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Right At Your Door

Director: Chris Gorak
Genre: Thriller/Drama
Year: 2006

If you have paid our FoxholeFilm podcast a listen (and even back in Turtle Pellets), you me complaining about Quarantine and how that movie turned out to be nothing like the exclusive footage that I had gotten to see at Comic-Con that year. Well, I will go ahead and admit I had it all messed up. The movie deals with quarantine, but was not called Quarantine, the movie was called Right at Your Door.

I watched this movie with quite a bit of anticipation, mostly because the idea compelled me, its simplicity in theme packing such a powerful punch. On an average day a dirty bomb goes off, shortly after an out of work musician has seen his wife off for the morning. The effect it has in Los Angeles, is similar to what you probably recall experiencing the day of September 11th. Chaos, uncertainty, confusion…Brad (Rory Cochrane) is watching it all unfold on TV, but the severity of the situation does not hit home until the news begin to broadcast the details.

Needless to say his instinct is to go look for his wife, Lexi (Mary McCormack) whom he can not get a hold of but his intentions are barred by the police who insist on keeping everybody in their homes and on sealing them to prevent contamination. Brad goes home and finds himself needing to shelter a stranger and soon he is faced to make the decision, save himself, or save his wife. And that is only the start.

The movie is not without flaw, more than once the dialogue and writing felt overdone, the acting does not always shine and some of this perhaps could be pinned back on the director. Thankfully the film rises above its scattered failures to give us an unnerving look at a set of circumstances that are truly thought provoking and engaging. Playing like a thriller from the moment the bomb goes on, the film may be simplistic in its set and locations and it may play out with a minimal cast, but it is efficient in creating an atmosphere of horror and a downright somber mood by pitting the common person in extreme circumstances.

It may not be perfect and here and there the film might feel disjointed, but overall, I would say the film is still worth the watch.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Comments: Intense scenes, some language, adult situations and some violence.

The Center of the World

Director: Wayne Wang
Genre: Drama
Year: 2001

Money might make you rich, but compare old money to new money and the difference in ‘product’ is quite clear. Having made money made Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) rich, but it certainly did not help make him in any way suave, even if he is not exactly the most displeasing face around, he simply does not have the confidence to back up his moves. Fact is, he is a computer geek who made it big with a dot.com company and now is trying to celebrate and he wants to do so with the object of his obsession, a local stripper named Florence (Molly Parker), and the only way he is able to get her to play along is by paying her $10,000.

There are rules, of course, Florence is not about to go to Las Vegas with a perfect stranger without drawing up a contract with rules and regulations. Things like, no kissing the mouth (apparently kissing everywhere else is perfectly fine), no penetration, set working hours, etc. All of it, of course, in order to keep an air of professionalism about the entire concept.

You do not need me here to tell you that things do not go according to plan and in many ways you are probably already making the correlations to Pretty Woman, which I also made more than once watching the film. The only difference is that this time around I did not feel like blowing my brains out. Nevertheless, it is also not an example of fine film making.

Though the story is cohesive enough, both in its cut and visually, the film lacks fluidity. Cinematically it is all over the place, which would be fine if it had been made that way purposely, but I simply did not get that feel from it. At times the movie looks like a really low budget indie shot on video, at other times it is wonderfully lit and composed and you have to wonder how many people were putting their hands into the directing pot.

The acting passes, but no thanks to Carla Gugino who plays the unfortunate and misguided Jerri, but who fails to make her believable. Thankfully the two leads do a good job sticking to their roles, even if they do not entirely sell the story. That being said, it is not an entire waste of time, I would not go out of my way to recommend it, but I would not keep a person from watching it either, particularly if you are just going to stream it through Netflix, at least then you are not having it take up room on your queue and the eroticism aspect of this film might just make it worth the rent for some.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Comments: Heavy sexual content here. It may not be extreme (save for a couple of quick shots), but this movie is still not for the tame. There is language here, adult situation, some drug usage…
Quote: Jerri: What planet is he from?
Florence: I’m still trying to figure that out.

Black House

Director: Terra Shin
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Year: 2007

There are good Korean horrors, like The Host, and then there are the mill of the run, slasher-mindless type Korean horrors, like Black House. Is this good or bad? I suppose this one comes down to a matter of taste. It appears to me that the hardcore horror fan likes his film bloody and messy and they have absolutely no problems with gore for the sake of gore, and to the horror fan in that vein, I think this will be more than a satisfactory movie. I can at least say it looks better than the Saw movies and that series seemed to draw a lot of people, so…here is something for them to chew on. However, if you like your horror more psychological, then this one is going to fall a bit short.

The protagonist is Jun-oh, a straight laced insurance salesman who has just begun with a new company and who soon lands himself right smack, dab in the middle of a case where he is most certain the client is killing people in order to collect insurance money. When it is clear to him that most people are willing to overlook details and just get to the bottom line, or avoid the matter altogether, the normally shy and reserved Jun-oh is forced to take matters in his own hands…with dire consequences.

There is a decent thrill to this film and a very easy to follow, straight forward plot. It also packs some of the little tricks that most horror films like to make use of, not bad, for a horror, but neither is it something to brag about. Actually, in the end, this foreign film feels oddly too much like Hollywood.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Comments: Violence, gore and some more violence. Intense scenes…there might have been brief nudity, but I can not remember.

La Haine

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Genre: Drama/Crime
Year: 1995

Did you guys hear the one about the North African, the Black African and the Jew that found a gun in France? Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? The way it sets up, and oddly enough, jokes seem to sprinkle this black and white indie in a way that seems only natural.

I gotta lay it out there, I had no idea that the likable guy from Amélie and the smallest of the hitmen in Munich was also a director. I didn’t find out, in fact until after I watched the commentary to this movie, but the fact that I was looking further into it after it was done is testament that this film more than piqued my interest. Unfortunately, it seems that he went on to direct movies like Gothika and Babylon A.D., which makes me cringe. Thankfully, this little gem was able to get out there before those other movies hit the screen, because it is without a doubt one of the best films I watched this year.

The set up has already been given to you, and it is a day in the lives of three French youths, disenchanted with the world, bitter at the power mongering police and their brutal tactics, and angry at the world, particularly now that one of their own has been beat down and put in a coma. Everything, it would seem, hinges on this young victim’s life, whom we never get to see save in a single photograph.

With no job, no school to go to, no real responsibility, Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui), Vinz (Vincent Cassel) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé), go about what seems a routine day following the riots, the day after Vinz found the gun. The day which is going to change their lives in a powerful way. But they feel the hatred brewing (the name of the movie translates to: The Hatred), poisoning their ground, their turf, their lives and while some may recognize it and others may not, that gun seems like a catalyst and a terrible omen.

The day unfolds with urban realism, told in scrumptious black and white, leaving us to witness the high points, the low points, the exciting, the boring, the happy and sad of a situation that seems almost prophetic. I had to take a second glance at the IMDb page to make sure this film had been shot in 1995, because I could swear this was on the news just this summer and has been as far as France is concerned, for a handful of years now. While this film is telling a single story, there is no doubt that it is dealing with an issue as old as man, and one that as La Haine shows, has no easy solution.

Equal parts poignant, humorous, edgy and socio-politically loaded, there is no doubt, this is an awesome film with undeniable American influence but a decidedly French soul. A must own.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Comment: Violence, drug usage, language (French with English Subtitles). Some intense scenes and disturbing imagery.
Quote: Hubert: Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good… so far so good… so far so good. How you fall doesn’t matter. It’s how you land!