2 Film Reviews + 1 Album Review
L'enfant
9/10 Stars
"L'Enfant" is a socio-drama with a story located in the southern region of Belgium-- in a steel town called Seraing, the setting of most of the Dardennes' films. Twenty-year-old Bruno (Jérémie Renier) is a petty thief and scam artist who lives off of his girlfriend's welfare and impulsively spends whatever he steals. The film begins with Sophia, Bruno's girlfriend, happily introducing him to his newborn son. Bruno, on the other hand, couldn't care less about this son, who probably looks not real to him, or at least, he cannot relate to the child's presence in his life. The new family is without a roof after Bruno sublets Sophia's apartment to a pair of lovers for a few days. Out of money, Bruno decides to sell his son on the black market without Sophia's permission. Besides, given the empty life the baby will be looking forward to, the adoption by a better off couple doesn't seem to be bad for the child. When Sophia finds out, she faints and is sent to the hospital, refusing to speak with Bruno. Shaken up by Sophia's reaction, Bruno goes on an arduous journey to get the child back. Even then Bruno hasn't changed: he denies little Jimmy is his son, and to make matters worse, he is being threatened by the men whom he sold his son to where he has to produce 5,000 Euros. The storyline then develops more as a sketch of the day-to-day living at the bottom of Belgian society. It's very basic : love, betrayal, money, a redemption of sorts and cellphones or GSMs as they are called in Belgium.
"L'Enfant" is shot with the unmistakable Dardenne trademarks: a shaky hand-held camera, natural sounds with no background music, a regard for the underclass that globalization left behind, and a gritty and realistic look and feel. What is being said in the film is too important to for entertaining ambience. This film seems the most accessible of the Dardennes' work so far, although it does not bore in its simplicity. Nothing is as simple as it seems, and as we get into the nightmarish world of Bruno, we see he's not only an immature, cruel young man who sold his own kid, but someone who hasn't even begun to live. The film is shot in a sparse, documentary style, but in essence this is a well-acted, fresh and economical movie, without pretensions of any sort; but whose realism imparts power, particularly to a couple of understated, but truly horrific scenes that made me nervous in my seat.
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Run Fat Boy Run
7/10 Stars
Directed by David Schwimmer, "Run Fatboy Run" is a warm hearted comedy that does nothing new for the genre but merely follows in the footsteps of previous offerings. Not quite complete physical humor nor subtle rhetoric; this falls in a niche of most generic comedies coming down the pipeline. It's essentially "The Full Monty" in running gear, but the movie never quite gets out of the starting blocks. The basic premise of the film is that Simon Pegg's character, Dennis, left his pregnant bride, Libby, at the altar five years previously. When a new (and very fit) boyfriend threatens Dennis' chances of ever getting back with his ex, he decides to run in the London Marathon to prove that he isn't a lazy flake and can finish what he starts. He is helped in this enterprise by his friend Gordon (Dylan Moran), who has an ulterior motive as he has bet all his cash on Dennis completing the race.
Pegg's cringing everyman worked in "Shaun of the Dead", but I didn't see much of a leap in character difference between the two films. However, there's a decent supporting cast, with Dylan Moran (also from "Shaun of the Dead") amusing as Pegg's friend and trainer, although Hank Azaria's nasty Yank love-rival character is a bit trite. Dylan Moran gets most of the best lines and could conceivably have been a better choice for the central role.
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9, Damien Rice
8/10
I was first exposed to the one-of-a-kind talents of Damien Rice last month while racing down Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Rod's pickup truck. This album is quite addictive: from the savagery of "Rootless Tree", which starts as a deceptively saccharine ballad, then explodes with anger, to the sublime, fragile "Accidental Babies." The Ireland native's lyrics are multi-dimensional, and at any point after listening to 9 you could conceivably make-up with a lover, break-up with a lover, punch an old lady, or go buy a kitten to cuddle with. Wherever you want to go, 9 will take you, especially if you're headed there already. Even when he tips the sensitivity scales too much-- warbling about a “girl that does yoga” in “Dogs”-- Rice’s innate, anti-mainstream FM radio intensity saves him.
9/10 Stars
"L'Enfant" is a socio-drama with a story located in the southern region of Belgium-- in a steel town called Seraing, the setting of most of the Dardennes' films. Twenty-year-old Bruno (Jérémie Renier) is a petty thief and scam artist who lives off of his girlfriend's welfare and impulsively spends whatever he steals. The film begins with Sophia, Bruno's girlfriend, happily introducing him to his newborn son. Bruno, on the other hand, couldn't care less about this son, who probably looks not real to him, or at least, he cannot relate to the child's presence in his life. The new family is without a roof after Bruno sublets Sophia's apartment to a pair of lovers for a few days. Out of money, Bruno decides to sell his son on the black market without Sophia's permission. Besides, given the empty life the baby will be looking forward to, the adoption by a better off couple doesn't seem to be bad for the child. When Sophia finds out, she faints and is sent to the hospital, refusing to speak with Bruno. Shaken up by Sophia's reaction, Bruno goes on an arduous journey to get the child back. Even then Bruno hasn't changed: he denies little Jimmy is his son, and to make matters worse, he is being threatened by the men whom he sold his son to where he has to produce 5,000 Euros. The storyline then develops more as a sketch of the day-to-day living at the bottom of Belgian society. It's very basic : love, betrayal, money, a redemption of sorts and cellphones or GSMs as they are called in Belgium.
"L'Enfant" is shot with the unmistakable Dardenne trademarks: a shaky hand-held camera, natural sounds with no background music, a regard for the underclass that globalization left behind, and a gritty and realistic look and feel. What is being said in the film is too important to for entertaining ambience. This film seems the most accessible of the Dardennes' work so far, although it does not bore in its simplicity. Nothing is as simple as it seems, and as we get into the nightmarish world of Bruno, we see he's not only an immature, cruel young man who sold his own kid, but someone who hasn't even begun to live. The film is shot in a sparse, documentary style, but in essence this is a well-acted, fresh and economical movie, without pretensions of any sort; but whose realism imparts power, particularly to a couple of understated, but truly horrific scenes that made me nervous in my seat.
----------------------------
Run Fat Boy Run
7/10 Stars
Directed by David Schwimmer, "Run Fatboy Run" is a warm hearted comedy that does nothing new for the genre but merely follows in the footsteps of previous offerings. Not quite complete physical humor nor subtle rhetoric; this falls in a niche of most generic comedies coming down the pipeline. It's essentially "The Full Monty" in running gear, but the movie never quite gets out of the starting blocks. The basic premise of the film is that Simon Pegg's character, Dennis, left his pregnant bride, Libby, at the altar five years previously. When a new (and very fit) boyfriend threatens Dennis' chances of ever getting back with his ex, he decides to run in the London Marathon to prove that he isn't a lazy flake and can finish what he starts. He is helped in this enterprise by his friend Gordon (Dylan Moran), who has an ulterior motive as he has bet all his cash on Dennis completing the race.
Pegg's cringing everyman worked in "Shaun of the Dead", but I didn't see much of a leap in character difference between the two films. However, there's a decent supporting cast, with Dylan Moran (also from "Shaun of the Dead") amusing as Pegg's friend and trainer, although Hank Azaria's nasty Yank love-rival character is a bit trite. Dylan Moran gets most of the best lines and could conceivably have been a better choice for the central role.
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9, Damien Rice
8/10
I was first exposed to the one-of-a-kind talents of Damien Rice last month while racing down Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Rod's pickup truck. This album is quite addictive: from the savagery of "Rootless Tree", which starts as a deceptively saccharine ballad, then explodes with anger, to the sublime, fragile "Accidental Babies." The Ireland native's lyrics are multi-dimensional, and at any point after listening to 9 you could conceivably make-up with a lover, break-up with a lover, punch an old lady, or go buy a kitten to cuddle with. Wherever you want to go, 9 will take you, especially if you're headed there already. Even when he tips the sensitivity scales too much-- warbling about a “girl that does yoga” in “Dogs”-- Rice’s innate, anti-mainstream FM radio intensity saves him.