"the descent" - directed by neil marshall

the english film "the descent" directed by neil marshall is as good of a spine tingler as you will see this year. it is a film that not only preys on claustrophobia, but also on our fear of the unknown. marshall shows great skill in directing suspense, as well as mastering the long lost art of subtlety. there are characters in "the descent" that are well rounded, realistic, and flawed. there is no villain that elicits "boos" from the crowd and no heroes that elicit cheers. the production quality is superb and the mise-en-scene is actually quite stunning. it is an example in deft story telling that will cause many to reach for their zanex.

in this story, six friends embark on a journey that takes them much further below the surface than they anticipated. these friends, addicted to the natural highs of white water rafting, base jumping, and mountain climbing, try their hands at spelunking (exploring underground caves). in the midst of conquering their fears and claustrophobia, they stumble upon something they never could have expected.

sound good? well here's the twist. they are all women. some of them middle aged. and what may be one of the most gigantic leaps for woman-kind is that the script doesn't even acknowledge their gender. there is no feminist undercurrent, there is no "thelma and louise" moment, and there is no mention of menstruation, menopause, lying men, or sisterhood in the whole damn thing. it is just a story about six people going into the depths of the earth and facing their worst fears.

robert mckee in his book "story" says that every story can be summed up with a single proposition; "what if...?" like "what if an american archeologist had the drop on the ark of the covenant and had to retrieve it before the nazis?" (raiders of the lost ark) or "what if a man dressed up as a woman to land a role on a soap opera?" (tootsie). this movie could be proposed as "what if six people who loved adventure went spelunking in the appalachian mountains and came face to face with something other than themselves?" notice, there is no mention of the word "woman" in that proposition. if all of the women characters were replaced with men, the movie still works.

in the history of african-american images on film, it can be said that the african-american character in most films is exactly that, african-american. very rarely, and not at all until recently, was there a black man who played a cop. he played a black cop. there were no black women who played mothers, they were black mothers. and there were no black actors who played athletes, entertainers, best friends, neighbors, firemen, preachers, or lawyers, without their blackness being incorporated into the script. "the descent" is a movie about a group of friends that go spelunking. they just happen to be women.

pretty freaky site from lions gate

imdb listing

"the bird is a raven" - by benjamin lebert

coming of age stories are often bittersweet. it is almost impossible to tell the stories of youth without nestling angst and confusion with love and mystery. "the bird is a raven," 24 year old benjamin lebert's sophomore novel, somehow tells a radically different tale, a passage into adulthood marred by nothing but existentialist contempt. it is a brutal story within a story that lacks the filter of wisdom and the lens of experience, but none the less, reveals compelling truth.

lebert, as gifted a young author as you may read today, explores a fetching narrative revolving around two young characters, henry and paul, who meet in a sleeper car on a train bound for berlin. while traveling, henry tells the story of a complicated triangular friendship that he is running away from. henry's candor is unsettling, and at times, unbelievable. intertwined in the telling are conversations between henry and paul revolving around the philosophic, touching on everything from god, the passage of time, sex, hatred, sickness and loneliness. their thoughts are developed and well expressed, but tend to fall too easily into the mix. it would be a nice turn if some of those thoughts were shown to the reader instead of penned.

being so young gives lebert the advantage of actually having his hand on the subject material. it is one thing when a forty year old man writes of youth. it is quite another when the voice is currently in the thick of it. lebert shows incredible promise. his narrative style while not entirely original, is fresh, and his characters do invite attention. at one point in the story, harry talks about how as a kid, he always imagined that his life was being followed by interested parties. that the ups and downs of his life were being tracked by people who hoped for the best for him and felt bruised by his disappointments, much like the readers of a book. lebert's characters achieve that sentiment in "the bird is a raven."

get "the bird is a raven" at powell's

michael mann - who's on the phone?

michael mann tells stories. he tells them with motion pictures that look like still photographs. he developes characters with camera angles, low key lighting, electric guitars and carefully art directed environments. he sheds light on the hearts of men at night time, when most people are lurking in shadows and indulging their flesh. his characters experience epiphany near water, or in front of metalic buildings. and he is not afraid to argue that bad men are good, and good men are bad. and he almost always tells stories about women who are looking to save those men and be saved by them.

imdb listing