The Front Line (Go-ji-jeon) - 3.5/10: is a Korean film, and their official submission to the Oscars this year, following the last days of the Korean War as a South Korean troupe and a North Korean troupe continue to battle over a particular hill. This was pretty awful. It felt as if the writer and director had just watched every classic war film and pulled out every cliche and caricature from those, then mushed them all together in this film. It was long, boring, and overly sentimental. Easily the worst South Korean film I've seen in ages. It didn't help that the VIFF crew was seemingly playing a DVD screener of the film; there was a burnt in logo at the top of the screen the entire time, the audio was difficult to hear at times, and there was horrible macroblocking throughout. Get your freaking act together VIFF, not only does it make me feel like I wasted my money, but it's disrespectful to the film maker to show the film in this way.
The Prize (Der Preis) 5.5/10: is a German film following a guy who returns to his East German town to develop his old block and encounters some old friends, stirring up old emotions. There are extensive use of flashbacks to the main characters youth showing him and his friends' struggles with life under the communist government and juxtaposing that with how things are now. It's a pretty quiet, contemplative film that has some good character work from the main character, but I think the constant flashbacks left me feeling a little disconnected with the characters, so the impact of certain things that happen later on were somewhat diminished. This is certainly not bad and I was never bored, but there are better films on this subject.
Kill List - 8/10 I'm a bit torn on this one. I absolutely loved the first 85% or so of this film, but it takes a very strange turn near the end that left me a little bewildered. The main story of these two hitmen hired to take out a list of nefarious individuals is awesome; it's raw, visceral, and gruesomely violent at times, grabbing you by the scruff and taking you through this dirty world of heinous acts. It's also nicely paralleled with the home life of one of the main characters, but what Ben Wheatley does later on confuses me to the point where I think I will need to see it again to grasp what really happened there. The first part of the film made on its own made it worthwhile and maybe I just need to do some reading to figure out where things turned. I really hope someone else here sees this so I can get their thoughts.
Bullhead (Rundskop) - 8/10 is the Belgian submission to the Oscars for next year and it's a very solid crime thriller. It follows the illegal beef hormone trade in Belgium and the various factions involved, both Flemish and French, in the illegal activity. The main character is an absolute bull of a man himself; dark and brooding, with some underlying psychosis, but which all makes perfect sense later in the film. It's relatively straightforward as far as these types of films go, but first time writer/director Michael R. Roskam does some great camera work and injects some quality dialogue to make it an enjoyable ride. He probably could have shaved about 10 minutes or so off the final product for a tighter film, but that's a pretty minor criticism. Mayeb they could have skipped the cow caesarean?
Without - 9/10 from another first time writer/director, this time from the Pacific Northwest. We are essentially flies on the wall watching a young girl who has moved to a remote cabin in Washington to take care of a man in a vegetative state while his family is out of town. I loved this movie and I really have no idea why. Nothing really happens; there are long scenes with no dialogue and red herrings too numerous to count, but I was riveted by this film. It's quite minimalist, but it looks great and as you see this young lady deal with the isolation and the problems with her past, well it's just fascinating. I keep thinking about this one; it really stuck with me for whatever reason. The main girl was awesome and since she is on screen about 99% of the time, that's pretty important. I could have watched her living this life for several more days. Strangely fascinating film and one of my favourites so far.
Headshot - 4.5/10 A Thai film about an ex cop who becomes a hitman, taking out the supposed evil higher-ups in the world (politicians, businessman, etc.). This was honestly pretty bland which is a shame because I was really looking forward to it. The action was dull and the sloppy character development and dialogue did nothing to offset that. It was predictable and honestly pretty boring, treading absolutely no new ground whatsoever aside from giving the main character a ridiculous defect for, seemingly, the whole purpose of delivering some trite dialogue near the end of the film. It started out ok with a decent sequence showing how he got the defect, plus an ok flashback sequence with him and a protitute, but it was all downhill after that. I think flashbacks are starting to get on my nerves, do you hear me JJ Abrams??!!?
KT