FILM REVIEW: NON-STOP

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) in Non-Stop.

Flight fight

By John Esther

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a guy who starts the day with some booze mixed in with his coffee. You can tell he is sad by the way he carries himself, his lack of grooming and just his general disposition toward other people – in person or on the phone. He not the sort of person you want to be around and you certainly would not like him to be in charge of many lives.

However, as a U.S. Marshall who travels the skyways protecting passengers from terrorists, he is just that. Bill can carry a gun on a plane and he can arrest people, too. Apparently, torture is acceptable for Bill as well. The fact Bill is afraid of the ascension of planes from terra firma only lowers ones confidence in him. Fortunately, the woman next to him, Jen (Julianne Moore), is there to comfort Bill on their way to London.

Of course, the comfort is short lived as Bill starts receiving text messages from an anonymous source who says he will kill a passenger on Bill's plane every 20 minutes until a ransom is paid.

As passengers start to die, doubts, as well as suspicions about Bill’s ability to perform his duties rise while the survivor of the passengers on the plane descends. Bill is being framed, but who can or will believe him? All clues point to the safety guy as the actuall terrorist.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Non-Stop plays itself out in unspectacular fashion. While many of the passengers suspect Bill, we the audience know he is innocent, so we are going to go right on rooting for our protagonist until he redeems himself in front of the rest of the world. Along the way, one must overlook a lot of implausibility before enduring an absurd explanation from the really bad guy in the film.
 

FILM REVIEW: IT'S A DISASTER

A scene from It's a Disaster.

Flirting with terror

By Don Simpson

When everyone arrives at Emma (Erinn Hayes) and Pete's (Blaise Miller) house, they have absolutely no idea just how disastrous this Sunday brunch will become. First their cell phone reception goes dead, then the television goes to static. What? No UT football game? Now the shit gets serious! (Hook 'em!) Cut off from the rest of the world, the four couples are left with a table covered with food and wine, and good old fashioned conversation yet, in a captivating tip of the cap to Luis Buñuel, they never quite get to the food.

This is Tracy's (Julia Stiles) latest boyfriend, Glenn's (David Cross) first time meeting her friends. Glenn is not quite one of the guys, nonetheless Pete, Shane (Jeff Grace) and Buck (Kevin Brennan) try to accept him into their fold. As the outsider, Glenn is the first to get (or not) a hint of Emma and Pete's current dilemma. Glenn also falls prey to Lexi (Rachel Boston) and Buck's open and free relationship. Despite Lexi and Buck's eagerness to fuck anything that moves, their relationship is apparently the strongest of the bunch; even the prolonged engagement of Hedy (America Ferrera) and Shane is apparently at its wit's end.

It is not their disconnection from the outside world or the wail of sirens that rattles this bunch. Instead, it is a cameo by writer-director Todd Berger that kicks the tension into high gear. Each character's reaction to Berger's cleverly injected news represents a different stage of grief. When the shit hits the fan, we quickly learn what is more important: interpersonal relationships or survival instincts? For these self-involved thirtysomethings, it seems to be the former; well, except for Shane, the token paranoid conspiracy theory nut of the bunch.

It's a Disaster is an impeccably-written, dark-as-a-moonless-night satire that hearkens back to the glory days of classic comedy. Existing in the surreal ether somewhere between Preston Sturges and Woody Allen, Berger takes on disaster films as well as the trope of trapping characters in one location -- all the while, Berger and cinematographer Nancy Schreiber beautifully choreograph the on screen events to Altman-esque precision.

Berger's film is a sardonically-scribed social commentary on the priorities of privileged white thirtysomethings. By definition, terrorism incites terror; but, the characters of It's a Disaster diffuse the terror of terrorism by being so damn self-involved. Sure, in due time they all eventually react to the terror that surrounds them but, one thing can be certain, the characters of It's a Disaster do not initially react the way the terrorists had hoped. God bless America and god bless Todd Berger -- now just give me a sip of that god-damned Merlot.

FILM REVIEW: SOURCE CODE

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Source Code.

Moon beams

By Don Simpson

Okay soldier. You are in an isolated container of some sort. We are communicating with you via a television monitor. When you get too confused, we will show you some playing cards to jog your memory. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the train ride. It is not your train ride, it is a dead teacher’s train ride, but we hijacked the final eight minutes of said teacher’s memory, and we will continue to send you back, soldier, to relive those very same eight minutes over and over again until you solve the puzzle. What is the puzzle? Plain and simple: find the bomber, save the world. And remember, this is purely a simulacrum of the past -- it can in no way effect the present. Time travels in one direction, just like the train you are on. This is not time travel. Reality is already in the past, you cannot effect the present. Whatever you do, please do not try to save the pretty woman -- the one named Christina (Michelle Monaghan) -- seated across from you. She is not your mission; she is already dead.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the soldier in isolation going through an existential crisis -- a predicament that is not all that dissimilar to Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell’s lead character from director Duncan Jones’ astounding cinematic debut, Moon). Like Sam, Colter is all alone with very limited (and restricted) telecommunication functionalities. Colter’s last recollection of reality is when he was a U.S. Army helicopter pilot fighting in Afghanistan. Now, his only connections to the outside world are the flickering television images of a fellow soldier, Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), and her mad scientist boss, Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright). Colter does not remember signing up for this mission, whatever the hell it is. (Umm... Beleaguered Castle anyone?) According to Dr. Rutledge, Colter’s mission is part of the Source Code experiment, which is “a powerful weapon in the war on terror.” (When we learn the truth behind the Source Code, that single statement resonates with countless ripples of profundity and terror.)

With fleeting allusions to Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day and a roundabout of Alfred Hitchcock films, Source Code is essentially a long lost episode of Quantum Leap (with a few Twilight Zone moments tossed in for good measure) during which the DVD purposefully skips a few dozen times before reaching the end of the third act 90 minutes later. (The train and the whole eight minute thing seemed to jog a classic R.E.M. lyric from my memory: “Take a break, driver eight, you’ve been on this train to long...”)

It seems far too easy to nitpick Source Code to pieces, especially the scientific logic behind Dr. Rutledge’s theories of his Source Code. The scientific explanations seem incredibly thorough (and overly explained), yet in retrospect they do not make any sense. And I also fear that Jones reveals far too many cards, way too soon. Personally, I would prefer a lot more ambiguity -- or I at least want to have more time to theorize about what is really happening to Colter.

What really irks me about Source Code is that it has one of those endings that is totally schlocky, yet Jones can always fall back on the excuse that the final scenes are probably all in Colter’s mind. But the conclusion confirms for me that Source Code is pure Hollywood fodder -- okay, that is a slight exaggeration because Source Code is certainly more intelligent and better acted than most Hollywood films. But Moon is quantifiable evidence that Jones can do much better than this; there is something very special about Moon and Source Code pales in comparison.

SXSW 2011: BETTER THIS WORLD

Bradley Crowder and David McKay in Better This World.

Tangling with the Texas Two

By Don Simpson

David Guy McKay and Bradley Neil Crowder -- a.k.a. the “Texas Two” -- became household names during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota when they were arrested on domestic terrorism charges. First, the St. Paul police, without a warrant, seized homemade riot gear from a trailer belonging to McKay and Crowder’s "organization" (for lack of a better term). Then they were accused of an alleged plot to throw Molotov cocktails at empty police cars parked in a parking lot.

But let us rewind. McKay and Crowder are childhood friends hailing from the Christian conservative lands of Midland, Texas. They discussed politics, but never really acted upon any of their beliefs until they met an infamous radical, Brandon Darby, in Austin. Darby brought McKay and Crowder under his wings, teaching them everything he knew.

The three amigos, along with a few other comrades in arms, drove to the 2008 RNC to protest against the Republican presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin. After eight long years under George W. Bush’s reign, the three were beyond frustrated with the tyrannical state of the union. Their plan was to move the attention from McCain and Palin to their own causes. McKay, Crowder and Darby packed a U-Haul trailer full of homemade riot gear but, from the best I can surmise, they really did not have much of a plan other than that.

A couple of days into the convention, McKay and Crowder were arrested and the FBI seemed confident that they had an impeccably strong case against McKay and Crowder because of a key informant. Crowder accepted a plea bargain, but McKay opted to bring his trial to court with the defense that he was the subject of entrapment by a controversial FBI informant.

Co-directors Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway tell an amazing story of idealism, loyalty, lies and betrayal. In constructing their narrative, de la Vega and Galloway must first re-create for the audience what happened prior to the commencement of their production. So they rely on archival footage and talking head interviews recollecting the events. De la Vega and Galloway allow everyone, including the FBI, to tell their version of the story and, surprisingly enough, they all seem to be on the same page (or at least the same chapter), except for the actions of the FBI informant.

The unfolding of the events is riveting. Better This World represents how conservative America’s post-9/11 "War on Terror" went terribly awry, ripping away the civil liberties of American citizens and instantly squashing any form of political dissent. The line between protesters and terrorists was blurred as was the definition of terrorism. (I am using the past tense, but I would argue that this is still true in the present tense as well.) The question remains: should the FBI be permitted to punish “radicals” (or “protesters” or “terrorists”) who were recruited and trained by FBI informants?

Speaking of conservative America, BigGovernment.com recently alerted its readership: “[Better This World] depicts David Guy McKay and Bradley Neil Crowder as idealistic activists who, according to the official blurb, ‘set out to prove the strength of their political convictions to themselves and their mentor.’ In fact McKay and Crowder are convicted domestic terrorists who manufactured instruments of death calculated to inflict maximum pain and bodily harm on people whose political views they disagreed with.”

(Of course if McKay and Crowder were targeting abortion doctors or Democrats who supported the healthcare bill, the tone of this conservative rhetoric would probably be a lot different.)

I have absolutely no doubt that other conservatives (most without ever watching Better This World) will line up to write-off de la Vega and Galloway as propagandists working for America’s so-called leftist liberal media. But, as I see it, Better This World lays out a lot of undeniable evidence that -- as part of the "War on Terror" -- at least one FBI informant has overstepped his or her bounds and personal freedoms for American citizens has been lessened.