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Beauty (aka Skoonheid) is the sophomore feature film from director Oliver Hermanus, a story of repression, jealousy, obsession and un-requited love. Both visually and thematically this is a dark movie with frequently starkly contrasted scenes framing the exploration of main character François, played by Deon Lotz, and his carefully constructed life of self-loathing.

Based in Bloemfontein, South Africa, François is a respected local business man, husband, and father who struggles with his repressed sexuality through a controlled system for meeting and engaging in sex acts with a group of similarly minded men – the rules are “no fags and no coloureds”. A stark portrayal of homophobia, racism, and violence this movie brashly deals with difficult subjects and the dislocated identity associated with living a lie. Unable to reconcile his desires with his reality François is always the voyeur and we frequently see from his eyes as his covetous observations of men betray his true nature. The opening sequence is a long pan and slow zoomed shot of a wedding party that is eventually revealed to be the beginning of his obsession with Christian, the son of an old friend.

A sense of isolation from the disparate aspects of François’ personality is evident in the filming style, often distanced implying François’ own detachment from his life; the tension of his dual nature manifesting in aggression towards his family, particularly his daughter. Chiaroscuro lighting is frequent throughout adding to a sense of tension whilst also mirroring the blunt contrasts of François’ character. Prevalent also is the contrast of old and new, at the age of 45 François is a product of furiously conservative beliefs caught between different governments with the oppressive prejudice of Afrikaner minority rule overthrown in favour of a more equal system.

With great direction, concise and well considered in its framing, Beauty features recurring scenes of voyeuristic tension as we are pulled into François’ self-delusions. Christian is a catalyst for obsession, representing a ‘beauty’ that François wants to be and wants to have whilst simultaneously highlighting everything that he hates about himself. Inciting a change to his previously established routine, his newfound fixation consumes him, leading to increasingly more irrational acts; following Christian, turning up in Cape Town where he lives, having him rescue him from a bar, and ultimately full moral collapse. The tension eventually erupts as his desires and violent repression manifest in a brutal and punishing hotel scene wherein the otherwise sparse soundtrack (dialogue/background rather than score) is savagely unavoidable and painfully visceral. Beauty is not easy watching, but it is compelling.

A complex portrayal of bottled up desire, Beauty is a haunting picture of a man whose systems of restraint collapse under the weight of infatuation. Ambiguous in its conclusion we are left feeling almost as desolate as François; the fault of the movie may be in its lack of resolution, or it’s unabashed refusal to impart any suggestion of a solution to the problems it raises. The film does succeed at being an ugly portrait of social and psychological anxiety, astutely written and skilfully acted.

8 out of 10

Beauty is released in theatres April 20.

Review by nil.

2007
Dir. Scott Thomas

This movie is hilarious. Director Scott Thomas has taken George A. Romero’s zombie franchise to ‘new heights’ with this tongue-in-cheek gore filled horror set 30,000 feet above sea level.

The fun begins when a trio of mad scientists on the run from the CIA get aboard a passenger flight from Los Angeles to Paris carrying with them a coffin containing a colleague infected with a strange virus. All hell breaks loose however when the flight crosses a violent thunderstorm, the turbulence breaking open the coffin and unleashing the colleague, who is now a flesh eating zombie who doesn’t want the chicken or the fish.

What I love best about this film is the vast amount of gore. As the zombie gets loose and eats/infects each passenger one by one, there’s some great scenes of exploding heads, flesh being ripped from the bone, eyeballs popping out and beheadings to rival a medieval battlefield. There’s even a great ensemble of characters on this flight, all the clichés you would expect such as a cop transporting a dangerous prisoner, a nun, a cheating couple, a sports personality, an air Marshall and even the pilot is on his last flight before he retires and visits the grandkids up in Peaceful Lake or wherever.

There’s some absolute lunacy in some parts, as in the part where the cop creates a bomb, yes a bomb, and throws it into a cargo infested with zombies, and miraculously doesn’t destroy the plane. There’s also a whole lot of shooting going on in the cabin, and somehow nobody manages to hit a window or pierce the walls and kill everybody.

All in all however, if you’re looking for a tongue in cheek horror you can sit back with a bowl of popcorn and laugh at whilst still being entertained, this is up there. Id definitely say that horror fans looking for a guts and glory zombie flick that’s more concerned with action than scares should definitely give Flight Of The Living Dead a look…

3 and a half Skulls

Billed as Jackie Chan’s 100th* movie 1911 Revolution marks a staggering achievement of cinematic output from Chan but ultimately fails to live up to the legacy of such success. In tribute to the Centenary anniversary of the Xinhai revolution in China this historical political drama depicts, with an overwhelmingly unnecessary amount of data, a summation of the revolution that lead China from two millennia of feudal society to the formation of it’s communist government.

(*The figure is probably more in deference to the 100 year anniversary as his output is listed as already being above 100 before the completion of this movie.)

1911 Revolution dives headlong into the action that began revolution without setting up the story, relying instead on a system of text heavy overlays to fill in details – something that continues throughout the movie with an alarming constancy. The name of every Politician, General and Janitor present in most any scene is displayed on screen, often in addition to both the setting and information required to understand the sequence. During these moments dialogue rarely abates leading to a screen filled with contextual overlays as well as subtitles for the Mandarin, generating the effect of watching a Powerpoint presentation rather than a movie. The attempt, of course, is to portray the drama of the event as close to a documentary style as is possible without being a straight documentary – but in a movie sponsored by the Chinese government who knows how much fact there is behind what we are seeing.

This attempt at historical accuracy in detailing the corruption of the ruling Empire and it’s oppressive European allies results in the movie coming across as alarmingly dispassionate. Too much information passes across the screen, and too quickly, for the audience to engage with. By about the 30 minute mark you shut off, no longer caring who is who, as it’s confusingly difficult to follow any of it. There is no room to develop the characters involved in this revolution, and yet the movie tries to throw in fragments of background information, brief allusions to relationships, or impassioned speeches in the vain hope that it’s resonating emotionally with the over-arching theme of imperial hegemony, industrial age relocation, fractured ancestral roots, or martyrdom for a cause. It’s like the social tension, national upheaval, and emotional dislocations associated with revolution are a perfunctory afterthought to a prescribed list of events.

Despite this, 1911 Revolution is beautifully shot with some really playful use of light and contrast during battle sequences. It is in these brief scenes of battle that the movie works, a significant portion of the budget must have been allotted to creating a realistic portrayal of trench-style combat. These action scenes are also immersive and engagingly scored with a bombastic soundtrack that really made use of the whole 5.1 surround soundstage come alive.

Also, for the most part, the film is well acted with even Jackie Chan (who was always far superior in his native language) giving a commanding performance as the leader of the revolutions armed forces. Joan Chen, remembered fondly from Twin Peaks, and Bingbing Li, soon to be seen in this years zombie ridden sequel Resident Evil: Retribution, both show up in supporting character roles. The one caveat to the acting on display in this movie is any appearance by a western character, in particular an American who fights for the revolution who can only be described as disturbingly atrocious. Whilst the action is primarily engaged with guns there’s also a token, approximately 30 second long, martial arts sequence that sticks out like a sore thumb as being superfluous blatantly included just to confirm that this is indeed a movie with Jackie Chan.

1911 Revolution was perhaps the wrong choice for Chan to celebrate the milestone of (arguably) his 100th movie. A monotonous, soulless affair that relentlessly bombards the viewer with a textbook level of information that is neither required nor absorbed. Even for Jackie Chan completists this might be one to avoid.

4 out of 10 – A couple of well shot moments interspersed with hours of tedium.

1911 Revolution is out on Blu-ray and DVD March 19.