The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

Posted on March 18, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Despite it being a terribly average movie, Pitch Black has one of my favourite concepts and worlds for a genre movie. The ideas and design are so potent that I can’t help but revisit it every now and again. My recent rewatch inspired me to finally go against every bit of advice I’ve ever heard and actually progress to the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick (mainly because I’ve heard some pretty good stuff about Riddick and figured I might as well get completely up to date now or never).

Expansive and huge where Pitch Black is claustrophobic and focused, The Chronicles of Riddick tries to transform Diesel’s titular hero into a modern day sci-fi icon worthy of the space opera treatment. It goes without saying this is a dumb, dumb idea. Promoted from angsty anti-hero dwelling in the shadows to swashbuckling protagonist, Diesel’s talents are spread way too thinly. He often works best in small doses or offset by a large ensemble of co-stars. Otherwise, as this movie proves, he can be a bore. I will say that I admire Twohy’s commitment to creating a wholly original world and civilisation – that ambition is carried over from Pitch Black at least – but everything is just so fucking boring. It also doesn’t help that the 2004-era CGI has aged worse than some PS2 cut scenes.

I watched this just over a week ago but already I’m struggling to remember anything other than the amber and black colour scheme or Thandie Newton being especially easy on the eyes. Despite the abundance of weird side-characters and lavish design work on show, everything just blurs together into a big expensive mess of a movie. The dialogue and plot is just bad. Everything is almost completely misjudged. The transition from Pitch Black‘s horror territory into nutball space fantasy is just too big a landing to stick. I’m glad they decided to strip things back somewhat for the next instalment. Let’s hope it’s the Pitch Black sequel this should have been. Watch this space.

Watched on blu-ray.

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Deliverance (1972)

Posted on March 18, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Deliverance paved the way for the redneck rapist stereotype that still populates backwoods horror cinema, but beyond that I always have trouble pin-pointing why this movie has endured for so long. It’s certainly a strong piece of work, unbelievably 70s in its plot and execution but I don’t feel like it has stood the test of time like so many other classics of this era do.

Maybe it’s because countless filmmakers have taken what was established here – the backwoods survival picture – and elaborated on it in more interesting ways. I much prefer Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort for instance, and even First Blood – two movies that couldn’t exist without Deliverance. Even as far as Boorman goes, I’d rank this below both Point Blank and Excalibur and frankly I even get more out of his much maligned Zardoz on repeat viewings than I do with this. While well acted, the characters feel quite thin to me and the moral dilemma at its centre – now viewed through the prism of decades of imitators and variations – is pretty threadbare and not especially gripping. Props to Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox and Jon Voight’s performances though for relying on body language and subtlety to convey their inner turmoil. Burt Reynolds, in comparison, is a tad hammy.

That being said, there’s a lot of atmospheric pleasures to be had, which is the main reason I return to it from time to time. The duelling banjos scene created an anthem for culture clash gone bad and the film’s swampy aesthetic (courtesy of the great Vilmos Zsigmond – did any other DOP photograph the 70s with such texture?) creates a suitably grimy visual experience. Even the shoddy day-for-night stuff is rather beautiful to take in because of how unreal it is. There are images I always remember, like the church on wheels or that hand rising out of the lake in Voight’s dream (which De Palma retooled for Carrie‘s final scare), but still, I never consider this the great movie it has become known as. Lets see how I feel in another few years when I give it yet another spin.

Watched on blu-ray.

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Manhunter (1986)

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Peak 80s Mann. All those surfaces and neon backlights. Mmmm. It’s fun to contrast this with Brett Ratner’s pointless redo Red Dragon (a film I actually enjoy for what it is and have seen a handful of times). Where that film is all about popcorn thrills, fan service and excitement, Mann’s rendition is totally glacial and gorgeously internal with its psychological terror. The 2002 version might have the better cast and the novelty of sharing continuity with Silence of the Lambs, but when you see how Mann achieves a more effective whole with fewer shot choices and spartan storytelling, Ratner’s filmmaking crumbles in comparison. Lecter/Lecktor is also used more efficiently here and Cox/Mann’s interpretation of the character is so far from the Hopkins/Demme/Ratner take that it neither feels better or worse, just right for this particular mileau. I’d forgotten how swiftly Lecktor is brushed aside as well, but necessarily so.

Petersen’s performance as Graham is fascinating. I especially love the way he constantly refers to his imaginary projection of Dollarhyde as “My man” with complete seriousness. It’s hella dumb but also amazing? Maybe that’s the real reason it’s called Manhunter. The scene where he finally cracks the case and the camera just holds on him looking out of a window for an unnaturally long time is one of those instances of Mann’s rule breaking that is revelatory. Petersen holds his hand up to the glass slowly and that gesture just says everything, giving total closure to the central conflict, at least psychologically. I’m actually sad Petersen never really continued film acting after this and To Live and Die In L.A. because he has a really unique vibe.

For a film so much about entering a person’s headspace, it’s no wonder Mann had real affinity with this material. Throughout his career he has evolved into probably American cinema’s finest examiner of criminal psychology. His camera immerses you so deeply into the psyche of his characters, it’s the next best thing to actually burrowing into somebody’s skull and seeing out of their eyes. He eventually abandoned the rigid formalism of his 80s work in favour of a looser (but no less controlled) aesthetic more concerned with total immediacy than distant consideration, so it’s fascinating to go back and look at a movie like Manhunter knowing how these obsessions would evolve and be elaborated on. Not long ago, this movie was accused of being dated and, yes, while some elements certainly are a product of the time it was made, the complete pillaging of 80s style that is currently in vogue has brought it back into the modern age. Unlike a lot of the posers, it’s just cool as fuck. Who wouldn’t want to have a weekend getaway in Dollarhyde’s art deco beach house with “In a Gadda-Da-Vida” blaring?

Watched on blu-ray.

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The Outsiders (1983)

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Like a lot of Coppola B-sides, The Outsiders is a lot better than its non-reputation would suggest. Beyond the novelty factor of seeing an ensemble of future-superstars look all young and baby-faced (Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Diane Lane all show up – Coppola certainly had an eye for discovering talent) the movie works as both as a period melodrama and a curious look at adolescence. The 50s setting is lovingly brought to life and Coppola’s more experimental flourishes – a Gone With the Wind-esque sunset, optical blood filling the frame during a fountain stabbing – are a pleasure.

I enjoy a lot of these 80s Coppola movies because they show the filmmaker constantly fighting expectations by pushing himself in new directions even as his resources became increasingly limited. They all have artistic value and would probably be held in higher regard if they didn’t have movies like The Godfather or Apocalypse Now to compete with. Think of the crazy lavish and expressionistic musical numbers in One From the Heart or the monochromatic surrealism of Rumble Fish – which, like The Outsiders, is based on a novel by S.E. Hinton and was shot in Tulsa straight after the earlier film was completed – and try to pin-point another 70s auteur who took such elaborate stylistic chances with studio money. It ultimately sunk him into years of debt and led him to directing some genuine duds, but I never feel like Coppola merely phoned it in on these films, The Outsiders included.

The anamorphic photography is perfectly utilised to cram his stacked cast of characters into one frame and all the 50s iconography – drive-ins, club houses – acts as a great backdrop to a lot of scenes. It has the polish of a master craftsman but also satisfies as a simple story that has a few narrative curve-balls I didn’t see coming. It feels like exactly what it is: a 1950s story told with the freedoms of 1980s filmmaking.

Note: I watched the “Complete Novel” version which restores a good twenty minutes to the running time and replaces most of the orchestral score with 50s needle-drops. From what I’ve read about the original version, this certainly seems like the definitive way to experience the movie.

Watched on blu-ray.

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28 Days Later… (2002)

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Ferocious. Shot on pre-HD DV and all the better for it. Boyle goes for the jugular and tears it the fuck out. Even the third-act, which always felt disjointed and at odds with the other two on previous watches (though still effective in isolation, the “In the house/In a Heartbeat” sequence is an all timer), really clicked into place this time around. Boyle’s lack of respect/awareness for Romero and zombie conventions combined with Garland’s total respect for the two results in a film that is unbeholden to expectations and therefore free to scorch its own earth. Less a horror film and more an exercise in non-stop terror. Bleak, sharp in the tooth and oh so relentless. The drop of blood dripping into Brendan Gleason’s eyeball and the high-frame rate infected get me every time. FUCK ME UP, DANNY.

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Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Even as a big Danny Boyle fan and someone who gave this five stars once upon a time, I can admit that Slumdog Millionaireisn’t aging well. Still, its total immersion in the textures and vibrancy of India – with all the beauty and horrors intact/heightened/manipulated – make it aesthetically electric. The music, visuals and sense of movement still get my heart racing. It’s also refreshing to not have to watch a bunch of white dudes dominate the screen. It might not be Satyajit Ray, but it is unmistakably cinema.

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Trance (2013)

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Ross Birks

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I can certainly understand why many find Trance underwhelming but there’s something about Danny Boyle’s presentation I find infectious. The audio/visual experience is far more interesting than the plot, characters and dialogue. Boyle has become increasingly haywire with every film he makes and everything here is pushed to extremes – pulsating, distorting and unwinding. It’s a film that tries to burrow deep into the audiences consciousness, using dream logic to justify every creative decision (locations, sound design, lenses, cutting) and is proudly billed as Boyle’s tribute to Nicolas Roeg. I like McAvoy’s desire to go dark and Boyle’s desire to pin a movie on a female protagonist for a change. The results are mixed, ofcourse, but at least the film works in its primary modes. When it’s violent, it’s violent and when it’s sexy, it’s sexy. Where else are you going to see McAvoy have a conversation with half of Vincent Cassell’s head? Also, probably, the best showcase of Rosario Dawson’s talents to date*. There are images in here I never forget.

*that’s not an allusion to Dawson’s nude scene but yes, damn, that too. McAvoy’s ass aint no slouch either.

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Jerry Maguire (1996)

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Ross Birks

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I love this movie. I don’t care. Cameron Crowe’s ultimate deconstruction of the rom-com. Beginning where most movies would end (character has a moral epiphany), Jerry Maguire instead punishes its title character for even daring to step outside of the box designated to him. It freewheels through all the tired rom-com tropes which would conventionally offer the main characters happiness, then brazenly digs into the consequences of those tropes. What if the lead didn’t really love the romantic interest? What if he was just a coward afraid of being alone? It’s as if Crowe just can’t let go of his characters, he needs to see things through to the end. I mean, Jerry marries Dorothy halfway through the movie and the film deals with the kind of impulsive, lightning bolt marriage that movies have taught us to see as genuine acts of love, but shows us how stupid and irresponsible they really are.

Everyone is shaded in, you understand who all these people are and where they’re coming from. It’s deconstructive and mapped out like a David Lean movie, but it still glows with a saccharine optimism and delivers a form of escapism only movies can offer. I know this film’s popularity has made it a bit of a laughing stock or a joke, but it is genuinely one of the most complex and unusual films of its kind; both totally conventional and utterly unconventional, carried along by a performance that only Tom Cruise could pull of. You either vibe with Cameron Crowe or you don’t. Yes he makes schmaltz, but he makes the best schmaltz. SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

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The Church (1989)

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Dumb and moronic in the way a lot of late-period Argento movies are (he co-wrote this) but the dark fantasy and practical-effects imagery make any groans tolerable. It’s interesting that this as originally inteded to be Demons 3. As a fan of both Demons movies I can say that the concept for this is much stronger as a stand-alone picture. Asia Argento is one of my favourite horror heroines and even here, at 14 years old, she’s a badass screen presence. Setting the action almost exclusively in a gothic church lends the film an excellent backdrop too and places it in a weird, timeless vacuum. As soon as the characters venture outside, the modern backdrops are jarring but in a good way. It’s not a film that will stick with me, but there are images and effects that will.

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Rocky Balboa (2006)

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Ross Birks

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Sylvester Stallone’s performance as Rocky Balboa across seven movies/forty years is one of my favourite things in movies. His emotional breakdowns in this one absolutely floor me. Also Stallone’s best script since the original Rocky. The ache, the pain, the desire to prove himself is all present and accounted for. He gives an honest-to-god performance here. It’s hammy and contrived in ways the series has always been, but by being anchored to a genuinely heartfelt story all the silliness feels more like a comfort than a hindrance. An almost-perfect bookend to Stallone’s Rocky legacy that is somehow even more impacting in light of Coogler’s Creed.

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