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rgunthersara
Reviews
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Really great horror from a fan that isn't into horror
I've never been a big fan of the zombie and horror movies, but this one really takes the cake. Danny Boyle did an incredible job with his depiction of an abandoned London, fear stricken and virus plagued.
This picture goes miles further than Danny Boyle's original 28 Days Later, a rare feat for a sequel. The director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo did a wonderful job with the tone and consistency of the piece.
The sense of empty space is palpable and pervades the film. It was incredible to behold what Fresnadillo did with London, how he shaped and changed it. I know that he isn't a native Londoner, but living here myself I got the feeling that he knew the city well enough to understand how it might decay, and what the dynamics of its abandonment would look like.
The father played by Robert Carlyle starts as an incredibly flawed character and something about his mix of heart and error makes you understand and invest in him from the beginning.
The zombies are perhaps even more frightening here because unlike the original film, the atmosphere isn't a zombie plagued one but instead a city in renewal, which makes the outbursts of violence and gore that much more shocking and contrary to the general rebuilding that many of the characters are focused on.
It's amazing to watch a great genre heavy film that has the tension and depth of an art-house piece.
High Maintenance (2006)
Bar Raising Storytelling
'High Maintenance' redefines conventional narrative storytelling in a style that is reminiscent of Hitchcock, Hawks and Kubrick but that is ultimately all its own. The film delivers complex frames, characters and editing that come off deceivingly straight forward, performances from Nicolette Krebitz and Wanja Mues rich with subtlety, subtext and pitch-black deadpan humor, deliberate sound layering, and an airtight yet completely unpredictable story that is as beautiful in its economy and efficiency as in its ultimate existential meaning.
The film uses a sci-fi concept relating to relationships (nospoilers here) to deeply explore very real human connections, or lack thereof. It doesn't stray from conventions, instead rebuilding them from the ground up, reframing science fiction by approaching it from an intensely unique angle. As Miles van der Rohe put it, 'god is in the details,' as are the brilliant touches and intensely meaningful elements in this film.
I had the feeling that I got as fully realized a story in 9 minutes as a good feature might present in 120. The scenes, character arcs and directorial decisions are that clear, concise and meaningful. It could easily be a magnum opus squeezed into 9 minutes but something tells me a year from now we will see more from the filmmaker, though I imagine it will be anything but predictable.
Children of Men (2006)
A brilliant thriller
Alfonso Cuaron has created a clever and moving rendition of a very British P.D. James novel about a dystopic not-so-future world. Famous for her intelligent police procedural novels, James devised a story set only 20 years into the future in which for unknown reasons all the women on earth have become infertile. As the world turns to violence and chaos, the British settle under an oppressive dictatorship while awaiting extinction.
The casting is near perfect. Clive Owen as Theo turns from a world-weary bureaucrat into a hunted man and maybe the first true 21st century protagonist embodying both the pathos and passive aggression of a modern culture built on office politics and water cooler intrigue. The characters he meets along the way his ex-wife, the rebel "fish," the refugees who come to his aid, and an old friend and aging hippie (played by an unrivaled Michael Caine, who is only growing better with age) are all succinctly and ingeniously realized.
The film successfully demonstrates the fragility of humanity in the face of a tyrannical protectorate, who often do more to create than oppose violence. Without extending its reach into the realm of agenda film-making, its themes feel alarmingly topical and raw, from subtle commentary about immigration to homeland security. The film never makes a statement at the expense of the story or becomes "about" political meaning. It's voice remains uniquely centered on humanity and the emotional truth of the characters.
Cuaron has turned a fairly rare novel into a modern screen gem without polluting the original concept. If anything, he adds an immediacy and intense realism to the source material. He is a very smart and intensely interesting filmmaker and I'm sure we will be seeing even greater works from him in the future, which may not be so far away after all.