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Friday, December 3, 2010
One Hell of a Christmas Movie
RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE is a Christmas movie about a very bad Santa. It is not for children. This is a review of it.
Release date: 3 December
Directed and written by: Jalmari Helander
Starring: Onni Tommila, Per Christian Ellefsen, Peeter Jakobi, Tommi Korpela, Jorma Tommila, Jonathan Hutchings
Cert: 16
Running Time: 82 mins
A few years ago the 16-certification was introduced in Ireland after a bunch of disgruntled parents kicked up a kerfuffle about the film BAD SANTA. These parents brought children to PG15 movie, expecting God knows what, but were offended by boozing, womanising and a generally dismissive attitude to political correctness. The children had the magic of Christmas tainted forever and Joe Duffy got an earful.
If BAD SANTA hadn’t brought about the inception of the 16s cert, then RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE would have. This film is technically a Christmas movie but, for the love of all things snowy, please don’t bring your children, unless you want them to be sat at the foot of their bed with a shot gun on Christmas Eve.
For all intents and purposes this plays out like a children’s movie. The main protagonist is a little boy who lives in Lapland. His only friends are his teddy bear and slightly older boy who has outgrown all the Santa stuff. Some American capitalist types come in to search for Santa’s tomb, the local village industries get affected and it’s all a little spooky, without being scary.
There are some sinister tones running through the picture, but that could just be the Finnish way of telling a story (The movie is in Finnish by the way). The little boy is Pietari. Pete’s Dad is a butcher and there’s a bit more blood than one would expect from a children’s movie, his mother is dead and according to Finnish legend Santa wasn’t nice at all, he was in fact a demon of some sort. This Santa thing becomes the central theme of the movie and a never quite see the baddy game of cat and mouse develops.
This Santa thread gets progressively ominous and by the end things have turned utterly dark and there’s no chance of anyone who hasn’t entered their 20s being a little traumatised at the sight of mince pies once they’ve left the cinema.
As a story, it’s a good tale, told well. There are a few contrived plot points that are wedged in to add drama but fail to do so, but they aren’t so bad that it leads to frustration.
The CGI isn’t quite up to Hollywood standards, but it’s a lot better than I would have expected from Finland.
The problem for RARE EXPORTS is that it will struggle to find an audience. Hipsters or stoners could potentially stumble across it and give it a cult status, but grown ups will find the early parts too childish and children will never sleep again if they see it. It’s hard to know who this is for, but it definitely isn’t for kids.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
The Gooneries
The South African World Cup has come and gone. Now arriving a few months later like a postcard lost in the post, AFRICA UNITED has arrived to offer a children’s adventure movie with more than a splash of football. This is a review of it.
Release date: 22 October
Directed by: Debs Gardner-Paterson
Starring: Eriya Ndayambaje, Roger Nsengiyumva, Sanyu Joanita Kintu, Sherrie Silver and Yves Dusenge
Cert: 12a
Running Time: 88 mins
Live action kids movies have left a lot to be desired in recent years. 3 High School Musicals, 2 Band Camps and a Hannah Montana have left the current generation thinking that life is all singing and dancing and blonde wigs.
AFRICA UNITED takes a different approach. The film opens with one of its main protagonists explaining how to make a football out of a condom (insert Miley Cyrus joke here). It’s clear from this scene that this won’t be your typical kids film.
The preamble to the meat of the story isn’t very encouraging. Fabrice, a gifted young soccerer is spotted showing off his skills and is invited to a trial for an exhibition match at the World Cup. Fab’s mother is less than impressed with this notion, as she wants her son to be a doctor. Her “stop dreaming, start studying” speech is so cliché that it evokes a sense of dread that this is going to be the same as every other childrens movie ever.
These fears are allayed however, when the story gets going. On the way to the trial, Fabrice is led onto the wrong bus by his manager, Dudu. The two lads, along with Dudu’s sister, thought they were heading for the capital of Rwanda but in fact end up in a refugee camp in the DR of Congo – without any papers. When a fellow resident informs them that there are men who will snatch them from the camp and force them to join the army, they adopt an in for a penny, in for a pound attitude and decide to head for South Africa. Needless to say they have lots of adventures along the way, and pick up a few stragglers as well.
What sets this movie apart from other kiddie flicks, is the fact that the dangers they face are very real. Fab, Dudu and their gang aren’t on the run from fictional baddies like a dragon or a wizzard. Nor are they running from statistically improbable villains like burglars or a government agency. These kids have to overcome real problems that the whole of their continent has to face on a daily basis. Child conscription to the military, HIV, sex trafficing, it’s all there, but handled in an unexplicit fashion and delivered at a level that children will understand. It’s a narrow walkway, but the makers negotiate it perfectly.
The dark aspects of the storyline are in sharp contrast to the brigt colours of the visuals. While the story depicts all that is ugly and undesireable about Africa, the camera shows all of the natural beauty and colour, as yet unspoilt by human hands.
The film uses mostly live action, but there are number of cut sequences featuring funky digital marionettes. These are the visualisation of a story Dudu is telling his sister, and act as a way to simplify the story and make it more accessible to younger kids, who might have all the war and prostitution go over their heads otherwise. The colour gets ramped up to eleven during these scenes and they provide a sugary respite from all the horribleness.
The thrust of the story comes from the journey from Congo to South Africa, but football is always present. The crew keep a football with them at all times and the script is littered with references to players, managers and teams that should snare the interest of young football fans. A reference to Thiery Henry is likely to draw a few boos during Irish screenings though.
The benefits of football (team spirit, never say die, it doesn’t matter where you come from, etc) are all present, but the ugly side of modern football also raises its ugly head. The consumerism that distracts from said benefits appears through corporate slogans scattered throughout the dialogue, with the lines “impossible is nothing” and “Kodak moment” being particularly grating.
Live action kids movies have been suffering for the last decade. Computer animated movies like Shrek and The Incredibles look to have snapped up the good writers, leaving kids with only lightweight Disney Club nonsense if they want to see real actors – Harry Potter doesn’t count because it is based on books. AFRICA UNITED however, returns to the late 80s/early 90s era of The Goonies, Problem Child and Uncle Buck, when children were given a view of the world that wasn’t necessarily middle class and secure. The kids in this film have more to worry about than choosing between the basketball team and the glee club, and that extra layer of hardship makes the smiles they provide all the more contagious.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Boxed In
BURIED is a movie starring Ryan Reynolds set entirely in a coffin in Iraq. No Really, it is. This is really a review of it.
Release date: 29 September 2010
Directed by: Rodrigo Cortés
Starring: Ryan Reynolds
Cert: 15a
Running Time: 95 mins
Given its title, if I told you that BURIED was a movie about a man in a box for an hour and a half you may retort that there are many such films on the internet, and that watching that sort of thing in a cinema would be inappropriate without a long coat and a pocket pack of handkerchiefs. BURIED is in fact a movie about a man trapped in a coffin and not, as its name and synopsis suggest, a dirty film. The only dirt here is the dirt the box is buried in.
Why is the man in the box though? Well, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is a truck driver for an American firm working in Iraq. While going about his daily drivery, he and his coleagues were attacked by some insurgent type fellows, who killed the rest of convoy and knocked out poor Paulie. The film begins at the point where he wakes up with only a cigarette lighter to illuminate his cramped surroundings. That is until a phone rings. Don’t bother asking how he can get coverage underground, you will only end up frustrated by the lack of a logical answer.
The first thirtyish minutes of the film consist of wee bit of panicky screaming followed by Paul ringing home to trying to convince anyone who’ll listen of the situation he’s in. Most are rightfully suspicious about his ability to make an international call on a cell phone from underneath Iraq.
This thrity-minute spell is the result of a box that the inventor of this piece put himself in. Similar to Paul’s situation, there is very little wiggle room for a story when there is only one character in a coffin. Eventually however an FBI agent believes him and they have a chat that gets the action – if you could call it that – moving. Soon after that call another involving Paul’s captor informs us that he is being held for a ransom of $5 million. The rest of the film involves the terrorist trying to get Paul to be as public as possible and the FBI agent trying to keep hush hush. Paul flip flops between listening to both out of desperation.
Your enjoyment of this movie will largely depend on your feelings towards Ryan “Marmite” Reynolds. If you liked his backchatting in Van Wilder, you will like his comic reposts to the officials on the phone. If you didn’t like his smartass attitude in Wolverine, you may hate the fact that he gets lippy with the people capable of helping him. If you found him attractive in anything he’s been in, you’ll like the fact that, apart from a very short MMS, his is the only face on the screen for the entire film. If you’re girlfriend finds him attractive, you may not.
If you don’t like him there won’t be much here for you. Visually, it looks as good as a film set in a box can look. The double standard of how “I’m just doing my job” has different connotations depending on whether you are an American or an Iraqi is questioned. Also the issue of what would you do to feed your family if your country was turned upside down by a foreign power is raised. The story is passable and there are moments of tension, but ultimately the film is just Ryan Reynolds in a box.
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