IMDb Film Festival 2016: Just Before Dawn/Documentary Thread

In order of preference:

Greatful Dead (2013). Neglected as a child, an independently wealthy young woman spends her time spying on individuals who she considers to be as lonely and isolated as her in this decidedly offbeat film from Japan. The movie initially plays out like a quirky comedy with lead actress Kumi Takiuchi grinning from ear to ear all the time while riding her bicycle, camping on rooftops and taking notes on the lonely citizens she enjoys watching, whom she terms "Solitarians". The plot thickens though when one such "Solitarian" turns out to be less cut off from the world than she thought. First, he lets himself be smitten by Christian missionaries, then his extended family keep popping by, and things turn very horror-like as Takiuchi takes drastic measures to ensure that the man remains the "Solitarian" that she initially identified him as being. The structure of the film is hardly perfect. The young actress who plays Takiuchi as a child is equally effective, if not more so, and the film could have benefited from spending more time on her traumatised childhood, while the horror angle comes extremely late in the piece - something that results in the second half of the film feeling far superior to the first half. Never to mind, Takiuchi never falters throughout and the film is full of neat touches, such as the constant use of upbeat music to highlight her delirious view of the world, smiling as non-Solitarians are hit and assaulted. Takashi Sasano (playing the man she becomes obsessed with) holds his end up very well too, almost becoming just as irrational as her as all the madness spirals towards a close.

Late Phases (2014). Puzzled by a series of bizarre animal attacks, a blind war veteran begins to suspect that a werewolf resides in his retirement community in this offbeat take on the horror subgenre. While the film has some unnerving attack scenes and very graphic transformation effects, much of the horror is implied and the film manages to be unsettling with overt horror kept at a minimum. Nick Damici is excellent in the lead role with a world-weariness that reflects the film's title (late phases of life) and yet also a passion for a life that he does not realise himself until the werewolf threat surfaces. Indeed, while the werewolf combat scenes are few and far between, it is the scenes of Damici investigating the mystery, consulting a gun salesman and so on that highlight a newfound zest for life despite his earlier claims that he is ready to die. The film has lots of effective dark humour too, such as the police who dismiss the animal attacks as somewhat expected (!) given how defenseless old people are and do not think twice about them. Damici also does a great job making light of his blindness where possible. For all its virtues, the film falls apart a bit towards the end as the werewolf attacks heighten; the sentimental note that the film ends on also does not quite feel right. There is, however, a lot to like in the idea of a blind person being the best equipped to take on a werewolf with all other senses heightened as a result of not being able to see. The film is blessed with several solid supporting turns too, especially from Ethan Embry as Damici's worried son and Tom Noonan as the local priest.

Bone Tomahawk (2015). Sorry; not going to get a chance to review this one before Monday, but suffice it to say, I liked it the least of the films in this category by far.

Most people think I'm mad. At least I know I'm mad.

Documentary jury checking in.

Cartel Land (2015, Matthew Heineman)
I don't really know what to say about it. Obviously I know very little about anything, but I think this documentary mediocrely depicts the complex situation in "cartel territories" around the US-Mexican border, with different clashing parties (such as the cartel associates, border patrol, vigilantes, citizens and (on a higher level) the media+public/government; all on both sides of the border). What's mostly shown is either a rabble or a group of men running around with rifles - especially the latter seemed (most of the time) staged and unstructured, without major exposition, explanations or conclusion, so performed just for the sake to elicit some reaction in the viewer (alongside few "disturbing" photographs), but that was only detracting for me. Hence, overall, I wouldn't say this film dealt with the socio-economical and psychological repercussions very well. It's not "informative", so probably aimed to function as a "portrayal" of the situation as felt by the people involved - the ungovernable, violent and complicated nature of the problem. That's one of the things I mustered from the film, alongside the idea that since the government is incapable of protecting its citizens, they must arm themselves and form vigilante squads. And another thing is that, from what I've seen, strangely (or not), fiction films deal with all this better. 5

Life Itself (2014, Steve James)
Quotes, jazzy score, photographs of his life, title of the film, shots of the city, hospital, effects of sickness, courage, happiness, work, peculiar details, little witty jokes, light conversations, positive accounts by other people, accomplishments, alcoholism, cancer, convergence to death … A “perfect” documentary, isn’t it? Might even be able to make one shed a tear or two! Reflect on life! Life itself! Death too. OK, end of bad taste. But honestly after 20 minutes I wanted to turn it off due to its predictable structural soppiness - cutting back and forth between the hospital shoot to see a man suffer and a jazzy score underlying Ebert’s progressively revealed biography with various people talking good true things about him (WITH WERNER HERZOG - “[Ebert] is a soldier of cinema”). Sure, there are some arguably tender and emotionally involving moments with people crying on screen and "beautiful sadness" mixed with light-hearted jokes and so on, but yeah... the effect all that causes depends on the viewer. But it’s Ebert, it’s about films, friendship, family, sickness, passing, director-critic relations; it’s interesting, it’s gripping, so obviously I couldn’t turn it off and had to continue and enjoy it, despite being narked throughout by the predictable, manipulative soppiness-instilled structure. 6

The Fear of 13 (2015, David Sington)
The death penalty is obviously a pertinant problem that’s been the focus of many films, both fiction and documentary (‘M’, ‘The Ox-Bow Incident’, ’Paths of Glory’, ’12 Angry Men’, ’Death By Hanging’, ‘A Short Film About Killing’, ‘The Thin Blue Line’, ’Prison Break’, ‘Capote’, ‘Into the Abyss’ and many more I haven’t yet seen come to mind). Especially documentary filmmakers might attempt to research cases where people have been sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit (an additionally troubling situation), possibly getting a chance to interview these peoples, so that they can express their thoughts and feelings experienced during unsettling circumstances very few could fully-well relate to. ‘The Thin Blue Line’ in particular is a milestone that presents social commentary and greatly examines a flawed juidicial system. The film’s release subsequently prompted a reevalution of the man’s case that lead to his release from death row.

’The Fear of 13’ is appreciatively different though, the approach was more focused, personal and intimate, since they let the man himself speak throughout the entirety of the film, alone. But the “monologue” certainly seems scripted in parts due to the various poetic and a little over the top articulations. It even seems likely the filmmakers have asked the man to sometimes repeat his recollections and thoughts, so that they could reshoot and select the “best spoken and displayed” sequence while editing. Also the supplementary sound effects and reenactments of what the man attempts to describe were unsurprisingly counterproductive. Those things make the film lose instinct, authenticity and honesty, which I all value. I’m not saying that his account wasn’t authentic or honest (obviously it was), but that the way it’s presented to the viewer is fundamentally as a spectacle, that makes the film necessarily less striking, thought provoking or absorbing (at least for me). So despite some potential, this over-emphasis on staged and sensationalized emotivity (by the filmmakers, not necessarily the man himself) was unsuccessful.
There were a couple of good bits, I liked segment where he talks about reading books and educating himself that lead him to claim “I was happy, on death row (…) because I became comfortable with being who I was, finally (in life)”. But overall, well, it didn’t work for me. 5

The Propaganda Game (2015, Álvaro Longoria)
Starting with the ridiculous opening tune, “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” written on screen, happy children roller skating, people getting married, and basically seeing the “perfect community”, and then immediately commencing with one comment disparaging DPRK, followed by an observation questioning knowledge and more statements (in particular on human abuse), all set against these happy population imagery, I knew this wouldn’t be a trivial documentary. It immediately got my attention and the pacing caused it to remain there. Some good self-aware editing and investigation into appearance, propaganda and convictions by all sides (not only DPRK). And all the footage from North Korea itself is nice to look at, and moreover analysed in a journalistic, even travelogue style, with opinions shown by many different sides and people. I’ve got nothing else to add, this is a good documentary that wins the competition for me by quite a big margin. 7

IT iS A GiANT CREEPY FiSH HEAD THiNG!

Hi all,out of the three horror movies listed here this was the only one that I have heard nothing about..and I'm happy to say that the movie turned out to be a complete surprise:

7

Skipping along to the off-beat of Nami's mind,co-writer/(along with Etsuo Hiratani) director Eiji Uchida & cinematographer Shinya Kimura spray the screen with a quirky indie vibe,as stylish slow-motion scenes of Nami walking around care-free slyly hide her nasty habits. Cutting into the gore of Nami and Shiomi's relationship, Uchida impressively keeps the bonkers nature of their relationship be a central theme to the violence,as the sharp use of slo-mo reveals the calm behind Nami's mad eyes.

Gradually revealing Nami's set of horror fangs,the screenplay by Uchida and Hiratani stab Nami's habits with jet-black Comedy venom, hilariously stiffening as Nami's peaks on her loners sexual interest,to flowing over the viewer,as Shiomi gives a less than cheerful response to Nami's desire to keep him a loner. Casting an eerie shadow from Nami's troubled childhood,the writers nail it to the floor with brittle torture horror.Grinding the gory horror with a nail-gun,the writers strip away the bitterness of the Torture Horror sub-genre via dipping the action in comedic tar. Joined by a wonderfully gruff Takashi Sasano as Shiomi, Kumi Takiuchi gives a superb performance as Nami,thanks to Takiuchi smoothly threading Nami's odd,butter wouldn't melt in her mouth outer shell with a gleefully murderous grin bubbling underneath,as Nami makes the dead feel grateful.

Bone Tomahawk... 

Scary ass film!

I don't get scared very easily, but the last third of this really got me. I couldn't even look during Nick's scene...Oh Nick. Poor Nick.

Since this is a lazy comment, a question for discussion: Is there depth to the film, or is it essentially torture porn dressed up as something more intelligent through its slow pace? I'm inclined to think the latter right now (torture porn), which I've realised I have less tolerance for than I used to. I'm not saying it's unintelligent - and on the whole I think it's a good film - but I could understand someone thinking it is gratuitous and unlikeable.


I’ll be waiting, with a gun and a pack of sandwiches.

Hi flaiky. I really liked Bone Tomahawk, and I really would not refer to it as "torture porn", myself. I haven't re-watched it for the festival, I already saw it a few months ago, but outside of poor young Nick's gruesome death, being hacked in half at the groin (YOUCH!) and disemboweled (was he also scalped and removed of his brain too, if I recall?), I don't remember other graphic moments of gory violence besides that scene. Certainly not sustained gore like in the Hostel films and what have you. But anyways, while that last third is really cool when it goes full-on horror, I also enjoyed the guys' journey towards the destination to rescue the young female doctor's assistant and Nick. They are surprisingly colorful characters and there's some funny banter/dialogue, particularly from Richard Jenkins' slow-witted character ("It's the opinion of the back-up deputy..."). I rate it a solid 8/10.

But no, I don't think there's much "depth" to the film, just an enjoyable genre mash-up, a Western that takes a nasty horror turn.





Fighting the frizzies, at 11.

The Fear of 13

Generally I'm a pretty big fan of crime themed documentaries, but overall this one didn't really impress me that much. I think the filmmakers found a good story, but they failed to capitalize and make it as engaging as it could've been. Their basic approach was to let their subject, convicted murderer Nick Yarris, tell the story of his life to the camera. His re-telling is done in a really fake, rehearsed way though, which is interesting. One the hand, since you don't know whether Yarris is guilty or not, you wonder about whether his affected, artificial way of speaking is any indication of criminality or guilt. Overall though, I think it detracts from the story, it made me second guess a lot of what he had to say. Some of the stories Yarris tells just sound contrived because of the way he delivers them, even though they are probably truthful. Others just don't add much. For example, we hear one about how death row inmates were made to suffer in almost complete silence as punishment, and how one day this sad prisoner started singing some song which echoed throughout the cell block, and how it was so beautiful that even the (normally brutal & uncompromising) guards allowed it. While it's not a bad anecdote, I think the film would've been better dramatised by focussing more on the murder Yarris was convicted for. It seems like that should naturally be the central mystery of the film, and yet it's underemphasized, not even mentioned for much of the run-time. Instead you basically just get one long, overly rehearsed talking head. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not, but a lost opportunity overall.

6/10


All right, later dudes. S you in your A's, don't wear a C, and J all over your B's.

Cartel Land (2015) - 7/10

I'm sort of with Carmel on this, in that the subject matter should lend itself to a more gripping documentary though I am a bit more forgiving of it. The ground-level access that Heineman is able to achieve here is pretty amazing. The thriller-movie score was a bit much and I don't think the film was able to fully and effectively convey the political and social complexity of the Mexican cartels on the border, but there is some chilling footage here. Overall it's mostly interesting but could have been more, and ultimately like Carmel I've also found fictional TV/movies about this subject to be more fulfilling.


Life Itself (2014) - 8/10

Originally, this documentary adaptation of Roger Ebert's memoir was simply intended to be a lovingly made look back on his personal life and career as a film critic, but once he got increasingly sick and died while the doc was still in production, it became something more. The footage of Ebert's final days confined to a hospital bed could be rather hard to watch at times, and it's certainly sad to see but I'm not sure if this material was beneficial to the film. What I enjoyed most was hearing about Ebert's early days at the Chicago Tribune, who apparently started writing film reviews basically due to pure circumstance and was a seemingly fun-loving guy who enjoyed visiting the local dive bar with his fellow columnists after work each night. His alcoholism, loneliness until meeting his wife, and of course his love-hate relationship with Gene Siskel is delved into quite well here and I was gripped. I liked how it didn't shy away from the question of whether the Siskel and Ebert TV show, with its famed "Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down" film verdicts, was bad for film criticism in reducing entire opinions on films to such a simplistic "yes or no" decision. Obviously made with a genuine love and great respect by veteran documentarian Steve James, whose masterful 1994 doc Hoop Dreams was championed by Ebert, this is a straightforward film but it mostly worked on me.


The Fear of 13 (2015) - 7/10

Nick Yarris, a death row inmate who claims his innocence regarding his conviction for the rape and murder of a woman in the early '80s, tells his story to the camera in a very articulate and dramatic fashion. This is a man who led a life of petty crime and got into drugs from a young age and had never gotten past a rudimentary level of formal education, and like many prisoners facing hard time, he self-taught by reading books and with the way he speaks in this doc (and we get everything from his perspective - he's literally the only person we hear from for the film's entire duration), he has clearly picked up the knack for storytelling. Whether he's embellishing some of his stories or not, it's hard to tell, but the imagery he conjures up with his vivid descriptions is often fascinating and really gives the viewer an idea of settings and circumstances. As Rmiles mentioned above, the nature of these constant talking-head segments does seem quite well-rehearsed in advance, but I generally didn't have much issue with it. Sometimes it got a little over-the-top with unnecessary sound effects that were added for dramatic effect.

There is a very personal, tragic incident from Yarris' childhood that isn't brought up until close to the very end, I'm not sure how it aided his story really or why it was decided to add this bit in the final moments other than to maybe throw in a "twist" of sorts to reveal that Yarris himself was a rape victim, but oh well. Interesting doc for the most part, which I thought was going to be another The Thin Blue Line (which I honestly wouldn't have minded, and like Rmiles I still would have appreciated a bit more of the specifics on the abduction/rape/murder case for which Yarris was convicted).


The Propaganda Game (2015) - 7/10

In this doc, Spanish filmmaker Alvaro Longoria gets rare access as a foreigner to enter North Korea and document his travels there, the notoriously secretive and isolated (both self-imposed and by the rest of the world) communist regime. Longoria's goal in visiting North Korea is to try to see first-hand for himself, and by talking directly with North Koreans, if there is any truth to the propaganda about the nation coming from NK itself and also from outside (i.e., what little information that we do get about the country, mostly horrible accounts regarding human rights violations, famine, executions of anyone seen as dissenters, etc.). One of the most interesting and remarkable aspects of the doc is Alejandro Cao de Benos, a Spanish man who is the sole foreigner working for the North Korean government, and basically acts as tour guide for Longoria and as a loyal spokesman of the North Korean regime. He appears to be showing a very carefully constructed, staged tour of North Korea, with everyone smiling and singing the praises of their fearless leader Kim Jong-un. There is something off-putting about Alejandro, and one of the many talking heads in the doc hints at Alejandro receiving generous financial compensation for his services. I would like to have known a bit more about how a man from Spain became so involved in becoming spokesman for the DPRK; all we seem to get is that from a young age Alejandro was interested in communist philosophies but was dissatisfied with Spanish communist parties and its leaders.

Most of the people that Longoria gets access to are part of the government; it seemed rare that he got to speak in-depth and candidly with any everyday, "average" North Koreans. But even then, one gets the sense that these people are both too utterly brainwashed, and simply in fear, under those seemingly forced smiles, to speak freely about the regime. One striking moment showing the regime's attempts at covering up their oppression is when Longoria visits what appears to be Christian church, during a mass and everything, but later it's claimed that this church is the only one of its kind in the country and is a "fake" - it's just for show, and Christianity is not allowed to be practiced.

This film made for an often fascinating watch, even though I did not gain much new knowledge overall. Understandable, partially due to those that Longoria speaks to not being willing to give candid answers to the most pressing questions about the regime. North Korea still remains very much a mystery, and all I can say is that I really feel for those people.







Fighting the frizzies, at 11.

Hi Carmel, I'm the other doc juror...have you been able to get to the other 2 films in the category yet? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.






Fighting the frizzies, at 11.