Rowan Sullivan, Author at FilmRoot

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Phenomena

Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Phenomena sure is unique. Yes, it has a lot of the usual characteristics that form the horror genre but, it is definitely not your typical horror flick. Phenomena follows the daughter of a famous American actor who has a strong psychic connection with insects. She is sent to a Swiss boarding school in an area where some girls have been disappearing. And, of course, she sleepwalks.

Why Watch Phenomena?

In addition to the insect-girl mentioned above, this film features an old man in a wheelchair and his pet chimpanzee.
It’s backed by a very loud 80s heavy metal soundtrack to provide some relief to some of the more tense moments.
Lucky for you, there’s no subtitles – it’s mostly in English despite being an Italian film.
Ever wondered what a horror remake of the Sound of Music might look like? Well here’s your chance to find out.

The Breakdown

Phenomena starts in a Swiss Alpine setting. A yellow bus pulls up at a bus stop, picks up a few passengers from a tour group and drives off. As the camera follows the bus (moving on a 180 degree axis) we hear someone shouting “wait”. The camera moves back to the left to see a girl running up to the camera. She’s missed the bus. So what does she do? She goes to explore a house nearby. To her, the house looks empty. But to us, we see shots of some chains being pulled from the wall… she has company!!!

In the opening ‘scare’ the monster is concealed from view. We see the girl running away from the monster through the monsters eyes and we see shots of the girl running, but never shots of the monster itself. This continues deep into the film to build up our fear of the unknown. Revealing the killer would end the build up of tension. (although the heavy metal music seems to weaken the potential scare factor).

Another method the director uses to build tension is to quickly cut between perspectives. For example, later in the film our young American girl is exploring an abandoned house. As she walks up to the house Argento (the director) cuts between her 1st person perspective, a 3rd person perspective view from behind her back, and another establishing shot, to show where she is (in a field in the Swiss Alps walking to a wooden house). This combination of perspectives disorientates the viewer, and stops the viewer from anticipating what will happen, which leads to a greater shock.

If you’re looking for an 80s horror film with a dash of psychedelia and a dash of heavy metal, then Phenomena is for you. Enjoy.

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Lupe Under the Sun (Lupe Bajo El Sol) – London Film Festival 2016

Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Lupe Under the Sun features an ageing migrant worker from Michoacan working in California’s Central Valley. It deals with the vagueness of migrant identity – is Lupe Mexican or American? Or both and neither at the same time? The director, Rodrigo Reyes, shows migration to be both an inspired act of hope and a frightening leap into the unknown.

Why Watch Lupe Under the Sun?

For a timely look at the life of a lonely migrant worker in the U.S. a group verbally assaulted by Trump
To see an old man riding a tricycle
Step in somebody else’s shoes – take a walk through the eyes of an immigrant worker in an unfamiliar environment which you call home
What does it mean to not belong?

The Breakdown

The film starts with a narration by Lupe’s grandson as Lupe walks through arid landscape and orchards.

He says that his grandfather told him a secret; that he was going to America to paint a really big house that will take him a long time. He won’t be back for some time, because he has to keep painting.

Does Lupe really belong here? He doesn’t talk to anyone, except one scene where he is gambling around a small table with two other guys. He doesn’t answer his girlfriend, he mumbles back to the doctor, and doesn’t make any effort to start any conversation. His lack of dialogue emphasises his lack of belonging and identity. He has no friends and no one he cares about in the Central Valley. He has no reason to stay where he is or go home.

Furthermore, his days are occupied by ritual. He wakes up at 4am each morning, cooks his eggs, showers, and shaves his moustache before he gets picked up to go pick fruit. Each day we are shown this same ritual emphasised by fixed shots of the alarm clock, the cooking hob, and the kitchen sink. The repeated shots emphasise the mundaneness of Lupe’s life – is he brave for sticking out this monotone life? His only joy seems to come from riding his tricycle around town.

Why is Lupe living here? Why doesn’t he go back to Mexico where he might feel a little more belonging? Lupe is symbolic of the ‘no-man’s land’ of migrant identity – he is both the man of his past life in Mexico and the man of his present in the U.S. Pick this one for a quiet night in to watch with someone else – watching it alone might make you question your loneliness.

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Neruda

Film Buff Ranking: 3

Neruda is a rather special take on the famous Chilean poets life. Instead of focusing on his fabulous poetry, Neruda focuses on his Pablo’s run from persecution for being a communist. Throughout, Neruda is being hunted by a police inspector named Peluchonneau. In all, the film reminded me of a Borgesian short story with a hilariously Quixotic character.

Why watch Neruda?

You have read and enjoyed Borges
Multiple narratives – try and follow this one! Is it real?
Chilean history -communist persecution (for more on communist persecution, see a real account of the Indonesian death squads here)
For an interesting take on the biopic (think of Frida)

The Breakdown

The film starts with cameras following Neruda through a crowd. He makes his way through a government building greeting people next to him. He finally makes it through to a room where the president and the other senators are (for Neruda is also a senator), goes straight over to the urinal conveniently placed at the side of the room and berates the president out loud whilst he is taking a piss. What a scene! It certainly sets it up for a rather surreal and jovial film.

Neruda is a masterful invention. The character of Peluchonneau, played by the wonderful Gabriel Garcia Bernal, a character invented to embellish Neruda’s reputation. He is Neruda’s (or the director’s Larrain’s) puppet, a tool to show Neruda’s creative vision. Even the name Peluchonneau is perfect, as “peluche” in Spanish refers to a stuffed animal toy. This is exactly what Peluchonneau is, a character that is invented, used to entertain us, and then forgotten when we grow older. Luckily for the film and for us, the director and screenwriters script him perfectly.

Just like in Y Tu Mama Tambien, the events at the front of the screen take centre stage. You can see the effects of the communist persecution in the background. People are being dragged off to concentration camps, homeless kids are wandering the streets begging for money, and indigenous populations are being subjected to landlords. Furthermore these landlords deliberately break the law, just because the government does not care about them anyway. This is the real post-WW2 Chile, not the Chile concerned with a fictional or non-fictional chase of Neruda that pre-occupied everything else.

Conclusion

Neruda is definitely worth a watch. Fans of literature will love the construction of Pelloneau and his fictional existence. It is a little bit of a fight club in this regard. Pelloneau could not exist without Neruda and Neruda’s excellence is heightened by Pelloneau. As a Latin America Literature lover, this truly captured the unique spirit of the continent.

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The Bait – London Film Festival 2016

Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Another great film from the London Film Festival, The Bait explores the lives of a mix of people from Bengal. The Bait features an eclectic mix of characters: a young circus tightrope walker who tours the land with her parents, a postman who renounces his life to live up a tree with some monkeys, and a Rajah trying to capture his past glory by killing a tiger. There is magical realism, strong political undercurrents, and plenty of beautiful scenery.

Why Watch this Film?

For eccentric characters! One middle-aged man that dances in his palace, and another that lives up a tree with monkeys
See beautiful scenery – you’ll feel as if you’ve travelled to Bengal
It’s by an award winning Indian film maker – Buddhadeb Dasgupta
See the magic of anime brought to live action

The Breakdown

The film starts with old music playing from an old gramophone. An middle-aged man (the old Rajah) dances round and round a door frame in the middle of grassy hills. Is this a dream? Probably not. This is the eccentric Rajah, a man whose family has always held power in these lands until recently. His power is questioned by some documentary makers who do not believe he can catch a tiger.

The Rajah always plays old music, and always plays it on his old gramophone which he takes wherever he goes. The old music reminds him of the past glory of his family, something that is fading rapidly. He can’t even entertain his wife, a woman trapped in his palace. Instead of adapting to modernity, he tries to recapture his former glory by going on a quest to kill a tiger.

Outside of the three main characters, the film is dominated by the beautiful Bengali landscape. The rolling green hills, the dry lands, and the marshy swampland captures the diversity of Bengal (which is also captured in the characters). Instead of city noise, we hear birds, monkeys, water – everything that is lost in the city. The country is always full of life. The only evidence of built up civilisation were a few electricity pylons in the far background of one shot and the grand palace of the Rajah slowly being covered with moss.

The Bait is like a collection of fables. Each storyline portrays a different part of society, from the rich Rajah to the wandering street performers. Their social statuses are clear throughout and their identification creates the strong political undercurrent. Is there still a semi-caste system in India? Under the magical realism and humour, it seems that Dasgupta believes there still is.

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Moonlight

Film Buff Ranking: 1

Moonlight (2016 film).png Is Moonlight a future Oscar winner? It is everything an Oscar winner should be: beautifully shot, emotional, powerful. Furthermore it is also what the Oscars have lacked: a great non-biographical black film. This film reminded me of the early chapters of Ta-Nehisi Coate’s Between the World and Me or Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City because it shows the influence of environment on people. We are not always what we portray on the outside.

Why Watch Moonlight?

Change the way you think about people – did you know that the script writer was taught how to ride a bike by a drug dealer who saw him struggling to learn?
For beautiful Miami cinematography – sweat glistening in the moonlight
Could this be an Academy Award winner?
Is sexuality the biggest taboo in Western society?

The Breakdown

The first things we hear are Boris Gardiner’s ‘Every N****r Is a Star’ playing on a car radio. The driver, Juan, parks his car and walks over to another guy standing on the side of the road. They chat small talk to each other – the drug selling is all good. As Juan walks back to his car a kid runs past him, chased by a group of kids. The kid runs into an abandoned house and hides as the others throw stones through the window. Later, Juan tears down one of the window boards where the young kid is hiding and takes him under his wing.

Split into three chapters portraying another stage of Chiron’s life, Moonlight tracks Chiron’s progression. In each, he is almost unrecognisable physically, as he transforms from little kid to lanky teenager to muscly man. However, his eyes never change – he is always the shy kid found by Juan in chapter one.

In the final chapter you can see that Chiron has tried to bury the person he is. This is emphasised in the music he plays in his car. His music is ‘chopped and screwed’ – aka it is slowed down, scratched up, and cut up. You often can’t recognise music which has been ‘chopped and screwed’. Similarly you can’t recognise Chiron. He has been ‘chopped and screwed’ like the music. The person he was has been distorted so much that we no longer recognise him.

Conclusion

Moonlight is not just a ‘black film’, Moonlight is a universal film that sheds a light on everyone who cannot be who they are. It applies to those who try to repress their sexuality, those who try to fit in by being someone they are not, and those who cannot be who they want. Most people have compromised their self to fit in at some point (at school or beyond).

In a similar way, this film never tries to be something pretentious or important. It has no idols or figures to be revered like the fiction or non-fictional films featured at the Academy Awards before. This is a real story in a sea of films filled with their own self-importance. Go and watch it!

My Sources - The Director, Screenwriter, and Cast — My Sources – The Director, Screenwriter, and Cast