Alma Har'el

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Knotted Fur – The Misanthropic Monkey’s Movie Preview #29

By ElectronicFarmyard on | From electronicfarmyard.com

In this week’s Knotted Fur I’m previewing Bombay Beach, Young Adult, Chronicle and Carnage. Sadly, that means I had no time to discuss the cancer of popular American cinema and his newest film; I’m so sorry Adam Sandler fans!

Bombay Beach

Director: Alma Har’el
Running Time: One hour & twenty minutes
Certificate: TBC

Watching the trailer for Alma Har’el’s second feature, it’s kind of difficult to tell what the film is about. I quite easily determined that it’s an odd, quirky affair, about childhood and growing up and that it features original music from Beirut and songs from Bob Dylan, but that’s about it, for this pseudo documentary. However, the official synopsis goes a little something like this.

Alma Har’el’s film features three protagonists; Benny Parrish, CeeJay Thompson and Red. Benny is bipolar, his vivid imagination and troubled soul creating both joy and suffering for his complex and loving family, who support the young boy. CeeJay is an aspiring football player, who has run away to Bombay Beach, in the hope of avoiding the same fate, which met his cousin, who was murdered by a gang in his former home, Los Angeles. Red, the eldest of the three, is an ancient survivor who once worked as an oil field worker and yet despite his hardships, has an irrepressible love of life.

What makes Har’el’s film such an interesting proposition is its central question, which asks whether these men in their various ages and guises are a product of their world or if their world is a construct of their own imaginations. Which all sounds rather pretentious, but I for one am rather intrigued by this hypnotic looking, whimsy of a film.

Young Adult

Director: Jason Reitman
Running Time: One hour & thirty-four minutes
Certificate: 15

So the creative team behind Juno, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, are back together in Reitman’s newest film, which stars Charlize Theron, Young Adult. Out of the majority of Reitman’s films, Juno is the one which I’m most unsure of, it’s that whole ‘independent’ and ‘quirky’ vibe it features, it just feels so obviously contrived (although obviously all film is contrived). Perhaps it’s Michael Cera, but it certainly wasn’t Juno’s parents, who were actually rather awesome.

Anyway, Young Adult sees a recently divorced fiction writer (Theron) return to her small, home-town of Mercury, Minnesota, looking to rekindle her high school romance with her ex-boyfriend, played by Patrick Wilson, who is now happily married with a newborn child. This is an interesting role for Theron, an actress who wouldn’t be my first choice for a comedic role, but clearly she had fun playing the manipulative and headstrong, Mavis. I’m not sure it’ll be as enjoyable as Up in the Air or as funny as Thank You for Smoking, but Reitman continues to make interesting films.

Chronicle

Director: Josh Trank
Running Time:
Certificate: TBC

As a fan of Akira, Science-Fiction and the Super-Hero genre I’m intrigued by Josh Trank’s theatrical début, Chronicle. This just turned film director is most famous for his work on American TV serial, Kill Point, which featured John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg. I wish I could say I was optimistic about this found footage, this ‘chronicle’ of three teenage boys who mysteriously develop super human powers (telekinesis, flight, and invulnerability) but I can’t. For one, just look at the acting in the trailer, one word… Hideous!

Basically, we’ll see the three leads go from Joe Average to Joe Dangerous, initially using their powers to frighten and bemuse the local inhabitants of their small town, until one, or all of them are seduced by their powers and begin to use them for ill gotten gains. Let’s keep those fingers crossed, but if you go expecting a film version of TV’s Heroes, you may well be rather disappointed.

Carnage

Director: Roman Polanski
Running Time: One hour & twenty minutes
Certificate: 15

Who would have thought that 2012 would see Roman Polanksi release a film that I would happily pay money to go and see, particularly after the boresome, The Ghost, but that’s exactly what the infamous director has achieved; I bet he’s thrilled!

Carnage tells the story of two sets of parents, Penelope Longstreet (Jodie Foster), Michael Longstreet (John C. Reilly), Nancy Cowan (Kate Winslet) and Alan Cowan (Christoph Waltz), attempting to have a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a schoolyard scrap. However as time goes by so their behaviour becomes increasingly childish, throwing everything into question, in this drama/comedy from the director of Rosemary’s Baby… exactly what is wrong with the world!? I’m as perplexed as you, but I’m picking this rather quotable Roman Polanski film, as my film of the week! Now, I’m off for a lie down.