Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Albert Lanier’s been seeing bunches of films at the Hawaii International Film Festival, and he’s got three more reviews for you tonight.
First up is this look at EYE IN THE SKY:
HIFF 27: EYE IN THE SKY: ARE YOU WATCHING CLOSELY?
by Albert Lanier
It all begins in a trolley in Hong Kong. A young woman notices a bespectacled man sleeping on her trolley, a newspaper on his person. He wakes up and gets off the trolley. She follows him for several blocks even into a restaurant. She changes her jacket so as try to throw off the scent of suspicion but to no avail for the man she has followed approaches her in the eatery.
"Are you piggy?" he asks her. She nervously replies that she is not. This woman appears to be in trouble because her cover is now blown and her shadowing of this individual may end up being all for naught.
But not quite. The man she has been tailing is actually Sgt Wong of the SU- Surveillance Unit of the Hong Kong Police Department. After introducing himself, he quizzes her on her observational powers. She provides a staggering array of descriptions of fellow passengers-women who are of medium build for example-but forgets just one part of the puzzle: the newspaper Sgt. Wong had on the trolley.
No matter. Constable Ho Ka Po has passed the test and is now a charter member of SU, a unit so specialized and clandestine they work out of a business office with the cover of a trading company.
At the same time, the female Constable-now given the nickname "Piggy"-was tailing Sgt. Wong, another operation in observation was taking place-an illegal one.
Another man wearing a dark jacket and a reddish sweater underneath was also on the same trolley and he also got off. His location was the rooftop overlooking a block which has a jewelry store located on it.
A car pulls up and four men with guns get out and charge into the store. The man on the roof top sets the timer on his watch. In the meantime, there are a couple of other men on the ground including a rather plump fellow who is always eating. The plump man sees a Police Constable nearby and walks over, cocking the gun underneath his heavy jacket and ready to shoot him.
However, the constable doesn't appear to be any threat and so the zaftig confederate moves on.
The four men grab some jewelry, hit a couple of people and head out of the store and into their getaway cars so they can haul ass out of there.
So begins EYE IN THE SKY, a crime film and police thriller directed by Yau Nai-Hoi, a screenwriter who has penned works for the great Johnnie To (who serves as a producer on the film), which was screened at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival this past October.
Here, he begins with a terrific opening sequence that sets up not only the theme and subject of this film (namely the skill, importance and danger behind police surveillance) but the film's main conflict between the shadowy Shan, the man on the rooftop who runs a gang of jewel thieves, and "Piggy" and Sgt Wong who are trying to follow this gang.
Along the way, Constable Ho-Ka-Po must square her instinct for helping fellow officers and people who are being shot or beat up with the strict demands of the unit which require no interference on the part of its officers. They must watch and observe only. No interference.
This eventually gets put the test but I won't write anymore about the plot points and story developments of this film because I think it will spoil the fun of this first-rate film.
The success of EYE IN THE SKY stems partly from its first time director Yau's fine script co-written by Au Kin Yee. Both writers create characters with enough definition to make them interesting-Sgt Wong in particular who has a penchant for cracking jokes during surveillance ops as well as the elusive, mysterious Shan who enjoys during Sudoku puzzles (a clue to his persona) and his insistence on making sure his cohorts rob store in no more than 3 or 4 minutes.
Yau also does a fine job of directing here. He works especially well with his cinematographer Cheung Tung Leung to provides a more naturalistic visual look for the film that extends to a number of set ups (including a freeway shootout that has a cinema verite, hand held quality to it almost as if it were a news segment instead of an action sequence).
Yau also manages to obtain fine performances from his cast including a scene-stealing performance from the excellent Simon Yam as Sgt. Wong and nice work from Tony Leung as Shan and Kate Tsui as Constable Ho-Ka-Po.
EYE IN THE SKY turned out to be the biggest surprises at HIFF this year and one of the best films screening at the fest.
To be frank, I knew nothing about this film before I saw it. I went it into it blind and Iam glad I did because I wasn't tainted by my usual wariness about Hong Kong films.
If anything, EYE IN THE SKY demonstrates that even in post-colonial Hong Kong-a film colony that oftens produces more lumps of coal than diamonds-that well-made films can still emerge and shine brightly in the light of international film festival exposure.
This next one by Albert is for a film that makes me nervous every time I see a trailer or a poster for it. This looks like it has the potential to kill a diabetic in the theater, and it seems vaguely batshit as premises go.
Still... maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s great. Let’s see what Albert thought:
Hawaii International Film Festival
2007: AUGUST RUSH: IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF FILM...
by Albert Lanier
It was Saturday, October 27 and I was aboard the Hawaii Superferry-you know, that controversial ship which has been the focus of intense and furious opposition here in the islands-enjoying the Closing Night Party of the 27th Annual Hawaii International Film Festival.
The party was great. There was good food, fine women and well-appointed interiors and surroundings. Obviously, I was having a great time.
While I was chatting with some partygoers, someone asked me to sum up HIFF's closing night film AUGUST RUSH-which had screened earlier that evening-in one sentence.
Without so much as blinking, I replied "Oliver Twist with music."
Quite frankly, my one second summation could easily suffice as the entire review of AUGUST RUSH because AUGUST RUSH is the kind of film Hollywood studios loved to make in the 1980's when the high concept (or low IQ point) picture was in vogue.
Just think about all those films you saw in the '80's you could describe with one quick phrase: TOP GUN-Tom Cruise in a Jet, RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART II-Slyvester Stallone in Vietnam, BACK TO THE FUTURE-Michael J. Fox in the '50's.
Actually, I like BACK TO THE FUTURE a lot. So, scratch that one.
Anyway, in an era that has seen the critical rise of such first-rate directors as P.T. Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wes Anderson (though not the rise of intelligence amongst filmgoers), I find the slight resurrection of the high-concept movie in the form of AUGUST RUSH to be slightly interesting.
So let's talk about AUGUST RUSH. The film opens at the Walden School for Boys (Is that a possible literary reference? Wow, Hollywood screenwriters can read after all!) in upstate New York which has been the home of Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore), a young boy who has lived there almost all his life.
When we first see Evan, it is during the film's opening credits when the young boy is out in a field lost in some reverie with a big smile on his face.
What Evan gets lost in is "music"-not the mass-produced music made by instruments and recorded on CD's that most of us are familiar with but the scattered sounds of everyday life which coalesces into rhythms that become music for Evan.
Evan not only believes in the music that he hears but also feels that this music will lead him to be reunited with his natural parents. This is what he tells New York state social worker Richard Jefferies (Terrence Howard) who has visited the school to meet with some of its occupants.
Of course, nobody at Walden School believes this crap. Evan is bullied by older, insensitive types who think he is some sort of sissified freak.
Still, Evan-who was given up for adoption years ago but who has refused to settle down with a family-believes. "Follow the music" he says at one point.
Via the magic of flashback, we are introduced to Evan's parents-classical cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and rock guitarist and singer Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) who are both playing at different venues in New York City one night in the mid-nineties.
Novacek and Connelly both have strains in their careers. Novacek has a demanding father who is obssessed with her career and Connelly has a love-hate relationship with his brothers who are his fellow bandmates.
After their respective performances, Novacek and Connelly meet at a party. Actually, they meet on a rooftop with a great view of Manhattan's Washington Square Park. They have an "amazing night" (Lyla's words) which they spend snuggled on a couch on the rooftop.
Obviously, Evan was concieved during this "amazing night" but sadly, Novacek and Connelly end up going their seperate ways.
In any event, Novacek has the kid but she is lied to by her father who says that the child died in childbirth (What was she unconsicious when she had this kid?).
Years later, Novacek is a teacher and Connelly is a businessman. They have both given up their respective musical careers.
Also, Evan has escaped from Walden School and hits the mean streets of Manhattan to "follow the music" and find his parents. He ends up meeting a young street musician named Arthur (Leon G. Thomas) who takes him back to his home which is basically a deserted theater filled with pre-pubescent musicians.
There, Evan meets Wizard (Robin Williams), the Fagin-like ringleader of these young street musicians who skims his cut of their proceeds and generally rules with an iron fist.
Wizard recognizes something of a kindred spirit in Evan. Once the kid goes back out on the street and starts playing the guitar, Wizard sees the kid as a possible money-making machine as he almost magnetically draws in passerby and reaps scads of dollar bills as people respond to this young boy's charm. Wizard decides to rename him August Rush.
In the meantime, Novacek has found out from her dying father that he gave her baby up for adoption and-after accepting an invitation to play in New York-heads to Manhattan to look for her son.
Connelly has also decided to ditch his business career and get back into playing music. He also winds up in New York looking for Novacek who he has found out is giving a performance.
There are other plot points that take place before AUGUST RUSH has its uplifting ending which I will not reveal here.
All through this movie I kept rolling my eyes at the plot points, dialogue and overall story of AUGUST RUSH. The film's credited writers- Nick Castle and James V Hart-have crafted one of the silliest scripts of the year, a story so childishly simplistic that even most kids would find this story boring (after all, if kids can master playstation and the internet, why would they find this script complex?).
The dialogue is so anemic and thin that if it was a guy, I would him tell him to gain some weight. The overall story plunders Charles Dicken's "Oliver Twist" and mixes it with ludicrously epigrammatic lines about how great music is.
Then again, what do you expect from Nick Castle who has written such outstanding films as SKATETOWN USA? Though I will say that he directed THE LAST STARFIGHTER which was actually a good film.
Director Kirsten Sheridan does what she can with this material. Actually, I think she does a decent job here, pragmatically shooting the material (along with her DP John Mathieson) without any noticeable subtext but sticking to the film's child-like belief in the power of music.
The real heroes and heroines of AUGUST RUSH are its cast. Rhys Meyers and Russell make highly appealing leads and essentially carve out an extra dimension to their one-dimensional roles. Rhys Meyers brings great charm to his role as Louis Connelly and Russell (who turned in a terrific performance in WAITRESS this year) brings some sensitivity and warmth to Lyla Novacek.
Terrence Howard turns in a fine performance as Richard Jefferies in what normally would be a thankless throwaway role as filled by any other actor. With fine work in THE BRAVE ONE, I'm beginning to think that Howard is beginning to carve out a niche for himself in the movies as the thoughtful civil servant.
Robin Williams is well...Robin Williams. Actually, Williams turns in an entertaining enough performance as Wizard but the script doesn't offer him much to work with in the role.
The real star of AUGUST RUSH is Freddie Highmore who as Evan/August turns in the film's best performance. Highmore has a tough role to pull off-August is a child who has a tenacious belief in the power of music and its ability to help him find his parents but who is so inner directed that he is a bit socially malajusted.
Highmore brings such a radiant sense of joy and delight to his part that I was almost swayed to give this film a pass.
Sadly, though I can't endorse this film. AUGUST RUSH's script is so bad, so tediously simple that I could not believe in this film.
I guess I didn't follow the music. I just followed the audience out of the theater's exit.
And finally, Albert wants to wax rhapsodic about a documentary he saw and fell in love with. Take it away, Albert...
Hawaii International Film Festival 2007-TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE: SMARTEST DOC IN THE FEST
by Albert Lanier
His legs were "pulpified", according to an official medical report. The trauma he suffered to his legs were so bad that-had he lived-both his legs would have been amputated. He had only been detained at the facility for a few days before ending up dead.
The "he" in question is a former taxi driver named Dilawar who was rounded up by U.S. forces in Afghanistan who believed this cabbie had been involved in the shelling of a U.S. outpost in country. He had been captured in December of 2002 and brought to the "facility"- the former Bagram Air Force Base-now being used as a holding complex for terrorists, extremists and enemy combatants.
Why are we even discussing the death of a taxi driver? Because Dilawar's death was the second fatality in a short period of time at Bagram.
Also because Dilawar death's serves as the central narrative as well as the opening salvo of the new documentary TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, a film that examines one death within the context of the ferocious debate over the torture of Arab prisoners by U.S. military personnel which was screened at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival in Honolulu.
The reason why we know about Dilawar at all is because of a couple of New York Times reporters, Carlotta Gall and Tim Golden, who investigated Dilawar's death and wrote about the circumstances surrounding his demise.
Gall and Golden appear in TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE as do some of the soldiers who served at Bagram-Willie Brand, Damien Corsetti, Tony Lagouranis- who eventually were put on trial for their involvement with torturing prisoners like Dilawar at Bagram.
John Yoo, author of the infamous "Torture Memo" and an attorney who served in George W. Bush's administration, as well as FBI Counterintelligence Agent Jack Cloonan and Professor Alfred McCoy-who has studied and written about the development of torture techniques and research-also appear in TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE providing insights about not only the rationalizing of torture by Bush administration officials but the interest in behavioral science research and techniques by the CIA.
Director Alex Gibney-who previously made the well-crafted ENRON-SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM-brings some of his by now trademark touches to TAXI: the use of recorded conversations, chapter like-titles to each section and solid research about the subject matter at hand.
Take for example, Professor McCoy's discussion about the C.I.A shift into behavioral science research after pioneering experiments done in Canadian Universities that showed that if you keep subjects bundled up in heavy clothes, deprive them of sleep for a day or two and hurl as much invective at them, these individuals will be primed to suffer a nervous breakdown or just crack and provide you with whatever information you require of them.
Sound familiar? The same techniques were basically applied to prisoners not only at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan but-as the film makes clear-the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
In fact, soldiers like Corsetti state in TAXI that the first step in the torture protocol is what is known as "Shock of Capture"-that when prisoners first arrive, you keep up a relentless stream of initial verbal abuse that serves to unnerve and disorient persons who are already agitated.
In addition to sleep deprivation and bundling prisoners in heavier clothes, other torture techniques included having prisoners shackled to the grid-like ceiling above their cells and forced to stand for hours on end as well as the forced nudity of detainees (shown in graphic detail in TAXI as uncensored photos from Abu Ghraib flash on the screen).
It's hard to find funny moments in such a grim film but there is at least one that I can think of. When Corsetti noted that he was ordered to scream at a prisoner so he grabbed the box of cereal he was eating from and read off the ingredients.
This film is no laughing matter however. TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE is a sobering and nearly exhaustive examination of torture and the "War on Terror."
Gibney has not only marshaled impressive research on the subject of torture but has conducted effective interviews and used original and file footage skillfully. TAXI seems more like the filmic equivalent of a well-written New Yorker article or a New York Times piece than your average documentary.
In short, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE is a first rate film. So, what frustrates me is that an excellent film like this- for some strange reason- wasn't nominated for the festival's Golden Orchid Award for Best Documentary when (with the exception of NANKING, another very good film that screened at HIFF this year) other more "acceptable" films comprised the short list which produced a "satisfactory" winner.
It's a damn shame because TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE was the best film screened at HIFF in 2007 and the only great film I saw at this festival. This is one hell of a doc.
Nuff' said.
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