David O'ConnellMIFF 2010: Boy/Dream Home/The Strange Case of Angelica
August 11th 2010 05:41
Boy
After taking the New Zealand box-office by storm, Taika Waititi’s heart-warming comedy Boy will soon be attempting to win just as many hearts across the Tasman. Set in 1984, we’re initially given a hilarious overview from 11 year-old Boy (James Rolleston) through his own narration which sketches out the life he shares with his Nan and brood of siblings. Then there's the prominance of his two heroes – glorified absentee father Alameinn (director Waititi) and Michael Jackson!
When Alameinn re-appears on the scene after a prison stretch with less of an interest in reconnecting with his two sons than locating a stash of money he buried on the property years ago, Boy and his younger siblings go with the flow. An internal conflict arises however when Boy must eventually confront the reality that his father has deep-rooted shortcomings and may not be entirely worthy of the hero worship he has long regarded the man with.
Boy has plenty of rough edges but that's undoubtedly part of its charm, complimenting Rolleston’s natural charisma. The multi-talented Waititi provides many of the best laughs as the far from role model father who on a subliminal level is still deeply scarred by the loss of his wife who died giving birth to Boy’s younger brother. Funny, and occasionally poignant, Boy is a winning, crowd-pleasing delight that never falls into the trap of self-conscious quirkiness. It works as perfect light entertainment yet without shying away from some of the tumultuous events that have darkened this family’s past.
Dream Home
For the same reason that rabid gorehounds continue to re-watch Argento and De Palma films until their final breath, you’ll be chasing down the latest Hong Kong horror spectacular, Dream Home, i.e. for the inventive, memorable set pieces! Slickly made and sticky with the bloody remnants of its many creatively-dispatched victims, director Pang Ho-Cheung unleashes hell - and supersized lashings of gore - with the kind of glee bound to have audiences gasping and laughing madly in the same heartbeat.
You don’t want to mess with a woman who has her eye on an apartment and will demolish any opponents to acquire it. The amazing Josie Ho stars as the ruthless, unnervingly detached Cheng. No wonder this film causes an uproar in its homeland before it was even released. A few of the later deaths might arrive with a tongue-in-cheek element attached but the first two set-pieces will be hard to watch for some people, especially one which involves a pregnant woman on the verge of giving birth.
Dream Home is a riot of bloody excess tenuously linked to satirical jibes about the modern housing crisis and urban congestion. It’s told in a non-linear fashion before we’re offered a late revelation that explains the very uncomplicated reason for Cheng’s rampage. Though uneven and slightly bland when not tossing the claret and innards around, Dream Home is still a monstrous guilty pleasure to savor and perfect for scaring off any pesky unwanted visitors in the years to come.
Angelica. Please stay dead. For the sake of us all.
The Strange Case of Angelica
Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira is 101 years old. I can only conclude that he’s either now clinically insane or has wasted his entire professional career in the wrong vocation. Why would I say this? Well because his latest effort, the laughably amateurish The Strange Case of Angelica, is truly dire and the worst film I’ve ever seen, and ever hope to see at MIFF.
At times whilst watching this car-crash I thought I’d mistakenly stumbled into the rehearsal of a community theatre production. You know how sometimes you sense something amiss and fear the worst even in the opening few minutes of a film? This was a classic case: the opening shot is static, it’s a rainy night but even the torrents of water are unconvincing, clearly being tossed off the surrounding rooftops by untold extras in irregular bursts. Then the nerve-shredding opening piano notes of the world’s most inappropriate pseudo-classical score chime in. The tone was irrevocably set. The ‘acting’ – for want of a better word - that ensued only confirmed my worst held suspicions. This was amateur hour and 90 minutes of torture was forthcoming.
A photographer is hired to take pictures of a dead woman. The dead girl talks to him. Haunts his dreams. He falls in love with her. The landlady keeps making the photographer breakfasts that he never eats. His health fails as he becomes more and more dispirited. Likewise for the audience. Even regurgitating the scant outline of this plot is causing me distress.
The acting is just awful; I mean stupendously bad. The screenplay is directionless and utterly pointless. We, the assembled audience sat there in mutual embarrassment, too afraid to move. Nervous titters fanned out over the congregation like a half-hearted ripple a couple of times: ah ha! Now we get it - maybe this is supposed to be a comedy! Think again.
Some films almost require that a support group be established post-screening so that the abject misery of experiencing something so horrendous be memorialised until the end of our term together on this earth. The Strange Case of Angelica is one such film. If you’re ever offered a choice between an arsenic-laced vat of whiskey and watching this film, remember to take a very long sip. Death will be painless in comparison.
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Comment by Kwenton Bellette
Dreamhome I loved so much, and will re-watch again and again, likewise with Down Terrace, they are that sort of film.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Shame you had to sit through some painful cinematic that insult the medium.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Indeed JD, Bryn saw this at SIFF I believe and gave it a big wrap, especially for those with a taste for blood any way they can get it!