OPEN WINDOWS - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Playing Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2014

You don't use these open windows to
cool a freshly-baked pie on the sill.

Open Windows (2014)
Dir. Nacho Vigalondo
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sasha Grey, Neil Maskell

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Open windows have many uses.

My favourite is placing a freshly baked pie on the sill to allow it to cool naturally from the breeze gently wafting across it from the great outdoors. That said, we're not here to describe a hole in the wall covered with glass that can open and close and cool pies down.

We're here to talk about open windows on computers - those lovely rectangles which display as many separate files or images as a computer screen will allow. Said open windows allow for the kind of computer multi-tasking needed in this day and age. (I'm using a few even as I write this.)

Open Windows is the clever title of the equally clever and often nail-bitingly suspenseful thriller representing the first English language film by the young Oscar-nominated Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes, Extraterrestrial).

Nick (Elijah Wood) is a dweeb who wins an online contest to dine with the sexy movie star Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey). When he receives a voice call from Chord (Neil Maskell), a representative from the firm which bestowed the prize, that the contest had been rescinded, Nick is understandably flummoxed. Chord, ever benevolent, decides to assist Nick with a series of online manipulations to have his dream come true anyway.

Chord's complex instructions to Nick require the lad to open more and more windows on his computer screen. Soon, Nick is sucked into Chord's web of deceit. Chord is an ace hacker and psychopath who has created several cyber footsteps implicating Nick in a series of crimes designed to force Jill into publicly masturbating on a video camera and to then continue stalking, kidnapping and killing her.

Nick knows he'll be blamed and we're sucked into a thrilling cat and mouse game between him and the hacker so that Nick can clear his name and keep Jill from being harmed. Much of the film is set in Nick's hotel room and via the open windows of his computer screen and while some might suggest that on paper, the idea of a movie's primary action taking place on a computer screen might be dull, they'd be wrong.

Vigalondo's taught direction and his ultra-cool screenplay results in some extremely harrowing suspense set-pices. Besides, the last third of the film, still involving computers and open windows moves blisteringly to a series of locations, including some hair-raising chase action.

Though the screenplay becomes a tad too convoluted for its own good and results in a bit of wheel-spinning, Open Windows remains a solid suspense thriller, dazzlingly directed and acted with aplomb by all concerned.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: *** 3-Stars

Open Windows plays Oct.20 at 7:00pm during the 2014 Toronto After Dark Film Festival.

TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! aka ÁTAME! - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Pedro Almodóvar's Classic Romantic Comedy of Staking and Kidnapping for LOVE, now available on a stunning Criterion Collection Blu-Ray

Love, Almodovar-Style,
means NEVER having
to say you're sorry for
KIDNAPPING
the woman of your dreams.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! akaÁtame! (1989)
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas,
Loles León, Francisco Rabal, Rossy De Palma

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Any romantic comedy involving a man kidnapping the woman of his dreams, tying her to a bed and keeping her captive until she falls in love with him is tops in my books. Such is the case with Pedro Almodóvar's bonafide 1989 classic Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! which stars the young and sexy Antonio Banderas as Ricky, a recent asylum outpatient who stalks Marina Osorio (played by an equally young and sexy Victoria Abril), a porn star he once had an evening of passionate, albeit anonymous sex with.

He follows her to the set of a soft-core pseudo-art film where she's doing leading lady duties for Máximo Espejo (the great Francisco Rabal), an old, paralyzed and recent stroke victim auteur who clearly has the hots for her - so much so he pathetically attempts to masturbate to her old porn films. Marina's sister Lola (Loles León) is ever-present as Máximo's right-hand, but seems to really be around to keep Marina out of trouble with her on-again-off-again drug addiction. As the movie wraps production, Marina checks out to prepare for the end-of-shoot party later that evening and this is Ricky's chance to enact his mad plan. And so, he does what any man would do - at least any man in an Almodóvar film - he kidnaps her, believing that once she gets to know him, she'll not only fall madly in love, but will marry and have his babies.

Much of the film works as a two-hander exploring their strange relationship which grows to a point where Marina even assists and insists upon being bound when Ricky needs to go off to run errands. Some of his errands do enable her need for drugs, but he's a brave and caring enabler and suffers a beating from some dealers after he rips off their stash. Though one could, I suppose, chalk up their growing love as being rooted in a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, Almodóvar is far more interested in glorious laughs, sex and fun. It's his very audacity that allows us to believe in their love and hope that they're going to make it as a couple destined to a life of matrimonial bliss. While the film is sprinkled with more than its fair share of satirical humour, Almodóvar does not present the tale as satire. Its splashy colour scheme, sprightly pace, crackling dialogue and a great Ennio Morricone score all adds up to a hilarious and romantic love story for the ages - gorgeously acted and always sumptuously entertaining.

And make no mistake - this is a classic. The film features one set piece after another which have both individually and collectively gone down in the sort of cinema history annals which guarantee that nobody who sees them will ever forget them and perhaps, most importantly, will delight in them all over again on subsequent helpings of the picture. Not to spoil things for those who haven't seen the film, I do wish to state for the record, that I, for one, hold a sequence involving a very phallic bathtub toy and Ms. Abril's lithe form in said bathtub, very near and dear to my heart, mind and groin.

Ultimately I feel as if Almodóvar worked his own magic as a filmmaker to tie us up and tie us down so that we fall in love with both characters and furthermore, fall in love with the idea that familiarity, no matter how its attained, will breed deep and ever-lasting affection.

Seriously. I have no problem with this.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ***** 5-Stars

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is now available in a full-blown Criterion Collection Dual-Format Blu-Ray/DVD with the highest standards of picture and sound quality - especially the picture, which renders cinematographer José Luis Alcaine's images in the most eye-popping fashion. While the added features aren't as voluminous as one might expect, quality makes up for quantity. The Crown Jewel of the extras is a phenomenal half-hour 2003 featurette entitled Pedro and Antonio which presents a lively, warm conversation between Banderas and Almodóvar that presents a wealth of information regarding the production of the film, but also the fabulous working relationship between the two as well as the film's themes and subtext. This half-hour puts most feature length commentaries to shame in terms of how much information it presents and, importantly, shows. This is accompanied by a solid documentary entitled United! Reflections on Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, a great 15-minute segment with Michael Barker, the co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics, Almodóvar's primary champion in his early days, a very amusing segment of the entire cast of the film singing the hit song "I Will Survive" - in Spanish!!! Add to this a gorgeous cover for the box and a superb booklet and you've got yourself yet another keeper from the Criterion Collection.

[REC]4 APOCALYPSE - TIFF 2014 - TIFF MIDNIGHT MADNESS - Review By Greg Klymkiw

A babe and bloodletting. Not much else.

[REC]4 Apocalypse (2014)
Dir. Jaume Balagueró
Starring: Manuela Velasco

Review By Greg Klymkiw

The terrific Spanish horror franchise [REC] has proven to be a consistently entertaining regular dose of zombie-infection madness since the first instalment burst upon the scene in 2007. The simple premise had babe-o-licious reporter Manuela Velasco and her crew following a rescue team into a decrepit Barcelona apartment complex where they're beleaguered by crazed zombies. The found footage conceit made perfect sense and worked beautifully.

Though the second instalment was decent, it felt like more of the same until the terrific third feature in the series which transposed us to a yummy blood spattered wedding that cleverly utilized wedding video footage. Alas, [REC]4 is the supposed final chapter, but it's a pale shade of what preceded it.

This time round we find ourselves stuck on a research ship with a whack of scientists conducting gruesome experiments to find an antidote for the infection. Onboard is Velasco, plucky and kick-ass as per usual, plus we get a few laughs out of the Dementia-afflicted matriarch from the [REC]3 wedding.

Our heroine, it seems, is carrying the gloopy-gloppy slithering parasite which is the infection's host. Complications predictably set in and the antidote is far from ready to go. Needless to say, the infection begins to afflict crew members and in no time we've got an all-out zombie-fest aboard ship. There's also the threat of a ticking time-bomb in the form of the ship's possible destruction in case the experiments go completely out to lunch.

It's a fair enough premise for this sort of thing, but the movie feels worn and tired-out. There's plenty of gore, but the scares and tension never adequately materialize since the movie is afflicted with a been-there-done-that "quality".

Worse yet, the found footage approach has been pretty much jettisoned, but for some reason, the whole movie is shot in the annoying and unjustifiable shaky-cam-herky-jerky ADHD-afflicted editing for absolutely no reason. The style feels sloppy and not-well-thought-out, resulting in plenty of yawn-inspiring moments.

Those looking for gruesome violence will not be disappointed, but anyone seeking genuine thrills and chills will feel they're simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The movie bombards us with so much sound and fury that it finally adds up to much ado about nothing, save for bloodletting and not much more. The only positive note is the wonderful Velasco who is, as always, gorgeous and certainly worth eyeballing for ninety minutes.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ** Two-Stars

[REC]4 is unspooling at TIFF 2014 in the Midnight Madness series. Visit the TIFF website HERE.

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THE GERMAN DOCTOR (aka WAKOLDA) - Review By Greg Klymkiw - TJFF 2014 - Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014

Just looking at the brilliant Alex Brendemuhl as Josef Mengele
makes you feel mired in filth and in need of a good scrub.

Astonishing newcomer
Florencia Bado delivers
a knockout performance
as the very unfortunate apple
of Dr. Josef Mengele's eye.

The German Doctor Dir. Lucia Puenzo (2013) ***
Starring: Alex Brendemuhl, Florencia Bado, Natalia Oreiro,
Diego Peretti, Elena Roger
Review By Greg Klymkiw

From the very first moment we see Dr. Gregor (Alex Brendemuhl) eyeballing the fetching little girl Lilith (Florencia Bado), it's a fait accompli that this film is heading for dangerous territory. Based on director Lucia Penzo's novel, in turn a fiction rooted in fact, it's even more obvious that a living Hell awaits us when the good doctor takes a room in the family-owned Patagonia hotel of Lilith's Mom and Dad (Natalia Oreiro, Diego Peretti) and even worse, that his obsessions with: (a) assisting Dad in perfecting the design of toy dolls, (b) offering to fix Lilith's recessive genes to cure her stunted growth and (c) taking special interest in Mom's pregnancy with twins, suggest he's not all he seems to be. That Dr. Gregor is spending far too much time in this beautiful out of the way Argentinian town with other German gentlemen bandying about the word Führer and that a concerned photographer (Elena Roger) is making secret telephone calls to Israel whilst being suspiciously looked-upon by the town's upstanding Aryans, we're even more convinced that the well-dressed, soft-spoken Dr. Gregor is none other than the epitome of Nazi evil, crazed geneticist Dr. Joseph Mengele.

The German Doctor makes for compelling viewing on two counts. First of all, there is a definite grace and intelligence with which Puenzo unfolds this chilling tale and secondly, and perhaps most of all, the performances on every level are charged with the stuff of supremely bravura work. Brendemuhl as Mengele is chillingly muted, but at the same time, he occasionally lets the ooze of evil creep out so subtly that we almost feel tainted by having to lay eyes on him -- even to the point where we feel like we need to scrub away the filth he sullies us with, by his mere presence. This is certainly a brilliant and brave piece of work.

The newcomer Florencia Bado has a magnificent screen presence. The camera clearly loves her and she tackles her role as the diminutive Lilith with natural ability and surprising maturity. The scenes where Brendemuhl and Bado share screen time are especially creepy and much of this comes from the chemistry between both actors.

Director Puenzo does not ever really create the mise-en-scène of a thriller, but rather allows the material to move at the pace of a straight-up drama (albeit one infused with sheer evil and darkness). We are, for example, never in the territory of Franklin J. Schaffner's nerve-jangling, bigger-than-life film adaptation of Ira Levin's The Boys From Brazil, but are sucked into a whirlpool on a much smaller scale so that Puenzo can concentrate on the subtleties of character.

Alex Brendemuhl and Florencia Bado: Creepy Chemistry

Since she does not want to be in thriller territory, part of me feels bad saying that her approach seems far too muted given the intensity of the material. Yes, this is her intent, but there is the old saying that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and if we apply the interpretation of said meaning that the intent yields the kind of cinematic inaction that feels far too precious, then I do think it's worth mentioning that the film's whole is, indeed less than the sum of its parts.

The problem for me is that when we edge closer to the utter horror of the tale, there's an inevitability to it that detracts from the picture's overall ability to deliver a genuine knockout punch. I appreciate Puenzo's desire to handle her material with both taste and detachment, but there are times, when good, old fashioned Hollywood "vulgarity" can yield far more satisfying experiences and still manage to do so with taste, style and a good dose of slam-bang. It is, however, a worthy effort even as is.

The German Doctor makes its Toronto premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF 2014). For tickets and showtimes, contact the festival website HERE. It opens theatrically in Toronto via A-Z Films on May 9, 2014.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH - Review By Greg Klymkiw - This is a great film! But I HATE it!

This idiotically attired fop believes
he's a Man among Men because he teases,
tortures and slaughters a living creature
in front of screaming morons
who pay money to see this butchery.
Culture? If you want to call it that, be my guest.
Ignorance? Savagery? Stupidity? Yes!

Story of a Loser!!!

The Moment of Truth (1965) ***½
dir. Francesco Rosi
Starring: Miguel Mateo 'Miguelín', Linda Christian, Pedro Basauri

Review By Greg Klymkiw

It's probably a "cultural thang", but I just don't get bullfighting. It's a vicious, cruel and morally reprehensible "sport" (if you can even call it that) that involves teasing, torturing, then murdering a bull for the enjoyment of blood-lusting plebes (I include the "elite" here too) in mostly Spanish-speaking countries. Actually, I'll go further - call it ethnocentric or even racist if you will (and I will care less) - but anyone who would engage actively or enjoy watching this odious "art" (if you can even call it that) has got to have something seriously wrong with them. Yes, I'm aware of bullfighting's historical "importance" to Spanish "culture" (if you can even call it that), but why and how this crime against animals can continue in this day and age is beyond me.

And yes, I consider the teasing, torturing and wanton slaughter of animals a crime. Just because it's "cultural" doesn't mean reasonable, thinking people must accept its existence.

Thousands of stupid people who enjoy watching
animals tortured and slaughtered for sport.

There is a long tradition of bullfighting movies; the most well-known being the various versions of Blood and Sand (most notably the silent 1922 Rudolf Valentino version and Rouben Mamoulian's 1941 effort for Fox) and Budd Boetticher's studio butchered and recently restored The Bullfighter and the Lady. The above films are not without merit as films, but none of them can hold a candle to Francesco Rosi's The Moment of Truth.

I hate this movie, BUT The Moment of Truth is important on three fronts.

First of all, it's dazzling filmmaking. Secondly, it reflects the society and politics of Spain in the 1960s in ways that also shed light on the macho-blood-lust culture that would so proudly continue to extol the virtues of this heinous activity. Finally, it is an exquisite addition to the canon of the brilliant Italian director Francesco Rosi (Salvatore Giuliano, Hands Over the City, The Mattei Affair, Lucky Luciano) and, in fact, is a perfect melding of his Neo-realist and operatic tendencies (and influences).

The movie does not glorify bullfighting, but rather, it takes a no-holds-barred look at the entire world of the "sport/art" - behind the scenes and in the public spotlight. Rosi's film charts the rise of bullfighter Miguel Mateo 'Miguelín', an aimless young man who desperately seeks a better life and painstakingly learns the bullfighting ropes and rises to the top of the game. In spite of his stardom, he's still a simple country boy at heart and his handlers push him to ever-dangerous heights - exploiting him with absolutely no regard for his well-being. Miguel kills the bulls, but the men of influence kill his spirit and, in so doing, further feed the the centuries-old blood-lust of the "people".

Rosi's mise-en-scène is phenomenal. Attacking the tale with a mixture of classical, yet baroque shots reminiscent of his mentor Luchino Visconti, yet training his eye on the proceedings as a neo-realist storyteller and documentarian, this is a film that clearly springs from the loins of a born filmmaker. Sequences involving the running of bulls through the streets as their hides are pierced with ribbon-adorned harpoons, the dank basement of the bullring where Migeulin is trained by retired bullfighter Pedrucho (Pedro Basauri), the dusty rings themselves - surrounded by hordes of slavering, blood-crazed fans - these images are clearly unforgettable and, most importantly, are the real thing.

When we see fear in Migeulin's eyes as he faces an angry, snorting bull, this is not acting - it's the real thing. No rear-screen projection or opticals a la Blood and Sand are used here. It's real bullfighters, real swords, real gorings and real bulls.

While it is clear that Rosi's intent is to expose the macho myths of this world, I still find it sickening to watch. Even though it's SUPPOSED to be sickening, having to watch it is not unlike what it must be for non-pedophiles to watch real kiddie porn. Filmmakers who must take horrendous things to extremes in order to expose truth (like Kubrick, Pasolini, Scorsese, Friedkin etc.) do so within the realm of recreating violence. In The Moment of Truth, violence, pain and suffering happen for real and Rosi captures it on film with all the power and panache one would expect from a great filmmaker.

For Rosi to tell this story and explore the theme of the violent exploitation of man and beast - for him to break-down the perverse sense of masculinity that infuses the lives of those on both sides of the bullfighting world - he must, like all great artists avoid any sense of morality that will interfere with the horrors he seeks to display.

I understand this, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

The most upsetting thing is seeing animals being teased painfully with the harpoons and to witness these beasts actually being stuck with swords, to watch - mouth agape - as real blood gushes out of these poor animals and worst of all, to bear witness to these animals having their spinal columns crushed with the cold steel of the torero's sword (and see even more blood gushing out of thee animals) is, frankly, more sickening than watching the re-created scourging and crucifixion of Our Lord in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

In spite of my revulsion, I cannot deny that Rosi is at the top of his game here. This is brave and brilliant filmmaking. However, in order to expose exploitation, Rosi must also exploit his human and animal subjects. It's even more detestable that he focuses his camera so astoundingly and unflinchingly upon the balletic grace with which the bullfighters taunt their quarry and then kill it.

There's no two ways about it.

I admire this film and I respect it.

I also hate it and wish it had never been made.

"The Moment of Truth" is available on an exquisitely mastered Bluray on the Criterion Collection - a widescreen Technicolor print that's a perfect example of a terrible beauty. The release includes a new English subtitle translation, a handsome booklet and an interview with Rosi himself.

[REC]3: GENESIS - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF 2012)

KLYMKIW SAY:
There's nothing like a blood spattered bride wielding a chainsaw at the zombies who buggered up her magical wedding day. The creepy, scary Spanish found footage horror franchise takes a stylish turn in the right direction. "REC3: GENESIS" is my favourite of the series so far.

[REC]3: Genesis (2012) ***1/2
dir. Paco Plaza
Starring: Leticia Dolera, Diego Martin, Javier Botet, Alex Monner

Review By Greg Klymkiw

The found footage conceit in contemporary horror movies seemed, at least for awhile, deader than a doornail after the phenomenon of The Blair Witch Project, the famous camcorder video diary of some obnoxious college kids going into the deep bush to find the truth behind a rural legend.

While the picture was a huge moneymaker, its staying power - even amongst the film's most devoted fans turned out to be rather negligible once repeat viewings revealed little more than what was already there. Subsequent helpings revealed a film that was little more than a one-trick pony. Worse yet, the movie has not aged well. That said, it still deserves a place in screen history as a picture that worked when people first saw it and was backed by an astounding marketing campaign that was as important to the film's financial success as it was to the film's home movie aesthetic blended with pure things-going-bump in the night scares and psychological horror.

It also spawned a whole new horror film adjunct and within the canon of found footage horror, a few pictures certainly proved to have have staying power. Paranormal Activity is still terrifyingly hypnotic and its sequels, while not quite classic material, proved to be supremely entertaining.

The recent Chernobyl Diaries featured a slightly confusing found footage element, but also delivered a decent amount of scares and an interesting political subtext dealing with the exploitation of tragedy within ex-Soviet countries.

The craziest of the lot, was definitely the Spanish found footage horror film [Rec] and its sequel [Rec]2, both dealing with a quarantined apartment building and a small group of survivors attempting to evade crazed, parasite-infected cannibals in a zombie-like state. The first entry was, like Paranormal Activity, a well crafted horror thriller that stands up to repeated viewings, though [Rec] reveals far too many holes in the "plot" and found footage logic. Due to its blistering pace, the picture thankfully keeps you from wandering too far from the terror and carnage.

[Rec]3: Genesis is the best picture in the franchise to date. The found footage conceit is handled in a really unique way and the shifts in mise-en-scene make for a delightful surprise to fans of the first two outings. The cool shift also allows for one shocker after another within the context of a visually crackerjack approach and a setting that can't be beat.

In a palatial, old mansion converted into a massive event venue, we enjoy two primary video captures of a young couple's marriage. When a jolly drunken Uncle begins vomiting and indulging in all manner of bizarre hijinx, it doesn't take long to establish that a horrible infection is spreading amongst the party guests. And yes, they're turning into ravenous cannibalistic zombies. Our attractive hubby and wife get predictably, though understandably separated and must battle their way through zombie hell to reunite safely.

Buoyed by a clutch of terrific acting, superb effects and some delicious shocks, [Rec3] delivers the goods and then some. Replete with a terrific sense of black humour, a breakneck pace with enough pauses to provide expected jolts and a welcome return to the notion of Judeo-Christian religion as a weapon against the unholy evil (a la many vampire films, especially in the Hammer Horror cycle much before the idiotic spate of Twilight movies and their ilk), the movie is designed as a first-rate roller coaster ride replete with virtuoso cinematography, art direction and very little in the way of herky-jerky visuals and cutting. In fact, the cutting is damn fine! Every cut is devoted to advancing things dramatically which, of course, is what assists the pace.

Most of all, though, what sells [Rec]3, at least to this fella', is the notion that Hell hath no fury like a woman whose fairy-tale wedding is transformed into a Grimm Brothers fairy tale. Her white dress spattered with blood, her gamin visage transformed from joy to almost malevolent strictures, her train torn away to reveal her hot gams and armed with one motherfucker of a chainsaw, one only wonders who in their right mind would not be thrilled at the site of this sexy senorita cutting, slashing and maiming her way through one living dead wedding guest after another?

Oh, and have I mentioned her red garter yet?

[Rec3] is pure, unadulterated joy! Though it's now on Bluray and DVD, try to see it on a big screen with an audience. The electricity in that context will be palpable and the movie's good enough to watch again and again once you do pick up the home entertainment version.

"[Rec]3" is playing at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF 2012). For further info, visit the festival's website HERE.