IAN-Cinemaniac

Ever since seeing Jaco Van Dormael's Le Huitième Jour (The Eighth Day) I had been highly looking forward to his latest work....MR NOBODY. Last night I caught an early screening of it in Liege, Belgium with special guest, director Jaco Van Dormael in attendance.

I tried so hard to get into Mr Van Dormael's brilliant, yet fatally flawed vision of love, life and the choices we make. My first problem of the film is its structure (flashforwards, flashbacks..). The film rarely gave me the opportunity to sit back and immerse myself in its world without constantly jolting, and distracting with its fractured structure. I understand this was to show how every choice has its consequence, every choice leads down a different life path. It often reminded me of the more mainstream and simple chick-flick SLIDING DOORS, which my wife adored. I loved the film for its ideas and questions it posed on who and what we are. MR NOBODY certainly can't be criticized for being empty or shallow. If anything, the problem with the film is that there is too much to consider. It's overblown and bloated which ended up numbing me to the point of not even caring.

Van Dormael clearly loves the use of color in his films. In THE EIGHTH DAY his use of color was beautiful and poignant in the way it illuminated its troubled young hero's fantastic world, in contrast to the gray realities of the true world around him. That is another one of my major problems with MR NOBODY. This film had so much to say about who and what we are. It dealt with such real issues of abandonment, loss and loneliness, but his Tim Burtonesque use of colors and over-the-top jests didn't slightly resemble anything real or believable. If only he had given the film some sense of the real world from time to time, like with The Eighth Day it would have strengthened the film tremendously. Something has to look and feel real in order to feel any emotion or anything at all.

I just wish Jaco Van Dormael had simplified things a bit. I don't mean dumb down his vision, but give it some space to breath and room to move the viewer. As I said before, I really wanted to love this film, but now I can say I really didn't like it. MR NOBODY was a bold effort with a lot of good in it, including the fine cast, but in the end unfortunately it falls rather flat.

I just saw Richard Kelly's flawed but highly involving THE BOX. I really enjoyed it as well.

I'm one of the many who loved DONNIE DARKO when it first came out, before there was much buzz. I eagerly awaited his second film SOUTHLAND TALES which ended up being so unbearable I couldn't even finish it. Now, Kelly's third film, THE BOX which I entered a bit skeptical but highly enjoyed it. It feels like a cross between 1978's BODY SNATCHERS and SCANNERS as directed by early Brian DePalma (not necessarily in story but in atmosphere and mood). The look of the film and the music are like watching a film from the late 70s (in which this film takes place). At times Kelly's choices are a bit overwhelming and somewhat goofy on the overly dramatic end of things, but at least he never underwhelms with THE BOX.

THE BOX is a bit heavy and stressful, and I recommend it for that. It could have been better with a different lead actress though. You can see the acting wheels turning in Diaz's eyes. Marsden on the other hand is solid the whole way through...maybe because he has "Mars" in his name...hint, hint.

This is good stuff. It's better than most of the usual retreads that are constantly dumped on us. AND it's way better than SOUTHLAND TALES.

See it, even though it's no DONNIE DARKO.

I'm one of the many that has been dying to see TRICK'R TREAT since first reading about a few years back. I love Halloween, the holiday and as an avid horror fanatic I adore the film HALLOWEEN as well. So I pre-ordered the Blu-ray of Trick'R Treat the moment it was listed on amazon.

A couple of weeks ago my Blu-ray arrived in the mailbox. I raced upstairs and threw it in the player. I watched it. I loved the look and feel of this lovingly made throwback to 80's genre films such as The Thing, The Goonies, ET, Monster Squad and of course John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. TRICK'r TREAT wants to be everything and suffers for that. There is very little character development or backstory. There is no one to route for and no one to hate. It's too short and too rushed to take time on anything except the aesthetics, which look great. This film is like a cute girl with nothing on the inside. She'd be perfect if only she had a brain too.

Needless to say I'm disappointed. Sure I would have liked to have been scared but I understand it's difficult to execute a good scare, but at least one quick jump would have been nice. I do like Trick''r Treat for what it tries and wants to be, but for what it is I'm left hanging, waiting for my anticipation to be fulfilled with looks and brains. A bunch of well lit jack'o'lanterns do not a perfect film make.

I now understand why TRICK'r TREAT never got its day at the cinema. It was a nice try, but no cigar.

See it and enjoy the lite ride while it lasts, because soon after you will forget you saw anything at all.