A Few Films from Netflix to Offer
"Colonia"
starring: Emma Watson, Daniel Bruhl, Michael Nyquist, Richenda Carey, Vicky Krieps, Jeanne Werner, Julian Ovenden, Martin Wuttke
written by: Florian Gallenberger, Torsten Wenzel
directed by: Florian Gallenberger
Full disclosure- I knew nothing about the facts behind this film.
The film is inspired by real events that took place at Colonia Dignidad, the site of a Christian cult that collaborated with Augusto Pinochet’s military junta to overthrow Allende’s government. The cult, led by a pedophilic ex-Nazi, Paul Schäfer (Michael Nyqvist), allowed Pinochet’s secret police to use the colony as a torture and detention center for enemies of the state. Unfortunately, the film’s early realism soon devolves into lurid exploitation and cheap sentimentality, as the filmmakers choose to present this historical episode through the eyes of a fictional European couple newly arrived in the country at the time of the coup.
The film's fictional retelling of the real life tragedy are told through the perspective of a fictional couple, Lena (Watson) and Daniel (Bruhl).
Their romantic idyll is quickly cut short, as the two get caught up in the throes of Pinochet’s coup, and for a spell, the filmmakers capture the terrifying confusion of the time with a faux-objective aesthetic that stands in sharp contrast to the overcooked clichés of Lena and Daniel’s swooning.
Lena voluntarily joins the colony after she finds out from Daniel’s erstwhile comrades that he’s been sent there to be tortured by the regime. This scene captures the indifference of all mass movements, on both sides of the political spectrum, to the plight of its individual supporters. Though Daniel risks everything to fight for their cause, his socialist friends abandon him to his fate to save their own skin once he’s captured.
The film is very over-the-top and overacted, which takes away from the tragedy that occurred. It's also a bit too long of a film and wears its welcome out.
.........................................................................
"Take Me"
starring: Pat Healy, Taylor Schilling, Alycia Delmore, Jim O'Heir, Brooke Dillman, Mark Kelly, Toby Huss, Alejandro Patino
written by: Mike Makowsky
directed by: Pat Healy
Here's another Netflix original film and it's an interesting take on an old genre- the farce, the slapstick comedy.
It stars Pat Healy (who also directed the film) as Ray Moody, an interesting take on an entrepreneur as the brains behind Kidnap Solutions LLC. He is in the business of simulating abductions for paying clients who hire him to kidnap them and hold them hostage, sometimes as an extreme deprogramming method, other times simply for the thrill.
Anna St. Blair (Taylor Schilling), a mysterious and beautiful platinum blonde, is very much in the latter camp. A bored businesswoman looking for a good time, she hires Ray for a three-day session, but when the cops start knocking on Ray’s door looking for Anna, he begins to think that this latest job may be a setup.
This film features lots of great moments of plot twists, shifting power dynamics, and an overriding mystery about who's really in control.
Since the film centers solely on the two main characters, it's success thrives on the chemistry between the two actors- Healy and Schilling.
Healy’s flop-sweating used-car-salesman vibe offering a stark and intriguing contrast to Schilling’s enigmatic and layered turn, which finds the middle ground between icy femme fatale and helpless victim of circumstances; Schilling never tips her hand as to which one Anna really is.
The film is ultimately an interesting take on the character study aspect of filmmaking, with the focus on Ray Moody, which unfortunately makes Schilling's character simply a vehicle for him to figure himself out. Is he a good or bad person? At the beginning of the film he certainly believes he's a good person, thoughtful and misunderstood. By the end of the film, he gets answers.
............................................................................
"Inside Job"
narrated by: Matt Damon
written, produced, and directed by: Charles Ferguson
Everyone knows what happened. The biggest real estate bubble burst. The billions of dollars lost, gambled away by real estate moguls and Wall Street. The lying. The cheating.
Director Ferguson illuminates the situation with this detailed yet engaging documentary analysis, which is narrated by Matt Damon. Inside Job uncovers little that hasn’t already been reported elsewhere in other news outlets and publications, but Ferguson does an excellent job of gathering the material, organizing the presentation and history, and showcasing his clear-eyed perspective of the American people as the victims of academic and Wall Street insiders who are themselves victims of their own greed and inflated self-worth. Not that Ferguson evidences much sympathy for the rapacious masters of the universe, but he demonstrates how the past 30 years of economic policy have created a deregulated banking and monetary system in which the remaining watchdogs are bedfellows with the subjects of their oversight and whose academic analysts serve the interests of the system rather than the consumers. Inside Job is divided into five digestible sections: How We Got Here, the Bubble, the Crisis, Accountability, and Where We Are Now. The documentary begins in the Eighties with the Reagan administration’s deregulation of investment banks, the rise of Alan Greenspan, and the collapse of the savings-and-loan industry, and continues through the Internet bubble, the dismantling of laws that forbade the mergers of corporate giants, the development of computer technology that assists global expansion, the invention of financial derivatives based on ideas of money rather than tangible assets, the growing international interconnectedness of national monetary systems, and much more.
Of necessity, there are a lot of talking heads in this documentary, but they are well-selected and well-spoken.
The thing that is bothersome, with this documentary, is that Ferguson is clearly bias, only presenting his side of the story, which is the side of all Americans (the 99%), because we are the victims of these Top 1%ers. And also, it is infuriating that these guys show no remorse or guilt for what they did. It pisses you off, especially knowing that even almost a decade later we are all still recovering and feeling the effects of this meltdown of a system.
starring: Emma Watson, Daniel Bruhl, Michael Nyquist, Richenda Carey, Vicky Krieps, Jeanne Werner, Julian Ovenden, Martin Wuttke
written by: Florian Gallenberger, Torsten Wenzel
directed by: Florian Gallenberger
Full disclosure- I knew nothing about the facts behind this film.
The film is inspired by real events that took place at Colonia Dignidad, the site of a Christian cult that collaborated with Augusto Pinochet’s military junta to overthrow Allende’s government. The cult, led by a pedophilic ex-Nazi, Paul Schäfer (Michael Nyqvist), allowed Pinochet’s secret police to use the colony as a torture and detention center for enemies of the state. Unfortunately, the film’s early realism soon devolves into lurid exploitation and cheap sentimentality, as the filmmakers choose to present this historical episode through the eyes of a fictional European couple newly arrived in the country at the time of the coup.
The film's fictional retelling of the real life tragedy are told through the perspective of a fictional couple, Lena (Watson) and Daniel (Bruhl).
Their romantic idyll is quickly cut short, as the two get caught up in the throes of Pinochet’s coup, and for a spell, the filmmakers capture the terrifying confusion of the time with a faux-objective aesthetic that stands in sharp contrast to the overcooked clichés of Lena and Daniel’s swooning.
Lena voluntarily joins the colony after she finds out from Daniel’s erstwhile comrades that he’s been sent there to be tortured by the regime. This scene captures the indifference of all mass movements, on both sides of the political spectrum, to the plight of its individual supporters. Though Daniel risks everything to fight for their cause, his socialist friends abandon him to his fate to save their own skin once he’s captured.
The film is very over-the-top and overacted, which takes away from the tragedy that occurred. It's also a bit too long of a film and wears its welcome out.
.........................................................................
"Take Me"
starring: Pat Healy, Taylor Schilling, Alycia Delmore, Jim O'Heir, Brooke Dillman, Mark Kelly, Toby Huss, Alejandro Patino
written by: Mike Makowsky
directed by: Pat Healy
Here's another Netflix original film and it's an interesting take on an old genre- the farce, the slapstick comedy.
It stars Pat Healy (who also directed the film) as Ray Moody, an interesting take on an entrepreneur as the brains behind Kidnap Solutions LLC. He is in the business of simulating abductions for paying clients who hire him to kidnap them and hold them hostage, sometimes as an extreme deprogramming method, other times simply for the thrill.
Anna St. Blair (Taylor Schilling), a mysterious and beautiful platinum blonde, is very much in the latter camp. A bored businesswoman looking for a good time, she hires Ray for a three-day session, but when the cops start knocking on Ray’s door looking for Anna, he begins to think that this latest job may be a setup.
This film features lots of great moments of plot twists, shifting power dynamics, and an overriding mystery about who's really in control.
Since the film centers solely on the two main characters, it's success thrives on the chemistry between the two actors- Healy and Schilling.
Healy’s flop-sweating used-car-salesman vibe offering a stark and intriguing contrast to Schilling’s enigmatic and layered turn, which finds the middle ground between icy femme fatale and helpless victim of circumstances; Schilling never tips her hand as to which one Anna really is.
The film is ultimately an interesting take on the character study aspect of filmmaking, with the focus on Ray Moody, which unfortunately makes Schilling's character simply a vehicle for him to figure himself out. Is he a good or bad person? At the beginning of the film he certainly believes he's a good person, thoughtful and misunderstood. By the end of the film, he gets answers.
............................................................................
"Inside Job"
narrated by: Matt Damon
written, produced, and directed by: Charles Ferguson
Everyone knows what happened. The biggest real estate bubble burst. The billions of dollars lost, gambled away by real estate moguls and Wall Street. The lying. The cheating.
Director Ferguson illuminates the situation with this detailed yet engaging documentary analysis, which is narrated by Matt Damon. Inside Job uncovers little that hasn’t already been reported elsewhere in other news outlets and publications, but Ferguson does an excellent job of gathering the material, organizing the presentation and history, and showcasing his clear-eyed perspective of the American people as the victims of academic and Wall Street insiders who are themselves victims of their own greed and inflated self-worth. Not that Ferguson evidences much sympathy for the rapacious masters of the universe, but he demonstrates how the past 30 years of economic policy have created a deregulated banking and monetary system in which the remaining watchdogs are bedfellows with the subjects of their oversight and whose academic analysts serve the interests of the system rather than the consumers. Inside Job is divided into five digestible sections: How We Got Here, the Bubble, the Crisis, Accountability, and Where We Are Now. The documentary begins in the Eighties with the Reagan administration’s deregulation of investment banks, the rise of Alan Greenspan, and the collapse of the savings-and-loan industry, and continues through the Internet bubble, the dismantling of laws that forbade the mergers of corporate giants, the development of computer technology that assists global expansion, the invention of financial derivatives based on ideas of money rather than tangible assets, the growing international interconnectedness of national monetary systems, and much more.
Of necessity, there are a lot of talking heads in this documentary, but they are well-selected and well-spoken.
The thing that is bothersome, with this documentary, is that Ferguson is clearly bias, only presenting his side of the story, which is the side of all Americans (the 99%), because we are the victims of these Top 1%ers. And also, it is infuriating that these guys show no remorse or guilt for what they did. It pisses you off, especially knowing that even almost a decade later we are all still recovering and feeling the effects of this meltdown of a system.
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