Mubi Monday: Rescue Dawn (2006)

Written and directed by the always-interesting Werner Herzog, who turned the subject of his documentary "Little Dieter Needs To Fly" into a narrative feature, Rescue Dawn feels like one of the stranger Herzog movies, which is saying something when you consider his whole filmography.

Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a German-born American citizen who is shot down in his aircraft during the Vietnam War. He ends up in a jungle prison, doing time alongside other individuals who have given up all hope of freedom until the war is won. Dieter is quick to start plans for an escape, despite the protestations of his fellow prisoners. The prison itself may not be that challenging to escape from, it's the jungle environment surrounding them that makes it a life-threatening challenge.

Things start off a bit wobbly here, to put it bluntly. Herzog depicts the downing of Dieter's plane in a way that shows him to be far less confident with a special effect sequence than he is with actors and ordinary people. But it's not long before things settle down after that, with the main character confused and pained by his captors.

Although I have said that this feels like one of the stranger Herzog movies, the reason for that is because it feels like his most mainstream film. It's a prisoner of war drama, and the moments that feel most like a prisoner of war drama are the moments that feel less . . . Herzogian, but there are also a lot of great little moments showing people handling their very extreme amounts of stress in different ways, and forging different connections with one another.

Bale is fantastic in the main role, giving the kind of performance that allows him to once again also change his physicality as he gets put through the wringer, and there are two superb supporting performances from Jeremy Davies and Steve Zahn. Both are very different in the way they handle their prison life, but both are equally good and fitting in their roles. And everyone else onscreen does decent work, whether they're portraying American military personnel or Vietnamese soldiers.

Despite the documentary already being out there (and I still need to see it for myself), it's easy to see why Herzog was drawn to the material for a second feature. Especially with this cast and the way it very much feels like a well-plotted Hollywood drama. I'm not sure how many liberties were taken with the original tale, but it turns into yet another standout film from a director who has given us more than his fair share.

8/10

Mubi Monday: Family Romance, LLC. (2019)

The latest film from writer-director Werner Herzog (although that is no guarantee that he hasn't already made another two by the time this review appears), Family Romance, LLC. is about familial connections and having the chance to change the narrative of your own life story. It's also about the business side of things.

Yuichi Ishii is the boss of a company that rents people to fill roles in the lives of others. This includes pretending to be the father of young Mahiro Tanimoto, and this role is one taken on by Ishii himself. The film shows how their connection grows while they take in a variety of idealistic father-daughter times together, and also shows other people seeking to rent specific figures as they process their emotions through some different situations.

Although there are interesting ideas bubbling under the surface here, this ends up being a subject that isn't best served by the loose and unfocused Herzog approach to it, although a few scenes (including a memorable ending) definitely hammer home some of the points that the director would have found so fascinating in his lifelong quest to view various aspects of humanity under his personal microscope, which so often happens to have a movie camera attached to it.

Using a variety of non-actors in his cast, Herzog manages to get suitable performances from them all, perhaps helped by the very nature of the artifice being explored. The development of the relationship between Ishii and Tanimoto is the heart of it all, and it's good that we first see them when they first meet, but this also causes reverberations through the mental state of both, as they consider the nature of their relationship, and as the adult starts to consider the wider implications.

Still working with his fast and loose approach to things like filming permits and established moviemaking practices, Herzog does what he can to make a film that is both intimate and yet also full of energy. It just doesn't feel like the right fit though, much like his lack of focus. For some reason, this story feels like it would be better if it was allowed to unfold in a more relaxed and traditional way. The runtime, about 89 minutes, feels even shorter than it is, with certain parts of the film leaping from one moment to the next without a feeling of any real connection, and without really letting them breathe. That may well be a point that Herzog is making, but it doesn't work well for the film in cinematic terms.

What this ends up being, ultimately, is a lesser film from Herzog. But I'll take a lesser film from Herzog over many other films most days. It leaves you with a lot to think about, which is admirable, but I just wish that more of the onscreen moments had been judged to allow for the many different points being made to stand out a bit more.

6/10

Family Romance, LLC. was presented as an exclusive online preview to MUBI subscribers, and I am sure it will be back.

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