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SXSW 2019: RUN THIS TOWN is (Secretly) the Rob Ford Story Through a Millennial Lens
A modern, youthful spin on the ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN formula
There’s nothing quite like that exclusive-to-film festivals feeling of stumbling off the street into a movie theater to see a movie you know absolutely nothing about, experiencing its world premiere, and discovering that it is (somewhat secretly) about a rather explosive and infamous story known the world over but never yet told as a feature length narrative.
Intentionally burying the lede that your youthful journalistic thriller featuring shockingly young political aids and aspiring bloggers-come-investigative reporters is actually a Rob Ford movie is a bold choice even at a festival like SXSW. None of the film’s descriptions in the festival guide reveal that this is what the film is about. I almost feel like I’m spoiling something here by revealing it now. But the movie makes it known fairly early on, despite keeping the on screen appearance of Ford himself (Damian Lewis in makeup and fat suit so over the top it almost takes you out of the movie) until the second act. Perhaps this was all done in such a bold way because while this is set in Rob Ford’s orbit, he’s a distant figure in the actual narrative. Run This Town is about the millennial generation and the young adults who were wrapped up in Ford’s downfall.
There’s a youthful and energetic vibe here which evokes Margin Call (an apt comparison as Margin Call director J.C. Chandor is listed as an executive producer here) with a little bit of quicker-than-you-can-follow dialog evoking an aspirational Sorkin. Smart characters say smart things quickly and it takes a little while to fall into their rhythm and catch up to what they are getting at. All that said, the film never quite reaches the heights of the films it reveres. I find this very forgivable when the filmmaker is so ambitious and when this is a first film coming from someone who (at least by appearance) is still in his twenties.
It’s all about youth, actually. For millennials, All The President’s Men isn’t going to play out the same way that it did in the 1970s. Bram (Ben Platt) is fresh out of college and lands a real journalism job but soon finds himself churning out listicles and finding any real scoops to be far outside his reach. A product of privilege, Bram is aware of his social standing but still dreaming for more. He thinks he’s found it when he gets a lead on a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack. Mena Massoud (our future Aladdin, apparently) plays Ford’s special assistant and handler [whose name I can’t find online] who finds he’s great at what he does but eventually comes to question the righteousness of his cause. Nina Dobrev plays Ashley, a young lawyer working on Ford’s communication team who experiences sexual harassment at the hands of Ford and must decide what her course of action will be. As each of these main characters’ threads play out they’ll have to weigh the consequences representative of their plight in terms of a proto-#MeToo harassment claim, and a newspaper in decline trying to scoop their web-based news competitors. There’s a lot going on and the film makes sure to remain thrilling and somewhat unpredictable, even though the final chapter of Mayor Ford’s story is well known to us. One gets saddened and finds more to reflect on in Run This Town when considering that Ford’s downfall didn’t prevent another out of control, crass, belligerent, and abusive demagogue from rising to power just a short couple of years later.
Run This Town says a lot. It’s not always subtle and is always propulsive. It’s a Rob Ford story made by, for, and about the Millennial generation. Writer/Director Ricky Tollman has the potential for great things and does a solid job here if not entirely sticking the landing. Some will be turned off by Ford’s appearance and characterization, and some will roll their eyes at the somewhat righteous depictions of Millenials. But Tollman and his characters are speaking their mind regardless.
And I’m Out.
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SXSW 2019: MICKEY AND THE BEAR Packs a Punch
A powerful coming of age drama
Mickey and the Bear writer/director Annabelle Attanacio’s work had been previously unknown to me. Perhaps that is because, despite a pretty active career thus far, she’s only 25 years old. Discovering Mickey and the Bear comes from the heart of a 25 year old gave me quite a bit of whiplash as the film is insightful and nuanced far beyond the perspective of most 25 year olds I know. (No offense, 25 year olds… this is about Ms. Attanacio, not about you).
James Badge Dale is what got me in the door to watch this movie. As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes having the right star attached is what gets me to see your movie at a film festival. One has to make their choices somehow. And if James Badge Dale is going to help me make a decision, I’m going to let him. Fortunately for me, “Badge” rarely steers me wrong, and this was no exception. And while it was JBD that got me in the door, Attanacio and the rest of her cast and crew caught me in their grasp and held onto me relentlessly.
Mickey (Never Goin’ Back’s Camila Marrone in a remarkable leading turn) turns 18 over the course of this film, and that changes things for her perhaps more than it changes things for most. Dale is her alcoholic, jobless, PTSD-ridden father whom she looks after on a daily basis. Ranging wildly from tender sweetness to threat of self harm on a dime, Dale’s Hank is obviously the titular bear, but more importantly manages to be a well-fleshed out human being instead of the caricature that this type of character could so easily become. Dale’s performance could’ve swung into showy territory, but instead it focuses on unpredictability, and Dale absolutely owns the part with a tragic ferocity. But even a top tier performer such as Dale couldn’t have sold this performance if the writing and filmmaking team hadn’t brought their best to the table, and ultimately his performance is bolstered by the team surrounding him.
And as phenomenal as Dale is… this isn’t Hank’s movie. Mickey has perhaps a slightly less volatile presence in the film, but this is absolutely her movie and she is a fantastically fully realized character who is massively shaped by her father but is working to try not to be defined by him. Mickey manages her father’s medications and cleans up his messes on the regular. She’s on a first name basis with the Anaconda, Montana sheriff, as well as her father’s psychologist. But there’s more to Mickey. She’s focused in school and tentatively dares to dream about going to college. She works for a taxidermist and cherishes that time away from the home. She’s got an asshole boyfriend and an intriguing new student at her school has eyes on her.
But things far outside of Mickey’s control, like the Iraq war and her mother’s premature passing, have placed her in a situation in which she finds herself hiding her father’s guns every night to head off any potential dangerous situations. Mickey and Hank are in a true co-dependent relationship… only Mickey didn’t choose this life. And she’s quietly torn about whether there is any future for her beyond caring for her own father and his increasingly erratic behavior.
Part coming of age tale, part character study, and part addiction/PTSD narrative, Attanacio taps into a messy and authentically human space with Mickey and the Bear. No easy redemption or pat melodrama is to be found here. Hank isn’t especially condemned by the script, despite behaving in many despicable and self-serving ways. He’s a live wire; a ticking bomb in Mickey’s life who also has his own story. Mickey also makes complicated decisions that the audience may not always understand or agree with. It’s her life, and her circumstances, and she’s a tough young woman who will make her own way. We just really hope she’ll stick up for herself and divorce herself from the only future available to her if she stays with her father.
Prominently featuring the gorgeous and foreboding landscape of Montana, Mickey and the Bear offers a regional tale and as such, along with the troubled father/daughter dynamic, has many comparison points to Debra Granik’s work and Leave No Trace more specifically. That it not only holds a candle to Leave No Trace but manages to explore similar territory less than a year after that film and still have something unique to say is quite something. Also featuring stellar cinematography that constantly finds us almost peeking into the troubled interactions our characters are having, there’s a firm vision guiding this film and it all comes together as a remarkably accomplished character piece from a wise-beyond-her years filmmaker whom we’ll all need to keep an eye on as she continues to create.
And I’m Out.
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Two Cents Second-Chance Theater Presents: Weird Al in UHF
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick (and the case against)
Beloved song parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic’s first foray into movie stardom, UHF flopped with audiences and critics in 1989. The film’s ‘plot’ finds Weird Al as ‘George Newman’, an aimless daydreamer who finds his life calling when his uncle gives him a disused and unwatched TV station to run. While Newman’s rivalry with hotshot competitor RJ Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy) forms the narrative spine for the film, that’s mostly just an excuse for Yankovic and director Jay Levey to string together lengthy parodies of Indiana Jones, Rambo, and various other movies, TV shows, music videos and other cultural ephemera that was ripe for a loving raspberry from Weird Al.
UHF’s initial failure cut Yankovic so deeply that he more or less dropped out of the industry for a few years, before returning with more parodies en route to becoming the entrenched, beloved cultural institution we know and love.
As for UHF, the film steadily developed a cult following and is revered by some as an unsung classic of 80’s comedy.
But not for Cinapse editor Austin Vashaw. Austin, why don’t you tell us a little bit about why UHF needed a second chance in the first place?
Austin
I was very much on board and eager for UHF the first time I watched it. AFter all, I’m a fan of Weird Al, and what I’d seen of the film’s famous parodies looked very much like my brand of silliness. But when I watched it, I just felt let down and disengaged by a movie that was just… extraordinarily stupid. I found it charmless, obnoxious, and exhausting, and for years was convinced it was a terrible movie.
That was years ago. More recently, I’ve been kind of intrigued by its growing cult appeal (not to mention introducing my kids to Weird Al’s music), and have been kind of itching to give it another go.
Next Week’s Pick:
It’s Brendan’s turn to give a disliked film a new day in the sun. For his choice, he’s checking back in to Ti West’s spooky and subtle The Innkeepers. It bored him stiff on first viewing, but maybe on the rewatch, the film will come back to life.
The Innkeepers is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
Also, if you have a movie that you disliked but want to give a second shot, let us know and we might feature it as one of our upcoming picks!
The Team
The Rewatch!
Guys, I have to admit — as stupid as this movie is, and it does dare to be stupid, second time actually was the charm.
It’s still not a “great” movie in my book, but on this rewatch I enjoyed it. Al is terrific, the parodies are chuckle-worthy, and I completely forgot that Fran Drescher and Kevin McCarthy were in it.
Personal growth? Maybe a little. I caught on to some more film references this time around that I hadn’t latched onto before, which certainly didn’t hurt, but I think it probably come down to more of a mood. UHF clearly hit me on a bad wavelength the first time, but I actually appreciated a lot more of it this time around.
“Second Chance Theater” is a fun concept and I don’t know how many of these will actually result in a meaningful reappraisal, but this one gets a happy ending.(@VforVashaw)
A perfectly amiable way to spend 90 minutes, UHF hurls so many jokes and gags at the screen that a bunch can’t help but stick, even if the success-to-failure ratio is a little bit skewed. Yankovic and Levey are clearly working from the ZAZ method of comedy, pulling directly from the Airplane! bin at multiple turns, including casting Kevin McCarthy in the Leslie Nielson spot as the dignified veteran actor making a bug-eyed fool of himself. That’s an extremely prudent source of inspiration, and there are stretches in UHF where the film does play like a more kid-friendly companion piece to the Naked Guns and Top Secret!s of the world.
What those films had that UHF lacks is speed. Airplane! and Top Secret! and the early Naked Gun material plow through jokes at an incredible rate, sometimes filling the screen with half a dozen gags at once. That kind of pace is really hard to sustain (even ZAZ seemed to exhaust themselves: the Naked Gun series got weaker and weaker as it went, and their subsequent attempts at parody never worked as well) and UHF lingers too long on certain gag, or spins out on premises in search of jokes (the tiny cameraman and Fran Drescher as a news reporter are a neat comedy team that never arrives at any joke). I’m sure stuff like Weird Al intruding into Rambo and the “Money for Nothing” music video killed in the 80s, but they just kind of lay there nowadays.
But honestly, that’s nit-picking. UHF is just trying to be a silly good time, and at that it largely succeeds. Weird Al’s brand of parody has always been gentle and loving, and that inherent good naturedness shines through and makes the whole enterprise likable and sweet. (@theTrueBrendanF)
Weird Al is an amazing artist with an amazing story. Growing up in a poor neighborhood in the LA basin, Al was friendly with the likes of Dr. Dre before blowing up to be a huge success. In fact, his success was inspirational to the gangster rapper and part of what led Dre to become the musical mega mogul he became. But, today we’re not here to discuss the musical genius that is Weird Al… instead we’re here to visit his classic comedic gem UHF.
UHF holds a special place in my heart. I saw it at age 8 or 9 and have watched it every couple of years since. It may not be as fantastic a film as my nostalgia paints it as, but some of the bits still make me laugh out loud. “Conan the Librarian” remains burnt into my psyche to this day and I laugh out loud every time I see it. Every time I walk into a library, I find myself using a faux Arnold accent and asking someone, “Don’t you know your Dewey Decimal System?!?”
I can’t wait to share this one with my kids as soon as possible, as they both already love Al’s music and can often be heard singing Al tunes old and new. Like Al himself, the film is goofy and fun, with something a bit smarter just under the surface. We should all take Al’s a dive and learn how to take life a bit less serious… perhaps we should even “dare to be stupid” every once in awhile. (@thepaintedman)
Next week’s pick: http://amzn.to/2EYgC74
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Unboxing THE LITTLE MERMAID 4K Target Exclusive Limited Edition
Target’s deluxe package features Alternate Art and Gallery Book
Following December’s release of The Lion King, the 1989 flagship film of Disney’s 90s Renaissance has arrived on 4K Blu-ray! There’s precious little cinematic traditional animation on the format, making these, for the time being still a very rare treat (Charlie Brown TV specials and upscaled DC Animation movies notwithstanding).
Target has a Limited Edition Digipak version of the 4K Blu-ray with alternate artwork and a 40-page “Gallery Book” combining BTS materials and a storybook.
The removable J-card has artwork beneath, and in my case I found that it actually fit snugly into the slipcover for keeping, despite being packed outside of it (just slip it over the inner case before sliding into the slipcover).
Inside the slip is a tri-sectional case holding the 4K and Blu-ray discs, with a pocket for the book and digital copy slip.
The 40-page (cover to cover) Gallery Book is a fully high-gloss squarebound edition. The first 14 pages are devoted to making-of materials and the following 20 pages to a storybook. The story section is a condensed version of the 32-page storybook from the 2013 Target exclusive Blu-ray Digibook.
Like most of these limited retailer exclusives, this is almost guaranteed to disappear quickly, so if you’re interested in picking this up, do it fast.
A/V Out.
Except where noted, all 16:9 screen images in this review are direct captures from the disc(s) in question with no editing applied, but may have compression or resizing inherent to file formats and Medium’s image system. All package photography was taken by the reviewer.
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Two Cents Prepares for ANNIHILATION
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
Annihilation begins with a relatively easy-to-grasp mystery. Biologist and soldier Lena’s (Natalie Portman) husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) has been missing for a year, vanishing in an undisclosed military expedition. Then one night, Kane reappears. Apparently with no memory of where he has been, and only even barely aware of Lena at all, it’s not long before he starts coughing up blood. And it’s not long after that that the men in Hazmat suits carrying machine guns show up to whisk Lena and Kane away.
Here’s where things start to get juicy. Lena soon finds herself at a military/research base on the edge of something known as The Shimmer, a bizarre glowing field of possibly extraterrestrial origin that has been growing at a slow but exponential rate. No one who has ever gone into The Shimmer has ever returned, no one, that is, until Kane.
Determined to unlock the mystery of what happened to her husband, Lena volunteers for the next expedition in, joining scientists Cassie (Tuva Novotny) and Josie (Tessa Thompson), paramedic Anya (Gina Rodriguez), and led by the mysterious psychologist Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh). But as they observe The Shimmer, the area seems to observe them right back, barraging the women with mutations both beautiful and hostile.
The further Lena wades into The Shimmer, the more she finds herself confronting not only the physical monsters seeking her destruction, but her own self-destructive tendencies and history, until at last she comes face to face with annihilation itself.
Inspired by the first book in Jeff VanderMeer’s acclaimed Southern Reach trilogy, writer-director Alex Garland only loosely adapted the actual text in favor of reproducing the dream-like tone and feel of the novel. The potent mixture of horror and psychological/philosophical probing apparently terrified studio heads, who promptly sold the film’s international rights to Netflix and dumped Annihilation into US theaters with only minor fanfare.
Despite this middling release (and box office) genre fans and film lovers rapidly kindled to Annihilation. Between its instantly iconic monsters, its packed ensemble, and mind-bending visuals, Annihilation gave filmgoers much to chew on. In the days and weeks after its release, Annihilation inspired tremendous writings on everything from its craft, to its sound, to themes of depression and self-destruction.
As we say goodbye to Women in Horror Month, we thought it only fitting to tip our hat to a new, female-driven entry that seems sure to divide and mesmerize for as long as we watch and obsess over films.
Next week’s pick:
It’s almost spring, a time for rebirth and renewals. A time when we shed the miseries and hurts of winter and look forward to the shining, better days that lie ahead. In this spirit, we are undertaking a new series: Two Cents Second Chance Theater.
That’s right. For the next few weeks, we will be choosing films that our editors and contributors don’t like, and watching them again to see if maybe this time we’ll see what everyone else enjoyed. Starting us out strong right out of the gate, Austin is a fan of Weird Al Yankovic but found UHF annoying and exhausting.
Do you want to show him the error of his ways? Or perhaps you also disdain this goofy wonder and you’d like to tell us why? UHF is available streaming on Amazon Prime.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
Also, if you have a movie that you disliked but want to give a second shot, let us know and we might feature it as one of our upcoming picks!
The Team
If you checked out our team’s Best of 2018, you may already know that Annihilation was my top film of 2018. Truth be told, the competition wasn’t even close.
Alex Garland has quickly become a force to be reckoned with directorally. Despite having only two features under his belt, he has shown an amazing propensity towards crafting horror/sci-fi genre mashups that look amazing visually, tell powerful stories, and provide scares that shake the viewer to the core. After an incredible debut with 2014’s Ex Machina, he chose to adapt Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation — an exquisitely bizarre and complex entry into the world of weird fiction.
While the film and book diverge greatly, the core ideas from VanderMeer’s novel were built out into a world like no other. In this world, everything is mutated and deformed, yet incredibly beautiful in its unnatural state. The film (and book) are intentionally very empowering of women, with nearly all of the players being smart, strong women. What these women experience can only be described as horrifying, captivating, and brutal.
This movie uniquely blends B-movie science fiction, hard science, body horror, and big budget action thrills. I stand by it as 2018’s best and couldn’t think of a better exclamation point for the closing of February’s Women in Horror Month celebrations. (@thepaintedman)
It’s beyond refreshing to see a sci-fi film with a woman-centric story (even if Garland adjusts the heroine’s quest from the scientific focus of the novel to the “maybe she can save her husband’s life” path of the movie). Portman’s Lena prefers to keep mum while others talk, not offering much information about herself. Anya, however, is vocal and brash, unafraid to speak her mind. Rodriguez and Thompson, with her understated performance, are impressive in Annihilation.
Garland’s visual effects team has created a breathtaking wonder in this mysterious world. The women encounter horrific hybrids of flora and fauna. Distortion and dissonance are visual themes, whether the image of a couple’s clasping hands is refracted by a water glass, an ill Kane is viewed through a hard plastic curtain, or visions are reflected through windows.
Annihilation moves with a startling quiet — indeed, it seems a tad slow at the start — which makes the quality of the audio production stand out. The scoring by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury (who teamed together on Ex Machina as well) sounds like something from a José González album, until the mind-bending conclusion.
Read Elizabeth’s full review HERE. (elizabeth stoddard)
I think by this point, I just have to tell Alex Garland, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
And I mean that sincerely.There’s nothing I can point to that’s especially ‘wrong’ with Annihilation, or Ex Machina, or Dredd. They are smart, adult sci-fi with exemplary casts, beautifully realized worlds, and tremendously accomplished visual/audio components. And yet all three films (Garland isn’t the credited director of Dredd, but it’s widely accepted as being ‘his’ movie) leave me more or less totally cold. I admire them, I find certain individual scenes and images entrancing, but at the end of the day his movies never touch or enthrall me the way they do others. And that really bums me out, honestly. I’ve read numerous thinkpieces and articles about Annihilation, and I wish the film spoke to me the way it does to others. I wish it inspired the introspection and self-reckoning it has in a number of my friends and colleagues, that I responded to it on a richer level beyond “pretty colors, scary bear”.
I think part of the disconnect for me is that each of Garland’s films presents an inhuman intelligence that is truly ‘inhuman’ in a way we don’t often get from science fiction. His robots are not just people with super-abilities punching through cement beams, and his aliens are not just dudes with forehead bumps or bitey assholes with tentacles. Garland instead grapples with what a truly ALIEN presence might look/feel like, and effect such an encounter might inspire. That cold, reserved quality to his films, then, is not a bug but a feature.
Anyway, I’m not the biggest fan of Annihilation, but I’m glad it exists. I’m glad it’s inspired so much discussion and dissection, and I imagine that one day it will be an entrenched and oft-examined classic of both horror and science fiction, with no one ever remembering the consternation it caused at first blush.(@theTrueBrendanF)
These “man on a mission” movies tend to be just that, but it’s really interesting to see the dynamics of this all-lady crew and how they deal with their situation and each new challenge or hazard as women of both military and science — especially when they’re in disagreement.
Director Alex Garland has been on an incredible trajectory as perhaps the most exciting new science fiction filmmaker, first as a writer (whose credits include one of my absolute favorites, Sunshine) and more recently as director.
I’m kind of a Chernobyl nut, and while Annihilation is not connected to that incident, there’s a lot of that abandoned, surreal aesthetic in the design, a vision of destroyed beauty that’s a big part of its appeal. Full of intrigue, scares, amazing imagery and an enigmatic ending, this is a film that demands to be watched and rewatched. (@VforVashaw)
Next week’s pick:
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NIGHTSHOOTERS: Don’t Miss One of 2019’s Great Action Films
When ONE CUT OF THE DEAD meets DIE HARD…
One of my greatest cinematic joys is sniffing out up and coming talent in the action cinema world and championing their great work. It is therefore my extreme pleasure to tell you that Nightshooters is one of 2019’s great action films and that rising star Jean-Paul Ly is someone you’ll want to keep an eye out for.
Coming on strong with a two-for-two record in Cambodia’s first international release Jailbreak, and now Nightshooters, Jean-Paul Ly kills as both leading man and fight choreographer. But where Jailbreak was very much a straightforward action showcase, Nightshooters actually has a lot going on — making it somewhat difficult to categorize.
Writer/Director Marc Price takes this opportunity to show off his skill set just as much as Ly does, and knocks this low budget project out of the park. Quite funny throughout it’s runtime, Nightshooters has a bit of an early Guy Ritchie vibe as a British gangster film loaded with potty mouthed crooks cracking wise. But before we meet any of those gangster types, we’re introduced to our protagonists: a zero budget film crew shooting a night scene in an abandoned high rise scheduled for demolition. As the various quirks of their crew and their film project are brought to light, we find ourselves quickly endeared to Donnie the stunt double (Ly), Ellie the plucky special effects pro (Rosanna Hoult), the pampered formerly famous star, the shortcut-taking director, the tech-focused sound guy, and so on. I guess any movie featuring a film crew as protagonists will have “love letter to filmmaking” overtones, but Nightshooters has a vibe similar to One Cut Of The Dead in that it seems our real filmmakers have crafted characters who make films and filled them with a real world knowledge of the filmmaking process that enhances the viewing experience and makes Nightshooters feel a little smarter as a result. It helps that our crew soon finds themselves fighting for their lives and needing to tap into every skill they have in their arsenals to get out alive when they’re discovered by a gang of hoods who’ve come to the same abandoned high rise project to kill off their latest victim.
Filmmaking, character based comedy, and British gangster tropes alone would make for a potentially very fun romp, but then Jean-Paul Ly’s fantastic action choreography are added to the mix to really make Nightshooters soar. Ly’s character Donnie is a world class martial artist… but he’s also just a guy trying to make movies who used to be an accountant. He’s never fought anyone to the death before and as Nightshooters plays out you’re never quite sure who (if any) of our protagonists are going to make it out alive. And while Donnie is fighting off gangsters left and right, our other filmmakers are using sound gear, SFX skills, and just plain pluck and bravery to try and stave off the bad guys. Our filmmakers have some genuine character arcs as they rise to the occasion to fight for their lives.
They also crawl around in air ducts a lot, crack a bunch of really solid jokes, and just generally entertain the audience wildly throughout the runtime.
The most exciting thing about Nightshooters is that while it is among the very best action films 2019 is going to offer, it’s also a fun gangster film, a solid comedy, and a knowing take on the world of film production. Sure, you occasionally feel the low budget of the film, especially with some blood effects and dodgy GCI explosions and the like. But that stuff is all easy to forgive when a great joke or fantastic martial arts set piece or genuine character moment comes along and smoothes over the rough edges.
Nightshooters is the kind of movie that gets me excited to watch the careers of both the writer/director and the star as they continue to ply their trades and grow their profiles. I highly recommend both Jailbreak and Nightshooters as showcases for Jean-Paul Ly and I know I’ll be seeking out virtually any project he’s attached to in the coming years. I’m also interested in checking out some of Marc Price’s other work as he captured the martial arts here with gusto and wrote a damn fine script as well.
This is a small film and its low budget is apparent often and throughout. Look past that, however, at the core elements of what it takes to make a hugely satisfying and consistently entertaining movie, and I think you’ll agree that Nightshooters is truly top tier action cinema being delivered to us at a fraction of the cost of a Hollywood blockbuster. Filmmakers and characters alike display a real grit, tenacity, and sense of humor to bring us massive entertainment in an inexpensive package.
And I’m Out
Nightshooters is available now on Region 2/B Blu-ray/DVD from Ascendent Releasing. It does not yet have a US distribution release lined up and someone should absolutely get on that immediately.
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Albert Pyun’s NEMESIS Hits Blu-ray In Special Collector’s Edition From MVD Rewind Collection
Hard-to-find film is elusive no longer
Having not so long ago tracked down Nemesis on Hulu and checking it out for the first time and even reviewing it for Cinapse, I’m going to keep this round of Nemesis-talk fairly brief.
Long relatively hard to find as the careers of Albert Pyun and star Olivier Gruner have been largely forgotten by all but niche fans, Nemesis is experiencing a new era of availability for those who would seek it out. One can stream it as of this writing on Amazon Prime, and rent or purchase it on iTunes. But most importantly, one can now own it on Blu-ray, in a Special Collector’s Edition packed with bonus features no less!
Nemesis is probably the ultimate expression of director Albert Pyun’s desire to tell a cyberpunk story. Pyun is nothing if not prolific; having directed some 50+ films and counting, despite a recent dementia diagnosis that hasn’t seemed to slow him down one bit. Pyun came out of the gates in 1982 with hit film The Sword And The Sorcerer and was able to parlay that hit into a long and storied directing career. Often working in the realm of very low budgets where he was able to explore his then-niche passions for cyberpunk, heavy metal, and swords and sorcery, Pyun is truly “one of us” with deeply established geek cred.
Nemesis exists in a realm where the budget allowed for a solid cast of experienced actors, good special effects, and decent cinematography. Many of Pyun’s films do not exist in that budget range, so this is a bit of a treat. Nemesis’ plot is disjointed and feels like it took a back seat to Pyun’s interests in bringing us stylish shoot outs, killer practical gore and sci-fi effects, and overall just creating a kind of future-noir mood that’s pretty effective. Star Olivier Gruner is wooden, but chiseled as hell. The cast includes amazing turns from Tim Thomerson (Dollman), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat), Brion James (Blade Runner), and Thom Matthews (Return Of The Living Dead). Early appearances from Thomas Jane and Jackie Earle Haley are also welcome highlights.
Thanks to this packed out Blu-ray release from MVD, multiple cuts of the film are now available. I had thought that perhaps one of these cuts would be wildly different from the theatrical release because Pyun himself insists that final edit on Nemesis was denied him, and he doesn’t ultimately believe the true vision he wanted to create alongside producer Ash R. Shah made it to the big screen. However, the Nemesis 2.0 Director’s Cut available on this release was quite hard to watch as it only exists in an SD format and takes a bit of a Star Wars Special Edition approach, adding in CGI effects that have aged far worse than the practical and stop motion effects used in the original film. I love that a cut like that exists as it shows Pyun to be the endless tinkerer that he is, but Nemesis 2.0 is a huge downgrade from the experience of watching the theatrical cut in high definition. This release also offers a Japanese Extended Cut, available only on the DVD that comes packaged here.
There are simply hours of bonus features and treasures to be found here for Nemesis and Pyun fans. Extensive new interviews with Pyun and producer Eric Karson (whom Pyun essentially calls out by name as the producer he clashed with and whom he blames for changing his vision of the film) are the highlights here. A Director’s Commentary track is available but covers a lot of the same ground as the new interviews.
This disc is packed to the gills and brings the royal treatment to a niche sci-fi film that deserves that treatment but has never gotten it before. It’s a great day for genre film fans that what was once largely lost can now be found via the internet or via a home video love letter from MVD Rewind Collection.
And I’m Out.
Nemesis Special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD is now available from MVD Rewind Collection
Further reading:
https://cinapse.co/the-good-the-tough-the-deadly-discoveries-nemesis-1992-6192437716b1
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For Your Consideration: Two Cents Commits to LEAVE NO TRACE
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
It’s been great watching some of 2018’s best but underappreciated offerings for this For Your Consideration series, but we knew we could not finish without first appreciating Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace.
Granik has been absent from the feature film scene since 2010, when her Appalachian noir Winter’s Bone turned Jennifer Lawrence from the daughter on The Bill Engvall Show into the most in-demand talent in all of Hollywood. While we’re not going to cast aspersions about why Granik went eight years without another feature (though given the nature of the industry/culture, we can make some guesses), it’s awfully good to have her back.
Leave No Trace is the story of Will (Ben Foster) and his daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) and the life they share in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Will is veteran haunted by PTSD, unable to function well in the modern world. The pair’s peaceful life roughing it is interrupted when state officials discover the camp and start asking questions about why a teenage girl is living off mushrooms and sleeping in a tent. Placed into a house and given a chance at something closer to ‘normal’ life, both Will and Tom are suddenly forced to confront who they are and what that needs, and whether the love between them can overcome the damages of the world.
Hugely acclaimed by critics upon release, (it holds a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes) Leave No Trace has nonetheless been pointedly absent from awards season, perhaps due to its lacking the kind of melodramatic fireworks and Oscar clip-ready blow-ups that grab attention and snare votes. But it seems to us that no discussion of the best films of the year would be complete without a consideration of what Granik, Foster, and McKenzie built together.
So let’s go for a walk in the woods, shall we, and decide for ourselves whether Leave No Trace leaves much of an impact.
Next Week’s Pick:
In honor of Women in Horror Month, we’ll be taking a trip into The Shimmer with the predominantly female cast of last year’s mind-bending horror/sci-fi film Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland of Ex Machina and them Danny Boyle movies fame. It’s now available streaming on Amazon Prime as well as Hulu.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
The Team
“Where is your home?”
“With my Dad”.
“It’s not a crime to be unhoused, but it’s illegal to live on public land”.
A father suffering from PTSD and his teenage daughter forge a life for themselves camping in the Pacific Northwest. As the father’s PTSD and the daughter’s need for independence clash, a powerful exploration of what homelessness truly means emerges. (@Ed_Travis)
It’s interesting that we’re doing this so close to You Were Never Really Here, both movies in which hugely acclaimed (though maddeningly infrequent) female directors examine a traumatized masculine mind. With YWNRH, director Lynne Ramsey worked overtime to entrench you inside the skull of Joaquin Phoenix’s suicidal vigilante, using every technique on hand to make you feel everything Phoenix does.
With Leave No Trace, Granik’s direction and Foster’s performance never let you in. Foster is more than capable of exploding off the screen, able to go uncontrollably BIG when the role calls for it/he gets bored and decides to liven things up. But his Will is a clenched fist of a man, with only the occasional crack betraying the deep well of grief and rage and horror that festers within him.
Granik’s focus is less on Will’s trauma than the impact it has on Joe. As a director, Granik uses small gestures and moments to suggest not only the co-dependent intimacy that exists between father-daughter, but also the budding moments of independence and rebellion that go with being a teenage girl. The brilliance of McKenzie’s performance is how she etches the way those needs mount and mount until finally she has to take a stand as her own person. It’s the moment a child becomes an adult, and the moment one half of a toxic relationship finally pulls the ripcord. There’s no villain, no grand showdown, only a slow realization that one particular road has reached its end and a new one has to be forged.
Quietly powerful stuff. (@theTrueBrendanF)
An intriguing story of people living on the fringes of the fringes. I hadn’t quite put together the PTSD connection until Brendan pointed it out above, but that definitely clicks.
It reminded me a bit of Captain Fantastic, but without the exaggerated aesthetic that permeated that particular film. Whereas Viggo Mortensen’s “captain” and his crew of kids were more like iconoclastic hippies, it becomes increasingly clear that the patriarch of this more thoughtful analysis is incapable of coping with society, rather than rebelling against it. But as his teenage daughter is growing up, she yearns for the comforts of community and normalcy.
Naturally beautiful and quiet in its presentation (without being dull), Leave No Trace offers up human observations without drawing strict conclusions, allowing the viewer contemplate the questions that permeate its ethical and practical quandaries. (@VforVashaw)
Next week’s pick:
Annihilation — http://amzn.to/2TRnHeN
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The Archivist #102: THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)
Ed compares and contrasts this film to its remake by John Carpenter
The Archivist — Welcome to the Archive. As home video formats have evolved over the years, a multitude of films have found themselves in danger of being forgotten forever due to their niche appeal. Thankfully, Warner Bros. established the Archive Collection, a Manufacture-On-Demand DVD operation devoted to thousands of idiosyncratic and ephemeral works of cinema. The Archive has expanded to include a streaming service, revivals of out-of-print DVDs, and factory-pressed Blu-rays. Join us as we explore this treasure trove of cinematic discovery!
*Spoilers for both The Thing From Another World and The Thing abound.*
John Carpenter’s The Thing is my favorite horror film of all time, as officially decided upon right here at Cinapse. It’s always bothered me, however, that my favorite horror film of all time is a remake of a film I’d never managed to take in, myself. So, thanks to the Warner Archive, I finally decided to remedy that situation and enjoy the Blu-ray release of 1951’s The Thing From Another World (which is itself an adaptation of the short story Who Goes There? By John W. Campbell Jr.
Howard Hawkes and Christian Nyby directed, under Hawkes’ production company, this classic monster movie. And there are a fascinating number of similarities between this iteration and Carpenter’s. In both the creature threatening the planet are aliens carried to the planet on UFOs, and in both the cast of characters forced to do battle with the creature are stationed on a remote arctic research facility. Because these elements are quite central to the overall story, it is very clear that the films are related and ripe for comparison. Both also feature sequences in which researching the creatures reveal the profound biological threat which the creatures present to the wider planet if our intrepid cast of characters can’t contain the monster. For some reason I’ve always been obsessed with the biological elements of creature features, and the more fully the origins and practical realities of a creature are explored in a film, the more enthralled I become. It’s the creature-feature version of lore or mythology, I guess, and it always clicks for me.
It’s for that reason that I’d say my favorite overall element of The Thing From Another World is the biological explanations for its physical capability to continue hounding our characters no matter how many bullets pierce it. Due to budget restrictions, the physical manifestation of the creature here is very “man in suit”, as portrayed by James Arness (Gunsmoke). It’s not uniquely threatening at all — he mostly just lumbers and recalls Frankenstein’s monster. But it’s the rapid fire old fashioned dialog from screenwriter Charles Lederer that explains to us that the creature’s biological makeup is closer to plant-life than human genetics, and therefore a bullet simply isn’t going to stop this creature. I like the old school implementation of a good idea simply being read off the page and planted into our minds which increases the threat of the character without having to spend big bucks creating something to visually dazzle us. The Thing looms and threatens our characters; he’s off screen the vast majority of the time. He’s not shown in close up, and it becomes the few terrifying details we do know about it, combined with what we never really see and have to create in our own minds, which results in the most thrilling terror of this classic film.
Of course, Carpenter’s version takes the exact opposite track, giving us stomach churning and mind blowing visuals that result in one of cinema’s most iconic and amorphous monsters of all time. The biology and the limited understanding our characters are able to come to of the threat they’re up against still bolster the terror of Carpenter’s creature (resulting in the infamous blood test scene which is equal parts smart thinking on the part of our characters and a nail-biting stress fest of a thriller sequence), but the gooey and gory details are what send the 1982 version into the creature feature pantheon.
Another big difference between the films is that the limited budget and execution of the monster in Another World prevents the creature from being a shapeshifter (something which was apparently a part of the original short story). While Another World does a great job of mining terror from their version of this creature, all of the humans are able to band together in order to fight off this other worldly monstrosity. Another World allows for science and heroism to win the day against a clearly identified threat. It’s more of a “crisis averted” situation. Carpenter’s gross and gooey shape shifter can become anyone and anything — it has no limits of expansion. This adds the characteristic paranoia element to The Thing which not only allows more interpersonal drama to be mined from the script, but also increases the existential threat of Carpenter’s film and results in an ambiguous and bleak ending much more befitting at least this writer’s sensibilities.
Hawkes and Nyby’s film feels ahead of its time for 1951, no doubt. But it simultaneously feels dated here in 2019. It must be acknowledged that we wouldn’t have much of the great horror of the modern era without such boundary pushing science fiction horror as Another World. And it’s a pretty effective film in its own right, turning its limitations into its biggest strengths and offering no apologies for its far out concept and creature. But viewed through the lens of Carpenter’s remake, a film which flirts with absolute perfection in a way most works of cinema never even come close to approximating, Another World can’t really hold a candle to what came after it.
And I’m Out.
The Thing From Another World is now available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive.
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SCREAMERS: Sci-Fi Royalty Dan O’Bannon Adapts Philip K. Dick For a Mid-90s Blast [Blu Review]
Peter Weller heads up a fun sci-fi/horror interplanetary tale
The names attached to this Blu-ray release were such that I just couldn’t resist checking it out. Writer Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Return Of The Living Dead, Lifeforce) is simply legendary. And here’s a film where he’s adapting an even bigger legend’s work: Philip K. Dick (whose writing has been adapted into such projects as Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and much more). And based on the trailer, I could tell that this was an ambitious sci-fi thriller set on another world with an adapting creature threatening the lives of a small crew. This felt like something O’Bannon could nail.
It helps that sci-fi legend in his own right, Peter Weller (Robocop), was heading up the cast here. So, the pedigree is there for Screamers. How does it hold up as a narrative feature? Well, it’s pretty stinking fun! And it feels like that was actually the goal here. Which is important.
Weller plays Joe Henricksson, a commander on a remote outpost in far out space. In a very political and pointed sci-fi premise, Henricksson is involved in a war over a limited resource on a distant planet which could easily represent any number of Earth conflicts such as governments clashing over oil or corporations battling with world governments over the means of production and distribution. I happen to be writing this several weeks after watching the film, and I’m already beginning to forget whether Weller’s character is fighting on the side of a government or a corporation. I believe it is government. But perhaps that undergirds the ideas of the film itself: When war drags on, and when the war front is far away and remote, can’t it get frighteningly easy for causes and sides to blend together? For the purpose of the war in the first place to get a little hazy?
That’s the situation Henricksson finds himself in when a lone enemy combatant wanders into their camp with a message from the other side. The lone soldier is promptly violently murdered by the “screamers”, brutal robots that burrow underground, hone in on anyone who isn’t properly tagged and identified as a “friendly”, and chop them up with razor sharp blades. Of course the robots scream as they perform their duty, and that doesn’t seem to have much of a practical purpose beyond allowing this film to feel equal parts horror and sci-fi-action. But when Henricksson discovers that the note contains an invitation for a truce, he determines he must make the journey to the base of his enemy and make sense of what is going on out in the wider galaxy as his corner of the war seems to be the forgotten corner.
Soon he comes to several frightening realizations. One is that the screamers have begun to evolve, and it’s even worse than he had been suspecting. Secondly, it seems that the attentions of the galaxy have moved on so completely that he and his men are going to be abandoned and explained away as casualties of war because it’s simply cheaper and easier than wrapping up the conflicts that had raged on there. Henricksson and his men are screwed, with the odds stacked against them in an extreme fashion.
Quickly becoming a men on a mission film, Henricksson’s attempts to locate and meet with his political enemies devolve into a fight for their lives against a new and improved screamer which perfectly mimics human beings. The men on a mission template gives way to a paranoid thriller ala The Thing or Battlestar Galactica in which no one can be trusted because anyone could be a screamer. O’Bannon’s screenplay, as adapted from Philip K. Dick and as directed by Christian Duguay (The Art Of War) takes a bit of a kitchen sink approach, throwing in horror, action, and sci-fi tropes to make a fun ride with a political undercurrent. It’s not the best script of his career by any stretch, but Screamers manages to evolve and entertain throughout. It might seem obvious where it’s all heading by the climax, but the path to the inevitable conclusion is never less than entertaining.
I was very pleasantly surprised by Screamers. The surprise comes from just how under the radar and forgotten this film has become. That very same set of names which compelled me to commit to reviewing this film are also quite well beloved by many in the sci-fi and horror communities, so why has this little gem become so forgotten? I don’t have an answer, but I’m thrilled to now count myself a fan (not to mention an owner) of Screamers.
The Package
Screamers looks like the low-to-mid budget 1995 thriller that it is. Which is to say there are a ton of charmingly analog effects mixed in with the occasionally quite dodgy visual cheat or early digital effect. It’s not a breathtaking visual feast, but the Blu-ray is highly enjoyable and loaded up with some original bonus content, so Screamers comes recommended.
- Northern Frights: Christian Duguay (Director) Interview
- Orchestrating The Future: Tom Berry (Producer) Interview
- More Screamer Than Human: Miguel Tejada-Flores (co-writer) Interview
- From Runway To Space: Jennifer Rubin (actress) Interview
- Trailer
And I’m Out.
Screamers is now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory
