Review : Maniac

Year Released : 2012

Director : Franck Khalfon

Cast : Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, Genevieve Alexandra

Elijah Wood is a man who has seemingly done everything he can to stop being typecast as fantasy characters after his role as Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings. Since then he has a neuroscientist with stalkerish tendencies in the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a hooligan in Green Street and the voice of a possessed puppet in the animated "9", and he continues that trend in Maniac, a remake.

I've got severely mixed feelings about remakes. Some fall into the excellent side of the argument. The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986), Night of the Living Dead (1990) and Dawn of the Dead (2004), for example, are a few of my favourite films and all are remakes, however, I could probably sit here for a long time and list films that are shockingly poor remakes, so I am always cautious when it comes to watching remakes.

I first heard about Maniac whilst on the London Underground and a very large poster, however, upon searching for when it was on in or near where I was living at the time (Newark), the nearest showings were all in London. Infact, outside of London there didn't seem to be any showings anywhere. I found myself asking the question "How good can a film really be if it's not being shown at 99% of the cinemas in the country but isn't straight to DVD?" Don't get me wrong, some of my favourite films didn't come out at the cinema, such as the previously reviewed Exit Humanity, but something always strikes me as unnerving about a film that some have deemed good enough to be released at a cinema, but only a very, very small percentage.

Anyway, Wood plays Frank Zito, a man who is mentally disturbed and leads a double life. By day he is the respectable owner of the family's mannequin business, my night he is a murderer. With his mother being a prostitute during his childhood, Zito struggles to develop relationships with women but does eventually meet a French woman called Anna. As time goes on Zito struggles to lead a double life and keeping Anna away from the other half.

Let's start with the few positives that there are from the film. Firstly, Zito keeps the body of an early kill in his bedroom throughout the film, and you gradually see it decompose and become surrounded my flies. The acting throughout the film is generally good and other than Wood, it was refreshing to see a relatively unknown cast. It's unusual to see a film with very established actors outside of the teen-horror (Final Destination for example) genre.

Now onto the negatives.

The film is shown in a first person perspective, all from Zito, meaning that Wood is only in the film when looking in a mirror, again there is something quite unusual about that as although you can hear what Zito is saying and/or thinking, it's hard to really get his sense of confliction without being able to see his face on the majority of occasions.

I found this film ultimately disappointing. The trailer made it look reasonable but I found it to be very slow, generally uninteresting and other than the final 20 or so minutes, completely unengaging. Whilst not completely awful, it's definitely a bit "meh".

To put this into some context, I would put this into the group of films that I call "Watch once and be comfortable in the fact you will not watch it again!"

Review : Thank You For Smoking

Year Released : 2006

Director : Jason Reitman

Cast : Aaron Eckhart, Katie Holmes, William H Macy and J.K. Simmons

Long before he gained the role he is best known for (Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight) Aaron Eckhart starred in a dark comedy about a man who works as a tobacco lobbyist.

Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, a guy who lives by the motto "if you argue correctly then you are never wrong." His job is to convince people that smoking cigarettes is a good thing, or at least not as bad as it is made out to be in the media. He has to fight people from every angle, including anti-tobacco campaigners, right up to the Senator of Vermont (Macy) and his ex-wife, who is determined to not have him get their son involved in the same industry.

There aren't many films based on booked that are actually any good. Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club" is probably my favourite book-to-film conversion, but this comes a very close second. It is very sharply written and the cast do a fantastic job with their characters, even the normally intolerably bland Katie Holmes doesn't ruin it. With a sensitive subject at the heart of the film, Thank You For Smoking is one of those films that the doesn't really deal with being politically incorrect, and in one of the opening scenes the Senator refers to a young cancer patient who failed to help him win an argument as "cancer boy."

I can't recall a movie that has been as quotable as this since the aforementioned Fight Club, with constant references to serial killers, the yuppie culture, cancer and of course, the cigarette industry, but all in a satirical sense, and although the odd statement could be deemed as offensive, it's nice to see a film that isn't afraid to be a little politically incorrect and subtlety (and unsubtley on occasions) offend people.

Despite being a black comedy, there are some excellently hilarious parts of the film, including a phrase that sticks in my head and makes me chuckle occasionally, afterall, how can you forget "The great state of Vermont will not apologise for it's cheese".

The stand out star though has to be Eckhart. He doesn't have your typical " movie star" look to him and therefore portrays the very business minded Naylor perfectly. There are numerous times during the film where, despite initially appearing to be invincible, Naylor has to realise that he might not be as strong as he thoughts, and it is played superbly by Eckhart.

My one criticism of the film really is that there are a few characters that get far too much screen times, and whilst obviously it helps the story along, there are several characters where you actually look at their character and part in the movie and realise that you could have easily left them out. On the flip side there are characters who you want to see more of, such as the other two characters in the "Merchants of Death Squad" (lobbyists from the alcohol and firearms industries), who could definitely have been in it more and explore their defending of their relative industries.

Overall "Thank You For Smoking" is a thoroughly enjoyable film and at 92 minutes is about the right length for a film of this type. It's one of those films that you can watch numerous times and learn something new each time, and that's the type of film everyone loves.

So just to end this review, I demand an explanation Senator......

Review : Exit Humanity

Year Released : 2011

Director : John Geddes

Cast : Mark Gibson, Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace, Adam Seybold, Jordan Hayes and Brian Cox

Described in the trailer as “this is not a movie, but a piece of cinema,” Exit Humanity makes a bold promise about what it is about to deliver and as far as I am concerned, it certainly delivers on that.

Edward Young (Mark Gibson) returned to his family following the American Civil War and had settled down to a normal life, however, upon a return from a hunting trip, his family has disappeared and the area is infested with zombies. Young soon discovers Isaac (Adam Seybold) and they venture to find the latter’s sister (Jordan Hayes), who has been kidnapped by an insane army general (Bill Moseley). Throughout Young is struggling to come to terms with the new world and slowly loses his grip on reality and his sanity, and attempts suicide on numerous occasions. The eeriness of his feelings comes out with the haunting quote “If this is the humanity that is left then I need an exit!”

Divided into chapters, this “piece of cinema” has many fascinating sub/mini-sections, including one where Young captures one of his infected neighbours and tests what they are capable of via various experiments. One of the more fascinating chapters explores the origins of zombies, and although in some senses it is a little far-fetched, it’s as good as a theory as you’re likely to get in most zombie films.

Presented with a mix of live action and animation, Exit Humanity is visually stunning, and whilst the action is little and far between, I have never seen a film with as much character development, and Young’s slide into insanity is a fascinating journey, no more so than when an early suicide attempt fails and he realises that he is forced do with what he has.

The soundtrack and settings almost act as individual characters, with haunting melodies played on banjos accompanying the characters through their journey amongst sweeping landscapes. Wide open spaces may not fill you with dread, but certainly bring you into the main character’s feelings of isolation, especially early on the film before he meets Isaac.

Reviews have generally been mixed throughout the history of the film, however, the comments from those who have viewed it and reviewed it negatively seem to revolve around the theme of there being long spells between story advancement, but I personally would much rather have characters built to the level where you can what happens to them. Too many films from the zombie genre have too many characters that you don’t even know the names of, let alone care about whether the character lives or dies.

Exit Humanity only has nine characters that get decent screen time, but each has an excellent level of character development, ranging from Young and Isaac, to a doctor who questions his own faith in medicine and science as he can’t figure out what is happening or how to stop it. There isn’t a single weak character in the film, and you even care somewhat for the antagonists.

Zombie films could learn a lot from this movie. It is an exceptionally intelligent film that doesn’t treat it’s audience like they are gore-obsessed morons. Too many zombie films are just obsessed with showing hordes and hordes of people getting bitten and/or dying on a regular basis, and I’ll be honest, I have grown very tired of the genre, however, this film is a cut above not only most zombie films, but most horror films.