Short Review: Pin.

Premise: (straight from imdb): A doctor has a lifelike, anatomically-correct medical dummy, with muscles and organs visible through its clear skin, named Pin (after Pinocchio). Via ventriloquism, Pin explains bodily functions in a way kids can relate to. When the over-strict doctor and his wife are killed in a car crash, his son (Leon) transfers his alter-ego into Pin, whom he always believed was alive. He starts using Pin as an excuse to over-protect his sister (Ursula) from admirers and deflect unwanted intrusions, even to the extent of committing murder.

Starring: David Hewlett, Terry O'Quinn, and Cynthia Preston.

My Reaction: I couldn't even figure out a way to give the premise... this movie was crazy. This movie is so bizarre and wrong on so many levels... from the father's need to use Pin as a means to explain the birds and the bees to the father almost forcing his son to watch his daughter's abortion to Leon's basically incest-based obsession with his sister. And there's more... so much more. This is one messed up family and one very strange movie. David Hewlett, who I love from pretty much any of his collaborations with Vincenzo Natali, does well here selling his insanity. And it was strange in-and-of-itself to see Terry O'Quinn (from LOST) with hair. I really can't even begin to get into reviewing this movie. So I'll just leave it at this: If you're into bizarre psychological thrillers, check out Pin. I assure you that you haven't seen anything like it before.


WTF

SPLICE.

Warning: The following review is semi-spoilerous.

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What is there to say about Splice? Well, I've been anticipating this movie for quite some time. My regular readers might know that I'm a long-time fan of director Vincenzo Natali, who directed one of my favorite movies--Cube. He also directed a great paranoid thriller called Cypher. Natali, like many directors, has his staples that come with every movie he does. One-word title... check. Actor David Hewlett... check. Slow reveals rather than jump scares... check. Ending where one character goes crazy, a well-liked character dies suddenly, and those remaining are left with an ambiguous ending and/or choice... check. The overall movie is very strange... check. Yeah, I could leave my review at that, but I won't.

The movie is about scientists and couple Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody). They work with splicing different DNA together to create new species in order to find proteins that might cure diseases. But when their company refuses to let them move on to human/animal hybrid splicing, Else and Clive decide to try it in secret. What they end up creating is Dren (Delphine Chaneac), a creature that grows into a feminine-like creature with animalistic features and tendencies. So Elsa and Clive have to try and keep it a secret from their bosses, including William Barlow (David Hewlett), as they study and grow to love their newest experiment.

From the first trailer (the teaser, I suppose), I thought this movie was gonna be pretty cool. Then the theatrical trailer came out, and it played it up like a straight horror/monster movie, and I became confused. I looked like straight-up Species, a mainstream horror film, and that is not the type of film Vincenzo Natali makes. So I figured that the trailer had to be misleading. Fortunately, it was. This is not a horror movie (except maybe the climax), but more of a... well... family drama--with monsters. Elsa and Clive go through everything with Dren that your average parent does. How do you feed it? What do you do when it's sick? How do you respond to temper tantrums? The film is more about our two leads growing as people as they discover what kind of parents they are with a more... abnormal child. Are there moments of suspense/tension? Yeah. But there are no jump scares, which is an insane rarity with any kind of movie dealing with this subject matter (monsters or children, these days, honestly).

The acting is done really well (and I particularly love David Hewlett as usual), but the standout is Delphine Chaneac as Dren. In what is basically a speechless role, she had to emote using her eyes and body language--and on top of that, she had to be both human and animalistic. There's really not all that big of a cast for this movie (again, which is pretty par for the course with Natali), though the guy they got to play Brody's brother was a great choice. Looks like they could really be brothers.

Before going into this movie, I had heard that the last 20 minutes or so kind of derails and gets very... strange. I have to say that I saw no derailment, as I saw practically all of it coming a mile away (not sure what that says about me, though... especially in one or two cases... like Clive's... moment). So I really didn't have any problems with any of it on an entertainment level, as I didn't think the last 20 minutes (or so) came from left field in the world the movie had set up.

The only major issues I had were with the character developments. Clive starts out early on wanting a child and Elsa doesn't. Then Dren comes along and Clive wants to kill it and Elsa loves it. Then Elsa starts going crazy and Clive starts to care for it. Honestly, I could go with Elsa's development easily, because they flowed well and they made sense. In fact, I liked it quite a bit. But Clive's development jumped all over the place. He shows interest in creating this thing, then immediately hates the idea and wants to destroy it. Then he wants to get rid of the creature for a good bulk of the movie before suddenly becoming attached to it. There was no real flow or reason for any of his major thought changes (except maybe one), so it was a bit off-putting to me at times. Regardless, I still enjoyed his character, especially once he started to care about Dren.

There's not much more I can say about the movie. It has some great cinematography (I particularly love the 'wings behind Clive' shot). Maybe I'm just really, really strange, but I didn't think any of the story was all that surprising, but it was still quite entertaining regardless. Like most of Natali's films, it'll probably split the audience. Some will love it. Some won't. But I recommend checking it out. After all... what's the worst that could happen?


A Keanu 'Whoa'

(P.S. I saw somewhere a while back where somebody made a MewTwo joke... which is hilarious. Well, if you were ever into PokeMon, anyway. But yeah, at times, there is quite a striking resemblance to both Mew and MewTwo...)

LKMYNTS: Cypher.

While he hasn't done that many movies, Vincenzo Natali is quite an underrated director who needs a big break. But then again, I'm not sure how (or if) Hollywood would appreciate his odd style. Like many people, I discovered Vincenzo with Cube. I then went to Nothing, which was almost too strange and out-there. And then I heard about this film, which is probably the closest he's gotten to mainstream (mostly due to having an ending that actually has closure and isn't mind-bending).

Cypher is about Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam), an average man who gets a job with a high-tech corporation called DigiCorp as a spy, changing his name to Jack Thursby. They send him around the country to boring conventions to spy on their rivals, Sunways. But at these conventions, he keeps running into a sexy femme fatale named Rita (Lucy Liu), who begins to show Morgan that there's more to this than there seems. She warns him that he must remember that he is Morgan, not Jack Thursby, and she gives him help in the form of both advice and other (medication, shots, etc.) that help him see what's really going on with DigiCorp. And what follows is a twisty, turny espionage thriller (with a twist of sci-fi) about mind control where you can never be sure who to trust and who is telling the truth.

This movie is a total mind-freak. It's slow to start, but interesting enough to keep you involved. But eventually, it just starts going all-out and you have no idea what the hell is going on anymore (I mean, the film is completely understandable, it's just you're never sure who to trust, much like Morgan himself). There are so many twists and turns in this film, it's ridiculous. Is DigiCorp really evil? Is Sunways good, or are they playing Morgan just like DigiCorp? Who is Rita? And is her boss to be trusted, or is he yet another person he may or may not be able to trust? Needless to say, it's almost literally an insane ride.

The acting is really good, too. At first I thought a couple parts were questionable, but as it turns out from what you discover later... well, let's just say even the acting makes sense in how it was done. Jeremy Northam looks like a strange blend of David Duchovny and Tim Blake Nelson (and one more I can't place). He plays well going from the giddy new spy to the 'wtf have I gotten myself into' guy. Lucy Liu was great as the femme fatale, as well. Quite a bit different than what else I've seen her in as of late. And then there's David Hewlett, who is to Vincenzo Natali as Johnny Depp is to Tim Burton (except without being too over-exposed). He does really well as usual... sorry I can't be more specific here, but his role really isn't that huge. It's fun, though.

For such a low budget film (for its genre, anyway), as are all Vincenzo Natali films, the special effects were really good. I swear, Natali needs to teach filmmakers how to do more with less, because he's mastered it. From Cube to this, he can make completely engaging films with so little budget (this film was only made with 7.5 mil).

Overall, I really recommend the film if you're into spy thrillers, 'near-future' sci-fi, identity confusion, or just mind-freak films in general. It's certainly one heck of a ride. There are a ton of twists, some easier to see than others, and a satisfying ending.


A Keanu 'Whoa'

Short Review: Nothing.

Premise: Two friends whose lives are falling apart very quickly suddenly wish it would all go away. And then it does. Literally. 

Starring: David Hewlett and Andrew Miller. 

My Reaction: As a huge fan of Vincenzo Natali's Cube, I had to see this. Directed yet again by Natali and starring two of the actors from Cube, I figured I was in for something special. Well... I suppose you could call it special. This is probably the exact opposite of Cube in every way imaginable. Whereas Cube was claustrophobic and dark, Nothing is very spacious and light (because, well, it's a comedy). And I do mean spacious. The two guys end up in just a blank white space of nothingness with just their house and pet turtle. Getting straight to it, I felt the movie had so much potential that mostly went down the drain. It had some fun moments here and there, especially once they figure out what caused things to disappear (at about the halfway point of the film). But how do you end a movie like this? There's no plot. It's basically a character study of how these two guys would react to such a situation. I feel the way they did go about ending it was just too... weird. It turns from strange comedy into a cartoonish farce in the blink of an eye, much so that this could have easily become an entry in "WTF Did I Just Watch?" The movie isn't bad by any means... it just falls short of my expectations and isn't really outstanding based on the amazing premise.

Stop Saying Okay! Okay.