Clouds of Sils Maria

Dir: Olivier Assayas

2014

***

Clouds of Sils Maria is a far more interesting film than it is an entertaining one. Part autobiography, and part life imitating art (and art imitating art), it is a film within a film full of self-reference and meta twists. The film follows an established middle-aged actress (Binoche) who is cast as the older lover in a romantic lesbian drama opposite an upstart young starlet (Moretz). She is overcome with personal insecurities and professional jealousies—all while sexual tension simmers between her and her personal assistant (Stewart). The screenplay was written with Binoche in mind and incorporates elements from her life into the plot. Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is an international film star and stage actress. She travels with a loyal young American assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart). Twenty years earlier, Maria got her big break when she was cast and successfully performed as a young girl "Sigrid" in both the play and film versions of Maloja Snake by Wilhelm Melchior, a Swiss playwright who is now elderly. The play centers on the tempestuous relationship between Sigrid and "Helena," a vulnerable older woman. Helena commits suicide after Sigrid takes advantage of her, and dumps her. While traveling to Zurich to accept an award on behalf of Wilhelm, and planning to visit him at home the following day at his house in Sils Maria – a remote settlement in the Alps – Maria learns of Wilhelm’s death. His widow Rosa later confides that Wilhelm had ended his life and had been terminally ill. During the awards ceremony, Maria is approached by Klaus Diesterweg, a popular theatre director. He wants to persuade her to appear on stage in Maloja Snake again, but this time in the role of Helena, the older woman. Maria is torn and reluctantly accepts. To prepare for the role, she accepts Rosa's offer to stay at the Melchiors' house in Sils Maria. Rosa is leaving to escape her memories of Wilhelm. Maria's discussions with Valentine and their read-throughs of the play's scenes evoke uncertainty about the nature of their relationship. A young American actress, 19-year-old Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz), has been chosen to interpret the role of Sigrid. Researching her on Google and the internet, Valentine tells Maria, who is out of touch with social media, that Ellis has been involved in numerous scandals. Questions soon multiply regarding aging, time, culture and the blurring line between the Sigrid/Helena and the Valentine/Maria relationships. Maria and Jo-Ann finally meet, but their relationship is complicated. Jo-Ann appears to be implicated in the attempted suicide of the wife of her new (and married) boyfriend. During their time at Sils Maria, Maria and Valentine spend much of their days hiking in the Alps. On a final such outing, they hike to the Maloja Pass – to observe a fascinating early morning cloud phenomenon that appears low in the pass (the "Maloja Snake" of the play's title, but also the "Clouds of Sils Maria" in the film's title). Valentine suggests that Helena may not commit suicide but simply walk away to start a new life. Maria protests that Helena walks into the mountains never to return and must therefore be dead. After suggesting that their approaches to the play are too different for her (Valentine) to be a useful assistant, a disconsolate Valentine disappears without explanation, never to reappear. Six weeks later, a young filmmaker who has previously sent a script to Maria visits her by appointment five minutes before the curtain rises on the opening night of Maloja Snake in London. Maria seems preoccupied, so near to curtain rise, and dismisses his suggested ideas about the proposed film role he is offering her as "too abstract for me". When she says the role he has written is too young for her and would suit Jo-Ann better, he suggests that the character is ageless and that he does not relate to the era we are in with its Internet scandals and trashy values. Clearly he admires her and her work. Maria does not give him a reply as to whether she will take part in the film. Then she is on stage, smoking and waiting for Sigrid. There are many scenes in the film where it is hard to tell what is the film and what is a rehearsal and the character of Maria becomes more and more the character Helena – something that terrifies Maria as the actress who played Helena in the original production with her committed suicide after the play had finished. The fictional play Maloja Snake is supposedly a "condensed, brutalized version" of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder that was adapted into a film ten years before the writer/director killed himself. In another meta twist, Juliette Binoche's character, Maria Enders, is returning to a revival of a play written by her mentor/director Wilhelm Melchior, which made her famous decades earlier. In real life, director Olivier Assayas co-wrote the script of Rendez-vous which helped make Binoche a star. Binoche was so concentrated in the authenticity of her character, that she took a role in 2014’s Godzilla to believably deliver a line from the script about acting in blockbusters. In said scene she takes a swipe at Chloë Grace Moretz’s Jo-Ann Ellis after watching her in a sci-fi drama that she can’t take seriously. Binoche clearly makes her point without criticizing her peers. The film begs the question of how much of the story is actually mirroring Binoche’s life, who is the real Henryk Wald (who supposedly took advantage of her in her youth) and who was Wilhelm Melchior? It’s an interesting concept and Binoche is brilliant but I didn’t always love the direction. That said, when the direction was good, it was great. I thought the idea worked well most of the time but I think David Ives’s (and Roman Polanski) did it better in their versions of Venus in Furs based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870’s novel. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is also a far superior play/film. I feel the film stands on the shoulders of giants somewhat but there is plenty to enjoy based on its own merits. Kristen Stewart is fine as Valentine but in all honesty I can think of many other actors how could have done just as good a job if not better. Chloë Grace Moretz however is brilliant as the Hollywood brat, although it is an easier role to play in many respects, she performs it with gusto.

Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist

Dir: Lorna Tucker

2018

***

Lorna Tucker’s documentary of the somewhat aberrant fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is a brief look at the punk icon and her works, rather than a comprehensive biopic. Indeed, the film begins with Westwood sat in an armchair refusing to answer most questions about herself. When asked about punk she replies “It’s so boring” and when asked about The Sex Pistols she snorts “No, can’t be bothered with them either”. It clears up what the documentary is and is not going to be about nice and early but it did make me wonder why I was watching a film about somebody who is uninterested about said film, what anyone thinks of it and who is totally uncooperative, even though she has obviously given her blessing and agreed to it. Puck was a hugely important and influential movement but it has become something greater than it really was. These days, a true punk is a sell out and it is hard not to remember that Westwood is now a Dame. That said, Westwood never really sang the same tune as Rotten or McLaren and she never let herself remain in the past, always moving forward. She is by far the most creative person from the punk era still working today and to only think of her as a punk is ignoring decades of work – her best work. It’s just a shame her attitude is a embarrassingly close to that of other elderly punks. I wanted to learn more of her fashion work and I did, with all of her big collections and global successes documented. I had no idea that Andreas Kronthaler, her third husband, was so involved in her work and by the end of the film I started to wonder just how much of what we know of her work was actually hers. She waxes lyrical about all sorts of subjects but it is only her own life experiences that I didn’t question. There is an annoying child-like naivety about her that I find excruciating, especially as said child comes across as spoiled and demanding. She is celebrated for eco-activism but the amount of waste produced by her own company (and the fashion industry in general) is clear as day but is seemingly unnoticed by her and the film crew. It is a short film considering the length of Westwood’s career but even though Punk and The Sex Pistols are skipped over, a large chunk of the run time is wasted on contradictory opinions and this that and the other. Westwood is an amazing designer, so I wanted to see the mindset of a creative icon, not listen to the tired old opinions of a hypocrite. I really couldn’t give two hoots about Westwood’s politics, especially as she is guilty of everything she condemns. In 2018 it has now become far from tiresome to hear the opinions of an aged punk. I agree that she got where she is today by being talented but I also believe there was a lot of luck involved and many talented people working for her. There were many moments in the film whereby she had no idea what was going on in her own company. She’s a corporation and a brand, one that talks negatively about corporation and brand while her employees politely take her rude and unprofessional comments on the chin, all of whom wear her Aube motif on their person. Beautiful clothes, outrageous hypocrisy. The documentary challenges nothing and only tells half a story. I learned much more of her personal life growing up then I knew before but to be honest I didn’t care, I want to see an artist at work. There is no correlation between her life and her work that is obvious anyway. My interest only began to peak in the second half of the film when tension grows between Westwood and her company. Her husband Andreas is clearly the level-headed one keeping things running (even though the nicest ‘endorsement’ of him is that she “Likes living with him as much as I like living on my own,”) but she clearly has started to question the importance of success vs satisfaction. It was the sort of raw honesty that documents such as this are meant to capture. It was a shame then that still couldn’t see the big issue when following her soul-searching with “I don’t need to sell anything I don’t like,”. Again, she was left unchallenged. Westwood is the result of luck and worship. She is a brilliant designer – one of the best in the world – but since her initial success she surrounded herself in people who would always say yes, rather than challenge her. She’s an artist who has become and icon, full of ego and a subconscious dread of self doubt. She’s not the first and won’t be the last, if only see had been a little more candid we might have had a true glimpse of what really makes a great artist tick.

Populaire

Dir: Régis Roinsard

2012

****

Named after the famous Japy Populaire typewriter, Régis Roinsard’s 2012 film Populaire is stylish but quirky and balances romance, comedy and drama in a rather upbeat fashion. Set in the late 1950s, the film focuses on Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François), who lives with her widowed father and is destined to marry a son of the local mechanic. Rose travels out of town behind her father’s back and applies for a secretarial job with an insurance agency run by Louis Échard (Romain Duris). Secretarial work was the height of fashion, with every young women believing it to be the gateway to an exciting and adventurous lifestyle. Louis gives Rose the job over the other more qualified interviewees after she desperately types with extraordinary speed using only two fingers. Her first week is a bit of a disaster but Louis tells her to compete in a speed-typing competition if she wants to keep the job. While Rose makes the finals, she ultimately loses her first typing competition. Louis then begins training Rose to become the fastest typist in the world. He makes a bet with his best friend, Bob Taylor - who is married to his old sweetheart, Marie - that Rose can win the regional competition. Louis begins to train Rose at his home, but he sets strict rules to prevent others from knowing that Rose is staying in his boyhood bedroom. He begins to teach her to type with all ten fingers and Louis insists she take piano lessons (taught by Marie) to strengthen her fingers. As she struggles to learn to type with ten fingers, Louis encourages her, colour-coding the keys on her typewriter (matching them with her nail polish) and teaching her better posture. As the seasons change, she excels and Louis and Rose become close. Rose wins her second typing competition, becoming the fastest in her home region of Lower Normandy. It becomes obvious to Louis' friends that Louis and Rose are romantically interested in each other, but Louis insists that a coach mustn't distract his student. They travel together to Paris and the night before the French national competition, Louis and Rose announce their love to one another and have passionate sex. This is where the film changes, as before this scene the film feels like a lighter Coen Brothers offering but the steamy sex scene is like something out of Betty Blue. It’s visually stunning but not at all in keeping with the style or mood of the story to that point. It is where the film revels that it is more than what we first assume and it came as a pleasant surprise. Competing against the current national champion, Rose makes it to the finals, but struggles under the pressure. Before her final match, Louis tells Rose that he had been lying and that he has secretly been recording that her typing speed is regularly faster than her opponent's best record. Angered by his lie, Rose is enraged into winning. Rose is ecstatic at winning and flashes Louis a big smile from on stage. After initially being elated, Louis begins to feel inadequate for somewhat ambiguous reasons. He abandons her and their training sessions. Rose stays in Paris and becomes a French celebrity, endorsed by a major typing firm and begins using their newest typewriter. The film, which went from quaint to passionate suddenly goes full cartoonish Coen Brothers, which isn’t as terrible as it might sound. She never forgets Louis and calls him regularly, although Louis never answers the phone. Louis tries to move on, but is generally depressed and feels inadequate. Rose begins to move on and is soon in New York at the world typing competition. While Rose starts the world competition in New York, Louis struggles with his own feelings. He reaches out to Marie and asks why she chose Bob over him. She says she didn't, he chose to be second place. Louis explains that he could never give Rose the smile and happiness that she had when she won in Paris - the same smile that he saw on Marie on her wedding day to Bob. Marie says, "I was smiling because I felt loved." Louis realises he needs to overcome his own feelings of inadequacy and flies to New York to support Rose in the international typing competition. He arrives just before the second round of the finals ends. As the judges announce the results, Rose is behind and struggling. She runs back stage to fetch her old typewriter that her father had sent her in the post as a sign of support, and Louis confronts her and professes his love. They kiss as the international contestants surround them and in tern say ‘I love you’ in each of their languages. Rose goes on stage for the last round - seemingly energised by love. She races ahead in the final match. About half way in, her typewriter jams. She is too fast for the typewriter. She quickly recovers and races ahead again, winning the competition to be the World's Fastest Typist. Louis walks on stage and kisses her, ending the film on the two holding hands and the audience cheering. We then see that Louis goes on to great success with a new kind of typewriter that can keep up with typists of Rose’s speed. Déborah François is delectable as Rose and Romain Duris is impressive in a role that is unlike anything he’d done in his career before. The film looks glorious with wonderful set-pieces and amazing costumes but it is never over-done. It is a film you could see the Coen Brothers make but probably wouldn’t have the same charm. It is impressive how Roinsard switches from romance to comedy to drama so precisely. The switching themes keeps the film fresh and on its toes, elements are perhaps predictable but overall it took me by pleasant surprise. It is so lazy to compare the film with Amelie – which is exactly what every non-French film critic does with every French female-lead romantic movie. It’s its own movie, an individual quirk that is dripping with style and is full of charm.

River of No Return
Dir: Otto Preminger
1954
**
I’m not sure why River of No Return is still so fondly remembered, I can only guess that it has everything to do with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe and nothing to do with the story or script but even then, it’s clear that Mitchum is drunk half the time and obvious that Monroe wasn’t enjoying herself. The screenplay by Frank Fenton is based on a story by Louis Lantz, who is said to have borrowed his premise from the 1948 Italian film Bicycle Thieves, although I don’t quite see it myself. Set in the Northwestern United States in 1875, the film focuses on widower Matt Calder (Robert Mitchum), who has recently been released from prison after serving time for killing one man while defending another. He arrives in a boomtown tent city in search of his ten-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig), who was left in the care of dance hall singer Kay (Marilyn Monroe) after the man who brought him there as Matt had arranged took off for the hills. Matt promises Mark, a virtual stranger to him, the two will enjoy a life of hunting, fishing and farming on their homestead. Kay's fiance, gambler Harry Weston (Rory Calhoun), tells her they must go to Council City to file the deed on a gold mine he won in a poker game. They head downriver on a homemade log raft, and when they encounter trouble in the rapids near the Calder farm, Matt and Mark rescue them. Harry offers to buy Matt's rifle and horse so as to reach Council City by land. When Matt refuses, Harry knocks Matt unconscious and steals both hore and rifle. Kay chooses to stay behind to take care of Matt and Mark, and the three are stranded in the wilderness. When hostile Indians attack the farm, the three are forced to escape down the river on Harry's raft. That night they set up camp by the river, and Matt and Kay argue about the wisdom of pursuing Harry. Matt asks why Kay would choose to marry a man who had endangered a child, whereupon she reminds him that Harry never killed a man like Matt did. Mark overhears their discussion, and Matt is forced to reveal the truth about his past to his son, who is unable to comprehend why his father acted as he did. As the three continue their journey, Kay comes to appreciate Matt's bravery and the tender way he cares for both her and Mark. Along the way, they are forced to deal with a series of trials and tribulations, including a hilarious mountain lion attack; gold prospectors Sam Benson and Dave Colby, who are after Harry for stealing their claim; and a second Indian war party. After a difficult ride through the worst of the rapids (basically having buckets of water thrown at them for five minutes), the three arrive in Council City and confront Harry. Harry shoots at Matt, prompting Mark to shoot Harry in the back, using a rifle that he was inspecting in the general store. As a result, Mark comes to understand why his father had to shoot a man in a similar fashion so many years before. Afterwards, Kay finds a job at the local saloon. While she is singing there, Matt walks into the saloon and throws Kay over his shoulder to take her back to his farm along with Mark. She happily leaves with him. The final scene is Kay throwing her high heeled showgirl shoes from their buckboard into the street, a renunciation of her old life. Otto Preminger was preparing for the opening of The Moon Is Blue when 20th Century Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck assigned him to direct River of No Return as part of his contract with the studio. They really wanted either William Wellman, Raoul Walsh, or Henry King to helm the film, and the producers were concerned Preminger, who he felt was better suited for film noir, melodrama or sophisticated comedy, would be unable to rise to the task of directing a piece of Americana. Preminger himself had no interest in the project until he read the screenplay and saw potential in the story. He also approved of Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe, who already had been cast in the lead roles and everything seemed set. However, problems arose fairly early on in the film’s production. Monroe was accompanied by Natasha Lytess, her infamous acting coach. Preminger clashed with the woman from the very start. She insisted on taking her client aside and giving her direction contrary to that of Preminger, and she had the actress enunciating each syllable of every word of dialogue with exaggerated emphasis. Preminger called the producers in Los Angeles and insisted Lytess be banned from the set, but when the producers complied with his demand, Monroe called them directly and asserted she couldn't continue unless Lytess returned. The studio commiserated with Preminger but, feeling Monroe was a major box office draw they couldn't afford to upset, so they reinstated Lytess. Angered by the decision, Preminger directed his rage at Monroe for the rest of the production. During the difficult shoot, Preminger also had to contend with frequent rain, Mitchum's heavy drinking, and an injury to Monroe's ankle that kept her off the set for several days and ultimately put her in a cast. Monroe nearly drowned while filming in Jasper, Canada. She had donned chest high hip waders during rehearsal to protect her costume. She slipped on a rock, the waders filled with water, and she was unable to rise. Mitchum and others jumped in the river to rescue her but her ankle was sprained as a result. Young Tommy Rettig seemed to be the director's sole source of solace. He respected Rettig's professionalism and appreciated the rapport he developed with Monroe, which often helped keep her on an even keel. When Lytess began to interfere with Rettig's performance, thereby undermining his confidence, Preminger let the cast and crew know about her behavior and was delighted to find they finally began to support him in his efforts to remove her from the set. Mitchum – a great actor but a miserable drunk – disliked Rettig and was open about it, for me Rettig easily outshines the two big stars. The two lead performances couldn’t have been more lethargic. I hate it when I hear friends state they hate westerns and they hate musicals – I argue with them and suggest several films that will change their minds – but I have to admit I struggle with musical westerns. The music in River of No Return is forgettable and unnecessary. The story is about as thin as it gets and when you see Monroe ducking in anticipation from the buckets of water the crew are throwing at her just out of shot, it kind of spoils the illusion that they are really out in the wilderness. A lot of the film is outside and the scenery is lovely, but it isn’t really the reason why most people have sat down to watch it. Basically, Monroe and Preminger were forced to do the film against their will, due to contractual obligations and it really shows. During post-production, Preminger departed for Europe, leaving editor Louis R. Loeffler and producer Stanley Rubin to complete the film. Jean Negulesco was called in to film a few retakes. The dailies reconfirmed Rubin's belief that Preminger had been the wrong choice for the project. He felt the director had failed to capture the Western aura, had ignored key elements in the plot, and had perfunctorily directed action sequences, leaving them looking staged and static. In several cases, studio and location shots didn't match. Preminger's experience on the film convinced him he never wanted to work as a studio employee again, and he paid Fox $150,000 to cancel the remainder of his contract. In later years, Monroe claimed River of No Return was her worst film, and Preminger spoke bitterly about her in numerous interviews. It was not a happy film and nor is it an entertaining one. Indeed, the most interesting things about the film in fact had nothing to do with either story, the cast or direction. The film was the very first films to use a blood squib to simulate realistic bullet impact. This occurs when Harry (Rory Calhoun) is shot dead in the film's climax. As such, the film beats Run of the Arrow (1957) - which is often credited with being the first to use blood squibs - by three years. This movie was also the first to be filmed in CinemaScope in Canada. River of No Return was the first film released by 20th Century-Fox to feature the "CinemaScope extension" fanfare before the opening credits. Written by Alfred Newman, it's a rerecording of his original 1933 fanfare, with the extra few bars that play under the credit " 20th Century-Fox presents A CinemaScope Production". After Fox switched to Panavision in 1967, they went back to their old fanfare, so the extension fanfare wasn't used again until it was revived by George Lucas to play before the opening credits to Star Wars. This time those few extra bars played under the credit " A Lucasfilm Production" Since then it's been re-recorded a few times but remains to this day the intro to every film released by that studio. Other than that the film is uninteresting and forgettable. It certainly wasn’t just the mountains that were rocky and I think these days it will only appeal to old men who yearn for the time when you could just grab a women, fling her on your back and take her home, claiming her as your own.

Track of the Cat

Dir: William A. Wellman

1954

***

After adapting Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s adventure novel The Ox-Bow Incident in 1943, director William A. Wellman decided to shoot the authors other great story Track of the Cat with long time collaborator Robert Mitchum. John Wayne, star of The Ox-Bow Incident, decided to produce the film with Robert Fellows for their Wayne/Fellows production company. While there are glaring issues with the film as a whole, I have to say I was impressed with the brilliant script that struck me instantly. The film begins as we see three brother woken my the sound of screaming cattle. The Bridges family is experiencing a harsh winter on their remote ranch in northern California in the early years of the 20th century. Crude and quarrelsome middle brother Curt (Robert Mitchum) bullies his noble, unselfish eldest brother Arthur (William Hopper), while youngest brother Harold (Tab Hunter) endures Curt’s abuse in browbeaten silence. Their mother (Beulah Bondi) is a bigoted religious zealot and their father (Philip Tonge) is a loquacious, self-pitying drunk. Bitter old maid sister Grace (Teresa Wright) is temporarily gladdened by the arrival of Harold’s fiancé, spirited Gwen (Diana Lynn). As the brothers dress for breakfast before checking on their cattle, their ancient Native American hired hand Joe Sam (Carl Switzer) alerts the family that the cattle are being attacked by a black panther prowling the hills. Many years before his family was wiped out by a panther. Joe Sam’s superstitious dread of the panther irritates domineering Curt. Curt and Arthur split up to track the panther while the family tensely awaits their return. Gentle Harold tries to avoid conflict with his parents while Gwen tenderly encourages him to assert his claim to an equal share of the ranch. Although Grace tries to support her youngest brother and his fiancé, Ma Bridges spews hateful suspicion at Gwen, but she ignores the family’s histrionics calmly for Harold’s sake. Meanwhile Arthur and Curt are deep in the wilderness when the panther attacks. The two have split up to cover more ground and when Curt discovers Arthur’s horse alone he suspects the worse. His fears are realised when he discovers Arthur's body – the panther had attacked him before he could get raise his gun. Curt suspects that Arthur’s cow-print coat may have attracted the big cat so he swaps his red coat with his body, straps him to his horse and sends the horse home. When the horse arrives the family are openly relieved that it is Curt and not Arthur – until they realise it is Arthur, and he is dead. The family then deal with the death of the only family member who kept them together, each one of them finding their own individual way to morn or to forget. Curt, alone and without provisions, is left to fend for himself, now obsessed with coming face to face with the panther that killed his brother. By the end of the story, the major conflicts have been resolved, but not without tragedy and loss. The remaining characters seem hopeful that their ordeal may have created the basis for a happier future. The outdoor scenes were filmed on Mount Rainier, Washington and Mitchum regarded shooting in the deep snow and cold as the worst filming conditions he had ever experienced. Wellman had always intended to film a black & white movie in color. His idea was that if a movie were to be shot in mostly monochromatic shades, with stark blacks and whites and otherwise mostly very subdued colours that were almost shades of grey, he could use bright colors very sparingly for intense dramatic effect. The photography of William Clothier was designed to highlight black and white and downplay colors. Only key elements like the blue matches, the fire, and Mitchum's red coat stand out extremely well and the technique is very effective but at times the film is a little too stark. That said, it is a bleak story, so it suits it well. I found the film as a whole to be a little too melodramatic and the contrast between brilliant performance and over acting was something of a distraction. Why on earth they cast twenty-six year old Carl Switzer, child star of The Little Rascals (and Our Gang as it was originally named), as the elderly Native American Joe Sam is anyone’s guess. The make up is okay I suppose but seriously, they couldn’t have found a real Native American or an old man? Philip Tonge’s performance as a drunk was good for most of the film but I don’t think his script was up to much, his depiction of a drunk walking up stairs however is probably the most convincing I have ever seen. Unsurprisingly though, Robert Mitchum steals the show. Mitchum plays a good villein but Carl is a totally different bad guy to what he had played before. He is a bully and an antagonist but he is a provider and protector. I wonder whether he was an influence on Paul Newman’s Hud. The biggest problem with the film was later addressed by Wellman himself when he admitted that it had been a huge mistake not to have shown the panther at all in the film. There is no terror or intrigue when there should be and if you are never going to show the thing that is most integral to the film’s plot, then you have to build suspense around it and film it right, otherwise the actors just look foolish. It’s a great alternative western but it could have been a lot greater with only a few tweaks.

The Wonderful Country

Dir: Robert Parrish

1959

***

Legend has it that director Robert Parrish went to Tom Lea and asked if he could direct his novel The Wonderful Country but never made a contract with him. The only money that Lea received from the picture was for his cameo role as the town’s barber. Parrish and Lea first asked Henry Fonda, then Gregory Peck to take the starring role. But, Robert Mitchum really wanted to do the film, and after Fonda and Peck said no, Mitchum took over production. The story is pretty much the same in the film as it is in the novel. In Mexico, expatriate American pistolero Martin Brady (Robert Mitchum) is employed by the Castro brothers, Marcos (Victor Manuel Mendoza), a general, and Don Cipriano (Pedro Armendáriz), the new governor. On a business trip to the United States to arrange the purchase of a wagonload of rifles and ammunition, he is delayed when he falls of his horse due to exhusion and breaks his leg in the Texas border town of Puerto. Treated by Dr Stovall (Charles McGraw), he stays with German immigrant Ben Sterner (John Banner), who is the seller of the rifles, and Ben's nephew Ludwig (Max Slaten). Due to the severity of his injury, Brady is told he will have to stay in town for at least a couple of months and he soon becomes familiar with the town and its residents. Brady's help is sought by the local U.S. Army commander, Major Colton (Gary Merrill), to persuade Cipriano Castro to cooperate with Colton's Buffalo Soldiers in an expedition against hostile Apaches in Mexico, even though Brady suggests the Castros’ wouldn’t be interested in anything unless there was money in it for them. In the meantime the rifles he purchased for Castro have been stolen. Captain Rucker of the Texas Rangers knows that Brady fled to Mexico as an adolescent after avenging the murder of his father not knowing the man he killed was an outlaw, and tries to enlist him as a Ranger. Brady is attracted to Colton's unhappy wife Ellen (Julie London), but after shooting a man (Chuck Roberson) who murdered Ludwig and then drew on Brady, he returns to Mexico to inform Cipriano Castro of the missing rifles. Major Colton and Ellen arrive to meet with Cipriano, arranged by Travis Hight (Jack Oakie), the representative of a railroad threatened by the Apaches. Ellen and Brady have a brief affair. Cipriano tells Brady that by law he must pay a debt for the rifles and orders him to assassinate his brother Marcos, who seeks to make himself governor instead. Brady refuses and finds himself an outlaw in Mexico as well. Weeks later on the run, he finds cavalry sergeant Tobe Sutton (Satchel Paige) and returns with him to Major Colton's camp. Colton has been seriously wounded in a skirmish with the Apaches but is determined to rendezvous with Captain Rucker and General Castro's troops. En route they recover the stolen rifles from a small band of Apaches, but Colton dies. The rifles are returned to General Marcos, who reveals that Cipriano is also dead and he is now governor. Calling Brady an assassin, he demands the Americans surrender him and leave Mexico immediately. However Rucker offers to help Brady prove that the shooting in Puerto was a case of self-defense if he returns to Texas. Brady decides to risk it and heads across the river to the U.S. to be with Ellen. Mitchum’s portrayal of a Mexican is a little insulting by all respects but he just about gets away with it. To be honest, even when he was drinking heavily and his heart wasn’t in it, he’s still a powerful figure of a man on screen. The way Mexico is portrayed in general seems unfortunate but then there is the story that during filming in Durango, Mitchum and his stunt double Chuck Roberson decided to have a few drinks at a local cantina. They witnessed two Mexicans get into a violent confrontation in which one drew a pistol and fired a shot into the other's face. After running outside momentarily, the wounded man came back into the bar and dropped dead. The incident shook up Mitchum so badly it convinced him to keep his drinking to the hotel and its vicinity. It’s a fairly average western to be honest, Mitchum’s performance is good, although I rather liked Charles McGraw’s Dr. Herbert J. Stovall and thought it was a shame he didn’t have a larger part to play in the story. Julie London plays quite a powerful female which is unlike many films of its kind but she is also side-lined. It’s filmed well by Parrish but one would think that he would have shot more of the beautiful countryside, especially given the title of the film which I still don’t really understand. Forgettable but pleasant all the same.

A Fantastic Woman

Dir: Sebastián Lelio

2017

*****

Before adapting Lelio and Gonzalo Maza script that featured a transgender woman as the story’s protagonist, Chilean director Sebastián Lelio wanted to research the transgender Chilean community. He approached Mezzo-Soprano singer and transgender woman Daniela Vega as a consultant to help him develop the script but after some time working with her and after Daniela began to share her personal experiences with him, he knew she was perfect for the main role – even though she had no acting experience of training whatsoever. It turned out to be the perfect decision, as Vega is absolutely captivating in her performance. The story follows Marina, a young transgender woman living in Santiago, Chile who works as a singer and waitress. She is taken to dinner by her boyfriend Orlando (Francisco Reyes), an older man whom she has recently moved in with and the their then go onto a club where they dance the night away. That night, Orlando wakes up in a daze and complains he doesn't feel right. Marina prepares to take him to the hospital, but while waiting for the building’s elevator he stumbles down a flight of stairs. After driving Orlando to the hospital and checking him in, she is told by a doctor that Orlando has died of a brain aneurysm. Orlando’s brother, Gabo, turns up and tells her that he can take it from there before the rest of Orlando’s family turn up. It becomes clear that Orlando's family aren’t happy that he is was seeing a transgender person. She runs from the hospital and is then picked up by police, who drive her back and demand an explanation for why she left so suddenly. Marina speaks to Gabo who helps her to convince the police officers of her innocence and lets her take Orlando's car home. Marina is contacted by Sonia, Orlando's ex-wife, and they arrange a time for Marina to drop off Orlando's car. She meets with Sonia, who is upfront with her transphobic feelings towards Marina. The question whether Orlando left Sonia for Marina lingers but is never answered. Shortly after, Orlando's son Bruno starts occupying the apartment Orlando owned where Marina lives, intent on driving her out. He also insists on keeping her dog, Diabla, that Marina tells him Orlando gave her. While working, Marina is visited by a detective. The detective, Antonia, reveals she works in solving crimes that include sexual assault, and was concerned by the bruises Orlando suffered during his fall. To prove her innocence, Marina reports to the police station and is photographed nude to prove that there was no physical exchange between them on the night of Orlando's death. Greeted by her sister Wanda and Wanda's partner Gastón the following day, Marina prepares to move out of Orlando's apartment. Although they and Sonia warn her not to, Marina attends Orlando's wake. Upon entering, Sonia stops the service and demands that Marina leave. On her way out, Gabo follows and apologizes to her. She is later accosted by Bruno and his friends from a car. His friends grab her and force her into the car. They threaten her and wrap her face in scotch tape, leaving her in an alleyway. Scared and alone, Marina then walks to a gay club where she meets and dances with a boy. She stays with Wanda and Gastón that evening. The next morning, she discovers the details of Orlando's funeral in the newspaper. Her friends warn her to let it go, and Marina says she won't attend. However, she does go to the funeral home after the ceremony takes place. Entering the graveyard, she is confronted by Orlando's family who are leaving in their car. While they insult her, she climbs on top of the car and yells angrily that she wants her dog, Diabla, back. Stunned, they drive away. Following an employee into the morgue, she is able to see Orlando's body and say goodbye to him before his cremation. Later, Marina is seen taking a run with Diabla. In the last scene, she sings an opera recital to a packed auditorium. It is a simple film with a delicate performance that memorized me from start to finish. Sebastián Lelio’s direction is absolutely stunning. The scene where the couple are enjoying a meal in a Chinese restaurant is one of the most beautifully lit moments I’ve ever seen and it is just two people eating. Vega’s performance is subtle but complex, somehow she says everything by saying nothing at all, it’s all in the eyes and her timing is superb. It not really a film that is open to interpretation as such but the viewer is treated respectfully and trusted to read between the lines. Marina’s grief and shock are both muted but you feel her sadness. Seeing how suspicious people are of her is sadly convincing and I couldn’t help but wonder whether much of it comes from truth – after all, Vega was a script consultant. The openly transphobic characters are clear but characters like Gabo – who isn’t comfortable interacting with Marina but clearly isn’t transphobic – are interesting in that he knows his and other’s actions are wrong but he won’t do or say anything about it, even when he knows his dead brother would have wanted it most from him. Vega was of course a singer long before she stared in the film and I’m sure much of the script was tailored to her and her abilities. In a midway scene we see her visit an old music teacher who she is clearly close to. He tells her he isn’t her father or her friend and that he doesn’t want to talk to her about her troubles but if she would like to sing, he’d be happy to accompany her. He clearly loves her and this is his way of saying that singing would be the best route for her to heal. It’s quite a lovely scene, especially when, in the last scene, we see her sing on stage. Another later scene, where we see Marina visit a night club after being abused, shows her reawakening. Marina goes with a man in the club and looks as if she regrets it somewhat but then forces herself out of her slump. She knows she needs to move on, and in that moment we see her dance in a chorus line as the film takes on a temporary dream-like sequence, ending with Marina flying to the ceiling and smiling directly at the cinema. It’s a real glorious moment that turns the film on its head. Again, even though it is quite a colourful and lavish scene, it is also muted and subtle, letting the viewer enjoy it for what it is without forcing the message down their throats. It is a most modest masterpiece.

Jail Bait

Dir: Ed Wood

1954

***

Inspired by the 1935 script Let ‘Em Have It by producer Edward Small, Ed Wood’s suspenseful thriller is the first to feature the idea of a criminal undergoing plastic surgery to elude the authorities. I always thought it to be a contemporary idea and if I had to guess its origins I would have guessed that it was a story right out of a 1950s pulp magazine but no earlier than that. Say what you will about the infamous Ed Wood but Jail Bait (sometimes known as The Hidden Face) is a class crime-thriller, a film that stands out from his other works. To be fair, it has been suggested that Jail Bait is somewhat superior in quality to most of Wood’s works due to the fact it was co-written by Alex Gordon, whose talent led to a far tighter narrative structure and a more coherent story-line. The direction however is all down to Wood. Set in California, every scene is shot at night, the perpetual darkness giving the film an otherworldly ambiance that is something of a signature of the cult director. The original script sees a gangster in the main role, while in the film it is a youth offender who gets in with the wrong crowd but soon has delusions of grandeur. The film begins with Don Gregor (Clancy Malone) being bailed out of prison for carrying an illegal handgun by his worried sister Marilyn (Dolores Fuller). Don ignores his sisters concern and flees their home full of drink and with another gun he had stashed away. Marilyn then discusses Don with their father, successful plastic surgeon Dr Boris Gregor (Herbert Rawlinson in his swansong performance – he died the day after shooting wrapped and clearly had breathing difficulties throughout the film) and suggests that her brother is somehow involved with the notorious gangster Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell). Dr Gregor however is well aware of the situation and is not worried, suggesting that it will all blow over and that Don's current behavior is a result of the premature death of Mrs. Gregor and his own upbringing having had the unintentional effect of spoiling the boy – he will soon grow out of it. However, that night Don and Vic rob a theatre and when things go wrong they are forced to kill two innocents. Don can’t handle what he’s done and flees to his father who tells him to give himself up, which he agrees to but not right away. His father helps him escape, only for him to be killed by Vic who learns of his intension to surrender. Vic then tricks Dr Gregor and Marilyn (who is a nurse) into coming to his house, telling them that he has Don hostage and that only they can make a deal that will have him free him. Once there, Vic blackmails the doctor into performing plastic surgery on his face in order to change his appearance and therefore aloud the police. The doctor, who has guessed that his son is dead by this point, goes ahead with the operation. Weeks later when the police catch up with Vic they order him to undo his bandages, which he does with confidence. However, in a delightfully morbid twist, the doctor has modeled Vic’s new face on his own son’s – Don being the one at this point who is suspected of committing the murders. The doctor then admits to the police that he is his own son and Vic is shot down as he tries to escape. It’s a pretty dark and wonderfully macabre twist. I only wish that Vic had gone to prison, as having to spend the rest of his life as someone else would have been a far more disturbing concept. The score is also a bit strange to be honest, the use of flamenco guitar and piano music is clearly meant to add to the otherworldliness but it becomes something of a distraction and it couldn’t suit the story less. There is also the unfortunate inclusion of Cotton Watts performing in blackface which was outdated then but as the film was primarily released in areas of the deep south where blackface still held nostalgic appeal, it was deemed appropriate. To be honest Ed Wood was taken advantage by producers Joy Newton Houck Sr. and J. Francis White who owned Howco and a chain of movie theatres in the south. They gave him a bigger budget than he was used to but he wasn’t allowed any demands on the film’s box office earnings and couldn’t make certain decisions. The film has many themes that Wood and other crime-thriller film makers explored at the time. It’s not one of the best of the era but I would argue that it has one of the greatest endings of the time and genre. It’s certainly one of Wood’s best and most overlooked films.

My Kid Could Paint That

Dir: Amir Bar-Lev

2007

**

Amir Bar-Lev’s 2007 documentary is a rather trivial affair that is far more sensationalist than it realises. It focuses on Marla Olmstead, a young girl from Binghamton, New York who gains fame first as a child prodigy painter of abstract art, and then becomes the subject of controversy concerning whether she truly completed the paintings herself or did so with her parents' assistance and/or direction. The taglines for the film were ‘Inspiration or Manipulation?’ and ‘American dream or art world scheme’ when the story was really all about hype that got out of control. The insight into the world of abstract art was slight and a little tenuous also but it makes for compulsive viewing. Marla's father, an amateur painter, describes to Bar-Lev how Marla used to watch him paint and would ask how she could help. He gave her her own canvas and supplies and after one of their friends asked to hang one of Marla's pictures in his coffee shop, they became surprised when people asked to buy them. A local newspaper reporter, Elizabeth Cohen, writes a piece about Marla, after first asking her parents if they really want her to do so. Cohen's story is picked up by The New York Times and Marla becomes a media celebrity, with appearances on television and shows at galleries in New York and Los Angeles. Sales of her work soon begin to earn her over $300,000. The tone of the documentary turns with a scene of Marla's parents watching a February 2005 report by CBS News 60 Minutes that questions whether Marla painted the works attributed to her. 60 Minutes enlisted the help of a child psychologist who studies cognition in the arts and gifted children. The 60 Minutes reporter, Charlie Rose, then shows the child psychologist what he describes as "50 minutes of videotape shot by us and by Marla's parents." After seeing this footage, the child psychologist states: "This is eye-opening to me, to see her actually painting." Rose asks her how this is "eye-opening." She responds: "Because she's not doing anything that a normal child wouldn't do. She's just kind of slowly pushing the paint around." At this point I nearly gave up, as it seemed that they were asking a child psychologist about abstract art, rather than child behaviour and the whole issue got muddied. The Olmsteads then agreed to permit CBS to set up a hidden camera in their home to tape their daughter painting a single piece in five hours over the course of a month which I have to say felt unethical and wrong. When the tapes were reviewed, the psychologist said, "I saw no evidence that she was a child prodigy in painting. I saw a normal, charming, adorable child painting the way preschool children paint, except that she had a coach that kept her going." It was then indicated that the painting created before CBS's hidden camera looked less polished than some of Marla's previous works. Asked to explain the difference, the psychologist stated: "I can only speculate. I don't see Marla as having made, or at least completed, the more polished looking paintings, because they look like a different painter. Either somebody else painted them start to finish, or somebody else doctored them up. Or, Marla just miraculously paints in a completely different way than we see on her home video". It is the least scientific bit of investigation you’ll see in a documentary investigation. Marla's parents film her creating a second work, Ocean, but director Bar-Lev is not fully convinced. We see a couple that are considering the purchase of Ocean but the woman complains that it does not look like the other works by Marla. They buy it anyway and I smell a set up. In a slide show, Bar-Lev compares Ocean with the 60 Minutes piece and then with several other works attributed to Marla. We are left to make their own judgments. My Kid Could Paint That also raises questions about the nature of art, especially abstract expressionism, the nature of the documentary process, and the perception that the media imparts fame to subjects only to later subject them to intense scrutiny and criticism. It totally misunderstands the concept of abstract expressionism and utterly contradicts itself along the way. I’m not sure what the question really is. Art is in the eye of the beholder, who can say whether or not Marla Olmstead is a genius or not, but then why ask that question. Her paintings are aesthetically pleasing to most people and some of those people are prepared to pay a lot of money for them. That’s it really. Sure her father is also a painter and maybe coaches her but most great artists went to art school, I really don’t see any difference. Do I think Maria 100% painted all of the paintings herself? To be honest, I don’t really care. This film isn’t about deceit or about art, it is about how trivial our media has become and how little Amir Bar-Lev knows about art. Bar-Lev’s film is manipulative and breaks too many documentary rules to be taken too seriously – he may well be correct in his views but he does a poor job of presenting them accurately and without scrutiny – making his film preposterous and a little ironic.

Den of Thieves

Dir: Christian Gudegast

2018

**

It took nearly fifteen years for writer/director Christian Gudegast to get his film made, and while I congratulate him on reaching his goal, half of me wonders if he couldn’t have built on his original script a little more in that time. That said, it is quite an impressive directional debut all things considered. I can’t say I’m much of a fan of his previous screenwriting efforts (A Man Apart, London Has Fallen) and I didn’t love 2018’s Den of Thieves but it isn’t without merit. The film kicks off in Los Angeles, as we see a team of robbers led by Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber) hijack an armored truck. The hijack doesn’t quite go to plan when one of the robbers shoots a police officer and another gets shot and killed himself. Eventually, Merrimen and his crew (of merry men) escape with the empty armored truck. In the morning, Detective Nick O'Brien (Gerard Butler)  – Big Nick to his friends - investigates the crime scene, having been monitoring Merrimen and his crew for a while. Suspecting a local bartender named Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) for involvement, Nick finds him at the bar and kidnaps him for interrogation. Donnie reveals Merrimen is planning to rob the Federal Reserve on Friday of that week. He plans to do so by covertly removing about $30 million in old bills which are scheduled to be shredded after their serial numbers are deleted from computer records. At their hideout, Merrimen has one of his crew, Levi (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson), roughly interrogate Donnie to ensure he didn't disclose anything about the plan. Meanwhile, Nick goes to a strip club and finds Merrimen's stripper girlfriend, hires her for the night to find out where the heist is going to happen. She tells him and Nick and Merrimen share an awkward encounter the following morning. As the day of the heist comes, Merrimen and his crew invade a commercial bank and take hostages. Nick's team arrives outside as the chaos unfolds. The L.A.P.D. negotiator calls and speaks to the bank's manager on behalf of Merrimen. To discourage further time-wasting communications, Merrimen has one of the crew take a hostage to a back room, where he apparently shoots her. The police negotiator then agrees not to communicate again until the robbers' demands (money and helicopter) are about to arrive in over an hour's time. The thieves then blow the vault open and escape through a hole in the floor before Nick’s team come in. They also find that the shooting of the hostage was staged. The thieves needed commercial bank cash so they could make a cash drop-off at the Federal Reserve using the armored truck they stole days before. Now with a truck full of money, they make their ways to the the Federal Reserve building in full view. Donnie is hidden inside a cash dolly delivered to the Federal Reserve building by Merrimen, and he slips out during a falsely tripped alarm to collect the targeted old bills that have been earmarked for shredding, and he stashes them in bags and throws them in with the refuse, before escaping the cash count-rooms through the air ducts. The cash is dispatched from the Federal Reserve building in a garbage truck that removes shredded bills. Nick’s team catches up to Donnie and seizes him, beating him until he tells them where Merrimen is going. Merrimen, Bosco, and Levi try to make their escape with the money bags from the waste truck but hit a traffic jam and are blocked. Nick’s team spots them and attempt to shoot them as the robbers try to escape. A shootout occurs initiated by Merrimen, killing one of Nick's men. Levi and Bosco are eventually shot dead, but Merrimen gets away. Nick chases and shoots Merrimen, wounding him. Merrimen raises an empty gun to Nick, forcing Nick to shoot him. As Merrimen lies on the ground dying, Nick kneels and consoles him. When Nick inspects Merrimen's SUV, he only finds bags with shredded paper; he also finds that Donnie has escaped custody. Nick later goes to Donnie's bar and sees pictures of him with some of the crew members from the heist. It is revealed Donnie masterminded the heist to keep all of the stolen cash for himself in a second garbage truck. In the last scene, we see Donnie is now working in a London bar, planning a new heist outside the city’s diamond exchange. The film is mostly easy viewing and I liked the idea behind the heist and the story’s twist ending. It is almost palpable and it was nice seeing the small guys reaping the rewards for a change. I also like how the film showed up the stereotypical good guys and bad guys but I’m not sure if this was the intention. The cops are about as clichéd as it gets. They’re a group of hard-drinking, chain-smoking, wife-cheating anti-heroes, I’m not sure the viewers were ever meant to warm to them but then the robbers aren’t much better. This is something of a problem, while we know very little about the bad guys, we only know about Nick from the good guys. Nick spends a lot of time drinking with the guys and seems to visit prostitutes. We see his wife leave him fairly early on in the film and there is a random scene whereby he visits his estranged wife are finds her with a new fella having a dinner party. Nick comes in, drunk I think, and acts in a rather threatening manner. It doesn’t make us warm to him any. There is also another scene where Nick visits his young daughter through her school fence. These scenes add nothing to the plot or to his character and I for one still didn’t like him. The only personal scene we see of the bad guys is at Levi’s house where we see his family seeing off her daughter who is on her way to prom. The young man who picks her up is escorted into a garage where Levi’s twenty-or-so friends all surround the boy in intimidating fashion as a warning not to try anything on with Levi’s daughter. It adds nothing, other than the question of how Levi would change lifestyles when becoming a multimillionaire and whether we are convinced that he’d risk his family’s welfare on such a dangerous heist. This is tiresome action-movie territory. The film’s grand finale is a bit of a let down to be honest. The cops creep up on the bad guys in the middle of a traffic jam, forcing them to open fire. I’m pretty sure no cop would ever endanger the lives of so many in real life – if they did they would be struck-off and probably imprisoned themselves – but that is what they do in the film. The scene looks like a poor-man’s Heat. I liked the basic idea but the ending a little too close to the ending of The Usual Suspects to truly give it praise. It’s a very easy to watch action film but it is also forgettable and desperately needed fine-tuning.

Unleashed (AKA Danny the Dog)

Dir: Louis Leterrier

2005

***

During the 2000s Luc Besson wrote many scripts but ended up only making a few of them. 1999’s The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc was a great epic but we had to wait six years for Angel-A and another five for The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec – both were underrated in my opinion but his success never quite lived up to the masterpieces he made in the 80s and 90s. His scripts and film he produced on the other hand were very popular, although looking back at them now, they haven’t all stood up to the test of time. People still remember the Transporter and Taken films but greats such as the Taxi series, the District 13 films and Colombiana are almost forgotten. Then there is Unleashed aka Danny the Dog. Directed by Louis Leterrier – who, along with Olivier Megaton and Gérard Krawczyk seemed to direct all of Besson’s scripts in the 00s – Unleashed was something of an oddity that I found quite appealing. It sort of felt like a Luc Besson film but not quite, it had his humour and quirks but none of the imagery but it worked, even though it felt like it shouldn’t. Besson wrote the story with Jet Li and Morgan Freeman in mind, although the film was only set in Glasgow because Billy Connolly was originally cast – and started filming – before his character was replaced by Bob Hoskins. It starts in Scotland where we meet Bart (Bob Hoskins), a vicious loan shark whose method of persuading men to pay him back involves Danny the Dog (Jet Li), a man with the mentality of a child and a dog. Danny is a violently skilled fighter who stops at nothing to take down his targets but only when a metal collar around his neck is removed by Bart. Once the collar is on, Danny is a harmless, withdrawn person, with very little knowledge of how to live as a socialised person. He is constantly bullied by Bart, whom Danny perceives as his master. Danny meets Sam (Morgan Freeman), a kind blind pianist, at the antique warehouse while dealing with Bart's clients. After the collar trick with Danny starts to fail, Bart realises he can end his loan shark career by entering Danny as a fighter in underground fighting death-matches. If Danny wins, Bart receives a hefty prize money that could see him retire. However, after the first fight, Bart is attacked by another criminal and is left for dead after being shot by a semi-automatic weapon. A critically injured Danny returns to the antique warehouse for shelter, where he is found by Sam. Danny is unconscious for two days and wakes up at the home of Sam and his stepdaughter Victoria (Kerry Condon), Danny starts to open up to them starting a new life with the benevolent family. The two teach Danny how to eat, read, speak, cook, go grocery shopping, and how to play the piano. Danny socializes with Victoria and Sam by hanging out with them in public areas and taking family photos. Danny drastically changes with new clothes, hairstyle, and fresh lifestyle. He finally learns to live without his collar after Victoria removes it. He is drawn closer to music while spending time with Victoria. He also develops curiosity about who his mother was after Victoria teaches him what it means to have a family. Weeks later Sam informs Danny about moving back to New York, where he and Victoria are originally from. He invites Danny, telling him they think of him as family, and Danny happily accepts. However, Danny runs into Bart’s right-hand man Lefty in the streets and is forced back to Bart after Lefty threatens to hurt Sam and Victoria. Bart who is recovering, drags Danny back to the underground arena, where a death-match is set between Danny and ruthless martial artists. Despite Danny’s refusal to fight, Bart shoves him into the pit, where he is attacked by four fighters while trying to defend himself. Danny eventually retaliates by beating the four fighters, but refuses to kill them. Bart kills the first fighter at gunpoint, drags Danny back home, and shuts him back in his cage. That night, Danny sneaks through his door and goes through photographs of Bart’s favorite prostitutes, finally finding one snapshot of who appears to be Danny’s own mother. He interrogates Bart, who tells him that she was simply a prostitute who is long gone. He angrily promises to make Danny repay him for the money he had lost earlier that evening. Next morning, Danny manages to escape from Bart by causing the car to crash and goes back to Sam and Victoria, telling them what he has learned and where he was. With the two's help, Danny figures out that his mother was a pianist who had financial problems. As Victoria plays the same music his mother played, Danny regains memories from his childhood past: his mother was a music student with no money, so she offered herself to Bart to get some to pay for her lessons. But one day, Bart showed up, she tried to hide Danny from Bart but Danny came out of hiding. She defied Bart and was killed. Bart has been raising Danny ever since, not as a human being, but as a dog. After regaining the memories, he and Victoria try to pack up when a confused Sam returns. Bart and a large gang of thugs arrive at Sam's apartment building to capture Danny. Danny hides Sam and Victoria in their closet, and runs out to fight the thugs. He faces off against an attacker with a skill level similar to his own; Danny eventually causes him to fall on Bart's car. Bart and his men pursue Danny through the building with guns, finally catching him in Sam's apartment. He threatens to pull the trigger, all the while telling him that he was never meant for a different kind of lifestyle. But he drops the gun and instead takes out a collar, telling Danny to come home. Danny slowly advances toward the collar, but stops Bart at the last minute and disarms him. He proceeds to furiously beat Bart, causing Sam and Victoria to burst out and beg Danny not to kill; however, a defeated Bart orders Danny otherwise. Bart tells Danny he will always be an animal, to which Sam responds by smashing a flower pot on his head, knocking him unconscious. Sam, Danny, and Victoria embrace having calmed Danny's rage. Bart is arrested in the aftermath. Some time later, Danny is with Sam at a piano recital at Carnegie Hall, where Victoria is getting ready to perform. Realising Victoria is playing what his mother played years ago, Danny sheds a happy tear. The soft side of the story is melodramatic and a little too precious in my opinion, the film is probably at its best when Danny is fighting. That said, Jet Li’s acting is superb in the scenes where he is learning about the world around him. It’s really no masterpiece but its odd and quirky and has a unique style about itself. I think I would have liked to have seen a Luc Besson directed version but it may well have finished his career off. I liked it a lot but I may be in the minority, I just think it’s the right kind of odd.