REVIEW: “Gretel & Hansel” (2020)

February 3, 2020 by Keith Garlington

January is notoriously a dumping ground for movies that studios generally have no confidence in. Out of those we are all but guaranteed a handful of low budget horror films that are as forgettable as they are superfluous. Dropped into this year’s veritable dead zone is the surprisingly inspired “Gretel & Hansel”. It’s a high concept fantasy horror dive that exceeded my expectations at nearly every turn.

“Gretel & Hansel” comes from director Osgood Perkins, son the late Anthony Perkins. It’s from a script Perkins co-wrote with Rob Hayes and is based on the classic German folktale from the Brothers Grimm. Here the bigger focus is on creating atmosphere and building tension visually more so than narratively. It’s something the movie leans heavily on and for the most part nails.

You’ll quickly notice that Gretel is the film’s centerpiece hence the name switcheroo in the title. In the fairy tale the two kids are around the same age. Here Gretel (played by Sophia Lillis) is both narrator and older sister taking care of her precocious younger brother (Sam Leakey) after the two are cast into the dark woods by their destitute and unstable mother. They travel across the hellish, famine-stricken land, helped by a mysterious hunter (Charles Babalola), haunted by eerie apparitions appearing in the distance, and growing hungrier with every passing day.

Photo: Orion Pictures

The story settles in when starving Gretel and Hansel come across a remote A-frame house deep in the forest. A peep through a window reveals a table full of fruits, meats, breads, and sweets. Hansel sneaks inside but is snagged by the owner, a creepy old crone named Holda. She’s played by a terrifically menacing Alice Krige who exudes dread from her eerie glances to her fingertips black with rot. Thanks to the source material we know she’s actually a witch and her motivations going forward are unquestionably sinister.

She invites Gretel inside to join her brother at the table where the two stuff their empty stomachs. The witch convinces the children to stay and soon is teaching Gretel small spells and female empowerment while steadily pushing second helpings in front of Hansel. As the witch inspires Gretel’s desire for agency and independence she soon begins to manipulate it. The question becomes will Gretel see through the witch’s radicalization and become her own woman? If not the consequences could be horrific.

When all is said and done the story itself (though interesting) is pretty light. Perkins and Hayes stretch their tale about as far as they can just to fill the small 88 minute runtime. At first it was something that set the movie back for me, but since then I’ve seen it as less of an issue because I’m convinced there are more thematic layers than I gave it credit for. It’s a case where I’m anxious to give the movie a second look hopefully with a more attentive eye.

Photo: Orion Pictures

But I have to get back to the visuals and the way they develop and maintain mood and atmosphere. There are countless haunting images, meticulously framed and resembling something plucked out of a Robert Eggers picture. In fact there is a genuine arthouse quality to the presentation and I could imagine seeing an A24 stamp in front of the title. Much of the credit goes to cinematographer Galo Olivares who was a collaborator on Alfonso Cuarón’s exquisite Oscar winner “Roma”. His use of lighting, shadows, camera angles, and simple still shots to brilliantly capture Perkins’ vision and verve.

Better yet, the movie truly believes in its visuals which convey the bulk of the horror. It’s refreshing to see a reliance on something other than cheap, overused jump scares. And there is rarely a shot where something doesn’t catch your eye. It’s all done with a minuscule $5 million budget. Further proof that you don’t need tons of money and big digital effects to make a movie look incredible.

So you could say “Gretel & Hansel” is a macabre coming-of-age story about individuality and burgeoning womanhood. You could embrace it as a grim slice of medieval period horror. There are several things you could call it including an ‘unexpected surprise’. Unfortunately I can see it struggling to find an audience. It’s leisurely paced and requires audiences to do a little more work than in traditional horror pictures. But I found it to be visually arresting, light on story but big on ideas, and a welcomed break from what January usually has to offer.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

Discussing “Gretel & Hansel” on Tavern Talk

February 1, 2020 by Keith Garlington

I had the honor of once again appearing on Tavern Talk, this time to film two shows. The first being this review of the new horror movie “Gretel & Hansel”. As before, the idea is that host Phillip Price and his guest watch the newest release of the week and then immediately share their raw first impressions. It was a ton of fun.

Check it out below and let me know what you think.

REVIEW: “Disturbing the Peace” (2020)

January 31, 2020 by Keith Garlington

I make no bones about it, I love Guy Pearce and have always considered him to be underrated and underappreciated. He’s a talented actor who has tackled a broad and impressive range of roles throughout his 30 year career. Sure, a handful of his movies have wildly missed their mark, but none quite as badly as his latest “Disturbing the Peace”. How he got wrangled into this sure-fire early candidate for the worst movie of 2020 is beyond me.

This small indie action flick from director York Alex Shackleton feels yanked from a different era and I don’t say that as a compliment. Everything about “Disturbing the Peace” feels outdated: the story, the dialogue, the characters. Even worse its budget restrictions are evident in practically every shot. From cringe-inducing supporting performances to production values on par with a bad high school play.

Pearce deserves credit for at least giving it his all even though he isn’t asked to do much. He plays Marshal Jim Dillon (I’m not making this up), a former Texas Ranger still haunted by an accidental shooting that left his partner paralyzed from the neck down. That was ten years ago and Marshal Dillon now serves and protects the small Kentucky town of Horse Cave with his one deputy (Michael Sirow).

One day two roughneck bikers ride into town looking mean and stirring up trouble with Catie (Kelly Greyson), the owner of the local diner and the Marshal’s uninspired love interest. Soon the rest of the gang arrives led by the hilariously named Diablo (Devon Sawa) who waxes not-so-elegantly about Pavlov’s Dog and killing townsfolk basically in the same breath. And with henchmen names like Pyro, Spider and Big Dog you know these guys mean business. They hold the entire town hostage which is surprisingly easy considering the majority of the population shrinks to about ten people in the span of one scene.

“Disturbing the Peace” is essentially a rural heist thriller minus the thrills and without a single character we can empathize with. The filmmakers make an attempt by throwing together several town locals hoping we’ll find some of them interesting. But you’ll remember them more for their excruciating line deliveries rather than anything of value they bring to the story. And you know what to expect when your second biggest cast member is Barbie Blank, aka ex-WWE wrestler Kelly Kelly (or was it Kelly Kelly Kelly). No offense to Ms. Blank, but….never mind.

None of the things that make “Disturbing the Peace” watchable are intentional. The cheap production, the cliche-riddled script, the laughably bad dialogue. Even Guy Pearce can’t make us buy some of his lines and his MacGyver-styled action is an even harder sell. He seems utterly bored throughout the entire proceedings which is completely understandable. Nothing about the movie is even remotely original and it wasn’t for the accidental hilarity it would be a tough 90 minutes to endure.

VERDICT – 1 STAR

REVIEW: “I Lost My Body” (2019)

January 30, 2020 by Keith Garlington

The French animated fantasy drama “I Lost My Body” is one of the quirkiest features to come out of 2019. It’s consists of two fascinating halves that make up an interesting but not quite cohesive whole. It’s a movie that not only marches to its own beat but demands that viewers embrace it on its own terms. While I found that to be easier said than done, I can’t help but commend it for sticking to its visions and convictions.

“I Lost My Body” received a strong reception after screening at the Cannes Film Festival and was picked up by Netflix. It’s an adaptation of Guillaume Laurant’s novel “Happy Hand” that sees director Jérémy Clapin (who co-write the screenplay with Laurant) taking two narratives which seem unrelated on the surface but are clearly working their way together. It makes for one oddly braided story.

On one hand (dopey pun intended) this is a macabre adventure tale where a …ahem…severed hand ventures across a treacherous Parisian district in an attempt to reconnect (please forgive me) with its body. The movie begins with the hand breaking out of a medical lab refrigerator. It takes a second to shake off the wackiness of the idea, but soon we’re caught up in this peculiar ‘journey home‘ storyline. Along the way the hands faces numerous challenges and perils: a protective mother pigeon, subway rats, a busy freeway among other things.

On the other hand we get the story of Naoufel (voiced by Hakim Faris), a teenager who has had a rough go. Through thoughtfully crafted flashbacks we learn that Naoufel lost his parents at a young age. He was sent to live with his apathetic uncle and bully of a cousin in Paris. Lost and clinging to his painful past, Naoufel has an encounter that gives him hope. While delivering pizza to an apartment complex he strikes up a conversation with Gabrielle (Victoire Du Bois) over an intercom. It gives Naoufel a spark of life and he sets out to learn more about her.

As we watch the two storylines which are inevitably bound to intersect, one question in constantly in your mind. How did Naoufel lose his hand. One narrative heads towards it while the other represents present day. It’s undeniably original and engaging. The problem is one is more interesting than the other. In many of Naoufel’s scenes I often found myself wondering about the hand? How far had it come? Was it in danger? This is due to Clapin filling the hand’s journey with a surprising amount of tension while some scenes with Naoufel are a bit more uneven.

Reoccurring motifs and images tease deeper meanings that (I assume) are meant to be better understood as the film reaches its end. But the ambiguous finish makes it a challenge mainly because the story never got its hooks deep enough in me to encourage much afterthought. Yet despite the difficulty in uncovering answers, “I Lost My Body” still manages to be an endearing meditation on physical and emotional displacement, childhood loss, and loneliness wrapped up in a beautiful animated style.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Apollo 11” (2019)

January 29, 2020 by Keith Garlington

The Apollo 11 space mission and mankind’s first ever walk on the moon has been covered exhaustively through books, television, and movies (both dramas and documentaries). So a new film chronicling the lunar landing and the events surrounding it may not sound all that alluring on the surface. But don’t be fooled. “Apollo 11” is not only a riveting look back at a major historical moment. It’s hands-down the best documentary of 2019.

Todd Douglas Miller directs, co-produces, and (most impressively) edits this documentary that takes a very unique approach to telling a very familiar story. “Apollo 11” (mostly)follows the timeline completely through archived footage, much of it never before seen. Miller was given access to hundreds of reels of film ranging from 35mm to newly discovered 70mm footage. Even more, he and his team went through 18,000 hours of uncatalogued audio, all to create the most authentic portrayal to date.

You immediately notice “Apollo 11” consists entirely of real footage and audio. There is no voice-over narration or contemporary interviews. The only slightly modern touches are a handful of simple line-drawn animations meant to clarify certain mission details. But even these few scenes are inspired by the 1971 Theo Kamecke documentary “Moonwalk One”. So the entire doc tells the story exclusively through the lenses and voices of its time.

At the same time, one of the most astonishing accomplishments is the amazing quality of the footage. Digitally scanned and meticulously restored, there are moments where the images could easily pass for current day. From the early shots showing masses of people gathering miles away from Kennedy Space Center just to get a glimpse of history. To the scenes capturing the careful and precise teamwork at Mission Control in Houston, Texas. And of course, the space and moon footage which can be exhilarating.

But what may be the most surprising element of “Apollo 11” is Miller’s ability to not only build suspense but maintain it. It’s truly wondrous considering we already know the details of how this mission plays out. And the movie acutely captures the human element particularly with the three astronauts who manned the mission: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins. It’s no deep emotional dive but the film deftly humanizes them through the very mission action itself.

The Apollo 11 space mission brought mankind together during a year full of conflict and tumult. For nine days NASA overshadowed all of the world’s troubles, showcasing the insatiable power of the human spirit. Todd Douglas Miller captures that in the simplest but most profound of ways – through the actual sights, sounds, and words themselves. No modern day talking heads. No excessive exposition. He simply sucks us into the actual experience. And the results are breathtaking, whether you’re old enough to remember those days in July of 1969 or you’re younger and coming at it with fresh eyes.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Honeyland” (2019)

January 28, 2020 by Keith Garlington

Hatidze lives alone with her bed-ridden mother among the ruins of an old village in a remote part of Northern Macedonia. We watch her climb high into the rocky hills, maneuvering along the edges to a section seemingly carved out of the cliffside. She chisels away at the rock face with a quiet confidence soon uncovering what she came for – bright yellow honeycomb dripping with their golden nectar. Hatidze goes to work, careful not to harm a single bee and only taking a portion of their labors. And the bees don’t bother her either. It’s a perfect synergy between man and nature.

“Honeyland” from directors Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov is a documentary that both celebrates that synergy and explores what can happen when it is disrupted. With over four hundred hours of footage condensed to an 87 minute film, you can’t help but wonder if we’re getting the full picture. But what the filmmakers do give us is an invigorating slice of humanity fraught with identifiable feelings that transcend location, culture or status.

Hatidze is the film’s focus and there’s more to her than the dying art of wild beekeeping. She’s a very capable woman, adept at sustaining a home for her and her mother despite no electricity, indoor plumbing or running water. Early on she ventures into the capitol city of Skopje to sell the honey she has collected. Hatidze is a surprisingly shrewd businesswoman and you get the sense she enjoys bartering with the local street merchants. She takes the money she earns to buy the barest of necessities along with the occasional splurge (this trip it’s a hair coloring kit).

Her quiet, structured ecosystem is rattled when a vagabond couple shows up in a raggedy flatbed truck pulling a camper full of chickens and children. Close behind them is their 150 head of cattle. This noisy cluster of chaos plants down in the ruins with Hatidze. She tries to be a good neighbor, even taking a liking to a precocious middle child. But when the father learns there is money to be made selling honey, he gets some bees of his own. Eventually his greed and his family’s growing dysfunction upends any chance of a peaceful ‘neighborhood’.

Cinematographers Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma take a very fly-on-the-wall approach, always in observation mode even in instances when you wish they would intervene. Practically all of these instances involve the rambunctious children and their inattentive parents. But Daut and Ljuma’s spectator perspective also allows for the capturing of organic, heartfelt moments. Take Hatidze soulfully pondering what her life would be like if she had married, had a son, and lived elsewhere. Or her brief but pained expression after finding her newly discovered beehive had been pillaged by the father.

The movie pulls up just short of branding the intruding family as the villains. In many ways you can sense their desperation and they are ultimately just trying to survive. But unquestionably our sympathies lie with Hatidze who watches as her once harmonious way of life is turned on its head. Metaphorically, the loud and unruly invaders could represent a host of things. But it’s the shattered relationship between a lonely beekeeper and nature itself that provides the more potent and personal sting.