Review: Idris Elba and the Lion Be Beastin' in "BEAST"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 65 of 2022 (No. 1877) by Leroy Douresseaux

Beast (2022)
Running time:  93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPA – R for violent content, bloody images and some language
DIRECTOR:  Baltasar Kormakur
WRITERS: Ryan Engle; from a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan
PRODUCERS:  Baltasar Kormaku, James Lopez, and Will Packer
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Philippe Rousselot and Baltasar Breki (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Jay Rabinowitz
COMPOSER:  Steven Price

THRILLER

Starring:  Idris Elba, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Sharlto Copley

Beast is a 2022 wildlife thriller film from director Baltasar Kormakur.  The film focuses on a widowed father and his two teenage daughters who must fight for survival after they are attacked and stalked by a rogue lion.

Beast opens in South Africa.  Recently widowed Dr. Nathaniel “Nate” Samuels (Idris Elba) and his teenage daughters, Meredith “Mare” Samuels (Iyana Halley) and Norah Samuels (Leah Sava Jeffries), travel to South Africa for a vacation.  They arrive at the Mopani Reserve where Nate reunites with his old friend and dear family friend, Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), a biologist and manager of the Mopani Reserve.

Nate was recently widowed when his wife, Amahle, died of cancer, and he is somewhat estranged from his daughters.  Mare is argumentative and rebellious, and Norah is sensitive.  Both girls are bitter about the separation of their father and late mother prior to the latter's death.  Nate hopes that this trip will help him to reconnect with his daughters.

On the second day of the trip, Martin takes the Samuels to the reserve's restricted areas.  Along the way, they encounter an injured man that has apparently been mauled by a lion.  That same lion attacks again, and suddenly, Nate and his daughters are trapped in their vehicle.  Stranded in a remote area inside a damaged vehicle, Nate must find a way to save himself and his daughters from a bloodthirsty rogue lion that does not stop stalking its prey until it they are dead.

First, I wish that I'd seen Beast on a movie theater screen.  Secondly, the mini-melodrama between Nate and his daughters did not interest me.  I found Mare and Norah to be often irritating, and more than once, they made their plight against the lion worse.  Beside that subplot, the film is well written.  There are certainly enough death-defying moments to keep the viewer's attention on the film.

Still, Beast is very well directed and edited.  As soon as Martin, Nate, Mare and Norah leave Martin's home, director Baltasar Kormakur begins turning up the heat.  Before Beast becomes a full-on survival thriller, Kormakur makes it a riveting suspense thriller as the story moves about the reserve, visiting a local pride and moving on to a small village.  That's where the movie explodes, and the rest of the way, Beast is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller.  Honestly, I feel like the film mesmerized me, and I certainly didn't think that I would end up liking it as much as I did … and still do.  I can see myself watching it again.

In addition to having a great monster – the rogue lion, Beast also has a great actor and true movie star, Idris Elba, as its lead.  Elba has that kind of big screen magic that can make the viewer want to vicariously experience a movie through him.  I certainly found myself following his every step, living through the obstacles and threats to Nate Samuels' very life.  Elba also convincingly plays a medical doctor and a loving and patient father, especially to two stubborn daughters.  So Beast has a lion of an actor and movie star to go along with its killer super-lion.  Both will make you feel as if you need to catch your breath, dear readers.

7 of 10
A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, October 28, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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93 Nations Submitted Entries for the "International Film" Oscar at 93rd Academy Awards

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILMS ELIGIBLE FOR 93RD OSCARS® ANNOUNCED

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced feature films eligible for consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards®.  Eligibility lists by category can be viewed at Oscars.org/93rdFeatureEligibility.  Complete 93rd Academy Awards rules can be found at Oscars.org/rules.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Ninety-three countries have submitted films that are eligible for consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards.  An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track.  Lesotho, Sudan and Suriname are first-time entrants.

Earlier this year, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted to expand the shortlist from 10 to 15 films.  Academy members from all branches are invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.  The shortlist of 15 films was announced on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.

93RD ACADEMY AWARDS® ELIGIBLE FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM CATEGORY:

Listed in alphabetical order by country:
Albania, “Open Door”
Argentina, “The Sleepwalkers”
Armenia, “Songs of Solomon”
Austria, “What We Wanted”
Bangladesh, “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka”
Belgium, “Working Girls”
Bolivia, “Chaco”
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
Brazil, “Babenco - Tell Me When I Die”
Bulgaria, “The Father”
Cambodia, “Fathers”
Cameroon, “The Fisherman’s Diary”
Canada, “14 Days, 12 Nights”
Chile, “The Mole Agent”
China, “Leap”
Colombia, “El Olvido Que Seremos (Memories of My Father)”
Costa Rica, “Land of Ashes”
Croatia, “Extracurricular”
Cuba, “Buscando a Casal”
Czech Republic, “Charlatan”
Denmark, “Another Round”
Dominican Republic, “A State of Madness”
Ecuador, “Emptiness”
Egypt, “When We’re Born”
Estonia, “The Last Ones”
Finland, “Tove”
France, “Two of Us”
Georgia, “Beginning”
Germany, “And Tomorrow the Entire World”
Greece, “Apples”
Guatemala, “La Llorona”
Honduras, “Days of Light”
Hong Kong, “Better Days”
Hungary, “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time”
Iceland, “Agnes Joy”
India, “Jallikattu”
Indonesia, “Impetigore”
Iran, “Sun Children”
Ireland, “Arracht”
Israel, “Asia”
Italy, “Notturno”
Ivory Coast, “Night of the Kings”
Japan, “True Mothers”
Jordan, “200 Meters”
Kazakhstan, “The Crying Steppe”
Kenya, “The Letter”
Kosovo, “Exile”
Kyrgyzstan, “Running to the Sky”
Latvia, “Blizzard of Souls”
Lebanon, “Broken Keys”
Lesotho, “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection”
Lithuania, “Nova Lituania”
Luxembourg, “River Tales”
Malaysia, “Roh”
Mexico, “I’m No Longer Here”
Mongolia, “Veins of the World”
Montenegro, “Breasts”
Morocco, “The Unknown Saint”
Netherlands, “Buladó”
Nigeria, “The Milkmaid”
North Macedonia, “Willow”
Norway, “Hope”
Pakistan, “Circus of Life”
Palestine, “Gaza Mon Amour”
Panama, “Operation Just Cause”
Paraguay, “Killing the Dead”
Peru, “Song without a Name”
Philippines, “Mindanao”
Poland, “Never Gonna Snow Again”
Portugal, “Vitalina Varela”
Romania, “Collective”
Russia, “Dear Comrades!”
Saudi Arabia, “Scales”
Senegal, “Nafi’s Father”
Serbia, “Dara of Jasenovac”
Singapore, “Wet Season”
Slovakia, “The Auschwitz Report”
Slovenia, “Stories from the Chestnut Woods”
South Africa, “Toorbos”
South Korea, “The Man Standing Next”
Spain, “The Endless Trench”
Sudan, “You Will Die at Twenty”
Suriname, “Wiren”
Sweden, “Charter”
Switzerland, “My Little Sister”
Taiwan, “A Sun”
Thailand, “Happy Old Year”
Tunisia, “The Man Who Sold His Skin”
Turkey, “Miracle in Cell No. 7”
Ukraine, “Atlantis”
Uruguay, “Aleli”
Venezuela, “Once upon a Time in Venezuela”
Vietnam, “Dreamy Eyes”

All dates and rules for the 93rd Academy Awards are subject to change based on national guidelines, state-mandated government orders and Academy-determined best practices.

Nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, March 15, 2021.

The 93rd Oscars® will be held on Sunday, April 25, 2021, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

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ABOUT THE ACADEMY:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a global community of more than 10,000 of the most accomplished artists, filmmakers and executives working in film. In addition to celebrating and recognizing excellence in filmmaking through the Oscars, the Academy supports a wide range of initiatives to promote the art and science of the movies, including public programming, educational outreach and the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

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Nine Foreign Language Films Vie for 5 90th Academy Award Nominations

9 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS ADVANCE IN OSCAR RACE

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 90th Academy Awards ®.  Ninety-two films had originally been considered in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Chile, “A Fantastic Woman,” Sebastián Lelio, director;

Germany, “In the Fade,” Fatih Akin, director;

Hungary, “On Body and Soul,” Ildikó Enyedi, director;

Israel, “Foxtrot,” Samuel Maoz, director;

Lebanon, “The Insult,” Ziad Doueiri, director;

Russia, “Loveless,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;

Senegal, “Félicité,” Alain Gomis, director;

South Africa, “The Wound,” John Trengove, director;

Sweden, “The Square,” Ruben Östlund, director.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2017 are determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 11, 2017.  The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

Academy members eligible to participate in the Nominations round of voting in New York, London, Los Angeles and, for the first time, the San Francisco Bay Area, will screen the nine shortlisted films in theaters over a three-day period from Friday, January 12, through Sunday, January 14, with three films screening each day.  Additionally, international members (who live outside of the U.K.) will be invited to opt-in to stream the nine shortlisted films on the Academy’s member site.  Members must see all nine films before casting their ballots.

Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards® will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

The 90th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.  The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

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Review: "Tsotsi" a Familiar Tale from Another Place

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 168 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Tsotsi (2005)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  South Africa and the U.K.; Languages:  Zulu, Afrikaans, and others
Running time:  95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some violent content
DIRECTOR:  Gavin Hood
WRITER:  Gavin Hood (based upon the novel by Athol Fugard)
PRODUCER:  Peter Fudakowski
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Lance Gewer
EDITOR:  Megan Gill
COMPOSERS:  Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto, Kenneth Nkosi, Mothusi Magano, Zenzo Ngqobe, Zola, Rapulana Seiphemo, Nambitha Mpumlwana, Jerry Mofokeng, Ian Roberts, Percy Matsemela, and Thembi Nyandeni

The subject of this movie review is Tsotsi, a 2005 South African drama adapted for the screen and directed by Gavin Hood.  The film is based on the 1980 novel, Tsotsi, from author Athol Fugard.  “Tsotsi” is apparently a slang word in Johannesburg, South Africa that can be translated to mean “thug.”  Tsotsi the film follows six days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader.

Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) is a ruthless hood living in an impoverished township in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he leads the trio of miscreants that make up his gang.  One night he shoots a woman (Nambitha Mpumlwana) in a well-to-do suburban neighborhood and drives off in her car, but he discovers that he isn’t alone.  The woman’s infant son is in the backseat, so he grudgingly takes the infant to his humble abode.  Through his efforts to care for the baby, Tsotsi (his nickname is urban slang that loosely translates to “thug”) rediscovers compassion, self-respect, and the capacity to love, but he still struggles with his old ways.

Tsotsi won the 2006 Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year” as a representative of South Africa. The film is sturdy and earnest, and maybe a little too melodramatic in its too obvious determination to spend a yarn of moral redemption.  Still, the film is powerful and the emotions run deep and are raw, primarily because of the lead character’s hardened criminal life.  It’s kind of hard to be sympathetic towards Tsotsi because his decisions lead to the murder of an innocent man and the wounding of several others.

What makes Tsotsi rise above preachy, well-meaning social drama is that this is basically a familiar tale, but set in an unfamiliar place with strange and exotic characters.  In that way, Tsotsi engages the viewer to discover a new way of looking at a familiar premise.  The performances are good, though not great.  Presley Chweneyagae, however, is a solid actor and carries the film like a veteran movie star.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year” (South Africa)

2006 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations:  “Best Film not in the English Language” (Gavin Hood and Peter Fudakowski) and the “Carl Foreman Award for Most Promising Newcomer” (Peter Fudakowski-producer)

2006 Golden Globes:  1 nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film” (South Africa)

2007 Image Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film”

Monday, August 07, 2006

Updated:  Thursday, March 06, 2014

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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The DreamVision Company Wants to Be the Next Pixar

The DreamVision Company on Target to Re-Define Family Entertainment Landscape Globally. The Next Disney/Pixar?

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Industry leaders are tracking the family entertainment market radar as The DreamVision Company continues to mark strategic territory within the lucrative CGI animation space with their proprietary and envied emotionally driven process and expansive family brand.

In a calculated move earlier this year, DVC mass released a family friendly short entitled "Hooked" http://vube.com/DreamVision/dHeY7iPO3X?t=s into the respective marketplace that has now garnered nearly 30 million unprecedented viral views and international awards securing a strong and vocal following globally. It appears that DreamVision is on target to redefine the family entertainment and animation marketplace with content that is designed to fill an obvious void with an audience that is clamoring for what DVC is offering.

The highly valued Fort Worth/Orlando and South Africa based company shook the platform in June with the announcement of an array of clear brand based development including full length CGI musical motion pictures, live action dramas, animated and live action television series/specials, theatrical & music productions and ground breaking theme park resort development domestically and internationally.

Under the direction of CEO & Chairman Rick Silanskas and former Executive Vice President of Entertainment for Disney Worldwide, Ron Logan, DreamVision encompasses one of the most sought after and powerful classic teams in family entertainment. Logan was also the founder and first President of Disney Theatrical (Beauty and the Beast) and inducted as a Disney Legend in 2007.

DVC corporate representatives have confirmed that the highly anticipated newest generation of The DreamVision Company proprietary CGI Animation will be strategically revealed in the upcoming short "Unsung Hero" scheduled for release during the 4th quarter 2013.

The DreamVision Company will maintain operations in Florida in cooperation with their new global headquarters in Texas and animation division in South Africa.

Review: "Dredd" is Dredd-fully Great

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux


Dredd (2012)
Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, language, drug use and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Pete Travis
WRITERS: Alex Garland (based on characters created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra)
PRODUCERS: Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, and Allon Reich
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Anthony Dod Mantle
EDITOR: Mark Eckersley
COMPOSER: Paul Leonard-Morgan

SCI-FI/ACTION

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Heady, Wood Harris, Rakie Ayola, Warrick Grier, Langley Kirkwood, Edwin Perry, Karl Thaning, Michele Levin, Domhnall Gleeson, Daniel Hadebe, Francis Chouler, and Nicole Bailey

Dredd is a 2012 British-South African science fiction film. Originally released in 3D, this film is based on the comic strip Judge Dredd, which appears in the British science fiction comics anthology, 2000 AD. The title character, Judge Dredd, first appeared in 2000 AD #2 (March 5, 1977) and was created by writer John Wagner (who is a consulting producer on this film) and artist Carlos Ezquerra. Dredd the movie finds the title character teamed with a trainee as he tries to take down a powerful drug gang.

In the future, Earth is an irradiated wasteland. Most humans reside in one of the huge Mega-Cities. Mega-City One is a violent metropolis where 800 million people reside and where 17,000 crimes are reported daily. There, the justice system is maintained by the Hall of Justice and its corps of Judges, who are judge, jury, and executioner – basically police officers with instant field judiciary powers. Currently, Mega-City One is dealing with a new addictive drug, the reality-altering “Slo-Mo,” which slows the user’s perception of time down to one percent.

Early in the film, Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is tasked by the Chief Judge (Rakie Ayola) with evaluating a new recruit for Judge, Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby). She is a powerful psychic, but has failed the aptitude tests to be a judge. Dredd and Anderson are sent to Peach Trees to investigate a triple homicide. Peach Trees is a mega-block, a 200-story slum tower block of apartments. After arresting a thug named Kay (Wood Harris), Dredd and Anderson run afoul of his boss, Madeline Madrigal aka “Ma-Ma” (Lena Heady), a powerful, female drug kingpin and gang boss. Now, Dredd and Anderson have to fight their way out of Peach Trees, with no back-up coming to help them.

The first adaptation of Judge Dredd to comics, the 1995 film, Judge Dredd, was really a Sylvester Stallone movie. With its realistic, visceral look, Dredd is truer to the Dredd comics. It is a futuristic cop movie that looks like a modern day crime and gangster flick. The science fiction visual elements, such as the city’s massive tower blocks, are blended into the South African locales where this film was shot. Thus, Dredd looks as if it takes place in real city rather than in some urban landscape created entirely with the use of computer imagery.

Simply and honestly, I love this movie. I think that it is a more-than reasonable adaptation of a comics series that is hard to adapt because of the uniqueness of the comics. Dredd lacks the satire of the Judge Dredd comics, but the film has plenty of gallows humor. Rather than being over the top with the ultra-violence, the film delivers the bloodshed in intervals that are like lovely layers of lasagna. So the amount of carnage always seems just right, but leaves you wanting more, because it actually seems like you never get enough – at least to me.

This well-timed mayhem looks quite good, thanks the high-quality of Dredd’s film editing, which is some of the year’s best and which is an example of the film’s excellent production and technical values. Another instance: Paul Leonard-Morgan’s musical score is certainly a delicious bag of ear-candy, accentuating the film’s drama, giving the character bits the same power as the action violence and gun battles.

The film has many good performances. Lena Heady is a subtle beast as Ma-Ma; I wish the character was onscreen more. Wood Harris makes his character, Kay, matter. Olivia Thirlby takes a part that could have been a middling sidekick and makes the character up to the challenge that being next to Dredd poses.

Speaking of Dredd, Karl Urban gives one of the best performances ever in a movie based on a comic book. His deadpan delivery of the intractable Dredd actually has color and depth. Perhaps Dredd does not change from the beginning to the end of the film, but, in Urban’s hands, Dredd gains something, somewhere in him. Because of the helmets that the Judges wear, the audience does not see Dredd’s head or the top half of his face. We only see from the bottom of Dredd’s nose and to his neck. So Urban turns Dredd’s perpetual frown and stiff chin into supporting characters. Urban’s imitation-Clint Eastwood voice tops it off, allowing for the creation of a mesmerizing Judge Dredd.

Why was Dredd a box office disappointment? I wish I knew what kept the film’s box office low. It is exceptionally good, and credit for this should also go to the film’s writer/co-producer, Alex Garland. Hopefully, at least Urban and Garland, can return to make another film like Dredd, one of 2012’s very best films; at least, I think so.

9 of 10
A+

Friday, February 01, 2013