MIFF Day 14
Woohoo!!! After the disappointment of yesterday, I scored a hat trick!
The Hurt Locker
War is a Drug, that's the quote that opens the film as Guy Pearce suits up into body armour for a bomb disposal and then gets fried. I'm guessing his presence, brief as it is, was to guarantee funding for the film. He's great for the short moment he's there, but the film belongs to Jeremy Renner as a bomb disposal expert hooked on the thrill of cheating death. The film is an expertly told action/adventure film, jumping from tense defusing of IEDs to general combat and a few telling moments on base. The shaky-cam works most of the time, but occasionally intrudes into moments where stillness feels more appropriate and thus, the shake feels forced, but the tension is well-maintained, a sniper shoot-out in the middle of the desert particularly impressive. It's nice to see a film set in Iraq that doesn't take an overt political position, but simply places us on the front line with a few well-drawn characters and makes any comments about the horror of war purely through audience sympathy. Excellent.
Dead Snow
Zombie Nazi's attack a bunch of medical students in a ski chalet, and the students fight back. This is an hysterically funny zombie gore fest that takes the piss, has a lot of fun, and is more Evil Dead than Night of the Living Dead. It's a splatstick film, one of the best since Braindead, the scene where two of the guys carve up an army of undead nazis with a chainsaw and a mallet is priceless. Gory but not really scary, it's got a few frights but mainly just gross-out gore that'll have you laughing your arse off.
The Loved Ones
I remember the massive disappointment I had with Wolf Creek several years ago. A set of finely drawn characters and a clever set up mutated into a brainless torture porn that did stupid stupid things just to work in some pointless exposition and set up more torture. Now, finally, there's an Aussie horror flick that gets it all right. Starting with a family tragedy, a poor kid named Brent turns emo and cuts himself to deal with the grief of being behind the wheel when an accident killed his father. A girl at school, Lola, wants to go to the school dance with him, but he's already got a girlfriend. Turns out she's a psychopathic serial killer whose father helps her indulge. John Brumpton is brilliant as the twisted Daddy, who kidnaps Brent and helps her torture him as she seeks to find her prince. It's a dark and twisted satire that manages to never cross the line despite being full of awful and horrific things. It's so over-the-top that it's funny, and that's clearly the intention. But it's also got some nice moments examining grief, loss and teen angst. A very intelligent and darkly funny horror film that had me laughing and squirming and enjoying it massively. Great stuff.
The Hurt Locker
War is a Drug, that's the quote that opens the film as Guy Pearce suits up into body armour for a bomb disposal and then gets fried. I'm guessing his presence, brief as it is, was to guarantee funding for the film. He's great for the short moment he's there, but the film belongs to Jeremy Renner as a bomb disposal expert hooked on the thrill of cheating death. The film is an expertly told action/adventure film, jumping from tense defusing of IEDs to general combat and a few telling moments on base. The shaky-cam works most of the time, but occasionally intrudes into moments where stillness feels more appropriate and thus, the shake feels forced, but the tension is well-maintained, a sniper shoot-out in the middle of the desert particularly impressive. It's nice to see a film set in Iraq that doesn't take an overt political position, but simply places us on the front line with a few well-drawn characters and makes any comments about the horror of war purely through audience sympathy. Excellent.
Dead Snow
Zombie Nazi's attack a bunch of medical students in a ski chalet, and the students fight back. This is an hysterically funny zombie gore fest that takes the piss, has a lot of fun, and is more Evil Dead than Night of the Living Dead. It's a splatstick film, one of the best since Braindead, the scene where two of the guys carve up an army of undead nazis with a chainsaw and a mallet is priceless. Gory but not really scary, it's got a few frights but mainly just gross-out gore that'll have you laughing your arse off.
The Loved Ones
I remember the massive disappointment I had with Wolf Creek several years ago. A set of finely drawn characters and a clever set up mutated into a brainless torture porn that did stupid stupid things just to work in some pointless exposition and set up more torture. Now, finally, there's an Aussie horror flick that gets it all right. Starting with a family tragedy, a poor kid named Brent turns emo and cuts himself to deal with the grief of being behind the wheel when an accident killed his father. A girl at school, Lola, wants to go to the school dance with him, but he's already got a girlfriend. Turns out she's a psychopathic serial killer whose father helps her indulge. John Brumpton is brilliant as the twisted Daddy, who kidnaps Brent and helps her torture him as she seeks to find her prince. It's a dark and twisted satire that manages to never cross the line despite being full of awful and horrific things. It's so over-the-top that it's funny, and that's clearly the intention. But it's also got some nice moments examining grief, loss and teen angst. A very intelligent and darkly funny horror film that had me laughing and squirming and enjoying it massively. Great stuff.
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:27 AM
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