USA, 2004
Director: David Koepp
Cast: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello
Score: ***

Six months after catching his wife, Amy (Maria Bello recently seen in THE COOLER) having an affair with Ted Milner (Timothy Dalton) in a small town motel, successful writer Mott Rainey played by Johnny Depp (reflections of Stephen King, perhaps from whose novella SECRET WINDOW, SECRET GARDEN is based) still undergoes traumatic visions of unrest as he struggles with the reality of the situation – the upcoming divorce.  Currently holed up alone in a cabin out of town, Mott is suddenly visited by a psychotic stranger by the name of John Shooter (appropriately played menacingly by John Turturro) who claims that Mott plagiarized his work.  Shooter demands satisfaction.  Worse, he begins stalking and terrorizing Mott.

SECRET WINDOW benefits from some fine performances by the cast, specifically from supporting player Charles S. Dutton’s effective sly and comical portrayal of private eye Ken Karsch. Also, Depp’s Mott Rainey is an intriguing writer gone out of control with seclusion.  Depp’s and the script’s insistence of the character requiring to speak to himself is at first irritating and repetitive but the viewer soon realizes where this ploy eventually leads to. 

One unrealized issue of the film concerns cell phones.  If Mott is stalked by Shooter, why would he then not contact the Karsch by wireless?  Or if the story implies a time setting before the frequent usage of cell phones, why then include the one scene where Mott and his wife talk, communicate with them?  Of course, it might be argued whether it is necessary to consider all these avenues – after all, this is just a Stephen King movie.  But director/writer David Koepp appears to take his film very seriously, building the suspense up and meticulously maintaining a tight edgy atmosphere.

The best executed scene of a car containing two corpses being pushed down the hill combines the technical expertise of Koepp’s crew with appropriate tension.  The excitement mounts as the strap of the killer’s watch gets caught in the shift gear.  Suddenly only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves can be heard as the overhead shot reveals the car slowly disappearing beneath the water.

Koepp is an effective director and it is not surprising that the producers have picked him to do this job after having made STIR OF ECHOES, a similar film concerning a protagonist assailed by hallucinations. Koepp balances the surrounding mystery with sufficiently well-written dialogue, visual shocks and rapid edits.  The main problem is the lack of an exciting climax after the viewer discovers the truth behind the mystery.  Still, Koepp and his crew have accomplished quite a creditable job – all things considered.  After all, how much actually can one do with Stephen King material?  MISERY and THE SHINING still remain the best Stephen King films.  And it has to be mentioned that Philip Glass’ music is in itself worth the price of the ticket.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

2003, Korean
Director: Min Byeong-Cheon
Cast: Yu Ji-Tae, Yun Chan, Seo Rin

Plot: In the future, cyborgs can feel, love, and hate…but all of them have an expiration date. Combat cyborgs who are refusing to die and be recycled, launch an attack against Neucom and destroy those who get in the way. In the middle of this battle, a conspiracy starts to unveil behind the curtains.

This film has so many possibilities to be a great film. The filmmakers’ attempt at making Bladerunner of Korea was courageous, yet the film failed their attempts to make its mark on the genre and failed to deliver. It does do justice to a few things. The CGI is done very flawlessly. Its post-apocalyptic world feels very moody and works out pretty well with matching the content of the film.

However, the film is carried out at very slow pace and it becomes very draggy and tedious to follow the plot. Sometimes the action sequences are very cool and the movie feels fast paced, but then everything is drowned out afterward.

I really hate to say it but Natural City isn’t a good film. I really wanted to like it. I was waiting for the moment it would transport me into the film. It never happened. It does have great style, but it is in no way to be considered a Korean Bladerunner. This is much like T3 of Korea except it runs much longer and there are fewer explosions.

Review by Shogo.

2003, Documentary
Directed by: Mike Woolf

Just like it sounds, Growin’ a Beard is a documentary about a beard-growing contest. In particular, the annual St. Patrick’s Day Donegal beard-growing contest in dinky Shamrock, Texas. The Donegal beard is a mustache-less style – think leprechauns and the Amish.

Starting just before New Year’s Day in 1997, director Mike Woolf focuses his camera on four longtime residents (and oft-winners), asking their strategies and secrets. A monkey wrench is thrown into the tradition when a young art director from Austin enters on a lark and threatens to usurp the regulars, even though an outsider has never won.

That man, Scotty McAfee, is the subject of the film’s funniest moment, when people who know him compare the ad man to a series of hirsute pop icons, including Grizzly Adams, the original G.I. Joe doll and Jonny Quest guardian Race Bannon.

Thirty minutes is plenty long for this doc. Though pleasant and unthreatening, its numerous shaving scenes grow tiresome and could have been, um, trimmed. The video is jerky at times, but such is to be expected for a no-budget, handheld effort – and Woolf deserves props for not making fun of his subjects. He shows them as they are, which unintentionally depressed me, because I just get easily bummed out thinking about small-town life.

The real reason to check out this DVD is for a bonus short entitled The 72 Oz. Steak, which packs three times the laughs and suspense in a third of the time. At the famed Big Texan in Amarillo, a friend of Woolf’s attempts to eat the titular object – plus potato, salad, shrimp cocktail and dinner roll – in an hour in order to avoid paying $50 for it. Who knew four pounds of meat could be so enthralling? I would have loved to see this as the main feature and Growin’ a Beard as the supplement.

Also included is a bit on How Not to Make a Documentary and footage from the film’s Austin and Shamrock premieres. The DVD package also contains a second disc, being a soundtrack CD with music performed by The Gourds. Your enjoyment of that hinges completely on your liking for Irish-tinged, banjo-and-fiddle laden music about beards.

Review by Rod Lott.

South Korea, 2003
Director: Moon-Saeng Kim
Voices: Ji-Tae Yu, Joon Ho Chung, Hee-Jin Wu

Plot: It is the year 2142 and Earth has been devastated by pollution; the once blue sky has been obscured behind thick dark clouds. A self-sustaining city, ECOBAN, is created which draws upon the pollution for fuel. A resistance fighter named Shua breaks into the ECOBAN data core, stealing important data, which details ECOBAN’s predicament. Of course as fate would have it, Shua encounters a childhood love, Jay, who has become a law-enforcement officer for ECOBAN. She must choose between her duty to ECOBAN and her feelings for Shua, while he struggles to thwart ECOBAN’s plans and restore Earth’s former beauty.

Wonderful Days is wonderful to your eyes. The film uses a mixture of computer models for vehicles and background and traditional animation for the characters. This technique is nothing new to the world of animation. What makes this film unique is the way he treats the film as almost one enormous opera. Sure, some of you may complain about undeveloped the characters and story are. And how it raises some questions and confusion when the world is given fresh birth at the end of the film.

I could easily overlook that. It was so obvious that the filmmakers were way too overjoyed with their post-apocalyptic world they created. When you can feel that much energy, it should give you nothing to complain about while you enjoy the film. I am not saying that would make a good film. That is not enough to make it good. Sure, there is its lack of story and character developments in the film. But putting that aside, the animation is absolutely superb. The design is simply fascinating. The music is fabulous. Wonderful Days is an amazingly detailed alienated world of its own.

Review by Shogo.

UK, 2002
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Jamal Udin Torabi
Score: ***

Fascination with people’s behavior has prompted Michael Winterbottom to create some of Britain’s finest films.  The Claim, 24-Hour Party People and Wonderland were character driven portraits of people and their interactions with the outside world.  For his latest effort, Winterbottom tracks the arduous journey of an Afghan boy, Jamal (Jamal Udin Torabi) as he makes his way from his homeland in Asia to his destination, London.

This is not as easy film to watch.  Though Winterbottom does not over-dramatize any situation, most are harrowing enough standing on their own.  The one of the silent baby brought out of a crate after days of darkness makes up one of the film’s most disturbing scenes.  The viewer is also forced to take up judgment when Jamal resorts to purse snatching after fruitlessly trying to make an honest living by selling fortune bracelets (2 for 1 euro).  As the scenes switch from Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and then to the cities of Europe, the travelogue continues to get uglier.

Though what is offered on screen is nothing that the viewer has not heard nor read about before, watching the trip first hand on film is still quite the experience.  Winterbottom and writer Tony Grisoni have done their homework well and the footage shows.  The film has a newsreel feel to it (cinematographer Marcel Zyskind shot the film on a small digital video camera using available natural light) giving the re-creation of the journey some clout.

In This World is minor Winterbottom but nevertheless, one that comes from the heart.  The last scene tells it all as he freely allows his curious Afghan subjects, young and old alike, free reign to peer, look and smile at his camera as he relaxes after the boy’s story has been told.  Their various astonished expressions remind one of the classic Punch ‘n’ Judy scene with the children’s faces in Francois Truffaut’s 400 Blows. In This World deservedly won the Golden Bear at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.

Review by Gilbert Seah.