Passenger Side (Matt Bissonnette, Canada)
This little indie comes on like gangbusters by way of comedy – the first 40 minutes consists of near constant sarcastic rapport between two brothers (Adam Scott and Joel Bissonnette, above) – and then begins to dwindle. The plot of Passenger Side is slight – Michael (Scott) drives ex-drug addict Toby (Bissonnette) around Los Angeles searching in search of an elusive something (which is revealed later on in the film).
Writer/Director Matt Bissonnette (yes, the two Bissonnette’s are brothers in real life) knows how to make his film comfortable, for both his viewers and his actors. The laughs elicited from the crowd in the first half of the film are some of the most natural this writer’s heard in some time: Toby and Michael are just two brothers, bullshitting through their problems through insult-based sarcasm, the way many “real” people do.
Unfortunately, most “real” people wouldn’t continue on a search for the amount of time these two do, especially without any real plot turns until the end. The sarcasm grows stale and the editing begins to look obligatory rather than deliberate.
That being said, it’s a worthwhile little film made for nothing and hopefully it finds a distributor and a respectable platform release date. If anything, the star-in-the-making Adam Scott deserves the attention.
6 out of 10
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany/Austria/France/Italy)
There is nothing slight about this opus, Haneke’s most recent project: a two-and-a-half hour story of a small German town pre-WWI and the strange occurrences that go on after the town’s doctor gets in a horse accident (one of the opening shots and one of the most haunting of the entire film). The stank repression of the townsfolk comes into to focus as odd ritualistic violence weighs down morale. And the weight is to be felt by all, viewers not discluded. It is what Haneke has, and will continue to, do as a filmmaker. He makes movies that force those watching to struggle with the characters, and the experience is something close to torture.
Ribbon may be his most torturous yet. The length, desaturated frames and lack of cuts work to visually burn the idea of fascist control (which is what this film revolves around) into your irises. At once, it is impressive and frustrating, explaining how the film earned the Palme d’Or at Cannes despite a third of the audience walking out before the final hour.
If the magic of the movies is escapism, then Michael Haneke is the grand dark sorceress, bent on preventing his movies to allow any facet of escape – save the door.