The Picturehouse Post

So The Picturehouse has been up and running for quite a few months now, and more than a few movies have taken their turn on its screens. I've tried my best to see everything it shows (apart from festivals - I can't possibly see every single movie in a festival), so let's see how the hits and misses rack up.

Note: A good portion of the following has been cut from earlier posts and moved here instead. Apologies if you've read them before.


最好的時光 (Three Times)
Much like Eros, in that starts off splendidly, then goes downhill from there. Why do directors of triple-bills insist on putting the worst shit right at the end? The first segment was sweet and full of beautiful, wistful longing. I also loved the camerawork here, which took its time reframing the actors as they moved around a pool table, catching the stolen glances and flirty looks. Rarely has a mere holding of hands seemed more beautiful in its completeness. The second was OK if a bit slow. But the third was simply atrocious, full of simpering characters I hated who were completely self-absorbed and annoying. Having the lovely Shu Qi singing in incomprehensible English with psuedo-intellectual-but-ultimately-crap lyrics also upped the hate factor for me.

Verdict: Almost-hit


Invisible Waves
A hitman, like, kills a woman, right? She's his boss' lover. Only, like, she turns out to be the hitman's lover too. And then he, like, runs off onto a boat, and he's there for, like, a really long time. Then stuff happens, and he ends up in his boss' apartment because he realizes he's been double-crossed. And there are, like, speeches about true love and shit. And, like, he's seriously moved, 'cos, like, hitmen are people too. Both by the speeches and by his boss' cooking. And, like, I think he dies in the end. But seriously, apart from the fact that Chris Doyle shot it, I can't think of any reason to see this painfully slow, vaguely comprehensible movie with terrible dialogue and flat acting.

Verdict: Misses by a mile


Lelaki Komunis Terakhir
(The Last Communist)
Doesn't quite know what the hell it wants to be. Unfocused and kinda all over the place. But there were several memorable characters interviewed, and some decently entertaining music video interludes. But what are they doing in a documentary about a communist? I know, defenders will say, "But that's not the point!" Well then, what is?

Verdict: Miss


千里走單騎
(Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles)
Zhang Yimou proves that he should stay away from kungfu epics and just stick to small human stories, because, well, he excels at the latter and kinda stinks at the former. Very human and very moving. The lead actor reminds me of Bill Murray, in that he can simply sit there and not do anything while the lines on his face do all the acting for him.

Verdict: A definite hit


L'Enfant (The Child)
Honestly, I didn't get what all the fuss was about. Some gripping sequences, but I really can't remember all that much about it now. Spot on depiction of characters though, and I appreciate that the camerawork is much less nausea-inducing than in their previous film.

Verdict: Hit, more or less




Viva Cuba
(part of the Cuban Film Festival)
Probably could've benefited from tighter editing, but the central relationship between the boy and the girl makes for a touching coming-of-age tale. There's some wonderful acting from the cutest kids you ever saw here, outshining all the adults in the film, and some scenes are done to perfection. Case in point: When the kids decide to run away from home, the entire scene is shot in a crane-around the pair as they sit on a rooftop at magic hour, in one long take. Gorgeous. The bad thing is that the humor feels forced at times, and the cartoony special effects used to indicate "kids' POV" were entirely unnecessary and cheapened everything else. Oh, and trying too hard to force the kids to represent a country's issues.

Sidenote: Doesn't the boy look exactly like a young Gael Garcia Bernal?

Verdict: Hit




La Vida es silbar (Life Is to Whistle)
(part of the Cuban Film Festival)
Ooh! Magic realism! Ooh! Overt Symbolism! Ooh! What a drawn-out mess! Ooh! I don't care! Ooh!

Verdict: Miss






Murderball
No self-pity, no wallowing in despair. If anything, these quadriplegic athletes have more attitude and aggression than most. A helluva sports movie, and I only wish it could've gone a little more into their psyche and explored a couple more characters in detail. Whatever emotional beats that are present are solid, just that there could be a little more of that.

Verdict: Hit


U-Carmen eKhayelitsha
Very brave; some would say foolhardy. Adapting Georges Bizet's opera Carmen into an African setting with lyrics in Xhosa is no mean feat, and I admire the filmmakers' balls. Whether or not it works, though, is another matter altogether. Musical numbers often drag on for far too long with no development in plot. Take, for instance, Carmen's first number. Basically that song sets up her character, that she's a gurrl with attitude, and whoever she's got her eye on had better watch out. That does not take over 6 minutes to do, especially since the lyrics start repeating themselves fairly quickly. While the plot stands still for the musical numbers, it rushes by during the dramatic segments, to the extent that there are huge gaps in narrative logic that are never explained. An exotic setting and actors giving their all really can't save a production that neglects a decent script to begin with.

Verdict: Sadly, a miss


So there we have it. Out of 9 films, we have 4 Hits, 1 Almost-Hit and 4 Misses. Really, not too bad for an arthouse cinema at all.

The seats still suck serious ass though. Designer chairs = Pretty but completely nonfunctional and uncomfortable.