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Infernal Affairs 2
IFFR 2008: ABLE DANGER Review
Posted by Ard Vijn at 9:25am.
Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Thriller, USA & Canada, IFFR 2008.
Ardvark here: this is a review for a movie I missed. I’m talking about Paul Krik’s “Able Danger”, a satirical thriller about a spoof conspiracy. Sounds like fun!
But the one slot in my schedule where I was able to plan it in suddenly closed and I had to “abort mission”. A pity as this was a world premiere AND programmed into my favorite part of the festival: “Rotterdämmerung”, where the horror, anime and sci-fi films reside.
Thankfully I’m not the only person in Rotterdam, so a friend of mine was kind enough to step in and write us all a review!
May I introduce to you Kees Geuze, a friend with whom I’ve been visiting the International Film Festival Rotterdam every year, since, like, forever.
The stage is all yours, Kees!
And damn, it seems like I indeed missed something…
“Last night I watched “Able Danger” which had it world premiere at the IFFR just the night before. I went into the theater expecting a political pamphlet played by some left wing activists, but instead I saw a very well made film noir movie about a 9/11 conspiracy theory.
The title of the film refers to the Able Danger project which was an US army project that used advanced technology and data analysis to identify Al Qaeda members around the world. It is claimed that this program identified four of the hijackers from the 9/11 planes but the government refused to arrest these people and ordered the destruction of all data concerning this investigation.
(continued after the break)
.
The plot
The movie follows Thomas Flynn, a coffee shop owner who has written a book about a 9/11 conspiracy theory in which he states that the American government used Mohammed Atta as a patsy and deliberately wanted the 9/11 attacks to happen, to have an excuse to go to war. Thomas meets a beautiful German female agent, who gives him a disc with all the encoded information about the Able Danger project. This girl also claims that a German colleague of her had an affair with Mohammed Atta and that they went out to strip bars and they all ate pork, so much for Atta being a devout Muslim. She asks Thomas for his protection because she fears for her live and has to meet someone dangerous. Because he has to go to a talkshow for an interview Thomas asks a friend of his to accompany her. When he comes back his friend is shot dead, the girl gone and he is suspected of killing the guy she was going to meet…
During the whole movie he is followed by one or more intelligent agencies. Normal shots are constantly followed by surveillance shots from one of these agencies which ads to the conspiracy feel of the movie. The main character of the movie is actually based on a real life person who runs a coffee shop in New York, the director of the movie is a regular visitor there he told us after the screening.
The movie
“Able Danger” is mostly shot in black and white with some dream and news scenes in color alternated with surveillance shots of the main characters. The whole movie has a very professional look and the acting is good. Like every film noir it has several plot changes and several endings too, so don’t leave the theater when the first credits appear on screen. Film noir fans will find quite some references to the classics like Maltese Falcon. Asked about it in a Q&A after the screening director Paul Krik also admitted this.
When you look at the political aspect of the movie you see a lot of similarities with “Zeitgeist: the Movie” like the denouncing of faith, the money theory and the 9/11 thesis.
Since 9/11 I watched a lot of movies en documentaries about the event and its aftermath at the IFFR (it was even a separate program subject here a few years back). As a movie fan I find “Able Danger” the best left wing inspired movie I have seen on the Rotterdam festivals, better than for example last year’s “Death of a President”.
If you want something else than your daily diet of monster movies this is definitely one to watch. “Able Danger” is an entertaining film noir with a political message which will give you and your friends plenty to talk about.”
Ardvark here again: thanks Kees!
I’ve heard other people having fun with this film, and the audience rating has been quite good so far with an average of 3.57 (out of 5).
But what’s this about a “daily diet of monstermovies”? I wish!
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Reader Comments
American Combatant 09/18/2008 @ 6:40am
A few other Critics on ABLE DANGER
“Paul Krik’s stylish, darkly comic conspiracy thriller takes its title from a classified military program alleged to have identified four 9/11 hijackers prior to the terrorist attacks, and borrows its gleaming B&W;look from THE MALTESE FALCON. The film is gorgeously photographed, briskly paced and strikingly handsome despite an indie-sized budget.”
Ken Fox
TV GUIDE
http://movies.tvguide.com/able-danger/review/295289
“Surprisingly entertaining zero-budget film noir that effectively mixes pseudo- Hitchcockian theatrics with a hefty doseof contemporary lefty paranoia.”
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
*Critic’s Pick*
Sara Cardace
http://nymag.com/listings/movie/able-danger/
“NOIR ON ACID. A paranoid fantasy of geek superheroics. Like-minded theorists may ascend from their basements to rally.”
Jeannette Catsoulis
NY TIMES
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/movies/11able.html
“Krik uses flashes of dark comedy, an affection for the film noir genre and the perfect eyebrow-half-cocked attitude towards his subject matter to create a fast-paced and entertaining story… With its black-and-white cinematography and visual imagination (the film mixes in color dream sequences and text-overwritten surveillance footage)… Krik’s low-fi riff on the conspiracy thriller has a charm all its own”
Scott Macaulay
FILMMAKER MAGAZINE
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2008/02/rotterdam-able-danger.php
“Knocks along with the steady heartbeat pace of a thriller and is painted in the languid, low contrast shadows of a noir.”
Michele Orange
VILLAGE VOICE
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-09-10/film/able-danger/
“Able Danger is a slick debut feature…. An update of The Parallax View… A cinematic x-ray of paranoid mindset… In the long shadow of noir pastiche, complete with a femme-fatale turn by Elina Löwensohn”
FILM COMMENT MAGAZINE
“Krik references film noir, rustling up some heavies and hardboiled patter here and there. Ironically, the connection is intriguing, given the wartime stew of anxieties that originally fostered the movies that came to be known as noir; Krik¹s two main riffstones come from either end of the lineage, The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955).”
Nicolas Rapoid
THE L MAGAZINE
http://thelmagazine.com/print.cfm?content_id=4462
“Mildly surreal, mostly black-and-white homage to film noir, set in the built-in ironic enclave of hipster Brooklyn. Able Danger is a smart and all-too- conceivable conspiracy thriller that raises serious questions in less-than-serious ways. Do we really think we know the entire truth behind 9/11? If so, the movie shows a bridge it might want to sell you”
Frank Lovece
THE FILM JOURNAL
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/reviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_conte
nt_id=1003849095
“Paul Krik¹s low-budget indie thriller Able Danger is nicely shot in tinted b&w;hi-def video, slickly mixed, scored and edited almost to the point of being indistinguishable from this or that Bruckheimer TV show. And Krik is a keen film student: Many of the film¹s images recall Welles, Lang, Fuller, Mann, Kubrick, Frankenheimer you name it.”
Steven Boone
SPOUT
http://blog.spout.com/2008/09/12/911-conspiracy-movie-for-hi/
“Shot in a high contrast black-and-white that milks maximum atmospheric effect out of its wide, busy compositions and chiaroscuro lighting…”
Brandon Harris
HAMMER TO NAIL
http://www.hammertonail.com/?p=363
“Shot in black and white and reminiscent of classic ’30s noir films, Able Danger tracks a Brooklyn bookstore owner (based on the owner of Vox Pop) and a European femme fatal over bridges and on bikes in the dangerous search for 9/11 truth.”
Robyn Hillman-Harrigan
FLAVORPILL
http://flavorpill.com/newyork/events/2008/9/11/abel-danger