Robot Overlords: Due for a Fresh Revisit

It is surprising this recent alien invasion has not already gained a fresh, new reputation for relevancy. The world has suffered a catastrophic event and now all of humanity is forbidden to leave their homes. Are you following me so far? The alien robots have taken over, but they still find home collaborators willing to enforce their dictates, in order to exercise a bit of power for themselves. Fortunately, there are still rebellious people out there willing to fight the invaders in Jon Wright’s Robot Overlords, which is currently available on Amazon Prime.

Since the alien take-over, Sean Flynn lives with his mother Kate and three foster siblings she took in out of mercy. She is sort of protected, because Robin Smythe, the district’s head collaborator is sweet on her, but he and Flynn make no secret of their mutual dislike. The suspicious teen still holds out vain home that his father Danny Flynn will eventually come home, but the RAF pilot has not been seen since his capture.

One day, Flynn and knuckleheaded Nathan try to run an old video-game console off a car battery, when an electric shock sends the latter flying. It also shorts out the controlling mechanism implanted in his neck—temporarily. Soon, Flynn, Nathan, Alex the surrogate sister he is sort of carrying a torch for, and young, bratty Conor are running through the empty streets undetected by the robot sentries. However, it turns out the short circuit only lasts thirteen hours—a fact they learn at an inopportune time.

It is easy to see the robot occupation as an equivalent analog to the CCP pandemic. Some might also compare the implants to face masks, but that really wouldn’t be fair, because facial coverings allow us to safely go outside, whereas the implants keep Flynn and friends captive inside. However, if you want to compare the power-tripping Smythe to heavy-handed politicians like Michigan’s Whitmer, that’s your right and your business.

As a film, Overlords definitely over-achieves, realizing some impressive visual effects on a relatively modest budget. As science fiction, it is just okay. Frankly, it is a little too convenient when Flynn turns to be like Neo from the Matrix trilogy, suddenly developing an almost mystical power to hack himself into the robots’ network. However, it is enormously refreshing to see a film that argues freedom is more important than security.

Crooked House: One of Dame Agatha’s Favorites, Finally Adapted for Film

Reportedly, Dame Agatha Christie’s two favorite novels from her voluminous oeuvre were this twisty novel from 1949 and Ordeal by Innocence. Yet, neither featured a Poirot, Marble, or Beresford (Tuppence), so they have rather been odd men out. There was an under-rated 1985 film adaptation of Ordeal, but the anticipated BBC production has been shelved, due to criminal allegations leveled against one of its co-stars. Formerly only staged for radio, Crooked House is now left alone to draft off Branagh’s pseudo-blockbuster Orient Express. French director Gilles Pacquet-Brenner helms a slyly British drawing room whodunit with his adaptation of Crooked House (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Private investigator Charles Hayward met the well-heeled Sophie de Haviland while he was stationed in Cairo for the secret service, but she inevitably broke his heart (a slight departure from the book). Nevertheless, de Haviland trusts the embittered Hayward to investigate the presumed murder of her grandfather, Aristide Leonides, a Greek immigrant who made good. Leonides’s latest trophy wife Brenda stands to inherit everything—a fact that does not sit well with the rest of the family.

For reasons that eluded just about everyone else, old man Leonides insisted on keeping his entire dysfunctional, bile-soaked family in residence at his grand country estate. That includes the newest wife Brenda, Sophie’s dilettante father Phillip, her self-absorbed stage diva mother Magda, and her wastrel uncle Roger, who has been running the family catering business into the ground. Only the widowed Lady Edith de Haviland shows much strength of character, which is why she assumed responsibility for the education of the de Haviland children, including the precocious twelve-year-old Josephine.

Obviously, everyone is a suspect, especially Laurence Brown, the children’s tutor, whom it seems has been carrying on an affair with the presumptive merry widow, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? Like the best of Dame Agatha’s work, the murderer in Crooked House is not immediately apparent, but the real pleasure comes from all the gnashing of teeth and door-slamming that come during the investigative process. Co-screenwriter Sir Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey acclaim), Tim Rose Price, and Paquet-Brenner deliver all the elements in spades, including the faithful ending, which must have been quite a shocker in 1949.

Glenn Close is terrific as the tart-tongued, no-nonsense Lady Edith. She is imperious yet grounded, in a way maybe only Kristin Scott Thomas could pull off with equal style. Gillian Anderson, Julian Sands, Christina Hendricks, and Christian McKay hold up their end, chewing the scenery and effortlessly bandying about barbed dialogue as Magda, Philip, Brenda, and Roger, respectively. Terence Stamp adds his well-earned gravitas and immediately recognizably baritone as Chief Inspector Taverner, a colleague of Hayward’s murdered father. Plus, the real breakthrough-discovery is young Honor Kneafsey, who is quite remarkable as Josephine.

Not surprisingly, Hayward and Sophie de Haviland are the dullest of the lot, but Max Irons somewhat exceeds expectations, playing the former with a welcome degree of forcefulness and intelligence. On the other hand, Stefanie Martini should have portrayed the latter as more of a femme fatale, but she is really just forgettably pedestrian.

Regardless, Crooked House is a triumph of set decoration and period details. The richly detailed trappings are spot-on, while the locations (King’s College Maughan Library and the Gothic Revival Tyntesfield estate) are wonderfully suggestive of elegance and murder most foul. Honestly, it is such good fun to see an old-fashioned mystery like this hit the big-screen again. Highly recommended for fans of British mysteries and the accomplished ensemble, Crooked House opens this Friday (12/22) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

I’ll Follow You Down: Canadian Time Travel

As a family of academics, it is not surprising the Whytes are prone to depression and dysfunctional insecurities. At least they have a good reason. While still a young boy, Erol’s father mysteriously vanishes while attending a theoretical physics conference. His absence continues to haunt Erol and his mother, but the son might be able to fix his broken family by reconstructing his father’s time travel research in Richie Mehta’s I’ll Follow You Down (trailer here), which opens this Friday in the Tri-State Area.

Gabe Whyte’s luggage remained in his Princeton hotel room, but no trace could be found of the Toronto scholar. His wife Marika never really recovered from the loss. Arguably though, some good came out of the misfortune, from Erol’s perspective. While his mother was away searching for his father, the young boy forged a deep bond with Grace, his childhood sweetheart. In fact, they are poised to get married after their undergrad studies, until his mother finally succumbs to her depression.

As he mourns his mother, Whyte starts to reconsider his Grandpa Sal’s crazy claims. The good professor is convinced Gabe developed a method of time travel, journeying through a wormhole to have a discussion with Einstein, presumably meeting with misadventure somewhere along the way. However, it will take more than a garden variety genius like Prof. Gramps to replicate his work. Only an exceptional mind like Erol’s is equal to the task. The upside for his family will be profound if Whyte can save his father, but what will happen to his relationship with Grace?

Follow definitely has its cerebral side, which is a good thing, but it is also unusually emotionally mature for science fiction. Instead of speculating about the Butterfly Effect and how it might alter macro history and technology, Mehta focuses on how it could transform the Whyte family. As a result, it is not nearly as intricately constructed and gleefully mind-blowing as Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes or Hugh Sullivan’s The Infinite Man, but its time shifting business still holds together pretty well.

As a misfit genius, The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment makes a convincing misfit. The genius part requires a bit more willful suspension of disbelief. He more or less keeps his head above water, but it is far certain whether Follow will herald a major career comeback. Wisely, he is surrounding by a quality supporting cast with serious genre cred. Alias’s Victor Garber is on familiar turf as the decent mentoring grandfather, but he is still a reassuring presence. Rufus Sewell makes intelligence charismatic as the temporally misplaced Whyte, while The X-Files’ Gillian Anderson is surprisingly compelling as miserable mother Marika.

Like Infinite Man and Darren Paul Fisher’s Frequencies, Follow is the sort of cleverly conceived science fiction that does not require extensive special effects. A dose of Einstein (not a character) beats an explosion any day. Recommended with enthusiasm for time travel fans, I’ll Follow You Down opens this Friday (6/6) at the AMC Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, via Well Go USA.

Shadow Dancer: The Informer 2.0

They say peace finally came to Northern Ireland when both sides lost their appetite for killing.  Collette McVeigh’s family has not reached that point yet.  This makes her a potentially valuable source of information in James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Young Collette was supposed to buy her father a pack of cigarettes, but she sent her brother instead.  The bullet that cut short his life would send her down the path of violent terrorism.  Even with a child to raise McVeigh stays active in the cause.  However, her latest mission is an unqualified disaster.  Her bomb fails to detonate, which is somewhat fortunate since she is also pinched by MI-5.  Her interrogator, Mac, has a rather awkward talk prepared for her.  That bullet that killed her brother?  Not British.  More to the point, if she ever wants to see her son again, McVeigh must start informing on her high ranking IRA brothers.

Kind of sort of agreeing, McVeigh stalls for time, but Mac forces her to commit.  Soon McVeigh navigates the perils of a double life, but her handler looks out for her interests as best he can.  Mac is old school.  He believes in protecting assets, so he is troubled by the actions of his superior, Kate Fletcher, who seems rather callously disinterested in McVeigh’s safety.

Shadow is bit of a slow starter, but it is a strong closer.  Largely (but not completely) de-politicized by Marsh, the film speaks more directly to the mindset of Eric Hoffer’s “true believer” rather than the particularly grievances of the Troubles.  Neither side exclusively represents the heroes or the villains.  Some individuals are simply more reasonable than others.  For instance, McVeigh’s brothers illustrate fanaticism at its worst, while Fletcher personifies Machiavellianism at its most cold blooded.

Marsh is a world class filmmaker, who seems to have a knack for gritty noir material, such as the middle (and best) film of the Red Riding trilogy.  In his hands, Shadow Dancer is as much a classical tragedy as it is a thriller.  McVeigh and Mac are both pawns trying to assert themselves in a fatally deterministic world.  In fact, the film’s pessimism is what really lingers with viewers.  Clearly, the terrorist mindset will always opt for blood over an honorable peace.  American audiences will also wonder if the aptness of McVeigh’s name was coincidental or intentional.

Clive Owen is fantastic as Mac, balancing his ruthlessness and humanity on a razor’s edge.  Likewise, Andrea Riseborough’s McVeigh looks like a stress fracture about to happen.  Red is definitely her color, but it is still a bit hard to see her as a potential temptress, which makes the evolution of her relationship with her handler somewhat problematic.  While she is not exactly a multidimensional character, as Fletcher, Gillian Anderson also gives an ice queen performance worthy of Kristin Scott Thomas.

Marsh meticulously sets the scene and methodically escalates the tension.  Adapting his own novel, screenwriter Tom Bradby fully establishes the sad internal logic of the late Troubles era.  Admirably free of sentimentality, Shadow Dancer mostly plays it straight (while not entirely reining-in a lingering bias against MI-5 and the police charged with maintaining public safety).  Worth seeing as a result, it opens this Friday (5/31) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.

Aspen Shortsfest ’13: Room on the Broom

Evidently, some animals think it’s a good gig to be a witch’s familiar.  One hospitable witch already has the requisite feline, but they will pick up considerable company in Room on the Broom (promo here), Max Lang & Jan Lachauer’s animated adaptation of the Julia Donaldson children’s book, which screens tomorrow at the 2013 Aspen Shortsfest.

Donaldson shorts have become a Christmas tradition for the BBC, even netting them an Oscar nomination for The Gruffalo.  Featuring big name voice talent and high quality animation, they have also become popular selections on the American festival circuit.  They are a bit formulaic, which is hardly surprising, considering they are produced for youngsters.  Like the Gruffalo films, Broom’s story involves furry animals using their wits to fool an exotic monster in the woods.  Indeed, these are brains-over-brawn lessons that parents should readily approve.

Initially, it is nothing but blue skies in Broom.  However, the spectacle of the witch and her cat swooshing through the air is quite appealing to the creatures they encounter.  Each one asks if there is room for them to hitch along.  Every time the cat says no (they are anti-social beasts), but the witch says yes.  As the party grows they attract the attention of a dragon skulking out of sight.

Gillian Anderson sort of lends her voice to the witch, but she laughs, sighs, and exclaims more than she talks, per se.  Rob Brydon returns for another Donaldson, bringing out the cat’s cattiness with uncharacteristic reserve.  Despite big names like Timothy Spall as the dragon and Simon Pegg handling narration, Broom is more visually driven, completely forgoing the Shrek-style hip wise-cracking for grown-ups.  It is also considerably more endearing for the same reason.

Just so there is no confusion, Broom was a twenty-six minute Christmas special, but not a Christmas story.  With nothing tying it to a specific season, it can be enjoyed at any time.  Recommended without reservation for young viewers and fans of gentler, more wholesome animation, Room on the Broom screens tomorrow (4/14) as part of Program Eleven: Family Fun at Aspen Shortsfest ’13.

Ursula Meier’s Sister

Simon is definitely from the wrong side of the ski lift.  While some kneejerk critics will rush to call him part of Switzerland’s 99%, he was not done a lot of favors by broken homes led by single parental figures that prioritize self-indulgence over responsibility.  In fact, his only family is the title character of Ursula Meier’s Sister (trailer here), Switzerland’s official foreign language Academy Award submission, which opens this Friday in New York.

Simon lives with Louise in a high rise project in the valley beneath an upscale ski resort.  Just about every day Simon rides up to the ski lodge where he steals high end gear.  It might be ethically problematic, but at least it constitutes a job.  That is usually more than Louise can lay claim to, spending most of her time partying with men she knows are only after one thing.  Indeed, it is the younger Simon who takes care of the older Louise, not vice versa.

This might be Simon’s reality, but he realizes something is not right with the picture.  He has a yearning for something more stable and supportive, which is why he develops an attachment to the wealthy single English mother he meets during his slope prowling.  Consider it a parental crush.  Though far from perfect, Simon’s life with Louise is not at an equilibrium point.  Her self-sabotaging behavior is not sustainable.  Nor is Simon’s chosen line of work.

If you are looking for a light comedy with a pat happy ending, Sister is profoundly wrong for you.  On the other hand, it is a rather remarkable showcase for young Kacey Motten Klein’s acting chops as Simon.  It is also interesting to see Gillian Anderson pop-up in another European production, playing the English woman, who could represent a variation on her Miss Havisham in Masterpiece’s Great Expectations.  Frankly, she is rather good in a role intended to be frustrating.  Yet, she is nothing compared to Léa Sedoux’s Louise, a depressingly realistic portrait of self-centered arrested development.

While Sister’s warmed over class consciousness gets a bit stale, particularly when the titular Louise begs for a strong dose of root-hog-or-die tough love, Klein, Seydoux, and even Anderson deliver consistently fine work.  Though not exactly shocking, Meier handles the third act revelations quite smoothly, building towards a surprisingly powerful (and cinematic) payoff.  Recommended for those who appreciate naturalistic family dramas, Sister opens tomorrow (10/5) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

Dickens Bicentennial: Great Expectations

Just in time for Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday, the BFI discovered what is thought to be the earliest Dickens silent film: G.A. Smith’s The Death of Poor Joe, circa 1901, depicting a brief scene from Oliver Twist. Over one hundred years later, the Dickens canon is still a source of inspiration for both cinema and television. PBS’s Masterpiece Classic celebrates the Dickens Centennial with two new (at least for American audiences) productions, starting this Sunday with Great Expectations (promo here).

Phillip Pirrip is simply known as Pip. It is not just a nickname. It will become his identity. As a young orphan, Pip encounters Abel Magwitch on the moors. Though terrified, the lad helps the escaped convict, at the risk of incurring his guardian older sister’s wrath. Shortly after Magwitch’s capture, Pip is enlisted to serve as the companion to Estella Havisham, the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, a mysterious spinster with a tragic past.

His trips to Miss Havisham’s Satis House are strange affairs, but they lead Pip to believe her interest will raise him out of his mean station. Yet, as soon as his hopes are raised, his would be patroness arbitrarily dashes them. However, when a mysterious benefactor arranges for Pip to live the life of a gentleman in London and assume a considerable fortune upon reaching legal adulthood, Pip assumes he is back in the Havishams’ good graces.

Yes, this is definitely Great Expectations (Masterpiece’s second adaptation as it happens, and fifteenth Dickens work overall), following the source novel quite scrupulously. The only question is which ending screenwriter Sarah Phelps chose: the more cinematic and canonical upbeat ending or Dickens’ original conclusion favored by critics such as George Orwell.

In fact, her treatment nicely captures the spirit of the great novel, well establishing the major supporting characters so viewers can fully appreciate the significance when they reappear in different contexts. Perhaps most importantly, she and director Brian Kirk devote sufficient time to Pip’s relationship with Herbert Pocket, his onetime rival turned intimate friend. In a way, their friendship proves people can change for the better, which is one of the novel’s central questions.

Expectations should also interest Game of Thrones fans, featuring three alumni: Kirk at the helm, Mark Addy as the blowhard Mr. Pumblechook and Harry Lloyd engagingly earnest as Pocket (a complete departure from the entitled Viserys Targaryen). However, much of the attention will center on Gillian Anderson as a decidedly younger, but rather spooky Miss Havisham. Indeed, her portrayal of an emotional stunted woman almost literally haunted by her past, as well as Kirk’s embrace of the story’s gothic elements, should appeal to genre viewers.

Always reliable, Ray Winstone is perfectly cast as Magwitch, projecting the appropriate ferocity and sensitivity, depending on the circumstances. Masterpiece regular David Suchet also adds a dash of roguish flavor as Mr. Jaggers, the solicitor administering Pip’s trust. Unfortunately, the charisma and chemistry of romantic leads Douglas Booth and Vanessa Kirby is somewhat lacking, but as with most good Dickens productions, Expectations can be easily enjoyed for the secondary characters.

Great Expectations is solidly entertaining television, even if the tragic love story fizzles somewhat. Unequally divided into one and two hour installments, it is freely recommended for its meaty supporting turns and rich period trappings when it premieres on most PBS outlets this Sunday (4/1), concluding a week later (4/8), as part of the current season of Masterpiece.