julia loktev Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With DVD releases this week tilting heavily toward Halloween-friendly titles, it's harder to pick out non-horror indie fare, but Jindabyne appears to be the best bet. Based on a short story by Raymond Carver, Jindabyne examines a group of men on a fishing trip who find a dead body and then, rather than immediately contact the authorities, simply stow the body so they can finish their fishing. Lantana director Ray Lawrence's sophomore effort received mixed to positive response -- Rotten Tomatoes scored the reviews at 65% positive -- but Cinematical's Kim Voynar was entirely positive, calling it a "subtle and sublime film that peeks around the dark edges of the human heart and searches out the tendrils of light that hold us together." Sony Pictures' DVD includes deleted scenes and a "making of" feature.

In his review for Cinematical, Nick Schager wrote: "Day Night Day Night approaches suicide bombing from an abstract perspective, following a young, nameless, ethnically unidentifiable girl (Luisa Williams) as she prepares for, and then attempts to carry out, a mission to detonate an explosive device in Times Square." Nick felt that, despite Williams' fine performance, "the actress can't counteract an overriding sense of shameless manipulation, of post-9/11 anxieties being aggressively, methodically stoked in service of a thriller without purpose." Out of 40 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes rated 70% as positive. The DVD from IFC features an audio commentary by director Julia Loktev.

Civic Duty divided critics further, with the Rotten Tomatoes score standing at 56% positive. Peter Krause stars as a man who becomes suspicious of his Middle Eastern neighbor. Our own Ryan Stewart said: "The film, despite being at its heart a minor genre effort that latches onto a big issue for effect, still manages to keep us engaged with relatively tight scripting and actors who are committed to putting on a good show." The DVD is released by 20th Century Fox, but none of the DVD sites I checked have details on any additional features.

*A guest review today, from Nick Schager, of Slant Magazine

Day Night Day Night approaches suicide bombing from an abstract perspective, following a young, nameless, ethnically unidentifiable girl (Luisa Williams) as she prepares for, and then attempts to carry out, a mission to detonate an explosive device in Times Square. With no hint as to her religion, her cause, her personal reasons for sacrificing herself, and the identity of her masked cohorts, the girl remains a mysterious cipher throughout Julia Loktev's austere, cinema-verité directorial debut. As a context-free reproduction of the moments preceding a cataclysmic event, the film is something of a narrative and stylistic companion piece to United 93, focusing on the mundane particulars of a (potential) tragedy at the deliberate expense of providing any framework for the action at hand. Loktev seems intent on fictionally envisioning that which she can't fully know – namely, "What do suicide bombers do to pass the time before their martyrdom-seeking deed?" –– by situating viewers in a very particular, banal "space," an endeavor whose success is quickly diffused by a complete and utter lack of insight (or interest in providing insight) into anything being depicted.

Title reflects story structure in Day Night Day Night, as prosaic repetition is the key motif of this odyssey of inaction, which fixates – via long, oppressively silent takes – on its protagonist cutting toenails, scrubbing herself in the tub, shaving her armpits, and napping. With scant, functional dialogue punctuated only by brief moments of the girl whispering fervent prayers to her god ("I have only one death. I want my death to be for you"), and with most everything shot in tight close-ups that capture a sense of intimate tactility, the film is defined by an aesthetic asceticism that's both punishing and, at least initially, mesmerizing in its rigorousness. With no background or situational details to help flesh out what's occurring, and with the director diligently confounding any real-world readings by various means (avoiding mention of specific creeds, casting white, black and Asian men and women as conspirators, utilizing generic revolutionary logos and garb), the girl's activities in her motel room are doggedly stripped down to a conceptual level. In Loktev's portrait, the larger meaning is nothing; the immediate exploit is everything.