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Get Out (2017)

So. Get Out. I will say now, without a doubt, it this film will be different depending on who's watching it. Yes, there are clear messages but there is a line open for interpretation to the individual watching. But we'll get to that.

So the story, black boyfriend anxiously meeting white girlfriend's parents for the first time. Or shall I say, African American boyfriend. Because there's a difference as Samuel L Jackson has recently pointed out. That's it, it a simple set up with some mystery involved. Now I watched the trailer for this a good while ago and I couldn't tell how satire it was meant to be, how much of a horror it was meant to be. But I'll be honest, I didn't think it looked great, I knew I was gonna watch it but I didn't have any expectations. Then the reviews started coming in, steam rolling in and I thought, what is this film, what has happened, I need to see this as soon as I can. Now I've seen it it's what I expected and more.

Now we've got Daniel Kaluuya, playing protagonist Chris, who is captivating. I feel like I'm watching a friend, I believe him and I want what's best for him. Granted I might be a little bias, as I am with most British actors (you did it mate!) but I was thinking about it, is it because he's closest person to me for relate to? Race is of course a huge deal in America, now more than the past few years, and people are aware of it. People that don't experience it personally are still aware of it, even if not the bigger picture. Kaluuya brings to life the dulled frustrations of the day to day prejudice Chris has to deal with, with a sad respect. He jumps through the social hoops that he's given because it's easier than not, he almost doesn't register the offence personally now. The character was a great mix of highly controlled yet in some scenes so raw. He's the audience's eye, not just because he's a photographer but because, bar his comedy relief friend, he's the only person we see and trust. I think this builds understanding with the stereotypes as well as his reaction to them. You get why he's tired, you get why he's cautious, yes he's dealt with it before but what if he hasn't and what if the unknown is worse? Well it is.

Among the parents manor we meet a total of 3 black characters, all stemming so far from the stereotypes they've been pigeon holed to, that Chris finds it uneasy. There's the absence of them, not just of any remnant of culture but of a person being present at all. Now Chris doesn't actively seek out answers to this, why you ask? Partly because it's a horror and he's a black man, he's not gonna search out the danger, don't you know how films tend to go? But on a more real note, why search for what's likely to be conflict, he just wanted to escape it. Because it can't help but find him. He's frequently reminded of his background and a range of attitudes towards it. Now there aren't too many overtly racist things, just the ignorant ones. Now these add up, don't let that slip, but they're all calculated. No word is an accident with those comments. Reading into the film a bit more, a lot of the scenes had the opportunity for the actors to improvise. But some had lines of clear purpose.

The cast was great, Allison Williams, who played the girlfriend, Rose, has some humour. If you've ever seen Girls, then you'll probably go into this not liking her due to only knowing her in that. But she has won Chris over so we're inclined to do the same. The parents, do well in playing exactly that, oddly caring mother and poor joke telling father. Rose's brother, a little more on the nose with his classic race statements, is more uneasy to watch, and that doesn't let up. Chris' friend Rod, who acts as the spectator for the most part, has some great scenes. Most of the actual jokes come from him, theres the odd few from Rose, in the form of teasing girlfriend, but any other laughter is nervous. The collection of white family members and friends that visit for the weekend event all have the same singularity. They're faceless and their comments about race and Chris all line up to make them a single entity. The unity of this group of characters emphasises the Us vs We mentality held by many that have issues with race.

Visually the film was crisp and clean. Had a great use of colour as well as the lack there of. One of my favourite shots was Chris sneaking out of the house to smoke standing in the garden in moonlight. Kaluuya unsaturated against the white building comes very close to being entirely black and white, a subtle image within the film. Peele chose a very artistic way to portray Chris' interaction with his mother-in-law. She hypnotises him and he wakes up the next day with a foggy understanding on the night before. Great cinematography in these scenes, a really interesting perception of how the character feels.

The sound was great, opening song from Childish Gambino, 'Redbone', is perfectly fitting, singing the words, 'stay woke'. The score was highly strung as expected from a thriller/horror, there was a particularly jolting moment which relied more on sound than visuals. And it worked wonderfully.

Now I want this to keep this spoiler free. It's a great film and it unravels naturally. You put things together yourself, even encouraged to so by some characters as well. After getting to climax of the narrative you're able to think back and put together many things. All of which I wish for you to learn yourself. Parts regarding Chris' past, as well as Rose and her family's. Hints towards divulging the real intentions of the family become clear and fitting. As I said before, there's no accident. This film has such purpose and it does everything on purpose.

8/10 Solid social commentary, incredibly well put together, wonderfully paced and 100% needs another viewing. Must watch.

CINEMATES - A

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Train to Busan (2016)

Train to Busan. Holy shit. Dare I say it’s a perfect zombie movie? At this point I don’t know if I could tell you a flaw. Maybe it was a little long? That’s it. Honestly I just love it. When it comes to world cinema I am open minded. If a story sounds great, if there’s a great review, I’ll watch it and deal with subtitles. Though saying that I don’t seek out foreign films, I don’t track directors or actors projects the same way I do for big British and American stars and I don’t often have the same urgency to watch them. Tend to default go in the ‘I’ll get to it’ pile. Train to Busan should go to the top of that pile and I’m sad I’ve waited this long to watch it. Managed to go to a small cinema in our city centre that’s currently having a Korean cinema fest for the month and catch a showing. The screen was packed and it was the second time viewing for a lot of people who already thought of the film as a classic. And I gotta say I agree. If you haven’t watched many foreign films, don’t worry about it, it’s easier than you think and you don’t realise you’re reading after a few minutes. It’ll open up literally a whole world of movies for you if you can get on board with that. Though yeah the rights have already been bought to remake, but that'll take a while, watch the original!

There are some great characters though we’ve seen them before. Most of the reason you get so caught up is because you’re invested. The film is centred around a businessman who’s a single father trying to make his daughter happy by taking her to see her mum on her birthday. He takes time off work to take her on the train, where we meet the rest of the cast. Who might I add, were all included exactly the amount they needed to be. Some less so than others but never not enough. We meet sisters, two older Korean ladies, who natter and have quite a beautiful narrative on the sidelines. There’s our comic relief and beefcake, a man and his very pregnant wife, who possibly have the best relationship throughout. We have a baseball team, primarily one young man and his sweetheart, a rude older suited man that you will learn to hate and a homeless looking man, who repeats the phrase ‘all dead, they’re all dead’. The cast were fantastic. Stand out has got to be Soo-an Kim, the daughter of the protagonist. She held her own against everyone in the film and her performance was heartbreaking and powerful. Great chemistry with her and everyone else in the cast. My favourite, our funny man and powerhouse of the film, Dong-seok Ma, played a character protecting his pregnant wife alongside calling out our main man for the douche that he is. He’s a joy to watch with and without his charming wife. Most jokes came from him, the film was a lot funnier than I first guessed, and in some aspects almost self-aware of that. But everyone goes through the same confusion and everyone builds up trust and respect with each other at a believable pace. A real ensemble.

So ever sit watching something and not realise you’re tensing? That was me throughout basically the whole film. Oh yeah I should breathe, maybe unclench my jaw and relax my bum cheeks. Fantastic at creating and maintaining tension, without leaning on jump scares to prove a point. Though it did have some thrown in for good measure. I remember actively thinking, this is scary, I’ve not been scared by a zombie in a while and this makes me anxious. One of the reasons I love this film some much is because it made me feel. I don’t care what a film makes me feel but if it makes me feel something that’s major points right there. This film covered it’s bases pretty damn well. It was exciting, it made you angry and frustrated. It made you lose hope and gain it. It made you sad. Goddamn is made you sad. There was honestly a woman full on snot sniffing behind me because she was bawling towards the end of this film. It’s maybe not that sad but it is still an emotional film. There’s progress with the characters and you feel which each and every one of them.

Now I like horror as a genre but I don’t like unoriginality. Which is why I’ve not seen that film where they move into an old house and it’s haunted because the previous person died a strange death, you know the one? Every other blockbusting horror in the past 16 years? Some can be fantastic of course but it’s hard to do well with and without cliches. Now zombies have a wide origin and a wide market, though South Korea hasn’t really adopted this reanimated monster theme quite as heavily as western media. But obviously they’re no strangers to horror. Sang-ho Yeon the director is winning at life, he did an animated film called Seoul Station of the same subject matter, got a bunch of money because he smashed it and went straight to this live action adaptation Train to Busan and smashed that too. I personally loved the direction of the zombies. I think partly because, like many, I’m used to The Walking Dead like, chill af, rotting zombies. These are not that. Once bitten you turn into a zombie within 30 seconds max. They do some crazy contortionist moves, crack some bones and go straight for the nearest human at quite a speed close to fast forward. As we see more of them we find out that they rely on their hearing heavily and can’t see in the dark. They only charge when people are visible and have no understanding on when to stop, because you know, they’re dead. And they are fresh! It’s a normal person with cloudy eyes and some dark veins but otherwise, alive. There’s blood of course but not particularly violent. With the lack of guns there’s no open wounds so no real gore. And because of these elements we get some fantastic scenes. I don’t know if you were a fan of World War Z, I found it forgettable, but Train to Busan does really well in using huge masses of zombies. There’s a few times where you realise the sheer amount of people involved and the speed in which they move and don’t stop moving is terrifying. You really believe how crazy their urge is to eat live humans. It creates absolutely fascinating visuals and I found myself grinning ear to ear through these moments.

Cinematography was good but not distracting, handheld when necessary, but not to replace the action. Kept you claustrophobic in the carriages and uneasy on the wide shots. As I mentioned before, no overt violence, so fresh blood smeared on windows and clothes, though you take notice they don’t steal from the frame. Lot’s of uniform, black and white splashed with the red, the usual greys of a train and it’s station. Paired with the score it was an all round great film on a technical basis. The music was wonderful, partnered well with each scene, definitely got your pulse up and accented the perfect parts of risky scenes. A particular song sung in the film and it’s meaning over silence speaks volumes.

With most monster films there’s usually an underlying message involved. In Train to Busan the whole thing was a debate on morals. Good vs evil, do you help your fellow man or put yourself first, should you make a sacrifice or deal with potentially worse consequences. It’s introduced early on with our protagonist, Seok-woo, played by Yoo Gong, in his difficult decision to take time off work to transport his daughter, that’s seen as a sacrifice to him. In contrast, later on the train, his daughter gives up her seat to one of the older women, with no question. He tells her she doesn't always have to do whats good and she asks why? Her father struggles with the idea of sacrifice, especially with strangers, whereas with young Soo-an it comes so naturally. We follow this line of sacrifice as some characters accept it easier than others and find ourselves debating how much we would sacrifice for a stranger.

8/10 I liked so much of what this film is. The usual question of what you would do in a zombie apocalypse is asked in a much more urgent way, easily the best horror of 2016.

Logan (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zggJx7TB1cc&t=211s