Change Your Image
alan-broome
Reviews
Road to Hell (2008)
A movie filled with unspeakable rage, almost unbearable pain
I was going to wait until I had a chance to see the finished film because what I saw at the Fantastic Fest last year was almost too rough to watch. I must admit that even with the poor projection and clearly unfinished effects shots, the film packed a powerful if disturbing emotional wallop. At times I was so shocked by the rage fueled violence set to rock ballads that I could feel myself flush and even swept by a wave of momentarily nausea. The film is one that will split audiences because it really puts forth the depressing idea that for even larger than life iconic heroes, life can turn disappointing and desparing. I don't think I've ever seen a film that takes a dashing heroic figure as a youth and then shows us the ruins that is his life 20 years later. In a weird way it was an analogy for me to wars like Viet Nam where youth is idealistic, filled with life only to return home a shell of a man. That's what we have here. An almost super human and stoic hero reduced to a destructed, bitter man. He's delusional in the hope he can be saved. Pare does a masterful job in bringing Cody's pain, desperation, and confusion to life. It's the best performance in his career. Clare Kramer is very very good too. Her character must be one of the most obscenely vile person ever portrayed on screen. What is amazing is how she can be so ugly and yet so breathtakingly sexy in the same moment. I really want to withhold final judgment as the film did say it was a work in progress. The movie has definitely stayed with me. It screened with Pare's Streets of fire and that made the contrast of Pare even more striking. He's so young and youthful in Streets and so grimly weathered in Road To Hell. It's one of the more shocking things to see. Like one of those where are they now things where you see a sweet face then the now shows the image of a ravaged meth addict. You wonder how did one go from sweet to horrific? In a nutshell that's what this film explores.
Los cronocrímenes (2007)
Pointless juvenile plot less, done many times
This is the type of movie that gives independent cinema a bad name. It's a short film disguised as a feature. The type of film where some kids sit around smoking pot and riff on each other's delusional attempt at creating a great clever concept. This "concept" is so old and I've personally seen it at least a dozen times, usually in the form of a short where the concept can be what it is, a notion. There's absolutely no characterization or plot. No maturity of ideas or any awareness of how old and tired the film's "inventive" ideas are. This film doesn't even register as quirky and the most insulting aspect is that you get a sense that the filmmakers think they are oh so clever and cool. You can predict every thing that's going to happen after ten minutes and you can do this because of how incredibly derivative the story is. No surprises and like a short it ends because it just does. The filmmaker really needs to expose themselves to the many great efforts of past masters. The filmmaker needs to grow up.
Dead Like Me (2003)
Clever but uneven at times
I really like this show. It is, at times, perfection. Ellen Muth is a revelation and really carries the show along. The first episodes were deeply affecting and created tension through character and the situations unfolding. Later episodes seemed too gimmicky and light. but through it all there is Ellen Muth and really the show is about her and her brilliant character. What I like is how you are constantly surprised by the character and Muth's depth of playing those surprises. She makes everything feel real and grounded and she's able to transfer what her character feels and thinks directly to the audience. There doesn't seem to be any artifice or manipulation. Many of the supporting characters do a wonderful job as well. I only wish the series didn't stumble mid- way in the first season.
Grace (2009)
Okay Effort but Predictable
I was quite excite to see Grace as I had read all the online buzz which may, in hindsight, done a disservice to the film. While the subject is truly unsettling and squirm inducing, the execution was too conventional in the telling. I was hoping for a deeper and more original film. Last years Let The Right One In certainly set the bar high for horror thrillers and Grace just can't quite reach it. It settles for pandering to it's gimmick instead of a real study of a human in this situation which would have been so much more horrifying and involving. To me the film was content to ride the coattails of its central appalling idea without any exploration of meanings and emotion. It was all too predictable and like watching a short desperate to expand to a feature film. The performances were okay but again nothing you wouldn't expect. There needed to be more on the filmmaker's mind than an exercise in lazy manipulation.