I Kill Giants (2017) - Dane debuts with balderdash B.O. disaster

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A girl wielding a huge weapon in front of a massive giant makes up this dramatic poster for Anders Walter's I Kill Giants

A small girl in a US coastal town rejects normal school life in favor of her hobby; hunting and killing in the forest along the ocean. - But does this curious interest cover over something else?

 

I Kill Giants is written by Joe Kelly (Monsuno (2011-12)), adapting his same-titled 2009 graphic novel co-created with Ken Nimura (Henshin (2015)), and directed by debuting Anders Walter (Helium (2013, short)).

A Monster Calls (2016) reminiscent story with an eternally supercilious, self-governing protagonist with a well-meaning, worried school councilor (Zoe Saldaña (Amsterdam (2022)) gives a dull sad-face performance), dumb brothers and a powerless bigger sister. An overly sweet new British schoolmate girl seems invented solely to get us closer to our little miss nonsense, who is given many a scene to elaborate her wacky nonsense universe. It is all gravely dull.

Humor, real suspense or dramatic development is missing in I Kill Giants. SPOILER The ending unsurprisingly shows that the fantastical elements are all self-invented in order for the girl to cope with her mother's cancer illness. She dies. The girl did not get to see her mother through her last time on earth due to her nonsense hunts in the wild. Nevertheless she thanks an imaginary giant in the film's last scene, wrapping up a story and film that is distant from actual reality and prone to hokum.

 

Related post:

 

Anders Walter: The day after ... The Oscars 2014

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Estimated 15.1 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 369k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.02 times its cost)

[I Kill Giants premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. 13 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place from September 2016 - ? in Belgium, Ireland and New York. The film was released day-and-date (online and in a few theaters) in North America with the gross numbers remaining secret (but likely being tiny). The film's reported gross comes from 7 markets, which, along with Denmark, where it sold just under 2,000 tickets, comes to 369k $. The three biggest markets were Russia with 165k $ (44.1 %), the UAE with 85k $ (23 %) and Portugal with 40k $ (10.8 %). The-Numbers.com allege that the film additionally made more than 1.7 mil. $ on domestic home video sales. Walter returned with Når Befrielsen Kommer (2023). Madison Wolfe (Keanu (2016)) returned in Trafficked (2017); Saldaña in a voice performance, a short and a music video prior to her theatrical return in Avengers: Infinity War (2018); and Imogen Poots (The Father (2020) in Age Out (2018). I Kill Giants is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Kill Giants?

The Father (2020) or, Disintegration

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Critical hype is the background to an intimate moment between the father-daughter pair on this poster for Florian Zeller's The Father

Anthony is an old man who was recently moved in with his daughter in an arrangement that doesn't really relieve either party, as he is going through the process of escalating dementia.

 

The Father is written by Christopher Hampton (The Quiet American (2002)) and debuting co-writer/director Florian Zeller (Empreintes (2010, TV documentary), adapting his own 2012 play La Père ('the father').

It is the latest in the 'star-actor-gets-Alzheimers/dementia' drama subgenre, and certainly an eloquent, - visually and narratively, - new work in this tradition. Narratively the novelty here is that Zeller has different actors portray the same characters, reflecting for us the confusion and inability to remember faces that a person with dementia experiences. This is an effective and highly unpleasant feature of The Father.

Anthony Hopkins (The Dawning (1988)) is on fire here in a tragic role that also lays bare how mood-swings and rudeness can be regular companions for the person with dementia, whose self is in a process of complete disintegration. Olivia Colman (The Lobster (2015)) is moving and dignified as his hurting, accommodating daughter.

Watching The Father is an awful ordeal. It is well-acted and well-made but a colossal downer, though probably rightfully so. Nevertheless I don't expect I will need to revisit this one in the future.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 13.4 mil. $ and counting

= Uncertain - at the moment ranks as a flop but could improve status

[The Father premiered 27 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. No less than 11 companies were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in London, England. The film's release was greatly inhibited by the China Virus pandemic. It opened #8 in 865 theaters to a 433k $ first weekend in North America, where it never attained a higher rank and grossed 2.1 mil. $. Currently North America was its 3rd biggest market, with Australia (2.3 mil. $) and France (2.2 mil. $) being the biggest and 2nd biggest. But the film is still only now rolling out in several markets: 15 June Columbia; 19 June China; 24 June Slovakia; 20 August Sweden; 26 August Germany and the Netherlands. The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Actor (Hopkins) and Adapted Screenplay. It lost Best Picture to Nomadland, Supporting Actress (Colman) to Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari, Editing to Sound of Metal and Production Design to Mank. It won 2/6 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for 4 Golden Globes and several other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #105 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Kid (1921) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). Zeller returns with The Son, another adaptation of a play of his. Hopkins returned in Elyse (2020); Colman in 6 TV and voicing projects and is set to return physically and theatrically in Mothering Sunday (2021). The Father is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Father?

She's Funny That Way (2014) - Bogdanovich's probably last film isn't that funny

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This poster for Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way appears promising enough, if maybe a bit bland

 

A New York escort confesses to her psychologist how she over a brief period of time has made the acquaintances of a group of internally tangled persons...

 

She’s Funny That Way, written by Louise Stratten (City Island (2009, actress)) and great New-Yorker co-writer-director Peter Bogdanovich (What's Up, Doc? (1972)), is an attempt at an [Woody] Allenesque comedy. Regrettably, it doesn't work, mainly because it isn't funny enough, and also because it is hard to get sufficiently interested in the story's affluent characters and their problems.

Imogen Poots (Green Room (2015)), - who is British, - is charming as the escort and utilizes a heavy New-York accent that matches Mercedes Ruhl's in The Fisher King (1991). Jennifer Aniston (Along Came Polly (2004)) as the shrink has funny-bones and the kind of energy that is lacking from the performances of Owen Wilson (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) and Rhys Ifans (Mr. Nice (2010)), who play a couple of fools. Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms (2016)) tries but also isn't particularly funny here. Keep your eyes peeled for several star cameos.

The style of She's Funny That Way is a peculiar blend of intellectual, verbally oriented comedy and the screwball kind that Bogdanovich famously and hilariously reanimated with What's Up, Doc?. The blend doesn't gel. But She’s Funny That Way is a Movie, and especially a Bogdanovich fan will still find it feasibly entertaining.

 

Related posts:

 

Peter Bogdanovich: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)

What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Screwball comedy revived for a wonderful show

The Wild Angels (1966) - Young biker rebels deliver a counter-culture punch in Corman's hands (co-writer) 

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 6 mil. $

= Unknown (but likely a big flop)

[She's Funny That Way premiered August 29 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. The script was written in 1999-2000 by Bogdanovich and ex-wife Stratten as a comedy collaboration to keep their spirits up during financial troubles, originally intended to be starring John Ritter (who died before production) and Cybill Shepherd, (who still plays a small role.) It was shot in New York in 29 days, starting July 11 2013, with some of the roles only getting cast during shooting. The North American distribution rights were acquired by Clarius Entertainment, who then dropped the film for unknown reasons, at which time Lionsgate Premiere picked it up for a small theatrical release and as VoD, (which is not accounted for in the box office figure above.) The film ran for 3 weeks, topping in 26 theaters in North America, were it grossed just 111k $ (1.9 % of the total gross). The biggest 3 markets were Russia with 822k $ (13.7 %), Italy with 597k $ (10 %) and Poland with 585k $ (9.8 %). Without a cost figure (and the VoD performance unknown), it isn't possible to make out the film's theatrical performance for sure, but if it was made cheap, on for instance a 5 mil. $ budget, the film would likely still rate as a big flop. She's Funny That Way is rotten at 39 % with a 5.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of She’s Funny That Way?

Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

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The cool, tunnel-like poster for Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room

Green Room is the 3rd feature from writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin (2013)), who debuted with the low-budgeted horror-comedy Murder Party (2007). 

A passionate but unsuccessful punk band of youths get an offer to finish their ailed tour with a concert that will turn in a wad of cash. Their acceptance is soon regretted when they witness something they shouldn't at the neo-Nazi venue.

Anton Yelchin (Broken Horses (2015)) has grown quite a bit, - from the cute kid of Fierce People (2005)) to the hard-edged, balding guy that meets us in Green Room, in which he acts well yet again. Patrick Stewart (The Game of Their Lives (2005)) is convincing as the inhumane heavy of the pic, though his garbled intonation made me wish I'd had subtitles.
Green Room sets up an interesting premise and turns fast into a survival horror with some effective gross-out moments and awesome effects work. SPOILER The arm chopping scene early on is probably its best.

Real terror didn't creep up on me via the film, simply because the punk band's situation seemed too far removed from any situation I might ever find myself in. What could have been another stupid-youths-caught-in-the-woods-to-die-screaming-one-by-one is lifted here due to the fact that the kids aren't stupid at all, and that the truly rotten predicament seems realistic enough.
SPOILER The film features some neat details like the fire extinguisher turning bad guys into something resembling zombies, and the band, - in true punk kid fashion, - fixing even mutilated limbs with duct tape.
Green Room, while a good ride for fans of the brutal, isn't a perfect film, though. It upholds a solemnity that is a little much, and some of the lines that best represent this don't really stick. It injects a self-ironic touch, but only in the last shot of the film. Some of the characterizations that might have been deepened seem to have been replaced with much talk of cartridges, bullets and guns, which at some point become something  less than interesting. SPOILER Also, the Werm character, intensely portrayed by Brent Werzner (Blue Ruin), who plays an eerie, intense function in the first part of the film, and whom we later feel curious about, has nothing more to do in the film.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here's a short trailer for the film

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Green Room was released May 17 (Cannes) and runs 95 minutes. The film was shot from October 2014 in Oregon. It was shown in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes and later shown at the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opened wide #16, in 777 theaters, to a 0.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America where it has so far grossed 2.7 mil. $ (90 % of the total gross). It has been shown at a wealth of film festivals, and the gross reported above must rise in time to come. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets reported yet are France with 0.2 mil. $ (6.7 %) and United Arab Emirates with 66k $ (2.2 %). Green Room is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.7 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Green Room?