SXSW11 – Source Code/Little Deaths

Another year, another South By Southwest. Time for no sleep, trying to eat as much free food as possible and seeing as many movies as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Well, we’ll see how that goes.

SOURCE CODE (2011)

Directed by: Duncan Jones
Written by: Ben Ripley

I seem to be the only person who really liked this movie. As I type, I’m listening to some published critics just tearing it apart. The same folks who said that Duncan Jones’ first film, Moon, was a near-masterpeice.

While I agree with them on that one, I don’t agree with them on Source Code.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in the midst of a top-secret military operation that puts him into the body of a man during the last eight minutes of his life. In those eight minutes, he needs to find out who put the bomb on the train that is about to explode. And he’ll keep going back in until he finds out. All he knows is what his superior officer, Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), will tell him, which ain’t much. Her superior (Jeffery Wright) will tell him even less…and he’s a sniveling science type.

In the train world, Colter has 100s of folks to choose from, but only one truly interests him. Her name is Christina (Michelle Monaghan). She’s not the girlfriend of the man whose body he’s taken over, but she obviously wants to be. It’s not Colter’s job to save her or anyone else on the train (he’s constantly told that he is unable to do so), but he desperately wants to.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

Jeffery Wright is a great actor and he does his best with this role. Unfortunately, it’s written as a VERY stereotypical military scientist. Screw the life of the soldier, just complete the mission and make this amazing new technology look good while you do it. As an antagonist, it has gotten a little old. As a human being, it just doesn’t work.

Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan are also good actresses. They, however, didn’t have a whole lot to do in this one. Vera even said in the Q&A that all she did was swivel in a chair. When she finally got out of that chair near the end…well, she still didn’t get any action. Michelle just had to be sweet and, occasionally, think that her friend was insane for beating some innocent dude senseless.

What did I like? The story was very interesting and went in a way that you don’t exactly expect. A part of me was expecting an action film. Like The Adjustment Bureau, though, it was almost more of a romance. What we think is going to be the climax of the film is almost an anti-climax…but it HAS to be. It really wouldn’t work any other way. It would have turned into just about any other action/time-shifting flick.

It seems like the bad outweighs the good, but I can take a few underwritten parts if the story keeps my interest. No, the film is not as good as Moon. BUT, I think that it shows that Duncan has some potential to do something great again.

LITTLE DEATHS (2010)

Directed by: Sean Hogan/Andrew Parkinson/Simon Rumley
Written by: Sean Hogan/Andrew Parkinson/Simon Rumley

Anthology films are a hard sell. There’s always one great short, one bad one and 14 mediocre ones. Tim League promised us that this one was the difference. Was he right? After a lukewarm beef stroginoff chugging contest, we found out.

House And Home is about a religious couple who invite homeless young ladies into their mansion, feed them, bathe them and then do horrible things to them. They get a surprise, though, when they invite Sorrow into their home.

I’ve seen it before, but it was very well done, which made it worth the watch.

Mutant Tool follows a young addict who can’t seem to get away from the drugs and prostitution. When she goes to see a doctor, he prescribes a drug that make her sicker. There’s also something about a mutant with a giant member whose spoo makes the drug. And there are Nazis.

Um…whatever. I don’t think anyone really understood this one. It seemed to be weird for weird’s sake. That would be fine if it hadn’t been kinda boring. Skip it unless you’re into folks with horse dongs attached to them.

Bitch is about a young man whose girlfriend is the titular epithet. She treats him like shit and then, when he takes care of her during her freak-outs on dogs, she tells him that she wouldn’t know what to do without him. Then she fucks his best friend almost right in front of him. Don’t even ask about the dog mask.

He gets his revenge, though. Don’t you worry.

This was probably the most over the top and, certainly, the most misogynistic. It also had the most interesting story and cinematography. The ending, while not as gory as it could have been, was certainly suggestive enough to let you fill in the worst of it. Unfortunately, there are better endings for this film out there.

It’s pretty hard to really recommend this film because it’s so middling. If you were really a fan of Venus Drowning or Red, White And Blue, then you might be into it. Otherwise, stay away.