Dir - Joanne Mitchell
Overall: MEH
Films that have an eccentric and unlikable protagonist at the center of them can often be an uncomfortable watch, and the full-length debut Broken Bird from co-writer/director Joanne Mitchell leans into such a thing, regrettably to the movie's own detriment. Rebecca Calder is a damaged woman from the moment that we meet her, someone who fails to connect with others in any healthy manner, which stems from an extreme childhood trauma that pushes her into her own delusions. That is where she primarily hangs out, picturing herself killing it at poetry readings, having a fairy tale romance with a random museum employee that was nice to her, talking to the dead, and ultimately resorting to kidnapping in order to procure loved ones. Meanwhile, Sacharissa Claxton is an emotionally ravished police detective whose marriage imploded and whose son has gone missing, and it is only in the film's closing moments that the two women's arcs join forces. Mitchell unfolds her tail with frequent flashbacks and fantasy sequences that deliberately confuse the viewer and paint a disturbing portrait of Calder's psyche, none of which makes us sympathetic to her increasingly unwholesome behavior. In this sense, the movie is just ninety-nine minutes of a disturbed person's exploits, a disturbed person that we are unable to connect with.
Dir - Guy Madin/Even Johnson/Galen Johnson
Overall: GOOD
The latest collaboration Rumours between Canadian filmmaker, (and here absurdist), Guy Maddin and co-screenwriter and even co-directors this time Evan and Galen Johnson is an impossible movie to lock in to, no doubt by design. As usual, one must take the work that Madin produces on its own terms, enjoying the head-scratching as much as the idiosyncratic chances that he takes. Though this one has a contemporary look and feel and does not hearken to a bygone era of movie-making as did his early movies, Madin is still presenting something that toys with/amuses audiences without explaining the specifics. The narrative details are quirky and in effect distracting, plus the pro cast play everything with so much sincerity that it only enhances the confusion. Yet if one can simply laugh at the vague apocalyptic scenario, (if indeed that is what is going on), as well as the tacky genre elements that need not be spoiled, this is essentially a satire of modern political leaders who are nothing more than doofuses with their own eccentricities to fall back on when the world stops working correctly. A top-billed Cate Blanchett is of course wonderful as the Chancellor of Germany, (as is everyone else on screen), but Roy Dupuis actually takes the lead as the Prime Minister of Canada, be it one who is prone to adolescent outbursts. If anything else, casting Charles Dance as the President of the United States with no explanation as to his overwhelming Britishness represents just one of the many "sure why not" gags that the film has to offer.
Dir - Pedro Martín-Calero
Overall: GOOD
Essentially a technological J-horror movie except Spanish, The Wailing, (El llanto), is also the full-length debut from filmmaker Pedro Martín-Calero and one that makes inventive use out of its numerous freaky set pieces. In fact the film is a Spanish/Argentine/French co-production spoken in as many languages, following one woman at a time as they are perused by an invisible presence, well at least invisible unless there is a camera around. Why this is the case is never explained, nor are any details about the malevolent entity itself, which gives Martín-Calero and his co-writer Isabel Peña free reign to follow an arbitrary form of supernatural logic. While this can often be seen as lazy when it is presented in a hackneyed context, thankfully that is not the case here since the movie bypasses many of the hangups that contemporary horror cinema succumbs to. There are no jump scares, no screechy noises accompanying the multitude of otherworldly images, and many of the scenes play out to an intimate silence that forces both the viewer and the characters to merely sit in whatever unexplained phenomenon is happening to them. The lack of answers only enhances the unease, where everyone that we meet is being watched, toyed with, and doomed. Few concepts are more terrifying on paper, and Martín-Calero's determination to maintain a still and forbidding atmosphere throughout is refreshing to say the least.
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