Director Duncan Jones Shows off "Source Code"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 28 March 2011 08:55

Written by Shade Rupe

Hard science-fiction film fans have long suffered the drought of complex stories with ones that offered feats of derring-do accented by laser beams, costume aliens, and digital space backdrops. The occasional quailty film, say Children of Men, will come down the pike, though the experience is rare.

A few years ago, a curious low-budget film with few characters arrived, completely with unusual poster design. Something was different here. Someone wanted to say something and we wanted to hear about it. That film was Moon and its director was Duncan Jones.

Returning with his second feature, the complex time-twisting drama Source Code, director Jones reengages solitude and longing in this Earthian tale of a man living his life along a stream of computer code. Or something close to that.

Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhall) wakes up to find himself in a crushed capsule of sorts with flat television monitors and a woman solder’s face (Vera Farmiga) telling him he only has a few minutes and he’s got to stop a bomb on board a train. A bomb on a train?

Poor Colter still has to figure out what happened to him and why he’s here. Before he can get far, he’s on the train in question, sitting across from a woman who says she’s taken his advice, and all he knows for sure is he’s got to find that bomb to find out who he is.

Shot, designed, and edited as a feature-length scenario in suspense, Source Code moves us forward, and we root him on, sharing in Colter's breakneck pace to solve the problem. Then he, and us are rewound, even tighter, as we share in Colter’s goals -- find out who he is, what happened to him, and how he’s going to save Chicago and most of all the people on the train, who have already experienced a previously occurred doom.

Source Code deserves to share its surprises with the adventurous filmgoers enticed by such mysteries, and Astoria’s Museum of the Moving Image created such an opportunity.

On Friday, March 25, 2011, in their amazing futuristic theater, its own time tunnel design forcing the audience into a moving time machine much like the train barreling and re-barreling ahead in the film.

After the film stunned its audience, director Jones took the stage and pleasantly discussed his love for science-fiction films, attempted some explanation of the film’s physics, and mentioned the difficulties of bringing his another film project Mute to cinema life -- something he's been trying to do for years. Finding a star who was willing to be silent through an entire feature was one of them. This dynamic man shared his sparkling sense of humor and afterwards greeted his new fans, and ones returning from their experience with Moon.

Paired with his photographer companion Rodene Ronquillo, the couple entertained the final spectators of a grand new science-fiction filmmaking talent, one who relies on story over style, characters over crashes of planes.

Whatever his next project may be, Duncan Jones will most definitely be taking us somewhere we haven’t been before.

Museum of the Moving Image
35 Avenue at 36 Street
Astoria, Queens, New York, USA
http://www.movingimage.us/

Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast: Limitless

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 27 March 2011 13:42

Written by Daniel Persons

Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski expand their minds to Limitless proportions in the latest installment of Cinefantastique's Spotlight Podcast, which focuses on the new movie starring Bradley Cooper as a man who achieves fame and fortune thanks to ingestion of NZT, an illegal wonder drug that allows users to reach their fullest potential. Complications ensue, in the form of withdrawal pains, spontaneous blackouts, Russian Mafia types, and a manipulative corporate big-wig played by Robert De Niro. Is this sophisticated science fiction at its finest, or does Limitless have trouble living up to its own higher aspirations? Listen in, and find out.

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Movie Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 25 March 2011 18:52

Written by Super User

The Lincoln Lawyer
Directed by Brad Furman
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Philippe, John Leguizamo, William H. Macy, Marisa Tomei, Josh Lucas, Bryan Cranston

Actor Matthew McConaughey has always perplexed critics. Clearly he has talent but in too many films he seems content to merely wing it, that is, get by on his Texas “good old boy” charm and looks. Always in great physical shape, McConaughey has become an industry joke because directors seem to insist that he take his shirt off at least once in his films as a favor to female fans.

With his latest starring vehicle, The Lincoln Lawyer, McConaughey has the last laugh as he turns in a fine performance as Los Angeles defense attorney Michael “Mick” Haller.

Mick has not made a lot of friends defending clients who are the antithesis of high society. Every drug dealer, mugger, and murderer in East L.A. has his phone number on speed dial. Ironically they can’t walk into his office because he works out of a classic Lincoln automobile, hence the title and his nickname.

Haller is no saint -- he doesn’t do pro bono work. He makes it clear to his lowlife clients that if they want his services they'd better be prepared to pay. In an early scene, one of his jailed clients, a motorcycle gang member who desperately wants out of the slammer, informs him that he doesn’t have the cash. Mick senses he's being played so he goes before the judge and tells him that he's not ready to start the trial and that it may have to be postponed since he's trying to track down a key witness, “Mr. Green.” Mick quickly receives his retainer.

Greasing palms is de rigeur for Mick. It seems as if every LA County bailiff and bail bondsman has been a recipient of his largesse over the years. One of those bail bondsmen, Val Valenzuela (John Leguizamo), tells him that a rich kid from Beverly Hills named Louis Roulet (Ryan Philippe) got arrested for assault and that he recommended Haller to defend him.

While Mick happily pocket a hefty fee, he wonders why a blue blood from arguably the wealthiest community in the world is seeking his services. As Mick learns more about Louis, the more he realizes that he is dealing with a guy whose dark side is far worse than that of any of his low life clients.

Even worse, Mick begins to suspect that Roulet may actually have committed a murder years ago to which he had a former client, Jesus Martinez (Michael Pena), cop a plea, because he didn't think a jury would acquit his client on a Murder One charge. Martinez had even pleaded with him not to take the deal with the DA.

McConaughey is aided by a terrific supporting cast that includes William H. Macy as an offbeat investigator; Marisa Tomei as Mick’s exasperated ex-wife who is an assistant DA; Josh Lucas as a straight-laced prosecutor; and Bryan Cranston as an old school detective who despises Mick for finding ways of getting criminals acquitted. Philippe may not have much dramatic range but he is Hollywood’s go-to guy for yuppie sociopath roles, and for good reason.

Director Brad Furman makes excellent use of Los Angeles as he showcases middle class neighborhoods as Echo Park and Silver Lake (located just north of Dodger Stadium and downtown LA) as well as hardscrabble communities as Inglewood and Boyle Heights while eschewing the more familiar glitzy LA that we see from film premiers and awards shows.        

As is the case with most film and television whodunit procedurals, there are plot twists which make little sense or seem a bit contrived. Though saddled with a few of those here, The Lincoln Lawyer, nonetheless, is a very fast and enjoyable two hours.