Paul Conroy is a married truck driver working as a contractor in Iraq. After his convoy is attacked by insurgents, he wakes up inside a coffin, buried alive, with a Zippo, a cell phone, and a little whisky bottle. He will try to use the two first to get help and be rescued from the outside.
Buried is the second feature film by young Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés based on Chris Sparling's script, and produced and shot in Spain. Cortés got the script after it had been rejected by most film studios, and he found it to be a crazy challenge, worth of being filmed. From the very beginning, he wanted to shoot the film in the coffin, with no exteriors, and Ryan Reynolds to be the leading man. Reynolds thought that the script was impossible to shoot and said no; Cortés insisted and sent him his first movie and a long report about why the movie should be shot and, more importantly, why Reynolds should be in it.
The movie was filmed on a tight budget in Barcelona in over two weeks. The shooting of the film was very hard and challenging from the technical, engineering and emotional point of view, as the film has no exteriors, the filming happens inside a wooden box, and Reynolds had to play the movie alone, entirely in the coffin.
This is one of those movies that you have to watch in a cinema, with the lights off, so you can put yourself in Paul Conroy's shoes, both physically and emotionally, and feel what is like to be buried.
The use of camera and lighting are fantastic, very complex but very well executed.
The atmosphere is terrific.
The script makes very good points about how little American corporations and Government care about their employees/citizens in the Middle East, and also about the preconceptions that people in those areas of the world have about individual Americans being all rich and powerful not just working class employees.
Reynolds is brilliant in his performance of Paul Conroy, and it is a shame that he wasn't nominated for the Oscars that year; he really deserved it. This is Reynolds' best and most serious performance to the date, and shows the great actor he is; why does he keep accepting unsubstantial roles in Hollywood movies?! The voices heard through the phone were recorded after the shooting was finished; however, Reynolds needed a real counterpart to help him to get into character, so his acting coach played the different characters, live, and Reynolds heard her through a tiny earpiece.
The performances of the actors whose voices we hear are excellent and they transmit great emotion and feeling to the viewer, despite the viewer not being able to see them.
The main problems with the movie are, firstly, its tempo. The thrill is there from the very beginning, no rest, and although it goes in crescendo, the viewer can get tired of being over-thrilled. Secondly, it would have been better for the viewer seeing exteriors and the actors we hear on the phone, so the viewer gets a bit of relief from the claustrophobic settings. Thirdly, two of the main premises of the script are so wrong that make the rest is impossible to believe: 1/ If you are buried alive in a coffin, underground, and you lift your zippo, the flame is going to consume part of the very little oxygen you have, if you have any when you wake up, and you'll be dead quite soon. Moreover, once the oxygen is used, and less is left, the person buried will have stained air to breath, and his vital functions, strength and mental abilities will be weakened. Nothing of what happens in the movie would be possible. A torch would have been a better option, worked the same in the story, but made the settings credible. 2/ If you are buried with your cell phone, even if not very deep underground, your phone is not going to work, even if you have a powerful 3G/satellite network available, which is not the case in countries like Iraq or the Middle East, especially in isolated areas. I get that sort of problem in city underground settings in my city, can you imagine in you are buried in countryside Iraq? Not believable at all.
Having said this, this is a very entertaining experimental film that approaches the script in a very original and dazzling way, and has a terrific performance by Ryan Reynolds.
The film got a phenomenal positive reception at Sundance, but unfortunately his commercial release and distribution were very limited.
Shop WG.07, 140 William Street
Perth, WA 6000
08 9322 6008
http://www.ikusushi.com/
http://www.facebook.com/iku.sushi1
Iku Sushi is a tiny funky sushi place in the heart of the city that really deserves the good reviews it has everywhere. No wonder it is always packed to the rafters at peak hours, inside and outside.
Why is this place so popular? It is the quality and variety of their food - reasons for which any restaurant should be popular for. Iku Sushi's food is fresh, tasty, varied, good-looking, good-sized, and good-priced. It is up to you if you pack on individual rolls, one of their ready-made sushi trays or salads, add a side dish, or go for one of the hot options prepared in their kitchen. Whatever you order, you are going to like it and want more. Feel free to eat like a pig, after all is healthy food... unless you choose the unhealthy options like the fried sushi "burger" varieties (I found the filling good, but the whole thing sickening, truly).
Their coffee is good in general, although it depends on the barista!
The service is terrific, especially having into account the volume of people visiting the place at peak hours. The staff are a cool, friendly and smiley bunch of people. They are a bit flat out at times, so you have to ask them to clean a table for you if any is available, but, if that is the case, they will do so in a microsecond.
What else you want? I don't know you, but I would like them having a bigger seating area, so we don't have to pass by, find the place fully packed, and go elsewhere for our sushi.
Shops 13-15
15 London Court
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9225 4141
Their Website
Hours:
Mon-Sun 8:30 - 17:30
The location is divine, no matter you seat indoors or outside, especially if you like to watch people passing by and small streets. The place indoors is very small, but with a good layout and decoration, and overall it feels very cosy and European in style.
Their coffee is one of those coffees so weak that, if you put sugar or sweetener in it, tastes of nothing. Even if you don't sweeten it, it is not very tasty, no matter the Segafredo cup! The also have a selection of iced coffees but I haven't tried them yet.
They have a small but good selection of breakfast and lunch dishes, especially appealing for gluten-free and vegetarian lovers. They have a great selection of gluten-free savoury cakes, fritters, and ready-to-order breakfast, plus a variety of salads, panini, sandwiches, cooked pasta, and a few sweets.
I tried the gluten-free breakfast and it was very nice and filling, with two eggs poached to my taste, wonderfully cooked mushrooms, two types of fritters, roasted tomato and avocado. It sounds good and tasted good, but unsalted. I missed a bit of olive oil dressing or at least having the fritters reheated and moist, which wasn't the case.
All their fritters, savoury cakes and panini look wonderful in the fridge, but, since they are already there, you know that they aren't going to be moist or as fresh as if somebody prepares for you on the spot. On the other hand, if they had to prepare everything on the spot it would take a while for your good to come out, so it is a matter, perhaps, of having the fritters prepared but uncooked, just to fry when the customer asks for them. The display of sweets was average and it did not tempted me to add anything to my main dish.
The service was OK.
The place is a bit pricey, gluten-free breakfast and coffee 21 Dollars.
South-Korean director Chan-wook directs an original story about friendship and love in a mental asylum.
Cha Young-goon (played by Im Su-jeong) develops a mental illness after her schizophrenic grandmother is interned and separated from her. Cha believes she is a killer cyborg and does not eat, and has been told that she has to master a cyborg's seven steps of perfection to get rid of her human psyche and be able to seek revenge on her grandma's captors - the men in white (paramedics and nurses). When interned, Cha meets Park Il-soon (played by Rain) a Ping-Pong player antisocial guy that steals other people's souls, who takes an immediate interest in her.
What makes this film so especial is that the movie offers the reality both as the insane see it, from their subjective point of view, but also as what it is, that is from an objective point of view. In fact, the real facts are used more to anchor the story and make the rest understandable than to focus on the reality itself. The craziness, manias and obsessions of the insane are presented as an essential part of their personality, not as an aberration of the same, therefore, the para-reality they live in becomes real and acceptable for the viewer. More importantly, the script does not try to redeem the characters from their insanity, but make that insanity meaningful and tolerable for their survival. It could have been really easy to present the insane as pathologically aggressive and nasty, as most movies about madness do, or like loonies without feelings or real human heart, but the script deviates from the obvious and presents a surreal world that is full of magic, pain, suffering and happiness, in which different people with a different pathology are able to tick and connect to a deep human level.
All the characters are treated with empathy, tenderness, warmth, naivety and a great sense of humour. The characters' studio combined with a light playful approach to the stories works perfectly on the screen and makes the craziness completely engaging. The movie is also a good reflection on personal identity and how important is the way we internally see ourselves to position ourselves in society and the world.
The film is extremely stylish and artistic, too, from the credits, to the cinematography, to the lighting. The beginning credits scene is fantastic as they are presented incorporated into the story, too. The initial scenes of Cha working in her factory before she tries to "recharge her batteries" are grand class: the contrast and sharpness of the colours and the camera angling and scene pacing create a wonderful eye candy moment that is a big contrast to the rest of the movie, dominated by pastel and white-ish colours. The movie has many surreal and dream-like scenes, beautifully filmed, which really help to convey the reality as perceived by the insane.
Although the movie is catalogued everywhere as a romantic story, to reduce this story to a romance is to devalue a film that has much more to offer. Romance is just another piece in the puzzle, the one that gives its magic to the story, the redemptive element of Cha's survival; it develops piano-piano, but is not cheesy but wonderfully quirky and special.
All cast members are good in their respective roles, and the main actors, Im an Rain (and the actress who plays the food-obsessed lady) are believable in their portray of their fragile but complex characters.
My main critique to the movie is its pacing, that is sometimes a bit too slow, and the cohesion among all the insane in the asylum, which is obvious in some parts of the movie, but it is not well explained or shown at times. I would have liked that the director used strong colours for the whole movie, which would have been much more intriguing and worked perfectly with the stories, instead of the expected asylum whites and pastels; still, this is a personal preference, not a critique.
This is a mesmerising movie for non-mainstream film lovers. It has something special and unique that will stay with you for a long time.
The movie won the Alfred Bauer Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007.
A Christmas Carol is Robert Zemeckis' 3D adaptation of Dickens' eponymous classic novel.
With stories as well-known as this, which have been adapted so many times for the big and small screen, any director faces the challenge to offer something that is new and attractive, still capturing the message and spirit of the novel. Zemeckis really has made an effort trying to revive the book story, adding some elements that are in the novel and are not usually shown in other adaptations: the depiction of the spirit of the present Christmas, the persecution of the black carriage, and the "trip" on the bullet over the city, among others. The eagle views of the city are extremely painterly, realistic and beautiful. The attention to the details of the daily life of the characters, especially of the street life and inner door of the working class are great, too, and they give an idea of what real life was in 19th-century England. The animation is very realistic, created by "mocap", a 3D computerised filming technique in which the actors voice, movement and facial expression serve as a basis for those of the animated characters.
Jim Carrey plays Ebenezer mean Scrooge and the three spirits of Christmas. Gary Oldman is the good-hearted but poor clerk Bob Cratchit and Scrooge's former business partner. Robin Wright Penn plays young Scrooge's fiancée, Colin Firth plays Scrooge's nephew, while Fred Cary Elwes, Bob Hoskins, Ron Bottitta and other supporting actors give their voices and physique to multiple secondary characters.
Despite the all-star cast, the movie does not work as an ensemble and there is something indescribable missing from it. The fact that we see the actors quite realistically reflected in the faces of the animated characters leaves little to the imagination, as it does not create enough detachment between the actors and the character they play. If that was the aim, filming a non-animation movie would have been more appropriate. On the other hand, Carrey is not especially inspired in this performance, and we see the more sardonic mime-ish Carrey instead of the good serious dramatic actor he can be; I did not see Scrooge anywhere in this movie, but Jim Carrey's caricature of the character. The rest of the cast is OK in their respective performances, and only Gary Oldman shines in his sweet portray of Scrooge's clerk.
At another level, the tone of the movie is far from being "Christmassy" or dramatic as it is action packed, with the most important dramatic moments of the story just sketched and the action ones delightfully focused on. By doing so we lose the most important thing of Dickens' novel - its soul.
The movie is likeable, but never memorable, and will not move or touch anybody. To do so, the stunning visual animation should have been paired with a more dramatic touch, with a little bit of Christmas magic, which is not the case.
A wasted attempt to revive the magic story of Dickens' novel. Still enjoyable.
Pacific Regency Hotel Suites
KH Tower, Jalan Punchak,
Off Jalan P. Ramlee.
50250 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Tel : 603 2332 7777
Fax : 603 2031 2492
http://www.pacific-regency.com/
info@pacific-regency.com
reservation@pacific-regency.com
The Hotel is in the heart of the city, at walking distance from shopping malls, sights and transport nods. The KL Tower and the Petronas are minutes away, and so are the Pavillion and Suria Shopping Malls, the restaurant, coffee and pub strip, the Hop-on Hop-off Bus, the monorail and the metro. Location Location!
My apartment-room was huge, and had a separate lounge and bedroom, a complete kitchen, a huge bathroom with a decent selection of amenities, a king-size hard bed, two plasma TVs, a good selection of international channels, the newspaper delivered daily for free, among other things - A litte home away from home.
The staff (at reception, housekeeping and tour-desk) were super-friendly, always ready to help. I thought they guys at reception desk were flatted out sometimes and that they needed a bigger desk and at least two extra hands to attend cues, and also an extra hand to attend to in-house guests going out or coming in with their keys and queries. The same pleasant impression I got from he taxi-drivers that work at the entrance of the hotel, although I did used them rarely. They were courteous, never pushy, and informative if you want to walk around. If Saita is available, let her take you around.
I booked a room for
non-smoker but this was not available and I was given one in a smoking
floor. However, my room was sprayed and no odour was perceptible;
however, the external corridors smelled a bit. The room was also sprayed for pests during my stay; I thought that they should have done so when the room was empty; although there was no smell after the spray, this could spark all sort of allergic or poisonous reactions.
The kitchen barely had a few items of crockery, cutlery and glasses, which were not enough to cook basic stuff in the apartment, so I had to contact Housekeeping. I expect a hotel like this to provide guests with basic kitchenware without the guest having to call the housekeeper for it. Moreover, there was no microwave! I mean, this is a four-star hotel and we are in the 21st century.
There is a one restaurant, café-bar and night bar in the hotel, but I did not visit them. I found more interesting wandering the surrounding area or heading to posh Suria Mall and finding my treat of the day there.
One of the main downs of the hotel is the level of noise in some rooms - namely mine. The aircon is old and rattles a lot, especially during the night if you leave it on, or if your neighbours do so, as the hotel has ducted aircon, not individual pieces. Moreover, my apartment was close (almost at arm's reach!) to a huge crane doing demolition/construction works, and the noise bas a bother sometimes, especially at night.
Overall, this is a very good hotel, good-priced and good-serviced, but needs to be updated to provide the guest with a better selection of kitchenware and a silent air-con system. The new wing is already refurbished and open, and I hope the old rooms, like the one I stayed in, are updated by now.
Stayed December 2011
Tracey Berkowitz is a 15y.o. girl on a night bus, covered by a curtain shower, talking directly to you - nonsense. Her memory is fragmented, chaotic, fancy, and on a loop. She has left home, is looking for her missing little brother Sonny, and she is in trouble.
We are drawn into Tracey's chaotic mind and soul, but also towards her path of growth from child to woman, from fairy-tale worlds to harsh reality and acceptance of the self. This is a very interesting story about a teenager that is not pretty, cleaver or happy. Although this is a movie about teenagers, there is nothing sweet about it, as presents very hard topics: rape, bullying, loneliness, lack of self-esteem, confused self-image, delusional thoughts, insecurity, and mental trouble.
Tracey's memory fragments and thoughts appear in mini-screens within the screen and on split-screen images, which show different angles of the same scene or different scenes altogether. The non-linear narrative is very challenging. Pay extra attention to the first 15-20 minutes of the film, because they are the most difficult and the ones that really give clues to understand many of the things that happen later on.
The film is more complex, visually, at the beginning, when Tracey's mind and emotions are more confused, and becomes simpler and more linear at the same pace that Tracey's mind clears up, to be completely linear at the end, when she accepts herself and the events related to Sonny. In other words, Tracey's troubled mind and emotions are directly linked to the way the movie is visually organised. The movie is also full of symbolic psychoanalytical elements, from the gender of Tracey's psychiatrist and the settings in which the consultation happens, to the appearance of different animals (a crow, a horse, and "a dog"), to the way the scenes have been patched and shown to the viewer.
Ellen Page is fantastic, despite the dramatic demands of her character. She was 20 y.o.a. when the film was shot, but she is believable as a 15y.o. girl. That is thanks not only to her baby face and childish physique, but mostly to the great actress she is. The rest of the cast are OK in their respective roles: Ari Cohen and Erin McMurtry as Mr & Mrs Berkowitz; Zie Souwand as sweet Sonny; Toronto Songwriter and performer Slim Twigg as jerk Billy Zero, Julian Richings as Dr Heker, among others.
A few important flaws ruined what could have been a great movie. The main idea is brilliant but, since we get mostly Tracey's subjective approach to reality, the rest of the characters are somewhat pointless and can't be trusted by the viewer; in fact they are just hinted.
I did not like the end, not the way it ended, but how the end was presented and how we get there - what triggers Tracey's epiphany? That is so because the mood of the movie and, most importantly, its tempo were not the right ones.
This is one of those movies that are a challenge for the viewers, that need of their full awareness and attention, that have a difficult knot to untie, but also one of those movies that can be interpreted in different ways and make your brain produce sparks. One of those movies that you get or you don't, nothing in between. To me, one of those movies that, the more I think about it, the more I want to watch again.
Are you ready for it?
