Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. I love it. It’s like the late ‘70s, early ‘80s all over again as some of these reports come in from the various fests right now. Hearing people talk excitedly about new films from Francis Ford Coppola or Woody Allen or Brian De Palma gives me a warm feeling as fans of their filmographies. I’m looking forward to checking both of these films out very soon... in fact, I think I’m seeing REDACTED next week... but for now, check out these reviews:
Hello, again. I was very fortunate today to check out two fantastic films at Toronto by two incredibly influential directors: Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream" and Brian De Palma's "Redacted". Cassandra's Dream makes for a very nice companion piece to "Match Point" and it carries a lot of the same themes that were present there, such as luck, family, and risks. The film is about two brothers (Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell) who, to solve their financial problems, decide to kill a man for their uncle, who would put him in jail otherwise. That's a very basic setup for the film, but there's a lot more going on. I thought the acting was just great by McGregor, and surprisingly, Farrell (who I have never really cared for) even manages to outshine him. Farrell does a terrific job dealing with stress and depression, and the plummets someone can take, whereas McGregor's character continually rationaizes. These are very real characters. Tom Wilkinson also has a moderate role as the uncle of the two, where he also does a very nice job. What's particuarly engaging about this movie is that you really don't know where it's headed, and the pace of the film really captures how the characters in the movie are lost and confused themselves. I didn't feel the film dragged at all, and I was genuinely drawn in to what these two brothers needed to do, regardless of what they were comfortable with. There's a wonderful scene with McGregor, Farrell, and Wilkinson's characters under an umbrella tree in the rain that is a good example of some of the winning cinematography also present in Allen's piece. There are some moments of comedy peppered throughout the movie (particularly a toast "To Life"), but the audience was laughing at a lot of stuff which wasn't funny, which is never a good sign. However, when I saw "Match Point" the same thing happened, and I still feel that was a powerful movie. Overall, while I had no real problems with the movie, I felt it was a little lacking when compared to "Match Point" just because "Match Point" had a much more powerful ending, and a nice "twist" to it. Regardless though, this is a very effective suspense movie, with wonderful performances all around. Afterwards, I saw Brian De Palma's "Redacted" which I feel was the most powerful movie I've seen at the film festival so far. For starters, I am a huge De Palma fan, but this really doesn't feel or look like a De Palma movie. The film is about a bunch of US soldiers in the Iraqi war, and their story is told through various forms of media (one of the character's video camera, internet videos, security tapes, news reports). This was obviously a huge task to undertake to not only be creative with these forms of media, but also make all of them seem authentic (the film, while based on a true event, the rape and murder of a 15 year old in Samarrah, the film is entirely scripted, and all crafted by De Palma). The cast, which is basically rounded out by "nobodies" all do a great job at creating three-dimensional characters, and managing to be restrained through it all. There's some viciously brutal stuff in this movie, and it's nice to see De Palma not shy away from any of it. There's an image at the end of the movie of an actual murder that creates one of the most disturbing and meaningful endings I've seen to a movie in a while. While I am a De Palma apologist, I really am not a fan of war movies at all (the exceptions being "Apocalypse, Now", "Three Kings", and "Full Metal Jacket"), but I absolutely loved this and felt that it's probably De Palma's most important film. My one complaint is that obviously, with the filming style employed here, De Palma can not utilize his usual visual styles of split screen, split diopter lenses, long tracking shots, etc., but you can still tell that everything is very meticulously placed and blocked out. The film is very anti-Iraq war, so if you don't share this opinion, or feel strongly about the opposition, this may not be the film for you. However, it's clear that De Palma is not stating that ALL soldiers are like the characters in the movie, but that many are. De Palma and the cast were present at the screening and he revealed that the film will get a US release, which is very good news, and that the entire thing was also just shot for 5 million dollars in 14 days. I have no idea when this film will be coming out, but please give it a shot when it does, as I really think this is not only a creatively told story, but one that should be seen by many, and enlighten the uninformed.
