White Material (2010)

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By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers)

One of the most critically loved but otherwise obscure movies of 2010 was this one, by French director Claire Denis, who grew up in various locales in Africa. This clearly influenced her directing career, as the majority of her films deal with Africa or African immigrants.

White Material tells the story of a French coffee plantation owner whose world is coming apart around her. She’s caught between a rebel force and a corrupt government, but she refuses to leave the plantation, insisting on harvesting the crop as normal. She delusionally clings to this idea even as things continue to worsen and her ex-husband, grown good for nothing son, and aging father-in-law also stay, affected by the same denial of reality.

Did I mention her ex is The Highlander?

A Toast

Few people can establish atmosphere like Claire Denis, and the way she builds tension is absolutely virtuoso. Silent menace hangs over every scene, no matter how little appears to actually be going on. It almost feels like the muggy calm before a summer lightning storm, and the fact that the first 90 minutes of 104 are devoted to this and the movie is still fascinating is one hell of an accomplishment.

The acting is excellent, especially the much-acclaimed Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist, although in a very unique way. We don’t really get to see inside her character (or the majority of them) via normal avenues like personal conversations or melodramatic acting. Character is instead established by close observation of her actions, which are not always chronologically presented. This makes us deduce her motivations from the effect rather than the cause.

Some decisions are causeless

The more you think about this movie the more it gets under your skin. Everything is so subtle, and taken piece by piece relatively unengaging, but taken as a whole very powerful.

Beer Two

There is one part of the film that I need to call out, and a bit of beer should help drown out the “what the fuck just happened?” thoughts. I won’t say what exactly, but at the end of the movie Huppert’s character does something that is completely unforeshadowed and a mite bit ridiculous. I’ve checked out a few theories, but none of them are satisfying.

If I were a chick, this would probably be a penis joke

Verdict

If you want to see a real filmmaker flex her muscles and accomplish something not quite like anything you’ve seen before, this is the ticket.

Bonus Drinking Game

Take a Drink: whenever you see a shirtless man

Take a Drink: whenever you hear/read the words “coffee” or “rebel”

Take a Shot: for gratuitous, lingering male full-frontal nudity

Heads up

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Source Code (2011)

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By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers)

When I first saw the previews for Source Code I was a bit less than impressed. They didn’t promise a whole lot outside of the basic premise, which was good enough for a rental. However, it didn’t appear to have a whole lot more upside than that. I found out David Bowie-spawn Duncan Jones was the director a bit after that, and my expectations rose because Moon was pretty sweet. Still, the trailer made it hard to get your hopes up.

Well, thankfully I didn’t make my decision completely based on the blah marketing. Source Code is far more than the one-trick pony I thought it’d be. It starts off with the premise we’re introduced to in the preview, a man wakes up in the body of a strange man on a Chicago transit train and is pretty much just confused until the train blows up 8 minutes later.

Goddam Mondays…

He wakes up after this in a strange chamber, with military personnel telling him he is reliving the last eight minutes of another man’s life in order to find out who blew up the train, and that he will be sent back to relive those same eight minutes until he does.

A Toast

With that setup, obviously the stakes are high from the start, but to fill a feature-length running time after that you’ll need to get creative. Turns out the filmmakers have plenty more tricks up their sleeve, as the twists and revelations come at a blistering pace. I’d be doing you a disservice to tell you much more than that.

The strength of this film is precisely where Sucker Punch recently failed. Source Code also created a highly imaginative world with plenty of technical flair, but this time it got the important stuff right. Namely, introducing some rules for your alternate reality so that the audience knows where it stands and then establishing consequences that tie together what happens in it to the “real world”. This is what builds tension and gets you rooting for the characters, instead of just watching them stab and shoot stuff.

Miniskirts are nice, but they don’t exactly carry a movie

Also, the performances are all legit and believable, with special kudos to the chemistry between Gylenhaal and Michelle Monaghan, who plays the woman he keeps butting into whenever he relives those eight minutes. They don’t have a lot of time to build a convincing romance, and the fact that they were able to was particularly impressive.

The camerawork is excellent, showing a side of Chicago that doesn’t usually get the cinema treatment. A final tip of the glass should go to the surprising amount of humor, although I guess the possibilities for that had already been established by another movie…

Beer Two

The one complaint I heard about the movie before watching it was the plot holes. Well, on the plus side, there really aren’t any, but I can see how people would think there were. If you’re paying attention, you’ll figure it out, but what’s aggravating is how long it takes our main character to. He (and we) get all the clues we need short of enlisting Blue to help explain it, but it still takes way too long for him to figure out why he can’t do what he wants to so badly.

And just like Blue, it’s fucking annoying

The ending’s also been getting a lot of heat from certain circles, but I don’t really have a problem with it, either. It’s foreshadowed throughout the flick and makes perfect sense within the confines of the rules the movie establishes. If you disagree, I’m down for some stimulating debates on the message board…

Verdict

Don’t expect a mind-blowing mass of stimulating confusion like Inception, but perhaps that’s not always a bad thing. You will get a good flick that’ll keep you guessing and provide plenty of thrills (and a little post-movie dinner debate), and if you’re not ready for that by now in 2011 you’ve been watching different movies than me.

Bonus Drinking Game

Take a drink: every time he is sent back to try again

Take a drink: every time you see a Dunkin Donuts logo

Drink a shot: when you get confused. That ought to help.

Insidious (2011)

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Hop (2011)

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By: Oberst von Berauscht (Six-Pack)

I was transported today. It wasn’t something I expected to happen at a PG rated movie marketed to children… but then, few things are as expected in this world. Today I watched a film that enters the mind of Fred O’Hare (James Marsden), a man troubled with mental illness.

His upper middle-class upbringing provided him many opportunities of which he could never take advantage, due in a large part to his rapidly deteriorating mental health. From a young age, he was beset by visions of furry mammals delivering candy on the Holiest of Sabbaths. His family never quite understood his illness, interpreting his inability to function in society as lack of motivation, and his delusions as the product of overactive imagination.

I suppose it worked for Jimmy Stewart…

In a final blow to his system, his parents throw him out of the house, leaving Fred alone, removed from the reality he’s known, he sinks deeper and deeper into madness…

A Toast

Hop is not so much a children’s comedy as an exploration of schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder. And this is brilliantly reproduced. Rarely before have I seen a film that immersed you so much, at times I felt myself sharing the main character’s experiences…

I liked Fred’s hallucinations better though…

Beer Two

“Are these supposed to be jokes?” the child behind me asked his mother repeatedly as the film continued on. “No,” I said “don’t you see? The dialog isn’t supposed to be funny! It is supposed to be awkward and full of strange pauses, to represent Fred’s disassociation with normal human social mores. It’s actually quite brilliant” I concluded proudly, and punched the youth’s mother in the face for allowing her child to talk in the theatre.

Beer Three

Bolstering the film is the impeccable voice talent of Russell Brand, who plays the Rabbit E.B., Fred’s constant tormentor. It is easy to see how someone could create this character out of desperation, for E.B. represents the Id, fulfilling every dream, pleasure and impulse that Fred’s Ego denies. Lacking any balance, or superego, a rift is created in Fred that allows for spectacular phantasms and brilliant apparitions, in his mind appearing real.

The waitress never said a word about this because the Bunny isn’t real… Can’t you see Fred… Fred?

Beer Four

Finally realizing that his grip on reality is loosening, Fred throws himself into activity, through physical, and mental disciplines, he hopes to defeat his affliction. Sadly, by this time, he is too far gone to notice his mistake.

Beer Five

And so it continues, until he becomes completely lost in his own world. One that previously existed mostly in daydreams and nightmares comes to life… At this point, I started to have an eerie sensation, like my own life experience was melding with that of the movie. In a panic, I stepped out of the theatre, to be greeted with visions of my own… set to the tune of “One More Red Nightmare” by King Crimson.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."

Beer Six

“fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccc…”

Verdict

Oberst von Berauscht could not complete the verdict for this review… he was last seen lying on the floor in a corner of his bedroom sobbing uncontrollably.

Bonus Drinking Game:

Take a Drink: when a joke is met with dead silence

Down a Shot: every time the character “Carlos” is on screen… Trust me

Take a Drink: for all those times they laughed at you… who’s laughing now? Huh?