BROTHERS BY BLOOD

Matthias Schoenaerts     Joel Kinnaman     Maika Monroe

 

     Peter (Schoenaerts) and Michael (Kinnaman) are certainly brothers by blood (and it could be brothers inblood), because not much else connects them.  They are very different people with different values.  We see them growing up in Philadelphia in families involved in gangs and crime.  Peter is the logical one, trying desperately—all his life—to escape the violence surrounding him.  Michael insists on continuing the wars that have gone on for generations. Peter gets him out of many risky situations, but he seems to be determined to act out the family’s penchant for the macho code.  The “brothers” are actually cousins.

Writer-director Jeremie Guez is considered a prize-winning writer of French noir stories of crime and intrigue.  The dialog he writes is terse and his plots are dark with a heavy emphasis on masculine stereotypes.  Brothers by Blood (originally titled The Sound of Philadelphia) is based on Pete Dexter’s novel Brotherly Love (1991).

     The film is not an easy watch; it begins with a man relating a story about his prostate exam, followed by scenes of a crime showing wrecked cars, dead bodies, and police, all while credits roll.  In addition to these opening scenes that tell us little, overall. a major flaw in terms of storytelling is the darkness of the screen shots making it very hard to see what is transpiring, the absence of connections that will use the scenes you see to tell a logical story, and the introduction of characters who are not identified.  Much of this you have to figure out yourself perhaps many scenes later. An example is the sudden appearance of a small boy taking in the action around him, but it’s only later that you realize he is part of the main character’s reminiscences about his earlier life. 

     Matthias Schoenaerts is one of my favorite actors and the main reason I wanted to see this film.  He and Joel Kinnaman are indeed very good in portraying their characters as written.  But Peter is often portrayed as a Christ-like figure who is long-suffering and ever forgiving, making if difficult for me to appreciate his role, given this kind of movie.  But, at least, one of the ending scenes made me feel better about him.

     This is a movie that will appeal primarily to those fond of macho crime films without much character development or attempts to clarify the make-up of the main characters.   Because I found little of it to be constructive or worthwhile, I cannot recommend it to most.

 

A film noir made primarily for those seeking the thrill of blood and witnessing the crime system in a major city.

 

Grade:  D                                  By Donna R. Copeland

GRETA

Chloe Grace Moretz     Isabelle Huppert     Maika Monroe     Stephen Rea     Zawe Ashton

     Like many thrillers, Greta has a benign start in someone showing kindness to another.  Francis (Moretz) finds a purse left on the subway, with ID, cash, etc., inside.  Her roommate Erica (Monroe) sees it as an opportunity for a spa day, but Francis is an honest, kindhearted soul who sees it as a duty (and a privilege) to return it personally to its owner.  That is Greta Hideg (Huppert), a charming widow who is very grateful and offers Francis tea and company.  They chat, and Francis learns that Greta has not only lost her husband and her dog, but her daughter is in France.  Out of genuine empathy, Francis offers to help Greta find another dog.  This is politely refused; however, soon after they part, Greta calls on the phone and takes Francis up on her offer.  

     Francis does indeed help Greta, and as they spend some time together, they become friends.  This is somewhat to the chagrin of Francis’ roommate, Erica, who finds that Francis’ time with Greta means less time with Erica.  “Why do you want to spend so much time with an old lady?” she asks, and suggests that Greta stands in for Francis’ mother who passed away the year before. Francis is dismissive of this charge; however, when she is at Greta’s soon after, she finds something disturbing, and decides to end her friendship with Greta.

     Ah, things are never so simple in a thriller.  As she tries to extricate herself, Francis confronts a needy, controlling stalker who is determined to hold onto her. Stalking is only the beginning of the horrors that are in store for Francis.  

     This is the place where I had problems with the movie; at this point, it piles on so much, more and more, it loses its appeal, and becomes a laborious slog to get to the end.  Before it does wrap up, there are entertaining scenes with Erica back in the picture to enliven it. 

     This film pales against Huppert’s previous film, The Piano Teacher, partly because it does not delve into the perpetrator’s psychological past.  We see that Greta is lonely and that she has a checkered past, but we’re not shown the antecedents to her obsessions.

     Isabelle Huppert is her inimitable witchy threat who sends chills up your spine with her craftiness and manipulative ways.  Moretz has her character match Greta’s terror with her innocence, naïveté, and compassionate willingness to help others.  This juxtaposition is one of the strongest assets of the film.  Stephen Rea’s cameo offers additional thrills, and Maika Monroe’s savvy solution to the problem is clever.  One of the biggest faults of the story, however, is her character’s suggestion to Francis to apologize to Greta and take responsibility for a “misunderstanding.”  This is a weak plot turn that seems stupid on its face, in view of the severely disturbed character they are dealing with.

Despite minor weaknesses, this is a tight thriller that will entertain you.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE 5TH WAVE

Chloe Grace Moretz   Nick Robinson  Alex Roe  Liev Schreiber  Maria Bello  Ron Livingston  Maggie Siff

          What are the waves, this being the fifth, you may ask.  The Fifth Wave refers to a series of attacks by an alien planet that needs earth’s resources.  Their invasion comes in waves, such as a gigantic power outage, an earthquake with tsunami, Asian flu, occupation (including occupation of individual humans), and finally full-on invasion with the purpose of killing all survivors.

           Cassie (Moretz) is the narrator who is in high school when the first wave hits.  She is living with her mother, father, and younger brother and interested in the usual teen preoccupations.  She has a crush on a classmate and is teased by her best friend.  With progressive waves of alien attacks, she anguishes about her losses, but is determined to rescue her brother who was taken away with other children in a school bus on orders of the U.S. military.  Cassie was supposed to go too, but missed it when she went to fetch her brother’s toy bear. 

         What follows is a chronicle of her experiences in trying to survive and rescue her brother and never knowing whether a person she meets is enemy or friend.  The aliens have taken to “occupying” human bodies as a control measure.  All this adds up to a pervasive paranoia in which no one knows whether a person is human or alien. 

          The first half of this drama is intriguing (although not really original in conception), but it eventually devolves into a morass of predictability and romantic kitsch, ending with the pronouncement that “love is not a trick; it’s real.”

         Moretz is at her usual fine skill in portraying a young woman with smarts, always ready to learn, and showing a nice range of emotional expression.  Her two co-stars, Robinson as Ben and Roe as Evan Walker, match her very well, and provide the opportunity to prove that females can be as strong and effective as males.  Further, the character of Ringer (Maika Monroe) is a sassy upstart who uses her brain and skill to figure out a situation and act decisively. 

      The portrayal of males and females is perhaps the only plus in The Fifth Wave.  Females are both nurturing/caring and skillful in fighting, and males are protective and strong while also giving females space to show what they can do. 

         Enrique Chediak’s cinematographic art comes through repeatedly, most strikingly when Cassie and her brother have climbed a tree to escape the tsunami.  He shows a bird’s eye view of them that quickly evolves into a palette of leaves, making the viewer wonder if they survived.

          While it’s not perhaps as original as desired, Director J. Blakeson has put together an interesting apocalyptic tale with talented actors.  I take a bit of a jaundiced eye toward it in its playing up the existence of a threat implying that everyone should be armed at all times.  Guns are highlighted so much I began to wonder if the NRA helped finance the movie. 

Gun advocates will love this movie; others, perhaps, not so much.

Grade:  D+           By Donna R. Copeland

IT FOLLOWS

Maika Monroe     Keir Gilchrist     Lili Sepa     Jake Weary     Daniel Zovatto

It Follows is like an illness, something one can pass along to someone else by sleeping with him/her.  Jay (Monroe) is dating a “nice” boy named Hugh (Weary), but when they go on a date to the movies, he has to leave abruptly.  They’ve been playing a guessing game from Jay’s childhood, and when it’s time for him to guess whom she picked, she can’t see the Jay’s choice, he points to someone Jay cannot see, and when she can’t, that’s when he says he feels ill and they must leave.

       After dinner and a quiet walk in the woods, they have sex in the car, but the horror is that Jay ends up tied to a wheelchair and Hugh is walking around with a flashlight searching, for what?  Sure enough, a strange woman starts walking toward them, and he informs Jay that he has given her something like a curse, whereby she will be followed by shadowy figures, perhaps in the form of people she knows, or perhaps strangers.  She will be plagued by these with the threat of death until she sleeps with someone and gives “It” to someone else.  The catch is there is a boomerang effect such that if the person you’ve given “It” to dies too quickly you will be targeted again. 

      Hugh dumps Jay off in the street in front of her house and she is, of course, traumatized.  The police are called, and she enlists the help of her sister and friends, who are very supportive, and promise to stick right by her so that nothing will happen to her.  That would be the wise, sane thing to do, but Jay is constantly running off by herself in the dark to isolated places.  There are numerous encounters with the followers who often appear zombie-like, but no one can see them but Jay.  Hugh has disappeared, and the friends work together to identify and locate him.  They are successful, and find that his name is actually Jeff, so they find out where he lives and give him a visit.  He acknowledges everything and apologizes to Jay, but reiterates what she has to do to pass this “thing” on to someone else.

       Greg, one of Jay’s neighbors, offers to help, and takes the whole group to his family’s vacation home (as if whatever “It” is couldn’t follow them there).  This thing has supernatural powers—like being visible only to the one(s) that carries the curse.  Later, we see more powers, like the apparition not dying after its head is shot off.  After a series of accidents, Greg offers to sleep with Jay, thinking he will be able to withstand “It” and save her.  At first nothing happens, and then…  Finally, in desperation, the group decides to set up a trap in a pool, involving electricity. 

       I was not especially taken in by the horror of this film, although the group of young actors are good, as are the special sound effects (Christian Dwiggins), music (Rich Vreeland), and Mike Gioulakis’ haunting camera work with light and shadow.  I found something like 2013’s The Conjuring much more scary and horrifying.  It was easy to suspend reality and get into the action.  Here, there was a bit of jumpiness, but I was more bothered by Jay continually running off by herself into dark, isolated places, and the characters not getting in touch with parents or following up with the police after they talked to Jay the morning after her encounter with Hugh/Jeff. 

       I must say, too, that creating a situation for young people whereby they can pass something evil on to someone else in order to save themselves is rather twisted.  People have done that with sexually transmitted diseases, but that doesn’t work to save themselves, as is the case here.

Seeing things others can’t see.

Grade:  C                                   By Donna R. Copeland