Doomsdays (Eddie Mullins, 2013)

6.5/10
An ultra-black comedy about two friends, Bruho and Fred, who live homeless in the cottage countryside, breaking into houses, taking and eating what they need, and destroying cars and possessions along the way. There's no apocalypse to speak of, but they believe it's coming. And as Fred puts it, "if you're on the Titanic and you know there's no boat for you, why not live it up at the bar?".
Bruho and Fred are pretty unsympathetic characters without any of the chemistry that made The Battery a joy. In fact the movie drags quite a bit until they take along a nerdy wannabe and a girl that Fred shacks up with - and their partnership has to deal with the tensions brought by such an expansion.
The humor doesn't always work, and the movie doesn't have a tremendous amount to say. So you have a film that could have been really hilarious and really poignant, and falls short of both. It has its moments but it's hard not to feel like an opportunity has been missed.

L'amour Braque (Andrzej Zulawski, 1985)

6/10
Apparently this Zulawski film from '85 is tough to follow even with subtitles. I speak French so I thought I'd tough it out, but much of the Parisian French and the metaphor/nonsense heavy dialogue went right by me. So maybe not fair to rate it but I still enjoyed it, it was entertaining and wild...particularly Sophie Marceau as 'the girl' and Tchéky Karyo, who practically convulses with energy. The movie misses him when he's not on screen, for sure.
I have to wonder if Christopher Nolan has ever seen it - the opening bank heist (with Disney masks for that added touch of surrealism) reminded me remarkably of the one that opens The Dark Knight.

The Killing of America (Sheldon Renan & Leonard Schrader, 1981)

8/10
A documentary from 1982 effectively banned in the States - never released, distributed, televised or sold there. It looks at the shocking rise of gun violence in America from roughly the assassination of JFK to the assassination of Lennon - so almost two decades. It's done vignette style, where one crime after another is shown, entirely using archival footage and with a pretty minimalist, explanatory voice-over. Nothing is not shown or censored, so you're essentially seeing people die on screen (or photographs of dead people) for 90 minutes. The more famous crimes are shown (Kennedy, Lennon, the attempt on Reagan, the Manson murders, Berkowitz, Gacy, etc) but it also focuses on some that have slipped out of the collective consciousness - local sniper rifle attacks, hostage situations, etc. It's very sensationalist (though I wouldn't call it exploitative) and it's sad that the gun control issues it raises are ones still being debated 30 years later. I found it very gripping, though I can see where some would be put off.

Across the River (Lorenzo Bianchini, 2013)

8.5/10
Super-slow moving Italian horror that's kind of like a wordless mix of The Blair Witch Project and The Silent House. I thought it was really well done, admirably restrained and very tense. I could see it being too slow for some and indeed, it felt at times like you were waiting for a pay-off that didn't always get there. But it's hard for a horror movie to shown restraint and not be boring, and this one did that, so I give it a lot of credit.
My only complaint would be the unnecessary, clunky and somewhat corny explanation behind the "hauntings". The only smudge of unoriginality on an otherwise excellent film.

Szamanka (Andrzej Zulawski, 1996)

2/10
Andrej Zulawski is most known internationally for Possession, an 80's body horror flick starring Isabelle Adjani in a crazily over the top role. I found that movie flawed, but interesting.
I didn't know much about Szamanka going in but I knew Zulawski would be on hand to accept a lifetime achievement award from Fantasia so I decided that would be worth seeing in itself. It was, but unfortunately, the movie was not. Possession was flawed but interesting (a trait in movies I can tolerate and have for many years) but Szamanka was flawed and uninteresting, a fatal combo. It features another crazily over the top performance from its lead actress, but never goes anywhere interesting with it. She meets with an anthropology professor who has unearthed a 2000-year old shaman, and the movie mostly details their crazed, illogical love affair, with lots and lots of wild sex.
I'll give this movie one point for its soundtrack which, although annoyingly repetitive, features some cool tunes, and another point for actually being kind of funny at times, in its silliness. But overall...pass.
I have another movie to see in this little Zulawski retrospective, L'amour Braque. Hopefully it's a lot better

The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013)

6/10
I've mostly given up on American horror movies, and horror movies in general because the hit/miss ratio is so disparate. But this was getting surprisingly good reviews so I checked it out. I would say for about the first 2/3rds it did a good job - it was slow, creepy, atmospheric, with some decent scares. But I felt the third act really let it down - a really brassy, boring act involving an exorcism, and I am very close to swearing off all horror movies featuring exorcisms because everyone just does the same thing that was done back in 1973 and it's boring as hell.
There's also a framing device involving one of those "Hollywood creepy" dolls that has never existed anywhere in real life outside of a prop shop that is completely unnecessary and distracting.
But as I said, the first two acts were good enough to at least make it a decent movie. I give it credit for creating an emotional attachment between the audience and the exorcism victim, emotion being some thing most horror movies blow right past. The sound design is fantastic and the soundtrack is enjoyably over the top, and I really liked the opening title sequence, for whatever that's worth. But given the heavy praise, I was expecting a lot more.

Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)

8/10
I think when I reviewed Drive I called it a triumph of style over substance (which I probably stole from some other reviewer at some point so I'm not patting myself on the back). It seems Nicholas Winding Refn took that idea and pushed it even further out there. It's hard to not see this as a response/reaction to Drive (or a response to the reaction Drive got), and it's not exactly a pleasant one. I have to believe Refn was conscious of exaggerating or subverting everything that was so successful in his previous film, and I wonder how much of it was in his mind when making this one...from Drive's pop pink and blue palette to OGF's harsh reds and yellows, to the 180 done by the characters Ryan Gosling portrays - superficially similar but complete opposites.
I feel like this is a very dumb movie, and very clever in its own way. When I say "dumb" I just mean there's no deep meaning or hidden symbolism to look for - it's all laid out there and the joke is on the viewer who, rejecting what's unfolding before him/her, looks in vain for something more. It's aggressively, enjoyably stupid.
As for the actual film, I was hypnotized by it - the movie practically throbs from beginning to end, pushed along by sharp visuals, an amazing score, and a glacial pace that seats it somewhere between film and experimental video art. It's the kind of movie I enjoyed a lot, but can't blame anyone else for hating. Actually, it made me think of Lars von Trier's Antichrist in a lot of ways - both in how I felt towards it (and how audiences feel towards it), and in its approach: an interloping European auteur using Hollywood's own weapons against it. Interestingly, both movies feature somewhat absurd dedications before their closing credits (Antichrist to Tarkovsky, OGF to Jodorowsky).
I am half-seriously hoping Refn's next film will be a 90-minute wordless feature composed of shots of Gosling in a white shirt surrounded by amorphous green blobs, backed by maybe an Italian disco soundtrack. Just to take this thing to its logical conclusion.

Sweetwater (Logan Miller & Noah Miller, 2013)

5/10
This is a decent-enough Western starring Ed Harris and January Jones. I keep seeing these indie Westerns thinking one will truly blow me away, but I haven't seen one yet. It's disappointing. Sweetwater doesn't make any grand missteps, really - it's just kind of...goofy. The plot is pretty threadbare...Ed Harris plays a lunatic of a sheriff who comes to town after two relatives fail to arrive with suspicion falling on the evil preacher (such a worn out trope) who's also fallen on the bad side of Jones' character once her husband goes missing. These plots lead exactly where you think they will. Really the only attractions are the beautiful, HD-shot landscapes and Ed Harris hamming it up as a zany badass who gets all the good lines and who is clearly having a blast. It's so against type from Harris' usual straight-laced and stiff characters that it makes the movie way more entertaining than it has a right to be, as everything else is fairly unimaginitive.

The Battery (Jeremy Gardner, 2012)

8.5/10
I guess the extraordinarily popular The Walking Dead is going to open the doors for a lot of other zombie-related media, conventional or otherwise. The Battery is a really unique take on the zombie apocalypse - actually, it's more like a buddy film with a zombie apocalypse back drop. Made on what must have been a shoestring budget with Jeremy Gardner writing, directing, producing and starring, it's a really smart, heartfelt, stripped down take on a worn-out genre. The core of the movie (really, the entire movie) is the relationship between two kinda-friends, Mickey and Ben, thrown together after a zombie outbreak hits. How they get along, how they bicker, and how they survive, and of course the success of the movie is owing largely to their chemistry and the believability of their relationship. There are super long, slow takes and a really good indie rock soundtrack - so very un-zombie-film-like traits. Imagine Jim Jarmusch directing a zombie/road movie with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg writing the dialogue - something like that, with the indie aesthetic of the also-excellent Bellflower. A zombie movie for people who don't like zombie movies, basically. I really recommend it.

Lesson of the Evil (Takashi Miike, 2012)

5.5/10
Takashi Miike's other new movie, supposedly more of a return to his "controversial" and shocking past...ehh only sorta. It's another high budget affair (I don't think Miike has to worry about not finding backers anymore regardless of what he wants to do) but it is a little more transgressive...essentially a well-liked teacher, in response to a variety of logical and illogical circumstances, loses his mind and mows an entire class of students down with a shotgun. More or less.
Of course, the image of a teacher stalking his students and shooting them in cold blood is a little unsettling, but the movie is too cartoonish to really be offensive in any measure. It's not really saying much, and its plot kind of jerks forward making some weird detours along the way. I don't know, it's not inventive enough like a Battle Royale, but it's not funny enough in its absurdity either, so it's just kind of there.

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)

8.5/10
Killing time before the movie below, I went to see Frances Ha not knowing much about it aside its positive reviews and comparisons to Woody Allen and the French New Wave. I definitely get both - in fact, in the first few minutes, I was sort of preparing myself for a pretentious and annoying "hipster" flick. But despite its obvious influences, it really wasn't. In fact it was a very disarming and very charming story about a very awkward twentysomething girl basically trying to get her shit together. It's not really laugh-out-loud funny the way a Woody Allen movie can be, and it doesn't contain many great revelations or insights, but it manages to be constantly entertaining and it features one of the most interesting and well-written female leads I've seen in a while, portrayed brilliantly by Greta Gerwig (who also co-wrote the movie). She's the kind of character you wish were real so you could go home and read more about her. In any event I thought the whole movie was very original and very charming, a very pleasant surprise as I was basically using it to spend time before another movie (that I wound up enjoying less than Frances Ha anyway).

Shield of Straw (Takashi Miike, 2013)

6.5/10
The first of two Takashi Miike movies at Fantasia this year, this one being the festival opener. It's a big budget police thriller that also played in competition at Cannes. The premise is simple: the grandfather of a murdered 7-year old offers an incredible cash sum to the person who kills the killer (and will even pay millions just for a worthy attempt). The killer turns himself in to the local police station, and a team of 5 police officers have to escort him to Tokyo safely. It's something of a 2013 update of previous perilous journey movies - The Wages of Fear, 3:10 to Yuma and The Warriors all sprang to mind.
Of course, the premise may not be entirely logical (especially some of the decisions made by the police force) but it allows for plenty of hazards and set pieces for Miike to work with, as they travel by bus, train, car and foot. If you don't let the logic get to you it's an enjoyable enough action/thriller with some obvious social commentary, although I found myself wishing Miike directed it 10 years ago when he could have done something really out-there with the premise. As the film stands now it's decent if undistinguished, and I could easily see it getting an entirely forgettable U.S. remake at some point.

The Hangover Part II (Todd Phillips, 2011)

0/10
I usually reserve zeroes for movies I truly despise, but I didn't despise this one...however, it was so free of content, I can't bring myself to give it any kind of score. By offering up the exact same movie as its predecessor, changing the location, and removing all of the humor, I wonder if Todd Phillips was going for some kind of commentary on the film industry and its constant demand for sequels/rehashes that don't need to exist. He's a pretty smart guy I'm sure, I can't believe he actually watched any reels of this one and thought anything remotely funny or original ever took place.

Ted (Seth MacFarlane, 2012)

6/10
Well it was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, from start to finish. It was like an episode of Family Guy - too many 80's and 90's pop culture references and the odd offensive line here or there that'll make you laugh out loud (delivered exclusively by the bear, mind you). The "kidnapping" plot seemed a little tacked on, as if the movie was self-conscious about the romance between Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis not being enough to sustain the film. For what it was it was all right, but I expected more.