Tag Archives: Juliette Lewis

Saturday Matinee: Metropia

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MOVIE REVIEW: TRIBECA: Metropia – Swedish Animated Dystopic Film’s Look is Stunning!

By Sheldon Wiebe

Source: Eclipse Magazine

Metropia is a stranger film than the average dystopia. With a visual design that would be appropriate for 1984 and its depiction of a Europe connected by a vast subway complex called The Metro and a plot that includes a biological mind control device disseminated by shampoo, Metropia is definitely a unique experience.

Roger [voiced by Vincent Gallo] is a drone who works at Supercall, the mother of all telemarketing/tech help companies. He lives in a shabby apartment with his exotic looking girlfriend, Anna [Sofia Hein], and rides a bike to work because he doesn’t trust the Metro. The Sweden in which he lives is a grey, grey place – as is all of Europe, we learn over the course of the film. He is as normal/unremarkable as a person can get. His biggest fantasy is to meet the model for the shampoo that, unbeknownst to him, has left his thoughts open to the ominous Trexx corporation.

Being as normal as he is, Roger is startled to realize that he’s hearing voices – or rather a voice – in his head. Freaked, he manages to finish his shift and get home. The next morning, he has to take The Metro to work – someone has trashed his bike. In the station, he spies the woman from the shampoo. He follows her. She is Nina [Juliette Lewis] and she not only confronts him, she seems to know about the voice in head! She also seems to know what to do about that.

Metropia is a great looking film. The animation – like some absurd CG hybrid of Terry Gilliam’s more fluid cutout work and Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation – is extremely well done and carries the story as well as setting a very specific mood. Director/co-writer [with Stig Larsson and Frederik Edin] Tarik Saleh keeps things to a very deliberate pace for most of the film, with only a few moments of accelerated action.

Considering the number of people who worked on the script [comparatively few for an animated film], the story seems to be pretty skeletal. Everything moves, more or less, in a single direction and [with only a couple of exceptions] at a single pace – and the film doesn’t quite hang together.

The biggest problem has to be that Roger hears that voice in his head, but is still able to do whatever he wants – which makes him unique in a world of people whose lives are seemingly controlled by others. It’s never explained why this should be – and there’s no real reason for Nina to take him bed, either. Roger is such an unremarkable guy that the film might have worked better had she used her sexuality to get him to do what she wanted with just the promise of sex as a motivator. Still, Gallo’s washed out vocal performance as Roger is spot on, as is Lewis’ turn as Nina. If we buy them, then we buy the film – and they work.

Some of the best moments of the film come with the CEO of Trexx, Ivan Bahn [Udo Kier] explains to investors just how the company works – and how the shampoo figures in the company’s bottom line. His demonstration of the effects of the shampoo –on a Texan named Wayne Marshall [Indy Neidell] – is particularly effective.

Metropia may be flawed, but it’s still quite the visual feast, and definitely worth a look.

Watch Metropia on Kanopy here: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/5845007

Saturday Matinee: Blueberry (aka Renegade)

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“Blueberry” (2004) is an acid western directed by Jan Kounen and based on the graphic novel by Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Michel Charlier. Unlike most acid westerns, the film has a relatively conventional narrative following the journey of Mike Donovan (Vincent Cassel) who, after losing his first love to Blount (Michael Madsen), is adopted by a native tribe and becomes a U.S. Marshall. What qualifies it as an acid western is the final showdown which depicts a spiritual battle via spectacularly psychedelic CGI and sound effects. Blueberry is also notable for its international roster of great character actors including Juliette Lewis, Temuera Morrison, Ernest Borgnine, Djimon Hounsou, Tchéky Karyo, Eddie Izzard and Colm Meaney.

Watch Renegade on Hoopla here: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/16104849

Saturday Matinee: Natural Born Killers

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By Richard Propes

Source: The Independent Critic

Is “Natural Born Killers” an indictment of our current society that is so completely fascinated with crime, criminals and everything that waxes dramatic? Or, is it simply a glossy, stylized romp through random acts of violence?

Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” takes the life of two of society’s rejects, Mickey and Mallory, and allows them to fall in love and embark on a nationwide killing spree that becomes fodder for the press, an obsession for law enforcement and, ultimately, they become folk heroes to the common man across America.

The film, which on the surface appears to be incredibly and over-the-top violent, is actually far less violent than many films with a lesser rating. While we see shootings and killings, the vision is seldom graphic in nature. These events are much more about attitude and atmosphere than they are the violence itself.

The word “intoxication” is the word I think of most when I think of the film “Natural Born Killers.” Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) become intoxicated by killing and the fame it brings…Reporter Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) becomes intoxicated by the story, the ratings, the spotlight…Warden McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones) is intoxicated by his power and justice.

The script, by Stone and Quentin Tarantino, vividly brings to life this intoxication in scenes that often resemble television shows and other times take on such a psychedelic feeling that it almost feels like we’re in the middle of one of those lava lamps where you look through the hole and you see different visions every time you look in it.

“Natural Born Killers”, for me, is a visionary film because it sees the truth of our society and where we are headed. We are living in a world where celebrity allows you to get away with most anything, such as in the O.J. Simpson trial, and where even the most heinous criminal becomes an overnight celebrity. In “Natural Born Killers,” Stone and Tarantino are, to me, clearly saying that we can’t just blame the criminals for the deterioration of our society…it’s all of us who buy into the drama, the glamour and the excitement that allows the cycle to perpetuate.

Stellar performances, a powerful, insightful script, groundbreaking camerawork and the unique vision of Oliver Stone combine to make “Natural Born Killers” a bold, visionary film that may shock, may offend, may alienate…but, in the end, it is a film you will remember.

Watch Natural Born Killers on Hoopla here: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/14507250