Adrián, the young orchestra conductor of the Bogota Philharmonic is distraught by the breakup of his girlfriend who has recently left him. Belén has split but not before imparting with a filmed farewell video message for Adrián. “I’m leaving… don’t look for me and don’t hate me.” She resented his flirtations with another woman. They were having relationship problems so perhaps it’s not so surprising. It’s just that she has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Where did she go and was Adrián responsible for her disappearance? His new sweetheart (that didn‘t take long), the local barmaid Fabiana senses an uneasy presence in his dwelling. She becomes convinced that his ex-girlfriend is haunting the residence and possibly trying to make contact.
The Hidden Face unfolds like a typical ghost story in an eerie haunted house. For the first half, it basically is. However there is more to this picture than meets the eye. Director Andrés Baiz, who co-wrote the screenplay, has fashioned a fascinating fable. The modern mansion is photographed with an appreciation for its beauty, but also evokes something sinister. Actor Quim Gutiérrez who portrays our lead protagonist is pretty bland unfortunately. A more dynamic personality would’ve been preferable, but Martina García and especially Clara Lago are attractive support that engage the emotions. The drama plays with expectations and has at least one surprise that is completely unforeseeable. Warning: Don‘t watch the trailer. It spoils everything. It’s a most unusual love triangle built on insecurity, mistrust and jealousy. An enjoyable thriller that entertains with its creepy twists.
Note: Review posted August 17, 2013. This movie was recommended to me by Gary Lee over at With a Friend Like Gary movie reviews. Please check out his blog and his review of this film.
A news reporter delves into the world of a video chat room worker, a high school teen is the target of an online prank, and a couple coping with the loss of their child, fall victim to identity theft. Disconnect is an emotional character study that details how the people in a trio of interconnected stories are influenced by increasing technology. The method in which social media has infected our existence has rarely been scrutinized with such dramatic intensity.
British director Danny Boyle’s latest creation is a mind-blowing heist movie in the world of hypnotherapy. Our story concerns a selling agent of fine-art named Simon (James McAvoy) who works at a prestigious auction house just like Sotheby’s but not Sotheby’s. Some thieves led by crime boss Franck (Vincent Cassel) attempt to steal Francisco Goya’s Witches in the Air after being sold for $27 million. Simon, who is actually in cahoots with the criminals, attempts to double cross his cohorts and hide the artwork for himself. But he suffers a blow to the skull in the ensuing fracas. Now he can’t remember what he did with the painting due to his amnesia. Needless to say, Franck is more than a little displeased and forces Simon to visit a hypnotherapist in an effort to jog his memory.
Nobody emotes sincerity like Tom Cruise. In picture after picture, the actor conveys a genuine earnestness that has always made him an engaging presence for me. Few have a filmography that is as solid, or even as monetarily successful. Regardless of his popularity in the public eye, I have remained a steadfast supporter of his acting career. Unfortunately, Oblivion is another recent misstep (Rock of Ages) that has some inspired moments but largely fails to live up to Cruise’s emotive talents
The life of Jackie Robinson gets the treatment you’d expect in Warner Brothers’ perfectly serviceable biography. The chronicle is a suitable document of the first African American to play Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Director Brian Helgeland (Payback, A Knight’s Tale) beatific depiction of Jackie Robinson is befitting of how Disney handles their sports pictures. It’s reverent, didactic and compelling. However given the magnitude of Robinson’s breakthrough, I was expecting a bit more grit. Perhaps in the hands of a more contentious director, the action would have seemed more controversial. There’s a brief moment of that in one particular scene involving actor Alan Tudyk as Ben Chapman, the manager of the Phillies who vociferously opposed Robbins’s presence in MLB on the basis of his race. The scenes in which he taunts Robinson with racial epithets was even more disturbing than the many uses of the N-word in the movie Django Unchained. Perhaps that’s because this is a true story but also because of Robinson’s pacifist approach to the abuse that was forced on him. It’s is one of the few instances where you genuinely get a feel for the weight of his struggle.
It’s kind of surprising to see a horror film like Evil Dead in 2013. After Wes Craven re-wrote the rules with the self knowing Scream back in 1996 and then The Cabin in the Woods more recently deconstructed the genre further, I thought the attitudes on display here were a thing of the past. Evil Dead is a giant step backward to the naïveté of the 1980s. Here we’re presented another group of kids playing about in the woods. They behave like idiots, existing so they can be dismembered, killed, and gutted in the most gruesome methods possible. It’s gross yes, but it’s certainly not scary. Ok so this is a “remake” of Sam Raimi’s highly regarded cult film that inadvertently became a camp classic. The cartoon violence was over the top and had, let’s face it, special effects that were so bad you had to laugh. C’mon! The blood looked like grape jelly. But this is a remake in name only. Other than the basic underlying story, this is much different. Its “improvement” is that the torture actually looks real. Evil Dead has technically superior gut churning violence but it’s utterly lacking in spirit, charm, humor or scares.
It starts with a shot of a guy displaying his impressive skill with a butterfly knife. As the tracking shot continues, it follows him as he walks through a carnival fairground. We discover he’s on his way to a show where he proceeds to mount a motorcycle and ride it into an enclosed spherical cage made of steel. He’s joined by two additional men on bikes and the resulting display is greeted with applause from the small audience. The guy is Luke Glanton and he’s a stuntman. Haphazardly covered in tattoos that almost look like doodles, he is a man of few words. It’s a brilliant start because it establishes so much about this man simply from visual clues. After that deceptively simple opening we are introduced to a former acquaintance, Romina (Eva Mendes) and her boyfriend Kofi (Mahershala Ali). The two are taking care of her infant son. This cluster of individuals is a fascinating subject for a picture. Ah but that’s merely the beginning.
Fast Film Reviews 