SXSW10-Harry Brown (2009)/American Grindhouse (2010)/Outcast (20
You failed to maintain your weapon, Sir.
Directed by: Daniel Barber
Written by: Gary Young
Harry Brown (Michael Caine) has lost everything. First his daughter, then his wife and now his best friend, Leonard (David Bradley). When Leonard is killed by a gang who rule their neighborhood/slum, Harry has finally had enough of the violence. He starts to use his Marine training against these punks. No one believes Detective Inspector Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer) when she says that he’s the one calling up all of the violence on the local drug dealers.
I remember seeing the title of this movie and really thinking nothing of it. Then I saw a still of Michael Caine with a gun and knew that I had to see it. I like to think of myself as something of a Caine fan (although not as much as some friends) and I thought it would be fun to see him basically being Batman.
Little did I know that the movie would be taking him back to his Get Carter days. This movie is brutal (more brutal than Carter could really imagine) and harsh. There is some good, old-fashioned, hardcore violence whipped up on some young kids by a 70 year old. And it is glorious.
The movie is completely set in reality, but there is one thing that I don’t really believe, and maybe it’s because I’m not from England and I don’t know how awful the violence is over there. The cops show up at the slum with a bunch of riot gear, but no guns. Then 4000 kids descend upon them with rocks and Molotov cocktails. Is it so bad over there that this sort of thing would escalate this quickly? It was REALLY quick. The movie didn’t just show the seamy underbelly of London, but it split that belly open shows us how gross and putrid its guts have gotten. The drug dealers are among the scuzziest and dirtiest drug dealers in any film that I can remember.
Harry Brown is one of the best vigilante revenge flicks to come out in years. This probably more due to Caine’s amazing performance than anything else, but don’t let that discount the writing or direction at all.
Directed by: Elijah Drenner
Written by: Elijah Drenner/Calum Waddell
I may not be the best person to review this movie because I’ve seen a LOT of documentaries and read a few books about the whole “grindhouse” phenomenon.
Then again, I know when something new is brought to the table.
Unfortunately, Elijah Drenner and Calum Waddell brought nothing new to said table.
What they did do, though, was provide a nice overview of exploitation film. It’s all been done and said before, but they did it in a very concise and easy to understand way. Towards the end it felt a little rushed, but I think they really wanted the movie to be as short as a normal exploitation movie. It would be a good way for film students to learn about an overlooked part of film history.
I really do wish that they had kind of skipped over a lot of the history of exploitation and focused on the actual grindhouse movies of the 60s and 70s. They spent almost an hour explaining how film is, by nature, an exploitative format. They talked about Freaks and Mom And Dad, both important films in exploitation history, but this history could have been summed up quicker so that they could get to the actual grindhouses, which really only took up about 15 minutes of the film. Exploitation does not equal “grindhouse.” Those films were a small, but important, part of exploitation and they deserve their own documentary. Unfortunately, this wasn’t it.
Directed by: Colm McCarthy
Written by: Colm McCarthy/Tom McCarthy
Fergal (Niall Bruton) has a bit of a problem. His mom is an overbearing witch (literally) and his dad is after him. Why? Because he has to kill him. Why? Um…not so sure, really. He just has to. Something about some ancient runes that are tattooed on his back that give him power.
Oh, and the dad may be a monster from which his mom is protecting him.
Fergal has another problem. Petronella (Hanna Stanbridge) is her name. She’s the girl next door and he’s well on his way to falling in love with her. It’s obvious, though, that his mom thinks that this is a terrible idea. What will happen if he has sex? Something awful, apparently. We’re never really sure if mom knows this or if she just wants to save him for herself. She’s a creepy, creepy lady.
The movie is certainly stylish, but it’s hard to say that it’s really good. There was so much of the story that I just didn’t get. As a friend of mine said, there was FAR too much monster bureaucracy. In order for dad to do this, he had to do that. Then he had to do that other thing in order to get this thing done. Then, and ONLY then, could he kill Fergal. Then he had to fill out a form in triplicate and submit it, with a TPS report and a cover sheet, to the forum.
I don’t know. The movie was too complex for its own good. It was interesting, though, and kept my attention. No small feat for a midnight movie.
One thing I definitely didn’t like was the creature design. It looked like he was on another temporal plane and was trying to break through to our side. Too wavy and distorted, and not in a normal, monstery way. More of a dimensional way.
Hard to say that I recommend it to anyone but the most die-hard of monster fans.
