This is a great week for movies in limited release with the latest from Werner Herzog, Rescue Dawn, and the Sundance favorite Introducing the Dwights, but I gotta go with one of my other favorites from Sundance….
Joshua (Fox Searchlight)
Starring Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Jacob Kogan, Celia Weston, Dallas Roberts, Michael McKean
Directed by George Ratliff (Hell House); Written by George Ratliff, David Gilbert
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rated R
Plot Summary: A young boy named Joshua (Jacob Kogan) starts acting up to get the attention of his parents (Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga) when they bring home his baby sister, but what starts out as a mere case of new baby syndrome soon turns into something darker and deadlier as the boy starts doing things to try to drive everyone around him insane.
Tagline: "The story of a perfect boy who had a perfect plan."
My Thoughts from the Sundance Film Festival
For the second weekend in a row, we have a movie starring a child who's a little different from the norm, and a movie that I discovered thanks to a film festival, this one being one of my top three films I saw at this year's Sundance Film Festival. On the one hand, it's a seriously creepy thriller, one that will really stick with you because it's so disturbing, but it also has a great deal of humor mainly coming from Sam Rockwell as the care-free and irresponsible stock broker father of this terrible tyke, and drama from the way that Joshua's machinations and mind games start to tear his family apart. If you thought that "The Omen" was the be-all-end-all in the creepy kid thriller, then you're in for a surprise with this tasty flick from George Ratliff, whose last movie was the documentary "Hell House" about Evangelical haunted mansions. It's definitely a creepy and scary film, but it doesn't rely on blood or gore to work so effectively, and it seems like it might be the kind of thing that young mothers might appreciate because it seems to understand the stress that comes from new motherhood… either that or they'll hate it because it hits too close to home. Either way, if you're into '70s horror thrillers like "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Omen" but not into those movie's supernatural angle, then this movie might be a good choice for the 4th of July weekend when it opens in New York and L.A. on Friday.
Also Opening in Limited Release:
Introducing the Dwights (Warner Independent) - Brenda Blethyn stars in Cherie Nowlan's Australian dysfunctional family dramedy as a would-be comedienne who feels she's losing her son (Khan Chittenden) to the new girl in his life, played by Emma Booth. It will open in New York and L.A. on Wednesday.
Interview with Cherie Nowlan and Brenda Blethyn
Review
Rescue Dawn (MGM) - Christian Bale plays Navy pilot Dieter Dengler who was shot down and imprisoned as a POW in Laos in director Werner Herzog's dramatic adaptation of his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Need to Fly. It opens in New York and L.A. on Wednesday, July 4 and will expand on July 13 and July 27.
Review
Interview with Chritisan Bale and Steve Zahn
Dynamite Warrior (Magnolia) - This Thai action Western stars martial arts expert Dan Chupong (Born to Fight) as a man looking for revenge after seeing his parents murdered by a tattoo-covered cattle rustler who also stole their cattle. It opens in New York and L.A. on Friday after playing the New York Asian Film Festival on Thursday, but then it'll be available on DVD on July 17.
Mini-Review: Thailand's always been a great source for genre and action flicks, and while this one turns Dan Chupong ("Born to Fight") into a Robin Hood inspired 19th Century superhero, it's such a trainwreck of weird ideas that it requires a good sense of humor and lax standard for quality filmmaking to appreciate it. After meeting Chupong's Jone Bang Fai (AKA Siang) as he attacks a band of buffalo wranglers using a combination of CG rockets and Muy Thai martial arts, we're introduced to a series of strange characters that makes it hard to figure out who's good and who's bad. One of these characters is the poncy Lord Waeng, played by Leo Phut, who wants to get rid of the cattle to sell more of his new tractor trailers, so he hires a gang of burglars, including a constantly-hungry log-wielding giant, to take all the cattle. Most of the set-up involves martial arts work that pales in comparison to Chupong's peer Tony Jaa, while resorting sub-Three Stooges physical humor. Magic is introduced in the form of the cattle rustler Shin, who can move things with a wave of his hand and turn his henchmen into animalistic demons and that's when things really start to get weird, and soon Waeng and Jone Bang Fai are turning to a Black Wizard for help defeating Shin. Siang makes googly eyes with the wizard's virginal daughter, before discovering that her menstrual blood is what will help him defeat Sing. The scenes in which they get to know each other, and when we finally get a flashback to the story of how Siang's parents were murdered, when things get interesting, and it's the best part of the movie, since it gets away from the bad wirework and writing and gets more into the characters. Unfortunately, those moments are fleeting and we're soon back to the silly wizard fights and more plot twists than anyone keep track of, leading to the most insane climax/finale one might imagine. It's an odd movie to say the least, but it's never as clever as other Thai films like "Tears of the Black Tiger", instead resorting to silliness and dumb jokes to make up for its confusing storytelling. At its best, "Dynamite Warrior" is to Thai action flicks what Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" is to summer blockbusters, trying too hard to mix cool action and effects with jokes that mostly fall flat. Rating: 5/10
The Method (El Métedo) (Palm Pictures) - This Spanish drama co-written by Mateo Gil (The Sea Inside, Open Your Eyes) deals with a job opening at a large corporation that drives seven potential candidates to take part in a brutal recruiting system called The Method and may the best man or woman win. After opening in New York at the Cinema Village on Friday, it arrives on DVD on August 14.
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation - If you're in New York City this weekend, you can catch this cult classic, a scene-by-scene remake of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' Raiders of the Lost Ark by teenage friends Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb, which took them seven years to make between 1982 and 1989 and was sitting on their bookshelf for nearly thirteen years before it was discovered by Eli Roth and became the subject of a future movie. The boys' labor of love will play at New York's Anthology Film Archives starting Friday. Look for my extended interview with Eric Zala later this week.
