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By Epock.

Reading ‘The scariest killer since Hannibal Lecter’ put me in high spirits as I settled in to watch the latest contribution from independent American film-maker Robert A. Masciantonio. Having made a suitably successful tour of the film festival circuit in 2009 Neighbor has been praised for diverging from the general realms of violent pornography common with these style films and depicting something far more smart and edgy. This warm praise for Neighbor however turned out to be completely without foundation and my hopeful spirits were swiftly put aside to be replaced with a sense of foreboding that this was going to be the longest ninety minutes of my life.

What little plot can be found in this film tells of a callous killer on a psychopathic jaunt through suburbia. Throughout her trip America Olivo’s imaginatively named ‘The Girl’ employs her seemingly in-exhaustive imagination to use mundane household items to inflict pointless and violent acts of sadism on her innocent victims. With so many films exploring similar themes it becomes apparent that Neighbor spends most of its time searching for innovative ways to inflict pain including a particularly brutal, albeit novel, application of a glass stirrer to a gentleman – Singapore Slings will never be the same again.

Much of the time spent watching Neighbor is simply in anticipation of plot progression, character development or guiltily attempting to guess the next act of wanton violence (a ninety-percent hit rate I hasten to add so we can tack predictability onto the end of the con list). The rest of the viewing time is spent is attempting to unravel what is happening; what is imagination and when in the shuffled time line this is, or isn’t, happening. Confused? Get used to it. Unlike similarly non-linear productions like Pulp Fiction or Memento, Neighbor fails to ever really explain itself, leading the viewer deeper into the pointless and sadistic plot. The complete lack of any compelling story line totally fails to justify the abundant gratuitous violence. From start to finish Neighbor is devoid of any intelligence or particularly interesting stylistic attributes. It is at best, sadistic and bloody pornography; not for your everyday voyeur.

The usual unrealistic and medically misrepresented gore along with some unconvincing Z-list screaming and some admittedly nifty blood-squirting gadgetry puts Neighbor easily among the ranks of C-movie gore-fests churned out bi-weekly with little or no marketing campaign. If this is what you like then Neighbor is probably one of the more imaginatively sadistic films you could choose from this genre, otherwise I would give this one a wide berth and under absolutely no circumstances watch it with Grandma.

By Bear.

This is the third outing of the Chilean director Pablo Larrain. He has returned to the screen accompanied by the same team, and lead actor, that brought us his previous film, Tony Manero.

Post Mortem lays out a story of a loner, Mario Cornejo (played by Alfredo Castro), in front of the close-cropped backdrop of Chile’s military coup of 1973. Mario, a morgue employee who types up autopsy reports leads a lonely and monotonous life, seemingly overlooked and ignored by the world around him. This is until he develops an obsession with a washed-up burlesque dancer who lives across the road, and is unwittingly pulled to the centre-stage of the events of the coup that the film is inspired by.

I purposefully did as little as possible to explore the themes and makers of this film before watching it. I know nothing of the Chilean coup, nor the characters that are all based on real people gleamed from an article read by the director to inspire the film.

And that, unfortunately, is where I ended up. The film is a work of fiction, as far as one can tell. Despite the real-world context we are told nothing of the coup itself; it all happens beyond our protagonist’s sight, just off camera and just out of earshot.

As for the story itself, I struggled to find one. I couldn’t understand if this was a tale of the events, the characters or the politics. It seemed as if the director had several great ideas and concepts but wasn’t sure how to orchestrate or deliver them. We experience it all from the point of view of the protagonist, Mario, but he is an almost blank canvas for the majority of the film that I couldn’t identify with.

Nothing happens to Mario directly, nor does he do anything. The political precipice is at hand, the coup just over the edge, but Mario is not involved. Nothing changes his life, but for the burlesque dancer, Nancy (Antonia Zegers). There is no natural movement to the story, it feels contrived and staged for the film itself. Further to that, the acting from the whole cast is, for the most part, bland and monotonous. The script seemed read, rather than performed; and when the characters are faced with terrible situations, the portrayal hardly changes.

Aside from the lack of story and direction, the film does have great concept and visual personality. The close cropped shots echo a still photograph, framed and held whilst the scene unfolds within it. Just outside the frame the political and social events play out, we oblivious to them as much as our protagonist is. The quality of film and colour firmly sits us in the early seventies, immersing us in the world.

Overall, I was disappointed by this film. I generally feel that foreign films that making it into the English speaking market have some merit to them (hence why they were able to make it out here). Post Mortem, however, seemed empty and vacant. It was as if Larrain has put some great ideas into a box and wrapped it in fantastic cinematography. But once we get inside, those ideas don’t fit together, and they don’t explain one another.

Sadly disappointing.