Cinematic potpourri, part 2

Previously, we took note of the 2014 Korean Film Festival, one of the best foreign-language film festivals to be held in our country this year. Let's now go to a couple of films shown on a regular run in our theaters this past week. 

• "Gone Girl" by David Fincher (RT: 150 mins) 

David Fincher is one American filmmaker who's always exciting to watch out for. There's always a distinct quality in each of his films. His latest work, "Gone Girl" (based on a novel by Gillian Flynn, who adapted her own book for the screen), is no exception. What I find of particular note in the film is how it toys with audience sympathy in the most mind-bending way possible. When Nick Dunne's wife Amy, once the subject of a best-selling book, mysteriously disappears at the film's start, viewers are made to turn their suspicious eyes on the husband (portrayed by Ben Affleck) who may have something to do with his wife's disappearance, especially that not a few things point toward Nick being a "suspect". The fire starts to spread even more when the case catches the attention of the media. Poor Nick - how could he ever imagine that an innocent and instinctual act of reporting his wife's disappearance to the police authorities would be strangely turned against him, something that's lifted straight out of the pages of a Kafka novel. But then, in a ridiculously beguiling twist in recent cinema history, when the "missing" Amy (portrayed by Rosamund Pike in a truly loathsome manner) makes her appearance onscreen and reveals, by way of a long, devious voice-over, her carefully-planned "machinations", viewers slowly come to realize the kind of sociopathic monster that this woman really is. The archetypal femme fatale blonde has taken shape on the movie screen once again. 

Fincher is one filmmaker whose films exhibit a not-so-pleasing view of humanity, with all its vices and follies - "Se7en", "Fight Club", "The Game", "Zodiac", "The Social Network" and even with something as "commercial" as "Panic Room". It's like he's always exercising a Nietzschean whiplash behind the camera. The misanthropy - and who knows, misogyny - in "Gone Girl" is laced with mordant and dreary humor, something that one may not even notice at all, going hand-in-hand with the film's clinical precision, which just takes the matter at hand to an altogether new terrifying level. It's not even an exaggeration to say that the film may play like a murderous slant on "Scenes from a Marriage". When Nick mentions in the film's opening shot how he wants to open his wife's head so he'll be able to know more what's inside her, we feel that it's meant in a loving kind of way. But when he mentions that again in the film's final shot (a "repetition" of the first shot), now that we've seen all that Nick and Amy have gone through, we realize that he may just mean it literally. 

• "Tumbang Preso" by Kip Oebanda (RT: 97 mins) 

Just like in the recently-released debut film of Perci Intalan, "Dementia", this introductory feature by Kip Oebanda also has some remarkable names working behind the camera: Carlo Manatad for the editing ("Mariposa: Sa Hawla ng Gabi", "Babagwa", "Badil", "Bwaya"), Teresa Barrozo for the musical score ("Kinatay", "Debosyon", "Quick Change", "Kabisera"), Harley Alcasid for the production design ("Bukas Na Lang Sapagkat Gabi Na", "Bendor", "Kasal") and Jet Leyco and Neil Bion as the cinematographers (the former being the director of "Bukas Na Lang" and the latter having done the photography for "Catnip" and "Hello, World"). This certainly shows in the over-all look and feel of the film - it's mostly claustrophobic and dreary, with most of the scenario taking place within the dank and cheerless confines of a felonious sardines factory and utilizes a strikingly expressionistic bloody-red cinematography, as if to indicate some kind of private hell for the exploited young assembly-line workers. In its own stark way, the film is able to put forth its message concerning the harsh realities of modern-day slavery. You can certainly feel that the film has a heart for it. Though it can be noticed how the director makes some awkward steps in pursuit of his advocacy, most particularly in the film's final quarter where it begins to sound like a loud infomercial by some government official. It's like human trafficking is being spelled out in large bold letters for us to see clearly enough, as if we haven't been already made aware of that in the previous sixty minutes, which is much more effective. Yet, in spite of that minor shortcoming, Oebanda should still be commended for coming up with a strong and relevant work on its own. 

(David Fincher's "Gone Girl": A mind-bending misanthropy.)