HILL: Don't Miss Comic Book Mind Trip FRANKLYN
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Jan 14 2010, 12:01 PM
I'm an anglophile, I readily admit it. I listen to The Smiths. I watch the BBC. I learned manhood from James Bond films (Connery. Not Moore, thank you). There are a lot of things to love about Her Majesty's Kingdom, not least of which is the fact that the British government subsidizes films. Out of that system comes...
FRANKLYN (2009. Dir/Wr Gerald McMorrow. Starring Sam Riley, Ryan Philippe, Eva Green)
It's a recent release to DVD and some of you may have missed it, so I wanted to bring it to your attention.
Bottom Line Grade: B - (definitely worth a look)
Full Review:
FRANKLYN is a hard film to pin down and it's certainly not for everyone's tastes. Without giving anything away, its' narrative is built from three interconnected stories, one of which is a visually impressive tale of vigilante hero Johnathan Preest (played by a commendably committed Ryan Philippe) and his personal war against a futuristic society.
And since this is a movie, "futuristic" really means a fascist version of Gotham City as the Law of Modern Cinema dictates all futuristic cities must be.
The other stories include Eva Green as a tortured performance artist, and Sam Riley as a tortured British Man who constantly looks like he's auditioning for the cover of Morrissey's next album.
That's not a dig at Sam. I wish I could do that. So does my wife. Back to the movie...
Coherency does not always reside in FRANKLYN'S intentionally convoluted narrative and like most first features from clearly bright and talented writer/directors, it reaches a little too far in terms of symbolism and loses a grip on the basic values of entertainment.
That doesn't mean it's not worth watching, it just means that you have to be patient while you do. Eva Green is the most interesting actress of her generation, and she certainly holds the affair together with an assured performance on top of an under developed script....but the real interest for Geek Week readers is the world of Jonathan Preest which certainly reminds you of some Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey meets John Bolton universe that could easily be a VERTIGO comic brought to life. Ryan Philippe deserves more of a career than he has and watching him makes you want him to switch agents and find a leading man part that brings him back to his WAY OF THE GUN glory.
As comic book films go more and more mainstream (and these days it seems that summer films are almost wholly dominated by them) they have to get less challenging to make sure they don't lose hundreds of millions of dollars and get people fired. Comics have long-sought the approval of Hollywood like a fat kid chasing the head cheerleader -- and now they have it.
And guess what fat kid? Now she wants you to work out and dress like her friends.
And so comic book movies are ubiquitous, mainstream, and removed from the ambiguity and progressive ideas that fuel the books they're based on. I'm not complaining. A movie is a mass market diversion. A book is an investment and I'm glad we have both.
But in FRANKLYN, we get both at the same time. It's certainly a comic book movie (even if not based on literary source material), but it's also a challenging essay on loneliness, madness and forgiveness. While not always successful, it's certainly worth a viewing if for no other reason than to see a new voice on the stage of genre filmmaking in the form of Gerald McMorrow.
And based on this week's news, I'm sure he's on the list of potential SPIDER-MAN directors. He's at the bottom, but he's on there.
FRANKLYN is available on DVD and BluRay. (It's also available on NETFLIX instant, so most of you can watch it right now.)
(author's note: I watched the DVD version of the film, so I can't comment on the tech specs of the BluRay, but the DVD version I watched, upscaled by my player, had excellent resolution and a nice balanced sound mix in 5.1 dolby. With this being a lower budgeted affair, I don't think you need to hold out for an HD viewing.)
Bryan Hill is a professional writer and sometimes he's a musician and filmmaker. Currently he is writing Broken Trinity: Pandora's Box with fellow GeekWeek contributor Rob Levin for Top Cow publishing. As always, he asks you to drink responsibly.
I'm an anglophile, I readily admit it. I listen to The Smiths. I watch the BBC. I learned manhood from James Bond films (Connery. Not Moore, thank you). There are a lot of things to love about Her Majesty's Kingdom, not least of which is the fact that the British government subsidizes films. Out of that system comes...
FRANKLYN (2009. Dir/Wr Gerald McMorrow. Starring Sam Riley, Ryan Philippe, Eva Green)
It's a recent release to DVD and some of you may have missed it, so I wanted to bring it to your attention.
Bottom Line Grade: B - (definitely worth a look)
Full Review:
FRANKLYN is a hard film to pin down and it's certainly not for everyone's tastes. Without giving anything away, its' narrative is built from three interconnected stories, one of which is a visually impressive tale of vigilante hero Johnathan Preest (played by a commendably committed Ryan Philippe) and his personal war against a futuristic society.
And since this is a movie, "futuristic" really means a fascist version of Gotham City as the Law of Modern Cinema dictates all futuristic cities must be.
The other stories include Eva Green as a tortured performance artist, and Sam Riley as a tortured British Man who constantly looks like he's auditioning for the cover of Morrissey's next album.
That's not a dig at Sam. I wish I could do that. So does my wife. Back to the movie...
Coherency does not always reside in FRANKLYN'S intentionally convoluted narrative and like most first features from clearly bright and talented writer/directors, it reaches a little too far in terms of symbolism and loses a grip on the basic values of entertainment.
That doesn't mean it's not worth watching, it just means that you have to be patient while you do. Eva Green is the most interesting actress of her generation, and she certainly holds the affair together with an assured performance on top of an under developed script....but the real interest for Geek Week readers is the world of Jonathan Preest which certainly reminds you of some Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey meets John Bolton universe that could easily be a VERTIGO comic brought to life. Ryan Philippe deserves more of a career than he has and watching him makes you want him to switch agents and find a leading man part that brings him back to his WAY OF THE GUN glory.
As comic book films go more and more mainstream (and these days it seems that summer films are almost wholly dominated by them) they have to get less challenging to make sure they don't lose hundreds of millions of dollars and get people fired. Comics have long-sought the approval of Hollywood like a fat kid chasing the head cheerleader -- and now they have it.
And guess what fat kid? Now she wants you to work out and dress like her friends.
And so comic book movies are ubiquitous, mainstream, and removed from the ambiguity and progressive ideas that fuel the books they're based on. I'm not complaining. A movie is a mass market diversion. A book is an investment and I'm glad we have both.
But in FRANKLYN, we get both at the same time. It's certainly a comic book movie (even if not based on literary source material), but it's also a challenging essay on loneliness, madness and forgiveness. While not always successful, it's certainly worth a viewing if for no other reason than to see a new voice on the stage of genre filmmaking in the form of Gerald McMorrow.
And based on this week's news, I'm sure he's on the list of potential SPIDER-MAN directors. He's at the bottom, but he's on there.
FRANKLYN is available on DVD and BluRay. (It's also available on NETFLIX instant, so most of you can watch it right now.)
(author's note: I watched the DVD version of the film, so I can't comment on the tech specs of the BluRay, but the DVD version I watched, upscaled by my player, had excellent resolution and a nice balanced sound mix in 5.1 dolby. With this being a lower budgeted affair, I don't think you need to hold out for an HD viewing.)
Bryan Hill is a professional writer and sometimes he's a musician and filmmaker. Currently he is writing Broken Trinity: Pandora's Box with fellow GeekWeek contributor Rob Levin for Top Cow publishing. As always, he asks you to drink responsibly.
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