Riding with "The World's Fastest Indian"

  

FJ's SUM-UP: delightfully fun, perfect feel-good

How it is I’ve been blogging about indie films for years and this one has gone untouched, I can’t be sure. Suffice it to say, it’s long overdue for a review.

One could accurately quote me saying: This is my favorite feel-good indie film of any. There are a lot of reasons why. First, this is a story of my home state. It’s no secret to anyone, Utah and I have a true love-hate relationship. But if there’s something I would hope would put Utah on the map in a different direction, it’s this true story of a self-made man and his lifelong dream of visiting this mystical state. You may be wondering why mystical — don’t get ahead of me.

Burt Munro (played by the immortal Anthony Hopkins) is a happy old codger from Invercargill, a small hamlet on the south island of New Zealand, and there’s only two things he absolutely needs in his life, as it were: a few ladies for flirting with or dating, and his old powerhouse motorsickles. In the early 1960s, there he was, working everyday (usually at six in the morning, to the irritation of his neighbors and the delight of their son) on his old faithful 1920 Scout, an Indian motorbike known for being the first ever produced in America. Munro should've probably been offered a job with Indian long prior, because he seems to know more about getting the most speed out of their bikes than they did. But that wasn’t in the cards, his ambition went far beyond. He wanted to know just how fast his bike could possibly go, given no limitations and all the modifications he made this advancing its ability. He is challenged by a local biker gang to a race on the Invercargill beach — no surprise that he smokes them all. One of the only places on earth to test an motor vehicle's true speed is a few hours west of Salt Lake City, on the Bonneville Salt Flats, where they stretch dead flat for miles and miles. This and other natural phenomena, including Utah's magnificent red rock, are some of what make it such a unique and mystical-looking place (used in more movies than I could count). So at past age 60, with heart troubles and little money, this man yet sets off on achieving this dream. Hopping on a cargo ship where he pays his keep by playing chef, carrying him and his bike across the Pacific and landing them in LA, he seems to pay no notice to the journey or the setbacks. And golly but the setbacks he has, every step of the way, though they hardly seem it, what with his good attitude and his natural likability — to the point that nigh well every person he meets is suddenly a new friend.

 

 

Hopkins lands a perfect performance in this film, one he would later say is the best thing he’d ever done. Whether speaking sentimentally or seriously is irrelevant — he made a great film, written, produced, and directed by Roger Donaldson, a New Zealand-born lifelong devotee of Munro’s legacy. This story is like no other, and the tone of the film ought to leave viewers with a deep sense of satisfaction — all the more so because we feel like we're there on that journey with him from start to finish.

(No I’m not about to tell just how Munro cooks his own leg, you’ll have to catch it.)

"10 Cloverfield Lane" and Spiritual Sequels

Joe's Sumup: creepy and mysterious

(2016) Officially time I got movie-blogging again. Thanks to the three gents of Cinemajaw for providing an impetus in me to really want to get talking about movies again in general, and specifically about quality small-budge indie films. Figured I'd start out with a recent one.

This is the creepiest John Goodman you'll see this side of Barton Fink, which is saying something. If he had a more psychotic role, I don't know of it and I should (ok, Walter was more psychotic with his gun popping out of his shirt at the drop of a pin, but Walter made us laugh -- this guy definitely makes us cringe.)

The stage is set with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a girl packing up her things angrily and driving off from her home down a highway. Her boyfriend Ben (a brief Bradley Cooper cameo) rings her up, trying to make amends -- when out of nowhere comes a rogue truck smashing into hers and leaving her unconscious. Next she knows, she's in a concrete bunker, IV in her arm and cuffed to the bed she's sleeping in. Naturally she begins attempting her first escape from this unknown dungeon. Enter Howard, a John Goodman-sized rustic male, a full beards, easy to tell there are a few screws loose with this paranoid individual. He claims to have rescued Michelle from her wreck and wants to protect her from the ensuing apocalypse he claims is happening on the outside -- that the air is now toxic and has killed off everybody, that the military is launching a counteroffensive against some foreign entity, and that there's no leaving the bunker. Michelle's clearly not buying it and after meeting another fellow Emmett, also captured there underground by Howard, she tries making another break for it, especially after hearing noises above ground. Howard isn't having any of it.

Spiritual sequels are kind of like step-siblings -- not necessarily from the same blood, but still with stark similarities and also stark differences. I love a good spiritual sequel. This one gets a moderately good review from me for what it was. The hardest part to swallow was how hard a time I was having, even after it was over, justifying its relation to the 2008 hit Cloverfield, a bouncy camcorder-filmed story about kids escaping Manhattan during the attack of a highly-disgruntled baby-zilla who also has smaller babies of her own. I thought the film was fabulous, saw it multiple times sheerly for the terrifying fun of the suspenseful pandemonium throughout -- also enjoyed the characters and their relationships in it. Cloverfield was the cinechild of Godzilla and The Blair Witch Hunt, and executed by J.J. Abrams it was done just right. "10 Cloverfield Lane" is more the cinechild of War of the Worlds and Misery. Similar to its predecessor in that it does not tell the audience much for most of the movie, a gripping and exciting gimmick, yet you know it has secrets it will reveal before the end. Different in that it is far more subtle in its suspense, having a much more uncomfortable Hitchcockian claustrophobia contained within the terror of the bunker, Howard's gun, Howard's psychosis, and Howard. The man feels a little bit like Norman Bates in a way -- obliging on the outside, dark secrets in the middle. You know something must be happening outside that can't be right within the title of the movie, so what are these captives complaining about when being fed, given shelter, even entertainment, in this microcosm? Howard comes to even convince them he's only trying to help at a point. Turn the page.

I give 10 Cloverfield Lane a solid 3 stars for its suspense, shying away from more because, well I guess my Facebook post sums it well:

""10 Cloverfield Lane" was good, 

A fine directorial debut,

But for all the wait, I would

Still wanna see a frikkin kaiju!"