MIFF Day 13
After missing a day thanks to a car accident and a brief stay in hospital, I'm back. (And I can now verify that those facing the ceiling POV shots in films are an accurate depiction of the experience of being wheeled around on a stretcher.)
ESSENTIAL KILLING
I picked this film on the basis that it stars Vincent Gallo. He's an interesting guy, not as successful as some other actors, but it's a shame since he's a talented guy. Sadly, he doesn't get to do much in this film except look confused and afraid. It starts off promisingly enough, with Gallo as an Arab guerrilla fighter who blows up three Americans with an RPG and is captured, tortured and transported to Poland for some reason. It's there the vehicle he's in rolls off a cliff and he escapes. The whole film up to here is beautifully handled, mostly dialogue free, and packed with clever and interesting action. Unfortunately it starts to unravel once he's on the run through the snow. I was initially thinking it was a thinking man's First Blood, an arthouse survivalist movie, but it quickly peters out and starts to bore. There are no characters, we never learn anything about this guy, we just watch him run and try to survive. And close to the end he meets a mute girl who helps him for reasons unknown and then she packs him off on a horse where he promptly coughs up blood and dies. I imagine the filmmakers thought they were making some profound statement on war, or something like that, but they forgot to let the audience in on it. Much like The Hunter in last year's MIFF, this is a film that fails its promise. It's a shame too, because the first half is exceptionally well made and full of potential.
TROLL HUNTER
I groaned inwardly when the first title card came up on this, claiming it was found footage that had been verified. I know it's a gag, but it's 2011, aren't we all a bit too old for this? But then the film began, and the technique works perfectly for the material. It's not a gimmick, it's a storytelling device. A trio of film students out to make a documentary on the licensed bear hunters hired by the government to keep populations in check hear about a poacher in the area. The hunters all bitch about him, though nobody has seen him. Their interest piqued, they track the man down and start following him. Finally, they catch him at work and he tells them he's no poacher. He's the field agent of the Troll Security Service, a government department that controls Troll numbers and kills them when they break out of their territory. Unlike other found footage films, this one doesn't dick you around with obscured shots and cameras pointed at running feet. You get to see all kinds of Trolls, Forest and Mountain breeds both, and they're nasty and big. It's a thrilling and incredibly funny film, with great performances and a really smart script. An absolute winner of a film.
ESSENTIAL KILLING
I picked this film on the basis that it stars Vincent Gallo. He's an interesting guy, not as successful as some other actors, but it's a shame since he's a talented guy. Sadly, he doesn't get to do much in this film except look confused and afraid. It starts off promisingly enough, with Gallo as an Arab guerrilla fighter who blows up three Americans with an RPG and is captured, tortured and transported to Poland for some reason. It's there the vehicle he's in rolls off a cliff and he escapes. The whole film up to here is beautifully handled, mostly dialogue free, and packed with clever and interesting action. Unfortunately it starts to unravel once he's on the run through the snow. I was initially thinking it was a thinking man's First Blood, an arthouse survivalist movie, but it quickly peters out and starts to bore. There are no characters, we never learn anything about this guy, we just watch him run and try to survive. And close to the end he meets a mute girl who helps him for reasons unknown and then she packs him off on a horse where he promptly coughs up blood and dies. I imagine the filmmakers thought they were making some profound statement on war, or something like that, but they forgot to let the audience in on it. Much like The Hunter in last year's MIFF, this is a film that fails its promise. It's a shame too, because the first half is exceptionally well made and full of potential.
TROLL HUNTER
I groaned inwardly when the first title card came up on this, claiming it was found footage that had been verified. I know it's a gag, but it's 2011, aren't we all a bit too old for this? But then the film began, and the technique works perfectly for the material. It's not a gimmick, it's a storytelling device. A trio of film students out to make a documentary on the licensed bear hunters hired by the government to keep populations in check hear about a poacher in the area. The hunters all bitch about him, though nobody has seen him. Their interest piqued, they track the man down and start following him. Finally, they catch him at work and he tells them he's no poacher. He's the field agent of the Troll Security Service, a government department that controls Troll numbers and kills them when they break out of their territory. Unlike other found footage films, this one doesn't dick you around with obscured shots and cameras pointed at running feet. You get to see all kinds of Trolls, Forest and Mountain breeds both, and they're nasty and big. It's a thrilling and incredibly funny film, with great performances and a really smart script. An absolute winner of a film.
posted by Andrew Lee at 11:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home