Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #272: Collective (2019).

 

In 2015, a fire killed 27 people in the Collectiv nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, with another 37 people dying of burns over the following months. The national government healthcare scandal that emerged in the tragedy's aftermath is the focus of the Oscar-nominated 2019 documentary Collective from writer, director, co-producer and editor Alexander Nanau. 

Let me warn you upfront: this documentary is glacially slow and very subtle. However, that's partly why it works so well because half of it is told from the perspective of journalists at the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper as they uncover and then report on the Collectiv fire and then the Romanian government's response to that; the other half is shown from the perspectives of that government. This technique is employed for impartiality and restraint, with it working thoroughly.

Naturally, despite Nanau's detached and neutral directorial tone the journalists' conduct contrasts wildly with that of the featured government officials, but that simply demonstrates who was and was not committed to exposing the truth about this entire scandal and applying responsibility. The result is a riveting, powerful and thought-provoking investigation into corruption and maladministration that I'd recommend to anybody when they feel like complaining about their country's health care system. After watching it, hopefully you'll consider it better than Romania's.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #271: Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019).

 

15-year-old Daniel Bagnold (Earl Cave; Nick's son) is having to spend the summer in the countryside with his estranged mother Sue (Monica Dolan), who he openly hates. He thought he was staying in Florida with his father, a plan he was looking forward to, until this change. Now, amidst their constant arguing, they have to both find common ground again. Meanwhile, Sue finds romance with local history teacher Douglas Porter (Rob Brydon) and support in her masseuse friend Astrid (Tamsin Greig), with Daniel hanging out with his androgynous mate Kye (Elliot Speller-Gillott) and joining young metal band Skullslayer.

Well, so much for this apparently being a comedy. Based on Jeff Winterheart's 2012 graphic novel, Days of the Bagnold Summer marks the directorial debut of Simon Bird, former star of UK sitcoms The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner (the latter of which also starred none other than Greig as his mum), but I didn't laugh once throughout it. Moreover, I found this to be just stuffed to the brim with cliches and really lacking in edginess. But what I found most offputting was Daniel; he is such a misanthropic, sullen teenage protagonist that I think even Holden Caulfield would've told him to lighten up. Cave also feels quite typecast in the role. As the story's most sympathetic character Dolan gives a powerful turn, with Greig making a suitably eccentric second banana to her, but the rest of the cast let these ladies down for me.

Belle and Sebastian's restrained but ultimately repetitive score also increased my boredom, and Bird's wife Lisa Owens' screenplay felt quite incongruously watered down (for a start there's not even any swearing and Daniel's a metalhead), with his direction striking me as very stagnant. I'm afraid these Days of the Bagnold Summer were ones I was impatiently counting down like Daniel does. 5/10.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #270: '71 (2014).

 

As the title says, it's 1971 and in Northern Ireland the Troubles are quickly escalating. New British Army recruit Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) is sent to Belfast to serve in the inexperienced Second Lieutenant Armitage's (Sam Reid) platoon stationed in a very precarious area. Once the fighting gets underway, Hook is soon separated from the rest of his platoon and left to fend for himself in an urban warzone.

That's basically all the narrative to be found in this effort from feature debuntante director Yann Demange and writer Gregory Burke. I know for most people the appeal of war films lays in the violence and there's tons of that here, but I find action far more compelling when it's woven into a suspenseful or involving plot and this one's plot ticks neither of those boxes. There's very little spread-out or unique about Gary's adventure, which disengaged me and that in turn meant it had no emotional impact for me either. The photography and editing, respectively by Tat Radcliffe and Chris Wyatt, also take the respective Saving Private Ryan styles and run with them, and David Holmes' score is increasingly excessive.

O'Connell tries his best, and Demange and Burke undoubtedly mean well, but even as somebody with Irish ancestry this film about the Troubles focuses too much (and too unimaginatively) on action at the expense of a fresh and thought-provoking war storyline. '71 gets a 6/10 from me.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #269: The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle (2019).

 

In this sequel to 2017's fun and charming The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King, titular hero Espen (Vebjorn Enger) and his love Princess Kristin (Eili Harboe) are back and taking another adventure. This time, they have to rescue their sidekick friends Per (Mads Sjogard Pettersen) and Pal Elias Holmen Sorenson) who've been falsely accused of poisoning the king and queen and are now imprisoned in a dungeon awaiting their execution. Espen and Kristin must now find the mythical Soria Moria palace, home to the so-called "water of life" which can save her parents, and from there reveal who was really responsible for the crime.

The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle is darker than its predecessor, but that's about the only new thing I noticed here. Returning director Mikkaele Braenne Sandemose just doesn't infuse the narrative, based on an eighteenth-century Norwegian fairy tale again, with quite the same rollicking pace and exuberance the second time around and the result, therefore, was something of a buzzkill for me. Also, Enger doesn't give as much of an enthusiastic turn this time in the lead and there are a couple of scenes that feel almost jarringly like references to ones in earlier, Hollywood adventure flicks, namely one that invokes comparisons to the laughing over dinner scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the score is too heavy-handed in places.

The visuals are once again beautiful especially for a very low-budget fantasy flick, and as I said the tone is somewhat darker in this sequel. But that one change could not mask the lack of changes elsewhere or the comparative lack of zest alongside the first film. A third is reportedly planned; let's hope it's a return to form for Sandemose after this misstep. 6/10.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #268: Oculus (2013).

 

Jumping back and forth between the present day and eleven years prior, this is the story of siblings Kaylee and Tim Russell (Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites). Tim's just been released from a psychiatric facility after his and Kaylee's parents were murdered in 2002. That happened after father Alan (Rory Cochrane) bought an antique mirror to put in his office, not realising it supernaturally inspires hallucinations. After the increasingly violent Alan starts abusing his wife Marie (Katee Sackhoff), that's when the tragedy is set in motion. Now, back after Tim's release, he and Kaylee try to clear his name, but the mirror's game is far from over.

Mike Flanagan's 2013 effort Oculus, based on his 2005 short film Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan, is, I think, immensely overrated. Firstly, the narrative is increasingly convoluted which I realise was the point, but I didn't find it convoluted in a lucid or logical manner. There's even an especially dumb scene involving a lightbulb being eaten. Flanagan's pacing and editing are much too relaxed for a horror movie (even one that relies on on strong character development as this one does, to its credit), Michael Fimognari's cinematography is unimaginative and Flanagan's regular composers the Newton Brothers' score is too subtle even when most horror scores are too excessive. Gillan tries to bring authority and sympathy to Kaylee, but Thwaites gives a lazy performance and goes through numerous scenes with his mouth gaping open like one of those metal clowns at the show (funfair, for you American readers if I have any). Seriously, I felt like feeding him a ping-pong ball.

For a great - and more importantly, scary - recent horror flick about a dysfunctional family, I say skip this one and watch Hereditary or Lights Out instead. To me, Oculus is no match for them. 6/10.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #267: Sun Children (2020).

 

12-year-old Ali (Ruhoullah Zamani) and his three friends in rural Iran undertake small jobs and petty crimes in order to help their families get by amidst widespread poverty. Their current work is in a mine, where Ali is soon enlisted to locate a secret underground treasure. He agrees, but before he can access the tunnel where the treasure's buried, he and his crew have first to enrol at the nearby Sun School, a charitable institution that seeks to be a school for street kids and child labourers.

Iranian writer-director Majid Majidi's 2020 effort Sun Children is the latest of his films about underprivileged young people and after screening successfully at the Venice International Film Festival (where Zamani won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for an emerging actor or actress), it was the Iranian submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar and made the shortlist of fifteen films. I think it's easy to understand why; this movie achieves the tricky balancing act of exploring the themes of child labour and poverty in a family-friendly manner without actually trivialising or sanitising them, and it also offers quite a bravely critical reminder of how patriarchal Middle Eastern culture is. There's also a moving climactic twist, when we discover what the treasure really is.

Ramin Kousha's score feels somewhat too Westernised, but that was the only flaw I found here, and Majidi's concern for these impoverished young protagonists is thoroughly evident as is his commitment to working a cohesive narrative around their lives, and Zamani is totally charming and convincing as their leader. Wisely, there's nothing flashy about the aesthetics either. Sun Children indeed shines bright. 9/10.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #266: Eighth Grade (2018).

 

Kayla (Elsie Fisher) is 13. She lives with her single father Mark (Josh Hamilton) and, like most of her teenage peers, spends most of her time behind a screen; she even actually makes YouTube vlogs in which she portrays herself as a motivational influencer. At school she's a pariah and she knows it, with this being the primary source of her insecurity and angst. But when the last week of eighth grade rolls around, Kayla sets out to finally acquire acceptance from her classmates. Meanwhile, domestically she and her father, who resents her efforts to exclude him from her activities, try to find common ground.

This filmmaking debut from comedian Bo Burnham, himself a former YouTuber (and I loved watching his videos), is nothing ambitious or (entirely) original, but it's not really meant to be either of those qualities anyhow. What it is meant to be (and manages to be) is a frank but tender exploration of growing up in the social media age, with the pitfalls that has imposed particularly on children and teens. Kayla and most of her peers share virtually all their thoughts online and one scene even hints at the posting and sharing of their sexually explicit images. I suspect Burnham added this criticism of social media because he's admitted to abandoning his YouTube career after becoming disillusioned with the website, but he makes this condemnation in a smart and and sincere manner of emphasising how social media platforms tend to deliberately prey on the young and vulnerable. By contrast, he treats them here with obvious concern and his screenplay also doesn't have them talking unrealistically eloquently like too many teen movies do.

Fisher, leading a mostly non-professional teenage cast, is effective and beautifully understated as Kayla, and Anna Meredith's largely electronic score is fitting because it sounds at least to me very much like the kind of music currently in vogue. I found some of the supporting characters, namely the handful of kids who ultimately befriend Kayla, to be slightly underdeveloped, and the climax to be rather formulaic, but nonetheless I overall consider Eighth Grade a wise, astute and empathetic directorial debut, and despite being a male millennial I noticed a lot of similarities between Kayla and my 13-year-old self. 8/10.