Coherence (2013) review

Eight friends gather in a house for a common dinner party, while a dangerous comet passes over the Earth. The comet seems to have only affected the house’s electrical devices, but it is not until the guests are forced to leave the house that they discover its real effects.

Having been developing the film’s concept for a year, James Ward Byrkit (who has previously participated in the art department and screenplay of Gore Verbinski films) gathers an eight-member cast and shoots, almost entirely within a house, an independent, experimental science-fiction thriller on a tight budget and… with no script! In the beginning, Byrkit as the director gives the impression of the simple observer of a random dinner party between eight everyday people and the realism of dialogues and performances reveals undoubtable improvisation. Actors speak on top of one another and at times even mix up their words, making the film feel impressively realistic.

In the first fifteen minutes of the film, one can link it to the sci-fi genre only through random hints. However, the development of the plot leads to us being surrounded by an engrossing science-fiction atmosphere, as well as to a number of enjoyably unpredictable twists, which not even the actors themselves (excluding co-writer Alex Manugian) knew about.

Given all the above, it may sound like it is impossible for the film to be actually decent (outside the margins of an interesting experiment). Still, all those elements end up being the exact reason Coherence proves out to be such a remarkable sci-fi thriller. And this is because its success does not rely on the special effects -which it avoids in an exemplary way, not simply due to the small budget, but because it doesn’t need them- but on the imaginative development of an extremely compelling idea. Lance Pereira’s achievement in editing, which is as excellent as it is difficult, seems to give a vital pulse to the improvisational scenes and the found-footage-like realism makes us even more surprised at the unexpected plot twists. This way, the film plunges us deeper and deeper into an existential nightmare, which never runs out of surprises.

Of course, there’s no doubt the film loses its strength at some points, as Byrkit does not avoid the -rather common in American independent cinema- focus on unnecessary dramatic subplots focused on individual characters. Also, the film’s finale, although it does climax the story’s existential spirit, feels disappointingly awkward. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to reconsider these flaws from the point of view indicated by the film’s original title, The Understudy, which refers to the character of the protagonist Emily Baldoni. In any case, James Ward Byrkit’s impressive achievement proudly manages to prove that good science-fiction films do not necessarily need dazzling visual effects to be impressive and it turns out to be -in the simplest way possible- unsettlingly suspenseful and nearly mind-blowing. 

(3½ out of 5 spinning tops)

Chappie (2015) review

Neil Blomkamp, director of District 9 and Elysium recently apologized for the latter, admitting he had relied too much on its appealing concept and neglected to pay the same attention to a satisfactory screenplay. This statement sounds sincere on one hand, but we would appreciate it more if it meant that Blomkamp has learned from his mistakes. Unfortunately, everything he accuses his previous film for can be used to describe his new one as well…

Chappie is, precisely, a promising idea that would need a much more powerful script in order to be effective. This idea is the creation of a form of artificial intelligence (Chappie) that needs to discover the world from the beginning, in a process that resembles a child’s upbringing. As a concept, it contains an intrinsic humane element, as well as the potential for substantial parallelisms with man himself and the formation of his perception of the world. But most of all, it shows that Blomkamp can still demonstrate a sense of filmmaking creativity: he consciously tries to follow the rules of different genres simultaneously, creating a violent, R-rated… “family” film, with no intention of compromising by subjugating one genre to the other.

As expected, unfortunately, this is exactly what the South-African director stumbles upon. He creates a film that doesn’t really know what kind of film it wants to be. The violent action often gives its place to a humane approach and the latter to the lighthearted humour, with the film being disorientated and almost never truly functional. Moreover, the music composed by Hans Zimmer, despite being otherwise interesting, often seems to force the transition from one tone to the other, thus only making it clumsier. Chappie’s biggest flaw, however, is its script’s incapability to convince about almost anything that happens throughout the film. From the criminals’ transformations into either tender parental figures or repentant heroes to the naively humanized robot Chappie, the film’s concept feels annoyingly rough. Also, some details like the battery sign on Chappie’s chest and the obvious product placements cannot but make things worse. As a result, the sentimental elements seem melodramatic and the action never feels exciting, with the humour being the only actually amusing thing left, although it tonally confuses the film even more.

It is worth mentioning that here, apart from certain hints about religion, the social subtext of Blomkamp’s previous works is absent. Lastly, Yolandi Visser and Ninja, members of South-African rap group Die Antwoord, star in the film as themselves for some reason –and some of their songs are included in the soundtrack. Ninja is at times enjoyably comical, whereas Yolandi Visser should have given a considerably stronger performance for her poorly written character to feel engaging.

Chappie has undoubtedly good intentions but it would need a more elaborate screenplay in order to be sufficiently solid and convincing. Blomkamp misses a second chance (after decent, but not memorable Elysium) to live up to the triumph of District 9, only this time, his sci-fi vision seems worryingly ‘blurred’…

(2 out of 5 spinning tops)