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  • Revisiting Breakdown

    Revisiting Breakdown

    By Jack Hawkins.

    In 1997, action thrillers such as Face/Off, Con Air and Air Force One commanded hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. The camerawork was slick and the spectacle was satisfyingly tangible. They had real stunts, real explosions and real car chases. Because of this, brawny action fare of the 80s and 90s occupy a special place in many nostalgic hearts, driving the popularity of contemporary franchises like John Wick and The Raid. 

    But not all action thrillers are remembered. Breakdown, released on 2 May 1997 and starring Kurt Russell, has been relegated to hidden-gem status. It doesn’t have the ballistic ballet of Face/Off or the pantomime villainy of Air Force One; rather, it mixes the frenzied energy of Duel with the real world, class-flavoured terror of Deliverance, resulting in a superlative piece of American thriller filmmaking.

    The taut plotting wastes no time in establishing Jeff (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan), a professional couple driving from Massachusetts to their new home in San Diego. They reach the desolate stretches of the American Southwest when their new Jeep shudders to a halt, minutes after a volatile exchange with a belligerent hick at a petrol station. Happily, an amiable truck driver agrees to take Amy to a nearby diner while Jeff guards their vehicle, but a nightmare ensues when she vanishes without a trace. Breakdown’s tagline is ‘it could happen to you’, and it largely rings true here in what is a credible depiction of a freak, disorientating situation.

    This credibility is achieved in large part by the script, which deftly considers how the characters and viewers will react to situation – the questions they’d ask, the actions they’d take. But props are also due to the believable everyman in Kurt Russell, who had played another besieged, bourgeois husband in 1992’s Unlawful Entry. 

    Russell had faced a maniacally jealous cop in that film, but the enemy in Breakdown is more sinister than that. The enemy is a cabal whose criminal tentacles seem to have infiltrated every part of the sparse local community, making our protagonist – and us – feel deeply vulnerable. Jeff has no superpowers to prise Amy out of this desperate predicament; if the conspiracy doesn’t kill him, the oppressive American desert will. 

    All of this sweat, blood and hardship give Breakdown a soul that is missing in the synthetic claptrap of our era. But that is not to say Breakdown is a realist picture; notions of conceivability evaporate as the plot crescendos to a bombastic climax, one that could only exist in a Hollywood movie. Yet that is exactly what this is – a punchy American thriller with good guys, bad guys and a relentless life and death struggle. Besides, everything that precedes the finale – the tension, the mystery, the reversals of fortune – make for such compulsive viewing that we forgive and even welcome the sledgehammer denouement. It is the proverbial white-knuckle ride. 

    Cineastes may bemoan the rise of streaming services for their evisceration of hard copy media, yet these platforms can breathe new life into forgotten gems. Breakdown, which is available now on Amazon Prime, is a stellar case in point.

  • Kindling: Review

    Kindling: Review

    Kindling is an important and insightful new short-film about female relationships, following the event of one young woman’s abortion. 

    This Coming-of-Age Drama tells the story of estranged friends who reunite for a life changing event. The two girls were evidently close friends in high school but have grown apart with one leaving for collage. It becomes evident that they come a low-economic background, and that there has been tension over their recent life choices.  One friend describes them as always being “trailer-trash”, whilst the other claims she is being guilt-tripped for trying to “better herself”. 

    Kindling does a great job of representing the type of close friendships we have all had- where you might not have seen each other for years but when you reunite it’s like no time has past. Moreover, this short focuses on the specific type of friendship that is two women who have a very intimate yet platonic relationship. As a woman myself, I can identify having this kind of relationship in my own life, but have rarely seen such a close-up depiction of it on film. 

    Some scenes are so simple, with very minimal dialogue. Instead there is often silence between the two characters, and yet so much is being said in those moments through their actions, body language and facial expressions. This to me, felt like an honest reflection of real-life human communication, especially in close relationships. This is clever, yet brave, work from writer Sheridan Watson and director Xinyi Zhu. Luckily, both Jill Renner and Nicole Falk are brilliant actresses and are able to convey the subtle emotions and intimacy beautifully. 

    The cinematography by Fannong Li gives a nostalgic and almost vintage affect. I really enjoyed this, as I believe it is relative to how the characters feel as they spend time with an old friend who represents another era in their lives. 

    Though much of the short’s elements are simplistic, the content is not. I am glad the film was stripped of any heightened drama and frills so that we could focus on seeing how this young girl handles her abortion, and how her equally young friend supports her through it. The discussion around abortion is still so taboo and yet it is not at all an uncommon event in the lives of women.

    I believe it is important to stop stigmatising the struggles in women’s lives, and I think this movie does a great job of that by normalising the conversation. I think the fact that this was a very female-heavy creative team, meant that they were able to approach this topic with a large level of sensitivity and honesty.

  • Ghosts Of War: Review

    Ghosts Of War: Review

    Marrying the pains of wartime struggles with a genre-horror approach, The Butterfly Effect writer/director Eric Brees crafts a wholly unique beast with his latest vehicle Ghosts of War. While some of its impact may be lost in translation, Brees’ raw ambition offers a compelling thrill ride that stays one step ahead of its audience.

    Ghosts of War follows a small American battalion (Brenton Thwaites, Theo Rossi, Kyle Gallner, Skylar Astin, and Alan Ritchson) tasked with holding an abandoned mansion on the French countryside. The barren house presents an unknown danger when paranormal entities confront the soldiers, with each meeting face-to-face with their past actions.

    Similar to his debut effort, Eric Brees earns points for unabashedly committing to his genre-hybrid approach. His filmmaking identity is mostly felt through the narrative’s supernatural elements, crafting a sense of ominous dread from the opening frames. Whether it’s the lingering sound of each household creek or the opaque light bleeding through the window panes, Bress’ uses an array of techniques to build atmosphere while pushing his makeshift budget to its limits. Add in an intermixing of well-choreographed battle scenes, the horror and war elements are meshed relatively smoothly, with the script offering a thoughtful substantive throughline to render the concepts together. I really admire the go-for-broke attitude Brees brings to his work, continuing to reach for the stars with inventive ideas and lofty aspirations.

    The Ghosts of War deserves credit for sincerely embracing its oft-kilter set-up. Brees’ screenplay pointedly criticizes the casual cruelty of war, with both sides violently taking their aggression out with a sense of showmanship and lack of empathy. These actions boil over to create a longing sense of regret for the characters, addressing the PTSD inflicted upon soldiers for their deadly actions. The cast does an admirable job of unearthing these pains, with Kyle Gallner standing out for his ability to convey the emotional weight behind his behavior.

    Despite its good intentions, Ghosts of War can’t quite convey the full extent of its thematic agenda. While the film coherently binds its tonalities together, both the horror and war aspects are steeped in B-movie contrivances (the war scenes are accented with a conventionally triumphant score and inauthentically machismo dialogue, while the horror elements have your typical jump scares). It all builds to a third act twist that pulls the rug under the audience, offering a shake-up that will certainly surprise with the out-of-left-field path it takes. While I appreciate the creativity, the showy approach overshadows the quieter pains of its central message, with the narrative ultimately feeling too overstuffed for its own good.

    Ghosts of War falls short of its inspired premise, but credit to writer/director Eric Brees for offering a uniquely brazen adventure that packs a plethora of gratifying moments.

  • Sheffield Doc Fest Features (Part 1)

    Sheffield Doc Fest Features (Part 1)

    Sheffield Doc Fest Features (Part 1): Keith Haring: Street Art Boy and The Vasulka Effect. Other features can be found at Sheffield Doc Fest Features (Part 2)

    Esme Betamax | @betamaxer

    Keith Haring: Street Art Boy 

    Keith Haring: Street Art Boy is a retelling of the artist’s short life as understood by his family, friends, and peers. It’s also told in his own words, amassed in his archive in the form of videos and voice recordings.

    Sheffield Doc Fest Features

    The director is Ben Anthony, known for Grenfell (2018) and 7/7: One Day in London (2012). Younger than Haring, and an ocean apart, nonetheless he grew up heavily influenced by Haring’s imagery. As the soundtrack unfolds it turns from Haring’s influences (The Monkees, The B-52s) to Anthony’s influences (Talking Heads, Davy DMX). It’s an eclectic and apposite accompaniment to Keith Haring’s visual style. Becoming an icon of the 1980s, the decade began as a time of freedom and discovery for Haring both artistically and personally.

    Editor Paul Van Dyke’s quick cuts underline Haring’s high energy and opportunistic attitude, suggesting time is short. Even before the narrative turns to the AIDS epidemic, it’s clear that he had an impatience about him. But Keith Haring: Street Art Boy also reveals the depth of Haring’s character—a kind and thoughtful person who responded to his environment astutely. In one brief sound clip he sums up his work with a reference to Walter Benjamin: “[It is] art for the age of mechanical reproduction.”

    Sheffield Doc Fest Features

    The Vasulka Effect 

    The Vasulka Effect is a film by Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, director of Svona Folk (1970-1985) , (a documentary about the rights of LGBTQ people in Iceland). It is a retrospective of the video art pioneers Woody and Steina Vasulka. They were early adopters of video, slotting into the New York art scene of the late 1960s, having relocated after meeting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

    In New York from the 60s to the 70s, they were adjacent to the art world, always with one foot in, but often seen as ‘techies’ rather than ‘artists’. They crossed video and audio signals, which created new types of art and music. The Vasulkas founded The Kitchen in 1971. Serving as a studio and performance space for multimedia artists, The Kitchen was formed with inclusivity and collaboration at its heart. They wanted to create a space for experimentation in new media.

    Sheffield Doc Fest Features

    Woody and Steina explain that their artwork isn’t ever necessarily finished. Final pieces exist, for example Noisefields (1974) But their attitude is that it can all be reused and repurposed. They are always experimenting and inventing, unearthing treasure in the form of surplus military technology and their own enormous archive of footage. The art they create is a direct representation of their relationship, which itself is a type of feedback loop. Steina and Woody exist in a state of perpetual collaboration.

    Appearing in Sheffield Doc Fest Rhyme & Rhythm Strand alongside Keith Haring Street Art Boy the curators have deftly juxtaposed two biographies with New York’s art scene as their nucleus. Twenty years their junior, Haring arrived in New York after Woody and Steina had decided to move further afield. His generation were immersed in video culture that the Vasulkas had pioneered, and it played no small part in propelling him to fame. It’s fascinating to watch these two documentaries as a double-bill, and to observe their similarities: How they create with urgency—artists in a constant state of play. 

    In contrast, we can see the results of fame and fortune. As Haring was thrust into the spotlight, enjoying celebrity, sex, drugs, money, but ultimately illness and untimely death, the Vasulkas continued for decades longer, flying under the radar. Their success is really a matter of perspective. They never stopped creating, which is crucial. Were they shunned by the art world or spared from it? Interesting that 2020 sees filmmakers inspired to make documentaries from both Haring’s and Vasulka’s archival footage. “Humankind is much more interested in archived past art than whatever is happening now” says Steina with a cheeky smile. Likely fully aware that there is only some truth in such a sweeping statement.

    Sheffield Doc Fest Features
  • Balloon: Review

    Balloon: Review

    By Nick Boyd.

    “Balloon” is a German film based on a true story of two East German neighbor families (the Strelzyks and Wetzels) in 1979 whose goal is to escape into West Germany via, of all things, a homemade hot-air balloon.  The movie, filled with a high level of unrelenting suspense and tension, details their efforts to make this happen. 

    Each family has two sons who desperately want them to be raised in the freedom of the West rather than under the watchful eye of the repressive German Democratic Republic.  Peter, the head of the Strelzyk household, is an electrician, while Günter the head of the Wetzel household, is an ambulance driver and would-be scientist.  

    After the Strelzyks have an unsuccessful first attempt (just narrowly missing making it over the Western border and crashing into a forest), the realization sets in that one false move could expose them, but they are undeterred in constructing a better more weatherproof balloon.

    A desperate manhunt ensues as the authorities waste no time gathering evidence and pursuing whom they deem to be ‘traitors.’  A lead investigator is furious that the border patrol somehow let this occurrence get by them.  Complicating things a bit is the fact that the Strelzyk’s eldest son Frank, an 8th grader, has a romance with a neighbor girl, whose father works for the Stasi.  This agent, seemingly friendly and welcoming, has no idea what his ambitious neighbors are up to.

    After the Strelzyks have informed the Wetzels what took place, the two families decide to work together this time and construct a balloon that can fit eight people.  The first balloon was only able to fit four people.  The families have to work around the clock, as not only are the authorities closing in on them, but Günter finds out that he has to very soon report to active duty, as he has been drafted by the military.  

    The East German government’s strict regime is made apparent at Frank’s rite-of-passage graduation (as they have to pledge their allegiance to Communism) and in the balloon incident investigation.  Even with all the seriousness, the blossoming love between the two teens is a nice break from the high stakes at play and the two actors bring forth believability and chemistry.  

    It is a very well-acted picture (with a lot of emotion conveyed in the performances) that also effectively delves into the strains of marital and child relations, while at the same time the sacrifices we make to better the lives of our children.