Straight to the Vein

May 8, 2016

MPW-114926Green Room (2016).

D/W: Jeremy Saulnier. DP: Sean Porter. Starring: Patrick Stewart/Anton Yelchin/Imogen Poots/Alia Shawkat/Joe Cole/Callum Turner/Mark Webber/Eric Edelstein/Macon Blair.

Unlike The Witch‘s subtle historical horror, the new film Green Room plugs you into an amp and drags you along for a wild ride. After doing a festival circuit the film was bought by A24 prior to its Toronto and Sundance appearances. A good piece of horror fun, Green Room is perfect antidote to the big studio tent-poles who are slowly removing personal horror from violence.

Green Room centers on a heavy rock band that flies under the radar, shirking social media in the name of true music. Stealing gas and living literally hand to mouth they reluctantly take a gig to make some extra cash to finish up their tour. Off the group then goes and arrives at a Neo-Natzi esq type club. After their set they discover a stabbing victim in the green room and become embroiled in a cat/mouse trap with the owner as they attempt to wait for the police to arrive.

Cinematographer by trade, director/writer Jeremy Saulnier handles Green Room with confidence. His 2013 film, Blue Ruin, garnered festival buzz premiering at Cannes. Here the trick is clearly keeping his characters and his audience in the dark. The film keeps a good pace and the cat/mouse story line works because there is never an attempt to explain (other than basics) why the events must occur. The unexplained breeds the panic of the group. The few reasons given are not the most inventive, but the core of Green Room is certainly the wrong place/wrong time of the group and it works.

The club owner/head honcho Darcy is played by veteran Patrick Stewart. With his eerily calm delivery of most lines he seems like a cat ready to pounce whose temper every now and then betrays him. Stewart’s general good aura gives the cult/Neo-Natzi group a weight that helps the film. The band has good chemistry with each other with Anton Yelchin’s Pat inadvertently becoming the lead. His simpering boyishness is a good contrast to the bullies in the club yet echoes cult side kick Gabe (Macon Blair) ineptitude at the physical. Imogen Poots hair and non showering look seems to have finally found its place with her performance as Amber. Her exasperation translates well.

Ultimately Green Room gives the gratuitous violence of the horror genre some shape and form. There is some inventive use of duck tape that is quite nauseating. The film is full of turns so will keep your heartbeat going and has a great final countdown sequence that is not without humor. It does not have the style of The Witch or even the performances of 10 Cloverfield Lane, but it has a fresh energy that allows its characters to keep fighting. A solid horror flick probably best watched at night, take it from someone who saw it at 11 AM!

Jeepers Creepers

April 20, 2016

MPW-114029The Witch (2016).

D/W: Robert Eggers. DP: Jarin Blaschke. Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy/Ralph Ineson/Kate Dickie/Harvey Scrimshaw/Ellie Grainger/Jonas Dawson.

Much chatted about The Witch has finally hit theatres after its premiere back in 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival. Picked up by Universal for release here in the UK and by A24 in the US, the film has become the horror film of the year. Let’s get one thing straight first. As someone who avoids what is normally lumped into the genre label of horror, this film barely cuts it. Modern notions of horror lend me to think of slashers, which has created franchises like the Saw films. Rather The Witch is old fashioned suspense, nail bites, and the right dose of fright that makes it memorable.

The Witch is written and directed by newcomer Robert Eggers who hails from a costume and production design background. This is immediately clear from the color palette and textures that Eggers knows how to build mood. His film centers on a family of banished Puritans who are forced to build a new farm outside of the safety of their New World plantation settlement after the father’s, William (Ralph Ineson), religious teachings are deemed too much. Working his children in God’s name his eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) turns the family into turmoil when her baby brother is snatched on her watch. The mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), stricken with grief, begins a slow unraveling that pits religion against the supernatural.

Cloaked in a reliance and service to God, the family also speaks in an Old English tongue that evidently was taken or adapted from primary source texts prior to the famed Salem Witch Trials. Immediately this lends the film a storybook quality, but one of nightmares rather than fairy tales. The woods next to the farm are seen mostly in long shot or close up and deemed forbidden to the children. This is not the land of Harry Potter’s Forbidden Forest rather its one that warps the senses and brings original sin into the light.

Young English actress Taylor-Joy is a captivating center for the film. At moments her modernness cracks to the surface, but overall she handles the Old English well. Dickie and Ineson, both graduates of the world of HBO’s Game of Thrones, are balanced well in the script. Neither faith seems too disturbing when placed in relief to the other and the family’s imminent survival.

The unilateral belief of original sin is the crux of The Witch. Thomasin, with her ‘appearances of womanhood,’ appears to somehow invite the witch of the woods into being or is certainly blamed for it. The congruence of womanhood/sin/Satan/temptation is at play, but the film roots in unnervingly realistic and ritualistic ways that allow the imagination to see more than the eye. Its why the original Halloween still works. For the first half an hour the audience experience a stalking. It is all in the pacing and The Witch creeps along without revealing much. Trust me, we would not like it if it did.

MPW-98374Into the Woods (2014).

D: Rob Marshall. W: James Lapine. DP: Dion Beebe. Starring: Meryl Streep/Emily Blunt/James Corden/Johnny Depp/Anna Kendrick/Chris Pine/Lilla Crawford/Tracey Ullman/Daniel Huttlestone/Christine Baranski/Billy Magnussen/Mackenzie Mauzy/Lucy Punch/Tammy Blanchard. (Based on Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 musical of the same name)

The musical genre has been struggling for a comeback for the last decade. Since 2002’s Oscar winning Chicago, filmmakers and studios have been chasing that same success. Yes 2008’s Mamma Mia made the big bucks, but 2012’s Les Miserables dragged us through three hours of labor and drama. Into the Woods joins a difficult cannon, but I am happy to say it does its Broadway mother justice.

Director Rob Marshall, responsible for both 2009’s Nine and Chicago, is clearly in his element here. Cinematographer Dion Beebe (Edge of Tomorrow) is at his aid again, they worked on both previous musicals together. The pair give space to their actors and thankfully, do not let the camera linger on reaction shots. The entire film has a fantastic sense of space and gives magic to its story without abandoning all realism.

There is definitely a bit of Disney gloss happening here. With a PG rating it is implied that the darker elements of the musical would be toned down, especially with the implications of the Wolf’s song, ‘Hello Little Girl.’ However, Johnny Depp is delicious as The Wolf and the Rat Pack vibe the song is given is simply pure fun. The deaths are also moved off screen and certain story lines are nipped and tucked to clearly fit this ratings margin. By no means is Into the Woods a disappointment for it, but it does change the overall palette of the project, especially the humor. Mostly this is aggravating as regardless, the film to me, is still for adults.

There is also some merging of characters, omissions of songs, and the on stage narrator now is serviced through the Baker’s (James Corden) voiceover. Luckily this voiceover does not inhibit the pacing of the film, though one or two times it feels repetitive. Despite all that Into the Woods pulls stellar performances out of the entire ensemble. The standouts are of course Meryl Streep’s Witch whose costumes (supremely done by Colleen Atwood) and make up merely enhance a fun, dynamic delivery. Chris Pine as Cinderella’s Prince oozes glorious giggle inducing charm with his duet with Rapuzel’s Prince (Billy Magnussen) a highlight, as it is in the show. I am very sad the reprise was cut. The youngsters Lilla Crawford and Daniel Huttlestone are excellent and hold their own with big solos. Emily Blunt’s Baker’s wife is great opposite Corden and Anna Kendrick does well as Cinderella, singing in a very difficult key. Lucy Punch steals a huge laugh as one of Cinderella’s step sisters, still waiting for someone to give her a bigger shot.

Into the Woods is overall an enjoyable addition to the musical genre. The first half is definitely stronger than the second, as it is in the show, but James Lapine adapts his work well. Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics actually works well on screen as his walk and sings balance the big numbers with character development. And what happens after ‘ever after’ is so on trend right now its ridiculous. But as a musical lover I couldn’t stop smiling and that is a beautiful thing.