GOOD CATS
Announced – somewhat grandly – in its opening credits as "the third feature film by Ying Liang," and while it's not quite up to the level of the writer-director's first two efforts (Taking Father Home and The Other Half) it does confirm him as probably China's most consistent and promising younger film-maker. Another journey into the social and economic fabric of Shanghai-born Ying's adopted city of Zigong in Sichuan province, this time we follow the semi-criminal career of a booze-prone lad on the fringes of (a) his thirties and (b) the local criminal underworld.
Driver-cum-lackey for a corrupt property-developer, Luo Liang's lackadaisical attitude and questionable mores exasperate his demure, hard-working, long-suffering girlfriend Qang Quan, and he seeks romantic solace in the arms of a chatty prostitute. But is he destined to pay the 'wages of sin' – or will his brand of unprincipled pragmatism find bountiful reward in a modern-day China that seems to have long since abandoned any kind of ideological framework?
The main problem with Good Cats - the title a reference to the kind of economic realpolitik famously espoused by former Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping (here paraphrased as "is doesn't matter what colour a cat is, so long as it catches mice") is that we don't really much care about the protagonist, a monosyllabic sort who's not especially intelligent, memorable or engaging – indeed, he's one of the least interesting characters on view.
Copious and consistent compensations abound, however, and as with his first two pictures Ying's instinctive eye for composition and framing lends fascination to even the most mundane of scenes. Once again, he evokes the atmospheres of specific places and areas – and makes wry, cuttingly cynical comment about the general situation in his dysfunctional, graft-lubricated, superstition-haunted nation – with the most minimal of means, crafting intricate soundscapes that repay close attention 
alongside some persuasively convincing, slangy dialogue.
Understandably seeking to explore his chosen medium having made something of a name for himself on the festival circuit with his earlier, shoestring-debuted efforts, Ying's formal experiments include a bold and surprising interpolation of five songs from the doomy rock-band Lamb's Funeral – a kind of east-Asian Evanescence, on this evidence – whose first, unannounced appearance represents a genuine, head-spinning coup de cinema.
A little of the group's portentously overblown lyrics goes rather a long way, however ("your smile lights on my dead bones"), and Ying's fondness for imaginatively unusual camera-placement occasionally tips over into gratuitous show-offery. There's no mistaking his talent, however, and it's a safe bet that he'll learn volumes from his minor mis-steps here.
… David Walsh's interview with Ying Liang for WSWS
HOOPESTON
An outstanding debut from Thomas Bender, Hoopeston is a cracking documentary on modern-day America and its attitudes, focussing on a single small town in the southern Illinois close to the Indiana border. Formerly quite affluent – indeed, it's long been the self-proclaimed 'Sweet Corn Capital of the World' – Hoopeston has fallen on tough economic times since the construction of the interstate and the dwindling of the US railway network.
This resulted in some of America's "cheapest real-estate," a crucial factor in the town being identified as an ideal spot to locate 'Witch School' – less an educational establishment, more a small business retailing items (wands, spells, broomsticks, etc) related to the Wiccan religion. But not everyone in Hoopeston welcomed the newcomers with unbridled hospitality – indeed, mutterings about "satanism" and "devil-worshippers" resulted in some fractious episodes…
Showing audacious ambition for his first feature, Bender treads several very fine lines here. On the formal level, Hoopeston alternates between a slick, refreshingly bold approach – neatly formal compositions; deliberately foregrounded soundtrack music; a tweaked colour-palette; chapter-headings and captions presented in a white, Wes Anderson-style blocky font – and some much rougher-edged interpolations, including shaky camcorder-footage shot by one of the Wiccans, and the sect's own "home-movie" videos with numerous flubs and out-takes left in.
It's also hard to pin down the film's attitude to the Wiccans and their leader, Don Lewis-Highcorrell, an outsize, bearded, piercing-eyed, eloquently voluble chap who comes across like a more genial (but puckishly self-mythologising) real-life descendant of Night of the Demon's charismatic-oddball satanist Prof Karswell. At times, Hoopeston feels a little like propaganda for the group and their – very American – desire to practice their own religion in an atmosphere of privacy and respect. At others, as when we're shown extensive footage of their rituals ("lustration is here!"), the air is closer to deft undercutting, mickey-take or even downright lampoon – the old "give 'em enough rope" trick of the documentarian presenting amusing weirdos for our patronising delectation.
It's Bender's achievement, however, that in the end his film can't be reduced to such simplistic interpretations – this is an intelligent, measured presentation of a fascinating story that says a surprising about the nature of community, faith and neighbourliness in 21st-century middle-America. Stimulating in its visual inventiveness, this film is edited with sharpness and wit and is punctuated with classically-framed landscape shots that give a pungent sense of the town and its environs. Seldom less than droll and often laugh-out-loud hilarious in its chronicling of deadpan absurdities, Hoopeston announces a distinctive new talent in American non-fiction film-making.
view the film HERE
IS ANYBODY THERE?
Lukewarm Brit-com Is Anybody There? is essentially Gran Torino meets Venus with a touch of Harold and Maude – in terms of originality and merit, much closer to the middle one that the former or the latter, unfortunately. A morbid 10-year-old – who lives among pensioners in his parents' old-folks' home – befriends a retired magician who's edging towards Alzheimer's. 'Life lessons' duly ensue, with the flinty oldster's crusty flintiness softening as he – initially reluctantly, needless to say – becomes a surrogate dad/grandfather to the lonely youngster. Michael Caine plays the senior citizen with his usual professionalism and understated charm, though at times the results play more like a series of BAFTA 'For Your Consideration' clips than an actual movie.
Bill Milner is OK as the kid (he's better at reacting than acting); there's a gallery of veteran character-actors in supporting roles as the care-home's residents (Elizabeth Spriggs, Sylvia Sidney, Rosemary Harris, Venus's Leslie Phillips) – none of them given much to do. David Morrissey, meanwhile, is wasted in a two-dimensional role as our hero's philandering dad - a sad-sack sort, bemused by his offspring's fondness for seances. The latter pursuit providing the title – which doesn't quite fit: surely "is there anybody there?" is the standard question posed to potential spectral visitors a table?
Another couple of distracting details: for no apparent discernible reason (scriptwriter perhaps revisting his own childhood) , the action is set in 1987, and attention to period-detail is shaky here and there. And, while ostensibly set on the East Yorkshire coast, proceedings (presented via milky, backlit cinematography and intrusively over-scored) have a naggingly unspecific geographical feel – absolutely no surprise to learn that it was all filmed hundreds of miles away on the south coast.
It's all undemandingly agreeable, and there are some wry chuckles here and there – but overall this is pretty corny and predictable stuff, a disappointment after the director's live-wire InterMission from a couple of years back. It'll be much better suited to Sunday afternoon TV than big-screen exposure – Caine's star-presence notwithstanding.
Neil Young
27th March, 2009
GOOD CATS : [7/10] : Hao mao : China 2008 : YING Liang : 103m : seen at Cubby Broccoli cinema, National Media Museum, 20th March
HOOPESTON : [8/10] : US 2008 (copyright-dated 2007) : Thomas BENDER : 78m : Cubby Broccoli, 18th March
IS ANYBODY THERE? : [5/10] : UK 2008 : John CROWLEY : 92m : seen at Pictureville cinema, NMM, 13th March
all timings from BIFF catalogue
all screenings seen via complimentary tickets, Bradford International Film Festival
Jigsaw Lounge Bradford 2009 index page
Neil Young has been International Programming Consultant for the Bradford International Film Festival since 2005.
