MIFF Day 11
A solid day of entertaining films, not a dud amongst them. Woohoo!
THE ROBBER
Based on a true story, this is the life and crimes of Johann Rettenberger, a man who won marathons and robbed banks. The film begins with him running in circles around the prison yard, then follows him as he's released and begins a new string of bank robberies. It's like a perverse form of training, as he runs to escape the police with a heart monitor strapped on. The film is entertaining, directed with confidence and an eye for an exciting chase sequence, but it never lets us inside. Why he did what he did remains enigmatic. The most likely answer is that he just wanted the thrill of winning, the sense of beating the system, but the film gives no answers and never really even tries to ask the question. It just follows a life lived on an adrenaline high, and so is unsurprisingly a great ride.
WILD TARGET
Remakes of French screwball comedies are risky business, but occasionally they come off spectacularly. True Lies is the obvious example, a film vastly superior to the clever but rather dull original. Wild Target is a similar example, at least from my movie-overloaded memory. I recall watching the original and not liking it a lot, but I'll have to revisit it after sitting through this laugh-fest. Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt are key to the enjoyment, their performances are pitch perfect, and nobody can do a sudden 180 degree turn on the spot more comically than Nighy (check out Shaun of the Dead). The plot is simple but fun, a hitman finds himself unable to kill his target, but can't explain why. He's in love, obviously, but the feeling is so new to him he can't acknowledge it. The story plays with this a little, to great comic effect, as he wonders if he's not attracted to his new (male) apprentice. Director Jonathan Lynn has had a spotty record as a director, but here he nails it with a very funny crowd pleaser.
LOVE IN A PUFF
Pang Ho Cheung is one of my favourite directors. I've long lamented I skipped the MIFF screening of his first film, You Shoot, I Shoot for a job interview. I would have loved to have experienced that in a packed out cinema. I did get the job though, so at least I got a consolation prize. We haven't seen his films at MIFF for a while now, the last I remember was Beyond our Ken, a black comedy about relationships. Love in a Puff revisits that territory, but this time tells a love story instead of destroying one. The conceit is great too; with smoking outlawed in almost all public places, smokers congregate in alleys and stairwells to share a smoke. This forced camaraderie leads to Jimmy and Cherie meeting and striking up a friendship that slowly develops into something more. All the while, they live like fugitives, hiding from police as they smoke. There's some awesome visual gags showing the lengths to which people will go to get away with a smoke, and anyone who remembers the run on corner stores when the cigarette tax went up will nod in sympathy with the third act. Incredibly funny, touching and sweet, Pang remains a director I love.
RUBBER
No Reason. That's what this film celebrates. In an opening monologue, a police officer explains that "No Reason" is a core part of life, and of all great cinema. And this is definitely great cinema, as well as being the most entertaining meta-narrative analysing the storytelling process I've seen since Jose Chung's From Outer Space, way back when The X-Files was an interesting show to watch. Rubber is unadulterated, unhinged insane genius. The story of Robert the psychotic tyre who can explode your head with his psychic powers is destined to become a cult classic, a film you keep on DVD to show anyone unlucky enough to not have seen it yet. And unlike most off-the-wall films, this one has excellent acting, awesome special effects and cinematography (by the director himself) so good that Soderbergh would be jealous. The most original film I've seen in years, and one of the funniest.
THE ROBBER
Based on a true story, this is the life and crimes of Johann Rettenberger, a man who won marathons and robbed banks. The film begins with him running in circles around the prison yard, then follows him as he's released and begins a new string of bank robberies. It's like a perverse form of training, as he runs to escape the police with a heart monitor strapped on. The film is entertaining, directed with confidence and an eye for an exciting chase sequence, but it never lets us inside. Why he did what he did remains enigmatic. The most likely answer is that he just wanted the thrill of winning, the sense of beating the system, but the film gives no answers and never really even tries to ask the question. It just follows a life lived on an adrenaline high, and so is unsurprisingly a great ride.
WILD TARGET
Remakes of French screwball comedies are risky business, but occasionally they come off spectacularly. True Lies is the obvious example, a film vastly superior to the clever but rather dull original. Wild Target is a similar example, at least from my movie-overloaded memory. I recall watching the original and not liking it a lot, but I'll have to revisit it after sitting through this laugh-fest. Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt are key to the enjoyment, their performances are pitch perfect, and nobody can do a sudden 180 degree turn on the spot more comically than Nighy (check out Shaun of the Dead). The plot is simple but fun, a hitman finds himself unable to kill his target, but can't explain why. He's in love, obviously, but the feeling is so new to him he can't acknowledge it. The story plays with this a little, to great comic effect, as he wonders if he's not attracted to his new (male) apprentice. Director Jonathan Lynn has had a spotty record as a director, but here he nails it with a very funny crowd pleaser.
LOVE IN A PUFF
Pang Ho Cheung is one of my favourite directors. I've long lamented I skipped the MIFF screening of his first film, You Shoot, I Shoot for a job interview. I would have loved to have experienced that in a packed out cinema. I did get the job though, so at least I got a consolation prize. We haven't seen his films at MIFF for a while now, the last I remember was Beyond our Ken, a black comedy about relationships. Love in a Puff revisits that territory, but this time tells a love story instead of destroying one. The conceit is great too; with smoking outlawed in almost all public places, smokers congregate in alleys and stairwells to share a smoke. This forced camaraderie leads to Jimmy and Cherie meeting and striking up a friendship that slowly develops into something more. All the while, they live like fugitives, hiding from police as they smoke. There's some awesome visual gags showing the lengths to which people will go to get away with a smoke, and anyone who remembers the run on corner stores when the cigarette tax went up will nod in sympathy with the third act. Incredibly funny, touching and sweet, Pang remains a director I love.
RUBBER
No Reason. That's what this film celebrates. In an opening monologue, a police officer explains that "No Reason" is a core part of life, and of all great cinema. And this is definitely great cinema, as well as being the most entertaining meta-narrative analysing the storytelling process I've seen since Jose Chung's From Outer Space, way back when The X-Files was an interesting show to watch. Rubber is unadulterated, unhinged insane genius. The story of Robert the psychotic tyre who can explode your head with his psychic powers is destined to become a cult classic, a film you keep on DVD to show anyone unlucky enough to not have seen it yet. And unlike most off-the-wall films, this one has excellent acting, awesome special effects and cinematography (by the director himself) so good that Soderbergh would be jealous. The most original film I've seen in years, and one of the funniest.
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:14 AM
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