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THRILLER/MYSTERY BURIED (15) 94min ●●●●●
The prospect of a thriller featuring rom-com favourite Ryan Reynolds as the only actor on screen is not exactly enticing, but it’s time to throw all those prejudices away, as Reynolds gives a fantastic performance in a very fine film. Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, who is working as a private contractor in Iraq when his convoy is ambushed. The next thing he knows is that he’s coming around in a dark box. His captors have also provided him with a mobile phone, and call him to tell him that he has to raise a ransom of $5 million before the phone’s battery runs out, or die in the coffin, buried alive. Problem set, Conroy sets to work and, through the phone calls, points are made about the frustration that is often caused by bureaucracy, the end of the nuclear family, and the privatisation of war. Government, corporations and the family are all held to account.
The one-location movie is difficult to make interesting. Alfred Hitchcock
was the master of this unique theatre, making four such films: Lifeboat, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder and Rope. But even Hitchcock wasn’t foolish enough to make a movie with only one man on screen. Then again, he didn’t have access to mobile phones, the internet or video cameras, which directors can and are using as windows to the outside world. In Buried we hear several voices on the phone and the phone camera is used to see a couple of videos. In this, his debut feature, Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés does a brilliant job of making one man in a coffin look interesting for an hour and a half by the clever use of angles, cranes and dolly shots that provide a sense of motion. He also makes use of black screen when the viewer, like the protagonist, cannot see what is going on. It’s bravado filmmaking to match the exhilarating egg-timer plot. (Kaleem Aftab) ■ General release, Wed 29 Sep.
REVIEWS Film
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From Here to Eternity (PG) 118min ●●●●● Restoration and reissue of Fred Zinnemann’s iconic adaptation of James Jones’ epic multi- character tale of love in a time of war. Stars Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed and a beach. GFT, Glasgow, Fri 24–Mon 27 Sep. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 7 & Fri 8 Oct and Sun 10 & Mon 11 Oct. World’s Greatest Dad (15) 98min ●●●●● Dark, daring and thought-provoking comedy about a lonely high school poetry teacher who gets a chance of living his dreams if he can live with a certain amount of guilt. Robin Williams turns in a nuanced performance while Bobcat Sleeping Dogs Goldthwait writes and directs with the usual misanthropy and sarcasm. Selected release, Fri 24 Sep. True Legend (15) 114min ●●●●● Renowned Qing dynasty general Su retires to set up his own martial arts school but his peaceful life is shattered by his vengeful adopted brother Yuan Lie, who kidnaps his son and leaves Su for dead. Su vows revenge but first he must train. Old-school Chinese high- kicker from the director of genre classics Iron Monkey and Wing Chun. Michelle Yeoh, Man Cheuk Chiu and Xun Zhou star. Selected release, Fri 24 Sep. Rapt (15) 120min ●●●●● Tense hostage thriller based on the real life 1978 kidnapping of French-Belgian industrialist and millionaire playboy Edouard- Jean Empain. Yvan Attal and Anne Consigny star. The brilliant, underrated filmmaker Lucas Belvaux (La raison du plus faible, Trilogy) directs with his usual style, grace and intelligence. Will be reviewed for its DVD release next issue. GFT, Glasgow, Fri 24 & Sat 25 Sep. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 8 Oct and Sun 10 & Mon 11 Oct.
CRIME/DRAMA POLICE, ADJECTIVE (POLITIST, ADJECTIV) (12A) 114min ●●●●●
Romanian writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu’s follow-up to 12:08 East of Bucharest is a deliberately paced and deceptively simple police procedural, which unfolds in the dreary streets of the filmmaker’s provincial home town of Vasilu. Its protagonist Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is a recently married undercover cop, who’s carrying out a surveillance operation on a dope-smoking teenager, Viktor (Radu Costin). In a series of lengthy, real-time takes, the camera follows Cristi on his lonely daily routines. Cristi tails his suspect and the latter’s friends, he requests background information from his colleagues at the station, he smokes endless cigarettes. His superiors want an arrest, but Cristi has qualms about sending a schoolboy to jail for what he deems to be a minor offence. Police, Adjective is an anti-thriller, which ignores generic conventions: there’s no dramatic action sequences and no miraculous discoveries during the investigation, while music is used sparingly. Yet paradoxically for a film filled with silences, it becomes a philosophical enquiry into the relationship between language and power. Cristi’s own written reports on his actions are scrolled across the screen. And in a climactic dialogue scene the implacable Captain (a superb cameo from Vlad Ivanov) uses a dictionary – hence the story’s unusual title – to assert the law of the state over an individual’s conscience. Twenty years after the revolution, it seems, authoritarian mentalities remain entrenched. (Tom Dawson) ■ GFT, Glasgow, Fri 1–Thu 7 Oct; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 1–Thu 14 Oct.
DOCUMENTARY/COMEDY I’M STILL HERE (15) 107min ●●●●●
When Joaquin Phoenix announced that he was retiring as an actor to become a rap star and that his attempts to change career would be filmed by his brother-in-law Casey Affleck, sceptics immediately screamed hoax, which Affleck has now admitted it was. The duo tell the joke with a straight face, and it is this that makes I’m Still Here such a brilliant, subversive production, reminiscent of Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop. Starting in 2008 just before Phoenix announces his retirement, it takes us through the next 12 months of failed musical performances; a seemingly career-ending non- performance on Letterman; and a dependency on drugs and hookers for kicks. The plot, if you will, involves Phoenix trying to arrange to meet music producer and rap star Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs in the hope that the name- changing star will produce his debut record. This comic portrait of Phoenix’s lost year ironically manages to raise some serious questions about fame and the media obsession with celebrity. (Kaleem Aftab) ■ Out now, selected release. 23 Sep–7 Oct 2010 THE LIST 59