Another Earth

OPENING: 07/20/2010

STUDIO: Fox Searchlight

RUN TIME:100 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Can the presence of another Earth be the thing that brings hope to two lost souls?

Opening Statement
Independent films rarely take on science-fiction. Reason is because sci-fi films usually require lots of money for sets and effects. On the other hand, having angsty conversations about your family is relatively cheap. When the genre is tackled, I have often enjoyed the results mostly because they tend to be deconstructions or re-imaginings of the sci-fi tropes and the films I’ve seen before. That is exactly what Another Earth is. The duo who wrote the film are the director and the main star, Mike Cahill and Brit Marling. In this film, they show us an amalgamation of two significantly individual films that, at times, are smashed together to good effect.

Facts of the Case
Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is a bright young woman accepted into MIT’s astrophysics program. She aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs (William Mapother – Ethan from Lost), has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child. On the eve of the amazing discovery of another world with the same bodies of water, continents, people, history, and in all ways a perfect duplicate of our own planet, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined.

The Evidence
When the identical planet, called Earth 2, first appears in the night sky it is a small blue speck. Four years later, Earth 2 appears on the horizon as a bigger sphere than the moon, which would not only mean that in the next few months the two planets would collide but also that there would be so much havoc being wreaked upon our earth–tidal waves, shifting poles–that we would be cursing Earth 2 rather then trying to contact it. So you can kind of see that physics is definitely played with fast and loose. This movie is as sci-fi as Back to the Future; in other words, it’s just a plot point. All fiction and no science. That said, it is a new way to do the overly trodden alternate dimension/alternate timeline story and for that I give it a few brownie points.

The second part of the story is something akin to Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King or Alejandro Inarritu’s 21 Grams where guilt leads a character to reach out to someone they feel they owe something to. Both of those comparisons are weak though, and the way the shame and sorrow storyline is woven into the Earth 2 storyline–“I wonder if my life is as jacked up on Earth 2 as it is here.”–took it all in a new direction and explored new ideas which I enjoyed. The two main actors, Brit and William, were fearless and flawless in bringing the depression their characters were feeling to the forefront and not holding anything back. The only thing they never sold me on was the romance that was supposed to have been blossoming between them. It never felt like they should be lovers; it felt like they should have remained good friends in their strange, psychotic and entirely messed up relationship.

Director Cahill is someone I expect to see great things from. He intros this film in a way that reminded me of the way Aronofsky introed his own debut, Pi–loud and abrasive and draws you right into the story, no questions asked. Cahill is minimalistic in his dialogue, often letting the visuals speak for themselves for long stretches of the film. Sometimes this makes his characters feel like observers in a world that is no longer their own, sometimes it makes them distant to the audience. It’s good that he has such confidence in his composition and cinematographer, whose itchy zoom-lens trigger finger needs to be controlled, but it will be interesting to see if he continues the understated style he’s pursuing here. I also want to praise Fall on Your Sword, the band responsible for this film’s score. It was brilliant and perfectly sweet and nasty and gritty.

Closing Statement
All this said, I spent most of the film thinking, “Where in the blue blazes have I seen this story before?” not only because it felt like a retread as I’ve stated but also because it felt familiar, like an old friend you haven’t seen for years. They look familiar, but they’ve changed and you can’t quite place where you know them from. When the light bulb finally comes on, all the memories flood back and you can sit down with them and see the path they’ve taken that has brought them to you again.

The Verdict

8/10

Smoke (Dym)

RUN TIME: 8 min

ACCOMPLICES:
You Tube, Vimeo

The Charge
The story of the person who became the captive of surrealistic madness.

Opening Statement
A short film from Poland brings your daily fill of beautiful art.

Facts of the Case
Filming a short takes a different mentality then filming a feature length film. It is where most filmmakers cut their teeth before they take on a longer, more difficult, project. It is typically supposed to be easier, mainly because you have less to film, but it can also be harder because you have less time to say what you’d like. That is, unless, you have nothing to say; then you have all the time in the world.

The short Smoke is 8 minutes long, written (although using the verb “written” in conjuction with this short is debatable) and directed by Grzegorz Cisiecki in his debut outing. It is “the story of the person who became the captive of surrealistic madness,” or so it says on its IMDB page. That it is a “story” is also a point of contention for me.

The Evidence
Honestly I am not completely the right guy to be reviewing this short. (You can read my ravings on art-for-art’s-sake which is what I consider this short to be, here: Wild Grass.) I am not the target audience for it. However, being a filmmaker myself, or at least one that dabbles in the cinematic arts, I answered the call to review Cisiecki’s short. First the good, and there is quite a lot that is good about this work. The photography is beautiful thanks I’m sure in no small part to cinematographer Dawid Rymar. Lighting is masterful, subjects are framed beautifully and the titular smoke is used to dramatic effect. The trifecta of postproduction work–editing, sound design and score–are also great and show promise for future endeavors. The directing is assured and precise; it truly felt like Grzegorz knew exactly what he wanted and his crew knew how to capture it. If only they had used their powers for good….

Finally, the bad and, really, what is bad is only one thing–the short is wasted time and film because it is either trying to say something by saying nothing or it is saying nothing and hoping that you can infer some deeper meaning because of it. Now you may look down on me and my bourgeois mentality and need to have a more traditional storyline; in fact, you may think I need to have things spelled out for me. Sometimes I do, it’s true, I’ll admit it. Sometimes though, I feel that artists hide behind the guise of art so they won’t have to put any serious thought or work into drives and motives and story arcs, sculpting characters who live and breathe beyond their pens and pages; that they can use madness and dream logic as an excuse not to have reason or comprehention. They feel they can let their pretty pictures speak for themselves. But it’s not that simple.

Closing Statement
To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, “If I know how to film in dutch angles and can choose the proper film speed with which to capture the image, but have not good story structure, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

The Verdict
6/10

Paranormal Activity

OPENING: 10/09/2009

STUDIO: Paramount

RUN TIME: 99 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Don’t see it alone.

Opening Statement
The film is being touted as the most terrifying cinematic experience of the year. I don’t know about that. Sure, the early moments are quite creepy; those scenes in which we may or may not actually be witnessing some sort of supernatural occurrence. After all, there’s nothing quite as frightening as the unknown.

The Case
Paranormal Activity tells the story of a twenty-something couple attempting investigate what they believe to be some sort of… well, paranormal activity taking place within their own home. The guy (Micah Sloat) buys a camera and decides he’s going to set it up in the bedroom and let it record while he and his girlfriend (Katie Featherston) sleep. That way, if anything happens during the night, they’ll be able to examine the footage the next morning. The first few nights, some slightly mysterious things happen which may or may not be normal. A door moves back and forth a few inches. Some keys fall off the kitchen counter. Something that sounds like footsteps is heard. The couple calls a psychic. The psychic suspects something’s up and tells them to call a demonologist. Wouldn’t you know it, the demonologist is out of town for a few days. Where’s John Constantine when you need him? So, it’s up to the couple to defend themselves against… whatever it is.

Considering Paranormal Activity was made for a measly $15,000, it will almost assuredly be the lowest-budget theatrical release you’ll see this year. The actors are amateurs. The cinematography is crummy-looking handheld material. There’s no musical score of any sort. Heck, there aren’t even any opening and closing credits. Many critics are comparing it to The Blair Witch Project, a film I found to be terribly overrated. However, I’m pleased to report that Paranormal Activity works, successfully using its limitations to its advantage. Much of the success or failure of the film depends on how much we’re able to buy the "naturally captured footage" premise, and writer/director Oren Peli does a rather remarkable job of ensuring there are no shots which seem unconvincing or contrived. In Featherston and Sloat, he has found two actors capable of giving credible, naturalistic performances that never take us out of the moment.

However, once we get around to the fact that something is unquestionably going bump in the night, the movie loses its edge. The more explicit the paranormal activity, the less nerve-wracking the film becomes. Even so, it remains suspenseful and intriguing until the very end. It’s a tribute to Peli and his actors that there is not a single genuinely boring moment within its 96-minute runtime. Paranormal Activity might not be a white-knuckle supernatural thriller on the level of The Exorcist, but it’s better than Blair Witch. Plus, it’s better than that crummy Couple’s Retreat movie in theatres right now, a solid demonstration that talent matters far more than money when it comes to making movies. Oh, and if you see it, bring a date with you. Those long, eerie shots of the couple lying in bed while some unknown entity wanders through the house are the sort of moments that tend to cause outbreaks of intense clinging.

The Verdict
8/10