Broncos

There is a pleasing awkwardness throughout this movie, combined with a 'Fargo' like setting. It comes to us from the director of 'Napoleon Dynamite', but if I hadn't already known that prior to viewing, I'd have guessed it, as it has an identical personality.

As with 'Napoleon Dynamite', there was an abundance of hammed acting in this film, particularly in the case of the movie making guy with the permanent gurn and the sci fi writer (who is played by one of the 'Flight of the Concords' duo - pretty great, right?) However, every character is guilty of hammy acting to some extent.

  

    
I did enjoy the ham, and the continual quirkyness was enjoyable, though often (and I found the same problem with 'Napoleon Dynamite') it feels like it's being quirky for the sake of being quirky.

It was a lot of fun though, and there were lots of nice shots that were paired nicely with a bright colour scheme that clashed with the bleakness of the outdoors. The brightness of the interior scenes is the brightness of Benjamin and his mum's imaginations and dreams, while the bare 'Fargo'-like outside world is reality. There were also a series of very entertaining goofy sci-fi clips that were oddly over sexual and deer-involved.

I was alone when I watched it (big surprise) but I laughed out loud when the snake shat.

Gentlemen Broncos: 49.8

Spirited Away

Beautiful, striking and, at times, effectively disturbing. Spirited Away is a feat of animation. It centers on Chihiro, a ten year old girl who is moving house with her slightly dim parents. They discover a seemingly abandoned village, and the parents gorge themselves on the food that has been mysteriously prepared. As Chihiro explores, it becomes dark, and spirits start appearing. When she returns to her parents, she finds that they have turned into pigs. From here on out the movie gets increasingly surreal.

This is one of those reviews where I will run out of things to say a long time prior to running out of pictures I want to show yall.

The chillest guy in the 'verse.

Not that there is little to say about this awesome movie, but literally every frame is like a painting.

It has a strong 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' feel to it. Chihiro is selfless in helping Haku and her parents (and pretty much everyone else she meets) but it's also a film about her growing up. The whole thing is a series of lessons, but where 'Spirited Away' triumphs is in getting the viewer to care about what is happening to Chihiro.
I rarely feel much compassion for fictional characters - that sounds bad, doesn't it. I used to more, I guess. But in the same way that many elements of horror no longer scare me, many devices intended to create an empathic connection between myself and the character I now roll my eyes at, or even worse, they result in me disliking them more for being so cliche.
A good horror is scary because of all the acting, the details, and the writing. And some other things. But writing is important, is my point... I think...
Anyway, whatever they did with Chihiro, they did well. You can tell what she's thinking all the time, without her overdoing it like kids in almost all other movies (both animated and live action). The way she moves about and talks is good, I particularly liked the kind of mini "bleh" sound she makes as she falls over, or has some kind of accident.

The designs for the sets is superb. All the areas are unique, while sharing a similar style. From the bath house to the water train. The designs for the spirits are also great. They bring to life a Japanese parade, and fill the bathhouse with life.
Some of the more minor characters were a little flat, and the plot began to get increasingly convoluted towards the end of the second half, however. Some of the simplicity is lost, and plot points are made uncleanly. This is definitely a movie to watch several times to fully grasp.

Spirited Away: 82.4