A good day of films..
Dreams (MX/US) (wiki)
A young man makes his way across the Mexican border. Nearly perishing in a crowded container truck as it sits in the baking sun, he makes a break for it as the smugglers return to take their passengers on the next leg of their journey to the land of the free.
Somehow he makes it back to his lover; and older woman by the name of Jennifer. The heat of the relationship radiates from the screen and it becomes clear they are inseparable.
But complications creep in; Jennifer keeps Fernando hidden from her high flying friends and her brother and father, who between the three run a philanthropic foundation to help young people find themselves both sides of the border. Fernando, with a clear talent and passion for ballet, becomes frustrated at the situation and breaks contact, leaving a devastated Jennifer with an unquenchable fire still in her soul for him.
Dreams explores the nature of both male and female desire when things get out of hand, through the lens of the complications and the tinder box subject of both legal and illegal immigration in the US, although it stays well away from any recent political escalations in the area, this is nonetheless timely. 7.5/10
Sirāt (SP/FR) (wiki)
The title is a reference to the Bridge of Sirāt - a mythical bridge separating paradise from hell. And our protagonist - Luis - a middle-aged father desperately trying to find his daughter after months of searching, is about to cross it.
Acting on a lead suggesting that she may have gone to an illegal rave in the middle of the Moroccan desert, Luis - with young son Esteban in tow - takes his thoroughly unsuitable people carrier across the rough and rocky desert, trying his best to keep up with a group of ravers off to their next gig - and a possible new place to look for his daughter. Not wanting to spoil things, but the title very much hints at the events to come, as the group become closer, but also more imperiled.
Refreshingly, the portrayal of the rave community is much more positive than you would often see on film. Yes they are off their arses with drugs, a necessity it seems to fully lose yourself in the pounding beats some may call music, but they are also caring and good people, if a little on the rough side, who welcome Luis in and come to help him in his time of need.
Sirāt is a film to experience on the big screen, and is one that despite its trippy, hallucinatory shell, has a genuinely emotional roller coaster inside. It's not forgotten in a hurry and no surprise it won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes this year. 8/10
Honey Bunch (CA/UK) (wiki)
After a mysterious accident, Diana and her devoted beau Homer head to a retreat way into the sticks for a course of radical post-coma treatment to restore her memories. A fabled doctor dabbling with experimental procedures can bring a person back to their past selves for the right price. Sure enough after the first few days of pills and strobe lights, memories begin to return, but they're a bit off, and they're accompanied by some distressing hallucinations of a woman - looking suspiciously like one in a painting - receiving some unconventional treatments of her own. So descends Diana into the spiraling horror of this story.
The time period is the 70's, and there are a number of cinematic nods to the period as well, including shonky zooms in on distant window panels, which may or may not frame a ghostly apparition, which gives it an appeal as entertaining as it is authentic. And it's fun too. The twists and turns are as mystifying to the viewer as they are to poor Diana until the final few revelations, which is just how these things should be; you want to be a passenger to the mystery, but to leave satisfied that most of it made sense on your way out of the theatre, and Honey Bunch - complete with a title which makes sense at that point - does all of that. 8/10
Die, My Love (US/CA/UK) (wiki)
Its a long time since we could scoff at Robert Pattinson for his part in inflicting the Twilight films on a world that had enough on it's plate already; these days he's considered much more and actor with chops, and after last year's distinctly off-kilter Mickey 17, Pattinson is here again in the indie quadrant, and he's brought Jennifer Lawrence with him.
They play Jackson and Grace, a young couple who clearly started out with a passionate and energetic relationship. Whatever piece of flat furniture happened to be within shagging distance, it was required to have a good wipe down shortly afterwards. But now abruptly and way too early it seems, a baby has appeared, Jackson works long hours away and sleeps when he returns, and now they have moved into Jacksons' late fathers' tired old house, containing little more than bad memories for one, and an out of place feeling for the other. The seeds of destruction have been sown.
The two main leads give their all, in particular Lawrence, who is the focus of the film as the woman struggling with the myriad stresses of new motherhood alone, sliding helplessly into a post natal depressive state. Parents of any persuasion will see elements of their own experience peppered throughout, and its not always easy viewing, with Grace sometimes almost revelling in her descent, such is her state of mind.
Though Die, My Love gives the viewer little genuine hope of a better tomorrow for these young parents it does leave the ending sufficiently open (though potentially devastating) for the audience to decide whether this particular family will make it through. 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment