Hell and Back Again (2011, documentary) - Intimate Afghanistan veteran documentary

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Calm suburbia and the dangerous foreign land of Afghanistan each have half of this poster for Danfung Dennis' Hell and Back Again

We focus on three-time Afghanistan veteran, the 26 year-old Marine Nathan Harris, who returns home to the States with a disability for a hard rehabilitation and morphine treatment.

Hell and Back Again is a war documentary by debuting Danfung Dennis (This Is Climate Change (2018, short)).

It is an observational portrayal of some of the work that went into the Afghanistan War, wherein one of the world's richest countries, and certainly the mightiest, waged war on one of the world's poorest. Watching Hell and Back Again, it is impossible not to sympathize with Harris, who carries both goodness and madness in himself. The film has a scene with a priest that is especially moving.

The title remains something of a postulate; the reality of Harris' situation seems to swallow the dramatic narrative, and perhaps the discrepancy is intentional, as it calls attention to veterans struggling with disabilities and PTSD upon their homecoming.

 

Dennis talks about the making of the film in an interview here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 40k $

= Uncertain - but theatrically probably a mega-flop (projected return of 0.4 times the cost)

[Hell and Back Again premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 88 minutes. Dennis was a war photographer in Afghanistan in 2006 and became disillusioned with the task and moved towards video. He met Harris during time with Marines in Afghanistan in 2009 and fixed on him, reportedly spending a year with Harris and his wife. The film opened #95 to a 3k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #80 and in 3 theaters, grossing 40k $. The film's only other recorded market was the UK, where it made less than 1k $. If made on a tiny 100k $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to Undefeated. It was also nominated for a British Independent Film award and an Independent Spirit award and won 2 awards at Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review. Dennis has not returned with a feature since; he has however made 3 documentary shorts. Hell and Back Again is fresh at 100 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hell and Back Again?

Time of the Wolf/Le Temps du Loup (2003) - Apocalyptic meanderings by Haneke

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+ Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.04

 

The contour of what appears to be a naked boy is set against a fire on a railroad track on this ominous poster for Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf

A small family suddenly lose the husband and father, so that the two children are forced to seek survival with their nervous mother in an apocalyptic future, in which food, water and electricity are luxuries.

 

Time of the Wolf is written and directed by Great German filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)). The English title is a literal translation of the original French title, which is taken from the ancient Norse Völuspá poem.

The visuals and acting performances are impressively consistent in a greyish blue, desaturated, despairing tone. But since no cause is ever presented behind the gloomy scenario, - and the film moreover is entirely without humor and is inhabited by a long row of screaming, deeply unsympathetic people and grim scenes, - the result is a very small audience investment in the characters and the film overall. Its effect is thereby negligible.

Time of the Wolf is a cruel and insufferable film. - But what's the point?

 

Related posts:

Michael Haneke: 2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Amour (2012) - Tender love, unseizing death in Haneke's pictures
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller   

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 8.82 mil. €, approximately 10 mil. $

Box office: 499k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.04 times its cost)

[Time of the Wolf premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in Austria, including in Vienna. The film was screened out of competition in Cannes, because a member of the year's jury acted in it. It opened #83 to a 7k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #53 but never in more than 2 theaters, grossing 61k $ (12.2 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market. Its biggest and 2nd biggest were France with 106k $ (21.2 %) and Austria with 78k $ (15.6 %). Haneke returned with Hidden/Caché (2005). Isabelle Huppert (My Worst Nightmare/Mon Pire Cauchemar (2011)) returned in Ma Mère (2004). Time of the Wolf is fresh at 67 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Time of the Wolf?

Heart of Glass/Herz aus Glas (1976) - Industrialized apathy explored in Herzog's odd art drama

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A somber and introspective, water-painted poster for Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass

We are introduced to a German village in the 18th century, where fanciful theories of blowing glass - the local industry - and the ruby glass created there dictate the odd inhabitants' doings.

Heart of Glass is written by Herbert Achternbusch (Der Neger Erwin (1981)) and co-writer/producer/director, great German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Signs of Life/Lebenszeichen (1968)). The original title is directly translated as the English title.

It is an inordinately bizarre film. The content of the story is strange in itself, but the acting performances, all (except for the factory workers and the character Hias) achieved under hypnosis are particularly unique and weird in a trance-like, out-of-the-body way. This also brings some fun to the film, which is otherwise a dreary affair, despite its high strangeness quality, bereft of an actual plot. 

The nonsense-poetical lines coming out of the hypnotized actors seem suspect as the works of a drug-affected filmmaker, - but I have no proof of course. Heart of Glass is not a good film, but it must rank among the strangest of all time. Featuring a beautiful and thrilling sequence of glassblowing.

 

Related posts:

Werner Herzog: Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise (supporting actor) 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) - Herzog and Vasyukov invite us to meet a remote, tough Siberian people 

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) - Herzog and Shannon take us down the rabbit-hole 
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) or, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant
Cobra Verde/Slave Coast (1987) - Herzog and Kinski's final work delves into the madness of slavery   

Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Herzog's mad Amazonian opera monument 
Even Dwarfs Started Small/Auch Zwerge Haben Klein Angefangen (1970) - Herzog teases us to react with uniquely odd experimental drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Heart of Glass premiered 13 November (Paris Film Festival) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Switzerland, Ireland, Germany and in Wyoming, Alaska, New York and Utah. The film had a fairly small release in a handful of countries, and cost and gross details are regrettably not available online. It won a German Film award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches over this one. Herzog returned with Mit Mir Will Niemand Spielen (1976, short) and theatrically with Stroszek (1977). Heart of Glass is fresh at 92 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heart of Glass?

Humoresque (1946) - Everything works in Negulesco's music melodrama classic

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Passionate romance - and a violin - is promised on this poster for Jean Negulesco's Humoresque

A stubborn male violinist with big dreams and talent to back it up gets discovered by Mrs. Wright, an alcoholic woman of wealth, whose marriage is platonic. But can he have her as his patron and mistress for the long run?

Humoresque is written by Zachary Gold (Top Man (1943)) and Clifford Odets (Winter Journey (1962, TV movie)), adapting the same-titled 1919 short story by Fanny Hurst (Back Street (1931)), and directed by Romanian-born American master filmmaker Jean Negulesco (Singapore Woman (1941)), whose 6th feature it was.

It is a formidable film, which mixes the juicily erotic and the keenly humorist with strongly melodramatic lines and wonderful music, - and a great venerable air around it. You'll hear pieces of Dvorák, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Grieg, Bach, Prokofiev, as well as Gershwin and Cole Porter, in the luxurious musical side to the romantic drama, making it an absolute treat for music lovers. The photography (by Ernest Haller (The Boy and the Pirates (1960))) is outstanding; the technical expertise surrounding the film is likewise.

Joan Crawford (When Ladies Meet (1941)) is legendary, intense and awe-inspiring, and John Garfield (The Fallen Sparrow (1943)) is just as intense and tough here. Oscar Levant (The Cobweb (1955)) is incredibly funny and eminently believable in his piano scenes. J. Carrol Naish (The Texan (1958, TV-series)) and Ruth Nelson (Shock (1946)) as the young musician's parents are flawless. 

Humoresque is one of the undying melodramas, and a truly refined film to boot. SPOILER Something to ponder over: Is Mrs. Wright's suicide in the end propped up too much in the cinematography? Or does it simply point towards her larger-than-life quality?

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.1 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly somewhere between 3.3-3.7 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.61-1.76 times its cost)

[Humoresque premiered 25 December (New York) and runs 125 minutes. Hurst's story was first adapted by Frank Borzage with the same title in 1920. Crawford was paid 167k $ for her performance, though IMDb also lists 500k $ as her salary, which looks like it must be a mistake. Shooting took place from December 1945 - April 1946 in New York and California. The William Shaefer Warner Bros. ledger recorded a 2.2 mil. $ North-American gross for the film, but Variety reported a 2.6 mil. $ North-American rental in 1947. The two numbers account for the uncertainty in the figures above listed. The international gross was listed as 1.1 mil. $. Despite the small gross compared to the considerable cost, the film is curiously described as a theatrical success. It was nominated for 1 Oscar: For Best Music - Drama/Comedy (Franz Waxman (Elephant Walk (1954))), lost to Hugo Friedhofer for The Best Years of Our Lives. Negulesco returned with Deep Valley (1947). Crawford returned in Possessed (1947); Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice: The Radio Play (1947, voice) and theatrically in Body and Soul (1947). 4.4k+ IMDb users have given Humoresque a 7.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Humoresque?

Top 10: Best French movies

 

1. Children of Paradise/Les Enfants du Paradis (1945) - Marcel Carné

 

2. Mustang (2015) - Deniz Gamze Ergüven  

3. The Artist (2011) - Michel Hazanavicius

 

4. The Butcher/Le Boucher (1970) - Claude Chabrol

 

 

5. The Past/Le Passé (2013) - Asghar Farhadi 

 

 

6. La Grande Illusion (1937) - Jean Renoir

 

 

7. Three Colors: Blue/Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993) - Krzysztof Kieslowski

 

 

8. Blue Is the Warmest Colour/La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 & 2 (2013) - Abdellatif Kechiche  

 

 

9. The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004) - Christophe Barratier

 

 

10. The Intouchables/Intouchables/Untouchable (2011) - Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

 

Selected from 85 titles labeled 'France'

 

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best films about filmmaking 

Best first-of-franchise movies 

Top 10: Best 'flop' rank movies

Best Twentieth Century Fox titles 

What do you think of the list?
Which French films would make your personal Top 10?

Home (2015) - Not much sense to DreamWorks' silly alien romp

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An instantly likable, cute, purple alien character with a snug housecat on its head makes up this poster for Tim Johnson's Home

An unpopular alien, who has made problems for his equals, bands up with a little girl, who has gotten lost from her mother here on earth.

 

Home is written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Get Smart (2008), both), based on the children's book The True Meaning of Smekday (2007) by Adam Rex (Smek for President (2015)), and directed by great Chicagoan filmmaker Tim Johnson (Antz (1998)).

The silly Boov alien race has somehow overtaken earth here in Home, and that is just one of the many things that aren't explained in it. The film is more invested in being a colorful mix of bright eye candy with patches of comedy and up-tempo music, where inquisitive questions are barred at the door; just brainless good times here. The film embraces the time it is made in for better and worse, so that when it still attempts to straddle a well of themes, it comes off as both superficial and dishonest. The questions can't be bridled by the thinking mind: Why this and why that, one can't help but wonder, - SPOILER and in particular; why do the entire Boov race suddenly go nuts for our ill-faring purple friend towards the end? Their conversion from unsympathetic bullies in the beginning is also unexplained.

Home conjures up a utopian, harmonious, multi-cultural world, - but it is actually funny along the silly way, - Jim Parsons (A Kid Like Jake (2018)) voicing is inspired, - and that is its saving grace.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 135 mil. $

Box office: 386 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.85 times its cost)

[Home premiered 7 March (Boulder International Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 94 minutes. Production took place in California. The film opened #1 to a 52.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#2-#4-#4-#5). grossing 177.3 mil. $ (45.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 38.8 mil. $ (10.1 %) and China with 27.7 mil. $ (7.2 %). It was reported that DreamWorks spent an amount similar to the cost of the film for prints and advertising it. A hand-drawn spin-off series, Home: Adventures with Tip and Oh (2016-18) was produced without the voice stars for Netflix by DreamWorks Animation. Johnson returned with 2 shorts but has not returned with a feature yet; instead he has turned to executive producing. Parsons returned in Visions (2015). Home is rotten at 52 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Home?

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville

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A new troupe of young stars back franchise cornerstone Jamie Lee Curtis on this ominous poster for Rick Rosenthal's Halloween: Resurrection

Michael Myers irrevocably kills his sister, who is in a mental hospital, where she feigns to be sick (...), and then he throws himself at a group of young fools who are doing an Internet reality show in Michael's dilapidating childhood home.

 

Halloween: Resurrection is written by Larry Brand (Paranoia (1997)) and Sean Hood (The Legend of Hercules (2014)) and directed by Rick Rosenthal (Halloween II (1981)). It is the 8th and final film in the original Halloween franchise, before it was rebooted in 2007 and then again in 2018.

It begins fairly decently but gradually gets worse until a point where it is almost impossible to sit through the stupidities on-screen. There are no-one to root for, and several of the film's grisly murders are involuntarily comical, as when a murder gets cross-cut to Tyra Banks (Glee (2013, TV-series)) making a Milo while dancing in her editing trailer, (don't ask why.)

The very small light points in Halloween: Resurrection are Busta Rhymes (Narc (2002)), who brings a likable energy to the turkey, and Billy Kay (L.I.E. (2001)), who is regrettably only in the film a very brief time. Every one else is at best undistinguished in this horrible film, which even suffers from enormously ugly credits.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Curtis candidly explains her troubles with Halloween H20 (1998) and Halloween: Resurrection in this video

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 37.6 mil. $

= Even (returned 2.50 times its cost)

[Halloween: Resurrection premiered 1 July (USA) and runs 94 minutes. Jamie Lee Curtis (Love Letters (1983)) was paid 3 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - June 2001 and September - October 2001 in British Colombia, including in Vancouver, and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Men in Black II and fellow new releases Road to Perdition and Reign of Fire, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.3 mil. $ (80.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2 mil. $ (5.3 %) and Mexico with 1.1 mil. $ (2.9 %). Michael Myers returned in Rob Zombie's reboot Halloween (2007), now without Curtis. Rosenthal returned with 11 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return with Nearing Grace (2005). Curtis returned in Freaky Friday (2003). Halloween: Resurrection is rotten at 12 % with a 3.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween: Resurrection?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011) - An exhausting end to Potter's emo saga

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Tousled hair and bloody-faced, Harry faces off with Voldemort on this dark poster for David Yates' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

Voldemort is wounded but deadly, as Hogwarts has been overtaken by Snape, and Harry and Co. are out looking for the three Horcruxes and an end to the regime of terror of Lord Voldemort.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is written by Steve Kloves (Flesh and Bone (1993)), adapting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)), and directed by great English filmmaker David Yates (The Tichborne Claimant (1998)).

The final chapter is the darkest, almost solely black or greyish tinted emo-movie in the increasingly emo-pained Potter franchise. There are poorly edited action sequences (like a fight with a dragon) and self-importance lurking behind every corner here. Anything can more or less happen in Potter's universe, which is also co-responsible for making the story's evolution seem highly random. It is certainly packed with elements that are meant to be taken as wisdom, but which is actually almost entirely trite nonsense. (SPOILER One of the film's big reveals is that Snape has had a life-long crush on Potter's mother ... )

One can't help but rejoice that the Potter ordeals are now finally at an end, and there are also some supporting actors that are enjoyable, like Kelly Macdonald (Anna Karenina (2012)) as the ghost. But over-all the sensation caused by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is one of exhaustion.

 

Related posts:

The Harry Potter franchise: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) - Harry's abysmally dour and long penultimate chapter

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) or, The Anemic British Teen Wizards Fly Again! 

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

2007 in films - according to Film Excess 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - Yates enters the Potter-verse with series' best entry 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - Newell's overlong, on-brand 4th Potter adventure 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - Dangers lurk in Cuarón's overrated Potter chapter 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - Potter and Co. return for handsome if overlong first sequel

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) - Columbus lands new family franchise successfully

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 125 mil. $ (250 mil. $ shared cost for Part 1 and 2)

Box office: 1,342.3 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 10.73 times its cost)

[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 premiered 7 July (London) and runs 130 minutes. Daniel Radcliffe (Kill Your Darlings (2013)) was paid 33 mil. $ for his performance; Emma Watson (Noah (2014)) and Rupert Grint (Postman Pat: The Movie (2014)) were each paid 15 mil. $. Shooting Part 1 and 2 took place from February 2009 - June 2010 in England, including in London. The film was converted to 3D in post production as the first Potter film to be released in the format. The film opened #1 to a 169.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 2 more weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 381 mil. $ (28.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 124.3 mil. $ (9.3 %) and the UK with 117.2 mil. $ (8.7 %). It set opening day and weekend records, was the year's highest-grossing film and Warner Bros. highest-grossing film to date, - and the highest-grossing in the Potter franchise. It was nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Art Direction, lost to Hugo, Visual Effects, also lost to Hugo, and Makeup, lost to The Iron Lady. It won 1/4 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for a Grammy, won 2 National Board of Review awards and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #187 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Before Sunrise (1995) and In the Name of the Father (1993). The-numbers.com report that it has also made more than 157.7 mil. $ on home video copies domestically alone. Yates continued with the spin-off series Fantastic Beasts which so far spans 3 movies (2016; 2018; 2022, all by him.) Yates first returned with Tyrant (2014, TV-series) and theatrically with The Legend of Tarzan (2016). Radcliffe returned in The Woman in Black (2012); Watson in My Week with Marilyn (2011); and Grint in Ed Sheeran: Lego House (2011, music video) and theatrically in Into the White (2012). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2?