Phoenix: Film Review

Phoenix: Film Review

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf
Director: Christian Petzold

From the director of the critically acclaimed Barbara, Phoenix is a tale that aims for powerful and gets there - for the most part.

Hoss plays Nelly, a survivor of the concentration camps, who's badly disfigured and needs reconstruction surgery after the war to start to rebuild her life. Choosing to ignore surgeons' advice and seeking her own face be restored, Nelly's determined to find her husband Johnny, who was arrested the same time she was and the thought of whom kept her going in the camps. However, Johnny didn't sustain that hope and believed she was dead, killed at the hands of the Nazis.

But when Nelly discovers Johnny's working in a local cabaret club as a busboy, and despite the advice from long term friend Lene, she ingratiates her way back into his life as he concocts a scheme to get her inheritance, believing Nelly to be the spitting image of his wife...

With its weighty subject matter and universal concerns, Phoenix could so easily gone for overblown sentiment and mawkishness,

But what Petzold does is strive for subtlety and for a more intimate drama that really becomes more about Johnny and Nelly than it does its global implications, which is where the suspension and suspense start to diverge.

By scattering elements through the story of a post World War II life and of Jews trying to deal with their PTSD and of a nation trying to rebuild, but by concentrating on the struggle between the duo, Petzold creates a film that's as much Hitchcock as it is post-Holocaust tale.

Evocatively lit and carefully choreographed, this is a film that relies on its cinematography for its atmosphere and one which demonstrates a proliferation of victims by concentrating on a singular one. But it's also a story which requires a leap of faith that Johnny wouldn't become suspicious of Nelly and the incredible coincidence that the tale pivots on.

Granted, it's the stuff of film noir, but Phoenix doesn't quite convince on that front and the eventual denouement of the piece lacks the real shock factor that it should have. And nowhere is this more evident than in Lene's ultimate fate, coming as it does like a shot out of the blue and with no resonance.

If anything, Phoenix is more of a film of survivors, of trying to find one's way again and of a nation trying to find a new face, as well as an individual. It's here that the power of Phoenix lies and it's here that the story is perhaps more desperate to be told.

As it is, Phoenix is beautifully and masterfully executed, but one can't help but feel its vision should have been better placed.

Quantum Break - Interviewing star Shawn Ashmore

Quantum Break - Interviewing star Shawn Ashmore

Quantum Break is out now on XBox One and I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the game's star (and of course XMen's Iceman and The Following's Mike Weston) Shawn Ashmore.

Take a listen to the interview below to hear Shawn talk about his first time with mo cap, his admiration for one of NZ's top directors, the fun of playing yourself playing a game - and to discover what type of film he's always wanted to make.



Don't forget, I also had a chat to Remedy Entertainment's Thomas Puha about the game - listen to that interview below too.

Quantum Break is out now on XBox One.

Quantum Break - XBox One event with Shawn Ashmore

Quantum Break - XBox One event with Shawn Ashmore

Quantum Break's launched on the XBox One and to celebrate, the awesome team at Microsoft threw an event to celebrate.

And even better, they hosted the star of the game Shawn Ashmore, aka Jack Joyce who got up close and personal with fans.

Here are some shots from the event

Listen to an interview with Shawn Ashmore here

The Divergent Series: Allegiant: Film Review

The Divergent Series: Allegiant: Film Review

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort
Director: Robert Schwentke

The latest young adult cum dystopian cum split finale in two a la Hunger Games / Harry Potter film has nary a hiss nor a roar as it beats onward to the end.

In Allegiant, Shailene Woodley's rather bland Tris Pryor sleepwalks her way through the story as she and pouty love interest Four (the always pursed lipped Theo James) make a break for freedom.

At the end of the lacklustre Insurgent, the gang found out that everything they had been told was a lie and there was life outside the ruins of Chicago. 

Setting out to scale the wall and break free into the beyond, Tris and her troupe encounter a group of geneticists and a shadowy cabal who reveal she is the key to the future... and that only Tris can save the world from factions and the fractures within. Can they be trusted?

Allegiant feels like a reboot of the series and once again packs some pretty impressive space age visuals and some great visualisations of a world just beyond our own. (A building that houses the geneticists is a DNA helix)  But this futuristic sheen comes at a price - and that cost is the caring about any of the characters or giving them enough to do.

While the action is ramped up in parts with Schwentke giving life to clear-cut sequences, the continual muddling and muddying of obtuse concepts like The Damaged, The Pure, The Fringe and eugenics themselves in po-faced dialogue spouted by the cast does little to breathe life into proceedings.

In fact, it does the opposite.

The dramatic cypher Tris seems devoid of any punch this time around, and Woodley works with what she has on offer, but it's scant pickings. She's not well served by symbolism either with her purity seeing her clothed in white while everyone else has varying degrees of washed out pastels.  While James gets to run around a little and bust out some gung-ho action sequences, these choreographed pieces are more a momentary indulgence, rather than a full narrative necessity.

Unfortunately, opening up the world has ironically robbed The Divergent Series of any real life - the conflicts between Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts' warring factions is touched on only too briefly and any tension there feels manufactured and under-explored.

Daniels makes a reasonable fist of ambiguity with the presence of a benevolent leader, but there's little for him to really do as the film heads to a much underwhelming ending. Perhaps the desire to split the film has robbed it of any kind of urgency from the book and undercut the drama that was due to unfurl. 

When compared to the work done by The Hunger Games franchise, Woodley's Tris is a heroine that's found wanting and whose very definition is weaker. Considering both series explore similar themes, they couldn't really be much farther apart with their executions and central characters.

Ultimately, The Divergent Series will end with Ascendant - but whether it will garner a place in the pantheon of YA films is very much up for debate.

Rating:

Eye In the Sky: Film Review

Eye In the Sky: Film Review

Cast: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Iain Glen
Director: Gavin Hood

When a film about the politics of drone warfare chooses to open with a sequence with a young girl frolicking within a military compound, you can guarantee manipulation is on the cards.

So it is with Ender's Game director Gavin Hood's latest, a movie that manages to use the hot button topic of a drone strike and spin into something compelling, with a sickening predictability that manifests itself in its final act and in its manipulative coda.

With a British-led drone strike to capture a suspected terrorist in Nairobi underway, led by Colonel Powell (Mirren in a no nonsense role), events quickly change when intelligence from the location reveals a suspected suicide bomb attack is being planned.

As the debate rolls back and forth between multi-national locations, the situation becomes increasingly more tense and equally farcical as no-one wants to be seen to condone the operation becoming a strike.

And matters are further exacerbated when a small girl selling bread in front of the location for the strike could become a piece of collateral damage that would have major international implications.

Conflict, debate over law and borderline moments that feel like they're just awaiting a visit from The Thick of It spin doctor Malcolm Tucker somehow combine to make Eye in The Sky a frustratingly tense experience.

Granted, there's a degree of insouciance as the house of cards is continually stacked and over-dramatically placed as no-one in any war room wants to take the ultimate decision and shoulder any of the responsibility. As the exasperation tangentially mounts, every one of the ensemble cast scattered through the world makes a case of their place on screen.

From Mirren's determined Colonel, who's devoted years to ending this cell to Paul's drone pilot who's placed in an unthinkable situation; from Abdi's on-the-ground operative to Rickman's hamstrung by the rules of engagement Lieutenant General, the whole situation shifts tangentially with some gallows humour and a lot of debate.

Wisely, Hood's chosen to keep too many morals out of the piece as he weaves a narrative which will probably see you projecting your own ideals onto it as the red tape of bureaucracy winds ever tighter to a taut conclusion that's as thrilling as it is predictable.

Unwisely, though, a coda to the proceedings is a major mis-step and brings too much sentiment to the morality tale, over-egging the pudding with a sickliness that's directly opposed to all that's gone before.

Ultimately, though, Eye in the Sky is a slick drama that puts an overtly human face on the ongoing thorny issue of the apparently anonymous face of drone warfare.

Rating:

Hitman : Episode 1: PS4 Review

Hitman : Episode 1: PS4 Review

Released by IO and Square Enix
Platform: PS4

It doesn't pay to be impatient in Hitman.

That's the big takeaway from the episodic first chunk of the game that's been unleashed.

Once again, it's back to the world of Agent 47 and his bald-headed ways of assassination in a game that appears to go right back to the start of the franchise. In the sixth iteration of the series, and in the first episode, it's about getting back to the basics and unleashing your powers of killing, while gaining skills and rewards for your efforts.

Set before Hitman: Absolution, the game sees you assigned to a handler and assessed for duty before being unleashed on a main mission. Starting off with “The Prologue”, and set in a secret ICA training facility, the Prologue features a pivotal moment in Agent 47’s life - his introduction to the ICA and very first meeting with his future handler Diana Burnwood. The Prologue features two free-form training hits, which will introduce players to the features and mechanics of the upcoming HITMAN game.

Starting off on a boat in Aussie, the first job is to eliminate Kalvin Ritter - but first you have to infiltrate that boat, in the least possible suspicious manner. Which means taking a disguise off a mechanic, heading into the bowels of the boat and ensuring that you can track Ritter down. Tracking of the target is easy enough (simply press R1 to bring out the baddie in a red hue) but whereas walking around before was easier due to NPCs not paying any attention, this time things have taken a turn for the more realistic.

The second sees you unleashing all kinds of chaos with an ejector seat and a target and is much fun but requires a lot more thought and opens up the world to opportunities revealing, where eavesdropping gives you a better idea of how to execute the specific targets, rather than slithering in with stealthy intent.

Once these training missions are accomplished, it's on to the main event - the assassination of two key characters in secret organisation IAGO - and at a Fashion show, no less. And it's Paris that really impresses with the open world ethos truly coming to life in a way you'd not expect. The scope is incredible and occasionally, 47 would find himself lost in the bowels of the giant house as he looked around. Graphically, the game's passable - it's not exactly top notch, but the quality of the NPCs and the world around 47 no doubt means that the grunt of the PS4 is suffering a little.

Occasionally, load times are a bit on the long side, which is a pain when you have to reload sections and relaunch games, but it does give you time to rethink some strategy, which is really a big part of this episodic series.

Online connectivity has been non-existent due to server issues in the times I've tried to play this, which is a shame, as that's where some of the extra content lies, in that you're given extra ways to complete the missions and rewards for certain measures. Square Enix has sent out a statement saying that IO is working on this, and it's to be hoped that for episode 2 the game's back on track.

All in all, the cool and composed nature of Hitman makes the episodic nature a necessity; there's too much scope to do it all properly in one hit alone. It may lead to some criticism of feeling unfinished, but given this is the start of the book, let's just wait and see where the following chapters take it.

Newstalk ZB Review - The Huntsman - Winter's War, Zootopia and Secret in their Eyes

Newstalk ZB Review - The Huntsman - Winter's War, Zootopia and Secret in their Eyes

This week with Jack, I dropped into the studio to discuss the release of The Huntsman - Winter's War, Zootopia and Secret in their Eyes

Take a listen below:

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-this-week-at-the-movies/