film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Jack Ford

  • The End Of Blindness: Review

    The End Of Blindness: Review

    Sight loss is a universal problem – but a far bigger one in sub-Saharan Africa. With little options for treatment, or none at all, those who are afflicted with any number of eye issues such as cataracts can end up in an indefinite state of limbo. It can cost them their jobs and seriously impact their life and others; for example, with not many people having access to guide dogs, it is a common practice to use small children in their place.

    One man trying tackling this problem head-on is Dr Samuel Bora, optamologist, cataract surgeon and the subject of the Passion Rivers Films documentary, The End of Blindness. Liaising with the Tropical Health Foundation Alliance, he almost exclusively serves the three million strong population of Wellaga in rural Ethiopia. At a minimal charge, he has performed more than twenty thousand eye operations over the course of six years and is so skilled he has rarely if ever failed. So valued is Dr Bora that Larry Thomas, founder of the THFA, straight up says: “my biggest fear is that something will happen to (him)”.

    His remarkable story almost did not come to fruition: he grew up in a poor village, wanting to study medicine and was given a lifeline by a Finnish missionary couple working in Ethiopia. They helped to pay for his education, an act which he is forever grateful for and is repaying through his dedicated work. Not only has this act of charity made it possible for him to fulfil his potential and provide help and care to so many, it also allowed him to give his children a better start at life than he did.

    Though this is definitely a story worth telling, The End of Blindness doesn’t quite do it justice. Writer/director AJ Martinson’s heavy use of talking head interviews and statistics give it the feel more of a promotion for Dr Bora’s work than a full narrative film. Despite there being a lot of elements that could be explored or expanded on, the film doesn’t even reach the hour mark. While it doesn’t lessen the content of the documentary, it does raise questions as to why it couldn’t go further.

    Where it succeeds most is seeing the faces of Dr Bora’s patients light up once their operation is over and they are able to see again. The film follows some patients who they travel to meet him, their cataracts having made life near unbearable and believing him to be their last remaining hope. One such subject is Lalise, a young lady whose sight loss has made her despondent, in particular that it means her baby son will have to take care of her for life if not treated.

    Another, an elderly woman whose cataracts have cost her job, travels with her husband from Addis Abbaba to meet Dr Bora, a trip which proves very emotional for the both of them. If an operation is not successful then she will be at a big disadvantage for the rest of her life and it all comes down to the moment when the bandages are removed…

    The End of Blindness is informative and at times moving but it is not the most sophisticated documentary out there. That it provides a glimpse at this little-reported issue which has ramifications for millions makes up for the technical and pacing problems. After witnessing the power of its core story, the film will likely leave audiences wanting it to have done more.

  • Alice Is Still Dead: Review

    Alice Is Still Dead: Review

    Alice Stevens was 24 years old and living in Thunderbolt, Georgia with her partner Forrest Ison when, in the early hours of November 4th 2013, they were both shot dead outside of their home. It was a senseless act which had a lasting ripple effect on everyone who knew Alice, detailed in the documentary Alice Is Still Dead.

    At a time when there are many true-life documentaries centering on a murder, what differentiates this one from all the others is that it is made Alice’s adoptive older brother, Edwin. Able to give a more intimate and personal look at her life and death, there is a much heavier emotional weight to the film, which sees it become a searing portrait of the impact of a death in the family.

    As the film opens Edwin opens up about how years later, still processing the events, Alice’s death has cast a shadow over his day-to-day life, effecting his health, faith and psyche. He lives conflicted over how to honour her, trying to strike the right balance between keeping alive too many memories of her and too few. He even bought the same car she had, but sold it to raise funds to make the documentary, feeling it would be a much better tribute to his sister.

    He’s not alone in this grief, either. In order to paint as complete a picture of Alice’s life as possible, Edwin meets her childhood friends, college room mate and co-workers and conducts interviews with other members of the Stevens family. They all have fond recollections of Alice, have been impacted to varying degrees by her death and are still trying to make sense of how it could have happened.

    It’s all the more sad to hear her life story because, while at first it seems like she was happy and carefree, the reality was far more complicated. At a young age she was adopted by the Stevens family where she was loved, but could not shake the feeling of not belonging. There were regular clashes with her adoptive mother Dorothy, feeling unable to meet the expectations she had for her.

    She was smart but struggled academically and had relationships with unsavory people. This included Ison, who did not treat her well, straining her ties to family and friends which ultimately led to her cutting them all off. Her friends regret not being able to share those final minutes with her and its hard not to feel empathy for them or the family, who hoped their would be a chance to reconnect with Alice, one that never came.

    Stevens himself, a professional cinematographer by trade who here steps behind the camera for the first time, has crafted a quality product, one that effectively evokes and provokes emotion. As a director he is uncompromising, not sparing the details when recounting Alice and Ison’s murders, going as far to show the autopsy photos uncensored. That her death was so gruesome when the killers had intended only to rob their home, not to cause them any harm, has caused far more grief, anger and confusion. He wants the audience to see what was done to his sister, the sights that pain him, what he wants retribution for.

    The first-hand account Stevens gives of how his sister’s death effected him is compelling. He’s honest, straightforward and not afraid to show emotion, notably in response to supposedly reassuring things people said to him. “She’s in a better place“, Then what’s wrong with this one? “Everything happens for a reason“, What possible reason could this have happened for? He questions if he could have done anything to save her and, ultimately, wants justice.

    The final third of the film is centered around the trial of Alice’s two killers. While it appears to be an open-and-shut case, in court events start to become more dicey. Witnesses are proving unreliable and there is a growing feeling a murder charge will be changed to a lesser one of manslaughter. All the Stevens can do is sit by, helpless and hoping that the raw facts will overpower the inconsistencies. There is real tension as they watch on as the one who pulled the trigger gives his testimony, doing everything he can to exonerate himself.

    At times, Alice is Still Dead can be so raw and searing that it’s hard to watch, but that is a testament to how much it can get under your skin. Stevens wanted to pay tribute to his sister, not necessarily make a deeply effecting film with the power to speak to so many in very different ways. On both fronts though, he has succeeded.

  • Directed By Steven Spielberg: It Started With Duel

    Directed By Steven Spielberg: It Started With Duel

    On November 13th 1971, millions across North America tuned in to episode seventeen of the third season of ABC’s Movie of the Week, unaware they were also witnessing the start of one of the defining directing careers of modern times. The film was Duel, the first standalone feature of one Steven Spielberg, then a young television director but on the back of this astonishing debut, he would soon find himself making some of the most enduring and best-loved films of a generation.

    Fifty years on, Duel is more than Spielberg’s first directing job, it is a perilously-paced, taught and terrifying actioner that has flawlessly stood the test of time. A big hit in its native land, the film earned so much attention from overseas that it was optioned for theatrical release. Looking at the film, it’s easy to see why so many different audiences responded to it so well.

    Though a more modest production, it has cinematic sensibilities beyond its station but through the resourcefulness and skill of those behind the camera, executes them all expertly. First and foremost it is pure action cinema, with a story geared for action and spectacle: salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) finding himself, on a road trip, pursued by an enormous Peterbilt truck, one that seems determined to get him off the road – for good.

    Duel was based on a short story by the late, great Richard Matheson which was first brought to the attention of the 22-year-old Spielberg by his assistant, Nona Tyson. Not long after reading the story he learned it was to be made as part of Movie of the Week, adapted by Matheson, and he immediately lobbied for the directing job. After seeing Spielberg’s recently-finished pilot of Columbo, producer George Eckstein hired him to direct.

    It turned out to be the perfect meeting of director and material. Even at a young age, Spielberg understood what needed to be done for this film to fulfil its potential. That began with his insistence that Duel be shot on location, in rural California, knowing the use of authentic locations would heighten the sense of realism. He was right: seeing everything take place in living locations gives the film an earthy and graphic feel which heightens the stakes while lessening the more outlandish aspects. It’s a big part of Duel’s visual storytelling.

    Another is Weaver’s performance as David Mann, the only named character in the film. He does not play him as a tough and ready-for-anything action hero who normally front films like this. His not-so-subtle name an indication of his more relatable instinct when faced with this situation: it is not to beat or outdo this truck and its driver, but merely to survive. He is simply a man pushed beyond his limits and doing all he can to escape unscathed and is far more interesting for it.

    The truck, meanwhile, despite being just that is a frightening, menacing villain. Aside from an arm hanging outside the window and booted feet under the cab, the driver is never seen and his reasons for targeting Mann are never explained. It’s more about the vehicle than the one behind the wheel, and a truck can not be reasoned with. Other little touches – the ‘Flammable’ sign on its livery, the grime that covers it, the license plates from multiple states implying other victims – gives it more character and malevolence beyond just wanting to run down Mann.

    The action is not just confined to the road. One notable sequence sees Mann stop off at the roadside Chuck’s Café, where novel use is made of the production’s simpler camera set-up. To mimic his fragile state, Spielberg shakes the camera as it follows him around, years before such shot became the norm. He then spikes the tension when Mann sees the truck parked outside – the implication being the driver could be one of the café patrons. This leaves him with a pivotal decision of whether or not to confront the potential suspects.

    Though Spielberg says the film was made with no intended double meaning or symbolism, various aspects and themes have been read into Duel from different perspectives over the years: man-versus-machine, conglomerates against individuals, of different ideas on male identity. Though these were not intentional, the concept and imagery of the two battling vehicles of very different proportions is so universal it can leave itself to open all these different interpretations.

    After its first showing in America, European distributors offered to pick up Duel to be shown in cinemas, for which new scenes were shot in order to boost the running time. Perceptive viewers would be able to identify which scenes were shot after the fact (Weaver’s hair and the truck are both different) and this is the version available on DVD today, but both cuts are equally enthralling.

    As for Spielberg, he continued his flair for car chases in his first theatrical feature, The Sugarland Express, of which The Hollywood Reporter commented “a major new director is on the horizon.” How right they were. When Spielberg was offered Jaws by Universal (Incidentally, after first choice director Dick Richards was fired for not knowing the difference between a shark and a whale), he recalled the similar themes between that and Duel and accepted. Of course Jaws went on to change cinema and take its director from a career that has since gone from strength to strength.

    It all started with Duel, a film that is far more than just a directorial debut. Of all the films Spielberg has made over his illustrious career, it is one that remains the most rock solid after the passage of time. It can rank among the best action films today and his best work.

  • Shock Wave 2: Hong Kong Destruction – Review

    Shock Wave 2: Hong Kong Destruction – Review

    The first Shock Wave, released in 2017, was a terrific, riveting and subversive actioner about a stand-off in a blockaded Hong Kong tunnel. Its sequel sees the return of both producer-star Andy Lau and writer-director Herman Yau, but instead of following up on the events of the first film, instead they have created new characters and devised a whole new story.

    The biggest connector between the films is the same style of furiously paced white-knuckle action, because while the second Shock Wave misses out on a lot of what made the first work so well – a taught script, a menacing villain, unexpected plot developments – Hong Kong Destruction has plenty of high-energy action that, for much of the way, is entertaining and engaging, and though more generic is linked by a more complex plot than the first.

    Shock Wave 2 begins with Hong Kong Airport going up in a giant fireball. Not a real one, though, it’s a look at what will happen unless bomb disposal and explosives expert Poon Shin Fung (Lau) has anything to do with it. When we first see him, he is seemingly in the middle of dealing with a string of terrorist attacks, but calmly and confidently diffusing explosives and saving those in harm’s way.

    That is until one job goes wrong and he is left with life-changing injuries. Fung is undeterred, though, wanting to get back on the job ASAP. He comes out of rehab in better shape than anyone on the force, but his superiors are hesitant to have him back on the force. Despite the continued support of colleagues, his best friend Tung (Sean Lau) and girlfriend Pong (Ni Ni), he grows angry and resentful.

    The film then flashes forward five years, where Hong Kong is under threat of a new terrorist cell Vendetta, who have very personal reasons for doing what they do. Fung is now off the force but circumstantial evidence and being at the scene of a bombing, he becomes a major suspect. He would defend himself, but the blast leaves him with amnesia, and so is unable to defend himself when accused.

    In order to clear his name, Fung has to piece together the gaps in his memory and what led him to this moment. His investigation completely flips the script, opening up a whole host of new revelations which leaves Fung with newfound internal conflict and changes his view of those he thinks he can trust. It also shows, contrary to what he thought, he does have a connection to the head of Vendetta, a character known only as Maverick (Tse Kwan-Ho).

    While sound enough, the script does have its fair share of clichés and contrivances. The film is foremost there to deliver on action, which is does, but at the expense of its own realism and by the final half hour it starts to wander into self-parody. Some of the dialogue sounds like it was written by the Hong Kong tourism board and there are some poor exchanges, such as “Even though I only have one leg, you have to stick by me.”

    Shock Wave 2 also finds some time to be sensible as well. It was interesting to see that the film doesn’t take its subject matter lightly, always making it clear how dangerous bombs are. Whenever a character goes in to try and diffuse a bomb, they are aware they are in very real danger, the explosives they are handling could easily kill them. That the film is not frivolous with life gives it added layers of tension and the action is not gratuitous and more responsive as a result.

    It’s not here to deliver a lecture on public safety, though, and action is once again king. It’s not just confined to bomb scenes either, with set pieces also taking part on highways, in the air and on high-speed rail. Aside from a long mid-section which endeavours to further explain the plot, the pace doesn’t let up and there is never too long a stretch without an action beat.

    What’s more, Lau gets to flex his acting muscles a bit more in this sequel, but its impressive that, now in his sixties, he is able to still make a credible action hero. While there are moments when he has clearly let his stunt double step in for him, the rest of the time he still commands the screen with his presence and multi-layered performance. He is an exceptional talent and fully deserving of his superstar status in Hong Kong, with Shock Wave being the right platform for an actor of his calibre and abilities.

  • V/H/S/94: Review

    V/H/S/94: Review

    “Be creative with your video projects, children. I don’t want to see thirty Blair Witch knock-offs“

    Principal Seymour Skinner, The Simpsons

    What is it about the year 1994 recently where it has become a recurrent time for horror films to take place? After being use as the time frame for the first instalment of Netflix’s Fear Street, Shudder has now chosen that same year to set their revival of the V/H/S film series. It is not clear specifically why 1994 has been earmarked as the best time for horror cinema, and in the case of V/H/S/94 it is especially puzzlesome as the year does not seem to have much relevance to the events of the film, beyond the format of its title.

    V/H/S/94 is the fourth film in the anthology series that began back in 2012. Like its predecessors, the last of which released in 2014, this one too consists of a collection of found footage short films made by different directors, their connection being they were all filmed on VHS, or made to look like it. It is a cool experience but does not really innovate the genre nor does it address some of its issues on a thematic level. The big one being: why is it like this?

    From the first Blair Witch film through to studio efforts like Cloverfield and Chronicle, there always has to be a reason why the character operating the camera is constantly filming everything, when sometimes it is not appropriate and they would be better off putting it down and running for their life. Some of the segments of V/H/S/94 do give credible reasons for the camera being there all the time, but others just shrug it off as being part of the landscape.

    The irony being now people are more used to filming everything they do on phones, the modern day may be a more believable setting where participants film everything that happens to them. As is, the collective minds behind the project have opted to commit to their VHS roots, as well as getting on board the nineties nostalgia bandwagon. Though the events that happen in V/H/S/94’s version of the decade may not generate as much nostalgia as others who have leaned in on the recent past have.

    Jennifer Reeder directs the film’s wraparound segments where a SWAT team, during a raid on a warehouse seemingly occupied by some sort of cult, are exposed to the LQ sights of these tapes. The first one, from Chloe Okuno, sees a small-town roving reporter and her cameraman heading down into the sewers in search of the ‘Rat Man’ of legend. As well as being effectively atmospheric it also has the best effects shot of the whole film, where a man’s face is completely burned off.

    Simon Barrett, in his second turn in the series, follows this up with an increasingly tense vignette of a videographer trapped in a funeral home where the power keeps going out and a coffin seemingly keeps moving on its own. Another V/H/S veteran, Timo Tjahjanto, then gives us the video diary of a crazed scientist who kidnaps locals to use as test subjects in an ongoing experiment to make human-robot hybrids. This one makes best use of the format, with the best reason as to why it is all on camera, but sadly goes nowhere with its premise, has no real thrills or scares and outstays its welcome.

    Finally Ryan Prows gives us a look at an encampment of jingoistic, gun-toting fanatics as they prepare for what they describe as a “mass cleansing” – but not of something so tangible. Instead they are seeking to rid America of vampires. Again it is well presented and very intriguing before eventually descending into blood, shouting and glimpses of something scary in the dark.

    In an age when this kind of film can easily be made by anyone using a smartphone or tablet, cut together using editing software and distributed online, it is questionable as to why five need to compiled together in the style of V/H/S/94. It is a film that seems at odds with its time. If all of the sections were linked together in some way then there would be a reason for a film like this, but there is only a tenuous connection between the works of the five film makers on show. Some moments work well, but only on their own, and the scares will satisfy genre fans but the less effective moments drag it down as a whole.