Radioman is a legendary figure in the New York City film world. He is a former alcoholic homeless bum who started his film career in 1990 on Brian De Palmas’ Bonfire of the Vanities. He simply walked onto to set and handed Bruce Willis a beer because he though he was a bum as well. His life story has been told in the recent documentary directed by Mary Herr also called Radioman.
It’s features interview snippets of such stars as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Josh Brolin, Tom Hanks, Johnny Deep and the list goes on and on. They all say how much they like seeing Radioman on set and how they it’s the same if it’s a New York film and he isn’t on set. Robin Williams one of the first celebrities who he met on a film set (the film is question was Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King) jokes his resume is larger than his, Radioman’s IMDb page doesn’t list a 10th of the films he has appeared in.
It’s an interesting look at somebody who clearly has some mental health issues but has such a deep love for films. It shows his daily routine, which is getting on his bike and cycling to the daily film set and sometimes he evens go to other states besides New York. It’s show shis mess of a apartment. It also mentions his desire to get more prominent roles, which he been getting. He has a noticeable role on Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island for example.
It doesn’t really just judgement on Radioman. However it’s at times very difficult to watch because some of his behaviour and the footage is so revealing it gets very difficult at times to watch. Overall it’s a good little doc about the other side of the film industry.
I had such high hopes for Attack of the Werewolves (2011), the new Spanish monster horror which has been impressing audiences and critics alike since its initial release earlier this year. Unfortunately as most of director Juan Martínez Moreno's hairy tale, starring Gorka Otxoa, Carlos Areces, Luis Zahera and Secun de la Rosa takes place in the dark, it's extremely hard to tell what is going on for most of the time and whether, as a result, it's any good.
Legend has it that in 1910 in a remote Spanish village, the evil Marchioness of Marino, captured a travelling gypsy and managed to get herself pregnant by him. In revenge the gypsies wife cursed the Marchioness's resulting offspring, transforming him into a werewolf and placing the village under a reign of terror from the beast. The only way to free the village and the Marchioness's son from the curse is for one of her descendants to be sacrificed to the werewolf on the one hundredth anniversary of the original atrocity.
The present day and Tomás Mariño (Otxoa) a semi-successful writer has returned to his home town, where he has been invited by the local people to receive an award - or at least so they have led him to believe. Unfortunately for Tomás the villagers have something darker in mind, if only they can get him to play along with their plan.
As I said I was really looking forward to this offbeat black comedy which, if I'm honest, is reasonably well executed, up to a point. The wolves when they eventually appear (you begin to wonder when you will actually see any, as it's almost a third of the way into the film before they actually put in an appearance) are effectively pulled off, albeit in a 1980's American Werewolf in London way. A sharp vein of black humour runs through the proceedings as a whole, with one scene involving the amputation and cooking of certain human appendages in order to placate a suspected werewolf being particularly effective. The relationship between Tomás and his hapless friends and relations who find themselves joining forces in a fight for their lives, also helps to add an extra dimension which leaves the viewer actually interested in what happens to the characters, which makes for a refreshing change.
Another aspect in the film's favour are the settings. Filmed in Galicia, Spain, the sun-bleached streets of the village and exterior of Tomás' family manor house lend themselves perfectly to this tale of late night lycanthropy. Or at least you imagine they would if you could see them. When the sun sets it's hard to see exactly what is gong on, other than the odd close up of a furry, fanged face, the odd severed limb flying through the air and a lot of screaming and crunching of, what one presumes, are bones.
In the glory days of Hammer, the studio which put horror on the map was well known for its day for night shots, which must have been reasonably effective as the scenes shot this way appeared to be taking place at night, yet still let you to see everything that took place. Many modern fright films should be provided night vision goggles in order to let you see what is happening once the sun goes down, and as a result leave the viewer guessing as to much of what is taking place.
Attack of the Werewolves is, on the whole, not bad. One can only imagine its brilliance if you'd been able to see it all.
Mental Illness is no laughing matter nor should it be something we should ignore either and it comes in all shapes and sizes but most of all it can affect us all. We sometimes think we understand the illness or selfishly think we have all the answers to curing the illness, in Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko it never tries to answer but instead shows the illness from the person we sometimes forget about from the perspective of the sufferer.
Kotoko (folk singer Cocco) is a young single mother who lives alone with her young infant son.Suffering from an unknown illness that makes her see things double especially people making things difficult for Kotoko impossible to know which person is really leading her to violently lash out. With things getting harder for her in the daily grind her day to day chores become harder making her a liability not just for herself but also her young son. Her son is taken into care (looked after by her sister) Kotoko is now on her own her frame of mind and broken is fragile her thoughts are dangerously scattered which makes it scary for all who share her life.
From the minute Kotoko starts we're thrown right into the chaos, the anguish of the film's protagonist which sets the tone for the rest of the film. At no point of the film does it attempt to figure out why Kotoko's mental state is what it is but taking us right into her mind giving us a voyeuristic look at the horror from the eyes of the sufferer herself. What really annoyed me with this film was the use of 'horror' not from the film itself but from some of the reviews I read some calling Kotoko a horror or J-Horror which this is the film is not. This is not a film of mythical creatures or found footage malarkey, this one does have demons but the inner demons of psychological proportions.
Kotoko will hit you in the spot that will hurt you the most. It's a visceral, raw intense nightmarish journey which will leave uncomfortable, disorientating but will leave you with an everlasting reminder that people with this illness are human beings and their pain is their cry for help.
One of the success' of the film is the central performance of it's lead actress, Cocco. I've always been a little sceptical of films which have non-actors (sports, musicians) been picked especially in lead roles as sadly majority of the time history has shown it's ended in disappointment. There has always been a few exceptions like Cocco and on the level of her début acting role in Kotoko has been nothing but incredible. Cocco really goes all out with a performance that really connects with you, it's intimate but also very claustrophobic , truly cathartic all thanks her drawing on her own real life personal experience making this one work.
Cocco her self-suffered from mental illness/ self-harm when she was younger though we never really know if it was intentional to use her in the role thanks to that dreadful part of her life it does give Kotoko a real genuine touch. As I said earlier the film never really delves into what triggered her suffering however when you watch the film you do get small glimpses what they might be with a lack of a father figure in her life (her own parents divorced when she was younger) which could be also the reason why there's no father figure in her own son's life either. Could the male population be the main reason, was she raped? Whatever you think the men who have entered her life including that good Samaritans don't get a good ride here. What's really touching about this film as well as being an inaugural part is Cocco's singing within the film which gives Kotoko moments of escapism from her inner demons. As well as providing the film's score (like she did for the directors 2004 film Vital) the music really adapts into film naturally reminding me of Bjork in Lars Von Trier's Dancer Of The Dark giving the film a sense of tranquillity among the madness.
Kotoko is a beautifully well-crafted film which will pull at your heartstrings as well as make it uncomfortable to watch but to appreciate the pain a sufferer has to go through we sometimes have to go to places we don't want to go to. There's a great David Bowie song called Fantastic Voyage which really sums this film up listen to it read the lyrics as it reminds us this illness affects us all, there's no stereotypical profile of a sufferer just a stark reminder when the mind body and soul are fragile the world around us can be the most terrifying place to be in.
Paul Devine |★★★★☆
Drama, Horror | Japan, 2011 | 18 | 8th October 2012 (UK) | Third Window Films | Dir:Shin'ya Tsukamoto |Shin'ya Tsukamoto,Cocco |Buy Kotoko:DVD/Blu-ray
Electrick Children is the directorial debut from Rebecca Thomas. The screenplay focuses on Rachel – played by Julia Garner – who is part of a strict Mormon community. After listening to rock music on a cassette tape she stumbles across, Rachel then discovers she is pregnant. Convinced it was the music on the tape which caused this, she drives off to Las Vegas (unknowingly with her brother who has just been exiled after being suspected of incest in tow) in an attempt to unravel the mystery of the tape.
Although the plot does sound barmy, it is very watchable – mainly due to Garner’s charming and innocent screen presence. The lighting and photography are great, both on the farm in Utah and amongst the glittering lights of Las Vegas. However, although pretty on the surface, there is not much substance underneath this. After meeting a young guy from a rock band in Vegas he tells Rachel he doesn’t like her and then says he will marry her, what are his motives behind all of this? He seems to show little emotion. This is similar to all the characters, like the brother Mr. Will. He discovers what life is like outside of his Mormon household, but decides to go back to the community. Electrick Children is an artistic and compelling first film by Thomas, but is let down by a lack of character depth; as well as an ending that ties together a bit too neatly.
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.
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.
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 BuriedandRed
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.
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)
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.
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]
I had such high hopes for Attack of the Werewolves (2011), the new Spanish monster horror which has been impressing audiences and critics alike since its initial release earlier this year. Unfortunately as most of director Juan Martínez Moreno's hairy tale, starring Gorka Otxoa, Carlos Areces, Luis Zahera and Secun de la Rosa takes place in the dark, it's extremely hard to tell what is going on for most of the time and whether, as a result, it's any good.
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