ARTS & CULTURE
feels anticlimactic. Familiar horror tropes abound,
from a tomb visit and telling nods to Catholicism, to
jolting displays of Cronenbergian body horror, and a
standard childhood science experiment that becomes
a torture method. No matter, the film is pure nightmare fuel; its uneasy opening scenes building to a
closing gauntlet of terror. I can’t blame the multiple
viewers who sprinted for the exit; for fans of extreme
cinema, Mommy is a must-see.
The Imitation Game (2014) 2.5/4
The Bottom Line: A Beautiful Mind + Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy
Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), British mathematician, crytoanalyst, logician, pioneering computer scientist, isolated genius, is hired and brought
to Bletchley Park to crack Nazi Germany’s Enigma
code during World War II. Director Morten Tyldum
(Headhunters) streamlines a fascinating true story
into functional prestige filmmaking, serving up
Oscar bait in code. It’s too efficient, too calculated
to take its audience beyond Turing’s life as conveyer
belt, and the script by Graham Moore is bludgeonly
repetitive. Cumberbatch bristles with brilliance in
a storming, sure-to-be-Oscar-nominated performance, a portrayal of a tortured man and a beautiful mind. Stirring, old-fashioned, and triumphantly
tragic, The Imitation Game lacks nerve, diminishes historical events, and fumbles in the dark, but
Cumberbatch’s Sherlockian talent dominates among
the indecent conservatism. Turing’s bright light may
have burned out too soon, but you’ll be deciphering
Cumberbatch’s work long after you’ve left the theater.
Leviathan (2014) 3.5/4
The Bottom Line: House of Sand and Fog + Revanche
Not to be confused with the acclaimed 2012 whaling
documentary, although likewise dealing with submerged monsters, Leviathan gathers like cautionary thunder about the dangers of fighting city hall
Monday, September 29, 2014 11
corruption. Loosely inspired by the Book of Job and
set against the Barents Sea, the grim Russian satire
is the story of Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov), a man
striving to protect his home from a behemoth: the
belligerent town mayor, who swills vodka like water
and swaggers like a despot. Acted and directed by
Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena) with cynicism, religious fervour, and an unflinching ambition, the incendiary and bone-rattling Leviathan
is a trenchant and tough-minded tragedy, a black
social comedy, and a thinly-veiled political parable
drenched in bitter irony. Zvyagintsev credits Thomas
Hobbes’ 1651 tome of the same name for inspiring its
outlook on governmental control; its novelistic heft,
astonishing cinematography, and commanding performances make for a giant of a film. The shortness of
life compensates for its brutish and nasty tendencies,
and only the stillness of nature can provide a semblance of peace.
The Look of Silence (2014) 3.5/4
The Bottom Line: The Act of Killing + Life Itself
In 2012, writer-director Joshua Oppenheimer’s The
Act of Killing provided startling insight into the
banality of evil and the collision of history, film, and
narrative while exploring the slaughter of a million
people in Indonesia. The Look of Silence, part sequel,
part prequel, and a companion piece to the original,
plays a crucial role in expanding that canvas. It sees
Adi, a traveling optician and the brother of one victim, quietly confronting some members of his community that participated in the death of his family
member. These conversations are intercut with his
doting mother caring for his infirm father. Gutwrenching and blood-curdling, although subtler and
more subdued, The Look of Silence represents a fight
for history; but, watching these films, one feels that
the hatred and the violence may not yet be history
after all. Victim and victimizer have become intimately and inexorably linked, forming a bond that
is both insular and unfathomable. While the somber
Silence should not be seen as a standalone work but
understood in conjunction with the enraging Killing,
its