Retaliation

Retaliation

Directors: Ludwig Shammasian, Paul Shammasian. Cast: Orlando Bloom, Janet Montgomery, Charlie Creed-Miles 

This film has been waiting to be released for 3 years since it was first premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2017. At the time it even had a different title: “Romans”. With that in mind when I started watching my expectations were very low.

It’s certainly not a fun watch.

Malky (Orlando Bloom) has been a victim of child abuse when he was 12, by the hands of a local priest. When the priest comes back to his town after a 30 years absence, Malky’s memories resurface and so is his sense of rage and a desire for revenge.Bizarrely the first part of the film plays it like a mystery, giving us bits and pieces of puzzle of Malky’s backstory and only dropping few hints here and there. In fact the audience is already miles ahead of it and the “pieces of the puzzle” are in fact very easy to put together, so by the time the truth is finally revealed on why Malky is so moody and tormented, I was already slightly exhausted by one-note, somber and slow pace of the film. “Retaliation” seemed to lack the subtlety (both in terms of dialogue and the overdone religious symbolism) that a subject like this requires. However seriously it takes it, the film has actually very little new to add to the dozens of other films we’ve seen before.

However what’s really strong here and elevates the whole film is the surprisingly very good performance by Orlando Bloom who manages to convey pain, shame, rage, repressed anger, hurt and all those muted feelings which probably haunt hundreds of victims of child abuse, with perfection. I was never a great fan of Bloom (though I did warm up to him in Elizabethtown… but that was more than 15 years ago), but now I have to bow to him here and admit this is definitely his best performance, but actually a great performance by any standard.

What’s also surprising is the film’s ending, especially to Malky’s arc, which is rather unexpected, original and a lot more interesting than most of the film until then.

Rio 2

Rio 2 (2014) (barely)

Director: Carlos Saldanha. Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Andy Garcia, Jamie Foxx, Jake T. Austin, Carlinhos Brown, Kristin Chenoweth

I was astonished how many subplots and characters the film manages to squeeze in.Most of the individual moments are perfectly enjoyable by themselves, though none of them particularly inspired, but when put them all together they pull the film in so many directions that at times I felt like the film might never end and eventually I thought all those storylines were to the detriment of the film itself.

Furthermore the overall arc of the story seemed to have been put together by some sort of robot for how formulaic it was. And it’s a pity because the original Rio felt a lot tighter and there was also a much clearer trajectory and a greater sense of purpose as it unfolded and as the big Carnival got closer and closer. Finally the city of Rio de Janeiro provided an original background the more conventional story.

This one takes place in the Amazon forest… and however beautiful the forest is… well, it’s a forest, which we have seen a thousand times before. All the rest is paint by number stuff:

• Random songs in the middle of it just to pace it up. Check
• An environmental message pushed down our throat. Check
• Cute toddler-birds. Check
• Mismatched couple like Timon and Pumba, for light entertainment. Check
• Hero learning what’s important in life is family. Check
• Opposite tribes of birds joining forces for the common good. Check

And so on…

The film is throwing everything in it, as if it were so desperate to try please his young audience with potentially short attention span at any point.

The result is a film with lots of running and screaming, shouting and flying… all in short bursts and micro-scenes. It feels like they cannot stop for more than a minute because they may lose their young audience.. but in fact by doing that they are losing us parents. The most outrageous evidence of that is a sort of football-match (or whatever game it is) in the middle of film, which has absolutely no reasons to be there, if not to add some excitement to the proceedings.

What really saves it from being a completely waste of time us grown-ups accompany the kids, is the vibrant animation. Beyond the cacophony of shouts and the by-the-number storylines (yes, all 300 of them!) Rio 2, must be said, looks really beautiful with its warm colours and the incredibly detailed backgrounds, landscapes, cities and forests and that almost makes up for the mess that everything else is. But hey, kids will enjoy it of course (because it’s been manufactured to please them): it’s just fast that any of the messages will barely register and it will have no emotional resonance whatsoever.

Basically, this ain’t Pixar.

Dear Comrades!

Dear Comrades! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy. Cast: Yuliya Vysotskaya, Vladislav Komarov, Andrey Gusev 

I have to confess I didn’t really know anything about this story and I am left speechless that something like this could have happened 1962… but then again it’s Russia, so it shouldn’t really surprise me much.

Filmed in black and white, which enhances the feeling of realism, the film tells of the cover up a massacre of a group of workers from the small industrial town who had been striking for the rise of food price by the communist government. The film is meticulous in its account of this shameful event, just as meticulous was the actual cover up by the state and the KGB (there are scenes of people being forced to sign ‘forms’ where they swear to keep the secret of what happened, workmen re-cementing the streets to cover the stains of blood, all with the intent to make sure the news of the massacre will never leave the town).

The event has remained classified for 30 years until some papers were finally released in 1992.

It’s all seen through the eyes of Lyuda, a woman from the Communist party with very strong Soviet beliefs and ideologies, whose daughter now got involved in the rebellion and has disappeared after the the soldiers opened fired on the innocent strikers.

The success of the film is how it mixes historical accuracy, almost like a documentary and the more dramatic story around the Lyuda, who now has to negotiate the bureaucracy she’s helped to create in order to find the body of her daughter. It’s a shocking story and yet bizarrely there’s even space for some weird cold black humour played straight, almost deadpan which makes it all even more absurd and chilling.

Available in the UK on streaming on the Curzon Website.

Dear Ex

Dear Ex ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Directors: Chih-Yen Hsu, Mag Hsu. Cast: Roy Chiu, Ying-Hsuan Hsieh, Spark Chen 

A lovely unexpected surprise from Taiwan.

What starts off as a wacky comedy (and a rather entertaining one too) slowly turns into an affecting, heart-warming and a rather moving drama about acceptance, forgiveness and grieving.

Stylistically the film is all over the place (flashbacks, graphics, kitsch comedy) but even if some moments stretch believability and are a little heavy-handed, dipping a bit into soapy/melodrama territory here and there, by the time the third act comes along all the emotional notes hit the right chords and you just can’t help being taken by it.

The film is a joyous one, full of little moments and details both funny and poignant which will definitely stay with me for much longer than most of the films I’ve been watching over the last few months.

On Netflix

The Secret Garden 1993

The Secret Garden (1993)

Director: Marc Munden. Cast: Dixie Egerickx, Richard Hansell, David Verrey 

A charming, evocative and delightful adaptation from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s gothic children’s book from 1911. Like all the best children stories, it a has a timeless feel, matched by some old-style film-making, elegant, unhurried and free from any distracting special effects (which have destroyed the latest adaptation with Colin Firth and made it a real mess!).

The film is produced by Francis Ford Coppola and beautifully photographed by Roger Deakins who effortlessly makes the corridors of the house dark and dusty and the secret garden from the title sunny and warm in contrast with the windy and gray Yorkshire Moors. But the real success of the film is in the performances from the 3 children. After seen so many Harry Potters movies I had almost forgotten what really good performances from children are. They act their age, the behave like spoilt brats and yet by the end you’ll be completely won over.

And then of course Maggie Smith who can do no wrong in my eyes even when she plays an hateful person (though… spoiler alert, she’s such a lovely person that not even the film-makers can do without a little redemption for her at the end)

I remember reading a review of this film at the time that said “The summer of 1993 will be remembered as the time when every child in the world wanted to see “Jurassic Park.” The lucky ones will see this one, too”. I’m so happy I was able to show this one to my 8 years old son, even before Jurassic Park. He loved it. At the end he asked me “How many stars?”. I answered “3 and 1/2? 4”. He seemed disappointed “No, let’s say 5” he suggested.