The Lodge (2019)

From Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, the people who co-directed and co-wrote Goodnight Mommy (joined this time by an extra writer, Sergio Casci), comes this tale of isolation, horror, and madness. And it all stems from a pair of kids upset by their parents divorcing.

Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh are Aiden and Mia, a brother and sister who are understandably upset when their mother reacts badly to news of divorce proceedings by killing herself. They blame the new woman (Grace, played by Riley Keough) who is due to marry their father (Richard Armitage). With that friction crackling away between them, the foursome head to an isolated holiday lodge. Maybe relations will improve. But strange things start to happen once their father is called away on business. Are they playing tricks on one another, or does it all have something to do with Grace's disturbing past spent within a strict and controlling cult?

Once again focusing on a pair of children who are acting oddly around a disturbed parental figure, Fiala and Franz certainly seem comfortable in their chosen niche. It's a shame that neither of their two main fictional features have so far been entirely successful. The Lodge works better than Goodnight Mommy, for the most part, because there is more interaction between the adult and the children, and there's a sense of tension that builds nicely, even if things fall apart once you start to think about them in more detail. The Lodge is actually quite ridiculous, but the final scenes at least make it worthwhile. This is a bleak film, and maybe not one to quickly reach for if you're currently experiencing a bit of the Lockdown madness most of us have had at one point or another this year.

The cast are pretty faultless though, with major props due to the talented young duo of Martell and McHugh. The script allows them to act in a way that is believably childish, emotional, and spiteful, and you're on their side from the earliest scenes. Keough has to be a bit twitchy and highly-strung for a lot of the runtime, but she does it all well. Armitage is absent for a large chunk of the movie, but is absolutely fine in his main scenes, and Alicia Silverstone puts in another of the wonderful little performances she has been accruing over the past few years.

Fiala and Franz have an impressive visual style, both this and Goodnight Mommy have a clean and cold look for many scenes (although The Lodge has a much colder environment being shown, literally), and I hope that they keep working hard on whatever might become the material that best matches up with their obvious talent. This is a step in the right direction, but still falls just a bit short of the mark to be really good.

6/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: Under The Silver Lake (2018)

Although this is his third feature film, David Robert Mitchell's Under The Silver Lake most definitely feels like a sophomore effort. It's a film made by someone who has been given the budget and casting choices to let loose and indulge himself after making a name with his previous outing (in this case, the enjoyable It Follows).

The plot, seemingly dense but also actually fairly slim for the 2hr+ runtime, sees a young man named Sam (Andrew Garfield) drawn into a Hitchcockian web that involves a missing girl (Riley Keough), a number of local urban legends, and a conspiracy theory so grandiose that it dances and twirls through absurd territory. It's a mix of The Big Lebowski, Inherent Vice, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, with the obvious influence of The Long Goodbye also in there. It's also frustrating, because so many individual moments are great, without adding up to anything really worthwhile.

Garfield is great in the lead role, playing someone smart but without any drive or focus. He's so likeable that it's easy to watch the film without being preoccupied by the many questions we should have about him. What happened recently in his life? What did he do to get money when he was working? How the hell does he attract some gorgeous women while placing himself firmly in slacker/loser territory? You get some details that help to answer the first question but not much else. Now I don't need a film to fill in every space for me but when you spend most of the lengthy runtime with a character who delves deeper and deeper into an investigation of his own making then it's good to know a bit more about that character, as far as I am concerned. Instead, Mitchell's script is more concerned with putting together a collage of cool visual motifs and soundtrack choices. It's a fever dream, but one without the sense of urgency or energy, which is an odd combination.

The direction matches the script, not bothering about logic or coherence when there's a chance to jump from one memorable moment to the next (and the less said about the repeated touch of having women turn to the main character and eventually start making dog noises the better). This means that you get a lot of wonderful moments in a film that only had to bring them all together in a satisfying way to become something great. It doesn't manage that, instead turning into one of those enjoyable albums that you stay in love with because there are always two or three tracks that you skip, leading to some confusion about why you love it so on the rare occasions when you listen to it all the way through.

Alongside Garfield, Keough does well in her small role, and you have decent turns from Riki Lindhome, Grace Van Patten, Jimmi Simpson, Topher Grace, and, in one particularly memorable scene, Jeremy Bobb, playing a super-talented songwriter responsible for all of the most memorable tunes throughout the years. The acting is pretty flawless throughout, which is another major plus helping to keep the film enjoyable in the lesser scenes.

I liked this, at times I liked it a lot, but it's obviously a film that was made by Mitchell coming up with some memorable ideas and moments that he then had to find a plot for. I don't think he came up with a good enough plot, not for the lack of trying, but the individual moments ensure that it's not without many pleasures for cinephiles.

7/10

Here's the film on shiny disc.
Americans can browse a whole load of movies here.

Mubi Monday: The House That Jack Built (2018)

Another movie from Lars von Trier, another expected cloud of controversy and divided opinions. My own relationship with the man has turned around completely from how it used to be. I loved both Dancer In The Dark and Dogville but have strongly disliked most of his output over the past decade. Yet, to his credit, I still end up keen to see what he will present to us next. And I still enjoy hearing about how his work tends to upset people.

The House That Jack Built stars Matt Dillon as Jack, a serial killer who is relating the story of his "highlights" to a figure named Verge AKA Virgil (Bruno Ganz). Jack is supposed to be smart enough to have been killing people for a number of years, despite being unable to behave normally in most situations that place him anywhere near other witnesses, but he also wants to be caught. It's just a matter of time, which may mean that Jack doesn't ever get to finish building a house he has attempted on a few different occasions.

The first thing that struck me about this movie, after all that I'd heard about it, is how funny it was. This is Von Trier having more fun than he's had in some time. Oh, he's always had dark humour running through his material but this brings it right to the surface and is all the better for it. If you're worried about this being a bleak serial killer movie then the opening scenes should allay those reservations (although there are moments of violence that are quite brutal).

The second thing that struck me was how unfortunately hampered Dillon was in the main role. I really like Dillon in most of the roles he has played throughout his career, and this could have been a stellar turn from him, but he's not that good here. It's not entirely his fault. Von Trier has written a script, working with Jenie Hallund once again, that crucially can't decide on how it wants to portray the central character. If he's precise and smart then that isn't evidenced by the scenes we are shown. If he's just an ordinary guy who has remarkable luck in his chosen way of life then let us see some more everyday moments. Putting Dillon in the lead role and then not allowing him to use his talents to portray someone who could possibly be a much more effective charmer and killer is a huge flaw.

A lot of the other aspects of the film work, although we have the usual excesses and moments of self-indulgence from a director now so far up his own backside that he's probably created a whole universe in there, complete with planets populated by people who worship him. The runtime is about 150 minutes, there are tableaux moments, and some more unnecessary slow motion that I, once again, have to cede looks great but would be ridiculed if this was a film from certain other directors who have been known to overuse that trick.

Although this is really all about Dillon's character, decent supporting turns come from Uma Thurman,  Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, and Riley Keough. None of them are onscreen long enough, especially Hogan or Keough, but they all do well to make a lasting impression long after the film is finished,

If you want a gritty serial killer movie then you have to look elsewhere. You can also look elsewhere if you want some black comedy with your multiple murders. But this is the only place where you can find the two colliding with the artistic sensibilities of Mr Lars von Trier. That will be enough to ensure that some people never watch it. I'm actually pleased that I decided to give it a go.

7/10

You can buy Jack's house here.
Americans can rent it here.

Logan Lucky (2017)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring a cast of many familiar faces. Focusing on a big robbery. You could easily forgive the many reviewers who decided to describe this film as a blue-collar take on Ocean's Eleven. That's, basically, what it is.

Channing Tatum plays Jimmy Logan, a working Joe who finds out that he has to be let go by his employers, currently working on a job at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He's also upset by the news that his ex is about to move further away, making it tougher for him to have time with his daughter. So he visits the bar run by his brother (Adam Driver, his character is also a veteran who lost a hand in the war) and starts to formulate a plan to rob the Speedway. The plan relies on a number of skilled individuals, including a safecracker (Daniel Craig) who is currently serving time in prison. Do they actually have a chance of pulling this thing off?

Considering this is the kind of thing that Soderbergh has mastered over the past couple of decades, Logan Lucky is enjoyable enough, but also not as enjoyable as it could be. Unlike other Soderbergh ensemble films, few of the supporting characters make as good an impression as you'd expect. It's a major plus that Tatum, Driver and Craig make a very entertaining trio of leads, otherwise this might have been a complete bust.

The main problem lies with the script, written by a Rebecca Blunt (although the identity of the writer has been question by people who think it may be a pseudonym), which is never that funny, and also doesn't really feel that neat when it comes to the mechanics of the robbery. That may be the point, this isn't a group of smooth operators doing what comes naturally, but a heist movie still needs you to believe in the skill of those performing the main act, which doesn't happen here.

As well as the cast members already mentioned, who do great work, you also get performances from Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Seth MacFarlane, and quite a few others. Keough and Holmes do as well as they can with their characters, while MacFarlane struggles to make his unnecessary character work at all (not his fault).

There's fun to be had here, in the performances and some of the dialogue. You just can't help feeling that, especially considering everyone involved on both sides of the camera, it should be a lot more fun.

6/10

Logan Lucky is available to buy here.
Or, if you're in America, get it here.

Kiss Of The Damned (2012)

Vampire movies are much like the creatures themselves, just when you think they've been killed a drop of fresh blood comes along to bring them back to life. Well . . . . . . undead life. You know what I mean. There have been some very good vampire movies in recent years to reassure any horror fans who thought that the subgenre had been sentenced to death by sparkles.  Just last week I highly recommended We Are The Night and now I can highly recommend Kiss Of The Damned.

Josephine de la Baume plays Djuna, a vampire who tries to live in harmony with humans. She keeps her emotions in check and hunts animals to quench her bloodthirst. That delicate balance is threatened when she meets, and falls for, a young man named Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia). Things are almost completely turned upside down by the arrival of Mimi (Roxane Mesquida), Djuna's sister. Mimi likes to feed when she can and likes only the best blood that she can get down her throat - human blood.

Written and directed by Xan Cassavetes, Kiss Of The Damned movie is a vampire movie steeped in the fine tradition of many that have come before it. There are many moments that are inarguably sexy, but there are also just as many moments that remind viewers of the bad side of being a sexy vampire. The addiction, the aftermath, the analogy of vampirism as a STD. The aesthetic of the film, as many others have already noted, is a blend of Jean Rollin and The Hunger, with that favourite trope of the subgenre, the brat who doesn't seem able to maintain self-control.

The cast are okay, with de la Baume and Mesquida making up for their weaknesses with their general air of European savoire faire, and Anna Mouglalis and Riley Keough doing great work in much smaller, though no less impactful, roles. As for the men, Milo Ventimiglia is very good as Paolo. The script makes his integration into the world of Djuna a smooth and believable one, and Ventimiglia seems just as easygoing and adaptable as the character needs to be. Michael Rapaport does well in a supporting role, but he's one of the few people ill-served by the script, his character feeling (albeit rightly so) that he's wandered in from another movie altogether.

Kiss Of The Damned is a quality film. It tries to throw one or two enjoyable surprised into the mix, it's never dull, the blood gets to flow and there are a few scenes that are, as mentioned above, just downright sexy. It's a very traditional mix of vampiric moments that Cassavetes somehow manages to make seem more than just tired, stale cliches.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Damned-Jos%C3%A9phine-La-Baume/dp/B00CBFB8PI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379274211&sr=8-1&keywords=kiss+of+the+damned