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THE LOST STRAIT

March 31, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

THE LOST STRAIT is a brutal Iranian war movie about the last days of the Iran-Iraq War. Shot in a cinema verite style with incredible detail and realism, the film gets almost everything right about a war movie from quickly building characters you want to survive to big stakes to savage action.

The film opens with four Iranian soldiers of the Ammar Battalion on their way home to Tehran after a long, hard stretch at the front. After eight long years, the war against Iraq is coming to a close in 1988. On the eve of signing a UN-brokered peace deal, Iraq launches a desperate attack across the Abughoraib strait, a strategically important mountain pass. If the Baathist army can get through the pass, they will gain position to push ahead to major Iranian cities and win the war. According to the film–which in turn was based on extensive fieldwork and interviews–the battle saw use of chemical weapons, the effects of which are shown.

The soldiers are given a choice to go home if they have to and otherwise report to the front to stem the tide. They arrive to find a traffic jam of vehicles and civilians fleeing the fighting. Here, we get to know the four men, as they show compassion to help wounded leaving the front and desperate civilians. A fifth character is introduced, Ali, a teenager whose father was severely wounded in the war and who wants to do his part. As one of them was charged with a family obligation to watch out for Ali, all of them do, and we see them and the war a lot through his eyes.

When they reach the front, it’s horror and chaos, a massive desert junkyard of trenches and broken equipment and raining shells. This was a large battle, but we’re given a snapshot of a day and a half of it. The action is less focused than but just as riveting as the final battle over the bridge in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. But more real–this is the horror of modern war, in this case with outnumbered, outgunned, and thirsty soldiers dug in against waves of tanks and infantry. The fighting is savage, and though the strait is saved, they all pay a heavy price.

This was a terrific war film and a real surprise find for me. Recommended if you can get your hands on it, as it’s hard to find.

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Other History, The Blog

GREENLAND (2020)

March 31, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

GREENLAND (2020, streaming on Prime) is an enjoyable apocalyptic film that checks all the boxes of a solid B movie.

John (Gerard Butler) is a construction engineer estranged from his wife (Morena Baccarin) and young son. When an asteroid appears on a collision course with Earth, he receives an opportunity to escape the apocalypse, if only he can get there while society disintegrates in panic all around him.

The film has a basic story–man steps up during apocalypse to win his family back and must reach sanctuary before the timer counts down to zero–and excels in good special effects and some good action sequences. Its best quality is its tension, as the countdown to Armageddon ticks down and obstacles mount. There is a quality about the film that’s actually quite beautiful, which is among the absolute worst, you’ll see plenty of the best in human nature as well as the worst. The good side of human nature is usually missing or treated as the exception in disaster cinema, which if you took as psychological truth you’d end up believing all people walk around barely restrained from murdering everybody in their path.

I had two criticisms. One is John and his wife seem deeply in love from the get go, even though they’re newly separated and on the verge of divorce. When they reconcile, I didn’t care because it was inevitable and there were no obstacles. This may have been so viewers didn’t end up hating the wife (“why can’t she see he’s trying to be the man and save his family?”) like I think many people did watching THE DOMESTICS, but they went too far the other way. The other criticism is the first major obstacle they face is pure deus ex machina that is practically eye-rolling and felt manipulative to the point of wrecking the film’s tension.

So overall, this was a passable movie for me, though I’m sure many of you would like it far more. It has a lot of great qualities, but I had a hard time connecting with it and ended up staying primarily to see cities get destroyed by asteroid chunks, proving film is always YMMV. I’m a huge fan of apocalyptic film, so I realize my view is somewhat jaded. In the end, GREENLAND was an A for effort, B for execution film for me, enjoyable but not exactly standout in a crowded genre.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Movies, Movies & TV, The Blog

THE VAST OF NIGHT (2019)

March 31, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Amazon original THE VAST OF NIGHT (2019, streaming on Prime) is a fun and intelligent low-budget sci-fi story that is strong on storytelling, but its strength is weakened by way too heavy direction.

It’s the 1950s, we see a small town in New Mexico, and a big basketball game is about to start in the school gym. Everett, a fast-talking, confident college kid who works the local radio station, bumps into Fay, a high schooler who works nights at the town’s phone switchboard. They accidentally discover a strange sound frequency in the air, which leads them to unlock an old town mystery.

The trailer is fantastic, though the movie doesn’t quite deliver what’s promised, which is a fun, STRANGER THINGS-type story about plucky kids in over their heads but fighting through it. It’s close, though, and I liked the script, which is heavy on dialogue but goes to great lengths to produce a sense of realism and deep storytelling that provokes the imagination. Unfortunately, Everett and Fay aren’t as likeable as the trailer suggests–Fay is erratic and a nag, while Everett is cold and a jerk–which is fine, but their characterizations aren’t put to effective work. But I didn’t mind. While I wasn’t emotionally invested enough to root for them, they’re likeable enough, and the story works.

Where VAST OF NIGHT failed for me was in the heavyhanded direction. The creators should have trusted the script to produce immersion, but instead they set up a frame–this is all a 1950s PARADOX THEATER episode–that frequently intrudes along with the screen cutting to black, impressive but unnecessary long tracking shots, and sudden, rapid cuts when somebody is doing something. The film constantly calls attention to itself, taking me out of the story to a level where when some chilling revelation comes, I simply didn’t care, since I’d been reminded so many times it’s just a movie. VAST OF NIGHT has gotten a fair reaction from viewers but a very strong reaction from critics, with many of the reviews citing its technical prowess; that’s a problem.

So overall, I found VAST OF NIGHT an enjoyable, interesting watch with some strong storytelling, though I was more impressed with its possibilities than what it achieved.

(On a final note, if you have a character who’s a chain smoker, get an actor who smokes and let them smoke, or cut the smoking altogether. It’s weird seeing people take two mouth puffs and then put the cigarette out only to light another.)

Filed Under: Movies & TV, The Blog

THE WRITING LIFE by Jeff Strand

March 25, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Author Jeff Strand’s THE WRITING LIFE: REFLECTIONS, RECOLLECTIONS, AND A LOT OF CURSING is one of the best books I’ve read about what it’s like to be a writer.

First, what the book isn’t: It isn’t a guide to how to be a better writer. It minimally touches on craft. And the writer you’ll find in its pages has nothing to do with the mad, addicted, witty writer genius so often depicted on the screen. What it does do is perfectly capture with brutal honesty the hardship, triumph, compulsions, and periodic lunacy of being a writer in the real world.

I haven’t read much of Strand’s fiction, only having read DRACULAS, a work he co-authored with some other writers like JA Konrath and which I enjoyed as a light, fun horror story. I had a chance to enjoy his emceeing of the Stoker Awards one year, however, and thought he was hilarious. THE WRITING LIFE has a similar comedic tone, which Strand uses to poke fun at himself and his profession.

Everything is on the table, the good, the bad, and quite a bit of the weird and ugly. The neediness and desperation, the belief next year will be the perfect year, the reality that success is usually a matter of numerous baby steps instead of finding the right switch, the idea of writing as a very long game, the difficulties and egos of collaboration and getting feedback, how to work with editors and agents, the social awkwardness of conventions, empty book signings, how one small success can lead to another, what it was like to be looked down on at the forefront of the eBook wave, and plenty more.

Strand holds nothing back from his description of his writing journey. As a writer, I found it both amusing and relatable to the point of cringing. We try so hard to look cool, and Strand said, “Screw that. Here’s me.” Recommended reading for writers who would find some comfort in knowing, “It’s not just you.”

Filed Under: The Blog, WRITING LIFE, Writing/Publishing

SYNCHRONIC (2020)

March 14, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

After enjoying films like RESOLUTION and THE ENDLESS, I’ve reached a point where I’ll watch any film Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead put together. Their latest, SYNCHRONIC (2020, streaming on Google Play), is their best yet. It was produced by XYZ Films, which has become a fairly reliable source of solid, independent horror movies.

In SYNCHRONIC, two New Orleans paramedics keep coming across victims of a new designer drug that produces a bizarre, otherworldly effect. Steve is a ladies’ man who confronts the emptiness of his life when he finds out he’s ill, while Dennis is married with kids and is feeling restless. When the drug affects them close to home, Steve has to use the drug himself to try to save people he loves.

Benson and Moorhead do a great job as always by focusing on likeable characters dealing with an extraordinary event and making the strange blend with the mundane. For this film, they clearly had a larger budget but used it wisely, sticking with their roots while touching up the special effects. One thing I particularly like about them is how well they tease the reveals for the horror or sci-fi element. For example, instead of the typical Hollywood approach of seeing paramedics doing their jobs once, the horror element appears, and then they pretty much never do their jobs again, the film sticks with it, allowing the characters, plot, and weird element to develop naturally.

I had one small complaint, which is the theme is pretty on the nose–Steve envying Dennis for his married life, and Dennis envying Steve for his freedom. The way it’s spelled it out, becomes a source of conflict, and then the way it’s all patched up with a new understanding, feels kind of rote. But again, it’s a small complaint for what is otherwise a very solid sci-fi/horror film that further cemented XYZ as one of my favorite production companies and Benson and Moorhead as two of my favorite directors. Recommended.

Filed Under: Movies, Movies & TV, The Blog

THE DIG (2021)

March 12, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

THE DIG (2021, streaming on Netflix) is an enjoyable, pass-the-time film about archaeology while including enough drama to please those looking for more. It’s a satisfying film, though I would have enjoyed it more if it focused on the dig and its remarkable find.

Based on the novel by John Preston, which is in turn based on true events, the film is about the excavation of burial mounds on a rural property in England in 1939, which results in one of the most important archeological finds in British history. Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), who owns the land, hires amateur archeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate a large burial mound, which turns up remarkable treasures that redefine modern understanding of the Dark Ages following the Romans leaving the island. As an amateur, Brown never received credit until recently.

The find showed that the Dark Ages weren’t quite all that dark, and that culture, art, and trade survived and even flourished during these years and among the barbaric invaders of the British isles. The film plays the excavation and discovery well, and this aspect of the film kept me watching. It’s not quite explored enough, as the film gives the find’s archeological significance its due but doesn’t geek on it the way I would have loved. For that, you can Google articles about the actual excavation and treasures found at Sutton Hoo.

After the initial find, a team of professional archaeologists shows up, and that’s where things take a more dramatic bent. Thematically, it’s done well, as Pretty is dying and concerned about what of her if anything might live on, WW2 and its historical significance looms, and a young couple who shouldn’t be together realize they should live their lives on their own terms. Very artistic direction–cutaways to little details in the landscape and people looking at each other while dialogue from previous conversations take place–attempts to capture a literary feel. Even with it, the result is fairly staid, though again, it’s enjoyable, and I’m happy to see a movie made like this about archaeology and in particular this important discovery. So overall, I’d grade this film a B, though for its intended audience I think it’s an A film.

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Other History, The Blog

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