Essie Speaks - mostly about movies - but also of books, countries, life. Mostly movies though :) (Updated every weekend - sunday night latest ^-^)P.S. ALL THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF ITS WRITER - AND THAT WOULD BE ME!
Ok, this
was always going to be the summer of reboots. Star Wars. Jurassic park.
Mission Impossible (more on that later). There are multiple (I
have actually lost count at this point) Ghostbusters films in the pipelines.
The Terminator is back (more on THAT later as well). But yesterday I got some
of the best reboot news I have received in a while – DUDE, THE X-FILES ARE
COMING BACK!!!!! I know it’s just a six episode “limited series” but I
am in a state of toe-curling excitement I reserve for the minutes before a new
Quentin Tarantino film comes on (and if you know me in real life you know that’s
one HECK of a lot of toe-curling excitement). I know there is a lot to say
about the lack of new ideas in Hollywood, we can (and I probably will) bemoan
the lack of independent stories but THIS fella… I’m just happy
to be reunited with an old friend… In the meanwhile... Throw this on for background music... hehehehe
Speaking
of which… Ethan’s back… Oh yes. The trailer is out, as is Tom Cruise’s naked
torso. Naturally there is some evil force trying to “take over the world” and
Ethan, along with some good looking, high-kicking dames, Simon Pegg as the goofy sidekick and Jeremy
Renner as His Boss will attempt to save it once again… Yes there is some
sarcasm buried in there somewhere. But if you like the genre it’s gonna be a
slick looking little number… Check it out…
Ok… So
another comeback – in real life and in the cinematic world – is Arnold
Schwartzenegger. Although critics are quick to rub their paws and
eagerly point out that his transition back into film has not been nearly
as smooth as he probably hoped, you would have to be quite a
dreamer to not think Terminator Geniysis is not the best bet for being the
tonic he needs. The film tries its best to combine “new” material with clever
nods to the classic first Terminator film. Which I actually think works,
because trying to tag endless storylines together, trying to make it look like
a complete continuation is well and good, but this film actually sort of
does a tribute to the classic it’s rebooting, has it’s tongue firmly in its cheek
and still adds on the new stuff… I dunno, to me it feels… Less pretentious.
The sequel you would go to the pub with to grab a beer. Despite
all the… You know… Explosions and stuff…
And while
we’re on the topic of Arnie,
check out the trailer for his latest film Maggie! I saw it today when I was topping
up my research and you know… It seems cool in a strange sort of way…
Ok that was one heck of a testosterone-laden prologue... Let's get to the main event shall we - although, truth be told, we don't get too far away from wars or testosterone...
Biographies,
extraordinary true stories, stories of overcoming adversity… All much beloveds
of Hollywood and the awards season – and we did see quite a few extraordinary
ones come out this year, that’s for sure… And although it ultimately only got he "little gold man" for Best Writing, the one that actually – in one way or
another – had the most tongues wagging all over the world was The Imitation
Game…
One of the
pieces of headline news was the gay rights campaign Benedict Cumberbatch has
started, aiming for the pardon of all the men, alive or deceased who were
convicted “of homosexuality” like Alan Turing. Another was the outburst Cumberbatch made
concerning racial equality in the film industry, which in turn created a whole
new discussion in its own right… And indeed, what is the point of art if it
does not force us to think, to feel and to change… But before we get to all of
that, let’s take a look at the man, his life and the film that was made about
it – for indeed, the fear at this point is that we may well lose the film
itself in the discussion surrounding it!
The story
is, as we all know, that of Alan Turing. Nobody was sure what to make of Turing
in school. To call him an odd duck was to understate the fact, nor was this
simply a faze as his “Alan-ish” behaviour just gets more pronounced as he grows
older… However, if he is odd, Alan is no fool as he shows an absolute genius
for mathematics and a great personal interest in codes and cyphers. So
naturally when, during the Second World War, the Germans come up with the
seemingly undefeatable Enigma code, Alan turns up at the door of the Ministry
of Defence and explains that he is probably the only person who can decode it.
Alan is anti-social, infuriating in fact almost completely impossible to work
with as far as his colleagues are concerned, but they quickly realise something
else… He may also be right…
The rest,
as they say, is history… Turing had, in actual fact, discovered the first
“computer”. The very thing I am writing this review on right now. The thing you
are very probably reading it on – be it a telephone or a laptop… One does
wonder if, when he first “discovered” Christopher (the name of the first
computer) Turing realised what a huge chunk of everyday life he had, in fact,
shaped… (He had a truly extraordinary technical mind, so in actual fact he may
well have done). I think it was quite well timed and quite appropriate in all,
we do live in the internet generation and it’s not such a bad thing that we
find out how it all began…
The
thematics and the discussions it will start aside, you will get annoyed with
bits of this film. Oh sure, Benedict Cumberbatch is absolutely brilliant from
beginning to end, as is Keira Knightly who uses the characters warmth to play
an absolutely lovely contrast to Turing who is, for lack of a better
description, all odd corners and elbows sticking out… Looking back and reading
descriptions of Turing, it is quite clear that he was very probably somewhere
on the autistic spectrum. However the film does not fall into the trap of
harping on the fact that he was some sort of autistic savant. This kind of
diagnosis was quite rare at the time, so we are simply presented with the facts
and left to draw our own conclusions. What the film does do however, with
annoying Hollywoodiness, (yes it’s a word. I have just decided it’s a word, so
it is a word. Henceforth) is repeat ad nauseum
the adage that “Sometimes it’s the people you think the least of who
accomplish the most extraordinary things”. Once would have been more than
enough. Twice if you guys really wanted to push it. You didn’t need a character
saying the phrase every 20 minutes. The audience is not entirely stupid and we
are quite capable of seeing that Turing is overcoming some truly spectacular
demons and coming in, as the underdog, “winning the day”. Also, I didn’t “get”
the cutaways to Turing running. I mean don’t get me wrong, Cumberbatch running
and showing off his muscles is always a welcome sight to my sore eyes. I just
didn’t get what they were doing in the story. Apart from clearly visualise
Turing’s struggling. Only problem being that Benedict Cumberbatch is quite capable
as an actor of showing this to us with no need to cutaways to him running but,
you know…
Turing may
well have won the day and (indirectly) the war, but his life was cut tragically
short, when, after being condemned for “indecency” and forced to undergo
chemical castration, he took his own life, aged 41. And it is very, very right
that the film should be the starting point and a spearhead for the pardon of
all the men that were condemned so unjustly and made to suffer in jail or by
submitting to chemical castration and who didn’t have the advantage of being
Alan Turing to ease their way to a pardon.
It is a
sign of the great quality of the film that it overcomes all the
“mainstreamisms” and “spoon feeding” in it to be the masterpiece it is. Part of
it is the cast and the true show of talent and dedication we see from them. But
it’s main saving grace is of course the strength of the story – a film can have
whatever else it wants, if it has a weak story, it is doomed from the start.
And it doesn’t get stronger or more unbelievable than Turing’s story…It is
realism and the humanity of the whole affair, the fact that Joan Clarke (Keira
Knightly’s character). Because not everyone will be able to completely
sympathise with an a-social maths genius with autistic tendencies. But a man
struggling with a society that doesn’t understand and his own personal demons
to fulfil what he knows to be his destiny, now that – on some level – we can
all relate to.
Welcome dear readers to my weekly musingson the latest news or trailers that have caught my eye. On the train back home this evening I was flicking through the latest releases and one name caught my eye, not least because I have been quite curious about how it was going to turn out. I am talking about Pixels, Sony's latest "big thing". It's a no brainer if you're in a certain age group. Basically, someone in their mid to late thirties has taken the day dream of playing all the old vintage computer games of our childhood "'n real life" - and has been lucky enough to get the money to make the darn film. Only thing is, I do wish they had steered clear of the obvious choice of making the film about goofy losers saving the world... No that I am saying the film could have been anything BUT a comed,y but there was room for experimentation... Oh well... Still looks quite cool!
The other piece of news that caught my eye was that Disney's Popeye movie is still on track, despite losing the director. Yes. Yes you read correctly, and so did I. We are to have a Popeye movie. Not live action yet - but don't hold your breaths, if not this one, the next one is bound to be live action. Cinderella has opened in box offices to quite a tidy little sum, no doubt sending Hollywood creatives scrambling for new live action inspiration. The trailer is OK (see below) but there will always ever be one real Cinderella story for me...
And here is the new trailer. I mean it's good, but Ever After is a classic for a reason!
While we're on the matter of the weird and wonderful - parents of the world rejoice! It's official! Frozen 2 is going to be "a thing". All I can say is, I can't wait to find out what new songs are about to get stuck in our heads. In the meanwhile here's a little something, you know, in case you missed it...
I used to
be a massive horror fan when I was a kid. No really. Realising that it was
mostly jump-scares and blood and gore took it out of it for me slightly. The
more analytical I became in my approach, the less interested I became in ghouls and goblins and
films with too many jump scares. It’s such a rarity to find a film that really,
REALLY teases your little grey cells these days, I find in the horror genre
this is even rarer…
This is
why, when a film like The Babadook comes out, I feel it needs to be praised,
exalted, shouted from the rooftops, held aloft like Simba in The Lion King was
when he was born (oh come ON yes you DO know that scene) . I am especially
proud of it because it was directed by a woman and stars a strong female lead.
We need more Babadooks on so many levels, we really do, principally because it
is actually one of the most cerebral horror films around in recent history –
which, in turn, makes it so terrifying…
Amelia
(Essie Davis) is a young mother who is trying to get over the violent death of
her husband some years back. She lives with their young son, Samuel (Noah
Wiseman) who is an imaginative young man with his views on life and the world
around him that are very much his own. One day, a strange and slightly macabre
book appears in Samuel’s bookcase. It is a pop-up book about a monster called
The Babadook, and the moment they read the book, Samuel becomes convinced The
Babadook is coming to get them all… He is a bit of a handful at the best of
times and Amelia is distracted what with the anniversary of her husband’s death
approaching, so she dismisses it at first. But soon she has to admit, there is
a sinister presence in the house… Something lurking just on the border of her
vision, desperately trying to get in…
Now… There
are two levels to this film… First of all, this is a solid, hooves firmly
planted on the ground monster movie. I am quite a veteran of horror films, I do
not scare easily and yet the tension, the brooding, the whole “creepiness” is
built up so well and the film is so atmospheric even before the monster arrives
on the scene that I personally was reduced to actually peeping through my
fingers at some points. The film takes place by and large in the house, a
rambling, mutely colored house that uses a rather eccentric décor to give it
that truly dreamy / nightmare-ish existing outside of time quality. Essie Davis
is absolutely wonderful in portraying Amalia’s slow decent into chaos from a
life held together, it transpires, a lot more precariously than it first seems.
The same has to be said for Noah Wiseman who is insightful and a delight to
watch as Samuel. You could apply literally no analysis to this film and enjoy
it as a horror film anyway – it delivers all the scares, the screams and the
special effects you could possibly want or need…
But of
course there is more to this film than meets the eye. A cursory search of the
internet reveals the biggest plot twists, in fact I must add I knew what the
major plot twist was. And yet – even though I knew – I remained terrified
throughout the film because The Babadook cleverly side-steps the biggest trap a
lot of horror films fall into. You see, when you want to scare someone,
whenever possible, it is best to leave a hefty chunk of work to the
imagination. Each person’s imagination will create the monster that is most
frightening for them – or at least will add the details that will make it that
tiny bit more gruesome. The Babadook relies specifically on this trope and
although it hints, points, winks and makes oblique hand gestures throughout, by
the time the credits roll at the end, it has not openly uttered a single word
about the “details” of this haunting and what The Babadook “actually” is. Oh
it’s easy enough to guess. But the point is we are never “told”. Symbols abound
throughout, and although you see them clearly you are never quite sure; cue the pages and pages of guesses
and analysis all over social media from the excited viewers who have just left
the cinema. Now THAT, ladies and gents, is a story that truly immerses the
viewer.
And – this may be deemed a mild spoiler or “things”
may be inferred from it – one of my favorite parts of the film is the fact
that the “monster” is never quite vanquished. Like a lot of “real” monsters and
things constructed by the human mind, it is not “destroyed” – but Amelia learns
how to live with it and manage it. She has looked on the face of the monster,
she has made her peace with it, and this enables her to carry on a normal life,
taking care of her son. It is truly powerful that after Amalia “sees” the
monster, we cease to be able to. We either see her from the monsters’
perspective or it remains in the shadows, just beyond our grasp… Which is
rather fitting I thought – seeing as everyone’s “personal demons” are – the
clue is in the name – intensely personal…
You may
find this perverse, but The Babadook proves once again that the most
frightening monsters are often very much of this world and in fact from our
very beings… A truly hair raising experience
Oh my goodness I have seen so many trailers
this week! Much toe-curling and “squeee”ing happened and we’ll talk about it
all in a second, but first, some news I literally read this morning as I was preparing
this letter.
Tim Burton is due to direct a live-action Dumbo film!! Ain’t
that something!! I know, lately there has been
much discussion about Disney turning beloved cartoons into live-action
films and whether or not this is a good thing… I do see where the critics are
coming from, but come on. Dumbo is awesome. Tim Burton is awesome. The combination
can only be DOUBLY AWESOME. Ehm.
Right. So. Yeah, another thing I am really looking forward
to this year is George Clooney’s Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland has just released a
new trailer and with it the film is squaring its shoulders and letting us know
that it is a worthy opponent to all the grand scale films that are coming out,
like the Star Wars and the Jurassic park franchises. Now, while you’re on the
trailer, take a closer look at David Nix, the character Hugh Laurie is playing…
It’s not me is it, there is a hint of Dr House in there! Oh come on people –
this is a good thing! Check it out to see what I mean.
Ok, so this is another interesting one. When I saw the first
few trailers for Inside Out, I had it pegged as a cute but ultimately
forgettable animation that mainly aims at a younger audience. But this trailer
is a bit of game changer. After the open analysis of death and grieving in Big
Hero 6, I do believe, unless my eyes are decieving me, here we have a film that
deals with childhood depression! Check the trailer out and tell me wether or
not I am seing things…
Of course I cannot end this week’s letter (which has now
officialy turned into the “up and coming” section) without mentioning one of
the more novel announcements of the week. It came, of all places, from the
Valentino cat walk at paris Fashion Week. If you have any access to the
ineterwebs you will have at least caught a glimpse of the video …
And lastly, if you thought I had missed out on International
Women’s Day, well, I haven’t. Use the links on the top right to Critics
Associated, where I have knocked out a fair few articles on women and
filmmaking – there will be further coverage of the topic on the website all
week!
Stop and
think for a second, if you will, what kind of things Mothers tell their
daughters. To smile more, wear prettier clothes, make more jokes, you know, be
more positive... Not mine. Mine reads my film reviews on my blog and goes
“you can’t like every single film you watch dear, be a bit negative from time
to time”. I don’t even know how to deal with the comment and it keeps coming up
roughly every three weeks.
It is true
that when I started off I only wrote about films I liked. Because I had started
the blog to recommend films – in a funny kind of way it made sense to me that I
would write about the positive and not the negative. I have – even Mom agrees –
changed my tone a little as I have continued writing on this blog – and on
other websites - I have begun to veer
more and more towards films that have – for better or worse – incited strong
emotions in me.
Cosmopolis
is one of those films. And the strong emotion it incites in me is a deep sense
of disappointment. I mean, hand on heart, I have never been a massive fan of
Robert Pattinson (I haven’t even been just a tiny bit of a fan of Robert Pattinson)
but I wanted him to do well on this one. The plot looked surreal and
intriguing, I am a massive fan of David Cronenberg, you know… I had hopes…
This is the
story of young millionaire Eric Packer. One day he gets into
his limousine and orders his driver to take him across town, for a haircut.
This is easier said than done because this is no ordinary day; there are many
“happenings” along the way that will waylay him. In the process, Packer comes
across all kinds of characters; some known to him, some strangers… Some
friends, some foe… And as you plunge with him deep into this extraordinary
odyssey, you can be sure, this is no ordinary drive across town.
Ok so
here’s the lowdown. Basically the film is a poetic and philosophical essay on
our times, delivered to us mainly through Pattinson and a plethora of other
characters whose main raison d’etre
seems to be to demonstrate various philosophical points rather than to actually
advance the storyline in any way. I
mean, I say storyline. The film has the bare bones of a storyline and little
else besides. For the most part, Cosmopolis is a slow moving essay, read out
loud by multiple, changing voices. And how does the film solve the problem of
these multiple voices – by harmonising the tone and delivery of all the
characters throughout the entire film.
As far as
logic goes there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Even if you don’t
really expect a 22 year old computer genius and a Packer’s 41 year old mistress
(Juliette Binoche) to speak in the same way, ok, let’s suspend disbelief like a
good audience. The one main thing about Cosmopolis that really, really stuck in
my throat was the complete unnaturalness of every single actors delivery all
the way through the film. I have read a lot of online commentary blaming it
largely on the writing. And the writing is no doubt a part of it, it does have
some very strong, very valid philosophical points buried in there but it
couldn’t have been expressed in a more roundabout way if it tried. The aim with
the delivery was, I think, to make it slightly stilted to give a sense of a
sort of “end of times” brand of ennuie. The whole “problem” Eric has is that,
at 28 he has reached the top, he is at the pinnacle, and he gazes out in a
world-weary way around him (at 28. I know) and sees… Well, nothing good. And
more importantly nothing new. And at the beginning I was very tempted to lay
the blame on Pattinson’s door and an inability to convey subtle emotion but as
the film advanced, I realised they were all talking like that. By like that I
mean a distinct falseness that is almost certainly put on. The aim is probably
to firstly give an impression of the uncomfortable and “false” world Eric lives
in and is sick of, but also to stop us from “connecting” to the characters and
makes us concentrate on the contents of the philosophical discussion – a sort
of self-reflexivity, if you will. The problem is, where it should have just
hinted at this and left it as an almost indiscernible undertone, Cosmopolis
cranks the volume up to “are you nuts” and leaves it there.
Now let me
make another point clear. I usually love films like this. They are not
everyone’s cup of tea, I myself am not always in the mood for them. But
Terrance Malik is one of my favourite directors. I love loosing myself in a
good philosophical point. But the problem with this kind of film is that it has
to be very, very delicately balanced and very well thought-out. Otherwise the
film stops being a dialogue-driven philosophical masterpiece and wanders off
into the domain of pretentious drivel…
I am sorry
to say this, but I found Cosmopolis grossly miscalculated and utterly
unwatchable. I devoutly hope that in the future Cronenberg will stick to what
he is good at, i.e. making philosophical points via striking stories and
actions, not explaining the living daylights out of it…
Ok so now
that the awards season is over, we can begin the “year in film” afresh. And
already some VERY interesting news is coming in from the news desks!
The first
comes from one of my all-time favourite actors Leonardo DiCaprio. It has
finally become an official “thing” that he will play Billy Milligan – the first
man to be diagnosed with and acquitted (in this case for robbery and rape)
because of multiple personality disorder. Milligan claimed to have a total of
24 different personalities, two of which admitted to the crimes… The script has
been kicking around for a while and DiCaprio has been interested in the part
since 1997 it would seem. It’s a very exciting project and I cannot think of
anyone better than DiCaprio to pull it off. Of course the speculations about
“whether this will be THE year” have already started circulating – which is
understandable. But I found one comment on Twitter saying that basically as he
was playing 24 personalities, maybe one would finally get the Oscar (I have
honestly forgotten who said it- don’t hesitate to give me a shout if it was
you) – and it’s a bit of a cruel way to put it but here’s hoping!
Moving on,
striking true life stories seem to be “in” this year as the next piece of news in
the same vein comes from Eddie Redmayne. The Oscar winner has had the rather
bizarre fate of being praised to the sky with his performance in Theory of
Everything and lambasted for his performance in Jupiter Ascending in
practically the same breath for the past few weeks (the kindest account of it I
have been able to find says he seems to be suffering from a strange case of
laryngitis). Anyway, Redmayne has not let his head be turned by the good or the
bad, and has launched into the extraordinary true story called The Danish Girl,
where he will play the first man to have a gender reassignment operation. The
first still of Redmayne in his new role has already emerged –and has got
tongues wagging already! I think it’s set to be a fascinating part! Click here for the first glimpse of him in his new role!
Last of all,
one I am not so sure about. This one has been circulating for a while now and
every time it turned up on my Twitter feed I kinda went “naah, that can’t be a
thing” but it looks like it is. Kevin Spacey is ACTUALLY going to play a
businessman who, after an accident, gets trapped in the body of the household
cat. Now, I am devoutly hoping this is NOT a repeat of that spate of films in
the ‘90s where people kept swapping bodies and getting trapped in whatever as
if it were pretty much as easy as slipping off your jacket. (I mean there were
a total of THREE Freaky Fridays for crying outloud). Unless there is some kind
of seriously Mulholland Drive type stuff going on (and director Barry
Sonnenfeld being better known for directing Men In Black this is highly doubtful
though not impossible) I am seriously failing to get excited about this… Even
if it IS Kevin Spacey and he IS awesome.
Last but
not least, sadly, an obituary. As you already know (unless you have been under
a rock for the last week or so) Leonard Nimoy, the one and only Spock and the
universes’ favourite Vulcan passed away aged 83 last week . Mr Nimoy was a not
only a phenomenon in the world of acting and sci-fi but also a great
humanitarian who will be sorely missed all over the globe for many different
reasons…
And now, on
to the main event ladies and gentlemen – scroll right down for the show of the
week and may you live long and prosper until we meet again!
As we all know,
Hollywood loves films about itself. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be
Hollywood per se, if it involves filmmaking on any level and you have some idea
of what you are doing, well, you’re pretty much guaranteed a warm welcome to
the table. The length of your stay there will of course largely depend on what
you have to offer.
In this
context, we have to admit Nightcrawler has A LOT to offer. Not only is it a piercing
look at our hunger for information – more specifically the gory details – it
is, through the analysis of this obsession a very, very powerful thriller… And
when you add talent like Jake Gylenhaal to the mix… Well… Let’s say you’re in
for one heck of a ride.
Lou Bloom
(Jake Gylenhaal) is unemployed. He is a high school graduate and largely
self-taught but he doesn’t let that stop him – he is on the lookout, actively
seeking out his next chance and ready to grip it with both hands when it comes
along… And come along in does, quite literally in a blaze of smoke and fire : Lou
witnesses a traffic accident purely by chance and as he is idly watching the
goings on – as one does – he notices the two men with cameras jumping out of
another car. They film the event and dash off again. And lo and behold, next
day their footage is in the news. Lou likes this idea. He likes it a lot. And
he quickly sets about setting up his own business… At first, no one takes him
very seriously. True, the news director of KWLA, a local tv channel (Rene
Rousso) tells him that he has a good eye but apart from that, as far as anyone
is concerned, Lou is small fry… But there is something about Lou… Something people
dismiss as just being “a little odd”. They have no idea what truly lies below
Lou’s witticisms memorised from the internet… It is blind ambition and
determination, at a level that goes way, way beyond the average entrepreneur…
I have said
this before. I will say it again. Lou Bloom is categorically one of the most
frightening heroes I have ever seen on film. We learn quite early on in the
film that Lou is self-taught. He talks a little too much, his sentences are
just a little bit too long and he parrots generic phrases that he has clearly
read off just about every job-hunting website on the net. The front is both
ill-fitting and a little too perfect. And try as Lou might to “be like everyone
else”, the effort is obvious – which is why, we feel quite clearly, he fails to
find work at first. But suddenly, it turns out, Lou has a “good eye” for news
footage – the gory kind, just the kind KWLA needs to lead stories with – and
the rest is history… Thing is no one – including us – wonders how come Lou is
so at his ease around blood and gore. (SpOILER ALERT – skip to next paragraph) And
the grim realisation comes two thirds through the film when Lou turns to his
unfortunate associate Rick (who will be the very first to clock the fact that
something is very wrong with Lou) and calmly asks “What if my problem wasn’t
that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them ?” Yes ladies and
gents, Jake Gylenhaal actually portrays one of the most terrifying psychopaths
I have seen portrayed on film. The entire first half of his performance is
beautifully balanced; we go through it feeling very clearly that there is
something “not quite right”- it is not until the big reveal that we realise how
“not right” things are inside his head… Gylenhaal – and of course
writer/director Dan Gilroy- have us exactly where they want us throughout; I
honestly think the film – and more specifically Gylenhaal - deserved every honour it got bestowed on it
this awards season.
But apart
from being a very impressive thriller, Nightcrawler also clearly contains
criticism and allegory. We are officially living in the digital age, we are
hungry for constant information, constant thrills, we are being bombarded by
multiple channels vying for our attention, each with bigger, better, more
shocking, more interesting wares… And if Lou is the villain in this story, he
is only able to become so because the news director Nina (Rene Rousso’s
character) enables him. Nina is worried about her ratings, her position and –
of course – her job. And as their relationship evolves, Lou brings her better
and better stuff and she becomes so dependent on his gory wares that ethics and
the “how”s and the “is this ethically right”s fall to the wayside one by one
until she becomes the very embodiment of the capitalist media monster that we
accuse of doing things like killing princess Diana. There is a clear indictment
of a greedy information and technology driven society, too preoccupied with its
own thrills and not in the least worried about potential consequences for
others…
Technically
the film gives a nice balance of contrasting fast paced segments, car chases
and gory accidents shown in the style of the news it criticises with moments of
stillness that adds to the underlying eeriness the story has built up and
brings no peace. I guarantee you, you will be on the edge of your seat from the
beginning of the show to the end… Definitely one of my favourite films this
season…
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