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We’ll be performing some routine maintenance and upgrades to Twitch this Saturday evening. The entire process should only take about 20-30 minutes, but during that time both the site and the forums will be inaccessible. Twitch’s video player, however, will still be up and running.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

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[What follows is the review of Renaissance originally penned by Opus back when the film screened as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. With the DVD releasing on these shores July 24th I am simply updating Opus’ thoughts with a word or two on the DVD release.]

It took seven years for Christian Volckman and his team to bring Renaissance to the big screen. However, if I had to make a guess, I’d say that only about three months of that time was spent working on the storyline. Visually and technically breathtaking, the film is nevertheless riddled by a number of sci-fi/action movie clichés that basically leave one feeling as if they’ve already seen this movie about a dozen times.

The setting is Paris in the year 2054. Karas (voiced by Daniel Craig) is a devoted member of Section K, specializing in kidnapping cases. While very good at his job, he’s a lone wolf prone to doing whatever it takes to solve a case—much to his superiors’ chagrin. Karas’ latest case involves the abduction of a woman named Ilona, a well-respected researcher who works for the Avalon Company, a powerful-yet-shady bio-medical firm that has much of the city in its grasp.

Karas joins forces with Ilona’s older sister Bislane (voiced by Catherine McCormack), who turns out to be something of a rebel and a hothead. As he works on the case, he begins uncovering information about Ilona’s involvement in a top-secret project involving the human genome, a project that has far-reaching implications. Of course, Avalon has a huge interest in the project, and so they have their own forces at work on the case, and aren’t afraid to eliminate anyone who gets in their way.

Continue Reading "Renaissance Review"...

I don’t post much around these parts unless I happen to be up in Toronto for the odd film festival.  However, I found this news too exciting to ignore.

If you want to get me to listen to a band, no questions asked, you just have to say one word: “shoegazer”.  If there’s a musical genre that I’d call my favorite, it’d be this seemingly obscure one that arose out of the U.K. in the late 1980s.  Albums by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Lush, Catherine Wheel, and The Boo Radleys are still in constant rotation here at Opus HQ, and they still sound as revolutionary and breathtaking as ever.

And so not surprisingly, I was really excited to discover that a documentary is being made about the genre.  Entitled Beautiful Noise, the film looks at shoegazing: its origins, its main figures, and its continuing impact on popular music today.

To that end, director Eric Green has amassed a considerable list of interviewees: Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), Robin Guthrie (The Cocteau Twins), Robert Smith (The Cure), Neil Halstead (Slowdive), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips)—to name a few.  Looks to me like the man’s been doing his homework over the last few years.

The film is nearing completion; no release date has been set.

Hypnagogia Films—Under construction
“MBV, JAMC, Corgan, Coyne, Reznor in Shoegaze Doc”—Pitchfork article on the documentary

Wikipedia Entry On Shoegazing

[TIFF Info Page Here]

It took seven years for Christian Volckman and his team to bring Renaissance to the big screen. However, if I had to make a guess, I’d say that only about three months of that time was spent working on the storyline. Visually and technically breathtaking, the film is nevertheless riddled by a number of sci-fi/action movie clichés that basically leave one feeling as if they’ve already seen this movie about a dozen times.

The setting is Paris in the year 2054. Karas (voiced by Daniel Craig) is a devoted member of Section K, specializing in kidnapping cases. While very good at his job, he’s a lone wolf prone to doing whatever it takes to solve a case—much to his superiors’ chagrin. Karas’ latest case involves the abduction of a woman named Ilona, a well-respected researcher who works for the Avalon Company, a powerful-yet-shady bio-medical firm that has much of the city in its grasp.

Karas joins forces with Ilona’s older sister Bislane (voiced by Catherine McCormack), who turns out to be something of a rebel and a hothead. As he works on the case, he begins uncovering information about Ilona’s involvement in a top-secret project involving the human genome, a project that has far-reaching implications. Of course, Avalon has a huge interest in the project, and so they have their own forces at work on the case, and aren’t afraid to eliminate anyone who gets in their way.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Renaissance Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s previous feature, 2003’s Last Life In The Universe is what I would consider to be a “comfort film”. That is, regardless of whatever mood I’m in, I can slip in the DVD and within five minutes, instantly become entranced by its gentle, dreamlike pace, gorgeous visuals, light humor, drifting music, and enjoyable characters. It’s no exaggeration to say that Last Life In The Universe is easily one of my favorite films to have come out in the last five years or so.

So when Ratanaruang’s next film, Invisible Waves, was announced, I was obviously both excited and nervous. Excited to see more of Ratanaruang’s work, but also nervous as to how the new film would stack up to a film that has become such a beloved favorite of mine. And so, as excited as I was, I deliberately tried to keep my expectations in check. I tried to shy away from any pre-release buzz, just to keep myself as grounded and realistic as possible concerning Invisible Waves.

However, as much as it pains me to say this, I still found Invisible Waves to be a great disappointment, even with adjusted expectations. Invisible Waves certainly has all of the things you’d expect from Ratanaruang: languid pacing, quirky-yet-lonely characters making fragile attempts at connection, and flashes of surreal humor. However, the result is a film that feels less like a proper follow-up of Last Life In The Universe, and more like someone merely trying to ape Ratanaruang’s style.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Invisible Waves Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

There was a stretch of about 15 minutes or so where I thought Johnnie To was simply going to ruin Exiled, his companion piece to 1999’s The Mission. A stretch where all of the things that have killed his films in the past—uneven pacing and plot development, incredibly silly humor, and poor characterization—was rearing its ugly head. But alas, I think I should’ve had more faith in the man, especially after I saw the masterpiece that is Election 1+2 (my review) the previous night.

Suffice to say, To pulled it off, brilliantly bringing about an already-satisfying film to a fitting conclusion. Once again, To has proven just how good he is. Let’s face it, the man’s on a hot streak right now.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Exiled Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

For a long time, I’ve never really been able to understand the praise heaped upon Johnnie To. Sure, he makes great-looking films that ooze with style and are peppered with fantastic action sequences. From a technical standpoint, few directors are his equal, especially in the realm of Hong Kong cinema. But To’s movies are often also full of poorly-realized, unsympathetic characters, storylines that end up going nowhere, and flashes of absurd humor that feel more forced than anything else (and certainly aren’t very funny).

That has completely changed with the Election movies, two films that delve directly into the heart of the Hong Kong Triad culture and then proceed to drive a stake through it. Election 1 and Election 2—which are best viewed as one long epic—are a perfect blend of To’s excellent sense of style, fully-realized characters, and a plot that ends with several gutwrenching twists.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Election 1+2 Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

Perhaps the highest praise that I can give Reha Erdem’s award-winning Times And Winds is that it it made me very frightened of ever becoming a father. Obviously, as somewhat recent newlyweds, my wife and I have discussed having children, and I have imagined what it’d be like to run around with my kids, teaching them to play catch, answering life’s hard questions, passing on my accumulated wisdom, and so on. You know, the fun, Hallmark type of stuff. However, I’ve never thought much about discipline, of how I might punish my children for the wrong they but in a loving, truly parenting manner.

There’s a Japanese proverb that says there are four things to be feared in life: earthquakes, thunder, fires, and fathers. This fear—and hatred—of fathers and their hard ways is the core theme of Times And Winds. Set in a remote Turkish village located high in the mountains, the film primarily focuses on two young pre-teen boys who are always chafing under the rule of their fathers.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Times And Winds Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

In this day and age where the term “fairy tale” has become synonymous with cleaned up, whitewashed, Disney-fied “family entertainment”, it’s easy to forget that many of the great classic fairy tales are, at their core, incredibly dark, twisted, and horrific. The villains are not merely poor, misguided souls who but need a little tolerance or political correctness to turn over a new leaf. Rather, they are vile through and through, not above torturing little children, abandoning them in the wilderness, and planning to serve them for dinner.

This is something, however, that Pan’s Labyrinth, the latest film from Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, The Devil’s Backbone) is fully aware of. Folks will probably get the impression from the various trailers and promo materials, or from the fact that the main character is a young girl, that this film is a whimsical little coming-of-age story about a child and the adventures she has with some cute forest creatures. This could not be farther from the truth.

Pan’s Labyrinth is incredible dark, incredibly violent, and not at all “family entertainment”. People, including children, are shot, tortured, get their faces crushed and sliced apart, magical creatures bloodily devour eachother, and so on. However, while the film is quite graphic in places, it is not at all gratuitous; Del Toro is too smart and talented a filmmaker and storyteller to allow the violence to overshadow or trivialize the story and its emotional impact. As Frederick Beuchner has pointed out, it’s specifically because the classic fairy tales are so dark, violent, and bloody that they become powerful, magical, and affecting. As such, Pan’s Labyrinth is a truly modern classic fairy tale.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Pan’s Labyrinth Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

Perhaps it’s my own religious upbringing, or maybe my psychological makeup, but stories involving characters wrestling with guilt, who seek to atone for actions of their past, almost always prove to be fascinating for me. And Pavel Lounguine’s The Island is certainly no different. Pyotr Mamonov plays Father Anatoly, a man who has been living with a terrible secret for thirty years.

While a sailor during World War II, he was forced by the Nazis to shoot his captain, only to be left for dead himself when they blow up his ship. After washing up on the shores of an Orthodox monastery’s island, he becomes a monk and devotes the remainder of his days to atoning for his terrible deed.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: The Island Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

Based on a series of popular novels by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Alatriste is the most expensive Spanish-language film ever made in Spain, and that is certainly obvious in every single frame of the film, which is gorgeous through and through. However, Alatriste is proof yet again that even the biggest budget can’t save a film if it’s lacking a solid storyline and well-developed characters.

It’s the 17th century, and Spain is in her twilight years. The kingdom’s grasp still extends around the world, but the grasp is growing weaker as time passes. The most pressing concern is the hotly contested region of Flanders, which continues to resist the Spanish Crown, and even worse, is home to heretics. Spain continues to pour its resources into the Flanders campaign, and the soldiers who survive as veterans of these battles are recognized as some of the finest warriors in the kingdom.

The most renowned of these warriors is Diego Alatriste (Viggo Mortensen), who is famous for his bravery and cunning in battle. Despite not being an officer, all of the men refer to him as Captain, a symbol of their respect. During one particularly violent fight, one of Alatriste’s men is felled in battle. Before he dies, the man tells Alatriste of his son Iñigo. Honor-bound to his companion, Alatriste takes Iñigo as his squire, attempting to resist the young man’s wishes to become a soldier.

It makes all the sense in the world that the relationship between the tired warrior and the young, naive squire should be the emotional and dramatic core of the film—which makes it doubly puzzling that it’s barely there as a storyline. This is indicative of the movie’s biggest flaw, a complete lack of a central storyline, which is due to its attempts to essentially cram a series’ worth of events into 135 minutes.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Alatriste Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

Santiago Amigorena’s Quelques Jours En Septembre is set in the days leading up the infamous events of September 11, and according to the TIFF programmers, is a “high-voltage tale of espionage, betrayal and financial hijinks”. Methinks the programmers gave the film too much credit in that regard. Yes, there’s some espionage, betrayal, and financial hijinks, but to call it “high-voltage” is to dramatically oversell the film.

Juliette Binoche plays Irene, an agent who supposedly works with for the French government, but whose allegiances often seem a bit on the blurry side. Her latest mission is to rendezvous with the children of a former colleague/American agent named Elliot (Nick Nolte), who has been also working undercover for some decidedly non-American individuals. Elliot wishes to contact his children one last time before disappearing forever, but Irene’s mission is daunting from the very getgo… and the kids aren’t too much of a help.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Quelques Jours En Septembre Review"...

[TIFF Info Page Here]

I’ll be right upfront; Macbeth already had one strike against it before the film even started rolling. I have an innate dislike for almost any modern, literal adaptation of Shakespeare, or of any “classic” work for that matter. There’s something about the disconnect of seeing modern folks in modern clothes who drive modern cars and live in modern houses speaking 17th century dialog. Some might find such an approach to be “novel”, or that it’s a good way to “update” classic works. I, on the other hand, find such an approach to be laughable at best, and more often than not, grating.

Upon reading that Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) would be recasting Macbeth, one of the Bard’s most famous plays, as an ultra-violent gangster action film, I had hopes that such an approach might have the necessary energy to transcend my initial doubts. After all, there’s nothing a little cinematic violence can’t improve. But alas, no such luck—there’s plenty of sound and fury to go around in Macbeth, but really nothing significant.

Macbeth is just further proof that modern Shakespeare adaptations always make for, as the festival description of Macbeth puts it, “torpid cinema”. And as always, it all comes down to the disconnect.

Continue Reading "TIFF Report: Macbeth Review"...