Lord of the Flies meets Lost as a US soccer team struggle to survive after their plane crashes
on a deserted Pacific isle. Not a complete disaster but this movie, shot in Malaysia by new director Shyam Madiraju has quite a few plot holes, a pretty embarrassing script and plenty of violence.
Nate Parker gives himself a reasonable vehicle for his brooding looks
and there is little to distinguish from the rest apart from Ethan Peck as the crazy alternative leader.
There are some interesting observations about human behaviour in these situations but it has been done so much better.
Little to rescue here.
★+
His motivation was to see if US citizens would have been as acquiescent as Germans were when killing Jews in WW2. This documentary tries to give a lightish touch to this biopic, with some odd additions like an elephant following Milgram through the corridors. Go figure. Peter Sarsgaard 
is efficient as ever as Stanley but doesn’t inspire much love or interest really. It is more interesting seeing Winona Ryder
for the first time in ages (apparently she has been on TV mostly) and she does a decent turn as the wife Sasha.
The two main characters: Santiago and Florencia split up after a lover’s tiff and with BA backdrop to the fore, they end up having many dialogues and chats with friends, family, work colleagues
and students before discovering that they are better off together after all. Some of the dialogues such as the one with the vegan in the park are just plain annoying while others such as Florencia and her father (Mario Pasik) show greater depth. Overall, the screenplay is fairly banal 
and some of the younger actresses come across as whiny and artificial but this may indeed reflect a type of person in the film. Felipe Colombo and Sabrina Garciarena do OK in the lead roles
without showing anything extra and why does she have to be a top drawer lawyer when she is patently not? Good cinematography and a nice setting.
It is a hard lesson for him to learn, working in a society that is traditional, machista and ruled by the colonialists of whom he is a member.
This rule by force is not his style but he has to tolerate the way his father and brother work. He falls in love with Bisila, a local woman who is already married, so it is a forbidden love marked by tragic events. Jacobo
, his brother becomes an alcoholic and kills someone, so is repatriated quick smart, not long before independence comes to the country and the foreigners are forced out. Killian and Bisila try to keep their romance going but in the end it is too much. All these family secrets are discovered in the early 2000’s by the next generation led by Clarence, daughter of Jacobo, who decides to visit the island and find out all the missing pieces and secrets.
is interesting. Much of the acting is good though Casas is somewhat uneven in the lead. Berta Vazquez as Bisila is fine. 
What I did find trying was the constant time shifts and flashbacks and the story of Clarence on her search
doesn’t add too much to the film.
Mary Shepherd lives in a van and parks it in a street in Camden Town in the 70’s and 80’s. She ends up in Bennett’s driveway and being decent or weak, he helps her along here and there.
Mary takes advantage of this and milks it for all it’s worth. She is a real character: intelligent but pompous, bossy, manipulative, etc, etc. How did she get into that state? Who is the man (Jim Broadbent) who visits her ever so often to get paid? Bennett, played interesting as a split character by Alan Jennings
, as the writer in Bennett and the man himself, tries to work all this out. Neighbours and other characters come and go
but until the Lady finally goes his life is dominated by this. Even the social workers are limited for answers.
The lady is played by Maggie Smith, and as always it is a delight to watch her in this very complete performance.
His brother Ryu stayed in Osaka with his musician father, something of a vagabond.
Koichi reads that if you go to the place where the bullet trains pass and ask for a miracle it will be granted. So, little by little he and his friends and his brother at his end organise and expedition to the town in the middle of the two cities to witness the trains passing. And 7 children end up going there to perform the ritual. 
Koreeda has made films about the resourcefulness of children on their own before and he shows how in many ways they can be smarter than the adults around them.
This and many other observations can be found in this charming movie. The acting of the brothers Koki Maeda
and Ohshiro Maeda who are very different personalities really form the centre of this film and while some may complain about the length of the film, the time spent in their company is well worth it. These are boys who think about the world and try to make it a better place and are not the mini consumers we see so much of today.
but our heart goes out to Agu who is forced to lose all innocence quick.
This is not a new story, it has happened for centuries but it must stop. Abraham Attah does a great job as the boy
and Cary Joji Fukunaga signals his arrival at the big league: he wrote, directed and shot this movie.
Hard to watch and I found myself turning away from some of the violent scenes 
but there is no doubt that it was a film with some powerful images and a story that needs to be told.
passionfilm 