Hanna And Her Blisters

Introducing Saoirse Ronan as Teenage Mutant Ninja Girl
Review by Tony Freitas

Saoirse Ronan has the wounded eyes and thousand yard stare of someone twice her age. Someone who has known great sorrow, seen too much, felt too much; She's only 17 years old. It's the perfect actor's alchemy for her star turn in Hanna. If only the film served her as well.


Saoirse is 16-year-old Hanna Heller your basic angst-ridden teen. She worries about things like hand to hand combat, the proper way to skin and store a reindeer for the harsh winter months and the best treatment not for acne, but for those pesky blisters she gets from hunting with a cross bow. She also has a strained relationship with her Father-Knows-Best-Father, Erik (Eric Bana). 

It's tough being home schooled by Dad. Classes in honor studies such as chemical warfare, DNA manipulation and advanced chiropractic techniques - can I adjust that neck - have Hanna frazzled, and father and daughter at each other's throats (literally). It's School for Assassins, and the student is on the verge of becoming the master.


Hanna has an interesting premise. Daddy trains ninja girl to avenge her mother's murder. But the film takes Joseph Campbell's heroes journey a little too literally. While some of the set pieces seem fresh and exciting, the story feels like a tired retread of Le Femme Nikita and Run Lola Run with a bit of Gasper Noe's nihilistic despondency thrown in to spice things up. Unfortunately ridiculousness overwhelms the proceedings and the film flails.

Cate Blanchett is villainess / nemesis Marissa Wiegler a sinister covert CIA operative with a deadly connection to Hanna's history. The usually exceptional and sublime actress is, to be kind, not up to the challenge. A terrible and shifting regional accent of unknown origin and an impressive collection of sensible shoes for killing do not a character make and Blanchett never seems to get a grasp on Marissa. It's strictly external theatrics.

All this doesn't mean there isn't fun to be had. Any type of teen empowerment, especially with Hanna's skill set brings me back to those good old teen years of teasing and casual bad behavior. That Hanna can kill you just as easily as she would look at you, sent me on a short mind trip where I rewrote history and kicked some childhood bully ass. And the center section of Hanna becomes a oddly pleasing travelogue of sorts as the teen guerrilla takes up with a free-spirited family vacationing in their motor home. She forges an awkward connection with the family's precocious and outspoken teen daughter Sophie (the fantastic Jessica Barden) and the film's heartbeat flutters and comes to life. Eventually however

Hanna sinks back into its action/revenge roots, the heartbeat becomes irregular and from then on it's variations of anarchy till the end.


Despite some nearly fatal flaws nothing takes away from Saoirse Ronan's haunting performance. Get this young woman a script that's equal to her talents and she'll kick ass and take names. Figuratively, unlike Hanna.





   

Source Code - Jake Gyllenhaal and the Philosopher's Zone

I AM I SAID
Review by Tony Freitas

Much like Duncan Jones' freshman effort, the under-seen Moon, Source Code deals with themes of identity, reality, death and the amorphous nature of time. And like Moon there's an undercurrent of melancholia that is atypical of the action genre. But if you think this cinematic mournfulness has no place in an action movie, you're mistaken.


Source Code maintains a quick pulse throughout and what should have been a bomb-on-a-train early spring throw-away gains depth and heart as a result.


Jake Gyllenhaal is military helicopter pilot Colter Stevens(porno name anyone?). Stevens fades in like a movie wipe and finds himself on a Chicago bound commuter train with no idea how he got there, no idea why the woman sitting across from him seems to know him, and not a clue as to why she refers to him as Sean. The last thing he recalls is leading an Afghani air operation. Moments later a hidden bomb detonates on the train consuming everyone onboard.

Fade to white then fade in again; Stevens is still in one piece, in an unknown location inside what appears to be for all intents and purposes a military industrial complex time machine. On a moniter he sees the face of Captain Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) who tells him that he is inside the source code. Wham bam, say Groundhog's Day three times and Colten is back on the train at the same moment he faded in at film's open. An explosive device is onboard the train and Colter has been tasked to find the bomb...  not to dismantle it, not to stop the eminent explosion from happening again, but to track down the terrorist responsible and prevent the next greater anticipated terrorist event. The train explosion is already a done deal, the passengers but a "ghost memory". So begins Colter's 8 minute investigation before the bomb explodes again, only to be sent back to gather more intel time after time, the same 8 minutes. 

Source Code while occasionally exciting is at it's best in its quiet moments. As more is discovered about Colter Stevens' life and military service, as his superficial relationship with train mate Christina deepens in 8 minute increments, layer upon layer is reveled and Source Code unspools like a whodunit. An emotional bond is forged between Colter and the two women in his life - potential love interest Christina and morally conflicted mommy figure Goodwin - and between the characters and the audience. Colter's given task: to stop the terrorist before he strikes again, conflicts with his personal mission to save the souls on this train who are already dead. And that schism is what keeps the film going. And because we are invested in these folks we want it to somehow all work out. 


Gyllenhaal's soulful puppy dog eyes and telling face create a sympathetic everyman who's easy to pull for. And if the film becomes convoluted as it often does, we're always pulled back by the emotional grounding and the philosophical questions posed as Colter's journey becomes less about the bomb and more about what what constitutes reality and self. 

When I first read about Duncan Jones taking the helm of a studio film after the efficient and moody Moon, I was hopeful he could bring his unique off-center angle to Source Code. And then the trailers began to play endlessly, and the film seemed like another mindless sci-fi romp, with little weight and overblown acoustics. So it's unexpectedly gratifying that a little indie spirit, a ghost memory if you will, remains amidst all the annihilation and mayhem. 

I'm Gonna Get You Sucker Punch

Batshit Outta Hell
review by Tony Freitas

When an artist is as talented stylistically and visually as Zach Snyder ( Dawn Of The Dead remake, 300, Watchmen) you kinda wish he'd add a little depth to his skill set. Sucker Punch is a brain fart that somehow seeped out of Snyder's head onto the screen... and the fumes are noxious.

While Sucker Punch on the surface  appears to be a gamer's dream - visual excitement, hot chicks, and alternate reality high jinks - even the most non-discriminating fanboy will tire of the film's repetitive loop.  It's five levels of estrogenized Warcraft hosted by a troop of emotionally damaged Gossip Girls. And each tedious level offers the exact same song and dance. And let's get to that; the song and dance.  Where to start? Where to start?

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) of bee stung lips and catholic school girl you-know-you-want-to-screw-me skirt, is whisked away to the Lennox Mental Asylum after accidentally shooting her sister while trying to protect the young girl from evil step daddy's sexual advances. Before you can say "toys in the attic, she is crazy", Baby's on the crazy train to lobotomization five days hence.
So the dancing I mention earlier - Okay, so, you see, there's the real world and then there's the fantasy world that Baby's created as a coping mechanism within the asylum (I'm just guessing at this). In the fantasy world the asylum is a bordello and all the femmes/patients are prostitute/whores. And, you see, there's this dance class that the girls attend to escape the horrors of reality/ fantasy.  The dance class is taught by Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino), psychiatrist, madam, dance instructor and Warsaw ghetto survivor ( her resume and dance card are full to overflowing).

Free your mind and the rest will follow

So, when the women dance it takes them to a world inside where they can escape the pain and horror of life's abuses, even if this escape world is all muddy taupes and grey-blues (and megatron feudal warriors and literal steampunk gas masked nazi soldiers. Hey, that kinda makes me want to see this film. Oh, wait,  I saw it. I guess it's not as good as it sounds). I suppose butterflies and zebras and fairy tales would have been the more obvious choice.

We were talking about dancing. So Baby's first day in dancing class in the cathouse asylum -- Free your mind and the rest will follow. Baby feels the music and, as a light unexpected indoor flurry of delicate snow flakes tickle her  thickly mascaraed lashes,  she's transported to a Japanese temple where she finds The Wise Man/Greyhound Bus Driver (Scott Glen). "Five things to find you must. A map, a fire, a knife and key. The fifth thing, unknown it is, but a great sacrifice it shall be, Luke... er, Baby Doll."

Meanwhile back at loony bin/brothel other scantily clad young ladies of the night/snake pit prisoners/ X-Factor hopefuls including Gabriella Montez, the woman that ruined Reese Witherspoon's marriage, the emancipated minor and a Tri-Pi sister, are mesmerized by Salome/Baby Doll's gyrations of liberation (that we never actually see, though her moves are mentioned in the same breath as Isadora Duncan, The Pussycat Dolls and Charo) and an escape plan is hatched.  If all this sounds so bat shit crazy that it might be fun, I urge you to think twice.

I won't even get into lack of relatable story, characterization or  emotional connection, because there is none to be found. Sucker Punch has the resonance of Final Fantasy VI, and as for female empowerment, it's fathoms below the emotional complexity and dramatic tension of the Powerpuff Girls.