The Crimson Rivers (2000)

 ☆ ☆ ½

The Crimson Rivers (2000) – M. Kassovitz

A star-studded French serial killer thriller offered a lot of promise and started off strong and gritty, albeit with some clichéd characters for this genre.  Jean Reno plays the jaded police commissioner who does not play by the rules, brought in to investigate a gruesome murder in the French Alps.  In a separate plot strand, Vincent Cassel plays another investigator who ignores the rules and can be a bit of a hot-head, investigating the desecration of a girl’s tomb, presumably by some Nazi skinheads.  Naturally, the two investigations come together in a focus on a prestigious but secluded University in the mountains.  Members of the Faculty are picked off one-by-one, with the serial killer using one death to point out clues to the next.  Reno suspects alumnus Nadia Farès who has a chip on her shoulder against the university (but still works there, helping to divert avalanches from descending on the school).  She is also his presumed love interest.  With its strong cast – and direction by actor Matthieu Kassovitz (who was so great in the political spy series, The Bureau) – things hold together well, until suddenly they don’t.  Reputedly, Vincent Cassel complained that he could never understand the plot and this permanently damaged his relationship with Kassovitz.  Reno returned for a sequel and a couple of decades later a French TV series appeared.  However, I’m with Cassel – this does not add up.  

Pitch Black (2000)

☆ ☆

Pitch Black (2000) – D. Twohy

Somewhere, I saw this praised as a guilty pleasure (was it really Bong Joon-Ho?) but my reaction was this Vin Diesel vehicle is a rather ordinary, even boring, Alien rip-off.  The formula is quite common – an eclectic band of survivors confronts an unknown enemy and are slowly picked off one-by-one until the one or two who remain manage to escape or best the monsters.  Of course, each of the ragtag group is a stereotype because this is not the type of film where a great deal of effort is put on developing the characters.  Apart from Radha Mitchell and Vin Diesel, I found it difficult to keep them straight.  This was Diesel’s breakthrough role but he doesn’t seem particularly charismatic (I haven’t watched his more recent films).  The plot involves a long-haul spacecraft crashlanding on a planet with aliens who only come out in the dark – and Diesel is a convicted murderer (being transported by a bounty hunter) who has had surgery on his eyes so he can see best in the dark.  The planet with three suns seems safe – until there is an eclipse when all hell breaks loose.  The movie spawned several sequels.  It isn’t worth seeing, even if you are (as I was) unable to concentrate on anything more taxing than action fare.  Re-watch Alien (1979) instead.

Almost Famous (2000)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Almost Famous (2000) – C. Crowe

First things first, I accidentally watched the Director’s Cut of the film which is 162 minutes long (40 minutes longer than the released film, which I haven’t seen).  I’m not certain whether the extra time benefits the film or reduces its quality.  There were a few places where things felt long or indulgent.  But, of course, the whole premise is pretty indulgent – this is the story of Cameron Crowe’s experience as a teen journalist for Rolling Stone touring with The Allman Brothers (here replaced by a fictional band, Stillwater, starring Billy Crudup and Jason Lee).  Crowe wrote and directed the film and gives himself a pretty glorified part.  Moreover, taking place in the early 1970s, the action onscreen is also indulgent, in that there is lots of drinking and drug use (although this is mostly implied because the film seems somehow to be aiming for family friendly, despite the debauchery).  Which brings me to the question of whether this film feels “right” in the era of #MeToo.  In fact, it doesn’t.  Kate Hudson is the groupie with the heart of gold and, although the film acknowledges that she is treated badly by the band, it doesn’t really make any effort to condemn that treatment, at least not strenuously.  Instead, it is nostalgic good times all the way and the rockin’ soundtrack doesn’t hurt that sentiment one bit.  Crowe spends his time trying to depict the emotional journey of the hero (himself, played wide-eyed by Patrick Fugit) and he does manage to capture wistful naivete pretty well (a la your typical coming-of-age story), including a delayed coda that makes it all right.  A few scenes do suggest that the film could have verged into Spinal Tap territory, but it doesn’t (too bad).  However, this may be the only fiction film to ever have someone play Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and that’s worth the price of admission on its own.  

Ginger Snaps (2000)

☆ ☆ ☆

Ginger Snaps (2000) – J. Fawcett

It is perhaps too easy to be too hard on genre films, particularly if the genre is given to certain excesses as is the case with the teen horror film.  However, setting aside the inevitable descent into prosthetic creature masks and bloody messes, there is something different and interesting about this low budget Canadian film.  For one thing, the focus is squarely on two sisters, weird kids who don’t fit in with their peers and who have a suicide pact.  For another, the transformation into a werewolf is explicitly equated with the transformation of a girl to a woman. Yes, some of the blood on display is from menstruation. So, is this a tale of empowerment? Is female sexuality something being championed rather than shamed, exploited, or hidden away? I’m not sure the film is so clear on these points.  It may be better at representing the anxiety involved in the transition/transformation (and mother Mimi Rogers does a solid job at embarrassing the girls) than at making any political points.  (Of course, this is something that female viewers might judge better than me).  Thus, in keeping with werewolf films from the golden age, director John Fawcett (male) and screenwriter Karen Walton (female) don’t really aim for scares in the material but instead focus on the emotional experiences of the werewolf (Katharine Isabelle) and her sister who needs to stop her (Emily Perkins). Until the last 30 minutes when straight genre fans are placated (and one actress is replaced by a thing), the film actually had the makings of a weird high school flick (though not without some clichés of that genre too).  Worth a look?

  

J. S. A.: Joint Security Area (2000)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

J. S. A.: Joint Security Area (2000) – C.-W. Park

No time like the present to watch this mystery-drama that takes place in the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea.  However, despite the apparent focus on the tensions between the two states, threatening to ensnare the whole world, the movie is actually a John Woo-styled look at male bonding across an insurmountable divide (political rather than legal).  Director Chan-Wook Park (whose biggest hit is the notorious Oldboy, 2004) plays with both time and truth, delivering us different versions of the pivotal event (the killing of two soldiers in the North’s gatehouse by a lone Sgt from the South) in flashback based on the legal depositions of those who survived and then on both memories and confessions.  A half-Korean member of the Neutral Nations investigation team (from Switzerland) interviews all of the men involved on both sides of the border; she follows the usual rulebook but is compromised in the end.  Park’s direction is always stylish and he uses a variety of camera moves to keep things interesting (such as a quick pan from character to character).  There’s less action than you would think but tension is maintained until we reach the requisite five-way armed stand-off.  Apparently, Tarantino loved this film and you can see why in the plotting (but not the dialogue).  Kang-Ho Song (excellent in Joon-ho Bong’s Memories of Murder, 2003) is charismatic as the North Korean Sgt but all of the four male principals are solid.   

Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)

☆ ☆ ☆

Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) – J.-H. Bong

The directorial debut from Joon-Ho Bong (Snowpiercer, The Host) is a quirky comedy of sorts about a grad student under pressure who loses it over a neighbour’s barking dog.  A nerdy office worker gets involved in the search for the lost dog(s) and the film follows his story and hers.  There are some eccentric characters and odd moments (yes, they do eat dogs in Korea, apparently) but the whole thing seems designed primarily to demonstrate Bong’s flair as a director.  So, this feels a bit like an audacious show-reel at times and one wonders whether anyone would be interested in this kind of plot otherwise.  And, yes, apparently the film did bomb financially at home.  Nevertheless, it allowed Bong to graduate to better things (Memories of Murder, Mother) en route to his Hollywood blockbuster success.  So, there are some interesting moments here but this is probably only for the curious.