Sundance 2013 Movie Review: “Stoker”

Sexy and creepy, another instant classic from Chan-wook Park.

Article first published as Sundance 2013 Movie Review: Stoker on Blogcritics.

Hot on the heels of director Kim Jee-woon’s Hollywood debut (The Last Stand) comes another critically acclaimed Korean director staking his claim Stateside. Chan-wook Park premiered his Stoker at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and I couldn’t be happier to have been one of the first people to see it. Being a fan of Park’s since I saw Oldboy and Three… Extremes during the 2005 festival, it makes sense that he’d return with his splashy Hollywood debut. Having a cast consisting of Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, Jackie Weaver, and Matthew Goode, certainly helps too, not to mention the surprisingly killer screenplay updating Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt courtesy of Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller.

It’s India Stoker’s (Mia Wasikowska) 18th birthday when her father, Richard (Dermot Mulroney), dies in a car accident. During the funeral, India spots a far off figure, hearing him tell her that he’ll see her soon. India has incredibly sharp senses allowing her to hear things which others cannot. Her mother Evie (Nicole Kidman) welcomes this strange fellow into their home as India’s Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), her father Richard’s brother. She’s never heard of her Uncle Charlie before and it quickly turns out that could be for good reason. After Aunt Gin (Jackie Weaver) comes to discuss their living arrangements with Uncle Charlie and trying to get a private word in with India she disappears along with the housekeeper, Mrs. McGarrick (Phyllis Somerville). It soon becomes all too clear that Uncle Charlie has plenty of skeletons in the family closet to go along with his ulterior motives for showing up to spend quality time with India.

The first thing you should really know about Stoker’s plot, is nothing more. To spoil the surprises would ruin all the fun. Director Park brings everything we love about his films to the table here. His use of sound, along with his delirious and almost hypnotic scene transitions, help make this one of the most stylish thrillers in years. The trailer does make it look more like a horror movie than it is, but that’s not to say nothing horrific happens. There is some messed up stuff abound. Kidman delivers as always and Wasikowska really steps up to the plate for what Miller’s screenplay puts her character through. Don’t miss the beginning of the film or it will make the ending seem a little lackluster and won’t really mean anything either. During the Q&A after the film, someone asked Park how it felt to have outdone Hitchcock himself. Park was most gracious for the compliment but denied his film being that good. I think if you take it on the terms of remaking Shadow of a Doubt, then yes, Park is at least on the same level here and I’m now dying to see him turned loose.

Stoker played this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the Premieres category as a Fox Searchlight production and you too can see what Park has up his sleeves when it begins its roll out with a limited release on March 1.

Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

Sundance 2013 Movie Reviews: “We Are What We Are,” “S-VHS,” “In Fear,” and “Virtually Heroes”

Four genre pics for the picking. Three out of four good ones ain't bad.

Article first published as Sundance 2013 Movie Reviews: We Are What We Are, S-VHS, In Fear, and Virtually Heroes on Blogcritics.

Being a horror movie junky, every year I try to catch as many of the Park City at Midnight screenings as I can. While they’re not always gold, they’re usually at least a bit more fun. But for every Tucker and Dale vs. Evil you have to sit through something like The Pact or Troll Hunter. Over the years, I’ve also managed to catch The Descent and the original Saw (yes, that series came out of Sundance for better and worse). This year, I managed to catch four – We Are What We Are, S-VHS, In Fear, and Virtually Heroes. Three of these were good to fantastic, while one never managed to hit the bullseye.

The best of the bunch is director/co-writer Jim Mickle’s We Are What We Are — a companion piece to Jorge Michel Grau’s original, rather than an out-and-out remake. After their mother drowns in a puddle during a rainstorm, a family has to decide what to do for food. Daughters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner), under the ruling thumb of patriarch Frank (Bill Sage), pick up the responsibilities while the youngest Rory (Jack Gore) is still literally just a child.

With a storm growing, bones are starting to show up in the river behind the family’s house. Meanwhile, local medical examiner Doc Barrow (Michael Parks) is suspicious about the death of his own child after he realizes that mother Parker was suffering from kuru, a Parkinson’s type disease associated with eating certain types of meat. Now the family must deal with the consequences of their actions both on the outside world and at home. Mickle and co-writer Nick Damici (also playing the role of Sheriff Meeks) bring a brilliant slow burn to the proceedings and an ending that will knock your socks off. Sage is terrifying as the tyrannical father, Childers effortlessly plays a young girl way out of her comfort zone, and Garner really gives us something to chew on once she finally lets her hair down.

S-VHS is the follow-up to last year’s “found footage” horror anthology, VHS. This time we’re treated to even more madness and mayhem. Writers/directors Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard (A Horrible Way to Die), Gregg Hale and Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project), Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Gareth Evans (The Raid), John Davies, Jamie Nash, and Timo Tjahjanto, team up to bring more gore, laughs, and shocks than the original. The wrap-around story involving a pair of investigators searching for a missing college kid fails to hit the mark but thankfully ends on a joke. There’s also a lake side alien invasion, POV zombie attack on a children’s birthday party in the woods, a haunted eye implant, and an extended story about a cult and the literal birth of the devil. Everything in S works better than it did in VHS which is to our benefit. The only thing that really fails is when you’re stuck watching a dog die on camera. Not a real dog of course, but it’s still just way too much for any audience, even when it comes to horror.

Being stuck out in the woods at night is possibly my biggest fear. And if there was ever a checklist of reasons why, look no further than In Fear. Director Jeremy Lovering explained during the film’s Q&A, held after the screening, that he withheld the script from stars Alice Englert and Iain De Caestecker to elicit real reactions. (Although, as usual, it’s the male lead who starts to grate on your nerves. Good thing the same isn’t true of Englert since we’ll be seeing her soon in next week’s Beautiful Creatures.)

This rings true for the audience as well as their real fear feeds into our own. Granted, there are some occasions when Lovering can’t help but use tried-and-true tactics such as blaring car horns, but there’s also a sense of the supernatural as the couple just trying to find their romantic getaway hotel leads to a labyrinthine maze of backwoods. Add an attacked passenger to the mix and you’ve got yourself one of the most intense films headed our way. Being produced by Edgar Wright’s partner in crime, Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), only ensures that we’ll be seeing this one in theaters at some point.

When it comes to producing the lowest of low-budget films, no name may be more synonymous than Roger Corman. His films always are a bit hit-and-miss, although 2011’s Sundance documentary, Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, was far more entertaining than this year’s Virtually Heroes of which he executive produces. Even to say “taking a page” from Wreck-It Ralph is giving the film too much credit. Director G. J. Echternkamp and writer Matt Yamashita have cobbled together a live-action R-rated rip-off of Ralph and it’s not for the better. Throwing as many video game references at the screen as possible doesn’t make any of it funny. One tea bagging joke is funny, but when it feels like they’re running at 10 minute intervals just ruins it. Expect this one to head the way of the bargain bin, and the SyFy channel a la most of Corman’s recent productions. The short film Catnip played in front of Virtually Heroes is available on YouTube and packs way more funny into seven minutes than Echternkamp does in an entirely too long 84.

Photos courtesy Memento Films International and Big Talk Productions

Sundance 2013 Movie Review: “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

More like “Ain’t Them Bodies Boring.”

 Article first published as Sundance 2013 Movie Review: Ain't Them Bodies Saints on Blogcritics.

Sitting through 13 films in a matter of six days may sound like a bed of roses. Thankfully, this year’s Sundance Film Festival has been extremely pleasing. The fact that I only saw one film I wasn’t a big fan of means a lot. The funny thing is, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints has been picked up for distribution. The ironic part is that it was picked up by IFC Films which means that you won’t be seeing it outside of an art house theater, and I’m here to let you know, you ain’t missing much.

Bob (Casey Affleck) and Ruth (Rooney Mara) are a pair of outlaw lovers on the run during a crime spree in Texas including armed robbery. After a big shootout, Bob is apprehended and thrown in jail while Ruth is let go with Bob taking the fall after another accomplice is shot dead by the police. Four years later, Bob escapes from prison and is headed to grab Ruth and their daughter born during his incarceration. But other groups have different plans as Skerritt (Keith Carradine) will do anything he can to keep Bob away from Ruth while Wheeler (Ben Foster), goes out of his way to keep Ruth safe from the harm headed her way. There’s also a posse out for Bob’s neck, looking for revenge against their compadre who was gunned down.

Even with this kind of cast you’ll find your head bobbing and your eyes glossing over in no time. Writer/director David Lowery may know how to shoot a good-looking picture, thanks to director of photography Bradford Young, but even with two editors (Craig McKay, Jane Rizzo), Lowery has made one of the most boring films I’ve sat through in a long time. The story here may be plenty enough to fill a complete motion picture, but with only a 90-minute runtime, even the most seasoned artsy fartsy moviegoer will find themselves checking their watch far too often. While Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is not necessarily a “bad” movie per se, it’s still a huge chore to sit through.

Photo courtesy IFC Films

Sundance 2013 Movie Review: “The Way, Way Back”

The ’80s are alive and well. Soon to be one of the year's best theatrical releases.

Article first published as Sundance 2013 Movie Review: The Way, Way Back on Blogcritics.

Following up your own Oscar win is no easy task. It took Ben Affleck 10 years between Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone but now the man has given us 2012’s best film with Argo. While the team of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash were on a completely different page from Affleck when they co-wrote The Descendants, they’ve followed up their own film with one of the best premieres I’ve seen in my four years covering the Sundance Film Festival in The Way, Way Back.

Duncan (Liam James) is loaded up in back of the family truckster with his mom Pam (Toni Collette) and her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell), and Trent’s daughter Steph (Zoe Levin). Together they’re headed to Trent’s beach house to spend the summer. Duncan just wanted to spend the summer with his dad, but instead he’s stuck with Trent. The two don’t like each other, which is clear after the opening scene as they have a conversation where Trent asks Duncan to rate himself from one to 10. Duncan declares himself a six, but Trent shoots him down to a three.

After being greeted by their alcoholic neighbor Better (Allison Janney), along with her kids Pete (River Alexander) and Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), it’s survival of the wittiest as Duncan figures a few things out about Trent while dealing with becoming less socially awkward working at the local water park, Water Wizz. The park is run by Owen (Sam Rockwell) who just wants to have a good time, and Caitlyn (Maya Rudolph) who does her best to keep Owen roped in. Roddy (Faxon) shows Duncan the ropes and how to check out the hot chicks and Lewis (Rash) faces another summer that may be his last at the park. Between dealing with Trent, getting friendly with Susanna, and facing his own coming of age at work, it’s a summer Duncan will never forget.

If I had to describe it, I would say The Way, Way Back as a combination of Meatballs, Summer Rental, About a Boy, and Adventureland. The spirit of ’80s teen comedies is in full force and even during a Q&A with Rash after the film (Faxon had to return to L.A. for work), he made it clear that their biggest inspiration was in fact Meatballs and of course John Hughes. The cast is a dream come true for anyone trying to make a heartfelt comedy.

Special kudos to Faxon and Rash for being able to, as Bill Hader said in Knocked Up, “make Steve Carell look like an asshole.” Well, his character at least. But the real find here is Liam James. He truly knocks it out of the park and manages to make Duncan’s transformation realistic and engaging. Sam Rockwell is in hyper-drive and Maya Rudolph can get huge laughs from just a look. And of course Faxon and Rash get their own moments to shine in the comedy spotlight with Rash getting one of the biggest laughs in the whole movie. It is their show after all. And seeing how The Way, Way Back has been picked up by Fox Searchlight, Sundance’s and possibly the year’s funniest film, will be headed to a theater near you.

Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

Movie Review: “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”

Gory, foul-mouthed, action packed, and hilarious.

**** out of 5

88 minutes

Rated R for strong fantasy horror violence and gore, brief sexuality/nudity and language

Paramount Pictures

Article first published as Movie Review: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters on Blogcritics.

Any time you know a film has been sitting on the studio’s shelf for over year, has been given the post-production 3D conversion, and then gets released in January, it usually spells certain death. Any time the film winds up being the final product that is Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, is another story. Here’s a film that’s been getting raked over the coals in release scheduling hell. Not to mention the studio had two cuts of the film screening to preview audiences, trying to decide whether to go with a safer PG-13 or go balls out with director Tommy Wirkola’s original R-rated version. Having finally seen the end product, Paramount Pictures has chosen wisely with the R-rated cut and audiences are in for a bigger treat than they could have ever imagined.

In this update of the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale, young Hansel (Cedric Eich) and Gretel (Alea Sophia Boudodimos) are taken out into the forest by their father (Thomas Scharff) under the order of their mother Adrianna (Kathrin Kühnel). Alone and afraid, we all know they’re about to wind up at a witch’s candy house where they will throw her into a fire. But now the story moves forward to “many years later” as we find out that Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) are all grown up and have a huge bone to pick with witches practicing the black arts. This leads them to the town of Ausburg, under the ruling thumb of Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare), whether Mayor Engleman (Rainer Bock) likes it or not.

Hansel and Gretel show up just in time to save the life of a red-haired maiden named Mina (Pihla Viitala) who Berringer is accusing of being a witch. Upon inspection she is released from being drowned in a bucket in the town square. Mina begins to follow Hansel’s every move as he and his sister investigate the disappearance of 11 children. They soon learn that a Grand Witch named Muriel (Famke Janssen) is leading a pack of fellow witches to gather the children before the Blood Moon in three nights time to use their blood for a potion that will make them invincible. Turns out, the only missing ingredient is more than a 12th child and puts Hansel and Gretel up against greater odds than they ever could have imagined. Now they must band together with their biggest fan Ben (Thomas Mann) and a troll named Edward (played by Derek Mears but voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) to stop Muriel and her coven of witches.

My expectations were way higher than anyone else’s walking into Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, but only based on director Wirkola’s previous film, Dead Snow, a zombie comedy action film that I missed during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. That movie was full of all kinds of hilarious movie references, skewered traditional horror tropes, and packed with plenty of gory action. I had even higher hopes when I found out the producers were Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy who brought us the hilarious buddy-cop movie The Other Guys.

Imagine my delight as I laughed throughout and cringed at gore on the level of anything the Final Destination franchise has brought. Maybe Wirkola should be brought in for the next installment. I can only imagine that it would be the most blood soaked yet! The two funniest jokes involve faces of the missing children attached to milk bottles and the fact that Hansel is diabetic. “When I was younger, a witch made me eat too much candy,” he tells Mina after beginning to go into diabetic shock. But the biggest surprise was that it was screened in IMAX 3D for us along with an exclusive clip from Paramount’s upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Talk about a treat. As my guest said after it was over, “My inner eight-year-old has a boner.” Consider us sold. Even the 3D conversion here is a pretty big success and looks really good.

So check your expectations at the door and make sure you don’t miss what will surely be the year’s biggest surprise as Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is gory, foul-mouthed, action packed, and hilarious. I loved it.

Photos courtesy Paramount Pictures