film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Category: REVIEWS

Here is where you would find our film reviews on BRWC.  We look at on trailers, shorts, indies and mainstream.  We love movies!

  • BRWC At #CamFF: Burning – Review

    BRWC At #CamFF: Burning – Review

    It took me two viewings of Lee Chang-dong’s latest film to fully appreciate what the man has given us. Whilst there is a beautiful, lurid and captivating surface to this genre-morphing masterclass of slow building tension, it is what’s underneath this stunning facade that has been running through my mind ever since and has made this one of the most brilliant and fascinating pieces of cinema I have seen all year!

    The film is based on the short story “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami. Whilst it is good to know the origin of this tale, it is not vital to enjoy it as Lee takes a very brief and powerful 13 pages and turns them into 148 minutes of ambiguous reflection. There are many similarities present but ultimately this is entirely its own narrative.

    Jong-su (Yoo Ah-In) performs odd jobs in Paju, South Korea. One day he runs into Hae-mi (introducing Jeon Jong-seo), a childhood neighbour whom he does not remember at first. She proposes that the two go out for dinner that night. Hae-mi asks him to look after her cat while she’s on a trip to Africa, which Jong-su happily agrees too as his feelings for her begin to grow again.  When Hae-mi returns, she brings with her Ben (The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun), a mysterious and wealthy playboy she met in Africa. It appears there is now competition for Hae-mi’s affections. One day Ben visits Jong-su’s with Hae-mi and confesses his own secret hobby. This ignites something in Jong-su and to tell you any more would be a crime!

    Lee Chang-dong has constructed a film of such subtle complexity that it kind of puts the competition to shame. It was beaten to the Palme D’Or at Cannes earlier this year by Hirokazu Kore-eda’s wonderful SHOPLIFTERS and whilst I consider both films to be masterpieces I believe where SHOPLIFTERS is accessible and more entertaining, BURNING buried itself under my skin and will stay there for a long long while.

    BURNING is a character study. Whilst there are 3 main characters for us to psychoanalyse and hypothesise about, it is really Jong-su that demands the most scrutiny. My opinion on him and his situation was continuously morphing in such a powerful way. He seems forever confused by the world around him, like he hasn’t been paying attention until right this second but now it is too late to catch up. His past is shrouded in mixed up memory, his present is rife with confusion, instability and paranoia and his future is uncertain at best. He is a relatively quiet and simple man but as they say, still waters run deep.

    Yoo Ah-in plays Jong-su perfectly and although he is apparently quite a big name in South Korea, I have yet to familiarise myself with his work. Jeon Jong-seo is a complete newcomer but she is phenomenal as Hae-mi! She is a manic pixie dream girl archetype but amongst the abject sexuality and apparent sadness behind her eyes there is also an innocence that plays very well alongside Jong-su’s quiet humility. Steven Yuen is incredible as Ben. Whilst e caught a glimpse of him speaking Korean in Bong Joon-ho’s OKJA earlier this year, this is a completely new side of him and is one that will catapult him even further in his career. He is the catalyst for everything in this film and the scene’s he is in are rife with understated tension. There really isn’t a bad performance amongst the three of them.

    I am aware of how much I am gushing now so I will begin to wrap this up. What I will say though is that I came out after seeing this for the first time a little shell shocked, a bit confused and quite unsure of exactly what I had just seen in terms of narrative. It was upon finishing it the second time merely 12 hours later that it fully hit me and once it did, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. If you like Haruki Murakami then it is well worth checking out just to see how Lee uses the odd bits here and there as adhesive for his much larger story. If you’re a Lee Chang-dong fan then what the hell are you doing reading this? Go find it and watch it already because I genuinely think it is his best work. If you’re a fan of Korean cinema then this is a great example of the rural border between the North and South. It shows the countryside in such a beautiful way but very much implies the country’s troubled history and where they are right now. If you’re a fan of world cinema in general then I really an’t recommend it enough. The reviews have been extremely positive so far and there really is no smoke without fire. This one is well worth your time. Just expect a long, slow and steady story that asks a lot more from you than your usual trip to the cinema would.

  • Mandy: The BRWC Review

    Mandy: The BRWC Review

    By Louise Agostino.

    Mandy is a new film by director Panos Cosmatos, who employs a similar hallucinatory dream-like atmosphere as in his debut film Beyond the Black Rainbow. 

    Mandy came out at this year’s BFI and a week later finding itself in independent cinemas. 

    Well for starters I had to have paracetamol after the pounding film score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival) whom the film dedicated itself to at the end credits. Like a teddy bears picnic gone horribly wrong, Jóhannsson employs something akin to the Italian horror maestro band Goblin and even employs the whimsy of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Jóhannsson makes this quite unique.

    Basic really, Mandy presents a couple in love. Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) who looks a lot like Shelly Duvall From The Shinning and Red (Nicholas Cage). Mandy and Red are so comfortable with each other’s skin that communication is arbitrary but being almost telepathic, gives the couple a better insight into each other’s core emotions and existence. 

    Mandy and Red live in a secluded area away from civilization. Their house looks like a 80s greenhouse furnished with wood and a small telly. Enduring a pattern of symbolic dreams bridging from childhood and foreseeing the future, Mandy knows something is foreboding. They don’t really talk about it but you can see the anguish through their communications. It is also unclear why they live there although Red remarks they should leave, they don’t (classic horror trope). The film gets dark after Mandy witnesses a car of strange degenerates, which takes the narrative to a clearly illogical journey. Determining the next series of outcomes. 

    Since the backstory is so minimal, Mandy (the film) has so much more personality going on. It is the congealing of its imagination and the score, which Panthos uses and makes Mandy a gut-wrenching horror experience, both poetic and strange.  The acting is also sparing and played down. It is a role perfect in the hands of Cage. When he does give the audience raw emotion it is delightful and quite manically hilarious. Riseborough on the other hand, has some serious inner emotions. It is through her eyes that gleam with fear and brings out the seriousness and disgust to this story. As a couple they are believable and what you would expect from a couple crazy in love.

    Mandy is a film that runs off adrenalin. Assuming you are going for the right reasons will go nuts for this hectic nightmare. 

  • Review: Ciao Ciao

    Review: Ciao Ciao

    Song Chuan’s second feature Ciao Ciao puts a microscope over country living in China by telling a homecoming story in a fresh, new way. The opening shots of the film are luscious wides of green mountains, with a fancy car driving through a farmer and his herd. This is Ciao Ciao, arriving back from her exciting life in Canton to her home village. She is back to help her parents whilst waiting to set up a business with her friend. However due to her fickle and arrogant nature she stalls and ends up staying longer, soon becoming the object of desire for the son of local fraudster.

    The friend she longs for could potentially be a girlfriend, as this is the only person Ciao Ciao is affectionate toward in the film, but it is never confirmed. She uses men to get closer to her goal of going back to Canton, whilst satisfying her parents’ wishes of providing for them She is never affectionate with her lovers, just makes herself sexually available. She scorns, smokes and totters around whilst helping at her Mother’s shop. Her parents seem to use her as a business bargaining tool, to which she seems emotionless.

    Chaun has a brilliant sense of colour throughout the film and the soundtrack complements the titular character’s arc. The plot maybe moves a bit quick as it seems like no sooner does Chiao Chiao arrive does she get thrown into a very significant moment in her life. She is also so unlikeable that you’re never really routing for her to live her dream and escape the misogynistic world of rural life. However, maybe that’s just what the film is trying to show – that it’s a dog eat dog world when money and security are involved.

    One motif (purposeful or accidental) that stuck with me throughout was the constant sound of buzzing. Whether it was on the farm, in a restaurant or during the character’s sexual dalliances. It was a really powerful sound and visual as it seemed to represent the community’s corruption and outdated morals. Great fly acting, but not as good as old Dr.Brundle, of course.

    A difficult yet rewarding watch and would love to see what Song Chuan does with a big budget feature!

  • BRWC At #CamFF: Shoplifters – Review

    BRWC At #CamFF: Shoplifters – Review

    Hirokazu Koreeda is one seriously prolific cinematic voice! Maybe not when compared to some of his contemporaries like Takashi Miike or Sion Sono who tend to make 3 to 6 films every single year with often very mixed results. Kore-eda has made a film a year for the past 5 years and not only has been director, screenwriter, and editor on all of these films but every single one of them has been in my top 10 of the year in each of their respective years. I mention this only to give you an idea of how much of a fan I was already before going in to see SHOPLIFTERS.

    Somewhere in Tokyo, Osamu (Lily Franky) and his wife Nobuyo (Sakura Ando) live in poverty with a grandmother, a sister and a son. While Osamu receives occasional construction employment and Nobuyo has a low-paying part-time job, the family relies in large part on the grandmother’s pension. As he is shoplifting for groceries with his son, Shota (Kairi Jō), they discover Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), a homeless girl. Osamu takes her home, where the family observes evidence of child abuse and neglect. Despite their strained finances, they informally adopt her into their family and where to story goes from there, I will leave for you to find out.

    I’m not going to beat around the bush here. This is my favourite film of the Cambridge Film Festival so far! This might even be my favourite Kore-eda film too! Everything he does so well in all his features, be it his flawed but lovable characters, intimate moments beautifully observed, blurred lines between right and wrong, all put together in an incredibly moving and genuinely thought provoking tapestry that will stay with you long after the lights go up.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJ3_JZnH_Q

    What strikes me most about SHOPLIFTERS is how well developed the family is. We have 6 fully formed characters that are interesting and layered and I genuinely empathised with each and every one of them at certain points throughout. I believe that any one of these individuals could have their own film and it would still be an intriguing and entertaining watch. The script is superb, the performances are flawless (especially the two young newcomers) and the situations are in turns heart-warming and heart-wrenching in equal measure. There were so many times I was close to tears that I lost count and by the end of the film all I could do was reflect on what i’d seen and how I felt about it all.

    SHOPLIFTERS is a delicate film. It is a charming, funny and very affecting example of Kore-eda’s special brand of tough-but-tender humanism. It is a film that gives you moments, not simply hours or days. We watch what happens over the space of a year and can’t help but think what they could achieve in a decade. It is s a work of such emotional delicacy and formal modesty that you’re barely prepared when the full force of what it’s doing suddenly knocks you sideways. It is a socially conscious film that is filled with compassion for its characters and for those of us watching in. It is the work of a master and it will most certainly be in my best of the year list when that finally comes around.

    I hope this opens more people up to Kore-Eda’s work. He has been making films since the 1990s but if you want to see him at the top of his game then begin withLIKE FATHER, LIKE SON from 2013 and then move forward through OUR LITTLE SISTER, AFTER THE STORM, and THE THIRD MURDER. You will not be disappointed!

  • BRWC At #CamFF: The Old Man & The Gun – Review

    BRWC At #CamFF: The Old Man & The Gun – Review

    I’m always a little dubious when film stars announce their retirement with a “final feature”. It seems a little like they are attempting to garner extra attention for a film that might not have been given the opportunity otherwise. I’m fully aware of how cynical that sounds however I do actually believe that this could well be the last time we see Robert Redford on the big screen. Whilst that is a somewhat sad prospect, that was not the reason I was so excited to see this film. The reason for my excitement was entirely based around David Lowery!

    Certain filmmakers dare to be different. They don’t carve a niche for themselves, they just throw themselves in the deep end, they try different things, they make bold cinema. David Lowery is one such director. He learnt his craft by making a plethora of shorts but really shot to the world’s attention with AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, a romantic crime drama about an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met. It was a divisive film due to it’s slow pacing and quiet stillness considering it’s subject matter but for those it worked for, it really worked! What happened next surprised everyone, when he developed the live action remake of PETE’S DRAGON for Disney. It was one of the year’s most delightful moviegoing surprises, a quality family film that rewarded young people’s imaginations and reminded us of a time when the term “Disney movie” meant something! Then came A GHOST STORY. Now A GHOST STORY is an existential experience for me every time I see it. A heartbreaking joy. An emotional reset button that brings me back to reality. In my eyes it’s a masterpiece and it meant that whatever David Lowery was going to do next was going to be high up on my watchlist. The stage was now set for THE OLD MAN & THE GUN.

    Based around the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Forrest’s commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek), who loves him in spite of his chosen profession.

    The main thing that really makes this meticulously constructed piece of cinema for me is the period setting! Every single frame of the film looks and feels exactly like it was photographed in the 1980s. In a world where it seems every other film is some sort of nostalgia throwback it is getting harder and harder to stand out, but the work from Lowery here, alongside Joe Anderson’s cinematography and Scott Kuzio’s production design, is truly wonderful!

    The next thing that is abundantly clear throughout the runtime is just how damn cool everything is. Not since Steven Soderbergh’s OUT OF SIGHT has being a career criminal looked so smooth and whilst that is in large part to Redford’s laid back charisma it is coupled beautifully with Lowery’s confidently lowkey camerawork and leisurely editing. Add some mellow music to the mix and you have a seriously chilled crime caper that is a joy to behold.

    There are many performances here that deserve praise, not just Robert Redford’s. Whether it’s Casey Affleck, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Keith Carradine or Elisabeth Moss, you’re always watching top class, seasoned acting talent give it their all. I feel that a lot of these smaller performances may get overshadowed but they definitely play their part in this film’s success.

    The film’s only downfall for me personally was the story itself. Whilst it is an interesting part of the Forest Tucker story, it plays out in very much the way you would expect. For a man who was best known as an escape artist, having escaped from prison “18 times successfully and 12 times unsuccessfully,” according to himself, we get very little of that story here. This is more of an affable character study that showcases great acting talent with a much more traditional narrative. Whilst this is certainly not a bad thing and the final product is far from a failure, I just couldn’t help feeling there was more to this story I wanted to see. As a love letter to Robert Redford’s career it is wonderful. As an example of period cinema done in a way that isn’t just set in a period but actually looks and feels like it, it is exceptional . As a snapshot of a man who lived more in his old age than many of us do in our whole lifetime, it is perfectly fine.

    If rumours are correct then David Lowery has now started developing another live action remake of a beloved kid’s tale. This time, PETER PAN! From an old man who refused to settle down to a young boy who refused to grow old! Consider me excited!