The Follow

The BMW Film series films are all excellent. I particularly appreciate the humor of "Star" and the sensitivity and awareness of "Powder Keg," but "The Follow" seems to stand out as the best film of them all. The Driver seems more relaxed and perhaps more together in this of all of the films. He starts out detached, coldly explaining the best way to tail someone, but becomes human, identifying with the heroine and allowing justice to be served. Amazingly all accomplished in 6 minutes. Clive Owen is great as always and Forest Whitaker is affecting in an unbilled performance. 9/10

I just watched the first four in the series of "BMW Films", and this is by far the best. I was more familiar with the other three directors (the great Ang Lee, the very good Guy Ritchie, and the stunningly adequate John Frankenheimer), but after seeing "The Follow" (and reading someone compare Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love" with Soderbergh's "The Limey") I feel a strong need to search out more of this director's work.

"The Follow" avoids the "five minutes worth of car chase" formula employed by the other BMW films, instead reaching for a more haunting, psychological examination of obsession and the loss of love. Clive Owens is given more to work with here than in any of the other films, and he comes through like a champ, delivering a lyrical, understated narration that the film would fall apart without. Mickey Rourke is solid, but his role goes by so fast that he doesn't get a chance to do much. Forest Whitaker is better, though for some reason uncredited. If you get a chance to watch this movie, by all means do it. Among the top five short films I've seen. Now I need to go see if I can find a copy of "Chungking Express" to rent.

Visually this is a beautiful short. It has some amazing cinematography by Harris Savides who also made moody movies like "The Game", "Finding Forrester" and "Birth". The fine directing is from Kar Wai Wong, who makes this short a little piece of art.

The story is also what helps to make this movie beautiful. Although its short it still manages to create depth and stir up the right emotions. This is the second and so far last "The Hire" short written by expert Andrew Kevin Walker. If you only like and expecting a cool car chase than you're better of watching another "The Hire" short and you can just better skip this one.

The good mood music is from Joel Goodman and Jeff Rona.

Famous stars in this are Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker in an uncredited but big role.

The third "The Hire" movie is just simply beautiful!

9/10

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This short with the possible exception of Inarritu's Powder Keg is the best from the BMW series. This one is a typical film you might expect from Wong Kar Wai (very dark and film noirish). It should not be missed by any of his fans.

I was surprised to find that the director of the second film in the BMW series The Hire was Ang Lee, so imagine how I felt when this one was directed by Kar Wai Wong, he of In the Mood for Love and other films where car chases do not feature particularly highly; to say the least I was curious as to what he would deliver here. The plot this time is a tailing job – a movie star's agent hires the Driver to follow the star's wife to confirm she isn't cheating on him; a simple job but then perhaps not.

What Wong delivers is actually a really nice short film that delivers substance in a way the previous two had not while also giving the guys paying for the film plenty of slick shots of their cars in motion. The film opens with some shots with an artistic slant and it continues as such throughout. In the previous films the Driver had been mostly silent however here his narration is key and it is pretty well written to be about the art of The Follow while also filling in the story as we go along. OK, it is a flaw of the film that his technique looks awful (he seems far too obvious to me!) but the narration and the style help cover this minor quibble.

The film has a great style to it and Wong really does a good job with the following sequences. Unable to work with the thrill of a chase, he instead captures moments of slick beauty as the two cars move around cities and landscapes – it had a real flow to it and looked beautiful; the shots after stopping at the bank were particularly memorable. The cast do well here, Owen is better with some character to talk about while the quality of Whittaker, Rourke and the looks of Lima all help the feel of the film as slick and polished.

The Follow may lack the action chase sequence of the other films thus far, but it produces something I enjoyed much more as a short film (as opposed to an action clip). The story is good, the narration adds a layer to the film and yet Wong still manages to make the central product look good. Very good little short that rises above its commercial heart.