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Bunker: Project 12

The search for bigger and better weapons has been going on ever since one of mankind’s distant ancestors figured out that small rocks hurt and big rocks hurt more.  During the Cold War that search sometimes reached epic proportions, with countries everywhere rushing to find something that would keep them from being crushed outright by a stronger country.  And of course both the US and the Soviet Union led the charge to “peace” through really big bombs.  In Bunker: Project 12, however, some Cold War-era mercenaries have been sent after a different sort of super-weapon, left lying in cold storage since the project was shut down at the end of World War II.
Movie Poster

The team isn’t even sure what they’re after, but they’ve been hired by a very wealthy businessman, John Henderson (Eric Roberts), and he’s paying them enough that they don’t ask too many questions.  I’m fairly sure that Bruno (Timothy Gibbs) thinks he’s in charge, or at least wants to be, but as much as they even have a leader that would be Tabeel (Joaquín Sánchez), who seems to be the one thing holding the group together. Well, him and the money, presumably.  Along with Irina (Natasha Alam), Alan (Tony Corvillo), and Carl (James Ferguson), they take their first step towards tracking down the mystery weapon by kidnapping Balanowsky (James Cosmo), one of the few people alive who knows his way through the mazelike underground facility that holds the weapon.

The Russians want Balanowsky dead so their secret will be safe, and frankly he isn’t a whole lot safer with the mercenaries, especially Bruno.  Though Balanowsky knows exactly what they’re looking for, he isn’t talking, and by the time the group starts closing in on their goal, they quickly realize that they’re in way, way over their heads this time.

The film starts out a lot like a Bond movie, which is to say that you’re not entirely sure what’s going on or who’s on which side, but you can be absolutely certain that things will explode and a lot of people will get shot.  It’s inside the research facility that things really get going, however — the stark, abandoned look of the structure makes its narrow corridors even more claustrophobic and eerie as our “heroes” start to discover who and what their real enemy is.  And of course Eric Roberts is always brilliant at looking like he’s up to something, which also helps build the suspense.

It’s also about as logical as a Bond movie, which is to say not very logical at all, and it only gets worse at the end.  But the action and the tension help pull you in despite this.  The characters are interesting and in some cases even strangely likable, despite their dubious profession, and the acting is solid throughout.  While you might guess at the secret of the weapon, it’s still a different and intriguing idea that I wish was explored a little more.  Of course, the ending leaves things cleverly open for a sequel, so that still might happen.  It’s primarily a popcorn flick, but if you can ignore the occasional inconsistency, it’s a wildly entertaining action film.

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Maren

A lot of us have one semi-annoying friend or acquaintance that seems to have absolutely everything — a wonderful significant other, a great place to live, the perfect job (or lack of job) and generally never seem to have a care in the world.  But even if that’s actually true, it can still take just an instant for that fantastic life to fall to pieces.  In the German short film Maren, that instant comes in the form of a fatal car crash.

The title character (Margitta-Janine Lippok) is a woman who has it all.  Besides the usual things meant by that phrase, she also has a zest for life, taking pleasure in the small things that are so easily overlooked.  On the night that changes her life, her beloved husband is coming back from a business trip and Maren has planned a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant to welcome him home.  Death, however, decides to crash the party, and I’m not just making a bad pun — after she gets the terrible phone call about her husband, Death (Max Tidof) sits himself down at her table for a chat.

Death takes his best shot.

This could never be an ordinary chat, of course.  Maren wants her husband back, and Death is more than willing to talk terms, or at least he claims to be.  But these are the highest possible stakes and Maren has an impossible choice before her.  Death might know (or think he knows) exactly how much a human life is worth, but how is a mere mortal to decide on such an exchange?  If you can’t cheat Death, as the saying goes, you probably should never try to negotiate with him, either, but Maren is desperate.

The film deals with many facets of the human condition without ever becoming preachy or condescending.  Whether your life is wildly successful or you’re struggling through every day, we’re all the same as far as Death is concerned — all equally valuable and equally worthless.  In the end, though, this film’s message isn’t nearly as dark as you might expect.  To quote a very different movie, life finds a way, and perhaps that’s all that matters.

Both Lippok and Tidof give pitch-perfect performances.  Death is intense and often frightening, both wise about and ignorant of the humans he leads into the beyond, while Maren is the image of a woman facing the derailment of her entire life, struggling with the weight of sudden despair.  It’s a powerful, wonderfully directed film that’s haunting and hopeful — because while Death may be everywhere, in the end this is the story of a mere mortal, and it’s Maren that shines through beautifully.

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Stalked

We’ve all had that feeling of not quite belonging, and it’s with good reason that misfit characters are everywhere in fiction — it’s something we can all relate to.  In the new web series Stalked from JH Producties, set in Holland,  Finn (Jaimy Homberg) is the awkward teenager who doesn’t quite fit in.  He dreams of being an actor someday so he automatically can’t be one of the cool kids, and honestly, liking to cook probably doesn’t help much.  But his life isn’t all bad, since he has his cat, his best friend Olivia (Myrna Laanen), and an older boyfriend who looks like a model, Jim (Billy Twomey).  Sadly, Jim is now back in England for college so they can only talk on Skype.

This is what happens when you go camping just because it’s scary.

Since he’s missing Jim, Finn does his best to keep busy, especially during the week that his parents are gone.  He goes to auditions and makes plans with Olivia, including a camping trip, about which Olivia is far too excited, especially since they don’t seem to be going anywhere except the middle of a random field.  But hey, whatever floats your boat, as they say, and they seem like they’re having fun.

But there’s some dark stuff happening in Olivia’s life — she’s certainly in need of some distraction, to say the least — and things only get darker for our heroes as the series progresses.  At first you might be able to pass events off as being nothing but tasteless practical jokes, and Finn tries his best to do just that, even though it’s a lost cause.  The fact is he’s being stalked, and neither he nor Olivia is quite sure what to do about it as they’re both thrown into the midst of this very grown-up problem.

Homberg directs as well as stars and does well at both, creating a charmingly offbeat character in Finn, while Laanen’s Olivia manages to be perky and optimistic without being dreadfully annoying, which is quite a feat as far as I’m concerned.  The twist ending isn’t entirely a surprise, but I enjoyed the reveal nonetheless — both leads bring a lot of enthusiasm to their roles and that really shows on the screen.  The cinematography could use a little work, but overall it’s a solid drama that I hope predicts great things for Homberg and crew.  It’s available on YouTube and well worth watching.

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The Lightest Darkness

A private detective.  A train travelling all night to a mysterious destination.  Three strangers encountering each other by chance — or is it chance?  The moment you start watching The Lightest Darkness by Diana Galimzyanova, you know you’re in the world of noir, where everything is black and white but never simple.

Musin (Rashid Aitouganov) is the neurotic private eye, a frequent train traveler these days as he works to clear up the estate of his recently deceased uncle (Alexander Rapoport).   Elina Vyasovtseva (Marina Voytuk) is a concert pianist travelling for her work.  Arina (Irina Gevorgyan) is a screenwriter researching a script for a computer game — which, as she is quick to point out, can be as complex as any novel these days.  And the subject of her game is one that isn’t far from anyone’s mind: The Fruiterer, the odd nickname bestowed on a serial killer who haunts the night trains for victims, having claimed at least six lives.  People are afraid to ride the trains and are staying away — no, wait, actually the trains are booked solid and the conductors (Anfisa Mukhamedzhanova and Ekaterina Dar) are doing a brisk business in grisly souvenirs and sharing all the sordid details, for the right price.

As this story moves forward, another spools backward, as Musin recalls the details of his latest case.  A worried husband (Vladimir Morozov) hired the detective to find his missing wife, Lyubov (Ksenia Zemmel), and what began as just another missing persons case quickly flies out of control as Musin becomes far too personally entangled with the case, and especially with the last person to see Luybov — her highly unconventional therapist, Izolda Ivanoff (Kolya Neukoelln).

The stories are skillfully woven together, each mystery heightening the other as they unfold.  The characters all have secrets and are haunted by their pasts one way or another, pasts that seem to have inevitably brought them together.  There’s a strong sense of inescapable fate about the entire film, a feeling that all of the characters are doing exactly what they must do, whether they truly want to or not.  Like a train taking the viewer inexorably to the next station, there’s no turning back — not that you’ll want to, as you’ll be far too caught up in the mystery.

This is Galimzyanova’s feature-length debut as a director, and she handles it like a pro, turning the two stories into a fascinating web of intrigue that will satisfy any film fan and especially noir fans like me.  The actors never hit a wrong note, the characters and various classic noir elements blending seamlessly with the modern world to create an atmosphere that’s both dreamlike and alarmingly real, a place where unknown dangers might lie behind every corner.  Sometimes there’s good reason to be afraid of the darkness.

Musin checks his look in the mirror.
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Under the Tree

Konrad and his chainsaw. He has no idea what he's doing with that thing.

There’s an old saying about how you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. You also can’t generally choose your neighbors, and sometimes they can be even harder to avoid than family, It can be a real risk to try to befriend a neighbor, because if it all goes wrong somehow your only option is to pack up and move, and that’s a hassle nobody wants. Still, in Under the Tree, both sets of neighbors would have been much better off if they’d fled to opposite sides of the country.

Admittedly Iceland isn’t a very big country, but that might have worked. It sounds like the neighbors got along until Konrad (Þorsteinn Bachmann) got a divorce and moved his girlfriend Eybjorg (Selma Björnsdóttir) into the house. Meanwhile, Baldvin (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Inga’s (Edda Björgvinsdóttir) elder son Uggi has disappeared, and while it’s believed that he took his own life, Inga is still tormented by the uncertainty. Younger son Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson) is having marital difficulties, as his wife Agnes (Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir) was upset to find him enjoying a video a little too much. Yes, it was one of those, though I won’t mention the particularly odd twist. So Atli has moved back in with his parents and into Ground Zero.

Inga and Baldvin have a largish shade tree in their backyard, you see, and they’re proud of it since there aren’t many other sizable trees in the area. But Eybjorg likes to sunbathe — which seems like a doubtful hobby in Iceland — and the tree’s shadow falls right across her back porch. Bitter over the loss of her son and jealous of the younger woman, Inga throws a fit whenever anyone suggests so much as trimming the tree. The situation is at an uneasy impasse until the dirty tricks start, and escalate fast. When Inga’s cat goes missing, she confronts Konrad, who coolly denies all knowledge… while taking a chainsaw out of his car.

You can imagine how things go from that point. Scandinavian movies can be pretty dark, but this one is darker than any Icelandic winter and twice as cold. Though you often sympathize with the characters — Inga is certainly spiteful, for instance, but the limbo she’s forced to live in must be terrible — it’s hard to really like any of them. Eybjorg and Konrad seem to expect that everything will go their way and can’t seem to get it when life inevitably doesn’t cooperate. Baldvin prefers to hide at choir practice rather than face reality, and I won’t even get into Atli and his temper.

But as another old saying goes, even the wicked get worse than they deserve, and that’s certainly true here. By the time the dust settles and the blood dries, no one left standing will ever be the same, though it’s doubtful if any of them have learned much. The slow, steady escalation of the situation is perfectly paced, however, and even when you want to shout at the characters to stop being so ridiculous, you also can’t wait to see what bizarre thing happens next. It’s the ultimate slow-motion train wreck with some of the darkest and most uncomfortable humor imaginable. But it’s also a solid drama and a fascinating watch that you won’t be able to look away from — even if you really, really wish you could,

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The Watchers

John finally gets a call, but not the one he's been hoping for.

We’ve all had that feeling now and then, that indefinable certainty that someone’s looking at us. Sometimes we’re right about it, sometimes wrong, but in either case the feeling doesn’t last and we go about our day. In The Watchers, though, John (Jeff Moffitt) is having more of a problem with that feeling than usual. Everywhere he turns, he insists there’s someone watching him and it’s bothering him so much he’s making emergency calls to his psychiatrist Dr. Orwell (Timothy J. Cox).

Stress can do strange things sometimes, Dr. Orwell says soothingly, and even aside from the feeling of being stared at John has plenty of that. He’s estranged from his wife Marcie (Nikki Flanagan) and leaves pleading messages on her voicemail that remain unanswered. The pressure is affecting him at work, too, as you might imagine. His boss Philip (Darrin Biss) is very understanding, but that only seems to enrage John, which makes the stress worse.

Then a cryptic note appears inside his apartment, left by a hooded figure John can’t get a good look at. A woman (Kathleen Boddington) he doesn’t know says she’s been waiting for him. When John witnesses a tragedy and tries to report it to a police officer (Robert Nesi) the officer seems to know an awful lot about John, as do many other people he encounters on the street. It seems there’s something to John’s paranoia after all — but it isn’t until his apparently random meeting with an older man (Peter Francis Span) that he begins to grasp the full scope of what’s happening to him.

You can’t help but feel for John — all he really wants is for his wife to return his calls and figure out what’s going on. But as far as the latter goes, it’s a clear case of needing to be careful what you wish for, as the truth will change his world forever. As alone as he feels he does have people willing to help — his boss, the reassuring Dr. Orwell — but he’s determined to go it alone, perhaps out of some misguided need to feel in control. The very last thing he has is control, however, as he loses more and more of himself to these watchers.

I’ll give it four out of five. All the clues are there but the ending still gives a satisfying twist, with some eerie and unsettling moments along the way as we follow John’s bizarre journey of discovery — or perhaps his long fall down the rabbit hole. It’s a realistic look at a regular guy swept up into extreme circumstances and finding out he was never really who he thought he was.

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BnB Hell

Willa explores the B&B. Plenty of code violations there.

A disappearance is such a common plot device it’s easy to forget how dreadful the uncertainty must be. Not knowing a loved one’s fate is the worst sort of limbo, and to make things even harder, the police aren’t always going to have the time or resources to take a given disappearance as seriously as those left behind would like. In BnB Hell Willa (Kimberly Woods) has both those problems, plus the fact that it’s her twin, Stacy, who’s disappeared. Since Stacy was the adventurous twin, the police have decided she was on drugs or otherwise just wandered off on her own, leaving Willa to search herself.

She’s traced her sister as far as an online listing for a bed and breakfast called Mommy’s Hollywood Heaven. And indeed, the owner (Carol Stanzione) does insist everyone call her Mommy, at which point I knew there would be trouble. She claims not to remember Stacy even though it was only a month ago she stayed there, but then, Mommy doesn’t quite seem all there. Neither does the creepy neighbor (Mark Hanau). If it was anyone but Stacy missing Willa might have given up, since Willa is far and away one of the most sensible characters I’ve seen in any horror movie.

This particular B&B isn’t the cleanest nor is it in the best repair, but it does have the gorgeous view promised online, featuring such landmarks as the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory. There’s one other guest at the moment, a grad student named Marco (Rudy Dobrev) who is also remarkably not prone to doing silly things. It’s a miracle the writers were able to move the plot along without resorting to a character who opens all the triple-locked doors and reads books bound in human skin.

After an awkward introduction, Marco begins to help Willa with her search, which includes hunting through various memory cards left behind by former guests. They’re from the camera Mommy provides so that people can leave video reviews for her to post online, though most of what our amateur detectives find has very little to do with discussing the amenities of the house. A tantalizing glimpse of Stacy proves that Willa is on the right track, but there are even more shocking images on the cards. Clearly there’s at least one highly dangerous person around, but it also seems that not all the dangers come from human beings.

I was hoping for nothing more than a decent slasher film, but this film went well beyond that. It is a solid and somewhat traditional slasher, but it also capably weaves in supernatural overtones and as mentioned even shockingly allows its main characters to use their common sense. Willa is the opposite of a damsel in distress and there are generally good performances from all the leads, though I did think that the villains could have been more creepy in some scenes. But the ending was as good as the rest, offering some clever twists, and worth four out of five stars. However bad your AirBnB experience may have been, this movie proves it can always get worse.