R.M.N. - MIFF 2022

 

Director Cristian Mungiu's latest film is described like this in the MIFF guide: “After quitting his job in Germany, hulking factory worker Matthias returns home to his small Transylvanian village. There, he hopes to reconnect with his young son Rudi, who’s been left in the care of his estranged wife Ana, and rendered speechless by something terrifying in the woods. Meanwhile, Matthias is having an affair with Csilla, who manages a small factory that has just hired some Sri Lankan workers – an arrangement that shatters the tenuous peace of the community and brings their fears, prejudices and conflicts to the surface.”

I hadn't planned on writing a review for “R.M.N.”, but it is a film that still hasn't left my mind since I saw it days ago, so I thought maybe it is a sign to put pen to paper and talk about this brand new Romanian film. First up, I should explain the title, which I had to google after I watched it, since I had no idea why it was titled that. “R.M.N.” are actually the initials of the Romanian translation of an M.R.I, which is actually a clever title because the film is a look under the skin of a small multi-ethnic community, and its prejudices, fears and internal conflicts of its residents.

Cristian Mungiu has created another one of his fantastic social dramas with “R.M.N.” I particularly like the way he builds a story and lets it evolve naturally. He starts from a character-first basis, always creating fully rounded and developed characters with real world problems and issues they are dealing with. Mungiu also does a fantastic job of revealing these characters to us, and we feel like we know them intimately rather quickly. What is interesting about “R.M.N.” is that from where the story and film begins, it ends in a completely different place than you would expect, as different plot lines naturally begin to take on more importance to the story as a whole than the strand we followed initially. It is not at all jarring either, because the story evolves naturally and organically, like it does in real life. When “R.M.N.” begins we follow Matthias who has just been fired from his job in Germany, so heads back home to his family in Romania, but when he gets there he is shocked to find his young son no longer speaks due to something terrifying he saw in the surrounding woods. Matthias is incensed by the fact that his wife is babying the young boy by overprotecting him, and thus decides to teach him to finally become a man. He does this via aggressive parenting, taking the boy camping and hunting, teaching him how to shoot and look after himself. Due to his aggression shown towards the boy, and the fact that the boy is still so young, you feel that this is somehow going to all end in tragedy, but then the story naturally evolves into a tale of xenophobia when the local bakery factory hires three bakers from Sri Lanka, and the locals react negatively to this. Tensions and anger arise and worsen, as the bakery refuses to bend to local pressure to fire the foreign workers. What follows is a fantastic and disturbing look at the xenophobia and hypocrisy of a community, as well as the terrifying notion of a pack mentality.

As is the norm for Cristian Mungiu, he never judges any of his characters, but rather tells his story as honestly and realistically as possible. This gives the drama incredible weight because it feels so real and thus is easily relatable. He never shows a world of black or white, only grey, where no character is a total angel or demon, everyone has their flaws and strong elements too. As relatable as the story is, I think that for once “R.M.N.” is a film that caters to local audiences, if for nothing else than the constant language changes, often mid-conversation. The community where the film is set consists of locals who originate from Romania, Hungary and Germany, but in terms of languages in the film, as well as those for the above nations, English and French are also spoken at times. It is a subtitler's nightmare because personally I do not have an ear for either Romanian or Hungarian, so cannot tell when they change, and it is actually important in this film to know that difference because it figures into the plot. What they have done is change the colour of the subtitles each time the language changes, although I think Romanian is always white. Personally I would have liked if they had chosen a set colour for each language spoken, so while it is not a perfect solution, what they have come up with does help, but like I say, local audiences will understand the language intricacies much better than foreign audiences.

“R.M.N.” is a stunningly beautiful film from a visual standpoint. Mungiu has reunited with his “Graduation” cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru and the two of them have created magic together, through both the camera and their use of the stunning Romanian locations. Romania in the winter is just gorgeous, and so many times I found myself stunned by the beauty onscreen. The snow covered forest and especially the local mine looked amazing. Even when shooting indoors, the film has been shot with cooler colour temperatures, with the production design using a lot of winter colours like blues, greys and whites too. Aside from looking “pretty”, the visuals perfectly encapsulate the tone and atmosphere of the film as “R.M.N.” is a very cold film. In terms of the season the story takes place, to the whole tone of the film, to the character interactions between one another; coldness permeates through this film.

Performances in the film are all excellent and very realistic, which helps in the fantastic character development and natural story progression in “R.M.N.” As great as all the above elements are, the film's strongest aspect is its story line, and its complex and layered look at human nature when the town's bigotry is revealed. Multiple points of views are expressed, with the film never taking sides, although it asks many questions. Personally I found the majority of the townsfolk's hypocrisy just shocking particularly because they cannot see it within themselves. Saying these bakery jobs should have gone to locals when none actually applied is disgraceful, but then to justify this by saying that is because locals have gone abroad to work as that is where both the work and money is, which is exactly what these Sri Lankan guys are doing by trying to get work in Romania. Their refusal to then not buy the bread because these foreigners have had their hands on the bread when they are making it, and they are deemed unclean just because they are different. The fact that a large majority of the locals are themselves not originally from Romania, but rather Hungary, is brought up but only increases the tensions amongst everyone. It is particularly frightening when this tension eventually explodes into violence and death threats against these poor Sri Lankans and the bakers that support them. Social media is used as a weapon against them, before a variation of the KKK is created to try and create a fear amongst these poor men who only want to do their job and be left alone. An aspect that I liked was how the manager and owner of the bakery are steadfast in their support of their workers, as are their workmates, as they have actually taken the time to get to know them and work with them, and know they are beautiful and lovely people. This togetherness is then used against them at the town meeting with others saying the bakery workers shouldn't get a vote because they are “biased” in their opinion because they know them. It is interesting though that when her bottom line is threatened, with everyone refusing to buy her bread, how the ideals and beliefs of the bakery's owner starts to bend, as she looks for a way to offload these poor Sri Lankan men, much to the disgust of her floor manager.

The film essentially climaxes at an extended scene set at a town meeting where everyone is allowed to have their say on the issues (although it is telling that the Sri Lankan men have not been invited themselves), where the town's bigotry and xenophobia really comes to light. Some of the uninformed opinions used as reasons to expel these men are just horrible. Particularly when they are spoken by leaders in the community, like the local priest and doctor, who should know better. Something that is repeated by many people in the meeting in a “I'm not racist” way is “I have nothing against these people, as long as they stay in their country”. It is also horrifying watching the pack mentality of the group try to dissuade the smaller factions just through their size and volume of their voice. In and of itself, it is an excellent scene, but within the movie as a whole, it stops it dead cold. Stylistically, it is completely different too, as it is shot in a single (very long) take with a stationary camera. It is almost a documentary approach, but it looks and feels completely different from the rest of the film. The acting is extraordinary in the scene, and as fascinating and thematically complex as the scene is, I still think it works against the movie as a whole. Whilst nothing is truly resolved by the end of the meeting, we understand the path they are heading. The film does have a couple of more scenes after this, before it ends in a rather unsatisfying and very surreal and symbolic manner. Whilst I was a fan of this film throughout, I was disappointed in its ending, which did not work for me.

Overall, Cristian Mungiu has created another fantastic social drama with “R.M.N.” exploring the sickness hidden not very deep under the surface of a local multi-ethnic Romanian community. Complex themes of bigotry and xenophobia are explored throughout maturely and without judgement. All of the actors are stellar and the film is just gorgeous to look at. While I found the ending rather unsatisfactory and a bit frustrating, what comes before it is so impressive and well layered, that I would still highly recommend “R.M.N.”

3.5 Stars.

SPEAK NO EVIL - MIFF 2022

 

The MIFF guide describes the film like so: “While on holiday in Tuscany, polite Danes Bjørn and Louise befriend vivacious Dutch couple Patrick and Karin. Their respective children, Agnes and Abel, seem to get along, and the meek Bjørn finds Patrick’s unfiltered machismo appealing. So much so that he jumps at the chance for their families to get together again when, months later, an invitation arrives to visit Patrick and Karin at their rural home in the Netherlands. Indeed, it would be dangerously impolite not to accept.”

This Danish / Dutch co-production has been receiving a lot of positive press recently in the horror community, often regarded as one of the best new horror films of the year. I find that you need to take these kind of recommendations with a grain of salt sometimes, as horror websites are particularly prone to hyperbole, and once they name something as “great”, their increased coverage on that film seem to become an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy. That said, I was very happy to see “Speak No Evil” in MIFF's “night shift” line-up and hoped that it would live up to the word-of-mouth I had been hearing about.

Frankly, I was unimpressed by “Speak No Evil” and thought it massively overrated, and there were a few reasons for my dislike. As I have said time and again, for a horror film to really work well, you need to care for its characters and about what happens to them, and I just could not care for any of them in “Speak No Evil”. The quartet of adults were so unlikeable, particularly the “villains” of the film (Patrick and Karin); it was so obvious that their company was toxic or worse, dangerous, that it made no sense that Bjørn and Louise hung around as long as they did. I am usually pretty lenient with the whole “stupid characters making stupid decisions” thing in horror films. It is a staple of the genre and you need it sometimes for the horror to begin. Here though, it really got on my nerves, possibly because their stupidity was not only putting themselves in danger, but also their young daughter too. I will say that at least the Dane family made an attempt to leave when they felt the situation was more than a little off, and they succeed too, but when they turn around and go back, I could not stop rolling my eyes. I must say though that I did find it a little amusing that the reason for them turning back was almost exactly the same situation as a very famous television commercial here in Australia, right down to the stuffed rabbit.

Another big issue I had with “Speak No Evil” is that I worked out the twist almost immediately. You know something is not right with the Dutch couple and because of that, I admit, it is an uncomfortable watch, but because I was sure I knew the twist, the film held no surprises for me; I knew exactly where it was going and how it would end up, almost right up to the final shot. Obviously I have no intention of giving away any of the film's secrets, but by working it out so early, the film was no longer an exercise of discovery for me, it was almost like I was waiting for the film to catch up with me. I am not saying all of this in a “look at me, I'm so clever” way, but rather trying to explain why “Speak No Evil” didn't work for me.

Thinking about it later, I thought that “Speak No Evil” would probably work really well if it was marketed as a straight but uncomfortable drama rather than as a horror film. This way the final half an hour would come as a massive gut punch, but because we know that it is a horror film, we are informed to the fact that it is going to turn at some point and go very bad. The lead up to the horror is also much longer than is the norm, although right from the opening beat, the music by Sune Kølster immediately tells you what type of film you are watching; it is loud, bombastic and very ominous, and in and of itself, I actually really liked the music, but I would never call it subtle.

From a horror perspective, much has been made about the final half an hour of “Speak No Evil”, and yes it is very well done and hits hard. It is incredibly hard to watch, but very effective in what it sets out to do, which is to shock and disturb the audience. Something I have noticed as I get older, my tastes are changing, and this is also true of the horror cinema I like. These days I prefer more atmospheric based horror, as opposed to the extreme horror I used to love when I was younger. As such, I think I would've responded a lot more positively to the brutal and sadistic ending of “Speak No Evil” if I had seen it back then, because while I can see that it has been well done and is very effective, after awhile I felt it bordered on the unnecessarily cruel and started to feel gratuitous. (Yep, I've gone soft in my old age.)

The other big issue I have with Patrick and Karin, the Dutch “villains”, is that we are given no motive for their actions. Whilst I do not think a motive is needed for every horror film, it felt like here that there should have been some explanation to justify their horrible crimes. Without it, the only reasoning you can come away with is that they are just a bunch of homicidal arseholes taking pleasure in other people's pain, but this comes across as lazy and unimaginative writing. I will admit that I found the line “Because you let me” to be absolutely chilling (even if it did feel a bit too close to “The Strangers” “because you were home” line), and it made you want to scream at the protagonists, Bjørn and Louise, even more!: “See?!! You should have fought for yourself and your family more!!! Stop being so damned polite!!!” It makes their decision making throughout the film that much more frustrating too. One interesting thing to note about the actors who play the Dutch couple, Fedja van Huêt and Karina Smulders, is that they are actually married in real life, which explains their chemistry and naturalism together.

Overall, after all the hype I had heard about “Speak No Evil”, I found it to be very overrated. Whilst I agree it has been well made, unfortunately the characters are either unlikeable or so frustrating in their decision making, that I just did not enjoy being in their company for the film's 97 minute running time, nor did I care about what happened to them. “Speak No Evil” is an uncomfortable watch, but for me, it was also a very frustrating watch, with the lead-up to the “good stuff” taking far too long to get there. The last half an hour hits very hard and it is quite confronting, so be prepared for it, as it gets nasty. While the film did not work for me, it seemed to play better for most of the MIFF audience I saw it with, so take that how you will, but for me I was sadly left disappointed by “Speak No Evil”.

2.5 Stars.

FLUX GOURMET - MIFF 2022

 

The MIFF guide does an excellent job at describing the madness that is “Flux Gourmet”: “On a month-long residency at a prestigious art institute, an unnamed trio of ‘sonic caterers’ – artists who create music with food and related items – play with flavour, flangers and fornication under the watchful eye of their benefactor, the imperious Jan Stevens, whose meddling exacerbates the group’s backstage bickering. Outside the walls, a rival collective named the Mangrove Snacks conducts acts of gastronomic terrorism in protest at their rejection by Stevens, who doesn’t like what they do with terrapins. Documenting the proceedings is a flatulent flâneur, whose intestinal issues are not being helped by the institute’s in-house doctor.”

Peter Strickland's fifth feature “Flux Gourmet” was on my most anticipated list of 2022. I wrote back then that I had no idea what I would get with the film, and that out of all of the films on that list, “Flux Gourmet” had the biggest chance of being a total dud. I am happy to report that the opposite is true and that “Flux Gourmet” is an unmitigated success and is yet another of Strickland's idiosyncratic creations that fits comfortably amongst his brilliant, yet very odd oeuvre. Before my screening at MIFF, I had actually already seen the film, but knew that it would work so well with an audience and on the big screen that there was no way I was missing my chance to see it like that. I love this film so much, but really have no idea why or how it works so well.

Combining two tonally different plot threads, writer / director Peter Strickland has done almost the impossible and created gold with “Flux Gourmet”. The main part of the film is a very, very funny look at an unnamed “sonic collective” and their time together during their residency at an exclusive art institute, where they constantly bicker amongst themselves and with their director, before starting to implode. Documenting their stay at the residency is a “dossiage”, Stones, who is struggling with a gastrointestinal disorder, making him feel uncomfortable within the group due to the excess wind his body needs to regularly release, and it is Stones' ordeal that is the second plot thread of the film. The tones between the two plot threads couldn't be more different and yet they live together harmoniously in the same film. The whole aspect involving the sonic collective is so over-the-top and done with tongue planted firmly in their cheek; it is hilarious and we laugh both with the group and at the group. However Strickland then balances the absurdity of the sonic collective with the complete sincerity in regards to Stones' condition and the pain and awkwardness he feels because of it. Whilst the situations he finds himself in are humorous (not to mention his dead-pan narration of his problems, told in subtitled Greek), Strickland never once makes fun of him or his condition. Strickland then is able to make both plot threads come together for a very satisfying conclusion that is also, amazingly, quite poignant too. Again, I have no idea how he does it, and it really shouldn't work, but it just does!

I love this film so much and love so many elements about it that I am now going to gush over these elements incessantly (although there is so much I like about “Flux Gourmet”, I doubt I will be able to highlight them all). Firstly, the entire cast is excellent; they all clearly understood just what type of film they were making, as well as the tone of the film, and they deliver in spades. The collective consists of Billy, Lamina and their leader Elle (“I'm the boss!”), and are played by Asa Butterfield, Ariane Labed, and Fatma Mohamed, and they are all wonderful. Strickland muse and regular Fatma Mohamed is an absolute superstar in “Flux Gourmet”; she is so funny and pissy in equal measure. Her insane arrogance is hilarious when she refuses to listen to anyone's ideas or suggestions as it would quash her artistic sensibilities. It is all about the performance with Elle, but this is probably because she does not understand the technical side of her culinary collective, which Billy and Lamina have to handle. There is a very funny and ongoing joke in the film after she refuses to take the flanger down a notch, simply because it was not her idea. It turns out that she doesn't even know what a flanger is or what it does (“I do. I thought you said blanger”). Mohamed has been in all of Peter Strickland's films so far, but this comedic side is something we haven't seen before from her, but she is just hilarious. Asa Butterfield is a revelation as Billy, the nice dumb guy of the group who has a sexual fetish for eggs. He plays him very matter-of-factly, like he has just fallen into this life and is happy to go with the flow. He has a number of great scenes but I particularly liked his one-on-one interviews with Stones, and his after dinner speech, particularly because he has no filter and is so honest. Rounding out the trio is Ariane Labed playing Lamina, who out of the three has the least to do, but makes everyone of her moments count.

Outside the trio, we have the other two important characters to the film: Jan Stevens, the director of the institute, and Stones, the man documenting the collective's stay during their residency. Gwendoline Christie plays Jan Stevens and she is right up there with Fatma Mohamed in being total gold in “Flux Gourmet”. The bitter arguments with Elle, her seduction of Billy, her fear of the Mangrove Snacks and their escalated violence, she is brilliant in all these facets and so believable in a very heightened style that suits the film perfectly. Anyone familiar with Strickland's past films will know that he has an overly florid and poetic style of writing, with some of the dialogue being very complex and involving. Jan Stevens is the character who gets the bulk of these lines in “Flux Gourmet” and this very amusing dialogue just rolls of Christie's tongue effortlessly. Somehow it all sounds so natural coming out of her mouth. Strickland also has a habit in his films of going very big and out there with his costumes, and again Jan Stevens is the lucky character who wears the brunt of this madness. Each outfit she wears is so ridiculous and so over-the-top, but you cannot wait to see what she has on next in the following scene. Her nightwear particularly is just insane, and you cannot help laughing at it. Makis Papadimitriou, as Stones, has the least flashy roll but is very good at expressing just how uncomfortable he is with his disorder, and how he gets progressively more frightened that he may be going to die from it. He is much more dead-pan than the rest of the cast, but it works so well.

As I have said numerous times, I love a director who has a style that is recognisable as their own, and Peter Strickland certainly has that. What makes it more impressive is that none of his films resemble one another, they are all so different, but when you watch them, you know that only one man could have made the film. He has a very 70's European feel to his visuals, and it is well known that he has a fondness for this era of cinema. This is true once again with “Flux Gourmet” as we have scenes of the characters walking from their house to the institute in long capes, like something you would see in a Jean Rollin or Jess Franco film. There is also a very amusing reference to Mario Bava's “Diabolik”, when the trio, dressed like the spy character from that film, break in to Jan Stevens' bedroom to look for their flanger. The funniest bit being the way Billy's hair sticks out the eye-holes making him instantly recognisable if seen. Strickland clearly has love for sound, as this is his second film where sound plays a major role (the other being his second film, “Berberian Sound Studio” where Toby Jones plays a sound engineer working on the foley of a very violent Italian horror film). He is also part of, or at least has been in the past, of a culinary collective, so not only is “Flux Gourmet” a very personal film for him, but you could imagine that it would be pretty true in regards to the details of that world.

Another thing I loved in the film was when the collective had to do their drama exercises. They all have to pretend they are shopping, whilst Jan Stevens tells them situations to perform. The walls are bare and they have no props to help them, although Strickland has added sound to these moments to give them an added oomph. It is just another in a long line of things that you would think shouldn't work in “Flux Gourmet” but it just does.

Probably the thing I was most impressed by though was Strickland's handling of the ending and his ability to make something poignant out of all the insanity that has come before it. Whilst I wont go into details about how it gets to this point, a lot of Stone's character arc is about just how lonely it is when you have a gastrointestinal disorder, so to end the film on his smile due to him now being a part of something (and no longer alone) rather than being on the outside looking in, I thought was both lovely and surprising, and gave the film so much heart, despite it being bat-shit crazy.

Overall, I love Peter Strickland's “Flux Gourmet” so much and think it is probably his best film to date. There is so much I love about the film, that I barely scratched the surface of it here. It is filled to the brim with so many wonderful, crazy and hilarious moments that I believe you will be entertained throughout. Yes, the film is a little odd, so it may not be for everyone, but I will say that the majority of the audience I saw it with at MIFF seemed to love it, with there being a lot of laughter heard. The performances are all knock outs, the story has heart, and did I mention that it is so, so funny. Just go see this genius and very original film.

4 Stars.