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Reviews
Reparation (2015)
Reparation A suspensefulindependent film
Reparation
A film by Kyle Ham and Steve Timm Based on the play "The Activist" by Steve Timm, screenplay by Kyle Ham and Steve Timm, produced and directed by Kyle Ham. A Red Dirt Picture
CSA music by Devan Yank, costumes by Sami Martin Sarmiento, production design by G. Duane Skoog, director of photography by Jay Silver, executive producers Suzanne Ham, Liz and Chris Dooley, Vizher Mooney, Patricia Pardee, Phoebe and Bobby Tudo, producers Mathew Lessall, Steve Timm
Reviewed by Clarissa Wittenberg
The poster for this movie lists eleven awards won at film festivals and it has probably won more since the poster was designed. It deserves every one. The screenplay and the acting alone would win honors. It is, at heart, a mysterious play telling of the sort of traumatic scars that many people hide as they go about their lives. The story starts with a soldier in a military prison and then in a military hospital. Nothing is explained except that the man has suffered amnesia and is clearly traumatized.
The film is a modern tragedy, with the wounds of soldiers and others who protect us laid out in painful succession. The character and quality of the actors, script and the extraordinary skills of the crew come together to prove that when art gives form to tragedy we can benefit from its lessons. Even small parts are beautifully played and the major roles of Bob, the injured soldier played by Marc Menchaca, Jerome, his former buddy turned enemy, played by Jon Huertas; the lovely and loving Lucy played by Virginia Newcomb; and the parts of the children, Charlotte and Ralph acted by Dale Dye Thomas and Brody Behr are masterful with each committing body and soul to their roles. Adam Philpott playing Marty, a junior sheriff and Bob's brother, perfectly portrayed a sense of ambivalent confusion. I have no doubt they are all skilled and experienced actors, but as director, Ham must have allowed each one to breathe life into their parts.
Throughout the film Ham has achieved a highly unusual command of impending danger and suspense and a deep understanding of the uniquely American place and character.
The tragic injury is both real and a metaphor. The film asks what is real? What is true? Can anyone love us? Can we continue? How do we recover and find balance again? At first I thought the film was about a soldier injured in wars of the Afghanistan or Iraq as we have seen so many soldiers return with both bodily and psychic injuries. But the soldier at the heart of this film had been a military policeman decades ago and had never been to a war zone—unless you count any military setting a war zone. The settings in Indiana are so familiar; anyone who has been to those parts has seen them. Everyone has passed by the old house. We know the farmer's market with its sign, "Bob is here." My brother had a truck like their old blue truck, except it wasn't blue. Kyle Hamm has rooted his film perfectly.
Each setting, each costume, each beam of golden light is perfect. Ham edited his own film and it is put together in a very crisp way. Beautiful shots of sunlit fields, dark woods, and dangerous country roads help create the montage that makes up this soldier's life.
The music supports and sometimes, guides the film. It provides an American soundtrack and is filled with the wisdom of country music.
It is important that the secrets of the film be kept, so I will not describe the plot. The film was truly twenty-years in the making. Ham had the good fortune as a student at DePauw University to read the stories and plays written by one of his professors, Steve Timm. A story written by Timm had haunted Ham. Eventually the team tried the studio route in Hollywood and then after almost ruining it with required re-writes and tepid responses, withdrew and eventually self funded this independent film. They made the right decision and it seems that the number of people who volunteered and those who "kickstarted" it, made the right decision too.
This is a hell of a first movie! Review courtesy of Washington Film Institute http://filminstitute.org/fil:review-reparation/.
Monsieur Lazhar (2011)
An immigrant teacher helps a class address tragedy
Monsieur Lazhar Written and directed by Philippe Falardeau (2011) 94 minutes Canada's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012. French with English subtitles.
This paradoxical film is beautifully acted and directed. The script by Philippe Falardeau is riveting, precise and natural. It portrays the reactions of the children to the suicide of a favorite teacher and slowly uncovers the concealed past of other figures. Monsieur Bachir Lazhar, an immigrant from Algeria, played by Mohamed Fellaq, having read of the suicide in the papers, applies for the newly vacant teaching position with an air of desperation and an exaggerated resume. Set in a public elementary school in Montreal, the students are from diverse backgrounds. An educated man, Lazhar shows he has no idea how to teach young children when he begins by reading Balzac and asking the children to write out dictation. He enforces discipline in the class—even slapping a child—and re-arranges the desks in straight lines. Quickly he is told his expectations are too high, but it all signals change to the students who sense his good will and welcome the new beginning.
The children are wonderful. Simon, the boy who found the teacher, played by Emilien Neron, conveys his trauma almost without words. You could drown in the eyes of Alice, Simon's schoolmate, played by Sophie Nelisse. Falardeau's direction makes it difficult to remember this is a film, not a real group of children in a real school. I was reminded of the children in two French films: Francois Trauffaut's 400 Blows and Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants.
It quickly becomes clear that there is a clash between the teacher and the school principal. Lazhar and the principal, Mme. Vaillancourt, played by Danielle Prouix, are simultaneously co-conspirators and antagonists. She feels some of the same conflicts but also expresses sad weariness. She shrugs when he asks if the class could be moved to another room and she responds by saying "That is why they put on fresh paint." The school prefers shielding the children from talking about the suicide and leaving the distress of the children to be addressed by the experts. Lazhar can barely keep himself from responding to the inevitable questions of the students and from trying to comfort them. Both his slap and his pats on the backs of students violate another rule: zero touching of a student by a teacher. A father implores Lazhar "not to raise his child, but to teach her." The reasons for the teacher's immigration and the vulnerability of his entry into Canadian life become clear as the film progresses. There are glimpses of the particular loneliness and fragility of an immigrant such as a meticulous daily routine. We see his simple apartment; his awkward social life; and we watch unnoticed as he dances to the music of his past.
Clearly, Falardeau is exceptionally talented and has the ability to raise social issues through a riveting story. I intend to find his earlier films and look forward to seeing his future work.
Please visit my page at WASHINGTON FILM INSTITUTE > http://dcfilminstitute.org/film-review-Monsieur Lazhar/ and leave any comments > you have about this or any review.
Bully (2011)
Bully is an important film
Bully Directed by Lee Hirsch
Bully is a documentary with human drama in every frame. It captures the lives of five children, two of whom were so depressed by their sense of helplessness that they committed suicide. Each story held up a mirror of our culture; our discomfort and abuse of gays; our punishment of people who fall outside the normal in large or small ways. One girl in a small Mississippi town broke down, took a gun and held her classmates captive in their school bus and ended up in jail and psychiatric facilities for two years. The portraits of the families are touching. They cared and tried to help their children. They sought help from the schools and other authorities and were met with excuses and indifference. One can only conclude that bullying is so common and is basically tolerated that the sense of outrage is dulled. The school bus provides a theater of cruelty and a chorus of children hang over their seats and watch intently and even cheer the bully. No one steps in.
The film makes clear that bullying impairs the victim's ability to report it or protest. They fear things will get worse if they draw attention to the acts or that they will cause their parents more pain if they talk about it. Thus even the victim is drawn into the conspiracy that allows bullying to go on.
I saw this film with an audience of middle-school and high school students. At several points they groaned when adults denied the truth of the complaints, but on the whole they were silent and attentive. They clearly 'got" it. This reinforces the value of the P13 rating which was granted after being denied. Kids need to see this film and so do the rest of us.
There are ways to combat bullying shown in the film. But the best way will be to wake up to the danger and be active when we can. Lee Hirsch has given us a gift and I bless the Sioux City School system for allowing this film to be shot in their schools. And the parents who allowed their children to be filmed. It is hard to deny the problem after seeing this film.