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A sinister mask in a murky darkness makes up this ill-boding poster for James DeMonaco's The Purge
In 2022 the US enjoys almost no unemployment or crime, because on one day of the year, all citizens are allowed to 'purge' all of their illegal tendencies unpunished.
The Purge is written and directed by James DeMonaco (Little New York (2009)).
If The Purge is built on deeper thoughts or insights into the human condition then the film doesn't reveal it. It drops us within a family who are in favor of the 'purge' ritual, but who get into trouble as a homeless person in danger is given shelter during the purge, and soon also a rich kind of fascist attack.
The concept here seems like something from a dubious 1970s exploitation flick, and DeMonaco has forgotten to add some fun or colors to the proceedings. The Purge is instead an endlessly murky ride into dour, violent ugliness, unmitigated aesthetically.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: 91.2 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 30.4 times its cost)
[The Purge premiered 2 May (Stanley Film Festival, US) and runs 85 minutes. Ethan Hawke (Training Day (2001)) reportedly accepted the role for just 10k $ and slept on co-producer Jason Blum's couch during filming, later receiving 2 mil. $ in back-end compensation pay. Shooting took place around February 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #1 to a 34 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5), grossing 64.4 mil. $ (70.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest market was the UK with 5.3 mil. $ (5.8 %) and Germany with 2.9 mil. $ (3.2 %). The film additionally made estimated 12.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. It spurred a franchise with 4 sequels and a 2 season (2018-19) TV-series. DeMonaco returned with the first sequel, The Purge: Anarchy (2014). Hawke returned in Getaway (2013). The Purge is rotten at 40 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
An investigation-like collage of images and tagline text covers this dark poster for Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
In 1994, three eight-year old boys are found murdered near their home in West Memphis, Arkansas. Weeks later three outcast young men are tried and found guilty of the crime. Many years later their innocence is realized by the judicial system.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is directed by Joe Berlinger (The Longest Wave (2019, documentary)) and Bruce Sinofsky (Hollywood High (2003, TV movie)). It is the third and final film in the pair's Paradise Lost trilogy, coming after Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996, documentary) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000, TV documentary).
Especially for those unfamiliar with the widely publicized story of the West Memphis Three, this film is a serious round, which is already clear from the visuals of the murdered, naked bodies at the crime scene during the opening titles. The story is a jaw-dropping crime that turns into a legal tragedy, which reaches absolutely horrifying heights, when we are dealt clear indications of the identity of the true child triple killer, - and the law system acts indifferently. This may very well destroy your night's sleep.
The excellent documentary could be critiqued for its religiously loaded title, - and what it precisely refers to is unclear. In the context the thoroughly sympathetic treatment of Damian Echols (one of the imprisoned three), who later moves, of all places, to Salem, Massachusetts, may cause some to wonder. The wrongfully convicted lament an insensitive legal system in the film's end, but the filmmakers' treatment of the crime scene photos in its opening montage is also insensitive.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 121 minutes. Shooting took place in Arkansas. The film was screened at several festivals and seemingly enjoyed a general release in just one market (Brazil of all places) before screening at HBO. It was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to Undefeated. It was also nominated for 2 Emmys and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Berlinger returned with Under African Skies (2012, documentary); Sinofsky with 4 TV credits, starting with Oprah's Master Class: Special Edition (2012, TV movie). Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is fresh at 100 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best Action Comedy of the Year + Best Revenge Movie of the Year
Four armed men and a teenage girl are standing in a barn on the smile-inducing poster for Anders Thomas Jensen's Riders of Justice
Marcus returns from active soldier's duty far away, when his wife's life ends in a mysterious train accident. He struggles to meet their teenager daughter eye to eye, when a couple of strange men turn up to tell him that the accident was no accident.
Riders of Justice is written and directed by great Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen (Flickering Lights/Blinkende Lygter (2001)) with Nikolaj Arcel (Klatretøsen (2002)) contributing story elements.
We are back in classic Jensen turf with a male-dominated story with deformity, pent-up anger, violence and the randomness of existence on the menu. Riders of Justice is a hilarious comedy; it also has a couple of genuinely moving scenes, impressive in their far-out action-comedy context, featuring the mesmerizing talent of Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt /Jagten (2012)) as the beleaguered Marcus and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Kandidaten (2008)) as his new friend Otto, who has gone through a similar ordeal in losing his wife. There is a framing story on the film about a bicycle purchase in Estonia, which is also very neat and finally also moving, helped along by the power of music. (In this case Nicolas Bro (Dræberne fra Nibe (2017)) on a French horn (!), which sounds beautiful!!)
The film is punchy and doesn't duck neither action nor dramatically related scenes and dialog. The world is a dark and ruthless place, but it packs both good and bad. The plot may be said to have more than its fair share of incredible coincidences; but on the same time the conclusion of it cleverly implies that even incredible coincidences do not point to correlations or meanings, necessarily. SPOILER Randomness is the guiding principle often in life, and in this case Marcus and his team kill countless (terrible) criminals based on a faulty deduction of facts.
Personally I still relish Jensen's preceding film most in his body of work, the outrageously weird and funny Men & Chicken/Mænd og Høns (2015), but Riders of Justice is strictly speaking just as good, especially due to the rich gallery of characters that are invoked: Bro as the obese face recognition expert and guns enthusiast; Gustav Lindh (All Inclusive (2017)) as a kind and wise Ukranian trafficking victim who comes under the team's wings; and Lars Brygmann (King's Game/Kongekabale (2004)), who arguably takes the cake as an abuse victim hacker with extraordinary abilities and issues. Andrea Heick Gadeberg (Daniel/Ser Du Månen Daniel (2019)) carries her weight effortlessly as Marcus' strong daughter.
Watch a short clip of Brygmann as Lennart from the film here
Cost: 39 mil. DKK, approximately 6.24 mil. $
Box office: 2.4 mil. $ and counting
[Riders of Justice was released 19 November (Denmark) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in Funen, Denmark. The film sold 125k tickets in its first weekend in Denmark, where it has topped 150k tickets after less than 10 days and is poised to exceed 750k tickets in coming weeks in the languished China Virus film landscape, possibly becoming Jensen's top-grossing film to date. Due to the pandemic the film does not have releases scheduled in foreign markets yet. Jensen does not have his next project announced yet. Mikkelsen returns in Chaos Walking (2021); Kaas does not have his next gig announced yet. 619 IMDb users have given Riders of Justice a 8.4/10 average rating.]
+ Best Historical Drama of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year
Two uniformed army men in old-time France stand face to face on this poster for Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy
In 1894 a swift military court condemns Jewish captain Dreyfuss as a traitor and sends him to reclusion for life on Devil's Island, relying on the scrambled evidence gathered by an intelligence director ill with syphilis. His replacement digs deeper and discovers that a miscarriage of justice has occurred.
An Officer and a Spy is written by Robert Harris (Fatherland (1994, TV movie), based on his novel), adapting his own same-titled 2013 novel, and French/Polish master co-writer/director Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water/Nóz w Wodzie (1962)), whose 22nd feature it is. The film may well become the last in the master filmmaker's body of work, as he is 87 years now and just about castigated from today's moralistic, blood-thirsty film community for his 1977 sex case (he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in Los Angeles, 13 year-old Samantha Geimer, but fled punishment). The film is not among Polanski's career's tallest achievements, but as a historical drama about one of the most talked about scandals in modern Western history, An Officer and a Spy is sober, well-made and fully engaged. But the sad implicit context - that Polanski feels similar to the wrongfully convicted, disgraced Dreyfuss, - cannot but leave an invisible shadow over An Officer and a Spy. Jean Dujardin (Ca$h (2008)) is superb as the admittedly antisemitic Picquart, who comes to lead the small Paris intelligence bureau and champion the effort to establish the actual truth - and exonerate Dreyfuss. His fencing duel with his antagonistic right-hand man Henry (a great Grégory Gadebois (Goodbye Morocco (2012))) is terrific. Louis Garrel (Love Songs/Les Chansons d'Amour (2007)) portrays the vulnerability and agony of the 'wrong man' convictee, Dreyfuss with fervor and empathy. And Emmanuelle Seigner (Giallo (2009)) is exquisite as Picquart's secret love. The serious approach by Harris/Polanski is far from the vivid plot game of their previous collaboration, thriller masterpiece The Ghost Writer (2011), leaving little room for Alexandre Desplat's (Unbroken (2014)) classical Polanski-style score. An Officer and a Spy is especially for those historically interested audiences and plays out like a 19th century-set John le Carré novel, but its themes of treason, lies, deceit, a conspiracy in the intelligence and military top, as well as prejudice, racial hatred and injustice are as relevant today as they were in the 1890s.
Cost: 24-28 mil. $ (different reports) Box office: 18.8 mil. $ and counting = Too early to say for sure, but looks like a huge flop (has returned around 0.78 times its cost for now) [An Officer and a Spy premiered 30 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 132 minutes. No less than 15 companies and governmental and European support bodies were involved in the financing and production of the film. Filming was scheduled for 2014 in Warsaw, Poland, when Polanski's sex case came in the way, as Poland officially deliberated whether they would extradite him to face justice in the US. Shooting with a lavish 60 mil. € budget in Paris in 2016 was also delayed due to the unavailability of a star. Shooting eventually took place in France, including Paris, from November 2018 - March 2019. The film is not set to release in North America, where distributors are wary of offending the politically correct in power, as well as the masses, who oppose Polanski, - and the demand for this type of film is regrettably likely small there in any case. The release has also been ruined by the China-virus pandemic. Its 3 biggest markets to date are France with 11.9 mil. $ (63.3 % of the total gross to date), Italy with 3.7 mil. $ (19.7 %) and Spain with 1.3 mil. $ (6.9 %). The film won 3/12 César award nominations, is nominated for a David di Donatello award, 4 European Film awards, and won 4 prizes in Venice, among other honors. Polanski does not have an announced next film. Dujardin returns inOSS 117: Alerte Rouge en Afrique Noire(2021). An Officer and a Spy is fresh at 77 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of An Officer and a Spy?
+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Car Movie of the Year + Best Crime-Drama of the Year + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year
One of cinema's biggest stars ever looks reprovingly at us with a rifle before his title car on this poster for Clint Eastwood's own Gran Torino
Walt Kowalski is a Korea War veteran and retired car plant worker in Detroit who has just lost his wife. His sons want to move him to a home for the old. His neighbors are Asians of a culture Kowalski doesn't know. And the local church father wants him to confess his sins.
Gran Torino is written by Nick Schenk (The Judge (2014)), with Dave Johannson contributing story elements, and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)), whose 29th feature it is. Eastwood is brilliant and seems to end his on-screen career in the rightest way possible here, - although the movie wasn't his last as an actor. (The legend had a great co-starring performance in Trouble with the Curve (2012)) and a probably last starring turn in the fine The Mule (2018).) His movie star tough guy, super independent vigilante persona, however, comes beautifully full circle in Gran Torino. Schenk's dialog is ingenious, and Gran Torino is that rare vehicle that is both tremendously funny, entertaining and dramatically charged: It is about important themes: Prejudice, tolerance, knowing right from wrong, taking a stand and standing up straight, but most importantly, it is about what it means to be a real man. Together with Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road, Gran Torino was my greatest cinema experience in 2008. Both are American masterpieces.
Watch a short home video release teaser for the film here
Cost: Estimated 33 mil. $ Box office: 269.9 mil. $ = Mega-hit (returned 8.17 times its cost) [Gran Torino premiered December 9 (California) and runs 116 minutes. According to Schenk, he had had the basic idea since the early 1990s and wrote the script in a bar in Minneapolis; he says 'not a syllable' was changed in the script, when it was sold. The scene was changed from Minneapolis to Detroit, partly for a newly instated 42 % tax credit there. A large cast of amateur Laos Hmong actors were employed for the film for the first time in mainstream film history. Shooting took place for just 5 weeks in Michigan, including Detroit from July - ? 2008. The film opened #20 for a 271k $ weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #1 and in 3,045 theaters (different weeks), staying another 4 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#2-#3-#5) and grossing 148 mil. $ (54.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 27.8 mil. $ (10.3 %) and Spain with 19 mil. $ (7 %). It was Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date, since then surpassed by his American Sniper (2014). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, won an AFI award, a César award, a David di Donatello award and 3 National Board of Review awards, among other honors, but was missed completely by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Vocal debate flourished among the Hmong minority and other Asian groups following the release with some in favor of the portrayal and some critical. In excess of 4 mil. DVD copies and 332k Blu-rays were sold in the North-American home video market were sold, accruing further 72.4 mil. $. IMDb's users have voted the film in at #176 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Stalker (1979) and The Truman Show (1998). Eastwood returned with Invictus (2009) as director and in Trouble with the Curve (2012) as an actor. Gran Torino is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.12/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Gran Torino?
+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year + Best Stockholm Movie of the Year + Best Swedish Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Claes Bang
A striking and mysterious poster for Ruben Östlund's The Square
The Square it the 5th fiction feature from Swedish master writer-director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure/Turist (2014)). The curator of a prestigious, central Stockholm art museum feels his life come apart by its seems, as he acts upon becoming the victim of a trick theft, while also welcoming a foreign journalist and a new art installation into his life. Claes Bang (Anna Pihl (2006-08)) gives an impressive performance as the Danish curator Christian, his greatest role yet, which may open an international breakthrough for him. It is a complex role that he succeeds in making sympathetic for the most part, which makes the character's bad decisions so much more cringe-worthy and objectionable. Bang acts as our guy here, and he couldn't do a better job. His mistakes constitute some of the questions the film asks of us: How do we personally deal with the less fortunate we come across in our daily lives? The homeless? The strangers? Are we prejudiced and in which ways? Do we truly interact with our family members, or are we miles apart? - And is that how we prefer things, at heart? How do we treat the people we work with, and especially those serving under us? Östlund's stance here on his countrymen, privileged Swedes and Scandinavians, and Westerners in general, I presume we can broaden his perspective to include, is quite gloomy: SPOILER The Square pitches us against our ancestor the ape more than once, and the implication seems to be that we are slightly evolved apes, who as modern people seem to have regressed socially, from, say, 50 years ago, to a crowd that today are more egotistical and hypocritical than ever. Thank God the film is also very very funny. It gets its piercing societal and human critique across often through absurdly humorous scenes, and it is brimming with ambitious, often lengthy scenes that are outrageous, provocative, stressful, uncomfortable - and hilarious. In supporting parts Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale (2017-18)) is terrific as the visiting journalist, SPOILER and you can look forward to a strikingly well-made sex scene between her and Bang. Fredrik Wenzel's (The Ape/Apan (2009)) cinematography is apt here as throughout. Christopher Læssø (Scratch/Bagland (2003)) is very good in a key role as Christian's assistant, and Terry Notary (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)) is frightening and magnetic as a gorilla-imitating performance artist. While the music motif made me think of the works of another great Swedish cinema artist with a flair for both humor and societal critique, Roy Andersson, The Square has a clear connection to Östlund's own mission as also reflected in his startling, original Force Majeure, one that continually prods modern man and his institutions and exhibits hypocrisy and existential anxiety in many forms. The Square is a rich experience that invites conversation and analysis, - besides the initial laughs and bouts of cold sweats. It even has a few things left unclear in the way that great films sometimes have, where they are not unexplained threads but conscious mysteries left in, seemingly, just to bother us and remind us that real life also can't all be explained. And The Square is probably most of all meant to do just that; bother us. It does so with rare, invigorating talent and drive. Related post: Ruben Östlund: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 2017 in films - according to Film Excess Force Majeure/Turist (2014) or, Swedes in Trouble
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 5.5 mil. $ Box office: 2 mil. $ and counting = Too early to say [The Square premiered 20 May (Cannes) and runs 142 minutes. The film is a Swedish-German-Danish-French co-production of no less than 13 companies. Filming took place from June - October 2016 in Berlin, Germany and Sweden, including in Stockholm. Östlund for most of filming reportedly focused on one scene a day, doing each one up to 50 times. The film won the Palm d'Or in Cannes under jury president Pedro Almodóvar and is Sweden's entry for the 2018 Oscars. It opened the previous weekend in North America in 4 theaters to a 76k $ first weekend at #32. Whether Magnolia Pictures will broaden it now is unknown, (but they should.) The film opened #1 in Sweden with the biggest Swedish film's opening there of 2017 so far, selling 22k tickets. It is set to open in more European markets and Argentina in November and December with a UK release following in March 2018. The Square is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The Square?
Minimalistic, elegant poster for Sean Penn's The Crossing Guard
QUICK REVIEW:
Freddy visits strip clubs and cursorily runs his jewel business. When the man who killed his daughter in a DUI accident gets released from jail, Freddy has to confront his inner demons. Because of Jack Nicholson's (The Shining (1980)) feat of strength here, which many fail to recognize, and helped by solid secondary performances from Robin Wright (A Most Wanted Man (2014)), David Morse (The Hurt Locker (2008)), Angelica Huston (The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)) and others, Crossing Guard shines strongly, in my view. It is well-written and -directed by Sean Penn (Into the Wild (2007)), who is a master director as well as a class actor. Here he has staged the story showing great sensitivity for the realistically balanced drama. The film is heightened by fine camera work by great Hungarian cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Deliverance (1972)) and the last score by the great Jack Nitzsche (Stand By Me (1986)). The film even has a fine, cathartic ending SPOILER by the grave-site. The Crossing Guard is a really good film, (even if many will (wrongfully) tell you that Penn and Nicholson's second collaboration, The Pledge (2001), is better.) Penn is busy at the moment putting his last touches on his next film as a director, the Africa-themed The Last Face, starring his wife Charlize Theron.
Watch the admittedly pretty lousy trailer for the film here
Cost: 9 mil. $ Box office: 0.8 mil. $ (US only) = Mega-flop [The film's total defeat at the American box office (I have no foreign numbers, besides that ca. 244k paid admission to see it in France) is pretty strange. Did Miramax drop it in the toilet, distribution- and marketing-wise, and if so, why? The film definitely deserved a much better commercial reception than it got.] What do you think of The Crossing Guard? And Penn's other films as a director?
