A Mainstream Sci-Fi, and several overlooked indies

By our Santa Monica Reporter, Dan Cohen

“Lucy” is a fizzy midsummer diversion, driven by the visual flair of director Luc Besson and a full throttle performance from Scarlett Johansen. It’s less than the sum of its several high points, and ultimately a head scratcher, but its energy brings a smile to your face in a season that, up to August, has offered mainly duds.

Based on the old saw that average humans use less than 10% of their brain power–a commonplace that has long since been abandoned by the scientific community—“Lucy” speeds from one unlikely set piece to another, leaving huge narrative holes as it follows the rampage of a reluctant drug mule who unintentionally ingests a chemical that sends her brain intro hyper-drive. Though Lucy’s supercharged intelligence vests her with powers that even Superman would envy, both she and the audience are given notice that her body is at war with itself, likely to self-destruct.

After a grisly opening, that establishes the stakes in no uncertain terms, the movie evolves into a frantic race against time as Lucy utilizes her escalating resources to find the drug cartel that did her wrong and then to protect the rest of us poor mortals from a similar fate. What follows is a whirlwind of PG-13 mayhem.

Although Besson has directed a handful of propulsive action films, from “La Femme Nikita,” to “The Fifth Element,” and hatched the popular “Transporter” series as writer and producer, he has not had a theatrical hit in this country for almost a decade. “Lucy” has changed that. In two weeks its box office has doubled the production cost.

In addition to a knack for mid budget action, Besson has a keen instinct for faces; he inclines to women with imperfect but compelling beauty and men who look like former prize fighters. His ability to bring out the quirk and depth in Rosanna Arquette, Milla Jovovich, Jason Statham and Jean Reno, has raised the quality and profile of otherwise derivative and stories. In 1990 he turned Anne Parillaud into an international sensation as “La Femme Nikita,” then cast Natalie Portman as the female lead in “Leon,” when she was 13.

In “Lucy,” smartly shot by Besson’s usual cinematographer, Thierry Arbogast, the camera can’t seem to move away from Scarlett Johansen, a wise strategy as she tackles the comic book storyline and dialogue with total commitment. As an enlightened scientist, Morgan Freeman virtually recites the back story without which, the movie would be unintelligible. Freeman brings his usual soothing demeanor to the task; having played this role more times than anyone can count, he could probably make creationism sound like Plato.

Near the end the narrative fractures into a spacey contemplation of the infinite that sucked the enthusiasm out of the audience at the screening I attended. As it turned into a kind of parody of the final sequence in Kubrick’s “Space Odyssey,” viewers seemed to feel betrayed by the lack of a climactic shoot out. After the final black out the audience responded with a collective heave, like the director had suddenly pranked them. What they didn’t seem to realize was that he was kidding all along.

And now, a look back…

Earlier I mentioned my disappointment with the mainstream releases this year. Notable misfires have included “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” “The Other Woman,” “Neighbors,” “Noah,” and even the mixed bag that is “Jersey Boys,” which in retrospect, is about the best of a bad lot. I even found the critical and box office success, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” much less inspired than the first reboot of the franchise, the one starring James Franco.

Despite the remarkable production design and Andy Serkis’ wizardly performance as Caeser–the philosopher king of the Ape world–the screenplay is anchored in familiar war movie clichés. The wit and ingenuity of “Rise of the Planet,” was supplanted by furious battles and predictable plot turns. But a large audience has embraced the film, studio executives are no doubt joyful over the huge box-office, and the creators will most likely birth a third and fourth in the series. I just hope they come up with better material.

But while superheroes rule the multiplexes, a handful of recent indie and foreign language DVDs offer home viewers enough to sustain them through the worst of the summer doldrums. Here are four worth seeking out.

THE EAST

Probably because it straddles the fence between mainstream and indie sensibilities, this well-crafted thriller from 2013 never found the audience it deserved. Produced by Ridley and the late Tony Scott, “The East,” starring Britt Marling and Ellen Page, takes a premise as old as the medium itself and graces it with fresh details and expert pacing. The result is both absorbing and thoughtful.

Britt Marling, an alluring actress who shares a screenplay credit with director Zal Batmanglij, plays an agent for a firm that investigates corporate espionage. Idealistic and determined, she accepts an assignment to infiltrate a secretive cult of eco-terrorists. At first repelled by their extremist tactics, she eventually begins to sympathize with their objectives. At the same time she struggles with her own ethics, she’s called upon to take action to prevent death and destruction.

You can see the characters’ final hand way before it’s dealt in the last sequence, but the direction is so assured and the dialogue so crisp, that it maintains a high level of tension right through to the end credits. There are a few loose ends in the plotting, but the conflicts are handled with a degree of sophistication largely absent from mainstream thrillers. And most important, the characters remain true to themselves. Difficult questions remain unanswered at the story’s conclusion; a real plus.

THE ROCKET

Here’s a puzzle: How does a highly entertaining indie from Australia win top honors at major festivals (Berlin, Tribeca, AFI fest, Fort Lauderdale,) take audience awards around the world, and still not obtain a significant theatrical release here in the US? Part of the answer has to do with a language barrier. Though it was directed by an Australian, “The Rocket” takes place in rural Laos, with local actors speaking their native tongue. And while the setting is far removed from the developed world, the story and character—shrewdly conceived and executed by an award winning documentary filmmaker—instantly connect on a visceral level.

After a series of coincidental disasters, Ahlo, a stubborn ten year old, becomes the scourge of his rural Laotian community. Ties with his family become even more fragile when a multi- national corporation forces the entire village to relocate. Amid the chaos of the move, Ahlo forms a tentative bond with a crafty orphan and her uncle, an eccentric who worships James Brown and dresses like Prince during his “purple” period.

Encouraged by the uncle’s singular non-comformity, and the assistance of the nine-year-old niece, Ahlo puts his all towards a regional competition that holds the possibility of lifting his family out of poverty. The problem is that the contest, the biggest in his region, entails constructing a home-made missile, the equivalent of a huge bottle rocket and making it fly higher than any of its competition. Ahlo at 10, faces off against a large group of grown men.

Because Laos is the most bombed country in history, unexploded munitions dot the fields and forests, throughout the countryside. But while the materials are readily at hand, building said rocket is a dangerous enterprise beyond the ken of a small boy. Ahlo’s attempt to prove his worth in light of several misadventures is harrowing and occasionally hilarious. “The Rocket” is not to be missed.

MONSTERS

I wasn’t wowed by the latest “Godzilla” the way I should have been. I was awed by some of the excellent CGI effects, but the monsters and the cast seemed to be in two different movies for too much of the film’s running time. Still, there were a number of scenes that played with an almost painterly magnificence, like modern versions of the kind of breathtaking landscapes you might see at the Tate Museum in London. I just wish that this humongous monster mash had been better written, like say, any one of the “Jurassic Park” series.

I don’t blame the film’s lapses on director Gareth Edwards: the script was probably as much a function of corporate decision making as the vision of its director. If you want to see what Gareth is capable of on his own, get a copy of “Monsters,” a nifty and suspenseful thriller from 2011. The monsters play second fiddle to the humans in Edwards’ script, and in the beginning, the beasts and their human prey are on completely parallel trajectories, but that’s ok, because there’s so much else that contributes to the tension. And when man and monster do intersect there’s more than enough dread.

“Monsters’” premise is pretty simple. At some point in the future, North American defense forces have fought alien invaders to a kind of détente, and managed to keep them within certain territories. Problems occur when a bounty hunter is sent out to retrieve the rebellious daughter of a wealthy industrialist, a young woman in search of a boyfriend lost somewhere in one of the forbidden zones. From the very beginning you know where these two are headed, but the direction and acting are so good, you relish every minute of the journey. When the “monsters” finally do appear in the latter passages, the wait proves worthwhile.

IDA

Singled out by critics as one of very few memorable features at this years’ Sundance festival, this slender drama is already a likely contender for a foreign film Oscar. It may not play in Lancaster, but it’s grossed close to 4 million dollars in limited release throughout North America, a small miracle for a black and white art film with no recognizable stars.

Poland, the early 60s. A teenaged novitiate, on the verge of taking her final vows, is told that her parents were Jews who disappeared during the Nazi Holocaust. To discover their fate she and an aunt she has never met, an attorney with the dubious nickname, “Red Wanda,” set off for the frozen countryside outside Warsaw to reveal the uncomfortable truth about their family. Wanda has a reputation as a Communist apparatchik, and while it isn’t made explicit, the script suggests that she has passed the death sentence on numerous dissidents. Beyond that she demonstrates a predilection for alcohol and brief affairs. To say the least, she and Ida are unlikely travel mates.

The road trip that follows, through a landscape in the bearlike grip of the Soviets, will probably be more comprehensible to those who are familiar with the post war, iron curtain. Still, director Pawl Pawlikowski, who grew up in Poland during the period, shows us most of what we need to grasp the pervasive economic and cultural lethargy. Though they are virtually powerless, subversive aspects of both Wanda and Ida set them apart from their environment. And in the end both women make devastating choices to deal with it.

It’s no accident that Pawlikowski, director of “My Summer of Love, the movie that brought Emily Blunt international attention, shot “Ida” in what initially looks like four shades of grey, and that his landscapes are bleakly underpopulated. There’s no mistaking his vision from the very first scenes. Despite the narrow physical parameters; the quiet tone, spare dialogue, and brief running time, “Ida’s” mordant humor and understated tenderness, speak volumes about life behind the Iron Curtain. Has the writer/director brought a particular bias to this picture? No doubt, but the movie feels so assured that it’s hard to argue with his vision.

Next time: more hidden gems for your home viewing pleasure.