I'm a Cyborg but That's OK (Saibogujiman kwenchana) Film Review

NO SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN

In order to provide a reasonably objective film score, I've broken down each element so the reader can see my thought process and assess whether a movie is worth their time. A lot of reviews seem to operate on emotional reaction rather than strict analysis and this is my attempt to provide a decent alternative to the consumer. The final scores will be shown at the end of the review.

Film: I'm a Cyborg but That's OK (Saibogujiman kwenchana)
Year: 2006
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Format Reviewed: DVD
Rating: Unrated/Not Rated

Story Basics: "A girl who thinks she is a combat cyborg checks into a mental hospital, where she encounters other psychotics. ...She (befriends) a man who thinks he can steal people's souls." - IMDB

Each score is between 1 and 10.
A score of 1 is fatally flawed. 
5 is creatively unoffensive yet mediocre.
10 is perfection.

Family Tree: 
The writer/director, Chan Wook Park, also wrote/directed Oldboy and produced Snowpiercer.

The lead actresses, Lim Su-jung, was also the lead in the incredible A Tale of Two Sisters.

Story Grades

Coherency: 7.5
The story is clear enough but some of the backstory given means little to the overall plot.
Given the subject matter of mental instability, the narrative doesn't always progress linearly which may throw some viewers for a loop. Overall though, the narrative voice is clear and coherent.

Emotional Depth: 8.5
There's some deep mechanisms at play here and the film never once stoops to the level of picking low hanging fruit. For example: the brutality and harshness of some psychiatric treatments are shown without any softening yet the doctors are not depicted as antagonists, they are shown as deeply-caring people who are doing their best to help those in their charge.

This level of emotional depth and tenderness is present at nearly every level of the film, from individual character arcs to overarching themes. Such balanced restraint and attention to detail make the payoff of the culmination of our lead character's emotional revelations extremely rewarding when all is said and done.

Originality: 9.5
A violent romantic comedy set within a mental hospital that never once uses it's theme/setting for cheap laughs? I've never seen anything like it and probably never will again. This is a unique and special film.

Visual Grades
 
Visual Effects: 6.5
Special Effects: 7
There are some really pleasing visual effects, but some of the cg will read as being pretty dated. Technology has come a long way since 2006. In terms of physical special effects, there are some explosive elements and blood hits that read quite nicely without seeming particularly feigned. Nothing incredible, just what is necessary.

Cinematography: 9
The framing in this film is both beautiful and unusual. Constantly playing with compositional ideas and creating striking images, this is a films whose visuals will not leave the viewer after watching them.

Sound Score
 
Music: 7.5
General Sound: 6
The score is beautiful and grand while occasionally lilting into a fairy-like, music box sound and tempo. This not only allows the soundtrack to stand out while complementing the surreal visuals and color palette, but makes for a memorable score.
I didn't particularly notice much about the rest of the sound. This could mean one of two things, that the fx and foley were so complementary and perfect that they disappeared completely into the narrative, or that they were so mediocre that absolutely nothing stood out. 

Performance and Flow

Acting: 8
With such a large cast and so many vignette portions focusing on each of the secondary characters, this film ran the risk of being dragged down by a single terrible performance. Fortunately, nearly everyone here is at the top of their game. The leads are utterly convincing and effortlessly draw the audience into their performances while the secondary actors turn in performances ranging from slightly-better-than-hammy to incredibly nuanced and interesting.

Pacing/Editing: 6.5
The film's overall pace stutters in a few areas and takes some unexplicable detours that never end up adding to the overall narrative, but these issues can be explained away as being an additional layer of representation for the themes of mental instability shown. That said, the pace won't resonate with everyone watching.

Subjective Modifiers

Passes Bechdel Test: + 0.5
Intelligent Mind-Bender: +0.5
No Exploitation: +0.5
Extremely Odd/Quirky in Nature: +/-0.5
Moderate Gore: +/- 0.5

Final Grade: 7.6 out of 10
Take all the scores except the Subjective Modifiers and average them, we have our final score.
 
An overall, super entertaining and original film that most people will greatly enjoy!

Subjective Grade: 10.1 out of 10
This is where the Subjective Modifiers factor into it. Take the average score before modifiers and then add or subtract them exactly as they are, anything that is +/- is a positive as I am personally a fan of horror and a feminist. 

For someone like me, this film is beyond perfect. Everything I want to see in a movie is here and I can geek out about it on both aesthetic and intellectual levels, a rare treat indeed. Films like this are rare and to be treasured!

Squeamish Grade: 6.6 out of 10
Same process as the Subjective Grade but only factors in the +/- modifiers and counts them as negatives. This score is aimed at those who are turned off by violence, high tension situations, and anything out of the ordinary. 

Even if you strongly dislike when a film veers off into the absurd or are put off by violence/gore, this film will still come across as a quality, above average viewing experience.

Second Opinions

IMDB: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: N/A







Hope this helps you decide whether you want to give I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK a viewing!
Thanks for reading,
Josh Evans

Triangle Film Review

NO SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN

In order to provide a reasonably objective film score, I've broken down each element so the reader can see my thought process and assess whether a movie is worth their time. A lot of reviews seem to operate on emotional reaction rather than strict analysis and this is my attempt to provide a decent alternative to the consumer. The final scores will be shown at the end of the review.

Film: Triangle
Year: 2009
Country: UK
Language: English
Format Reviewed: Blu-ray
Rating: R (violence and language)

Story Basics: "The passengers of a yachting trip...are struck by mysterious weather and must jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc." - Rotten Tomatoes

Each score is between 1 and 10.
A score of 1 is fatally flawed. 
5 is creatively unoffensive yet mediocre.
10 is perfection.


Family Tree: 
The writer/director, Christopher Smith, also directed Black Death and wrote/directed Severance.

The lead actresses, Melissa George, is known for her parts in the television series' The Good Wife and Grey's Anatomy.

Story Grades

Coherency: 8.5
Triangle revolves around a central mystery that, initially, will have the viewers rolling their eyes at the seemingly nonsensical actions of the protagonists only to gasp in astonishment as the plot reveals itself and fully explains the films internal logic.

In the end, any minor plot holes may be overlooked due to the sheer audacity and eventual coherency of the film's main conceit. 

Emotional Depth: 6
Spotty acting from the supporting cast bring down some moments that may have been quite emotionally rewarding. Part of the allure of this film is how the genre morphs as the narrative progresses and the entire front end is a genre with very little in terms of emotional investment on the part of most audiences.

Once all is revealed, some major emotional punches land; but for some viewers this may be too little too late.

Originality: 7
To talk too much about the plot is to ruin much of the fun with this particular film. Suffice to say, other films have attempted to pull similar narrative tricks. NONE within the subgenre of horror have ever attempted it with such complexity, subtlety, and grace. That alone is more than enough to give Triangle a leg-up within its own genre.

Visual Grades
 
Visual Effects: 5
Special Effects: 6
The seams shine bright in this low-budget endeavor, which is a shame because sometimes they glaringly distract from the parts where the film really stands out. There's some terrible digital compositing, obvious character stand-ins and unconvincing gore effects that can simply be chalked up to a low budget.

Cinematography: 6
The camerawork is pretty par for the course with a few notable exceptions. The majority of the film has pretty standard framing, only occasionally does the overall image look like capital 'A' Art. 

Sound Score
 
Music: 6
General Sound: 6
Complete honesty time.
I didn't even notice the score or anything about the sound. This could mean one of two things, that they were both so complementary and perfect that they disappeared completely into the narrative, or that they were so mediocre that absolutely nothing stood out. 

Performance and Flow

Acting: 7.5
The cast is small, very small. This can often spell the doom of immersion if any one actor stands out as being particularly terrible. Fortunately for Triangle, the secondary cast only stands out as being mediocre and, usually, only borderline convincing. This would result in a much, much lower score than 7.5, but Melissa George's performance elevates the entire film. She is entirely believable and relatable as a character and sells the heck out of her character's dramatic arc.

Pacing/Editing: 8
A slow burn occasionally broken up by flash cuts that, subtly, take over the entire editing style as all hell breaks loose. The narrative pace is both methodical and frantic; the edit works to fully support and complement this progression.


Subjective Modifiers

Passes Bechdel Test: + 0.5
Intelligent Mind-Bender: +0.5
Moderate Gore: +/- 0.5
Decent Scares/Tension: +/- 0.5
Minor Exploitation: - 0.5

Final Grade: 6.6 out of 10
Take all the scores except the Subjective Modifiers and average them, we have our final score.
 
The result is a slightly above average movie that might be memorable but won't change your world.

Subjective Grade: 8.1 out of 10
This is where the Subjective Modifiers factor into it. Take the average score before modifiers and then add or subtract them exactly as they are, anything that is +/- is a positive as I am personally a fan of horror and a feminist. 

The result is a movie that challenges the tropes of its genre and offers a new perceptive on tired themes. For fans of psychological head-trips and horror fans alike, Triangle is a must see!

Squeamish Grade: 5.6 out of 10
Same process as the Subjective Grade but only factors in the +/- modifiers and counts them as negatives. This score is aimed at those who are turned off by violence and high tension situations. 

For the squeamish, this film won't be entirely enjoyable. While they may appreciate the central plot and overarching narrative, the high tension and violence will take a lot away from the overall experience.

 Second Opinions

IMDB: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: N/A


Hope this helps you decide whether you want to give Triangle a viewing!
Thanks for reading,
Josh Evans

Koma (Jiu Ming) Film Review

NO SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN

In order to provide a reasonably objective film score, I've broken down each element so the reader can see my thought process and assess whether a movie is worth their time. A lot of reviews seem to operate on emotional reaction rather than strict analysis and this is my attempt to provide a decent alternative to the consumer. The final scores will be shown at the end of the review.


Film: Koma (Jiu Ming)
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese
Format Reviewed: DVD
Rating: R

Story Basics: "A woman becomes caught in the web of a gang of thieves who literally steal the lives from their victims in this thriller." - Mark Deming, Rovi

Score is between 1 and 10.
A score of 1 is fatally flawed. 
5 is a creatively unoffensive yet mediocre.
10 is perfection

Family Tree:
 
One of the two directors of Koma, Chi-Leung Law, directed The Bullet Vanishes.

One of the lead actresses, Angelica Lee, was also the lead in The Eye (not the Jessica Alba remake) and Re-Cycle.










Story Grades

Coherency: 2
Koma has some pretty big plot holes and, although the characters are well developed, they often act completely outside of their established personality without any eventual explanation or context.
 
Emotional Depth: 8
While it may not resonate with all audiences, Koma has a lot of moments that strike genuine emotional chords. Some of the scares that build up over the course of the film rely heavily on the sum of these moments and provide a firm foundation for the audience to cling to when the plot flies off the rails from time to time.
 
Originality: 7
The core idea here is based off of regional folklore, yet places it in a modern setting and uses the whole "fireside horror story" as a starting point to build the narrative off into new directions. It may have some moments that insult the viewer's intelligence but there are many twists and turns that feel entirely new to the genre.



Visual Grades
 
Visual Effects: 3
Special Effects: 4
There are very few portions with CG (Visual Effects) or Physical Effects (Special Effects) in Koma, but when they do appear they are pretty poorly executed. They aren't bad enough to provide laughs but they'll take the viewer out of the experience for a second.

Cinematography: 6
The camerawork is pretty par for the course with a few notable exceptions. The majority of the film has pretty standard framing, only occasionally does the overall image look like capital 'A' Art.



Sound Score
 
Music: 3
General Sound: 3
The music and sound effects are often ham-handed and over the top, which is a shame as there are some great moments that are lessened by an overzealous "feel-scared-now-please" shriek of instruments.



The Only Things Most Reviewers Focus On (passive-aggressive swipe?)

Acting: 7
With a few exceptions (the protagonist's brother, for example, is painful to watch. Fortunately he has a very small role), the acting of the leads here is nearly award-worthy. The characters go through a broad variety of emotions and the actors all do quite well with the screen time they are given, it makes for an engrossing watch.

Pacing/Editing: 3
Some of the moments that defy logic could have been fixed with a tighter edit, it gives the feeling of a director who just didn't want to let the editor cut out as much as they could have. As a result the film has a very choppy pace, this is a story that could have slowly built on paranoia to crescendo in utter horror but instead opts to sputter between fast-paced events languid characterization that often repeats itself.



Subjective Modifiers

Passes Bechdel Test: + 0.5
Moderate Gore: +/- 0.5
Decent Scares/Tension: +/- 0.5
Minor Exploitation: - 0.5



Final Grade: 4.6 out of 10
Take all the scores except the Subjective Modifiers and average them, we have our final score.
The result is a pretty mediocre movie that isn't blatantly bad but certainly won't rock your world.

Subjective Grade: 6.1 out of 10
This is where the Subjective Modifiers factor into it. Take the average score before modifiers and then add or subtract them exactly as they are, anything that is +/- is a positive as I am personally a fan of scares and a bit of the ultra-violence (hence subjective). The result is a movie that is better than mediocre and has tiny flickers of brilliance but doesn't really hold up in the long run.

Squeamish Grade: 3.6 out of 10
Same process as the Subjective Grade but all the +/- modifiers are negatives. This score is aimed at those who are turned off by violence and high tension situations. It reflects the positive aspects of the film, but maintains that the viewer will probably not enjoy the experience.



Second Opinions

IMDB: 6.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
Metacritic: N/A


Hope this helps you decide whether you want to give Koma a shot or not!
Thanks for reading,
Josh Evans

Hollywood is Insulting You (but would still love your cash)

Our culture is lightning paced and global connectivity is at a historic high.  It makes sense that film studios would want to capitalize on excellent filmmaking in other countries by introducing it to citizens of the USA, yet how they go about this process has all the grace and finesse of dentistry with a chainsaw.  From re-making a film mere months after it is released internationally, to recording audio overlays that literally scrub a facet of an actors performance, let us enter the world of appropriation for cash.

Allow me to clarify by saying this: Not All Remakes are Bad.  Some Are Awesome.
I am specifically referring to the constant barrage of remade foreign films that are released as soon as the studios are able to crank them out; the Americanization of great stories that can stand on their own.

This current process of remaking foreign films results in (most often) a low quality product that is neither fine art nor decent storytelling.  There ARE some success stories, these must be noted, but they don't get a free pass either (we'll explore that later on).

Let's kick off the quality angle by examining some truly wretched remakes of wonderful films.

The Eye
Original
Summery:
"A supernatural thriller, which has redefined fear for Western audiences by offering a glimpse into Eastern rituals and attitudes surrounding death."  -Metacritic

Release Year: 2002
Region: Hong Kong

Metacritic: 66/100
IMDB: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 64%

Positive Review:
"With its spooky first-person rendering of Mun's experience...blurred, tentative, disoriented...The Eye creates a world of constant and imminent upheaval."
 - Geoff Pevere (Toronto Star)

Negative Review:
"It's a definite display of talent, but without enough thematic richness to get deeply under our skins."
- Robert Denerstein (Denver Rocky Mountain News)




Remake
Summery: 
"A woman receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Remake of the Hong Kong film."  - IMDB
Release Year: 2008
Region: USA

Metacritic: 36/100
IMDB: 5.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 21%

Positive Review:
"An effective if redundant fright flick."
- Tirdad Derakhshani (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Negative Review:
"With every twist of the second-hand plot telegraphed far in advance, you don't need to be clairvoyant to see where this is going."

- Neil Smith (BBC)

[*REC]

Original 

Summery:

"REC turns on a young TV reporter and her cameraman who cover the night shift at the local fire station. Receiving a call from an old lady trapped in her house, they reach her building to hear horrifying screams, which begin a long nightmare and a uniquely dramatic TV report."  -IMDB

Release Year: 2007 
Region: Spain

Metacritic: Not Available
IMDB: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Positive Review:
"A demonic, barnstorming, cinema verite horror experience that pulls few punches, fears no genre taboo, and reaches for the throat with delightful intimidation."

- Brian Orndorf  (BrianOrndorf.com)

Negative Review:
"Even though it's the third such effort to employ handheld camera in a zombie flick, this has more than enough shocks to hold its own."

- Kim Newman (Empire Magazine)

Quarantine
Remake of [*REC]
Summery: 
"A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC after the outbreak of a mysterious virus." -IMDB

Release Year: 2008
Region: USA

Metacritic: 53/100
IMDB: 6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 59%

Positive Review:

"A respectable, if uninspired, adaptation of... [REC], a Blair Witch-style variation on zombie movie cliches that might seem fresher had it not opened after veteran George Romero's grimly pared-down Diary of the Dead."

- Maitland McDonagh (Miss FlickChick)

Negative Review:
"Quarantine fails to correct some of the problems evident in its predecessor while also incorporating a few defects of its own."
- James Berardinelli (ReelViews)

A Tale of Two Sisters

Original

Summery:

"Based on a famous Korean folktale, this grim fairy tale is one of the most heart-breaking and unexpected movies about loss, guilt, and grief ever made." - Metacritic

Release Year: 2003
Region: South Korea

Metacritic: 65/100
IMDB: 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Positive Review:

"Ji-woon Kim may be the Korean David Lynch and his juxtaposition of seemingly innocent and suddenly searing situations is marvelously unnerving, as are the constantly shifting personalities of most of his characters."
- Tom Long (Detroit News)
Negative Review:
"We aren't meant to understand the story fully until the film's closing minutes, so the shocks and suggestions come in a muddled context."
- Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)

The Uninvited

Remake of A Tale of Two Sisters

Summery:

"Anna Rydell returns home to her sister (and best friend) Alex after a stint in a mental hospital, though her recovery is jeopardized thanks to her cruel stepmother, aloof father, and the presence of a ghost in their home."  - IMDB

Release Year: 2009
Region: USA

Metacritic: 43/100
IMDB: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 31%

Positive Review:

"As far as PG-13 Americanizations of Asian shockers go, it's about 70 percent passable."
- Fernando F. Croce (CinePassion)

Negative Review:
"Take a concept, strip it bare of all layers of meaning, remake it with added genre cliches and scantily clad American teens in order to pander to a wider audience. Voila."

- Mike Edwards (What Culture)

These three films that show a disturbing dip in quality when remade with American audiences in mind.
  

Do the studios responsible have a deep level of contempt for their audience or are these terrible remakes simply the product of rushing to cash in on the hit of another culture?
The truth probably lies closer to the latter, yet the taste left in this connoisseur's mouth is that of the former.

This begs the question, if time has (in general) shown the quick, shoddy remakes to be inferior products, why even bother?  Why can't these studios, instead of buying the rights to remake, buy the distribution rights and market the high quality original film?  Between many Americans being perceived as too lazy to read subtitles and rampant xenophobia within our culture, it is possible that many large studios just don't feel as though the risk is worth taking.

For more solid films that have had less-than-flattering remakes, here is a short list to research (these are just films that I have seen, there are many more):

Ju-On/The Grudge

Ringu/The Ring

Dark Water Original/Remake

Pulse Original/Remake

They Are Around Us/Shutter

But wait, the knowledgeable movie lover responds, there exist remakes of foreign films that are actually quite good!  In order to discuss the next issue, filmmaking integrity and morality, let us first take a comparative look at two remakes that were very well received upon domestic release. 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Original

Summery:

"A journalist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by a young female hacker." - IMDB

Release Year: 2009
Region: Denmark

Metacritic: 76/100
IMDB: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

Positive Review:

"Appreciation of the film relies more on the performances than the problem-solving, and Rapace delivers a complicated and deliciously contrary performance that tattoos Lisbeth Salander straight onto the brain."
- Peter Howell (Toronto Star)

Negative Review:
"[W]hile the film offers silly fun for a while, its ultimate schizophrenia and self-seriousness become its undoing."

- Jeremy Heilman (MovieMartyr.com)

Remake

Summery:

"Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker." - IMDB

Release Year: 2010
Region: USA

Metacritic: 71/100
IMDB: 8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%

Positive Review:

"It's certainly worth seeing if you missed the original. If you saw it, however, there's no way of unseeing it, and nothing in the new one to top it."

- Joe Morgenstern (Wall Street Journal)

Negative Review:
"Seeing Fincher's version is like getting a Christmas gift of a book you already have."

- Richard Corliss (TIME Magazine)

Let The Right One In
Original
Summery:
"Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl."
-IMDB  

Release Year: 2008
Region: Norway

Metacritic: 82/100
IMDB: 8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

Positive Review:

"The film is a bevy of contradictions - beauty and horror, young love and violence, innocence and guilt. The fact that it works at all is impressive. The fact that it's a mind-blowing sensory experience is inexplicable."

- Simon Miraudo (Quickflix)

Negative Review:
"A limited how-to on efficiently cracking necks after biting and draining them. But whether this frosty Nordic couch potato vampire gore is your cup of bodily fluid, will depend on your preference for bloodsucker cinema as a dish best served cold."
- Prairie Miller (NewsBlaze)

Let Me In
Remake of Let The Right One In
Summery:
"A bullied young boy befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian."
-IMDB  

Release Year: 2010
Region: USA

Metacritic: 79/100
IMDB: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Positive Review:

"There was no good reason for this movie to exist beyond a lazy American disinterest in subtitles. But having said that, it's pretty great on its own."

- Dave White (Movies.com)

Negative Review:
"A striking picture to study, but a blunt, condensed take on the source material, sacrificing an unsettling sense of macabre harmony to keep elements blocky enough so they might be appreciated by a wide, profitable audience."

- Brian Orndorf  (BrianOrndorf.com)

Both remakes listed above are good, solid examples of filmmaking, and they both garnered (mostly) positive reviews while under-preforming at the box office.

What is the issue then with these films?

The facade of quality starts to unravel when the viewer simply stops to ask why the films were re-made in the first place.  Like the most of the terrible remakes shown, as soon as the original started gaining ground as a self-contained work of cinematic art, screenplays were penned to profit from the success of another.

Money is a huge motivator and the only difference between the quality of the Americanization of, say, REC and Let The Right One In would have to fall upon the shoulders of the people involved.

Why do these stories NEED the Hollywood rework when the global community has largely accepted the original already?  Do we view ourselves as being above the rest of the world, that our films are so much better than anything other countries produce (South Korea has already shot that notion the hell down)?

In essence, what we are dealing with here are the same money-grubbing, spotlight-stealing tactics...yet somehow many people find it acceptable in the case of Let Me In and Dragon Tattoo simply because the final product was one of high quality.  Is quality really the threshold of morality or decency?  What if you wrote/directed a film, then your studio sold the rights just as people started recognizing your work?  

It is reasonable for every crew member and fan of foreign films to be angry beyond belief when an English language remake is in the works before the theatrical run of the original version has even completed.

There is another aspect to consider, despite the intended ethnicity or sexuality of the original story, characters are often white-washed and women become sexual objects in many Americanized renditions.  These aspects alone are reason enough to stand up against such films, despicable corporate motivations aside.

The low level of literacy in the USA probably has a huge factor in the decision making process of the number-fueled accountants who run the companies that determine our media consumption.  If Hollywood is simply remaking due to the literacy issue, then they are directly insulting your intelligence by assuming that you cannot read fast enough to keep up.

I've heard people defend "good" remakes of foreign films by asserting that they are quite different than their counterpart; I would argue that if they are different to a degree that justifies their existence immediately after the original was released, then change the name of the film and make it original.

This will never happen.
Remakes exist because there is a market for the original film that a studio wishes to leech off of and expand.

It would appear as though artistic merit and storytelling genius have a greater amount of sway overseas than they do here.

The film-going public should not be considered cows to be blindfolded then milked.
Think globally and benefit from it.

With this in mind, vote with your wallet. 

Buy foreign films and speak out against their cringe-inducing remakes. 

Happy viewing,

Josh Evans  

DoubleTap Review: Funny Games and God Bless America

As of late, I have been lucky enough to view a film that really blew me away.  The film I refer to is God Bless America and has a 4th wall breaking narrative that reminded me of one of my favorite films, Funny Games.

Funny Games was initially released in Germany in 1998 and was remade by the same director in 2007 in order to connect with a wider audience.  This is one of the few times that I am fully on board with a remake as the second iteration of the story was facilitated by the creator of the first.

Both films (Funny Games and God Bless America) have my full support and will affect the viewer deeply in different ways.

Since I believe that no film can be properly reviewed using a "star" or "thumbs" scale, I have broken film-making down into its base components.  Not everyone watches a film for the same reasons so it can be nice to review the segments for what they are.

There are no spoilers in this review that are immediately visible.  If you see this {[SPOILERS]} then select the invisible/white text under it to reveal the information.  This will allow everyone to safely read the page without fear of ruining the film for anyone!

Film: God Bless America

Year: 2011

Country: USA

Premise: Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of America. With nothing to lose, he decides to off the stupidest, cruelest, and most repellent members of modern society.

IMDB Site

Rotten Tomatoes Site

Film: Funny Games

Year: 2011

Country: USA/Germany

Premise: A family settles into their vacation home, which happens to be the next stop for a trio of young, articulate, white-gloved serial killers on an excursion through the neighborhood.  You are one of those killers.

IMDB Site

Rotten Tomatoes Site







Story Evolution
God Bless America:
A charming, angry, and wry narrator draws the audience into caring about the situation long before the characters work their way into our hearts.  The story takes very few narrative turns but makes up for it by having such a strong and well fleshed out concept, that nary a second is spent looking at the clock during this film.

Funny Games:
The beginning credits are, in my mind, one of the most effecting/hilarious openings in film history.  The audience starts off thinking they know exactly where the story is going as the threat is introduced early in the story.  As the tale unfurls, the story manages to make the audience feel both interested in what will happen next and guilty that the events taking place are directly their fault simultaneously.  Funny Games is a great experiment in psychologically, interactive filmmaking.

Intellect
God Bless America:
This is a film that constantly asks big questions.  It occasionally insults the viewer and questions their validity as functional members of society.  This movie never stops taking on big societal issues and taking aim at everyone and everything in its path, expect to think and laugh a lot.

Funny Games:
For the most part, this nail-biter starts off pretty straight-forward in the intelligence department.  Every so often the directer subtly throws a question, statement, or acknowledgement toward the viewers until the film builds to a near conversation with the viewer as a participant in a blood-soaked discussion about the role of cruelty in entertainment.  The narrative ends, but builds to a large query in the mind of the audience, {[SPOILERS]} does horror, terror, and evil exist in life simply because we are, on some level, entertained by it? {[END SPOILERS]}

Character 
God Bless America:
Many of these characters are people you already know.  From entertainers to politicians to the couple next door who are eerily similar to the ones in the movie, God Bless America nails our current culture in terms of characters and how they affect society in general.  The two central characters represent two different, yet equally disturbed, points of view on the current situation in the United States.  Frank, our protagonist, is developed extremely well and his character arc alone is fascinating to watch.

Funny Games:
While the characters are not entirely fleshed out, they are given enough subtlety that makes the audience wish to know more about them.  The family and the two strangers represent two different sides of the viewers...this concept is tied very deeply to the central themes of the film.

God Bless America

Visual Tone
Both movie share a similar realistic yet slightly over-saturated visual tone.  God Bless America occasionally becomes very stylized in terms of color and execution, but both stay within an enhanced visual reality.

 Funny games

VSFX
God Bless America:
Some light blood fx.  An, offscreen, exploding baby was probably the hardest things to swallow, everything else was pretty light.

Funny Games:
I do not recall there being any discernible visual effects.

God Bless America

Audio
God Bless America:
Some great classic rock that enhances the overall anti-establishment feel.  There is a long and educational rant about Alice Cooper.

Funny Games:
Classical music and screams.  Really.  The opening scene has the best use of juxtaposition in audio to set up a thematic tone I have ever seen/heard.  Most of this soundtrack is forgettable, but you'll walk away laughing about the excellence of the opening credits.

Scare Level 
God Bless America:
There is no real terror (or even gore) to speak of.  This is a film that uses the violence as a counterpoint to the main theme.  The film has very little tension and very big ideas.

Funny Games:
You might feel played.  Funny Games is not funny but razor sharp in concept and tension level.  The audience often begins to feel guilty when viewing this film {[SPOILERS]} as it is made increasingly clear that the two antagonists are torturing this family simply for our viewing "pleasure". {[END SPOILERS]}  There is little relief and many who view this film (especially critics) leave feeling assaulted and insulted.  In my opinion, that's what makes this a gem.  It lures the audience in, then berates them for it.

Morality 
God Bless America:
When did we as a people become so narcissistic?  Why is it acceptable for television and internet culture to make people "famous" only to make fun of them in the process?  Do we care about the strangers around us or are they merely threats?
This movie presents a paradox {[SPOILERS]} in that the protagonist appears to have snapped due to a general lack of kindness; in order to promote this viewpoint, Frank sets out to kill those who "deserve it"...{[END SPOILERS]} This raises excellent questions to think over and goes into great detail about issues that need to be discussed, yet cuts it's own feet out from under the main argument in the process.  If the writing were less developed, this would be a negative thing but in the case of God Bless America, the central moral paradox only adds to the intelligent moral complexity.

Funny Games:
Violence.  Sexual humiliation.  Slow torture.  "We must never underestimate the value of entertainment" -an antagonist calmly explains.  This is a film that makes excellent points about the ethics of entertainment, but at the cost of being sometimes painful to experience...once again, this only enhances the message.

Final Thoughts

God Bless America:

"I would defend their freedom of speech if I thought it was in jeopardy. I would defend their freedom of speech to tell uninspired, bigoted, blowjob, gay-bashing, racist and rape jokes all under the guise of being edgy, but that's not the edge. That's what sells. They couldn't possibly pander any harder or be more commercially mainstream, because this is the 'Oh no, you didn't say that!' generation, where a shocking comment has more weight than the truth. No one has any shame anymore, and we're supposed to celebrate it. I saw a woman throw a used tampon at another woman last night on network television, a network that bills itself as 'Today's Woman's Channel'. Kids beat each other blind and post it on Youtube. I mean, do you remember when eating rats and maggots on Survivor was shocking? It all seems so quaint now. I'm sure the girls from '2 Girls 1 Cup' are gonna have their own dating show on VH-1 any day now. I mean, why have a civilization anymore if we no longer are interested in being civilized?"  -Frank

This quote occurs at the beginning of the film.  This movie is one intelligent and angry breakdown of society after another, you need to watch this as soon as possible.  God Bless America has a message that needs to be spread.

Funny Games:

I always recommend this film with reservations.  Some people, when quite frightened, resort to making jokes to break their own tension.  Films like Funny Games, I refuse to recommend or view with such people, as they will spend the entire time scared and loud, desperately attempting to be amusing at the expense of an excellent movie.  Oddly enough, that very attitude forms the groundwork for the thesis of this film, the concept of the place of fright and brutality in an entertainment context.
Who is to blame?
Why does it exist?
Funny Games has an wonderful title in that it is not even slightly funny (opening aside), yet the grim escapades bring great amusement to several characters who treat the ordeal as if it were a game.
How often do we do the same thing?

Happy Viewing!
Josh Evans

DoubleTap Review: Penumbra and Livide

I have recently had the good fortune to view several films that, to American audiences, are still on the fringe.

Since I believe that no film can be properly reviewed using a "star" or "thumbs" scale, I have broken film-making down into its base components.  Not everyone watches a film for the same reasons so it can be nice to review the segments for what they are.

There are no spoilers in this review that are immediately visible.  If you see this {[SPOILERS]} then select the invisible/white text under it to reveal the information.  This will allow everyone to safely read the page without fear of ruining the film for anyone!

Film: Penumbra

Year: 2011

Country: Argentina

Premise: A woman rents an apartment to an eerie man who she soon realizes has a strange link to the solar eclipse that is about to take place.

IMDB Site

Rotten Tomatoes Site

Film: Livide (Livid)

Year: 2011

Country: France

Premise: It is Lucy's first day as a trainee in-house caregiver. She visits Mrs Jessel, an old woman who lies in cerebral coma. Mrs Jessel supposedly possesses a treasure somewhere in the house.

IMDB Site

Rotten Tomatoes Site



Story Evolution

Penumbra:
The story evolves at a slow methodical pace.  The first act does an excellent job of setting up the characters and situation and the second works effectively at ratcheting up the tension without jumping the shark.  Act three comes and goes in a matter of minutes, leaving this viewer bewildered and disappointed.  There is a lot of great set-up in this film, but no real payoff.

Livide:
Act one is essential and gives all the needed information to connect the dots in act three.  Act two is short, sweet, and raises the stakes significantly, yet still refuses to show off the big twist.  The third and final portion of this film hits hard and lasts long.  Expect your heart rate to raise and stay raised during the entire last half of this film!  Every question will be answered and the ending is utterly satisfying.

Livide

Intellect
Penumbra:
Aside from gaping plot holes and frustration, this film left me with very little to think about.  Characters, especially near the end, begin acting out of character and start to do things that make no sense given the context of the situation.  At very best, the only intelligent thought I can extract from this film would be to respect the homeless...but that is a huge stretch.

Penumbra

Livide:
For the most part, everything in this film makes sense.  Aside from tying into mythology, there is not much to take away from this dark fairy tale other than a well-crafted sense of terror, horror, and satisfaction.

Character 
Penumbra:
As a film, Penumbra falls flat, but as a character study it mostly succeeds.  The lead character, Marga, is well developed (in several ways) and entirely dispicable.  She is a strong, independent, and rude woman who scorns those around her.  As Marga is the only character in the entire film who is given any depth and she is a horrible human being, it is hard to connect or even care about anything that happens in the film.  The audience is put into an uncomfortable position as the villains are only sinister until the plot twist (then they become very boring, very quickly), so there is really nothing to look forward to for the duration of the film.  Any dread that may build up dissipates every time Marga does something like {[SPOILER]} offer to sleep with co-workers to get ahead in her job or taser homeless men {[END SPOILER]} for example.

Livide

Livide:
None of the characters are extremely well developed, but all are given realistic and understandable motivations.  The movie holds much back about four of its six central characters and much is learned about them during the turmoil near the end.  My sympathy and connectivity to each character fluctuated as I learned more about each of them...this film plays the audience well.

Visual Tone
Penumbra:
Not much apparent post-processing was done to affect the final feel of this movie.  The look of the image is as straight forward as the plot (at least until it jumps the shark hard).

Livide:
The look and feel of the film at the beginning is quite different than the look of the images on screen at the end.  {[SPOILER]} During the first act the tone is very neutral, realistic, and straight-forward.  When we enter the second act, exploring the mansion, things get very dark and blue...still within movie realism but subtle pushing toward the abstract.  Act three has a bright, vivid fantasy look that is intercut with the dark, gritty blue from act two. {[END SPOILER]}

Penumbra

VSFX
Penumbra:
A single, poorly done, physical effect at the end.  Supposedly the shock moment, there is nothing terribly shocking about it.

Livide:
Clever blends of low budget physical and make-up effects with digital artistry.  From the sharp scares provided by {[SPOILER]} the physically moving tea-party dead animals to the perfectly integrated digital soul-moths {[END SPOILER]}, the effects in Livide are not particularly flashy, but that is why they work so well.   

Livide

Audio
Penumbra:
A delightfully jazzy soundtrack struggles for attention over the drama.  At times it was so out of touch with what was going on that I literally paused the film to make sure my computer was not playing music.  Would have been a great soundtrack for a romantic drama/crime movie from the 1920's.

Livide:
I have no recollection of this soundtrack.  An excellent score often only exists to heighten the events taking place rather than to be remembered, so this might be a positive thing.

Livide

Scare Level 
Penumbra:
Low to nonexistent.  There is some nice tension in the end of act one and during most of act two, but this is undercut constantly by poor performances, a lead character that deserves every bad thing that happens to her, and a silly soundtrack.  {[SPOILER]} There is a beheading and people shoot themselves in the face...although the effects for this are mostly just blood spatter. {[END SPOILER]} Minor gore at the end.

Livide:
Medium to high levels of tension in the entire back two-thirds of the movie.
{[SPOILER]} A moth flies from a hole in a girl's cheek, a girl's eyes are sewn shut on screen and a cocoon is implanted into her stomach.  Throats are slit using knives, fingernails, and a throat is ripped out with a character's bare hands.  A head is ripped from the lower jaw somewhat slowly as two characters pry with their bare hands.  Flesh is eaten and blood drunk.  {[END SPOILER]}  There are many very sharp scares, punctuated by occasional, yet fierce, gore-moment.  Parts were near the peak of my threshold, and I had to look away several times.

Morality 
Penumbra:
Female exploitation.  Marga wears a very revealing outfit, which would be fine given her character traits, yet at one point oil is rubbed onto her for literally no reason whatsoever.  The film never bothers to explain why, it only takes advantage of the fact that now she is quite oily.  {[SPOILER]} A female character is naked for a ceremony in which she is beheaded.  As the ceremony is never explained and there are a ton of plot holes, this detail feel quite unnessisary as well. {[END SPOILER]}  Everyone in the film is rude to one another and it appears as though everyone, except two characters, get exactly what they deserve.  The movie is written as though it is meant to mean something morally, yet never makes any statements.

Livide:
A character is rewarded for having good intentions despite not always acting on them.  Revenge is taken and we are meant to agree with it.

Final Thoughts
Penumbra:
Cleavage and attitude.  A single well-written character does not justify sitting through an entire film without any interesting ideas or concepts.  Everything here is trite and, for a horror film, the "horror" sure is rushed, unscary and unexplained.  It is not necessary to have everything in a movie be explained (I'm a huge anti-fan of narrative handholding), but it sure is nice to feel as though the events taking place have had at least some clues hinted at in the film preceding the big "twist".

Livide:
I cannot recommend this film enough.  The composition of the frames is beautiful and the pacing is spot-on.  Nothing is over-explained and there are many clues and tidbits scattered throughout the film, thus justifying a second or third viewing.  The scares are mostly genuine and the gore borders on being slightly too much (in other words, perfect).  I'm a fan of classic-style horror, fairy-tales (a la The Orphanage or A Tale of Two Sisters) so this movie was a treat for me.

Happy Viewing!
Josh Evans