It wasn't so long ago that I released my "best movies" list for 2013, but I've already seen two movies probably more deserving of a place on that list (at very least in the top 20). My reviews are below.
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Escape (2012)
There's been an odd tendency recently for horror directors to try out a kind of atmospheric period piece horror. Neil Marshall (director of "The Descent" and "Doomsday") made "Centurion", a film about Romans being massacred by Picts in Northern England (starring Michael Fassbender btw). Then Christopher Smith (director of "Severance" and "Triangle") made "Black Death", a film about a bunch of Church-sanctioned mercenaries investigating claims of necromancy in a village mysteriously unaffected by the plague (starring Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne).
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This film, "Escape", is from Roar Uthaug, the director of "Cold Prey". The first two "Cold Prey" movies feel like someone watched every single slasher film, worked out a formula for what was best about all of them and then flawlessly applied that formula. "Cold Prey" is a slasher film with genuine characters and genuine terror and there's no other slasher film that can hold a candle to it.
"Escape" takes place ten years after the Black Plague. A family is travelling down a mountain pass when they are attacked by some kind of savage group of bandits led by a mysterious woman who has a remarkable level of influence over her male helpers. Out of the family, only the daughter is left alive. The group of bandits' plans for her are not pleasant and her only option seems to be to escape, but how?
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Ingrid Bolsø Berdal plays the part of the mysterious and creepy woman. She played a major part in "Cold Prey" and has since been practically unrecognisable as one of the witches in "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" and rather suitably played Sergeant Angua, the werewolf guard, in Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal".
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Left to right: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal in "Cold Prey", "Hansel and Gretel:Witch Hunters", "Going Postal"
The atmosphere and tension is really strong here and there's some surprising child bonding that is sort of reminiscent of "Let The Right One In". But the main attractions here are the performance from Ingrid Berdal and the sheet brutality that the movie is prepared to present. Thanks for Berdal's performance, it doesn't seem to matter how cruel her character gets; we can still empathise with her nonetheless.
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The setting after the plague isn't entirely essential to the story here, but I think it helped me to accept the horrific opening premise more easily. These are characters who have lived through an era seemingly without hope. The bandits are disinclined to venture too far with either trust or compassion because neither has served them well in the past. And as savage as their small group of cutthroat villains might be, there's a twisted culture of loyalty present all the same, particularly towards Berdal's central figure. If I were to talk about "honour amongst theives" here, you shouldn't start picturing a Robin Hood scenario.
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The atmosphere in "Escape" is thick, the acting is brilliant, the action is brutal, but the thing which holds "Escape" together more than anything is the characters. The main female actors here (two of them children) can convey so much to one another with just a look. Ingrid Berdal is particularly impressive in the way she comes very close to encouraging full-blown sympathy, rather than just empathy, when her character is utterly monstrous.
I thought "Cold Prey" was a brilliant slasher movie, but "Escape" is a brilliant film regardless of its genre. It is criminal that this film has not been seen by more people. It deserves more recognition.
A+
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The East (2013)
Another script from Brit Marling, here once again teamed up with director Zal Batmanglij. Since they worked together on "Sound of my Voice", one of my favourite movies from 2012, I'd actually been quite keen to see this at cinemas. But unfortunately I ended up missing it. The reviews haven't been terribly positive in spite of the more high profile cast this time around.
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I will admit first of all that this is not quite on the same level as "Sound of my Voice". Nevertheless, I think there is a similar high level of quality here. Instead of a couple who wish to expose a dangerous cult, this time it is a trained corporate spy actively employed to track down a dangerous anarchist group.
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From some accounts you'd have thought this was a whiny anti-corporate rant, but in actual fact the script takes great care not to push too far one way or the other. On both sides there are pragmatic elements which get in the way of doing the right thing. The anarchist group are aware that small-time stunts do not make headlines and constantly have the temptation to cause more harm. Meanwhile the firm uncovering the group are disinclined to step in and take action on the anarchists unless they can obtain a fee for doing so. The anarchists are in danger of taking their demands for justice too far, while the corporations are in danger of putting profit above integrity.
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Of course, at the centre of the story is Brit Marling's character. As a highly trained spy she's kind of a badass. Through her, we see a character who is very efficient, capable and quick-to-adapt, but also very human. She makes no complaints about the job she has taken on, but we can see how she has a tough time keeping her life at home separate from her life out with the anarchists. The attempt to keep them separate clearly takes its toll.
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I never feel at ease with the anarchist group, which clearly retains some degree of the emotionally manipulative elements of the cult in "Sound of my Voice", but equally the way things unfold makes Brit Marling's corporate spy firm seem similarly worrying, albeit in a different way. The anarchist group are shown protesting against genuinely serious corporate evil and their responses to those evils are carefully planned to be somewhat proportional. I think that was necessary. If these anarchists were like the Animal Liberation Front, sending bombs full HIV-infected needles to scientists involved in important medical research because they make use of animal testing, then it would have been hard to make the story compelling.
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In the end, this is a film more about the characters than any political message. Brit Marling's protagonist started out the film completely convinced of her mission and, to be frank, so did I. It's no surprise to our protagonist's boss that she is getting too close to her targets, but thankfully the final ending isn't all about joining the rebels against the establishment, nor is it about celebrating the demise of the anarchists. Marling is a smarter writer than that and finishes with a rather less obvious conclusion.
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Ellen Paige didn't exactly blow me away here. I thought Alexander Skarsgard did a pretty good job. In the end the only person who really held a candle to Brit Marling herself was Patricia Clarkson as her boss.
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Overall I'd say that this wasn't quite as good as "Sound of my Voice", but was better than "Another Earth". Those were both films which I was highly impressed by and I cannot wait to see what script Brit Marling brings to the big screen next. She's an excellent writer and an excellent performer and it'll be interesting which she starts getting big awards for first. (Interestingly, while she's been nominated for both, she's only actually won an award for directing, shared with Mike Cahill for their work on the documentary "Boxers and Ballerinas".)
A+
Escape (2012)
There's been an odd tendency recently for horror directors to try out a kind of atmospheric period piece horror. Neil Marshall (director of "The Descent" and "Doomsday") made "Centurion", a film about Romans being massacred by Picts in Northern England (starring Michael Fassbender btw). Then Christopher Smith (director of "Severance" and "Triangle") made "Black Death", a film about a bunch of Church-sanctioned mercenaries investigating claims of necromancy in a village mysteriously unaffected by the plague (starring Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne).
This film, "Escape", is from Roar Uthaug, the director of "Cold Prey". The first two "Cold Prey" movies feel like someone watched every single slasher film, worked out a formula for what was best about all of them and then flawlessly applied that formula. "Cold Prey" is a slasher film with genuine characters and genuine terror and there's no other slasher film that can hold a candle to it.
"Escape" takes place ten years after the Black Plague. A family is travelling down a mountain pass when they are attacked by some kind of savage group of bandits led by a mysterious woman who has a remarkable level of influence over her male helpers. Out of the family, only the daughter is left alive. The group of bandits' plans for her are not pleasant and her only option seems to be to escape, but how?
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal plays the part of the mysterious and creepy woman. She played a major part in "Cold Prey" and has since been practically unrecognisable as one of the witches in "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" and rather suitably played Sergeant Angua, the werewolf guard, in Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal".
Left to right: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal in "Cold Prey", "Hansel and Gretel:Witch Hunters", "Going Postal"
The atmosphere and tension is really strong here and there's some surprising child bonding that is sort of reminiscent of "Let The Right One In". But the main attractions here are the performance from Ingrid Berdal and the sheet brutality that the movie is prepared to present. Thanks for Berdal's performance, it doesn't seem to matter how cruel her character gets; we can still empathise with her nonetheless.
The setting after the plague isn't entirely essential to the story here, but I think it helped me to accept the horrific opening premise more easily. These are characters who have lived through an era seemingly without hope. The bandits are disinclined to venture too far with either trust or compassion because neither has served them well in the past. And as savage as their small group of cutthroat villains might be, there's a twisted culture of loyalty present all the same, particularly towards Berdal's central figure. If I were to talk about "honour amongst theives" here, you shouldn't start picturing a Robin Hood scenario.
The atmosphere in "Escape" is thick, the acting is brilliant, the action is brutal, but the thing which holds "Escape" together more than anything is the characters. The main female actors here (two of them children) can convey so much to one another with just a look. Ingrid Berdal is particularly impressive in the way she comes very close to encouraging full-blown sympathy, rather than just empathy, when her character is utterly monstrous.
I thought "Cold Prey" was a brilliant slasher movie, but "Escape" is a brilliant film regardless of its genre. It is criminal that this film has not been seen by more people. It deserves more recognition.
A+
The East (2013)
Another script from Brit Marling, here once again teamed up with director Zal Batmanglij. Since they worked together on "Sound of my Voice", one of my favourite movies from 2012, I'd actually been quite keen to see this at cinemas. But unfortunately I ended up missing it. The reviews haven't been terribly positive in spite of the more high profile cast this time around.
I will admit first of all that this is not quite on the same level as "Sound of my Voice". Nevertheless, I think there is a similar high level of quality here. Instead of a couple who wish to expose a dangerous cult, this time it is a trained corporate spy actively employed to track down a dangerous anarchist group.
From some accounts you'd have thought this was a whiny anti-corporate rant, but in actual fact the script takes great care not to push too far one way or the other. On both sides there are pragmatic elements which get in the way of doing the right thing. The anarchist group are aware that small-time stunts do not make headlines and constantly have the temptation to cause more harm. Meanwhile the firm uncovering the group are disinclined to step in and take action on the anarchists unless they can obtain a fee for doing so. The anarchists are in danger of taking their demands for justice too far, while the corporations are in danger of putting profit above integrity.
Of course, at the centre of the story is Brit Marling's character. As a highly trained spy she's kind of a badass. Through her, we see a character who is very efficient, capable and quick-to-adapt, but also very human. She makes no complaints about the job she has taken on, but we can see how she has a tough time keeping her life at home separate from her life out with the anarchists. The attempt to keep them separate clearly takes its toll.
I never feel at ease with the anarchist group, which clearly retains some degree of the emotionally manipulative elements of the cult in "Sound of my Voice", but equally the way things unfold makes Brit Marling's corporate spy firm seem similarly worrying, albeit in a different way. The anarchist group are shown protesting against genuinely serious corporate evil and their responses to those evils are carefully planned to be somewhat proportional. I think that was necessary. If these anarchists were like the Animal Liberation Front, sending bombs full HIV-infected needles to scientists involved in important medical research because they make use of animal testing, then it would have been hard to make the story compelling.
In the end, this is a film more about the characters than any political message. Brit Marling's protagonist started out the film completely convinced of her mission and, to be frank, so did I. It's no surprise to our protagonist's boss that she is getting too close to her targets, but thankfully the final ending isn't all about joining the rebels against the establishment, nor is it about celebrating the demise of the anarchists. Marling is a smarter writer than that and finishes with a rather less obvious conclusion.
Ellen Paige didn't exactly blow me away here. I thought Alexander Skarsgard did a pretty good job. In the end the only person who really held a candle to Brit Marling herself was Patricia Clarkson as her boss.
Overall I'd say that this wasn't quite as good as "Sound of my Voice", but was better than "Another Earth". Those were both films which I was highly impressed by and I cannot wait to see what script Brit Marling brings to the big screen next. She's an excellent writer and an excellent performer and it'll be interesting which she starts getting big awards for first. (Interestingly, while she's been nominated for both, she's only actually won an award for directing, shared with Mike Cahill for their work on the documentary "Boxers and Ballerinas".)
A+