Film Review | Lost Highway (1997)

There are, in general, two ways to watch a David Lynch film. The first is to see it as a puzzle: something to be worked out, picked apart, theorised about and ultimately solved. This is a dangerous route to take, because if Lynch's films are puzzles then there is almost certainly more than one way to "solve" most of them, and it's almost never clear which (if any) is the way Lynch intended them to be pieced together. The second way to watch Lynch's work is to see them as pure art - leave the intricacies, the conundrums and the enigmas, and just let a surrealist tsunami engulf you.

Reviewing a David Lynch film therefore needs to take in both perspectives, and with Lost Highway there's a lot you can say about both. As a cinematic riddle, this is one of Lynch's most accomplished head-scratchers. The key is to be found in a line Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) says near the start of the film: "I like to remember things my own way. How I remembered them, not necessarily the way they happened". Much of Lost Highway is undoubtedly seen from Fred's point of view, which begs the question of exactly how much of what we're seeing is "what actually happened" and how much is purely Fred's perspective. Things get even more complex when Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty) enters the story; how he's linked to Madison is never fully explained by Lynch, allowing each viewer to come to their own conclusions.

As an artistic work, this is up there with Lynch's very best. The director gets the best out of his whole cast; particularly noteworthy are Patricia Arquette in a femmes fatale dual role, and Robert Blake as one of the most genuinely unsettling and chilling characters you're likely to ever encounter on screen. Lynch's bizarre genius is on show throughout the film, with the first truly mind-bending meeting between Pullman and Blake's characters likely to stay with you for a long time to come. As you'd expect from Lynch, his choice of camera angles and cinematography is consistently individual and expertly constructed lending Lost Highway an ethereal and irresistable nightmarish quality.

Lost Highway feels like the natural predecessor to 2001's Mulholland Drive. It's almost like the director was refining here the methods and tone presented in the later work. Despite its many strengths, Lost Highway isn't perfect largely because, despite the clear craft and artistry that has gone into its creation, it is quite regularly almost too obtuse and indecipherable to truly enjoy. There'll undoubtedly be several moments throughout where you'll have to be honest with yourself and admit that, even if you're captivated by Lynch's film, you have very little idea of what's actually going on. But in many ways, that's the beauty of the work of David Lynch: it can leave you completely bewildered and at the same time entirely certain that what you're watching is utterly brilliant.

8/10

Film Review | The Experiment [Das Experiment] (2001)

Having recently been unimpressed with 2010's The Experiment, I'd heard considerably more positive comments about the German original upon which that film was based. It's a story heard more and more often: the foreign language original of a film being notably superior to its Hollywood remake. So, is this true of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Das Experiment? The answer is an unsatisfying "yes and no".

Whilst there are some key differences between the two versions, the German original follows essentially the same plot as its American counterpart. A group of men answer an ad placed in a newspaper to take part in an experiment, where a prison environment will be simulated. Some of the men take on the role of prison guards, the rest become prisoners. As the experiment progresses tensions between the two sides mount, with Tarek (Moritz Bleibtreu) becoming most influential on the side of the prisoners and Berus (Justus von Dohnányi) taking more and more control of the actions of his fellow guards.

In some ways, I wish I'd seen this original film before watching the 2010 film starring Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker; in others, I don't think it would have made a huge amount of difference to my view of either film. Das Experiment is the superior film, but it is also quite clear to see the same flaws within it that were transferred to The Experiment.

The performances across the cast are generally strong, with Bleibtreu and Dohnányi providing two solid central characters around which the action can unfold. The cinematography is also effectively used at many points throughout, with a claustrophobic and clinical feel permeating the film. In comparison with the 2010 version, Das Experiment feels the more professional and crafted of the two versions.

There are also a handful of key changes that were made in the remake, with the original feeling the stronger film because they are there. Whereas Maggie Grace had the misfortune of being an entirely forgettable love interest to Brody's Travis, Bleibtreu's Tarek gets involved with Dora (Maren Eggert) in a much more unusual fashion, and she plays more of a part in the unfolding of events than her American counterpart. It's not entirely successful, with some parts of her involvement feeling decidedly confused, but the effort is at least commendable. The role of those running the experiment is also vastly reduced in the American version, giving the German film an extra dimension lacking in the remake.

That said, watching the original makes it clear where some of the fundamental flaws in the remake came from. The psychological element, whilst explored slightly further here, is still woefully underdeveloped. It takes a little longer for things to degenerate into graphic violence and nastiness, but this is due largely to this version of the story being around twenty minutes longer. By the end of the film, I was still left with an unsatisfied feeling and an unsavoury taste in my mouth.

If you were to choose to watch either this film or its American remake, I would advise the German original every time as overall it's the better film. But it's a relative superiority; there are plenty of hard-hitting psychological dramas that are much better than either film, so watch one of those instead.

5/10

Film Review | The Experiment (2010)

With two Oscar winners leading the cast, the fact that The Experiment ended up as a straight-to-DVD release is either a surprise or a warning before watching. Turns out it's a warning; despite its intriguing high concept, the film fails to impress even with the talents of Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker propping it up.

The idea behind the film is simple: twenty-six men are selected to take part in an experiment in which they will spend two weeks living in a simulated prison environment. Five of the men are selected to be the prison guards, whilst the remaining participants become prisoners. Barras (Whitaker) and Travis (Brody), who strike up the beginnings of friendship during the selection process, are assigned as a guard and a prisoner respectively.

Simply put, The Experiment is a flawed film through and through. The script is schlocky and feels decidedly inconsistent, whilst the production and acting belie the reason for electing to keep this out of the cinema. Whilst the concept provides ample opportunities for exploration of a number of issues, very few of these are actually explored; rather than psychological drama, things wind up more and more as mindless violence and unpleasantness. The climax of the film too feels decidedly muddled and limp without any real satisfaction.

The saving graces, unsurprisingly, are Brody and Whitaker themselves. Brody's performance is predictably solid, providing some of the film's most emotional and original scenes - a claustrophobic sequence of Brody's Travis in "solitary confinement" presented entirely through night-vision CCTV is one of the film's strongest. That said, Travis' character arc overall feels somewhat flat: he doesn't develop a great deal from start to end, nor does he appear overly affected by some of the ghastly things he has both witnessed, been subjected to and taken part in. Lost's Maggie Grace on generic love interest duty does nothing to improve this, hampered by the stagnant lines she is given to deliver.

It is Whitaker who provides the lion's share of the film's worthwhile material. His performance as Barras is genuinely unsettling, the way we view the character shifting all the time with Whitaker keeping us very much on our toes. Whitaker even manages to make the script work when he delivers it. You'll never be able to hear the word "toilet" the same way after experiencing Barras utter the name of that particular bathroom facility.

The only fathomable reason for watching The Experiment, therefore, is to see the strong performances of Whitaker and Brody, and you can see them as good as they are here in many other, much better films. Without the two big name leads, The Experiment would be utterly forgettable.

4/10

Film Review | Unknown (2011)

In all honesty, I settled on watching Unknown after considering several other options because of the strong likelihood it would be a routine, middle-of-the-road actioner, which is exactly what I was looking for. Liam Neeson has forged a pretty hefty furrow for himself as a reliably compelling leading man in films where he's working and fighting against "the bad guys" whilst always having the semblance of someone with a brain. He's the thinking man's Jason Statham, if you will. But Unknown, on the whole, surprised me. There are several ways in which it simply met my expectations, but several others where, in truth, it exceeded them.

Neeson plays Dr. Martin Harris who, with his wife Liz (January Jones), arrives in Berlin to attend a biotechnology summit. Harris jumps a cab on his own to retrieve a forgotten briefcase from the airport, but is involved in an accident en route. Waking up from a coma in hospital four days later, Harris returns to the hotel he and his wife had checked into, only to find his wife doesn't know him and another man (Aidan Quinn) claiming to be Dr. Martin Harris.

When at its weakest, Unknown presents ridiculous, fairly mindless action; when at its best, it is a psychological thriller that shares more than a little genetic material with the Bourne films in a very positive way.

The first half an hour is straightforward enough: the pace is kept high, the cerebral challenge low, and the ludicrous premise firmly established. As the film progresses however, the intrigue is ramped up further and further, whilst the pace maintains energy but slows and steadies to allow director Jaume Collet-Serra to craft where the story goes and when. By the time Bruno Ganz's ex-Stasi officer is introduced, you're in the middle of a very satisfying thriller indeed. A scene between Ganz and Frank Langella is the film's high point - tense and understated, with the psychological chicanery at its height.

Its a shame that, as things head into the final act and the majority of the questions posed have been answered, the more ridiculous side of things becomes dominant once again. What you end up with is a cinematic sandwich - the opening and closing thirds providing ludicrous action, enjoyable but never more than just good, with the middle third a slice of satisfyingly excellent psychological thriller.

Neeson is dependably strong in a role which, for the most part, requires him to frown a lot in either confusion or anger; in less skilled hands, the part would be entirely bland and the film limp, but with Neeson at the helm, this is never the case. Support from Ganz and Langella is convincing, and Diane Kruger also does well. At the opposite end of the scale is January Jones however, who saps any scene she is in of either tension or credibility. Jones is wooden to the point of being cringe-worthy, failing to imbue Liz Harris with either emotion or motivation at any point. Thankfully she is largely sidelined by the far superior Kruger for most of the film, barely featuring in the middle third.

All things considered, Unknown is uneven, but still manages to impress. Without Neeson as the lead, this could have been much more forgettable, which is to his credit. Collet-Serra's direction is skilled, but if the whole film had been more like the middle segment Unknown could have been excellent. As it is, what we have is a worthwhile and enjoyable action thriller.

7/10

Film Review | Pontypool (2009)

The best piece of advice I was given before watching Pontypool was this: hear as little as you can about it before you watch. If you have the DVD case, don't read the back. I was advised not to and I'm incredibly glad I didn't, as the blurb gives away some key elements that need to be discovered in the order that director Bruce McDonald wants them to be revealed for the film to have the greatest impact. To hear or read too much would be to ruin the first two acts of the film which are, in truth, the strongest parts.

Pontypool focuses on ex-shock jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie). Mazzy, having fallen from grace, has recently taken on the early morning slot at the local radio station of Pontypool, a small town in Ontario, Canada. As Mazzy does his usual schtick, amusing tech assistant Laurel-Ann (Georgina Reilly) and infuriating station manager Sydney (Lisa Houle), strange occurrences begin coming in on the station's news wire and listeners calling in. What Mazzy initially dismisses as a hoax soon reveals itself to be something much more chilling.

Like I said before, the first two acts of Pontypool are by far its most successful segment. Throughout the first hour, McDonald skilfully builds up a tense and incredibly human atmosphere for the story to slowly trickle into. The frosty, washed out palette the director chooses for the film emphasises the snowy isolation Pontypool and its inhabitants find themselves in, as well as giving the entire story an edge as harsh and gravelly as Mazzy's intoxicating radio voice.

The pace is also intensely and purposely decelerated in the opening acts; McDonald takes his time allowing events to unfold, allowing each intriguing revelation to germinate and mature in your mind as well as giving the film an authentic real-time feel. By placing the action almost entirely within the confines of the radio station and focusing his story on a main cast of three, McDonald refines the claustrophobic and human element even further. The telephone calls to Mazzy's show, especially those by the station's "chopper" reporter Ken Loney (Rick Roberts), are genuinely chilling. The whole thing smacks of a director entirely aware of where he wants his audience to go and how he wants them to feel.

It's something of an anticlimax then that the final thirty minutes or so, whilst still enjoyable and well made, are not a patch on what precedes them. As is often the case in psychological horrors, the threat is never as potent once seen rather than suggested; the contrivance behind the strange goings-on in Pontypool once revealed is one of the most inventive and most outlandish I've ever come across in such a film (it's also one of those key elements you need to make sure you avoid learning before you watch). It's likely to divide the audience straight down the middle - either you'll think it's an ingenious concept, or you'll think it's a stretch too far, even for a horror flick. Whilst I sit firmly in the the former camp, even I felt that the film couldn't quite handle what it had set up.

McDonald almost feels like he's not entirely sure where to go with this unique concept he's created, and throws everything at it in the hope that something sticks. The horror conventions start to feel a bit too conventional; a romantic thread that feels decidedly out of place thankfully only rears its head a couple of times; and the introduction of a new supporting player fairly late on feels too much like deus ex machina, and the character in question (I won't reveal exactly who) never truly fits with those who are around an hour of development better off than him.

Despite its mildly underwhelming conclusion, Pontypool is a well made, stylish and worthwhile addition to the horror franchise and the zombie canon in particular, at times holding the potential of Boyle's modern classic 28 Days Later. McDonald's direction is slick and smart, and the less successful elements are vastly overshadowed but the quirky unsettling touches he litters skilfully throughout. The refusal to explain everything - one of my favourite cinematic traits when done well - works brilliantly in the film's favour, ultimately producing cerebral and brave cinema that's very enjoyable indeed.

8/10