Movie Reviews: All alone... except for a serial killer
Let It Snow
The weather outside might be frightful, but Mia (Ivanna Sakhno) and Max (Alex Hafner) have more pressing concerns in (16s).
Determined to snowboard down the notorious Black Ridge at a remote ski-resort in Georgia, the American couple refuse to be dissuaded, despite repeated warnings from the locals. Having helicoptered all the way to the top of the Black Ridge, Max and Mia find themselves all alone in a stunningly bleak landscape — all alone, that is, except for the serial killer who stalks the slopes. Written by Omri Rose and Stanislav Kapralov, with Kapralov directing, is a serial killer horror that strips the sub-genre’s tropes down to its bare bones.
Set against a stark, uncompromising backdrop, the story quickly becomes a classic case of cat-and-mouse, in which the predator revels in the hunt as much as the kill. Separated from Max, lost and badly bruised in the wake of an avalanche, Mia trudges ever onwards through endless miles of snow, her misery enlivened only by unexpected moments of terror.
It’s a powerful performance from Ivanna Sakhno, and not least because Omri Rose and Stanislav Kapralov have created a serial killer flick that is more realistic than the genre tends to offer.
Instead of the thrills and spills we have been conditioned to expect, the film evolves into a testament to Mia’s character and endurance, with Sakhno increasingly poignant as she spirals down into hopelessness and despair, her plight accentuated by cinematographer Yevgeny Usanov, who brilliantly conveys the disorientating effect of how it might feel to find yourself snow-blind and exhausted beyond rational thought.
Stanislav Kapralov boldly demonstrates his ambition by tossing in an early reference to , and while doesn’t belong in that august company, it’s a very impressive debut offering nevertheless. (internet release)
(12A) stars In-Pyo Cha as Mr Cha, formerly South Korea’s most popular matinee idol but now fallen on hard times and reduced to starring in advertisements for gym training gear.
Matters come to a head when a naked Mr Cha somehow manages to get himself buried alive in the basement of a girls’ high school when the building is demolished, whereupon Mr Cha summons his dim-witted manager A-Ram (Song Jae-Ryong) to rescue him before his disgrace is revealed to the public and his career is finished forever.
In-Pyo Cha is in terrific form here, delivering a deadpan performance of stoic acceptance even as the indignities continue to pile up, and mercilessly lampooning his public persona in the process — Cha, a popular actor in South Korea, is effectively playing himself, and takes great pleasure in mocking the self-delusions that the acting fraternity tends to employ to insulate itself against reality.
He gets strong support from Song Jae-Ryong as the well-meaning but hapless A-Ram, who might be a bit slow on the uptake but still understands better than Mr Cha that if Mr Cha’s career was still worth managing, it would be managed by someone else.
Writer-director Dong-kyu Kim delivers a delightfully absurdist comedy in his feature-length debut, and while the story occasionally labours the point, is an enjoyably dry skewering of self-obsessed pretension. (Netflix)
Asphalt Burning **
(12A) opens with a fairly preposterous premise, as Norwegian petrolhead Roy (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) motors up a mountain in his canary-yellow Mustang to rendezvous with his fiancé Sylvia (Katherine Thorborg Johansen) on their wedding day.
Overtaken by a Porsche driven by Sylvia’s former lover Robyn (Alexandra Maria Lar), who then claims the fair Sylvia’s hand, Roy finds himself challenged to race for the right to marry Sylvia, with Robyn — a professional racing driver — proposing Germany’s notorious Nürburgring racetrack for the showdown.
And so Roy and his fellow petrolheads embark on a trans-Europe road-trip, during the course of which they encounter a corpse, a hot-rodding Lemmy-from-Motorhead lookalike, and a number of other Roys, all of which adds considerably to the initial implausibility.
To be fair, director, Hallvard Bræin, clearly intends that his story, and his characters, should not be taken seriously. is very much a spoof of the comedy road-trip, even if the rather broad comedy is frequently more miss than hit — with a little more finesse, for example, the ploddingly predictable scene in which a coffin is smuggled into the back of a souped-up hearse could have been very funny indeed.
The fact that the actors are clumsily dubbed into English doesn’t help the comic timing, but there are some worthwhile flourishes, the most impressive of which is Roy’s wholly improbable escape from a barge on the Rhine, which is achieved with an admirable disdain for the laws of physics. (Netflix)
