Cinema Joes Update

For those who do not yet know, yours truly takes part in a weekly podcast about movies called Cinema Joes!  Here is a link to our Itunes page.  We just put up our discussion of the excellent Call Me By Your Name.  You should also subscribe to our Twitter! 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cinema-joes/id1207920893?mt=2#episodeGuid=http%3A%2F%2Fcinemajoes.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2F2018-01-29T19_50_20-08_00 

The Top 10 Action Scenes of 2017

            What happened to action movies this year?  Something must have aligned on a cosmic level in 2017, because for all of the shit going on elsewhere in the world, the year was packed with awesome, solidly-made action movies.  And I’m not just talking about the summer- from the March international release of Logan all the way through New Year’s, there was nearly always at least one great action film running in theaters in a given time. 

            Some were fantastic films that will be remembered as significant game-changers within their genres, some were just solid B-movies, but nearly all of the year’s action-heavy releases had at least one great sequence in them to make then worth a watch.  And many had considerably more than just one.  And so, while it was a great year all-around for the movies, it’s especially important to take time this awards season to recall and be grateful for just how spoiled we action fans were in 2017. 

            I have thus shouldered the hellish task of trying to pick out a mere ten of the year’s best action scenes for a ranking, although there were easily over two dozen scenes that could qualify for such a list, so absence here should in no way be taken as a slight.  For this list, I looked at three primary aspects of the scene to rank them:

1. How technically impressive or innovative was the scene on a filmmaking level?

2. Does the scene have any relevance to either the film’s plot or the development of a particular character, or is it just visual fireworks for its own sake? 

3. Is it groundbreaking in some way, i.e., will it have any likely influence or importance outside the context of the film it’s in? 

            Much of this is, to a certain extent, purely subjective, so if my list doesn’t jive with yours, let me know in the comments below! Where possible, I have linked in videos to the scene in question for easier viewing, but all these films are worth watching from start to finish. 

            Oh, and spoilers for many of these films, since some of these are major plot climaxes. 

Honorable Mentions: Baby Driver- “The Foot Chase”, Dunkirk- the ship sinkings, Tiger Girl- “The Subway Fight”, Star Wars: The Last Jedi- “Opening Space Battle”, John Wick 2- “Hall of Mirrors”

10. Thor: Ragnarok- “Thor vs Hulk”

            The Marvel movies have always featured some great action beats in their films, but the most memorable tend to be the ones they have the most fun with.  Great effects and crisp fighting, sure, but with a sense of humor and a willingness to break the fourth wall in the best way.  The re-entry of Banner/The Hulk is a prime example of this- in an instant, all the serious tension these scenes usually hold is punctured by Thor’s jubilant yell and Loki’s reaction when The Hulk appears, hands-down one of the funniest things I saw in a movie all year.  The clear instinct for when and how to draw the biggest laugh on display here is essentially the whole film in miniature, and Exhibit A of why it’s The Best Marvel Movie.   

9. Guardians of the Galaxy 2- “Come A Little Bit Closer”

            And speaking of Marvel movies knowing just the right buttons to push!  This climactic moment from the second Guardians movie was, with my sincerest apologies to the entirety of Baby Driver, the single best use of a song underscoring an action scene this year, primarily through just how overtly cartoonish it is.  This should be a far more terrifying moment than it is, but the combination of the song and the slapstick manner of half the deaths made it impossible to not laugh watching this.  Slaughter has never looked (or sounded) so good. 

            And yeah, I couldn’t even fit Baby Driver onto this list.  Or Logan.  Or Blade Runner.  THAT’S how good this year was. 

8. John Wick 2- “The Catacombs”

            Hands down the best pure shoot-out of the year.  John Wick shows off just how far ahead of everyone he is when he fully plans for his employer to betray him following a hit, and he fills the catacombs of Rome beforehand with all manner of heavy firearms, strategically placing them so that he can reach each one just as the last runs out of ammo.  Suffused with blue and orange tones, the angles, colors, and setting make for an experience as ambient as it is intense.  

7. Mr. Long- “The Final Fight”

            Mr. Long could basically be summed up as “John Wick, if he were Taiwanese and could also cook.”  Forced to hide from a local Japanese gang after a hit goes awry, Long is finally found out, and the gang leader’s cronies threaten the lives of the villagers he’s befriended.  In the climactic fight scene, they finally meet face-to-face, and Long cuts.  Right.  Through.  Them.  .

            This sequence is slightly held back by being a touch tropey- they really could have tried to gang up on him a more, and yeah, that one guy with the gun does wait way too long to jump in- but as an emotional breaking point for a character whose spent an entire film clearly holding everything inside, it doesn’t get much more potent than this.  The scene alone can’t really convey the feeling you get after seeing the entire film before it and knowing just how much this guy has been holding back to try and keep his new friends safe, and just how much pain is now being released as he realizes just how badly he failed. 

6. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets- “Market Shootout and Chase”

            Despite the unevenness in tone and acting that ultimately held it back, Valerian was nothing if not a stunningly ambitious film, and its best moments could very well end up being some of the most influential visual sequences to come out of 2017.  One of the most daring was the first major shootout and chase sequence of the film, taking place in a massive, interdimensional marketplace, where a technical glitch results in the main character having his gun hand caught in one dimension and his body in another, leaving him vulnerable in both until his partner can find him and fix the glitch.  It’s a staggeringly creative scene in a movie full of amazing design ideas, and even though much of the movie ultimately didn’t work, moments like this still made it worth seeing on the big screen. 

5. Atomic Blonde- “Staircase Fight”

            Charlize Theron’s recent turn as an action lead has been nothing short of inspired, and her performance is the key reason to watch this neon-glazed return to the genre of Cold War spy thrillers.  The plot has the usual twists and double-turns, but it’s in the action beats that the film hits its stride, and its best sequence by far is this brutal, third-act fight in a staircase and apartment.  Painstakingly crafted to look like it was done in a single take (several people from the John Wick movies were involved in the production), this is part of an extended third-act climax where Theron tries to navigate a turncoat spy out of East Berlin despite a raft of Soviet agents sent to stop her, include one of the main henchmen who’d been dogging her since she arrived from London.  Much of the scene’s tension comes from how the actors realistically show just how.  Effing.  Exhausting.  This level of combat is and the toll it takes on the body. 

4. John Wick 2- “John Wick vs. The Assassins”

            After a bounty is placed on his head, John Wick finds himself beset on all sides by seemingly every assassin in New York.  The mixed nature of these fights allows for a really creative and impressive variety of weapons, people, and techniques used to take John Wick down (and all of them failing).  We finally learn why the thought of John Wick with a pencil sends shivers down the crime world’s collective spine (and oh God, is it horrifying), and it ends with a sequence of him and Common shooting at each other covertly before ending their battle with a heart-stopping knife fight inside a subway. 

3. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi- “The Throneroom”

**sadly no clip of this scene in good quality is on Youtube.  You really should watch the film anyway**

            There were so many action beats in the latest Star Wars movie that could be on this list, but the highlight for me is and shall remain the throne room battle between Rey and Kylo and the red-cloaked guards of Snoke following his death.  The film’s motif of red hits a particular intensity here, with the walls and uniforms of the soldiers appearing uniformly threatening as they close in around the two.  It also allows for a surprising amount of hard-edged brutality to the fight in a franchise known more often for being “clean” in its violence.  The whole affair ends with the two alone and seemingly surrounding by raining fireballs, as both the battle outside and their own emotional journeys within the film reach one of the year’s most powerful climaxes. 

2. Dunkirk- The Air Combat

            Dunkirk was about as intense an experience as it got in theaters in 2017, with the technical mastery of Nolan and his crew on full display in each scene showing the inherent chaos and overwhelming sensory overload of war.  Nowhere was this more impressive (at least in my book) than in the air combat scenes, possibly the best-made and most realistic of such sequences we’ve yet gotten in a war movie. 

            The intimate closeness of the camera within the cockpit allows you to feel how small and cramped it must have been to fly the planes, and how few your options for surviving are if you’re hit.  Up close, we rattle, and swerve and duck with the pilots, each one managing to act remarkably effectively through their heavy airmen’s gear.  But then, when the scene cuts to the outside, the camera sweeps out in dizzyingly grand angles, making these machines of death appear small and insignificant when compared with the magnificence backdrop of nature’s beauty.  Every shot, every turn, every bailout or crash has a real weight that makes you feel each second you spend in the air with the pilots.  I don’t expect to see a WWII movie match this one for a long, long time.  

1. Wonder Woman- “No Man’s Land”

            The best action scene of the year succeeded in being so many things at once, I don’t even think I could manage to list them all here.  At long last, we finally got the first real, live-action Wonder Woman movie, which doubled as the first real studio attempt at a blockbuster comic book film starring a woman (and directed by one too!).  It broke the box office and broke the Meninists, and in the first year of the world having to endure Donald Trump in the Oval Office, the strength and courage this movie was able to provide to women and girls around the world was not something to sniff at. 

            As a whole it was not quite as great as it could have been- a slow and uneven third act drags the film out of “Best of the Year” category- but the first two thirds are damn near perfect, culminating in a powerhouse extended sequence where Diana charges out into a WWI killing field, takes a line of trenches, and frees the occupied Belgian town beyond. 

            There is so much that happens in this scene that I could spend hours dissecting it.  Diana’s character, her status as a true hero, her transformation into Wonder Woman, are all cemented in an instant when she decides that yes, she will take on the impossible, and yes, she will try to save everyone, because that’s who she is.  The image of her standing alone, taking on an entire line of gunfire, was perhaps the best visual metaphor our new age of #MeToo and #TimesUp could have ever dreamed of. 

            It’s also a scene of remarkable variety.  Guns and explosives are used aplenty, but Diana also uses her shield, sword, and lasso, chairs and tables and guns are used as clubs and battering rams, and even her own body serves as a wrecking ball for a sniper’s bell tower.  Her connection with Chris Pine is cemented when they fight alongside each other and can each see and respect the other as fellow warriors, striving for good.  This culminates in one of the film’s best single moments of payoff, when Pine remembers a tactic he saw the Amazons use earlier, gets the guys to follow him without question, and with a single word signals to Diana what he intends to do, and she immediately follows along. 

            Oh yeah, and Diana THROWS A TANK.  A F***ING TANK. 

            This scene lifted me up and made my spirit soar in a way only a handful of other moments this year did, and for that, this scene earns my spot as the single best action scene of 2017.  Godspeed, Diana.  Your move, Black Panther. 

-Noah Franc 

My Top Ten Film Scores of 2017

            Another year has ended, and the retrospectives have now begun!  We begin this year with a look back at the top original film scores of 2017, those movies where original music broke new ground and made good or even great films ever better. 

            Ever since my first viewing of Amadeus awakened a deep, powerful love of great filmmaking and great music within me simultaneously, the use of the audio arts in a movie have consistently been one of the most important factors in whether I love, like, or hate a film.  As many popular musical genres have declined in quality and relevance in recent decades, more and more of the really interesting and groundbreaking music out there resides in the realm of the cinematic score.  As such, I deliberately focused these posts on entirely original scores written specifically for the movies they are in (or that include continued themes from long-running franchises, like Star Wars).  This means that soundtracks filled with various rock and pop classics are not considered here, since even the biggest cinematic hacks can put together a decent party playlist. 

            Props must be given, however, to Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Baby Driver, Call Me By Your Name, and I, Tonya, whose soundtrack selections were particularly excellent parts of what were all particularly excellent films.  Credit must be given where it’s due. 

10. Your Name (Radwimps)

            While it does suffer in consistency a bit due to a few odd transition montages centered around pop songs, Radwimps’ moving work for one of the year’s biggest international breakouts is quiet and moving in a way that enhances the wistful yearning and sadness of the latest, excellent work by Makoto Shinkai.  

9. The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat)

            Del Toro’s latest film creates such a singularly unique world that its tale about woman-on-fish romance actually felt most bizarre when it cut to scenes of “typical” 50’s family life.  Desplat’s magnificent score perfectly doubles down on this, balancing perfectly between being just whimsical enough to feel familiar, but also otherworldly enough to feel new without being too alienating.  It’s a perfect mirror to this singularly bizarre cinematic creation. 

8. Wonder Woman (Rupert Gregson-Williams)

            Big, out there, and in-your-face, this film’s music was everything it needed to be to help elevate one of the year’s most essential films.  Above all else, though, it gave us one of the most awesome, fist-pumping, instantly-recognizable superhero themes since Zimmer’s Batman work. 

7. Boys For Sale (Kazaguruma)

            Documentaries are usually not known for having particularly noticeable music, but this unforgettable film about a little-known part of the Japanese sex trade also happens to have some of the most interesting original music scores of the year as well.  Featuring a band playing an assortment of Japanese instruments, the makers of the film made the unusual choice of mixing together the actual written score with the musician’s improvisational warm-up recordings.  While the band was understandably apprehensive about this, they needn’t have worried, because the end result was a remarkably fitting sound unlike anything else I heard all year.    

6. Blade Runner 2049 (Hans Zimmer/Benjamin Wallfisch)

            Much like the film itself, this score goes well beyond being just an artful imitation of its classic counterpart.  It revisits the style and vibe of the original, but then deepens and expands them to create something built on the past, yes, but still very much its own new creation.  This was one of the most ambient experiences I had in the theater all year. 

5. Thor: Ragnarok (Mark Mothersbaugh)

            Slipping back in time to a funky 80’s vibe, the best Marvel movie yet (no, not up for discussion) brought us the most iconic and memorable score of them all, the Avengers main theme excepted.  So far the villains and samey music have been the most consistent bugbears of this particular cinematic empire, so it was nice to finally have one break the mold in a really meaningful way. 

            And plus, it’s never wrong to use “Immigrant Song” in your action scene.  Ever. 

4. Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer)

            There are a lot of people out there who really hate Hans Zimmer, who find his style repetitive an grating, overly loud and bombastic, or just hilariously overdone.  

            Those people are wrong.  But I’ll delve into that another time.  For now, let’s give Dunkirk the its proper due, as it was not only one of the best films of 2017 and Nolan’s career, but also had Zimmer at his finest, providing a score that equaled the movie’s frenetic pacing and the energy of the characters desperately racing against time in a fight to survive. 

3. A Ghost Story (Daniel Hart)

            Haunting.  This is, without any hint of irony, the best possible word that encapsulates both this film and Daniel Hart’s tragic, reverberative score.  It fills out the edges of this meditation on existence and its purpose (or lack thereof).  The air of wistful tragedy within the music enhances the lonely clarity of the film’s sparse imagery, following a lone soul wandering back and forth through time (though not, crucially, space). 

2. Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (John Williams) 

            Damnit, John Williams is, and shall always be, the man.  The classical Star Wars opening theme remains one of the great pinnacles of human endeavor, but part of what’s made the newest trilogy such a treat is seeing how well Williams has turned a third trip to this particular well into something every bit as fresh as the scores he’s given us for the past two trilogies. 

            Easily the most moving parts this time around are where he re-works Leia’s traditional theme into a few key scenes.  They are moments of such fine musical deft that I feel they would have resonated even if Carrie Fisher hadn’t passed away before the film’s release, thus turning The Last Jedi into something of a final testament to the legacy and endurance of our Queen. 

1. A Silent Voice (Kensuke Ushio) 

            No film of 2017, except perhaps Dunkirk, used music and sound design to such remarkable effect as this animated movie about bullying, depression, and suicide.  The film constantly raises, lowers, and distorts the sounds and score to reflect the many different ways one can be both physically and mentally deaf.  This makes the scenes of true clarity, where the score’s searing main theme comes in full-force, all the more majestic in its impact.  It is a beautiful work befitting the beautiful film it accompanies, and is my favorite original film score of 2017. 

-Noah Franc 

Review- Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017): Written and directed by Rian Johnson.  Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Kelly Marie Tran, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Laura Dern, Benicia Del Toro, Mark Hamill and our Forever Queen, Carrie Fisher.  Running Time: 152 minutes.  Based on characters created by George Lucas. 

Rating: 3.5/4

**this review contains spoilers for The Last Jedi**

             The more I mull over The Last Jedi in my mind the more I dig it.  It was not what I expected.  It didn’t have any of the fates for its older characters that I’d envisioned since first entering the old EU.  I felt a bit uncomfortable at first over how much the film had challenged my assumptions about its world.  And the more that became clear to me, the more I realized that’s exactly what this franchise and we as fans needed.  Star Wars doesn’t need complacency.  Star Wars was never meant to have easy outs.  Star Wars can’t afford to jog in place, and ultimately won’t, no matter how much many of the fanboys might want it to. 

            And yes, I say this even though The Last Jedi, like its predecessor The Force Awakens, is very much a film built around the cyclical nature of this universe and its fundamental light-vs-dark conflict.  Both films in this new trilogy have been filled to the brim with allusions, both on-the-nose and subtle, to the overarching narrative of the original trilogy, but putting just enough spin on them that we are now in a place far different from where we were at the end of Return of the Jedi all those years ago.  The result is a cinematic world that is the freest and most open for something new it’s been since that glorious opening music first rang out back in 1977. 

            This time around the parallels are a mash-up of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  Finn, Po, Leia, a new character named Rose, and the rest of the Resistance spend most of the movie fleeing from the First Order in an extended chase sequence (sound familiar?), ending in a ground battle reminiscent of the fighting on Hoth.  Rey has located the reclusive Luke Skywalker on his hideaway planet (sound familiar?), seeking training and guidance in the ways of the force, but has to overcome his reluctance to train another Jedi after his earlier failure to rebuild the Jedi ended with the rise of Kylo Ren.  And ultimately, she will break away early to seek out a confrontation with Ren and his Sith mentor in a dim throne room, attempting to turn him back to the good and bring him to betray and destroy the Dark Side master driving the First Order in time to save the rest of the Resistance from what seems like sure annihilation (sound familiar?). 

            That a movie with so many clear parallels to what came before can feel so fresh and new is a testament to the talent and creative energy of the people making this movie, from director Rian Johnson, to the camerapeople and editors and production designers, to the remarkable cast that never fails to make their characters far more than what they would be in lesser hands.  There are moments where their respective arcs feel a bit broad and easy to read, but the film commits to having each of its main characters (and even some of the side ones) have certain lessons they need to learn by the end if they are to help keep the light alive in the face of the dark that would snuff it out.  Rey needs to accept that she doesn’t need some special lineage to play a meaningful role in what’s to come.  Finn has to find a reason to fight the First Order beyond his own desire for self-preservation.  Po needs to realize there’s more to being a real hero than simply jumping into an X-Wing and blowing shit up. 

            Even Luke has a lesson to learn in all of this.  He does rightly take Rey (and himself) to task for holding on too dearly to the past in lieu of focusing on the present.  It is, indeed, a meta-narrative running throughout the entire film that both the in-world characters and we the outside fans have spent too long trying to perfectly preserve what came before, rather than trying to build something genuinely new.  And yet, as Luke realizes in two key scenes towards the end of the film, even old symbols and legends have a power of their own to endure and inspire the next generation.  We can’t be bound by the past, but neither should we seek to break off from it entirely. 

            It is a shock to see such a jaded, cynical Luke appear before us after so eagerly anticipating his return to the role that defined his career.  But here again, it makes more and more sense within this new world the more I think about it, where there is a stronger emphasis on accepting and even embracing the failures and shortcomings of the figures of our childhood.  Mark Hamill gives his all in what is one of the best performances of his career.  He and Daisy Ridley dominate the movie all on their own, and are the primary reason this movie will ultimately endure no matter how much irate fanboys might wish to sink it.  After Luke’s final, triumphant return to salvage the Resistance, he gazes on a dual sunset before fading into the Force.  It is a direct and deeply affecting callback to the very beginning of his journey back on Tatooine, a moment signifying that, perhaps, he may even have been meant to fall as far as he did before being able to rise up again, ultimately completing his mission in life in a way he never thought possible. 

            While it is a near-certainty that we will get at least one scene with Force-Ghost Luke in the next movie, it is unfortunate that we can’t say the same for Carrie Fisher.  Lucasfilm, to its credit, has already announced that there will be no effort to CGI Leia into the final movie, which means that this is Fisher’s final testament to us as an actor, and so many of her scenes (particularly her “farewell” with Luke during the final battle) carry an extra emotional heft to them because of this.  She is remarkable, of course, poised and confident and powerful in her bearing.  While it is sad she is gone, I am grateful she was able to shine one last time for us. 

            As much as this is a well-acted movie, it is also a technically stunning and visually beautiful one as well.  Red is a particularly powerful motif, filling the throne room of Snokes and coating the mineral-salt field of the final battle.  By the time Luke steps out to face Kylo Ren, it looks like the Rebel base is bleeding from an open wound.  In another moment of self-sacrifice by a minor character, the color and sound drops out completely as we see an entire fleet break apart and shatter, in what may be the most spectacular visual in any Star Wars movie ever. 

            Given that The Last Jedi is obsessed with breaking chains and casting forth for something new, it makes sense that it took us two movies to work through so much of the series’ meta-baggage being dragged into this new trilogy- there is a LOT of weight and expectations riding on these films, still one of the last truly global cultural phenomenon.  So far, to my immense joy, the people behind them have managed to meet the challenge so far, returning us to that galaxy of magic and wonder that generations of us have fallen in love with.  The Force is with this franchise once more, and I sincerely hope it stays that way. 

-Noah Franc 

Review: Aus Dem Nichts (In the Fade)

Aus Dem Nichts (2017): Written and directed by Fatih Akin.  Starring: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto, Johannes Kirsch, Ulrich Tukur.  Running Time: 106 Minutes. 

Rating: 3/4

            And the quiet revival of German cinema continues.  Aus Dem Nichts will, in all likelihood, be merely the first of many German movies in coming years to tackle the various issues surrounding immigration that have gained increasing prominence in public debate since 2015, and what a start it is.  It is a hard look at how the fringe right of society, by giving in to its darkest and most violent impulses, can all too easily corrupt and drag down the rest of us when we try to grapple with it. 

            Diane Kruger stars as Katja, a woman happily married to a Turkish man, whose life is completely shattered when a seemingly random nail-bomb attack kills both her husband and their young son.  The police eventually arrest a young neo-Nazi couple and charge them with the double-murder, and as the trial progresses (and the prospects for true justice being delivered both rise and fall), Katja struggles with how- and if- her life can ever go on, and what the loss of her family means for her future. 

            Central to the film is Diane Kruger’s powerhouse performance in the leading role.  It’s already netted her the Best Actress award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and may well land the film a consecutive nomination for Germany in the Best Foreign Picture category at the upcoming Oscars.  Her tight, drawn facial expressions run the gamut of all the emotions raging through her; her pain at the scale and senselessness of her loss is clear, but so is her incredible inner resolve, as she chooses to subject herself to every aspect of the trial, including even a skin-crawlingly detailed description by the coroner of each nail found in the bodies. 

            Her performance is matched by cinematography that perfectly mirrors the moods and depressions she struggles with before, during, and after the trial.  This is especially apparent during the first two-thirds of the movie (there are three sections total, each separated by a chapter title), where her surroundings are filled with darkness.  In one of my favorite single images of any film I’ve seen this year, the camera holds on her face as she stares out blankly at the night rain, the shadows cast by the water running down the window criss-crossing her face like black tears. 

            Beyond her performance, the matter at hand in the film is an inherently loaded one that will inevitably divide both audiences and casual viewers.  How to properly respond to violence and extremism is such an emotional, fraught, and complex question that we will never have a commonly accepted answer to it, and the movie is filled with this ambiguity.  The act of these neo-Nazis is heinous, but there is plenty of room to argue whether or not the justice system, the extended friends and family members of the victims, and even Katja herself react in healthy or constructive ways.  Katja’s own conclusion, reached at the very end of the movie after a long and tortuous process of self-reflection, is the sort of ending meant to provoke endless, controversial debate afterwards. 

            I imagine it would be a fascinating experience to watch this film with a variety of people across political spectrums of the West and discuss its themes for several hours afterward, and perhaps one day I will have such a chance.  It may take a while for this film to make the rounds, but it is absolutely a work seeing should the chance present itself. 

-Noah Franc 

Review: Valley of Saints

Valley of Saints: Written and directed by Musa Syeed.  Starring: Mohammed Afzal, Gulzar Ahmed Bhat, Neelofar Hamid.  Running Time: 82 minutes. 

Rating: 4/4

            Oftentimes, the best films are the ones that eschew grander, more theatrical gestures.  The ones that rely on their own subtle self-confidence to draw us into their world.  The ones that stir us in the quiet moments.  Valley of Saints, the debut film by Musa Syeed, is a masterclass in this sort of film, a series of meditations and small moments framed by grand mountains and a quiet lake.  It lays a sturdy foundation of stones that, collectively, build a profoundly moving cinematic experience, centered on a love story as real as anything. 

            The story is set in the valley of Dal Lake in Indian-controlled Kashmir, a place incessantly plagued by armed civil strife.  Gulzar, a boatman, has spent his whole life here, born, as he puts it, “with a paddle in his hands.”  He and his best friend, Afzal, are technically grown men, but around each other they are little boys, laughing, piggybacking, singing, never needing to take each other too seriously.  Theirs is a profoundly deep love of the sort that transcends the usual notions of family and friendship. 

            They know there’s no future for them in Srinagar other than hawking wares and boat trips to foreigners, so for a long time they’ve been putting together money for bus tickets to Delhi and, so they imagine, a better future.  The day they try to leave, though, hostilities break out again, forcing them to stay put until another ceasefire is reached.  Stuck for the time being, they agree to help out another boatsman by agreeing to take care of the lone remaining guest on his hotel boat, a young woman named Asifa, who’s there to conduct ecological research.   

            Originally from the area herself, she’s returned to study the slow degradation of the river through lax environmental laws and oversight, and there is a bitter sadness in her voice when she notes just how devoid of life so many parts of the lake have become in recent years.  This is a film that is able to comment on our connection to nature and our dependence on it in ways that many films try and fail to.  The plaintive earnestness of the characters and cinematography doesn’t allow any room for cynicism or pandering in this regard.  There are more important things to think about than that. 

            As they take her around the lake, and learn more about each other’s lives, the romance that slowly blossoms between Gulzar and Asifa is quiet, underplayed, and effortless.  It’s one of the most compelling love stories I’ve ever seen in a movie.  Of course, this does lead to some jealous bickering between Gulzar and Afzal, and their anger with each other is real, but of course that could never be enough to seriously threaten their friendship- they know each other far too well for that. 

            In the end, of course, choices must be made by each of these characters, but as the movie itself intuitively grasps, having to face such choices in our lives is unavoidable.  As such, they don’t need to be viewed as solely good or bad things.  We will take one path forward over another, and there is always a way to live with that, as long as we don’t forget where we come from and what has, in some way, moved us.  This is a remarkable movie, filled with a grace and sense of self that most movies with bigger names and larger budgets lack. 

-Noah Franc 

Review: Tehran Taboo

Tehran Taboo (2017): Written by Grit Kienzlen and Ali Soozandeh, directed by Ali Soozandeh.  Starring: Arash Marandi, Morteza Tavakoli, Alireza Bayram, and Zahra Amir Ebrahimi.  Running Time: 90 minutes. 

Rating: 3.5/4

            When I watch movies like Tehran Taboo, I can’t help reflecting on how absurd our efforts to regulate and control human sexuality ultimately are.  The harder we seek to dominate our most basic instinct from the top down, the more it all inevitably backfires in ways that completely undermine whatever you were trying to achieve in the first place.  It’s the states with the strongest focus on abstinence-only Sex Ed and the least comprehensive access to contraception that have the worst rates of teen pregnancy.  And the countries, cultures, and social systems that work the hardest to write sex and sexuality out of daily human life are the places where everything you say or do ultimately twists around on itself to, in the end, be ALL about sex and little else. 

            This rotoscope-animated work by Ali Soozandeh follows three women of various ages living in Tehran, whose lives slowly start to intersect more and more intimately.  A prostitute tries to raise her son alone, an already-hard task made harder by the fact that just about EVERYTHING in Iranian life requires a husband’s permission to do.  A young girl from the country, in the city to marry an arranged bride, has a drunken fling with an aspiring musician in an underground club shortly before the wedding, then realizes they have to find a way to medically “reconstruct” her virginity, otherwise her fiancé will kill them both.  An older housewife is finally pregnant after several miscarriages, but despite her joy, this only complicates her desires for more than what her quiet life with a banker and his parents affords her.   

            This is a movie that builds itself on small, quiet moments with the characters, revealing just how much of their thoughts and feelings they feel compelled to hide from society just to survive.  The prostitute is a particularly tough cookie, something she clearly has to be; when a taxi driver insults her, she simply scratches an insult into the back of his seat for the next passenger to see, then gets out at the next corner, and when a school director insults her child, she doesn’t hesitate to throw a few choice insults right back.  This seems to be the core of what draws the housewife to her when they discover that they live in the same apartment complex- the prostitute’s fearlessness is something the housewife has never had, could never have. 

            While the friendship between these older women blossoms, the young girl and musician find themselves forced to jump through one ridiculous hoop after another trying to find some solution, any solution, that will let them extricate themselves from their predicament scot-free, and as the film draws on they both become increasingly afraid that there really might be no way out.  So much of the daily inequities between men and women, and so many of the extreme consequences dished out for even holding hands in a world determined to keep men and women separate, are so laughably absurd, but at the same time so darkly sad.  In the end, stories like these can’t help but end in tragedy.

            The film is not without its flaws- the animation, while it does work for the film, is not of the highest quality, and there are some storytelling inconsistencies regarding the timeline of what is happening and when that struck me as being easily fixed- but this is still a powerful film regardless, an experience that will stick with you afterwards.  Every society in the world still struggles to handle the human sex instinct, and in every society in the world still, in their various ways, tries to keep the female half of the population in subservience, and all that accomplishes is to hold us all back and make life darker than it has to be.  Let’s be appreciative of the films that allow us to remember and refocus on that when they come along. 

-Noah Franc