FILM REVIEW: ‘One & Two’ (EIFF 2015)

Jul 212015
 

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It feels tremendously reductive to call Andrew Droz Palermo’s One & Two an alternative take on the superhero origin story, but it also says a lot about the omnipresence of caped crusaders in modern popular culture that the comparison still seems an apt one.  While not as abstract as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman, One & Two shares its gray-shaded position of being a film which is inspired by superheroes (or reacts against them), but is not itself a superhero film.  Really it’s a story about growing up different, the fear that difference inspires, and the love that can tear families apart but also make them whole again.

Siblings Zak and Eva (Interstellar‘s Timothee Chalamet and Mad Men‘s Kiernan Shipka) live with their parents on what appears to be a 19th century homestead, peacefully working the land as the years roll by.  Cut off from the outside world by a gigantic, impenetrable fence, brother and sister dream of one day escaping to distant lands, spurred on by the sight of the airplanes that frequently pass overhead.  Their only real source of joy is a shared ability to teleport, something forbidden by their devoutly religious father who believes this power to be blasphemous and the cause of their mother’s rapidly deteriorating ill health.  Grief, fear and rage run amok as the children begin to test the many barriers erected around them, and start to grasp some unpleasant truths about humanity’s capacity for intolerance.

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Palermo infuses One & Two with a dream-like atmosphere right from the very beginning, and his mixture of hazy visuals and warped logic is ultimately central to the film’s appeal.  The nightmarish, impossible barrier surrounding the family’s homestead is the stuff of fairy tales, and although its origin is hinted at we’re never really told who built it or why.  Together with the jarring sight of modern aircraft crossing the sky above a motor-free farmhouse, this is an early sign of the peculiar sense of unreality which pervades the film even in its starkest moments of grim family drama.  The nature of the children’s power is also ambiguous; it allows them to teleport anywhere in their line of sight, but how they’ve come to possess it and whether it might truly be related to their mother’s debilitating illness remains uncertain.

It’s their father’s inability to live with that uncertainty that drives a brutal story of misplaced anger and willful ignorance, and the scenes where he clamps down on his children’s behaviour are both harrowing and rife with religious symbolism.  The idea of family members shunning super-powered relatives is one that’s been explored before, often as a heavy-handed allegory by the various incarnations of Marvel’s X-Men, but rarely has it been done with such unpleasant tension.  The performances of all four leads are compelling, and provide the foundation upon which Palermo’s haunting story rests.  Shipka in particular is excellent, playing Eva as the emerging moral compass of the family, much to her and her brother’s cost.  Although at times the film’s story feels a little too slight for its 90 minute running time, and there are a few scenes where the narrative is stretched thin, One & Two turns out to be a moving little film that explores several of the more sensitive issues raised by superhero stories, but without having to adhere to any of the tropes of the genre.

There is currently no UK-wide release date for One & Two.

FILM REVIEW: ‘Uncanny’ (EIFF 2015)

Jul 122015
 

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The extent to which an emergent artificial intelligence might resemble a human being has driven the narrative of countless science fiction films, with mankind’s fate often hinging on just how ‘human’ such an entity turns out to be.  Matthew Leutwyler’s Uncanny (which received its UK premiere at last month’s Edinburgh International Film Festival) is also concerned with this question, but unlike most of its predecessors shifts this idea of reflective humanity from the realm of the intellectual to the emotional.  By focusing on a machine’s capacity for emotion rather than just sentience, Leutwyler and screenwriter Shahin Chandrasoma pose fundamental questions about what it really means to be ‘human’, and whether an AI could be more so than some actual human beings.

Frustrated tech journalist Joy (Lucy Griffiths) gains exclusive access to the world’s first authentic artificial intelligence, an android named – appropriately – Adam (David Clayton Rogers) who has been shut away in an isolated lab run by the shadowy Mr Castle (Rainn Wilson in the briefest of cameos).  Over the course of 7 days, Joy’s initial skepticism gives way to fascination as her passion for science is reawakened by Adam’s creator David (Mark Webber), a man with whom she begins to develop a bond that goes beyond professional curiosity.  What none of them can foresee, however, is the effect that Joy’s presence in the lab will have on the relationship between creator and creation, and as Adam struggles with new-found emotions beyond his understanding, his behaviour starts to become increasingly threatening.

With its small cast, isolated location and preoccupation with AI, comparisons between Uncanny and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina are perhaps inevitable.  But while Garland’s film takes a somewhat cynical view of human-AI relationships and makes manipulation its main theme, Uncanny is far more neutral in its depiction, and focuses on those unpredictable, emergent traits immune to advance calculation, namely emotions.  If emotions are the essence of humanity, Chandrasoma seems to be saying, then what does it mean when a machine becomes more emotional than a human being?

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The film’s claustrophobic setting serves both to keep our attention fixed on the developing character relationships, and to amplify the tension which emerges when Adam’s interest in Joy takes on a decidedly creepy dimension.  At times the latter half of Uncanny feels like a horror movie, but the film never fully slips into that genre, remaining instead an intriguing study of both human and non-human characters.  Low-budget/high-concept science fiction films live or die by the strength of actors’ performances, and luckily none of Uncanny‘s three leads are anything less than superb, especially Rogers, whose role demands much delicate complexity.

It’s a shame that the film sabotages itself with some jarringly unnaturalistic dialogue in the first half hour, and a wealth of religious symbolism which, while occasionally profound, becomes increasingly heavy-handed.  Its attempt to portray the human cost of morally-unfettered scientific advancement is also awkwardly undermined by a mid-credits scene which undoes a lot of hard work for a cheap cliffhanger, and shies away from tackling some very controversial issues raised by earlier events.  These shortcomings blight an otherwise beguiling film which, despite its superficial resemblance to Ex Machina, feels like it genuinely has something fresh to offer in terms of storytelling, and suggests that maybe it’s emotions, and not intelligence, that our future creations will reflect back at us most clearly.

There is currently no UK-wide release date for Uncanny.

FILM REVIEW: ‘Narcopolis’ (EIFF 2015)

Jun 282015
 

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Imagine a future where all drugs are legal.  Now imagine there’s time travel as well.  If this feels like a little too much to take in, that’s because, in the context of British director Justin Trefgarne’s ambitious SF thriller Narcopolis, it really is.  The film isn’t bad, and features a lot of interesting ideas, but it’s this attempt to cram in too many audacious SF concepts that ultimately derails it, and uses up valuable running time that could have been used to fix some of Narcopolis‘ myriad plot holes.

Burnt out detective Frank (Elliot Cowan) finds a dead body with half its head missing, its DNA not recognised by the police database (a major aberration in this surveillance state dystopia).  Ordered by his superior (Robert Bathurst) to let the mystery go, Frank tries to concentrate on putting his estranged family back together and continuing his recovery from drug addiction, no mean feat when temptation is on every street corner.  Before long, though, he’s drawn back to the crime scene, only to discover there an unidentifiable young woman (Elodie Yung) who claims to be from the future.  With the help of a reclusive scientist (Jonathan Pryce), Frank hopes to link these strange goings-on to the sinister Ambro corporation, whose founder (James Callis) has spread corruption throughout the entire police department, and will stop at nothing to keep Frank from finding out the truth behind this deadly mystery.

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There’s a difference in storytelling between an ambiguity and a plot hole.  Narcopolis takes some cues from Rian Johnson’s Looper in terms of its rough ‘n’ ready time travel tech; precisely how it works is not important, it simply does.  This is an ambiguity, and one we can be content with.  But Trefgarne’s deliberately opaque approach to the time travel storyline as a whole suggests that he wants us to extend this tolerance for ambiguity to the motivations of some primary characters, and this is too great a stretch.  The fact is that large parts of the time travel plot make little or no sense, and as such the whole storyline ends up feeling like a convoluted mess trying to be too clever for its own good.  It could be that there are perfectly rational explanations for the actions of certain characters, but we’re simply not given enough information to form our own conclusions on the matter.  Worse still, Trefgarne’s flailing around with temporal mechanics leaves precious little room to explore the film’s other (more intriguing) audacious idea, namely a future society where narcotics are legal.  Given that Narcopolis takes its title from this speculative leap, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the wildly fictional setting might prove integral to the film’s plot, but instead it ends up feeling like more of a background detail, one that’s quite incidental to the main storyline.

The film is not without its charms, however.  Cowan gives a satisfyingly terse yet emotional performance as Frank, even if the character’s life is littered with noir cliches, and there’s strong support from Pryce and Callis in extended cameo appearances.  Considering its sub-£1 million budget, Narcopolis‘ visual effects are routinely stunning despite their subtlety, and Trefgarne’s use of various different shooting locations to represent a future London gives the film a peculiar, otherworldly atmosphere, drawing the viewer into the futuristic world he’s created.  That Narcopolis is first and foremost a labour of love is beyond doubt; every frame radiates passion, and the sheer effort and ambition demonstrated by the film-makers is laudable.  High-concept, low-budget SF thrillers like this very rarely get made, and the film deserves to be supported for its audaciousness alone, but it’s frustrating to think how much better it could have been with nothing more than a little script editing.  We should expect great things from Justin Trefgarne and his team at TSquared Films, but sadly Narcopolis falls short of being one of them.

There is currently no UK-wide release date for Narcopolis.

FILM REVIEW: ‘Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD’ (EIFF 2015)

Jun 262015
 

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On paper, a film which is almost two hours of talking heads (with occasional photographic accompaniment) doesn’t sound like the most appealing prospect.  But when you’ve as colourful a parade of characters as the past and present writers and artists at 2000AD magazine, just letting them tell their story makes for compelling viewing.  Director Paul Goodwin has realised this, and that’s what makes Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD such a hugely enjoyable watch.

According to Pat Mills (workaholic writer, 2000AD founder and all-round rage machine) British boys’ comics in the 1970s were a disgrace, built on embarrassingly genteel depictions of boyhood adventure which were decades out of date.  Wanting to provide an alternative to American superhero comics, while at the same time giving British youth the gore, ultraviolence and subversive politics they craved, Mills created a magazine that would change the face of comics culture, and indeed popular culture, the world over.  2000AD was launched in 1977, featuring censor-troubling stories in a science fiction setting, and very quickly became a huge hit.  Over the next four decades there would be highs and lows aplenty for both 2000AD and its staff, but the legacy they forged through iconic characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog and Halo Jones is unforgettable.

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Future Shock! includes interviews with (almost) all the big names involved with 2000AD during its first thirty years, most of whom went on to bigger but not necessarily better things within the comics industry.  As well as Mills, there’s Dredd’s hangdog co-creator John Wagner and the sardonic Alan Grant representing the old guard, along with artistic titans like Dave Gibbons, Kevin O’Neill, Carlos Ezquerra and Brian Bolland.  Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan are on hand to give their view as the second great wave of talent to pass through 2000AD’s corridors, and contributions from recent creators like Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton, D’Israeli and Emma Beeby (plus many more) bring the story right up to date.  There’s even input from celebrity fans like musician Scott Ian and author/film-maker Alex Garland, who talk at length about 2000AD’s lasting and widespread influence across different genres and media.

While a few of the interviewees’ claims are a tad contentious (there are some contributors who’d have us believe that the ‘dark age’ of mainstream comics, and thus the entire tone and aesthetic of modern superhero blockbusters, is wholly attributable to 2000AD’s transatlantic influence), we’re left with the unshakable impression that 2000AD is a small stone that made a very big splash, and the ripples of its influence are still being felt throughout the entire comics industry today.  Although many people involved with the magazine have terrible stories to tell about their mistreatment at the hands of management (Alan Moore is conspicuous by his absence, having apparently refused to be involved with the film), these low points are outweighed by the overwhelming love which most interviewees show for a violent SF comic that became a British institution and worldwide cultural phenomenon.  Various creators’ reminiscences about writing Judge Dredd or drawing Nemesis the Warlock are dominated by feelings of passion and a great sense of camaraderie, and it’s this positivity that ends up colouring the film most vibrantly.  Hearing this endearing underdog story told by a such a charming cast of characters makes for utterly compelling viewing, and, along with the film’s stunning and innovative title sequence from Zebra Post, captures perfectly the illicit joy that young readers feel the first time they read an issue of 2000AD.

There is currently no UK-wide release date for Future Shock!

FILM REVIEW: ‘Maggie’ (EIFF 2015)

Jun 242015
 

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Back in 1997, James Mangold’s understated crime thriller Cop Land gained a great deal of critical notice due to the performance of its leading man.  Nothing unusual there, except that the leading man in question was Sylvester Stallone, an actor who had spent most of the previous two decades making a name for himself in films that were largely perceived as big, dumb action blockbusters.  Since Cop Land has subsequently gone down in history as the film that ‘rehabilitated’ Stallone as an actor, the comparisons it invites to Henry Hobson’s Maggie, which appears to do the same for Stallone’s Expendables co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger, are inevitable.

Maggie is superficially a zombie film, but to categorise it as such is something of a disservice.  Much of the pop-culture folklore remains intact, but writer John Scott III’s stroke of genius is to have the ‘turn’ of the infected from human to zombie take six to eight weeks, rather than the usual handful of hours.  When farmer Wade Vogel (Schwarzenegger) tracks down his daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) in a city ravaged by a zombie outbreak (here brilliantly dubbed the “necroambulist” virus) she’s already been bitten, but he knows it’ll be more than a month before she loses her humanity.  With the help of an old doctor friend, he takes her home to spend her last few weeks surrounded by friends and family, under the ever-watchful eye of Maggie’s pious and conflicted stepmother Caroline (Joely Richardson).  As the weeks go by, Wade seems more and more reluctant to say goodbye and take his daughter to the dreaded quarantine camps, even as Maggie becomes a little less human (and a lot more dangerous) with each passing day.

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So is Maggie Schwarzenegger’s Cop Land?  Yes, for the most part.  When given more than a couple of lines of dialogue, Arnie unfortunately reverts to type, but in scenes where he says few or no words at all he’s utterly mesmerising.  Radiating an agonising mixture of rage, doubt and grief, he struggles through the film with a titanic weariness that completely sells Wade as a man who knows his daughter is turning into a monster, and has no idea what to do about it.  Schwarzenegger’s performance will dominate the film’s reviews, but to focus purely on his achievements here does a massive disservice to Abigail Breslin and Joely Richardson, both of whom are equally superb.  Breslin in particular is the emotional core of the film; the story begins and ends with Maggie, and it’s both gripping and heartbreaking to watch her desperately try to reassert control over her own fate, even as life slips away from her.  Richardson gives a nicely nuanced performance as a character who could easily have become a simple hate figure, but instead ends up representing the dreadful but necessary rationalism that Wade seems unable or unwilling to accept.

Maggie is as much about terminal illness as it is about fictional monsters.  Hobson’s inter-cutting of ranging long shots and intimate close-ups hints at a desolate world on the brink of catastrophe, but keeps the focus on one grieving family, wringing every drop of fear, pain and sorrow from the situation.  If that makes Maggie sound like a particularly harrowing film, that’s because it is, but it’s also a beautiful one.  Although much of the symbolism on show is pretty heavy-handed, there’s an elegant economy to the storytelling that lets emotion flow freely, supported by David Wingo’s (Take Shelter) lush but mournful score.  Maggie might be billed as an innovative zombie movie, but in reality it’s a deeply affecting film about fathers and daughters.

Maggie is due for UK-wide release on 24th July.

We’re at the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival!

Jun 162015
 

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No, really; we’re here.  Over the next couple of weeks, your humble Geekzine will be bringing you reviews galore from the festival’s various screens throughout the city.  Just like in previous years, the EIFF has excelled once again in delivering a goodly amount of geek-friendly fare among its programmed offerings, and we’re particularly excited about (to name only a few) Henry Hobson’s zombie tear-jerker Maggie (which reportedly features Arnold Schwarzenegger actually acting), Brit director Justin Trefgarne’s ambitious SF/crime thriller Narcopolis, and fascinating indie fantasy One & Two.  Edinburgh residents, let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments below!

Intrepid reporter Jim Taylor has lined up before the press registration booth, weathering the looks of those cynical faces which say, “this man can’t be a press delegate, surely!”.  But don’t be deceived by his appalling lack of fashion sense and sweaty, wheezing aspect – within lurks the shrewd mind of a man who will happily knock out a solid 300 unplagiarised words per picture.  Probably.  Join him on this grand cinematic adventure!