The Orphanage/El Orfanato (2007) - Bayona arrives with memorable, haunting horror

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Star Belén Rueda stands in a dark corridor among what appears to be ghost children on this poster for J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage

A married couple with an adopted son want to reopen an old orphanage, which the woman Laura once lived in, but when their son Simón disappears, the place transforms from a place of promise into a sinful nightmare.

 

The Orphanage is written by Sergio G. Sánchez (7337 (2000, short)) and directed by great Spanish filmmaker, debuting J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls (2016)). The title is a literal translation of the original Spanish title.

SPOILER The house is haunted with masked children in The Orphanage, and there are shocks and a frightening medium scene, in which sound design is used to strike violently upon the gasping viewer. But the film's real brilliance may be the way it so finely balances warmly inviting the audience back to the innocent magic of childhood, - and gruesome, very adult offenses on the contrasting side.

SPOILER The ending is tragic, - but not devastating, - bringing to my mind H.C. Andersen's The Story of a Mother (1847). It perfectly fulfills this fairytale-reminiscent nightmare. Executive producer Guillermo Del Toro's preceding, more widely seen and hailed Pan's Labyrinth (2006) pales in comparison to The Orphanage, I find.

 

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J.A. Bayona: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess

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2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
A Monster Calls (2016) - Bayona forgets the sugar in overly gloomy adaptation turkey

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4 mil. $

Box office: 78.6 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 19.65 times its cost)

[The Orphanage premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, Golden Camera section) and runs 97 minutes. The first draft was written in 1996. Sánchez gave Bayona his script in 2004. With Del Toro's support, the financing came together with 14 production companies and support bodies collaborating. Shooting took place from May - July 2006 in Spain. The film opened #27 to a 233k $ first weekend in 19 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 707 theaters, grossing 7.1 mil. $ (9 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market. Its biggest and 2nd biggest were Spain with 37.7 mil. $ (48 %), - here it was the biggest opening of the year with an 8.3 mil. $ four-day launch, - and Mexico with 11.6 mil. $ (14.8 %). The film was nominated for 5 European Film awards and won 7/14 Goya awards, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. A much talked about US remake never came to fruition. Bayona returned with La Desgracia en 3D (2008, short), Nena Daconte: El Aleph (2009, music video) and theatrically with The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012). Belén Rueda (The Sea Inside/Mar Adentro (2004)) returned in 8 Citas (2008). The Orphanage is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Orphanage?

I Killed My Mother/J'ai Tué Ma Mère (2009) - Dolan's debut is a striking teen rebel siege for the ages

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+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year 
+ Best Canadian Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year (Xavier Dolan) + Sexiest Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year

A wild head of adolescent hair sits in a sea of panicky yellow under the ominous title for Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother

Mommy Chantale lives with her 16 year-old son Hubert alone in a Montreal suburb, but the boy's intense protests against her make the rift between them grow and grow.

20 year-old Canadian writer-director-star Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats/Les Amours Imaginaires (2010)) makes one of the strongest and most persuasive debuts to date with I Killed My Mother, entering the cinema annals as a crystal clear shooting star. And for those who may have doubts about watching this based on its title, let me make it clear that this youth romance drama isn't about actual criminal matricide.
I Killed My Mother is rich on ideas, poetic and visual treats and an undeniable aesthetic sense for beauty. The film has good cinematography by Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron (Blackbird (2012)), and Dolan and Anne Dorval (Mommy (2014)) are powerful as the (putting it mildly) tension-fraught mother-son couple. Dolan's engagement in the film's meaty theme has a personal intensity to it, (the story is semi-autobiographical), dealing with rebelling against and separating from one's mother as well as the difficulties of being a homosexual teenager.
I fell head over heels in love with I Killed My Mother and had to watch it again. I've since reaffirmed that it stands the test of time and revisits. It hits the bull's eye in a way only extremely few debut films manage to do. A both very tender and very volatile work of deep meaning.

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Xavier Dolan: Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Mommy (2014) - Dolan has outdone himself and orchestrated the (probably) best film of the year
Tom at the Farm/Tom à la Ferme (2013) - Intense, eerie sub/dom-themed sex thriller (without sex)
Laurence Anyways (2012) - Dolan serves a stylish, jumbled, massive transsexualism tale 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
Heartbeats/Les Amours Imaginaires (2010) - Dolan's second is the year's guilty pleasure #1

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 0.8 CAD, or approximately 0.636 mil. $
Box office: 394k CAD (Canada only), or approximately 0.313 mil. $
= Uncertain
[I Killed My Mother premiered 18 May (Cannes) and runs 96 minutes. Dolan wrote the script when he was 16. Financing was supported with 0.4 mil. CAD from SODEC, which Dolan later called "an obsolete financing mechanism". Filming took place in Dolan's native Québec, Canada, including in Montreal. The film premiered to an 8-minute standing ovation in Cannes, where it won 3 side competition prizes. The film was mostly screened at a long row of festivals, but also enjoyed small releases in countries like Russia and Turkey. It was released in 12 cinemas in Québec and 60 in France, but its grosses from countries besides Canada are regrettably not released. The film was also nominated for a César Award (France's Oscar), and was Canada's official Oscar entry of the year, although it was not nominated. I Killed My Mother is fresh at 81 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Killed My Mother?

After the Storm/海よりもまだ深く (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016) - Koreeda's striking portrayal of a disappointing man

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+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year

The faces of the four main characters of Hirokazu Koreeda's After the Storm adorn this pleasant poster

Ryota is an under-achiever, a gambler and a disappointment to his mother and ex-wife. During the period up to and during the 24th annual typhoon in Japan, he tries to make up for his flaws, especially because he wants to keep his son in his life.

After the Storm is the 12th theatrical fiction feature from Japanese master writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows/Dare mo Shiranai (2004)), who presents another great drama with humanistic insight, once again asserting himself as one of the truly unique and gifted filmmakers around today. The original title is taken from an old Japanese pop song that is heard in the film and which translates to 'even deeper than the sea'; strictly speaking a better title than After the Storm, which only refers to an actual storm that the action takes places around.
The film's unassuming cinematography leaves the space wide open for the actors, and they honor this with some terrific performances: Hiroshi Abe (A Yell from Heaven/Tengoku Kara no Êru (2011)) is right on as Ryota, who is a bum of a man, but one whom Abe's resourceful portrayal makes sympathetic even through his stealing, lying and wasting away of his money. Ryota has loafed through too much of his life with a goal for himself that he hasn't been able to make happen, while he has let the most important things, his nearest relations, fall apart. We come into his life at a time when this becomes crystal clear for himself as well, though he is unable to make up for his flaws and change the way his life has turned out.
All the actors here give honest, terrific performances, but two that especially also deserve singling out are those of Kirin Kiki (Lake of Tears/Umi no Koto (1966)) as Ryota's very direct, endearing mother and young Taiyô Yoshizawa (Kamisama no Wadachi (2017)) as his intelligent son, who may or may not be following in his father's footsteps, more or less inevitably, just as Ryota seems to have followed in his father's.
After the Storm doesn't match the greatness of Koreeda's recent masterpiece Like Father, Like Son/Soshite Chichi ni Naru (2013), and may appeal to a narrower audience, - certainly to Koreeda fans, - simply because it is very talky, deliberately contemplative in its form and may appear slow. It doesn't have much action; much of the plot moves through dialog, and the result is an entirely realistic drama with universally recognizable behavioral patterns and themes such as divorce, unfulfilled ambitions, gambling, parental responsibilities, neglect - all of it seen against Koreeda's stories' usual arena that is Family.
The film wouldn't achieve the level of impact it does if it wasn't for the outstanding dialog as well, which is both character-specific, wise and funny. In fact After the Storm is surprisingly funny; honest and unapologetic in its dealing with Ryota's vices, family strings and Japanese traits. It deals with the past, sometimes nostalgically but also as a burden that needs overcoming daily, and is both poetic and ultimately moving, another Koreeda treasure that shouldn't be missed.

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Hirokazu Kore-eda: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) - Koreeda's magnificent reflection on upbringing and family 
 

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 5.1 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain
[After the Storm premiered 18 May (Cannes' Un Certain Regard section) and runs 117 minutes. Koreeda began thinking up the film in 2001, visiting his mother who lived alone in a housing complex following the death of her husband, Koreeda's father. Shooting lasted 1½ month from May 2014 on, during the year that Koreeda was also shooting his Our Little Sister/Umimachi Diary (2015). 89k paid admission to the film in its opening weekend in Japan, where it grossed 3.1 mil. $ (60.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 815k $ (16 %) and South Korea with 672k $ (13.2 %). In North America, it opened #47 to 27k $ in 6 theaters and peaked at #46 in 35 theaters and grossed 252k $ (4.9 %). The box office sheet is incomplete with several markets missing. The film was nominated for an Asian Film Award. After the Storm is certified fresh at 95 % with a 7.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of After the Storm?

Bad Hair/Pelo Malo (2013) - Rondón's excellent drama of growing up different in a Caracas slum

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+ Best Venezuelan Movie of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year

 

A great poster for Mariana Rondón's Bad Hair, which shows its theme of the difficulties of identity creation in a nutshell

 

Junior lives with his baby brother and single mother, who is struggling to get her security guard job back, in the slums of Caracas, Venezuela. This summer he is obsessed with straightening his unruly hair, which causes his mother extreme worries.

 

Bad Hair is a truly wonderful film, which takes us to a new place, (I and probably most audiences won't be familiar with its setting), where a little, very dear boy (played superbly by debuting Samuel Lange Zambrano) is struggling with his surroundings due to his budding homosexuality. The film is very well-acted and sweet; particularly the portrayed world of the children is funny, - but it is also realistic and grim at times. Its portrayal of Junior's mother, - played by Samantha Castillo (Le Badanti (2015)), - a stressed individual who behaves as a tormented prison guard at their home, and who doesn't really love her son, is tough. It is hard to see her as anything but a just plain bad mother.

Bad Hair is skillfully filmed (by Micaela Cajahuaringa (Postcards from Leningrad (2007))) and at times develops slowly. SPOILER It chooses to leave us with a strong scene with no sugarcoating that highlights the mined mother-son-relationship.

Bad Hair is written and directed by the great Mariana Rondón (At Midnight and a Half/A la Medianoche y Media (1999)) as her third feature. It is a beautiful Venezuelan blues that implicitly screams out for acceptance of sexual minorities.

 

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2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 2.4 mil. $ (Venezuela only)

= Unknown (but likely a box office success or big hit)

[Bad Hair premiered September 7 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. It was shot in Caracas. It has reportedly played in 29 markets, including in a long line of film festivals, where it has likely been a darling. It has won 12 awards, including two at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. It was the 30th highest-grossing movie in its native Venezuela in 2014, indicating a strong national interest and support. Bad Hair is fresh at 94 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bad Hair?

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) - Ramsay's troubling, brilliant masterpiece

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1 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Screenplay: Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsay

9 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Film (lost to The Descendants)
Best Screenplay: Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsay (won)
Best Director: Lynne Ramsay (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)
Best Supporting Actor: Ezra Miller (lost to Michael Shannon for Boardwalk Empire S2)
Best Non-adult Actor: Jasper Newell (lost to Amara Miller for The Descendants)
Best Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey (lost to Phedon Papamichael for The Descendants)
Best Sound (lost to Drive) 
Best Score: Jonny Greenwood (lost to Cliff Martinez for Drive)


+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year (Ezra Miller)
+ Most Upsetting Movie of the Year

Tilda Swinton looks shell-shocked; Ezra Miller looks antagonistic. It's the poster for Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin

Right from his infancy, Kevin doesn't fit in with his mother. The father completely denies the boy's abnormal actions as he grows up, and the mother ends up with a madly asocial and dangerous young man on her hands. 

Visually, Kevin is particularly well made and impressive, with stunning cinematography by Seamus McGarvey (Godzilla (2014)), just as its sound side proceeds in the most beautiful way. The music is by Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood (2007)) of Radiohead.
The story is told in a thrillingly subjective fashion from the mother's point of view. Without losing us along the way, the film commands us all the way into the terrible situation that Tilda Swinton's (Caravaggio (1986)) character finds herself in. We get there also due to formidable performances from Swinton and young Jasper Newell (Meet the Small Potatoes (2013)) and Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) as Kevin at different ages.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is written by Rory Stewart Kinnear (Swimmer (2012), short, music supervisor) and Scottish writer-director Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher (1999)), based on the same-titled 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver (Double Fault (1997)). The film is a true rock in the shoe; it bothers you, and you'll leave it full of questions and thoughts that you'll need to share and discuss with others. It is a masterful film that gives no answers on its own and conveys no message; instead it presents a range of clearly defined, irrefutable problems and circumstances surrounding motherhood, identity creation and child-raising gone terribly wrong.

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2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

Watch the incredible, Buddy Holly-infused trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 9.2 mil. $
= Big flop
[The film was developed since 2005, and funding it was an uphill process that finally succeeded. The film opened successfully in competition at Cannes and was successful in the UK, where it made 2.2 mil. £. It only made disappointing 1.7 mil. $ in the US (18 % of the total gross), despite heaps of critical praise, among which Roger Ebert awarded it 4 out of 4 stars, and scores of nominations and awards, including a Best Actress, Drama Globe nomination for Swinton.]

What do you think of We Need to Talk About Kevin?