lifestyle THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

Music & Movies ‘Raw’ the new beauty in Hollywood

tarlets take note: Hollywood filmmakers “I think there’s beauty in all forms, whether it’s in wear any makeup during filming, going as far as pushed a no-fuss, no-makeup look in new pain or grief, or an awards show or whatever it is, I covering the mirrors in their on-set trailer. “Wild” is Smovies at the Toronto film festival this week, think there’s beauty in all of it and I thought it was based on author Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling redefining beauty as “raw.” And established stars important to portray that,” said Aniston, who memoir. It tells how, devastated by the death of her including Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon received a standing ovation at the film’s premiere mother, Strayed self-destructs destroying her mar- lapped it up. “I loved every minute of it,” said Monday evening. Director Daniel Barnz added: “It riage, becoming hooked on heroin and even preg- Aniston. “It was extremely liberating to do that was an extraordinary experience seeing one of the nant by a stranger. In a bid to find her way out of because as women we do feel we have to live up to most beautiful women in the world without a despair, she embarks on a 1,100-mile (1,800 kilo- an expectation, whether it’s on camera or going to stitch of makeup on, and somehow in this film meter) hike. “It was raw,” said Witherspoon of her the market or whatever it is. because of the beauty that comes from the inside rumpled look in the movie. “But if Cheryl could be “And the truth is, that’s just not the way it is, we I’ve never found her more beautiful.” brave enough to tell every part of her story, I had don’t always have our high heels on, we don’t Aniston said she consulted with two friends to be brave enough to throw away my vanity and always have our hair and makeup on.” In her new who suffer from chronic pain and pharmacologists go for it.”—AFP film “Cake,” Aniston, 45, plays an unpleasant to understand how drugs impact a body to prepare woman in chronic pain who has driven away all of for the raw role of “Claire.” She also wore a back her friends and lost all reason to live. It is an unflat- brace, she said, “because I tend to slouch.” Earlier in tering role that sees her sporting greasy hair-and the week, Witherspoon described how “Wild” direc- no makeup. tor Jean-Marc Vallee had ordered the actors not to Reese Witherspoon Actress Jennifer Aniston

TORONTO FILM REVIEW ‘Haemoo’

urning a real-life human trafficking tragedy into a into genre territory by ramping up the violence and gore Flesh-and-blood character comment on social inequality and the cost of sur- (at least until the slightly overblown last act), portraying While Kim doesn’t exactly reprise the role of crazed, Tvival, “Haemoo” dramatizes a stark nautical ordeal the protags as grassroots workers struggling under harsh predatory sea captain already recycled in countless nauti- fraught with tension. Produced and co-written by interna- living conditions, unconsciously pushed toward selfish cal adventures from “Moby Dick” to “Jaws,” he withholds tionally recognized Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho behavior. much of the sociopathic intensity that he let rip in other (“Snowpiercer,” “The Host,”) this directing debut by helmer- works like “The Yellow Sea” and “Hwayi: A Monster Boy.” The scribe Shim Sung-bo echoes Bong’s trademark cynical result is a flesh-and-blood character whose diminishing vision of human nature, but the characters lack dimension- humanity springs from the practicality of a seafarer always ality and psychological depth. Still, . Bong’s name could be at nature’s mercy. Han, such a striking presence in the wind beneath “Haemoo’s” sails where fest play and “Commitment” and “As One,” more than holds her own niche arthouse play are concerned. among the gruff male cast, radiating physical vulnerability The movie’s title translates as “Sea Fog,” a phantom as a woman surrounded by sex-starved men, but also real agent of peril that halts the ship from moving homeward mental strength beneath her country-girl innocence. and symbolizes the protags’ moral obscurity. Adeptly trans- Supporting performances are forceful in an in-your-face ferring a stage play to th escreen, Shim (who co-wrote way, though the characters remain archetypes rather than Bong’s “Memories of Murder”) achieves a highly cinematic layered personalities. Especially grating is sex maniac effect despite the confined mise-en-scene, partly by Chan-wook (Lee Hee-jun) who’s too savage to be played emphasizing physical drama rather than dialogue, and for laughs, yet too obsessive to be taken seriously. Other partly thanks to lenser Hong Kyeong-pyo’s evocative close- sailors Ho-young (Kim Sang-ho) and Kyung-koo (You ups. Seung-mok) may sport different traits, but their dramatic The film takes place in 1998, when the IMF Crisis made function is ultimately limited to brawling with Chan-wook. life hard for ordinary South Koreans, but the marine setting Only the engineer Wan-ho (Moon Sung-geun) elicits empa- ‘The Maze Runner’ imbues the action with an elemental, timeless quality. Five thy as the one crew member who befriends his passengers fishermen under Capt. Kang Chul-joo (Kim Yoon-seok) set and feels guilty about their fate; Moon, who is often type- s world-creation YA pictures go, “The Maze sail from their hometown, Yeosu, but they return empty- cast as judges, professors and tycoons, displays likable Runner” feels refreshingly low-tech and properly handed. The owner of their beat-up old trawler, Junjiho, earthiness in the role. Astory-driven, based on James Dashner’s popular wants to trade it in, but Kang is more attached to it than to Apart from a wily, middle-aged broad (Jo Kyung-sook), 2009 fantasy novel. Much of the action unfolds in a large his wife, whom he catches in flagrante with a Chinese- most of the stowaways are denied speaking parts and pre- field, and the spidery thingies that crawl out of the wood- Korean. To save the ship, he decides to smuggle ethnic sented as a group entity, with little description of their work to afflict a band of boys trying to escape a mysteri- Koreans from China. Chinese-Korean background. Though Shim and Bong’s ous confinement have an old-fashioned, bio-mechanical Braving unusually rough weather, they meet the skiff deftly structured script builds Hong-mae and Dong-sik’s charm. Though the pacing drags a bit in the first hour ferrying the stowaways from China. Shim creates an unfor- love around three sensuous scenes of embrace, set in dif- and there’s not much character development unless you gettable scene of frenzied danger as they scramble to leap ferent locations and culminating in a bittersweet coda, count the cast’s bicep-building hours at the gym . from one vessel to the other on a pitch-black night, driving their romance is weakened by Shin’s nondescript appear- Though the addition of a lone girl feels tacked on, if the home how desperate they are. A young woman, Hong-mae ance and mediocre performance, whose lack of emotional film doesn’t beef up the summer’s watery box office, it (Han Ye-rin) falls into the sea, and though the crew is ready heft is especially apparent compared with Han’s passionate won’t be for lack of female bums in seats. Girls flock to to abandon her, the youngest deckhand, Dong-sik (Park turn. action and horror these days, especially when they come Yuchun), dives in to save her, cementing a bond that forms Craft contributions are outstanding. Kim Chang-ho’s plentifully stocked with the comely likes of “Teen Wolf’s” the story’s emotional backbone. lighting sets a Stygian tone with oppressive darkness Dylan O’Brien and his band of muscled bros. The squabbles that break out serve as pointed social indoors and brooding shadows under the mantle of sea “The Maze Runner” plunges in-as it must, or give the commentary, demonstrating that the fisherman’s under- fog on deck. Hong, who lensed Bong’s “Snowpiercer” and game away to the five teenagers who have not read class status doesn’t make them any more sympathetic to “Mother,” as well as blockbusters like “Typhoon” and Dashner’s bestselling novel-with room-shattering noises these huddled masses, whom they treat as mere cargo or “Taeguki,” provides crisp, starkly beautiful compositions, off as a buff young fellow (O’Brien) is transported in a catch. When a stowaway complains, “How can you treat fel- contrasting claustrophobic human activity with the ocean’s cage, he knows not where or why or by whom, to a land- low Koreans worse than the Chinese do?” one sailor vastness. Jung Jae-il’s melancholy score is used sparingly scape that, at first blush, closely resembles an Outward answers, “Fellow Koreans? You’re low-life scum!” In fact, enough not to overwhelm the action. — Reuters Bound campsite. Indeed, those who remember their days Kang’s suppression of a rabble-rouser is shocking in its bru- at summer camp with fondness may wish to linger in the tality, and hints at a violent streak that comes in flashes, Glade, a huge field dotted with handmade lean-tos, knot- then is fully unleashed when calamity strikes. Actress Ye-ri Han attends the “Haemoo” premiere during the ted ropes and tanned, ax-wielding, ethnically diverse Despite the harrowing plot, Shim adopts an omniscient 2014 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall boys who make fun of the baffled new arrival, who has gaze and a somber, dispassionate tone throughout. He on September 9, 2014 in Toronto, Canada. — AFP momentarily forgotten his own name. doesn’t veer too far from realism; nor does he cross over A helpful hazing brings it back, and Thomas quickly, if not quiescently, acclimates to the Glade, which for all its bucolic beauty is edged with sinister creeping vines (the film was shot in rural Louisiana) and surrounded by walls Singapore bans local too high to scale-and one tantalizing opening. Egged on ‘Dolphin Tale 2’ by the regulation bully (Will Poulter), most of Thomas’s fellow Gladers come on like obedient frat boys, crossed documentary on political exiles with “Lord of the Flies” castaways trying to improvise rriving three years after its surprise hit social order in the absence of adult authority. Except that ingapore yesterday banned a local docu- members of the Communist Party of Malaya predecessor, this sequel about the nothing could be more antithetical to can-do American mentary about nine dissidents living in (CPM) which had sought to overthrow govern- Aunbreakable bonds between a boy individualism than the bleak British fatalism of William Sexile, saying its contents undermined ments in Singapore and Malaysia in the 1950s and his dolphin remains too square and Golding’s novel. national security. The film “To Singapore, with and 1960s. “The individuals in the film have giv- earnest to appeal beyond families and animal On more fronts than one, “The Maze Runner” tells a Love”, directed by Singaporean director Tan Pin en distorted and untruthful accounts of how lovers. Nevertheless, writer-director Charles different story, an old-fashioned American tale of one Pin, features interviews with the former activists they came to leave Singapore and remain out- Martin Smith hits the sweet spot for that tar- boy whose resourceful courage, refusal to obey rules, and and student leaders who fled Singapore from side Singapore,” the media regulator added. get audience once again, and in the process emergent leadership skills carry a raggedy army of pris- the 1960s until the 1980s and are currently set- MDA said the individuals were not denied delivers a more streamlined storyline and oners to freedom and responsibility for a catastrophically tled in countries including Britain and Thailand. the right to return to Singapore or forced to ever so slightly darker shadings to further jus- fallen world. Though he operates his own CGI company, leave the city-state, as was portrayed in the tify the follow-up. Duplicating the original’s first-time director Ball handles special effects with movie. “The government has made it clear that $72 million domestic B.O. could be a chal- impressive economy, as they pertain organically to the it would allow former CPM members to return to lenge-especially given the commendable story. If anything, the action dawdles a bit for its first Singapore if they agree to be interviewed by the decision to ditch the first film’s unnecessary hour, dwelling on setup until at last Thomas, accompa- authorities on their past activities to resolve their 3D release-but solid returns look like a walk nied by a muscled pal (Ki Hong Lee) with whipped hair, cases,” it said. in the aquatic park. breaches the forbidden opening in the wall and enters All the key “Dolphin Tale” players return the dread Maze, which has no exit and from which no ‘Very disappointed’ here, beginning with plucky protagonist one returns unscathed. A description posted on the film’s official Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble) — now an website said the documentary explores how the increasingly self-assured young teenager-and Enchantingly rumpled exiles “lived their lives away and how they still his marine mammal pal, Winter (playing her- Only then do we meet the Grievers-giant, hairy, taran- view the Singapore of their dreams”. “They are self with occasional assists from animatronics tula-like critters that patrol this dank labyrinth, dispens- now in their 60s to 80s. Some were activists, stu- and visual effects). Both on- and offscreen, ing sticky stuff and nasty stingers that kill and maim on dent leaders, others were card carrying commu- Winter managed to survive and thrive after demand. Back and forth go Thomas and company nists,” it said. Tan, the film’s director, said she was the amputation of her tail with the assistance between these two, building courage, resolve and inge- “very disappointed that my film is banned”. of a custom-designed prosthetic, becoming a fortably leave her behind to pursue his own nuity as they go. The last girl on Earth shows up to lend a “By doing this, MDA is taking away an oppor- star attraction at Florida’s Clearwater Marine dreams? Any mild suspense is squashed with hand, mysteriously murmuring Thomas’s name and rain- tunity for us Singaporeans to see it and have a Aquarium. the late arrival of a baby dolphin named ing missiles on the boys from the treehouse where they conversation about it and our past,” she said in a That’s where Sawyer spends his summers (what else?) Hope-a fortuitous plot twist also hold her. More Kristen Stewart than Jennifer Lawrence, Facebook post. “We need to be trusted to be working alongside noble role model Dr. Clay inspired by real life events. Teresa (played by Kaya Scodelario of the British television able find the answers about ourselves, for our- Haskett (Harry Connick Jr) and his daughter Much of “Dolphin Tale 2” is as on-the-nose series “Skins”) is enchantingly rumpled, un-buffed and selves,” she added. But Singapore’s information Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff), who shares Sawyer’s as Hope’s name, but parents aren’t likely to equipped with only a hard stare from her striking blue minister Yaacob Ibrahim said he supported the passion for sea life and begins to develop object to a film that provides squeaky clean eyes. media regulator’s decision. more than just a platonic affection for the entertainment without sending gag reflexes Scodelario’s one-of-the-lads brio is a touch wasted The 70-minute documentary was released in “Individuals who have chosen to leave and boy she’s grown up with. (The delicate pro- into overdrive. Even in the movie’s most egre- here, for Teresa adds little to the story other than to jog December last year and has been screened at remain outside Singapore, and refused to gression of their unrequited romance dodges gious flights of fancy-young Sawyer lecturing Thomas’ memories of whence he came and spur him on film festivals in Germany, Dubai, South Korea account for their past actions, should not enjoy a genre conventions for something a little less a room full of adult professionals on the best to mobilize the troops for a climactic battle to free them- and the United States. Singapore’s Media public platform to purvey distorted and untruth- predictable, which can’t exactly be said of the methods to introduce Hope to Winter; a com- selves from the Maze. The great Patricia Clarkson bows in Development Authority (MDA) said in a state- ful accounts to mislead the public, absolve pic overall.) ic-relief subplot detailing a pelican’s nearly all too briefly to upend the team’s sense of their past and ment it had “assessed that the contents of the themselves or deny their past actions,” he said in With Sawyer and Winter both facing sud- stalkerish obsession with a sea turtle-the their future. If the rites of passage feel a touch perfuncto- film undermine national security because legiti- a statement on Facebook.—AFP den turning points-Sawyer in the form of an innate warmth of the characters provides ry and hasty-well, you can never go wrong telling mate actions of the security agencies to protect offer to spend a semester at sea in a presti- enough of a ballast for all but the most teenagers that they’re different, special and chosen to the national security and stability of Singapore gious study program and Winter in the wake extreme cynics.—Reuters lead a broken world forward into “The Maze Runner, Part are presented in a distorted way as acts that vic- of the death of elderly aquarium poolmate Deux.”—Reuters timized innocent individuals”. Panama-the drama pivots on two questions. It said a number of the exiles were former Can Clearwater locate a USDA mandated companion for Winter? And can Sawyer com-