Neil Young's Film Lounge - Leeds Film Festival 2002

JIGSAW LOUNGE RECOMMENDS

(nb : programme is subject to change)

CURE (8/10) (1997)
From Japan’s Michael Mann of horror - a landmark philosophical chiller.
The film that introduced the world to a new Japanese master named Kurosawa. But while the legendary Akira never bothered with horror, his namesake Kiyoshi pushes the genre in dazzling new directions. Cure plot reads like a cross between Se7en and Heat - a veteran cop with a hectic private life is baffled by a series of inexplicable, violent murders – but Kurosawa uses it to explore Japan’s doomy, Sarin-haunted millennial zeitgeist. The film’s long final shot is arguably the most remarkable in recent cinema.
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ICHI THE KILLER (8/10) (2001)
The wizard of gore unleashes his body-slicing masterpiece.
There’s never been any director quite like the brilliant Miike, even in the crazy world of Japanese underground cinema. Routinely zipping through six full-length features per year, he creates a universe world so nightmarishly extreme it often tips over into pitch-black comedy. He’s best known for the dead-straight Audition, but Ichi – adapted from a manga comic-book – is much more of a no-holds-barred romp, as an absurdly charismatic yazuka (the astonishing Tadanobu Asano) squares off against a mysterious, unstoppable assassin with gore-soaked consequences. A work of genius – but an empty stomach is recommended.
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THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (8/10) (2001)
The Sound of Music meets Dawn of the Dead on the slopes of Mount Fuji.
From the director of the blood-soaked Audition and Ichi the Killer comes a genuine surprise: the year’s most infectiously optimistic comedy, a musical chronicling the misfortunes of an upbeat extended family operating a remote rural hotel. If you thought Dancer in the Dark and Moulin Rouge were offbeat, think again: Miike’s numbers feature reanimated corpses, nightmarish claymation, an exploding volcano, the world’s cutest pooch… and a levitating US Navy officer who claims to be the secret son of Princess Margaret.
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SOMETHING TO REMIND ME (7/10) (2001)
A classy, twisty thriller to delight fans of Hitchcock, Highsmith… and Bacharach?
Petzold leaps to the front rank of current German directors with this compelling, character-based suspense drama. Thomas (Andre Hennicke) drifts into a relationship with cool blonde Leyla (Nina Hoss), to a romantic soundtrack of Burt Bacharach classics. But when she suddenly vanishes from his life, Thomas realises he’s been the victim of a carefully-planned seduction, and we’re suddenly plunged into the psychological-thriller territory of Alfred Hitchcock and novelist Patricia Highsmith. This is perhaps the year’s most ingenious script – see it now, before the inevitable Hollywood remake.
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MORVERN CALLAR (8/10) (2002)
Samantha Morton dazzles in the most eagerly-awaited British film of 2002.
Ratcatcher was hailed as one of the most accomplished debuts by a UK director in recent years. Ramsay’s followup confirms her status as a major new talent in world cinema. Morvern is a young Englishwoman (Samantha Morton) living in Scotland whose life takes unexpected new directions after the suicide of her boyfriend. Her journey is by turns funny, scary and touching – and Morton, last seen breaking big in Hollywood with Minority Report, underlines her status as Britain’s most mesmering young actress.
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BUNGALOW (7/10) (2002)
Why must I be a (German) teenager in love?
There’s an exciting new wave of young directors coming out of Germany right now, and Koehler is one of the most promising – his debut delighted both critics and audiences at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Newcomer Lennie Burmeister is Paul, a disaffected teenager hiding out at home after deserting from the army. As the summer days drag by, Paul gets friendly with his brother’s Danish girlfriend (Festen’s Trine Dyrholm) – with disastrous consequences. A deft, honest, unpredictable and fresh take on small-town life.
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DONNIE DARKO (7/10) (2001)
Enter the nightmarish dream-world of a disturbed young genius…
If David Lynch had directed The Ice Storm, the results might have been something like Kelly’s one-of-a-kind debut, which explores the haunted mind of a teenager (rapidly rising star Jake Gyllenhaal) growing up in a small US town in 1988. Writer-director Kelly’s script is dazzlingly original, while his virtuoso control of image and music have drawn comparisons with Magnolia auteur Paul Thomas Anderson. Cameos include a never-better Drew Barrymore, and a quite jaw-droppingly unexpected turn from, of all people, Patrick Swayze.
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THE UNKNOWN (7/10) (2001)
Scandinavia’s terrifyingly inventive answer to Blair Witch – and then some…
An inspiration to all aspiring film-makers, The Unknown shows the wonders that can be achieved on the slenderest of shoestring budgets. Five squabbling biologists travel to a remote forest where they carry out soil analysis – but find much more than they’d bargained for. First-time writer-director Hjorth has clearly seen Blair Witch, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and The X-Files, and he elicits worryingly believable performances from his terrific cast. There’s more energy, invention and ingenuity on show here than in a dozen Hollywood horrors.
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VOLCANO HIGH (6/10) (2002)
If Harry Potter was a Korean teenager with Matrix moves…
A deliriously bizarre, visually stunning twist on the high-school genre, this instant cult favourite is like a head-on collision between Harry Potter, Battle Royale and The Matrix. Peroxided teen Kim (Hyuk Jang)’s telekinetic powers get him expelled from school after school – until he ends up at Volcano High, where the kids are wizards at martial arts and the teachers are just plain wizards. Hyper-stylised production design and a thoroughly loopy plot combine to provide a non-stop rollercoaster of kick-ass weirdness.
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SESSION 9 (6/10) (2001)
An atmospheric shocker to chill the most hardened horror fans.
Rated “the year’s scariest film” by the horror experts at Shivers magazine, Anderson’s debut is a nerve-jangling journey into darkness. A team of asbestos removal experts (including NYPD Blue’s David Caruso and Scotland’s own Peter Mullan) is hired to clean out an enormous former mental asylum in the remote Massachusetts countryside – which turns out to be not quite as empty as they’d been led to expect. Harnessing the latest digital-video technology, Session 9 breathes genuinely new creepy life into the haunted-house movie – don’t watch it alone!
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ST JOHN’S WORT (6/10) (2001)
Japanese video-game craziness: Lara Croft meets Hammer Horror.
St John’s Wort is based on a cult Japanese video-game, but we couldn’t be much further from the megabudget Hollywood slickness of Tomb Raider or Final Fantasy. Instead, it’s an fancifully imaginative version of the game’s origins, with a young student and her boyfriend exploring the crumbling mansion she’s inherited from her estranged father, while colleagues monitor their every move via video cameras and an internet hook-up. This is a freewheeling, visually startling chiller with a post-modern edge and plenty of genuine creepiness along the way.
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