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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.

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