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Rating 3
Created by Ronald D Moore and Michael Taylor
Written by Michael Taylor, based on a story by Ronald D Moore and Michael Taylor
Directed by Peter Berg
Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Frank Pike), Clea DuVall (Sue Parsons), Kerry Bishé (Billie Kashmiri), Sienna Guillory (Rika Goddard), James D’Arcy (Roger Fallon), Erik Jensen (Jules Braun), Ritchie Coster (Jimmy Johnson), Nelson Lee (Kenji Yamamoto), Joy Bryant (Alice Thibadeau), Omar Metwally (Adin Meyer), Gene Farbar (Val Orlovsky), José Pablo Cantillo (Manny Rodriguez), Jimmi Simpson (Virtual Man) and Kari Wahlgren (Jean – voice only)
The Phaeton is a scientific starship on a ten year journey to the Epsilon Eridani star system. It is approaching Neptune, the point of no return, where the crew can use the gravitational pull of the planet to either catapult the ship onwards towards its intended destination or back towards Earth. Since their departure from Earth six months earlier, scientists have calculated that the planet will continue to support human life for less than a century and the original mission is now altered to locate a new planet for human habitation.
The on-board psychologist Dr Roger Fallon has created a system of virtual reality modules, allowing crew members to assume different identities and engage in adventures in a variety of environments, designed to combat the psychological effects of being confined in the spaceship for such a long length of time. He is also the director of a reality TV programme, ‘Edge of Never: Life on the Phaeton’, which is broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company back on Earth and attracts billions of viewers. However, an unidentified glitch in the virtual reality modules allows a dangerous and malevolent figure existing outside of the constraints of the programming to invade the fantasy worlds of the various crew members.
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‘Virtuality’ is the feature-length pilot for an intended Fox network television series that was not commissioned. The pilot was broadcast on the Fox network in June 2009. I came across it because of Clea DuVall, who I like very much. I was largely unfamiliar with the rest of the actors. I watched it without knowing anything about the premise, apart from seeing one promotional picture of the cast.
I have a love hate relationship with science fiction. I grew up watching ‘Doctor Who’ and reading Isaac Asimov. Before I reached my teenage years I had read the C S Lewis space trilogy and these had a huge impact on me. There was a time when the third and final part, ‘That Hideous Strength’, would have counted as my favourite book. I guess I started to grow out of love with sci-fi (or, at least, some of it) in the years following ‘Star Wars’. I detest that film and I don’t like a lot of the science fiction and related film and television that has come since. Generally speaking, I just seemed to lose my love of it as I got older. This is not to say that I have turned my back on the genre altogether. I still watch ‘Doctor Who’ and there have been plenty of sci-fi films post ‘Star Wars’ that I like – ‘The Thing’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Event Horizon’ are three examples that immediately come to mind.
I have become less interested in television sci-fi over the years. I watched ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’ for a while and occasionally ‘Deep Space Nine’, but not ‘Voyager’ and ‘Enterprise’. ‘Babylon 5’ never caught my imagination and I have ignored the likes of ‘Earth: Final Conflict’ and ‘Andromeda’. I did watch the whole of the short-lived ‘Firefly’, but came away from it decidedly underwhelmed and I remain equally mystified by the critical acclaim afforded to ‘Battlestar Galactica’. Although I long ago stopped taking seriously the conspiracy theorists who believe in Roswell and recovered alien technology, I do have a soft-spot for alien abduction fiction, be it ‘The X Files’ or television movies like ‘Visitors of the Night’. It is not the science I am interested in, it's the fiction.
The bottom line is probably simply that a lot of sci-fi seems to be based around liberarian concepts and I tend veer more towards a slightly unfocused and ambivalent socialist archetype, not that I am in any shape or form an expert on such matters.
I approached ‘Virtuality’ was a degree of trepidation, not really expecting to like it. I struggled for the first ten minutes or so, wondering if I was going to make it through the whole thing. ‘Alien’ seems to be the template that virtually all subsequent sci-fi adheres to and there is nothing here that is not already very familiar. My initial impression, one that stuck with me to some degree or other right up to the end, was that I was watching a hybrid of ‘Silent Running’, ‘Alien’, ‘Event Horizon’ and ‘Firefly’ – the latter compounded by the opening scenes in which a small Union army troop attacks a Confederate army camp – the virtual reality fantasy of the ship’s commender.
In spite of my doubts, I found myself becoming more intrigued as the reality television concept was introduced. A convincing aura of unease beneath the surface was introduced, a sense that something is not right and the boundaries between reality and fantasy are already becoming blurred. The story began to set up some interesting concepts, although obviously the virtual reality plot is taken directly from ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’, ‘Total Recall’ and probably lots of other sci-fi that I don’t know about or have forgotten about. The glitch in the programming is straight out of the regular holodeck malfunctions in ‘Next Generation’.
‘Virtuality’ simply sets the scene for the intended television series and ends at what is, effectively, a starting point. As such, it does not really work as a movie. However, the conclusion left me hooked and wanting more, the first time this has happened watching the pilot of an (intended) American television series in quite some time. It’s a shame it failed to launch, so to speak.
Ronald D Moore and Michael Taylor, the creators of ‘Virtuality’ and writers of this pilot, both have prior connections to ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Battlestar Galactica’.
Review posted 31 August 2009
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Rating 1½
Directed by Jim Donovan
Written by Ben Ripley
Clea DuVall (Cassie), Elizabeth Whitmere (Andrea), James A Woods (Rhett), Victoria Sanchez (Sophie), Morgan Kelly (Chad), Matthew Kabwe (Professor Bateman) and Robert Reynolds (Dr Miller)
As a young child, Cassie was abducted and locked in a cellar for two days before being rescued. Nineteen years later she is struggling to complete her psychology thesis. Having been given a thirty day extension, she takes a temporary job as a fire lookout in a secluded watchtower in the middle of a beautiful but remote forest. She is trying to overcome her fear of isolation, but she is soon haunted by fears from the past.
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‘The Watch’ is a made-for-television film that was shot in Ontario in Canada and first broadcast on the Lifetime Movie Channel in the USA in March 2008. I like psychological horror films that aspire to being creepy rather than gory and I do have a soft-spot for Lifetime movies, but my main reason for choosing to watch this film was the presence of Clea DuVall in a lead role.
The film starts out reasonably well and although it does not offer anything new and, in fact, borrows heavily from Japanese horror films, it does create a nicely judged aura of creepiness. Unfortunately, it soon begins to succumb to borderline tedium. The eventual twist is not all that hard to guess and the ending is absolutely nonsensical, unless I am missing something obvious.
With a stronger script, sharper characterisation and a surer directorial hand, ‘The Watch’ could have been rather good. As it is, the film has its merits, particularly during the first 45 minutes or so, not least of which is the excellent DuVall, but ultimately I found it something of a disappointment.
Review posted 8 August 2009
Screencap taken from clea-duvall.net
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Rating 1½
Directed by David Mackay
Written by Betsy Morris
Starring Elisabeth Harnois, Clea DuVall, Jensen Ackles, Sean Patrick Flanery, Danneel Harris, John Doe, Alice Krige Adair Tishler and Sean Wing
Piper (Elisabeth Harnois), a young aspiring artist, moves to Santa Cruz and answers an ad stating, “help wanted, normal people need not apply,” to get a job as a waitress at the City Beach Cafe, which is owned by an old hippie surfer called Trucker (John Doe, the one-time singer with the mercurial Los Angeles punk band X). Piper has come to Santa Cruz in search of the daughter she gave up for adoption as a teenager.
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‘Ten Inch Hero’ was made in 2007 on a shoe-string budget and subsequently screened at a number of film festivals in the US, although it has never received a theatrical release. I first became aware of the film because of the cast and have been waiting for the opportunity to see it ever since. Sadly, it proved to be a somewhat disappointing experience. This might be the most cloyingly saccharine film I have ever willingly sat through. There is more treacle to be found here than in a sweet factory. It conforms to all the stereotypes of a typical low-budget independent feel-good movie, but whereas the characters are clearly intended to be quirky and likeable, too often the screenplay has them veer way too close to being simply annoying. The message the film seems to be trying to tell us is that beauty is not just skin deep, but far too often it almost borders on being offensive.
After a while I found myself going with the flow, but although it is not by any means entirely dislikeable, it did try my patience early on and only the likeable cast kept me watching to the end.
Review posted 14 April 2009
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If you are not familiar with the “Zodiac” killings that took place in Northern California at the tail end of the 1960s this review will include spoilers for the film.
Rating 3½
Directed by David Fincher
Written by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Chloë Sevigny, John Carroll Lynch and Clea DuVall
The self-styled ‘Zodiac Killer’ is one of most notorious of all unidentified serial killers, perhaps second only to Jack the Ripper, who terrorised parts of East London in the late Victorian era, more than a hundred years ago. Zodiac killed five people and seriously injured two others during a period between 20 December 1968 and 11 October 1969. He wasn’t particularly prolific and he did not sexually brutalise or torture his victims, but he played mind games with the media and police and the very fact that he has always managed to evade detection has added to the aura of mystery that surrounds the case.
David Fincher’s film follows the investigation over a period of fourteen years, witnessed through the eyes of Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist working for the San Francisco Chronicle, Paul Avery, the Chronicle’s head investigative reporter, who famously received a Halloween card from Zodiac that is widely believed to have been a veiled death threat, and David Toschi, the San Francisco police detective assigned to the case. The film is based on two books written by Robert Graysmith about the killings. Although some of his theories and findings are controversial, he was “there”, so to speak, and is considered to be an expert on the available evidence.
As the film begins, the capture of the so-called Zodiac serial killer becomes a priority for the San Francisco police when he mails clues to his identity to a number of newspapers. These include the San Francisco Chronicle, whose investigative reporter, the flamboyant Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr), becomes a target of the killer for further pieces of coded correspondence. Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a cartoonist newly arrived at the newspaper, becomes obsessed with solving the case, eventually at the expense of his job and his marriage, even after Avery has long since succumbed to the effects of his chain-smoking and alcoholism. David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), the police detective assigned the case, is initially borderline antagonistic towards both Avery and Graysmith, as he struggles to investigate more than 2,500 possible suspects, but later on he begins to secretly feed off-the-record tips to aid Graysmith’s unofficial investigation.
When David Fincher made ‘Se7en’ in 1995 it established a template for virtually all subsequent serial-killer crime thrillers, to the point of cliché now. Returning to the subject again twelve years later, he has made a film that is very different. One reference point would be ‘Dirty Harry’, the 1971 Don Siegel film inspired by the Zodiac killings. Perhaps just as noteworthy is the comparison (visual, as much as anything) to ‘All The President’s Men’, the 1976 film that told the story of the Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who blew the lid off Watergate, the greatest political scandal in recent American history. ‘Zodiac’ not only has the look of 1970s American films, but also draws on them for inspiration elsewhere.
Because of the quirky characterisation of the three lead characters (Graysmith and Avery in particular) there are moments when it almost seems as if the film is about to drift into Coen Brothers territory. The acting is excellent, as might be expected. I think Robert Downey Jr is an electrifying actor and although his role is ultimately relatively small here he is in outstanding form. It is interesting to watch Mark Ruffalo’s performance as David Toschi, knowing that both Steve McQueen, in ‘Bullitt’, and Clint Eastwood, in ‘Dirty Harry’, based their characters on the real Toschi, who acted as an advisor to the producers during the making of ‘Zodiac’. Ruffalo’s take on the character bears little if any relation to Harry Callahan.
There are several cameo performances. One of these is by Clea DuVall, who is an actress I like very much. I wasn’t aware of her involvement prior to watching the film, so her brief appearance was a nice added bonus.
This is a strange film in many ways. Because the story unfolds over a long timeframe, with main characters drifting in and out, it never quite establishes a specific pattern. This is, I think, very deliberate. A less skilled director might have made a hash of it, leaving an unholy mess of a film behind, but David Fincher already has a very impressive track record. Some critics have suggested the film is slightly overlong. I don’t think so. It does meander a bit, but this is a story about a murder investigation that consumed the lives of those involved. There is nothing neat and tidy here.
It possibly has too much of a retro-feel, almost becoming a kind of homage to 1970s American filmmaking and detective TV shows, to be a genuine classic. Having said that, it is a very good film at a time when great films are a scarcity and, based on this one viewing, I thoroughly recommend it.
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Rating 3½
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Written by Stephen Susco, based on 'Ju-On: The Grudge' written by Takashi Shimizu
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Clea DuVall, KaDee Strickland, Grace Zabriskie, Ted Raimi, Bill Pullman and Ryo Ishibashi
Sarah Michelle Gellar has said she was taken by surprise by the long hours films crews are expected to work in Japan, compared to their colleagues in America. Takashi Shimizu has admitted it took him a while to get used to the working practices of the American actors because it conflicted with his usual working methods. He has also said he was initially surprised that Gellar took such a keen interest in every aspect of the filming process because Japanese actors are not expected to have much involvement in the production other than acting their parts in accordance with the instructions of the director. Gellar has said everyone was extremely polite and kind to her, but she did quickly notice that members of the film crew seemed slightly uncomfortable when she asked them questions -- and Shimizu would look on with benign amusement when she made suggestions to him about various things.
“In Japan actors and actresses can work all day. As long as we put them in a taxi and they get home safely after working, that’s fine. But here, American actors have only a certain amount of hours they can work in a day; then that’s it. It was really hard for me to work around that -- the scheduling, the timing -- with those actors. Other than that, the actors themselves were great. It was a really great experience for me to work with them.”
Takashi Shimizu: horror.com
Gellar was the last of the American actors to be cast. She says a friend sent her the script together with a DVD copy of ‘Ju-on: The Grudge’, which she found waiting for her when she returned home from a brief vacation. She read the script and watched the DVD that same evening and personally contacted Sam Raimi the following day, making known her interest in the central role of Karen Davis. Raimi has confirmed this story, saying he was initially reluctant because he didn’t think the budget would accommodate her involvement. However, she persisted, and Raimi claims it was her unrestrained enthusiasm about the film and her willingness to audition for the role that eventually won him over.
‘The Grudge’ had a $10 million production budget. Executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment later stated that their ‘best scenario’ prediction was for a $15 million opening weekend. The final worldwide gross exceeded $187 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2004.
When I read the shocking reviews ‘The Grudge’ received I am absolutely mystified. As ever, there were some good reviews, but many dismissed the film as a worthless piece of garbage. Gellar came in for a lot of criticism for her performance. Roger Ebert has been quite supportive of some of Gellar’s films in the past, but he considers ‘The Grudge’ to be one of the worst ten films of 2004. I don’t agree with this, but it’s a perfectly valid, if subjective, opinion. However, in his review of the film he claimed the non-linear timeline employed in the narrative is impossible to follow. I find it surprising coming from a film critic and writer of Ebert’s experience and reputation.
“The Grudge has a great opening scene, I’ll grant you that. Bill Pullman wakes up next to his wife, greets the day from the balcony of their bedroom, and then - well, I, for one, was gob-smacked. I’m not sure how this scene fits into the rest of the movie, but then I’m not sure how most of the scenes fit into the movie… I eventually lost all patience. The movie may have some subterranean level on which the story strands connect and make sense, but it eluded me.”
Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun Times
There is not a great deal of difference between ‘Ju-on: The Grudge’ (Shimizu’s Japanese original) and the American-financed remake. I think the original is the better of the two films. It has an atmosphere that is both foreboding and alien. Compensating for this, the remake does attempt to show that the American characters feel a sense of displacement within Japanese culture and I think this works very well, although there is no great emphasis placed on it. In both films the characters are merely part of the fabric of the story. Their presence and personalities always remain very sketchy as they are sucked into the unfolding horror. This is very deliberate, but it’s one of the things that some critics reacted against.
“…The pacing is so slow and the actors so numb and uninvolved that the horror elements are lost in a fog of dullness. Lo and behold! Gellar cannot act. Miraculously coasting up until now, The Grudge solidifies Gellar’s status as an actress in need of acting lessons. Instead of expressing emotions, she makes amateur grimaces. She is not in touch with her character. In fact, no one is. And, since for the first half of the movie the camera is trained on Gellar’s frozen face, this is not good. The most important expression in a horror movie – fear - is never seen… Is Karen happy in Japan? Does she like her job? What are her feelings about weird things? Is she a survivor? Is she smart or just a dumb young lady getting by in Tokyo? Gellar is out of her element here.”
Victoria Alexander: Films in Review
All the performances in ‘The Grudge’ (and in ‘Ju-on: The Grudge’) are quite similar. There is a kind of ennui that envelops each character. It could be argued, as many critics who reviewed ‘The Grudge’ have done, that this is simply down to bad acting. On the other hand, it might be suggested that these actors are giving the performances asked of them by the director, who is attempting to create a very specific atmosphere in the film. Effectively, it’s a mood piece.
I must make a special mention of Ryo Ishibashi, in the role of Detective Nakagawa. I think this is a great performance. Ishibashi imbues his character with a quiet dignity, but also a sense of sadness and resignation about the inevitability of the terrible events that are unfolding around him.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think this is a really good film....
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Created by Daniel Knauf
Written by Daniel Knauf and others
Starring Nick Stahl, Adrienne Barbeau, Clea DuVall, Amy Madigan and Michael J Anderson
I am currently slowly making my way through the first season of this show for the third time. My question remains the same as ever. What’s it all about?
Okay, I’m not quite that stupid. It’s a Gothic allegory about the eternal struggle between good and evil, incorporating strong religious imagery and set against the backdrop of the Great Depression. The best description I have come across is that it’s John Steinbeck imagined by Todd Browning.
‘Carnivàle’ was created by Daniel Knauf, who writes for the Marvel comic ‘Iron Man’. He apparently wrote his original script over a period of time between 1990 and 1992, inspired by the attitudes of people he had witnessed as a child towards his father, who was disabled.
The show aired for two seasons of twelve episodes each on HBO between 2003 and 2005 before being cancelled. The production budget per episode was $4 million and considerable care was taken to accurately reproduce the historical look of the period 1934-5. The title music was written by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, who are now the musical directors on the TV show ‘Heroes’.
This is an ensemble piece, although Nick Stahl plays the central role. Stahl had previously appeared in ‘Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines’, playing John Connor. The cast includes Adrienne Barbeau and Clea DuVall, in the perfect role for her. The story is very slow moving. In fact, it revolves around two separate story strands with different groups of characters -- and was originally conceived as three “chapters” of two seasons per chapter.
I really need to get the DVD of season two.
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Rating 3¾
Directed by Robert Rodriguez
Written by Kevin Williamson
Starring Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Jordana Brewster, Famke Janssen, Salma Hayek, Bebe Neuwirth and Robert Patrick
I adore this film.
The screenplay was by Kevin Williamson and it was released on the back of the box office successes of the first two ‘Scream’ films and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. It was directed by Robert Rodriguez, his follow-up to ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’. It was inspired by ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’, which it specifically references, with one central scene famously taken directly from John Carpenter’s remake of ‘The Thing’.
The ‘students’ include Elijah Wood, who I find a little bit creepy as an adult actor, but is great here, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett and Jordana Brewster. The ‘teachers’ are played by Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick and Jon Stewart (later to become successful as the host of the satirical American fake news programme ‘The Daily Show’). There is also a small role for Summer Phoenix, memorably funny as the ‘Fuck You’ Girl.
It’s a clever film with a script that is typical of Kevin Williamson’s other film work. It’s the only Robert Rodriguez film I’ve seen that I like without at least some qualms. The teenage characters are likeable and the various actors work well together. The only minor complaint I would have is that the coda doesn’t really work for me.
All other considerations to one side, and the presence of Clea DuVall and Laura Harris is enough to make me feel biased in the film’s favour, it is clearly a much better film than some of the reviews suggested (see the example below).
“The latest in a long line of lamentable Gen X horror films is brought to you by the pen of Kevin Williamson, who offers up more hard evidence that the cleverness of the first Scream film was either a fluke or just someone else’s script.”
Widgett Walls, needcoffee.com
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The Phaeton is a scientific starship on a ten year journey to the Epsilon Eridani star system. It is approaching Neptune, the point of no return, where the crew can use the gravitational pull of the planet to either catapult the ship onwards towards its intended destination or back towards Earth. Since their departure from Earth six months earlier, scientists have calculated that the planet will continue to support human life for less than a century and the original mission is now altered to locate a new planet for human habitation.
‘Virtuality’ is the feature-length pilot for an intended Fox network television series that was not commissioned. The pilot was broadcast on the Fox network in June 2009. I came across it because of Clea DuVall, who I like very much. I was largely unfamiliar with the rest of the actors. I watched it without knowing anything about the premise, apart from seeing one promotional picture of the cast.
I have become less interested in television sci-fi over the years. I watched ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’ for a while and occasionally ‘Deep Space Nine’, but not ‘Voyager’ and ‘Enterprise’. ‘Babylon 5’ never caught my imagination and I have ignored the likes of ‘Earth: Final Conflict’ and ‘Andromeda’. I did watch the whole of the short-lived ‘Firefly’, but came away from it decidedly underwhelmed and I remain equally mystified by the critical acclaim afforded to ‘Battlestar Galactica’. Although I long ago stopped taking seriously the conspiracy theorists who believe in Roswell and recovered alien technology, I do have a soft-spot for alien abduction fiction, be it ‘The X Files’ or television movies like ‘Visitors of the Night’. It is not the science I am interested in, it's the fiction.
In spite of my doubts, I found myself becoming more intrigued as the reality television concept was introduced. A convincing aura of unease beneath the surface was introduced, a sense that something is not right and the boundaries between reality and fantasy are already becoming blurred. The story began to set up some interesting concepts, although obviously the virtual reality plot is taken directly from ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’, ‘Total Recall’ and probably lots of other sci-fi that I don’t know about or have forgotten about. The glitch in the programming is straight out of the regular holodeck malfunctions in ‘Next Generation’.
