JUST A SIGH - TRIBECA REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

Imagine a sweet, intriguing of two people crashing into each other in Paris.  They’re meeting on a train, both lost in their own ways and looking to reclaim themselves.  Their paths should have never logically crossed but here they are, unable to not be drawn to each other and falling for each other over a course of walking and talking about life and love, the possibilities they hold, and the disappointments they’ve encountered.  If you’ve read this and though, “Yes, I do love Before Sunrise” I would say to that that I do too, but sadly that’s  not the film I’m talking about.  I’m referring to the wannabe “romance” JUST A SIGH (Le temps de l'aventure) starring Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne.  For although it has some of the DNA that Richard Linklater’s classic film from years ago held, it has none of its magic.

Devos plays a stage actress named Alix.  She’s currently in a show but is unfulfilled and broke.  On what’s meant to be a quick journey into Paris, she makes eyes with an American, played by Byrne.  They seem drawn to each, and eventually Byrne asks her for directions to where he’s going.  They go their separate ways, but Alix can’t let the image of him go from her mind.  So she stalks him at the location he was heading to, which happens to be a funeral for his dear friend.  He for some reason doesn’t find this creepy and, after a very long scene of not much dialogue and lots of sitting around staring at each other, walk the streets of Paris, eventually heading back to his hotel room.  She then leaves him and goes on a couple mini adventures by herself before heading back to him.  And so on and so on.  Really not much happens in Just a Sigh and the title is really spot on, as that’s exactly how I felt the entire film.  Devos plays Alix as a really unlikable and annoying character.  She’s not someone you can root for at all, so you don’t and then you’re stuck with a character leading the story that you don’t like.  Bryne is a fine actor and has done many great films, but this is not one of them.  Writer/Director Jérôme Bonnell has replaced actual longing with long shots of the two actors staring at each other, replacing real romance with loneliness and if you’re like me, you’ll sit in the theatre, longing to escape so you can return to Linklater’s masterpiece (or either of their two wonderful sequels) so you can feel something other than annoyance.  It’s not necessarily directed bad (and the cinematography by Pascal Lagriffoul is lovely), but it simply doesn’t have anything interesting to say.

VERDICT: SKIP IT

Written and Directed by Jérôme Bonnell Starring Emmanuelle Devos, Gabriel Byrne Country France (In English and French) Content Disclaimer (Adult Situations, Adult Language, Nudity)  For ticket and screening information: http://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets

BOTTOM LINE: A boring, meandering mess of a film that really wants to be something it doesn't have the soul for.

THE KILL TEAM - TRIBECA REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

Stories of war are always a bit frightening.  The brutality that happens in a warzone can shake up the most put together of all of us.  And then there are the stories of things that go wrong in wartime.  The stories of men who has lost sight of why they are fighting in a war, people who suddenly want glory instead of reaching out a hand, and those who simple are lost among it all.  In 2010, soldier in Afghanistan were restless.  Many of them were confused on why they were there, bored of not doing anything, and their own personal feelings were mixed up and confused.  So a team inside the Army was born, which the Media later dubbed "THE KILL TEAM."  They were comprised of several men under the twisted guidance of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs who staged fake combat scenarios so they could kill Afghani men and women for sport.  Gibbs was a dark and demented man who bragged about how he could and has killed people and staged it as if they were attacking him.  He tells his team, "It's easy" and brings them each through it as if it's a right of passage, threating their life if they say no.  The story sounds like something out of a dark and twisted Hollywood movie, but unfortunately the story is all too true.

Director Dan Krauss takes us into the harrowing story through the eyes of Private Adam Winfield, a so called “whistleblower” who wanted to alert his superiors about the gruesome acts happening around him but feared of retaliation.  He informed his father who could only do so much, as Private Winfield had to report it himself.  Sadly, Winfield is not completely innocent, and Krauss lets the story unfold as an often shocking, disturbing tale of murderers behind enemy lines, and those murderers are some of our own.  It’s a well-crafted tale, hard to watch and tightly edited with interviews of many of the “Kill Team,” who also took photographs with many of the bodies and kept “trophies” of body parts.  How something like this can happen right under our noses is scary and watching it through Private Winfield’s eyes you truly don’t know what you would have done in his situation either.  How do you report something which will possibly end with your own death or “disappearance?”  Who can you trust when your own platoon, who are supposed to be the men and women you count on every day, are the ones that have threatened you and betrayed every ounce of honor their uniform holds.  Each soldier gives a fascinating look into the case, and many give statements that don’t leave you easily.  Eerily, one of the soldiers interviewed says “We’re not the only ones who did this.  We’re just the ones who got caught.”  A sad and worrisome statement echoing a similar situation many other soldiers could be caught up in.  The Kill Team is not an easy journey to go on, but an important one as it shows the horrors that our boys and girls are heading into, and the nightmares they have sometimes turned into.

VERDICT: A MUST SEE

DOCUMENTARY  Directed by Dan Krauss  Country USA Content Disclaimer (Adult Language, Graphic Images of Violence)  For ticket and screening information: http://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets

BOTTOM LINE: An unnerving and disturbing true story of murder in times of war, and the darkness that men can become.

AT ANY PRICE - TRIBECA REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

There are some performers in the world that, although very good in their youth, seem to just get better and better with age.  Sean Connery fits that bill. Helen Mirren does as well. As does Dennis Quaid. As a young man, he was dashing and charming, often playing off his natural good looks. As he's aged he's held info his looks but deepened as an actor, taking on roles more challenging and characters more morally complex.  Such is the case of his portrayal of the scheming family man Henry Whipple in the new drama AT ANY PRICE.

Whipple runs a midsize seed-farming business, something that has been passed down to gun by his father he'd like to pass onto his children. However good he is at the business, and he is, he's also just as dirty, not above showing up to funerals and offering to take the deceased's land off of their family's hands. He's added day to day by his wife, played by Kim Dickens but his children want nothing to do with the farm.  One is off climbing mountains, only occasionally writing a postcard.  The other is his son Dean (Zac Efron) who wants to race in NASCAR. When Henry's own dirty dealings catch up with him he's forced to reevaluate what's important to him and what he's willing to loose.

Director Ramin Bahrani (MAN PUSH CART) has created a Shakespearian esque tale here, building on the everyday drama of a scheming man, having those actions catch up to him, and slowing seeing everything unravel. Quaid is spectacular as Henry, both doing despicable things and showing his truly nurturing side as well.  He's a complex man and Quaid turns in an equally complex performance.  Dickens shines in a less showy role as his long suffering wife, turning shades of "Lady MacBeth" in the last act.  As the racecar driving son, Zac Efron pull in a subdued, crafted performance that suffers a bit in the middle of the film as the character wanders a bit everywhere.  But all three actors, along with several supporting peformances, shine brightly in the film.  At Any Price is a film that grows on you.  I do feel it's directed with great subtlety and the actors shine throughout.  Yet, the file feels at a distance the entire time.  The final act seems to come from a different film, even though that was in my opinion the most riviting section.  It goes very dark very quickly but the pay off is great.  Although I can't fully recommend the film as a whole, there are many great things about it, and the performances deserve to be seen.

VERDICT: ON THE FENCE

Written by Hallie Elizabeth Newton, Ramin bahrani Directed by Ramin Bahrani Starring Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron, Kim Dickens, Heather Graham, Clancy Brown, Chelcie Ross Country USA Content Disclaimer (Adult Situations, Adult Language, Violence)  For ticket and screening information: http://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets

BOTTOM LINE: Disjointed and feels like it's two separate films by the end.  Messy, but an intriguing film nonetheless.