FILM REVIEW: SIMON KILLER

Simon (Brady Corbet) in Simon Killer.

More funny games

By Don Simpson

Simon (Brady Corbet) recently broke up with the girlfriend he has had since high school. Or, rather, she broke up with him. He arrives in Paris to escape, to forget about Michelle, to find someone else, to... Well, let's just move along... In high school, Simon studied French, and he does a fairly admirable job talking to the local Parisians, but he does encounter some difficulties in comprehending what they are saying to him. Oh, and while Simon was in college, he studied the relationship between the human eye and the brain. Or, so he says.

It quickly becomes apparent Simon is an unreliable source of information. His history is riddled with contradictions; his present is blurred by his keen knack for smoke screens. For example, Simon uses his perceived intelligence as a way to lure women in and gain their trust; besides, it is a really effective way to keep them from noticing his current lack of employment. Simon also knows how to use his boyish, fresh-out-of-university appearance to add to his presumed innocence. He certainly knows how to fumble around with his ability to speak and understand French at all the right times, too.

All the while, Simon prances around Paris with a false bravado, acting tough until he is actually confronted. He is overly aggressive with women but wants to be babied by them as well. So, what pray tell is Simon's objective while in Paris? As a voyeuristic predator, women are mere sex objects for Simon -- whether it be via online sex chats or brothels, he has orgasms by just looking at women. Simon also wants someone to take care of him. He seems scared of commitment yet simultaneously frightened of rejection. In other words, Simon wants everything and nothing.

Simon Killer -- qu'est-ce que c'est? So much about Simon is merely a facade. He is a product of perception -- what do women see when they look at him? What are women's eyes telling their brain? More importantly, what does the camera's eye tell us to think about Simon, as the observational -- practically cinéma vérité -- cinematography creates an even further allusion of truth. In many ways, Simon Killer plays like a deconstruction of perceived cinematic realism, picking away at its inherent layers of dishonesty.

LAFF 2012: THE INVISIBLE WAR

Lieutenant Elle Helmer in The Invisible War.

Through the looking glass

By Miranda Inganni

The Invisible War, the latest feature documentary by Kirby Dick (Outrage, This Film Is Not Yet Rated), exposes the harsh and disturbing reality of what many military women (and men) face – sexual assault and the government’s reluctance to do anything about it. Through honest, heart wrenching and tear-filled interviews, Dick tells the horror stories of victims while shedding light on an overlooked and rampant problem.

The victims interviewed all have one thing in common: they took great pride in their military duty. And they were all greatly debased, in the most horrendous way. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other long-term effects lay waste to lives of otherwise productive members of society. But where is the justice?

A civilian rape victim has a police force and lawyers who are (supposed to be) impartial when dealing with a crime, but military personnel must turn to their commanders, usually a colleague or friend of the alleged perpetrator or the criminal him/herself. Unfortunately, and unfairly, this, more often than not, leads to retaliation at worst and long, drawn-out response (usually not in the victim’s favor) at best. Careers, marriages and, too often, lives are ended as a tragic result.

Dick is able to capture the pain and trauma the victims have suffered, interview and expose the misogyny and hypocrisy of high-level military personnel and members of the government and document the stories and statistics of a grossly underreported problem.

The LAFF screening of The Invisible War is free.

Highly recommended.

The Invisible War screens  at the Los Angeles Film Festival June 16, 1:30 p.m., Regal Cinemas.  

FILM REVIEW: PINK RIBBONS, INC.

An ob-scene from Pink Ribbons, Inc.

Corporate ties

By Miranda Inganni

Award winning writer-director Léa Pool’s documentary feature Pink Ribbons, Inc. critically investigates the consumerist culture of “curing” breast cancer (the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the US behind lung cancer) and what stands behind those pink ribbons of hope.

The ubiquitous symbol of the pink ribbon has permeated our culture -- covering everything from yogurt containers, to cereal boxes, to make-up, to nonprofit logos sharing the image alike in order to raise money -- ostensibly to find a cure for the disease. But what is behind the pretty pink ribbon and who exactly is profiting?

According to the documentary, it is not so much the victims of this horrible disease but Susan B. Komen Cure for the Cause, Revlon, Yoplait and other conglomerates who have used this health crisis to perpetuate a particular agenda not quite conducive to women’s health care.

Since the most significant risk factors for developing breast cancer are being female and getting older, this provides a huge demographic available for corporations to target. And women have money. And hope. Women are the deciders of most major household purchases and buy 80 percent of consumer products -- meaning that they are the most influential market group. This has resulted in breast cancer becoming the cause célèbre of “cause-related” marketing campaigns.

While research has made headway (breastway?), those diagnosed with breast cancer continue to encounter the same treatment they had available 40 years ago. This is unacceptable, considering that the “pink ribbon” industry is a multi-billion dollar industry encompassing detection and treatment of breast cancer.

In light of the recent Susan B. Komen Cure for the Cause attack on Planned Parenthood scandal, Pink Ribbons, Inc. is as timely as ever. While Pink Ribbons, Inc. criticizes the co-opting of an originally innocent symbol of solidarity and hope, it certainly does not criticize the thousands of women who support prevention of the disease, researching for a cure, or those living with this horrific disease which kills nearly 40,000 women in the U.S. annually.

This is a movie that truly, to use a trite phrase, made me laugh, made me cry and moved me. I have been known to collect and mail in pink-tinged soda can “stay-on tabs” during the month of October, officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and participated in “Cancer Walks.” But I never really thought about who was sponsoring and/or profiting from such campaigns. Now I know and I do not particularly like the answers.

FILM REVIEW: LOVE CRIME

Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier) and Christine  (Kristen Scott Thomas) in Love Crime.

Business as usual

By Miranda Inganni

French film director Alain Corneau (Tous les matins du monde; Le deuxième soufflé) and co-screenwriter Natalie Carter created Love Crime to be a labyrinthine murder mystery. Unfortunately, as much as the plot's twists and turns are fun, just keep your hand on the left wall and you'll figure out this maze.

Slick, manipulative and crispy Christine (acutely played by the fluently French Kristen Scott Thomas) loves to capitalize on her meek, but mighty bright assistant, the submissive and streamlined Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). Both women take pride in their successes, but as Isabelle comes to realize that Christine is using and abusing her for professional gain and personal amusement, she starts to question her loyalty to her powerful boss (though not the corporation in which they both vie for favorable futures).

Instead of Isabelle fighting the corporate system, she decides -- after being pushed to the brink of self-destruction -- to work it from the inside and plots to take down her towering boss.

Humiliation and exploitation lead to murder and the obvious suspect goes to great lengths to establish her guilt, only in order to disprove it.

Don't be fooled. Despite two strong female lead characters, this is not a feminist film and there are no victors (victorias?). While revenge might be a dish best served warm (preferably with a glass of blood-red Bordeaux), there is nothing neither wise nor noble about it. The "winner" still comes out a loser.

In addition to the acting, one of the highlights is the music, or rather the lack thereof. Centered on Pharoah Sanders' improvisational jazz piece, "Kazuko," the score is practically non-existent, which helps to add tension and tenderness at the climax of the film, while not forcing emotion throughout it.

HOLLYWOOD BRAZILIAN 2011: BOLLYWOOD DREAM

A scene from Bollywood Dream.

Open up

By Don Simpson

Sofia (Nataly Cabanas), Ana (Paula Braun), Luna (Lorena Lobato) are unemployed Brazilian actresses with families whom they need to support. They travel to India to work in cinema...but, as far as airport customs knows, this trip is purely a spiritual journey. Upon arrival, Sofia, Ana and Luna discover that their hotel reservation has been cancelled; so they haggle the price of another hotel so low that it is difficult not to wonder if karma will come back to bite them.

The three Brazilian actresses are in search of a Bollywood producer, but he is not at the address listed on his business card. Not ones to give up very easily, they recruit a young dance instructor (Mohana Krishna) and an actress (Geetha Satish) to coach them until their big Bollywood break comes along. Sofia, Ana and Luna are prone to arguing and haggling and find themselves repeatedly clashing with Indian culture. Their difficult struggle to find their way commences, but their way does not follow the same meandering path as their destiny. No matter how hard they fight it, their destiny always prevails over their way. Maybe they should not have lied to airport customs after all -- perhaps this is a spiritual awakening?

Writer-director Beatriz Seigner’s Bollywood Dream is a colorful and musical meditation on three Brazilian women who find themselves far away from their native land. Seigner showcases the drastic cultural differences between Brazilians and Indians, but there does appear to be one similarity: the exploitation of women in the entertainment industry. It seems as though actresses are viewed as sexual objects even in Bollywood. What on earth would Radha have to say about that?

COLCOA 2011: INTO OUR HANDS

A scene from Into Our Hands.

Woe-mains struggle By John Esther Attributing to a weakening economy part and parcel of the management at Starissima, a French lingerie factory for boutiques, a group of 50 workers, mostly women, must decide if they want to form a co-op (SCOP) and run the place themselves. An exciting yet stressful prospect, the venture will first require an act of faith in the collective by requiring each worker consenting to pay, at least, one month's salary just to put the idea into action. If you really believe, you can offer more. As you can imagine, some of the workers are more committed, courageous and conscious about what it means to work in a company where you, ideally, participate on an equal basis. Some of the workers are smarter than others. After reaching one hurdle, the company's boss still wants to pay to play his part, and that leads to more anxiety for people facing the prospect of losing their jobs after investing what may be their final wages. Is it better to live with remorse than with regret? An engaging documentary full of people with varying viewpoints set against a backdrop of bras, panties and cardboard boxes, the latest documentary by Mariana Otéro (It's Your TV, Too; History of a Secret) -- which made its U.S. Premiere at the ColCoa last night -- offers a lot of drama and little bit of comedy as one roots for the workers. At least, whatever happens to the workers of Into Our Hands (Entre nos mains), they will always have the marvelous musical number they perform in the documentary, which fairly summarizes the documentary by using a little fiction.