HARRY BROWN
This one was a pretty straightforward screening with little hoopla. There were no celebrities, involved in the making of this film, present for this screening. Still the crowds lined up like they have been for the past few days. This particular film, directed by Daniel Barber and written by Gary Young stars Michael Caine as a lonely geriatric British gentleman who goes on a path of bloody vengeance to eliminate the teenage hooligans who murdered his best friend. Caine’s performance is magnificent. He perfectly portrays all the emotions of a broken man brought to the edge and dives over it. The director Daniel Barber through some dark and gritty cinematography by Martin Ruhe captures the mood of the film involving an otherwise good hearted protagonist who embraces his dark side to counter the evil in his neighborhood.
Also effective in the film is the work of the sound crew who really outdo themselves in the sound mixing and editing of the film. The gun shots ring loud, almost as loud as being there. Almost every time a gun fires I and few audience members who I noticed jumped. The film also stars Emily Mortimer as police detective Alice Frampton who is investigating the recent onset of violence in Brown’s neighborhood including the murder of his friend Leonard (David Bradley). Mortimer’s offers a great performance of a woman who is disrespected by her male superiors and must prove herself on through heroic measures. Overall, I really enjoyed this film which although is not entirely original (similar to GRAN TORINO and LAW ABIDING CITIZEN) but is still thrilling and compelling through effective story telling and great performances by the cast.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FOUR)
AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE
Following HARRY BROWN, I trekked over to the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar to get in line for AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE. This was the perfect location to end my evening because I was hungry and was in the mood for a couple of pints of draft beer. “Grindhouse” cinema and the appreciation of it has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years thanks to directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez who have named several movies from this school of filmmaking as key influences in their careers. Quentin’s famous film festivals usually showcase his favorites from grindhouse/exploitation movies from mostly the seventies era. Both Tarantino and Rodriguez attempted to capture the experience with their double feature project titled GRINDHOUSE, complete with fake trailers. As a child of the seventies and eighties, I remember some of the golden nuggets of trashy cinema which usually encompassed the action, horror, and soft core genres.
So naturally I could not miss this very educational documentary which is a wonderfully comprehensive history of grindhouse cinema. Director Elijah Drenner takes his audience through various clips and interviews with directors involved in this movement of film. Starting with the early films of Thomas Edison and ending his history lesson in the early 1980s, Drenner’s lesson is probably somewhat incomplete but still excellent nevertheless. The Drenner and his crew do a spectacular job arranging this study both chronologically and also according to the different styles and sub-genres. For the movie doc who is still in the process of studying film, this movie was very educational. I actually took notes in the darkness of the theater writing down all the films discussed that caught my interest. I recommend this documentary for fans of exploitation cinema or people who find much amusement in bad movies. So far, this is my favorite documentary of the festival.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FOUR)
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