Rosewood Lane DVD Review

At one point in my life, Victor Salva was the master of nightmares. For some of you out there he’s probably that too, this is the guy who wrote and directed Jeepers Creepers, a film that’s a sort of induction into horror for a certain generation. His latest film Rosewood Lane comes nowhere near the same caliber of scare or even coherency of plot.

The story follows radio host Sonny Blake (Rose McGowan) as she ventures back to her peaceful childhood home after her alcoholic father’s death. Slowly the idyllic setting of sunny suburbia becomes more and more dangerous as she uncovers a neighborhood terrified of the local paper boy (Daniel Ross Owens), a boy with seemingly inhuman powers. When the paper boy begins to call Sonny’s radio show and recite nursery rhymes, a game of cat and mouse begins with more than just her own life at risk.

The first major issue with Rosewood Lane is a pretty big one: the basic concept is bad. Playing out like a woeful Stephen King story, the concept of a sociopathic paper-boy doesn't lift off the page well, in fact from start to finish you can’t stop thinking that this is a horror movie about a paper boy. Daniel Ross Owens isn't outrageously bad in his role; the failings are down to his scripting mostly, but even after that he looks too old for the part. The character choices all point to someone trying way too hard to add “Evil Paper Boy” to the canon of American psychos; instead the film plays out like the perfect argument against such a travesty. The nursery rhyme reciting is laughable and cringe-worthy, and is one of a plethora of bad choices that marks the script as undeveloped. Another bizarre focus in the film is its constant profession that bikes are intimidating, which, even after a handful of close ups and sinister music, they are definitely not.

There are a lot of misdirected emotional scenes that play out like bad excuses to get the actors involved, which a shame is considering the fact the cast is actually pretty good. Ray Wise, as always, adds a touch of class to an otherwise dismal affair, playing a cop investigating Sonny’s stalker paper-boy. McGowan floats along giving a performance dented only by what she has to say, and everyone else looks like they’re on stand-by for better lines. Rosewood Lane fires a hell of a lot of blanks too, pushing vague strands of story out into the screen and pulling them back just as quickly. These half-hearted attempts at depth end up sinking the boat faster by not taking the story in a concrete direction. The film feels like it’s supposed to be an episode of something rather than a feature film and if there are any tense sequences or good jumps, they unfortunately come few and far between.

By the time the twist arrives you won’t care, the film’s snail pace and stunted story see to that. Rosewood Lane is not a film bothered by giving the how’s and why’s, instead it focuses too much time on taking itself too seriously. So between the ridiculous nature of the story, the stunted flow of the film, and the lack of real thrill, the piece falls flat and tedious. If the paper boy had been written differently and the film managed to sort its pacing out, then it might have been a mediocre attempt but, as is, it’s a messy and often silly state of affairs that leaves you wondering how Salva could have gotten it so wrong.

Scott Clark

Rating:15
DVD Release Date:15th October 2012
Directed By: Victor Salva
Cast: Rose McGowan, Ray Wise, Bill Fagerbakke, Lesley-Anne Down, Lin Shaye
Pre-order/Buy Rosewood Lane:DVD

On The Road Review

★★1/2☆☆

Sam Riley channels Jack Kerouac in Walter Salles's adaptation of the author's cult book, On The Road, loosely based upon Kerouac's own jaunt across 40's USA.

Often considered a prime example of that most tantalising of literature, the "unfilmable" novel; Salles has succeeded in bringing Kerouac's vision of travelling excess to the screen in a manner which is both laudable for it's visual impact, and excruciating for it's navel-gazing pomposity.

Living in New York in the 1940's and, having just lost his father , Sal (Sam Riley) finds himself in limbo as he struggles to put pen to paper and begin in earnest his life as a writer; spending his time with wittering junkie-poet pal Carlo (Tom Sturbridge), and waiting for inspiration to strike.

This changes with the arrival of the enigmatic Dean Moriarty, a restless, carefree sort, with a girl in every port, an in unquenchable lust for adventure; who immediately charms Sal, and instills in him that same yearning for life on the open road.

Salles's adaptation of the source material is nothing if not visually stunning. Sal's tramp cross-country gives Eric Gautier the perfect chance to plaster the screen in the best that the vast, beautiful country has to offer.

Garrett Hedlund's performance as the responsibility-dodging, serial shagger, Moriarty, is spectacular; brimming with confidence and more than a hint of passive-aggressive arrogance. A realisation of a character who is both endearing for his naive, lust-for-life energy; and terrifying for his total inability, or unwillingness, to cease his wanton trail of emotional destruction.

Riley's Sal has much less to do, too often he's relegated to the role of standby fag-smoker, or backing singer on some tedious bout of improv-jazz. But Riley's performance is laudable too; dripping with tar and croaking along with a twenty-a-day drawl that sounds caked in coffee and ash.

All that visual beauty, and those performances cant', however, save the film from it's crushing sense of pointlessness. On The Road meanders across the screen while it's characters swagger across the country in a state of perpetual aimlessness. Too often the piece descends into orgies of self-reverential beat-influenced poetry, or laughing, preening sessions of tiresome jazz.

For all its visual clout, and individual brilliance; On The Road will make you wish you had the same laissez-faire , drug-induced outlook as it's characters. That way you could just drift away too.

Chris Banks (@Chris_in_2D)

Rating:15
UK Release Date: 12th October 2012 Directed By:Walter Salles
Cast:Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams

'Apartment 143' DVD Review

For a film with the tagline: “The first real ghost story”, Apartment 143 (also known as Emergo) doesn't really seem to be pulling out the stops to show us something new. Written by Rodrigo Cortes, the man who brought us Buried and Red Lights, Apartment 143 feels like it surely can’t have been written by the same man.

After being chased out of their home by unexplained paranormal events, Alan White (Kai Lennox) and his two children take up new residence in an apartment building in the city. After a week the malevolent force catches up to them and once again the family is put through Hell. Desperate for answers Alan turns to a small team of parapsychologists who, with an arsenal of high tech equipment, set out to unravel the mystery and free the family from the grips of an unrelenting nightmare.

The best thing about Apartment 143, very quickly becomes evident: the dialogue and casting. Particularly Kai Lennox’s performance as Alan White, a troubled and emotionally distraught man sent to breaking point by the supernatural occurrences around his family. Lennox’s performance is a careful study in bumbling but unrelenting love with an undercurrent of menace that allows him at least one really good scene. Also, watching Paul (Rick Gonzalez), Ellen (Fiona Glascott), and Dr. Hezler (Michael O’Keefe) interact  together, on what surely becomes their most involving case, is a plus considering that one of the few traits of Cortes’ scripts that carries to this project is his skill with dialogue.

As for plot and scares the film is a mixed bag. An early series of bumps and bangs goes for the ballsy all-out approach, but instead jumps the gun wasting a scare that we’re not in the right place for yet.  That idea unfortunately encapsulates the whole film: bad timing on scares results in non-points in the spooky department. An interesting decision on Cortes’ part is to set a lot of the paranormal action during broad daylight, probably in an attempt to dilute the predictability of the piece, but the decision rarely pulls off. Still, brownie points must be awarded for blatant affronting, the kind Cortes shamelessly pulls out the bag in both Buried and Red Lights, those shameless moments of OTT horror that could go either way actually give the piece an edge at points that many horror films fail to achieve.

The problem with the film is that we've seen it all before, it’s so recycled you know the plot before the mystery is put in place. The scary moments rely on jumps and the tension rarely gets a chance to build, the few really eerie sequences have already been done to death in other movies. Still, there are no issues with acting, it does manage a few good scares, and it at least tries to be interesting through the parapsychology slant.

Scott Clark

★★☆☆☆

Rating:15
UK DVD Release Date: 15th October 2012
Directed By: Carles Torrens
Cast: Francesc Garrido, Fiona Glascott, Kai Lennox, Gia Mantegna, Michael O'Keefe
Buy Apartment 143:DVD

Blu-Ray Review: The Wild Geese (1978)

Monday sees the Blu-Ray release of perhaps the last great British action film, The Wild Geese. Starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and countless familiar faces from film and television, The Wild Geese can only be described as a complete classic.

A wealthy British industrialist hires a crack group of mercenaries to travel to the wilderness of Africa and rescue a deposed political leader from a heavily guarded prison. However, the group leader Col. Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton) soon discovers that the threats do not simply lie in the war torn African nation but in the corridors of power back home.

From the onset of The Wild Geese we are immediately struck by the Britishness of it all - from Faulkner's Harry Palmer esque meetings with shady industrialists to Moore's Lt. Shawn Flynn's drug busts on swinging London clubs. The Wild Geese is a film chock full of atmosphere - whether it be from the gloomy darkened urban streets in the UK to the untamed wilderness of Africa, this is a visually rich tale - and what better way to compliment the classic home-grown feel of The Wild Geese than to cast some stellar British (and German) acting giants?

It is this round up the mercenaries in the first act that proves to one of the key highlights of The Wild Geese. Held together by the fearless Col. Faulkner (Burton), old pals Capt. Janders (Harris) and Lt. Flynn (Moore) are soon rounded up. This is followed by appearances of classic thesps Kenneth Griffith (as scene stealing medic, Queenie), Hardy Kruger and Ronald Fraser. Seeing the group of mercenaries "team up" builds the integral sense of camaraderie that runs through the heart of The Wild Geese, whilst also providing the viewer with a chance to see these acting icons have some fun.

The Wild Geese feels like a classic boys own adventure, taking on classic romanticised notions of the British empire. Andrew V. McLaglen (The Sea Wolves) directs this like a classic war film, but with some refreshing modern twists - most notably giving the film a gritty realism with more violence and bad language. After all being a mercenary isn't going to be all smiles is it? This gritty modern take also fuses with the classic British feel of The Wild Geese for some unforgettable results. Most notably the introduction to Moore's character where we see him take on a drug dealers, stating: "You boys are pushing bad stuff!" then forces one to eat a bag full of coke - this is action done British style.

The African based action sequences prove equally as gripping as the portrayal of the British crime scene. Starting with a tense air drop sequence and a raid on a renegade camp it becomes clear that McLaglen and editor John Glen (director of several James Bond features) have a keen eye for the action film. A personal favourite sequence sees Hardy Kruger's Lt. Coetze take out a barrage of guards with a crossbow - this gives Kruger a very welcome chance to shine.

To further improve this seminal classic, Arrow Video have remastered The Wild Geese to perfection for the Blu-Ray release, which truly looks magnificent.  As a further bonus, there is also a copy of Code Name: Wild Geese (an Italian near-remake of the film) starring Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine and Klaus Kinski included on the disc.

The Wild Geese is one of the all time great British war movies and somewhat of last hurrah for the genre. Burton, Moore and Harris prove themselves to be unparalleled cinematic icons and it is a joy to watch them do what they do best in this unforgettable classic.

Andrew McArthur 

★★★★★

Stars: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris , Hardy Kruger
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Release: 8th October 2012
Certificate: 15 (UK)

Raindance 2012:Despite The Gods Review

Jennifer Lynch’s directorial debut, Boxing Helena, a complete and utter critical failure, earned Lynch a Golden Raspberry award for “worst director of the year”, and was described by Time Out as “grotesquely misconceived”. Despite some success with 2008 follow-up, Surveillance, it’s apparent that initial critical drubbing still weighs heavy on the director’s mind.

Ostensibly a behind-the-scenes documentary about Lynch’s troubles directing the Bollywood horror movie Hisss, originally entitled Nagin; we find Lynch in India, about to embark on the most complicated and demanding shoot of her life, well aware that another botched movie could spell the end of her career as a director.

In fact Penny Vozniak’s documentary is simultaneously much less and much, much more than a typical making-of doc. Despite The Gods aims its sights squarely at Lynch herself, detailing her personal ordeal juggling the multiple demands of playing filmmaker, mother and stranger in a foreign land. As with all documentaries in this vein, it becomes doubly interesting should the wheels begin to fall off; and fall off they do.
As the shoot goes over-time and over-budget, Lynch’s relationship with producer Govind Menon becomes fractured; a superstitious crew insist on blessing the set before every take; and the whole production is hampered by the very worst weather the country has to offer.

Pozniak keeps her camera firmly on Lynch, filtering the story of the faltering production through the director herself. The end result is a film which feels profoundly personal in its telling of a complex and wide ranging series of events. It’s interesting to be given such an intimate look at the everyday stresses and strains placed on a director, desperately attempting to juggle numerous balls. With the ever-present spectre of Boxing Helena hanging over Lynch’s head, it’s a treat to see her unwind as a character over the course of the documentary. Beginning the film as the anxious and uptight “worst director of the year”, she thaws considerably, ending the journey as an infinitely more relaxed person, mother, friend and lover.

The fact that Hisss bombed in its native India, and that Lynch’s involvement continued to be constrained to the bitter end, adds another layer of intrigue to the whole affair.

An intimate look at a cluttered and chaotic subject.

Chris Banks (@Chris_in_2D)

★★★★☆

Rating: NC 15
Directed By: Penny Vozniak
Cast:Jennifer Chambers Lynch, Sydney Lynch, Govind Menon, Mallika Sherawat

'Despite the Gods' Theatrical Trailer from House of Gary on Vimeo.

Blu-Ray Review: Who Dares Wins

From famed British action producer, Euan Lloyd comes Who Dares Wins, patchy, all star action thriller.
Starring The Professionals' Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, as well as screen icons Edward Woodward and Richard Widmark, Who Dares Wins was one of Lloyd's last features. Here we are told of an SAS trouper infiltrating a group of radicals who plot to launch an attack upon the American embassy where several key dignitaries including the US Secretary of State, are staying.

The main issue with Who Dares Wins is its completely stodgy screenplay, which was surely felt dated even upon its 1982 release.  Feeling more like right wing Conservative propaganda commissioned by Margaret Thatcher, than an entertaining action film - you would be forgiven for siding with the terrorists here (well that would be if they were not so inept). It is a struggle to get past the concept that this is a terrorist group that wants nuclear disarmament, but they went to achieve this through the detonation of a nuclear bomb - someone needs rethink their plan. 

Considering that Who Dares Wins was inspired by a real event (the Iranian embassy siege in 1980), it feels completely unrealistic and unbelievable. Reginal Rose's screenplay also spends far too long focussing on Captain Skellen (Lewis Collins) infiltration of the terrorist group which verges on being completely tedious. At a bloated 125 minutes, the only particularly exciting sequence is the embassy raid - the key set piece of the film.

This sequence sees director Ian Sharp come into his own, showing a clear flair for the action scenes. Here bullets fly, smoke bombs are detonated and the previously wooden leading man, Lewis Collins gets a chance to shine as an action star. The raid sequence has not aged too well but in a film as patchy as Who Dares Wins, it is manages to become the most exciting sequence in the film.

 Fortunately appearances by the completely watchable Edward Woodward as a grandstanding police commander and Richard Widmark as the US Secretary of State, keep things reasonably entertaining. However, these are simply supporting roles with most of the screen time falling to Collins and Davis, who are rather part bland leads.

Being the top distributor that they are, Arrow Video have also included the more entertaining low-budget Italian feature The Commander (starring Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef and Donald Pleasence) on the release, which is worth a look.
Who Dares Wins is a forgettable, often hit or miss affair. Despite, the energetic embassy raid  in the film's latter half and two watchable supporting turns from Widmark and Woodward - there is not much else worth watching this stodgy feature for. 

Andrew McArthur

★★1/2☆☆

Starring:Lewis Collins,Judy Davis,Richard Widmark ,Edward Woodward
Director: Ian Sharp
Release: 8/10/12
Certificate: 15 (UK)
Buy Who Dares Wins: Blu-ray [1982]

Archipelago Director Joanna Hogg's Third Untitled Feature Starts Production

Principal photography is now underway on Joanna Hogg’s third writing/directing project, following the critically acclaimed and award-winning Unrelated and Archipelago. Known as Hogg’s “London Project”, the as-yet-untitled film will shoot in West London and surrounding areas for six weeks. Presented by BFI, BBC Films and Rooks Nest Entertainment, the film is produced by Gayle Griffiths (My Brother the Devil, Archipelago) for Wild Horses Film Company Limited.

 

Cast in the lead roles are artists Viv Albertine and Liam Gillick. A British singer-songwriter, Albertine is the ex-guitarist of all-female punk group, The Slits; Gillick is a British conceptual artist and former Turner Prize nominee. The supporting cast includes previous Hogg collaborator Tom Hiddleston (Thor, War Horse), who made his acting debut in Unrelated and went on to star in Archipelago.

 

Hogg’s debut feature Unrelated won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at the 2007 London Film Festival in addition to the Guardian Best Film Award and won Hogg the Evening Standard’s Best Newcomer Award. Both Unrelated and Archipelago, released last year, garnered outstanding critical acclaim upon their UK releases, with the latter film resulting in Martin Scorsese heralding Hogg as a “uniquely gifted filmmaker”. 

 

Hogg comments: “I continue to be fascinated by the blurred line between the comic and the horrendous - but depicting this in an ordinary, everyday context which is closer to home, and therefore more terrifying.”

 

The creative team behind the film includes previous collaborators: Director of Photography Ed Rutherford and Editor Helle le Favre both worked on Archipelago and Production Designer Stéphane Collonge worked on both previous features.

 

Artificial Eye is already on board as UK distributor and talks are ongoing with international sales agents.

Win SINISTER Poster & Bag

We love to spoil you at Cinehouse and The People's Movies  with competitions and tomorrow a horror that's been living up to it's hype Sinister will be released in UK&Ireland. When great films come out we love to celebrate a great film by giving away some great prizes and our kind friends at Momentum Pictures have given us a  poster  for one lucky reader and as a extra bonus the winner will also receive a limited edition film bag to carry those spare trousers & underwear after you check Sinister out!

"The producer of “Insidious” and “Paranormal Activity” delivers a chilling horror like no other with a movie that is being hotly tipped as the most effective edge-of-your-seat cinematic experience of the year"

Desperately in need of a best seller to revive his struggling career, true crime writer Ellison (Ethan Hawke), moves his family to the scene of his most recent story; the unsolved, gruesome murder of a loving, happy suburban family.
Shunned by the local community and strained by his obligations to his family, the discovery of a batch of home movies in the attic offers Ellison shocking proof to the crime he is investigating. Ellison notices the same unidentified figure appearing in each of the 8mm films, leaving him convinced that all the incidents are linked by a truly bizarre connection. As his investigations uncover the terrifying truth he starts to lose his grip on reality and it soon becomes clear that he is placing his own family in harm’s way.

Sinister (Momentum Pictures) is out at UK cinemas on Friday 5th October. Read Our Review

To enter this competition please answer this simple question:

Q.Director Scott Derrickson directed whose Exorcism ?

a.The Exorsism of Emily Jane
b.The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
c.The Exorcism Of Emily Blunt

Send Your Answer, Name, Address, Postcode and 2+8-5= to winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com, header your email as 'Sinister' , Deadline is Sunday 21st October 2012

Sinister is released in  UK& Irish cinemas from the 5th of October and you can find out more on both Facebook and via their twitter: @Sinister_UK.

Terms and conditions

• This prize is non transferable.
• No cash alternatives apply.
• UK & Irish entries only
  The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse and Momentum Pictures have the right to alter, delay or cancel this competition without any notice
• The competition is not opened to employees, family, friends of The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse,Momentum Pictures employees
• This competition is promoted on behalf of Momentum Pictures
  
• If this prize becomes unavailable we have the right to offer an alternative prize instead.
• The Prize is a signed Robert Cargill poster and limited edition Sinister bag
• To enter this competition you must send in your answer, name, address only, 2+8-5= Deadline October 21ST, 2012 (2359hrs)
• Will only accept entries sent to the correct email (winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com), any other entry via any other email will be void.
• label your email 'sinister'
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• By sending your entry for this competition you are confirming you have read and agreed to these Terms & Conditions.

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The Landlord DVD Review

The Landlord is a film set in a divided America. On one side stands a group of rich, prejudiced WASPs. On the other side, African-Americans, militant and poor, are engaged in a struggle for their cultural soul. But the story told does not concern their battle. Instead The Landlord tells the story of Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges), the very definition of bumbling Caucasian idiocy, who manages to stumble right into the middle of this cultural conflict.

Elgar Enders is a rich young man, not the self-made kind of rich, but the inherited kind of rich. Hailing from a palatial manor situated amidst extensive parkland, Elgar was not just born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but also has a golden fork up his nose and a platinum knife up his arse. His story begins with him buying an apartment block in Park Slope, a horrifically poor neighbourhood, with the aim of turning it into a luxury home. His plans however are somewhat derailed by a number of black tenants resolutely living in his building.

Coming as he does from the very heights of US society, Elgar would be an easy character to demonise. However he actually turns out to be fairly sweet, if exasperating, very much a 30-year old child. His initial expectation, that the tenants of his new property will just be able to leave and find new places to live, is not evidence of callousness but of naiveté. This innocent nature similarly prompts him to actually execute his landlord duties, despite his general incompetence. As the film progresses, we find him rejecting the prejudiced WASP culture he was born into and forming genuinely close relationships with apartment granddame Marge (Pearl Bailey) and dancer Lanie (Marki Bey). He also makes mistakes, most particularly with the sexually powerful, but married, Fanny (Diana Sands). But as being an idiot is as far as Elgar’s faults run, he proves to be an eminently likeable main character.

Or well, the audience should find him likeable. Elgar is actually treated fairly badly by most of his tenants, mocked by Fanny’s husband Copee (Lou Gossett) and loathed by the silent Professor Duboise (Melvin Stewart). This however doesn’t make them the baddies, but rather underscores how complicated racial politics were then (and maybe still are). Elgar is a good person, no doubt, but he is also a perfect representative of all the evils of his class: rich, white, and possessing a clumsy social arrogance that presumes he can belong in a space the militant black culture has claimed as their own. So you might feel bad for him, but it’s also easy to understand why people might dislike him on sight, especially when we are properly introduced to Elgar’s family.

Still, don’t let all this talk of nuanced racial politics put you off the film. Director/editor Hal Ashby has a sharp, satirical approach to his material and spreads the mockery liberally. There is a fantastic sequence midway through The Landlord where Elgar’s mother Joyce (Lee Grant), a woman filled to the brim with rich, fruity snobbery, gets blattered with the jovial Marge. Indeed, I remember squeaking with joy throughout Joyce’s drunken slurring (Grant proves very able at acting drunk). This proves to be just one moment of slightly wacky humour amongst many in The Landlord, and though the film is not without its notes of tragedy, it does not forget the importance of showing a good time.

So that is The Landlord: a farcical meander through the minefield of 1970s racial politics. But despite its unconventional path, it nonetheless manages to not be blown to bits. It doesn’t fall into the trap of The Help, by having a white person provide agency for the civil rights movement. Indeed, our white hero is kept out of that fight altogether. He and Lanie and Marge remain in neutral middle ground, though they are not there as a result of making some statement. It simply seems to be the place where such nice and largely inoffensive individuals belong.

Adam Brodie

Rating:15
DVD Re-release date: 1st October 2012(UK)
Directed By: Hal Ashby
Cast:  Beau Bridges, Lee Grant , Diana Sands
Buy:The Landlord [DVD]

Raindance 2012: A Road Stained Crimson Review

There’s a well known rule of gangster films that once someone decides to call it quits they will inevitably get pulled in for one last job, indeed that is how we are introduced to A Road Stained Crimson, but, for Tetsuhiko Nono’s film this is a rare concession to convention. His Japanese gangster tale has far loftier ambitions than to be connected to anything as drab as convention.
Our wannabe retiree is Ken; is a laid back motorbike mechanic keen to turn his back on his more brutal sideline carear, that is until his boss catches wind of his plans and attempts to reel him in for one last job with a visit from the psychotic and unpredictable Akira. There are sub-plots and unexamined stories along the way like the death of Ken’s father at young age which seems to have shaped our protagonist but is never spelt out for us. Yoko, an elder colleague has more than a colleagues interest in the brooding Ken, again there is only a hint of a clue as to why while her relationship with the local (Colombo style) detective seems to have more to it than face value suggests with both seemingly connected to Ken’s life from a very young age.
    A stonily silent teen shares Kens burning anger and is soon taken under his wing as the two take to the road in an attempt to bide some time before the inevitable explosive conclusion. On route the two share the surrogate father-son relationship they were both denied as the pressures of hit-man duties start to ease and Ken, for the first time, looks content.
Specifics are secondary here, Nono’s focus lies far more in injecting the worn genre with a tone unfamiliar to the countless gangster films of years gone by. Wearing his garage rock credentials on his sleeve, the soundtrack by Japanese band Snakes on the Beach creates an all-together more considered atmosphere to the guys and guns blueprint, going further to include footage of the bands gig which Ken attends. Far from being the only touch of lightness on show, the music is joined by a host of directing, editing and camera techniques adding an element of art house to the genre. Stills, slow motion, jumpy handheld cameras and flashbacks are all used extensively alongside brilliant cinematography and some beautifully crafted shots.
Sadly the directing styles only mask the script which never quite reaches the highs it occasionally promises. While the lightness of touch used by Nono is new to the genre, sadly the same can not be said for other elements, particularly in the form of the loose-cannon Akira or the dialogue which, while sparingly used, plays second fiddle to the Mallick-isms on show of plants and sunsets which go some way in covering the scripts flaws. It would be too harsh to describe Nono’s debut feature as style over substance as there are a number of promising signs pointing to a strong career, one that starts, however, on a bit of a subdued note. 

Matthew Walsh

★★☆☆☆

Rating:15
UK Release Date: 2nd October 2012 (Raindance Film Festival)
Directed By: Tetsuhiko Nono
Cast: Hirofumi Arai, Ryômei Niinobu, Jun Murakami