Spain Month: Hierro

Shhh. We've not posted a thing in nearly two weeks, but don't tell anyone. It's been a busy while; Rhona's got exams and I stupidly installed Skyrim on my PC. Things should be back to normal soon.

Elena Anaya is a force to be reckoned with. Three weeks ago I reviewed her performance in The Skin I Live In and today, as the last post of this year's (slightly extended) International Month, I'm reviewing one of her earlier films: the stylish pseudo-supernatural thriller Hierro.

Anaya plays Maria, a woman who very recently lost her son under mysterious circumstances on a ferry to the titular El Hierro, a tiny Spanish-owned island in the Canaries. Months later she's called back to the island to identify a washed-up body that may be her son; but when she arrives it feels like something isn't quite right. Maybe her son is still alive, and maybe someone has him on the island. *dun duuuun*

"Gee, this sure sounds like a zinger of a mystery. Let's split up and search for clues!"

We'll start with the setting. Golly, the Canaries are beautiful. Why do people not film stuff on tiny sort-of-tropical islands more often? It looks lovely and adds a lot of unique character to something that would otherwise have been swept out to a sea of banal modern horror-thriller tropes. The overcast, close weather really lends to the atmosphere of the film too; you could even say there's themes. Like nature, and stuff being all unclear and foggy and shit, and I really can't be arsed with that artsy symbolism stuff today. 

Here's Elena Anaya's boobs again. Now leave me alone.

It's not just the island that look gorgeous though, the cinematography is plain yet stylish and very effective. Whoever was behind this really took the time to set up some nice frames for the viewer to chew on, making Hierro enjoyable even just to stare blankly at. You could happily turn it into a screensaver; in a good way. Maybe the desaturation could have been lifted just a tad to let the greenery and water stand out a bit more, but generally it's a treat to look at.

" Ahh...A car crash never seemed so peaceful."
"I think I hear people shouting for hel-"
"Shh. Don't spoil it."

A horror-thriller wouldn't be complete without two things: a recurring animal motif and weird trippy dreams. Oh, well would you looky here, it appears some cheeky devil has snuck both of those into Hierro. What are the chances...? Maria (Anaya), having suffered the loss of her son, appears to have gone a bit...distant, and begins experiencing some rather unusual visions, often accompanied by one of my favourite uses of animals as horror icons in a long time: a flock of birds. Not shit-flying-at-your-face kind of birds, but the formation of them in the sky, much like the above picture. Or the below gifsicle.

"O hai."

It's a much subtler use of nature than the usual "let's throw crows at you until they stick" mentality of horror imagery; there's a subtle finesse to it that's that perfect mix of surreal/haunting and natural. The rest of the nightmare sequences follow suit, making for some great sequences that straddle the line between creepy surrealism and outright nonsense with skill, never dipping too far but still managing to be surprisingly iffy-makey.

Doll heads should be outlawed in all places for ever and ever.

OK, the setting is my next holiday destination, the camera work is, as you can see, up to scratch, and it brings a little much-needed tact to an otherwise heavy-handed genre; now to the acting. It's...really good too! Oh mai, you're getting all the praise, Hierro, aren't you? Who's a good movie!? You are! You are!

'hem. Yes. Elena Anaya is, as my pull at the beginning of the post said, a force in this film. I don't know if it's her creepily pretty eyes or that half-there look she gives, but she captures someone who's maybe a little too close to becoming unhinged so well it's scary. For once in a horror film, it's not the supernatural or scary stuff that makes the film creepy, it's the way the lead reacts to and interacts with the world around her that does it. Anaya's wanders all over the island with wide-eyed unease and you're scared (even when you normally wouldn't be) because you can tell that she is; Maria is terrified and confused and so are you.

Hierro isn't exactly cast heavy and the other characters who do appear all take up but a fraction of the run time, but they're all pretty good too. Interestingly, looking at the IMDb page, a lot of the character names end in 'a': Maria, Laura, Tania, Julia, Elena. Weird. Interesting, but of completely no consequence.

"Wait, are you Laura? Or am I Elena? Shit."

Here comes the criticism. Despite all of the things it does right, Hierro falls down right where it counts: being unoriginal. Yes, it's pretty and well shot and has good acting, but there's nothing new here; there's the obligatory twist at the ending and the credits arrive and that's it. You're done. It's entertaining, but you'll finish feeling unfulfilled, like there should have been more. I can't fault it on a technical level, it's great; it's just too bad it's another landscape of a mountain in an art gallery full of...yeah, you get the analogy. If you've the time/inclination to spend watching Anaya once again being awesome, then it's worth it, but don't hold your breath for any revelations.

Bonus Screenshot! I just really like this one; there's ants.

Moustache Rating

The Daniel Craig -

Yup. Did you even know he had one? I didn't. This is a moustache that exists on something beautiful, but is itself marred by its own ennui. Short lived and eventually forgotten.

Spain Month: Intacto

Week 2 and my beard is pissing me off to no end. I like my face not covered in itchy hair bitsicles. Guh! Now I'm afraid things are a little busy this week, my lovely readers, so this'll be a speedy review; let's get started.

This week's review is looking at Intacto, an early film of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the director of one of the few truly, honestly, and unforgettably abysmal sequels ever made: 28 Weeks Later. Frankly, I was not expecting much; and if it turned out to be OK, I wasn't hoping for any more than an absolutely average movie. I'll be straight up and say that, surprisingly, that wasn't the case; it was slightly above average.

It's the hobnob of movies. Better than a digestive, but still not covered in sweet, sweet chocolate.

It appears I've inadvertently ended up picking nought but thrillers for this month's movies (although can you blame me? Spain does them ruddy well), but shmeh, I'm not complaining. Right, the film. Intacto has a pretty standard tone and atmosphere for a thriller, but stands out a little thanks to its premise: lucky people. Yup. Lucky people competing in dangerous games to see who's luckier. Being a thriller there's obviously the usual court-mandated unnecessary plot twists and lack of coherent explanation as well but that's the gist.

For some reason this involves smearing yourself with treacle and putting bugs on your head.

In retrospect, the whole thing is a mess. The premise is introduced nice and early, sure, but it feels like the goal posts are being constantly moved depending on what the film makers wanted to happen in that particular scene. The basic idea is that there are people in the world with supernaturally good luck, and they compete with each other to see who is the luckiest; simple. So it starts with everyone on a kind of scale of luckiness with the luckiest coming out on top, but then they bring in the concept of betting with the luck of normal people (and temporarily absorbing the luck of others by touching them) and the water starts to muddy. By the end you just have to go with it, the rules are forgotten and stuff just seems to be happening because reasons.

Yes, it's lucky to survive, but it wasn't very lucky to be in a plane crash in the first place. Jeez.

That said, despite the poorly presented ideas it is still a fun movie. Some of the less convoluted challenges are that good mixture of silly and tense that keeps you nicely on the edge; the best being a moment when the characters are blindfolded and made to run through a dense forest towards a man's voice. Gah. I've leaned against a tree too hard and hurt myself, I don't want to think what it'd be like sprinting into one.

I'm not sure what it says about the whole film when the best scene is of people running at trees with their face.

Where it has it, Intacto does tension very well; helped along by some skilful cinematography that gives the movie a weird, pseudo-dreamy atmosphere. There's a lot of Lynch and Kubrick influences in here, and very obviously so. Although that's not a bad thing; it works and it adds to the overall tone of the movie, making for some lovely shots that compliment the tense/weird scenes.

Case in point.

There's little to say about the acting and even less about the music; they exist, but don't occupy any more space than is necessary. Plus the characterisation and exposition is sloppy at best, character's back-stories being introduced with as much delicacy as flying a plane using only your balls. It may have the style and suspense, but on a whole Intacto felt like it lacked that extra bit of substance necessary to make a memorable movie. It's fun and interesting but don't go looking for Nolan-esque moral exploration or third act twists (excluding Interstellar in all its glacial-paced, predictable glory), you'll end up disappointed.

And yes, of course there's a game of Russian roulette.

 Here's a fun drinking game to play while you watch this movie: take a drink every time someone refers to luck, being lucky, or the luckiness of someone else. You'll get smashed faster than a Faberge egg being held by a Parkinsons sufferer.

Moustache Rating

The "V" -

It appears to be trying to make some sort of statement, but gets too caught up in its own style to say anything at all. At least it's fun though.

Spain Month: The Skin I Live In

It took a long time before I realised this was a drawing.

It's November peepsicles! Those of you who've been about a while know that last year, to celebrate Movemver (a really awesome cause that you should donate to), I spent the month looking at movies from Italy, the land of fabby face fuzz. I've decided to continue the tradition this year, thus officially commencing an annual International Cinema Month, by moving a little West and looking at the produce of another country of moustachioed greats: España!

An accurate representation of all Spaniards, ever.

They may not be as great in number as other countries, but the classic Spanish moustache has become an iconic image for top lip overgrowth worldwide, and for that they get this month dedicated to them. Let's get going then; we're going to start things off with Pedro Almodovar's creepy body horror/thriller/drama, The Skin I Live In.

Medicine In Film: The Sea Inside

Ahoy there, dear readers! Apologies in advance for this post seeming a little rough around the edges or too rambly, but I lost my laptop charger this week and have been out of commission for a few days so I'm a little behind on things. Now where did we leave off? Ah yes; last time we had a demented old lady being cared for by her devoted husband and today we're looking at a quadriplegic Spaniard who has been trying to die for 30 years. Well shit, this is just getting perkier and perkier in't it. Shall we?

Today's film is The Sea Inside (or Mar Adentro), starring Javier Bardem; a true story of the 3-decade-long struggle of the author Ramon Sampedro, who suffered a paralyzing neck injury in his 20s, to be given the right to take his own life by Spanish courts. Another author? I think the real moral here is not to write books unless you want to have some seriously nasty shit happen to you.

Like male-pattern balding.