Extraction

The 5th film in the lockdown series is the new Chrimsworth action thriller, Extraction, showing now on Netflix. According to the streaming giant, this film is quite popular at the moment but I found it fairly derivative. The basic plot sees an Indian lad kidnapped as part of a drug baron feud and Chris Hemsworth sent in to 'extract' him. Pretty soon, things start to go south and the rest of the film focusses on the attempted escape from Dhaka and myriad father/son dynamics.

This is brutal, energetic, almost dizzying film-making at times and there are a few scenes that Gareth Evans, of The Raid fame, might find impressive. At one point, Hemsworth's mercenary, Tyler falls off a roof onto a truck, has a bit of a barney with a suitably fierce opponent, then gets hit by a car. This occurs in the middle of a sphincter-tightening, single-take, chase/fight sequence, which is, by a long chalk, the best part of the film.

Hemsworth comes off reasonably well, if a little youthful and pretty for a grizzled vet and the supporting cast do the business, most of whom are relative unknowns outside India and Iran (and there's a fella from another Netflix show but I wasn't aware of him). The street scenes look the part - it was filmed in India, Bangladesh and Thailand - and the bustle of the crowd adds even more tension to the frenetic moments.

But as I said, aside from a spectacular, 11 minute single-take, there isn't much pushing the envelope in this film. And the final shot can go extract itself.


See also:

Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947), for a 'guy trapped in a city' trope and Tony Scott's Man on Fire (2004), which covers similar 'extraction' ground.

SPOILERS MAY BE FOUND WITHIN!!

Listen to "Extraction" on Spreaker.

I Am Mother

So, for the 4th edition of Film Shapes in lockdown, we watched I Am Mother on Netflix. This is an Aussie sci-fi, directed by Perth film-maker, Grant Sputore and stars Clara Rugaard, Hilary Swank and the voice of Rose Byrne. There will need to be spoilers in the accompanying podcast but I'll try to be vague here in the write-up. The film takes place in an underground bunker, which looks a little like the Prometheus from Prometheus, one day after an extinction event (we're not told what caused said extinction).

There is one robot in the facility and thousands of human embryos. The apparent aim is to start humanity afresh. One child is 'hatched' and she grows to a young woman under the care and tutelage of the titular Mother. All is going swimmingly until Woman shows up. Rugaard, Byrne and Swank play off nicely against each other and there's enough tension here to hold the viewer for the duration.  It's a nice move to have a film like this with a total of zero 'dicks on the dance floor' (apologies to Flight of the Conchords).



See also:

For a similarly sparse human head count, try Duncan Jones' Moon (2009) and for another post-extinction film, A Boy and His Dog (1975), directed by L.Q. Jones. I'm not even certain I'd recommend that one, to be fair, but it's proper fucking bonkers.

SPOILERS RIDDLE THIS POD!!!!

Listen to "I Am Mother" on Spreaker.

Ida

SBS on Demand is streaming some quality films these days. I chose Ida for the next in our pod connections, mainly because it had a roundly positive critical consensus behind it. And I don't mind the director, Pawel Pawlikowski, either. So, without spoilers, here follows a few words about it.

Ida runs about 80 minutes and it gets as much in as possible while still being slightly ponderous and vague. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Pawlikowski has a lot to say about guilt, secrets and choice but his canvas is so sparse, his style so pared back that it's a wonder anything gets through. But it does, just. The title character is a young nun, about to do her vows in early 1960s Poland. Before this, she must visit her only surviving relative, her aunt Wanda. It's here she learns a secret about her past, which I'll leave for the viewer to discover.

The two leads are fine, especially Agata Kulesza as Wanda. At various points in the films, she's fierce, miserable, distraught and fun. Ida is played by a newcomer, Agata Trzebuchowska, and she says a fair bit without actually saying much. In saying that, I felt she over-played the underplaying a bit, if that makes sense.

One final thing to note - this film suffers from a kind of pretentiousness that afflicts many films of an 'arthouse' bent. That being the purposeful 'inability' to frame the subjects. There were a couple of occasions where a character's lower face was obscured or someone was half out of frame. This may be a budget issue but I reckon it's more likely a creative choice. While I don't mind this too much, it can get a bit annoying. It almost hints at apathy.

So, Ida. Worth a look, doesn't overstay its welcome and has a bit to say about post-war Polish society. But it says it in a whisper.

See also:

Another Pawlikowski film on a similar theme, Cold War (2018) and, sticking with Polish directors, one of the best, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colours: White (1994).

Listen to "Ida" on Spreaker.

Infernal Affairs

Time to re-watch this 2002 Hong Kong thriller with Tony Leung and Andy Lau. I remember seeing this advertised on billboards in Osaka when I first got to Japan and thinking there was a spelling mistake in the Richard Gere film (from 1990 - why would it have taken 12 years to get to cinemas in Japan?). Another thing I recall is thinking that it was a peach of a film and holding that thought until now.

I wouldn't say it's diminished in the intervening years since first seeing it but there are some, shall we say, squeeze points that I hadn't noticed before. I'm trying not to spoil anything in this new format so I'll just say some of the characters are under-served. In a nutshell, this is an undercover cop/undercover gangster story whereby each is tasked with finding out the identity of the other. It's pretty high concept and well constructed at that. Coming in at a touch over 90 minutes, there's very little fat on the bones, too.

There are a couple of nail-biting moments, one or two surprises and the leads are engagingly watchable (Leung is especially hard to lay a glove on, cool mutha that he is). Infernal Affairs was box office gold, spawning 2 sequels and a Hollywood remake - The Departed - directed by Martin Scorsese. Incidentally, that might have been the best ever American remake until an unfortunate stumble at the end (less said, the better).

Infernal Affairs, and its sequels, are showing on Netflix. Highly recommended.

See also:

Lau and Leung have been in some proper belters so I'd suggest checking their back catalogue. In the meantime, try Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000).

Listen to "Infernal Affairs" on Spreaker.