Buried
Director: Rodrigo Cortes
Stars: Ryan Reynolds
Country of Origin: US
Why I Chose this Film: Receiving a ton of hype upon its premiere at Sundance, director Cortes revealed in May that his next projection,
Red Lights, would be toplined by Sigourney Weaver. Also, this film did peak my interest on its own.
The Rundown: Yeah, the film is set entirely in a coffin with Ryan Reynolds, a contractor working in Iraq who has been abducted and is being held for ransom. Needless to say, there's several claustrophobic moments, and Reynolds gives a surprisingly intense performance. Kudos to Cortes for keeping me entranced for 90 minutes in one setting with the action consisting of his lead being on the phone---the only piece of film I can say it's like are filmed versions of Jean Cocteau's play,
The Human Voice (as part of a 1948 Robert Rossellini film
, Amore with Anna Magnani and a 1966 TV version with Ingrid Bergman). The final ten minutes are fucking great. 10/10
HeartbeatsDirector: Xavier Dolan
Stars: Xavier Dolan
Country of Origin: Canada
Why I Chose this Film: I loved Xavier Dolan's 2009 debut
I Killed My Mother, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Credited as cinema's latest wunderkind, he quickly followed up his feature a year later with this sophomore effort. While his first film was endearingly prententious, I was very excited to see what I felt about his latest.
The Rundown: Unfathomably pretentious. I was bored silly in this dull tale about a gay boy and his girlfriend becoming obsessed with a curly haired college kid. They both vie for his attention, and apparently experience some growing up in the process. Weak characterizations and a dull script aren't overcome by what appears to be Dolan attempting to create a visual flair or ambience. In the end, this threesome tale reeks of Bertolucci's
The Dreamers (2003), (which I also didn't quite care for) and Dolan's repeated use of the song "Bang Bang" by Sheila (unless this was a different French cover, I'm not sure) also seems missplaced, especially if you've happened to see Francois Ozon's use of this cover in his short film
A Summer Dress (1996). I wish he had taken a little more time before filming his sophomore effort so quickly. 4/10
The Sleeping BeautyDirector: Catherine Breillat
Stars: Carla Besainou
Country of Origin: France
Why I Chose this Film: Catherine Breillat, one of the most brilliant and prolific working directors today.
The Rundown: I enjoyed but was rather cool about Breillat's film last year,
Blue Beard, a sort of modern retelling, or comingling with modern stories about women and their relationship to classic fairy tales. One of the young girls from the modern portion of that film stars in this latest fairy tale exploration. However, as interesting as I considred
Blue Beard to be, I was bored silly with
The Sleeping Beauty, mostly due to the performances of the young and older "Beauty." I felt like I could grasp what Breillat was doing here, and she excels at creating rather unflattering but intriguing portraits of femininity, but it was no sell for me. While it was a treat to see Breillat in person, I look forward to a return to material from earlier in the decade, such as
Fat Girl, (2001),
Brief Crossing (2001) or
The Last Mistress (2007). 5/10
Kaboom
Director: Gregg Araki
Stars: Thomas Dekker, James Duval, Kelly Lynch, Juno Temple
Country of Origin: US
Why I Chose this Film: Araki is one of the most intriguing directors working today. He cut his teeth in the New Queer Cinema movement and I've loved almost everything he's done. This latest work is considered an amalgamation of his body of work. After his last two stupendous features,
Mysterious Skin (2004) and
Smiley Face (2007) I was amped for this.
The Rundown: Sadly, I was a bit disappointed in
Kaboom. I didn't find this to be like a hodge podge of his previous work, but more like a less daring and interesting reworking of his 1997 film
Nowhere. I was extremely irritated with his male lead, Thomas Dekker, leaving Juno Temple the brightest spot of amusement in this mess about the impending end of the world and college students having pan sexual sex. It's interesting that the Kinsey scale is pointedly mentioned here and in Dolan's
Heartbeats---both to ill effect. 6/10
