"Land Of Mine"

"Land Of Mine" Movie Review

"Land Of Mine"

Posted April 14, 2017 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Land of Mine (2016)

It’s 1945, and the Germans have just surrendered, having occupied the Danish homeland since 1940. We see a long line of unarmed German soldiers walking down a road. A Danish Sergeant named Rasmussen (Roland Møller) is driving in the opposite direction. He suddenly sees something he doesn’t like, a German soldier carrying a flag. He skids to a stop and gets out, confronting the young soldier, hitting the soldier until he is left bleeding and hurt on the ground. When another soldier tries to intervene, the Sergeant reacts violently with that soldier as well, cussing and hitting the two soldiers. He gathers the flag and gets back into his jeep, yelling insults at the Germans as he drives off.

We cut to a group of German soldiers standing in formation, each one seemingly younger than the next. The men are standing in front of a concrete bunker on the beach. They are being told that they are responsible for removing over 2 million landmines the Germans had laid on the beaches of Denmark in the preparation of the Allied invasion which never came. Lt. Ebbe Jensen (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) gives the Germans a quick course in how to dismantle a landmine and then has each boy pick up a live mine and go into the bunker alone to dismantle it. We meet each boy as they nervously go into the bunker to dismantle the mines. Lt. Jensen shows no sympathy for the Germans, telling them that he doesn’t care if they live or die, he just wants’s his beaches cleared of the mines. Luck doesn’t hold up as one of the boys, urged by an always yelling Lt. Jensen, is blown up by a mine inside the bunker. Lt. Jensen reacts as if it’s a bother that the kid blew up.

We next see the boys in the back of a truck. We see in their faces that they realize that the task in front of them is dangerous, and many won’t survive. They arrive at their destination and without explanation, are left on a family farm near the coast. As they arrive, they see a young girl playing in front of the farmhouse. Very quickly, the mother of the child gathers her up and takes her inside. They examine a building in front of them, some sort of bunkhouse and then they notice that a jeep is rapidly approaching. Out of the jeep comes Sergeant Rasmussen, who gruffly gets them to line up. It’s very obvious that he hates the Germans, no matter how young they are. He learns their names and they quickly grasp not to mess with the blustery Sergeant. The Sergeant tells the boys that they are to remove over 45,000 landmines and if they work hard and clear their section of the beach, they can go home in three or four months. The Sergeant and the boys are about to go on a journey that very few will survive, and those that do will be changed forever.

Writer/director Martin Zandvliet brings us a taut and tension filled film that is worthy of its Foreign Language Film nomination at this year’s Oscars. The film is uncomfortably tense right from the start and continues throughout to build the tension, as we get to know and in some cases, fall in love the boys. Zandvliet lets us discover who the boys are, as they, themselves figure that out too. Most of the Germans served in different parts of the army, except two young twin brothers, one timider than the other. This is where his script is the strongest, giving us characters that are fully fleshed out, letting us see up close and personal how the war has affected not only the boys but the Sergeant and the farming family as well.

There are powerful moments in the film that aren’t going to soon leave you. Some of the most high-powered scenes surprisingly aren’t the deaths that occur, but the small moments when connections are made during this horrible experience. The Sergeant goes through the biggest transformation in the film, and Roland Møller brings a sincerity to the screen, especially in his one-on-one scenes with the boys. Zandvliet gets a dynamic and forceful performance from Møller, commanding your attention every time that he is on the screen. Of the boys, most of which are unknowns, Louis Hofmann, gives a compelling performance that is multi-dimensional and has implications of subtlety. He plays Sebastian, a slightly older boy who takes charge of the soldiers and keeps them going against unbelievable odds.

Zandvliet makes use of the fantastic widescreen cinematography of Camilla Hjelm, who makes the beaches seemly, endless and impossible to clear. Land of Mine is a film that dares to make heroes out of villains as the boys are shown to be paying for the sins of a nation and ideology that due to their young age, they didn’t have much to do with. The film brings to light a crime that was committed under the auspices of repairing a  war-torn nation but instead, really was about getting revenge, revenge that was brutal and mean spirited, as revenge can be. Land of Mine is a film that you soon won’t forget, and also, you shouldn’t.    My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

For of Mike’s reviews and interviews click here

Land of Mine Website

"The Hero"

"The Hero" ATLFF Movie Review

"The Hero"

Posted on April 6, 2017 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

The Hero ATLFF Movie Review

Film is reviewed from the 2017 Atlanta Film Festival screening.

We first see Lee Hayden (Sam Elliott) inside a recording studio. He is saying the identical tag line about a barbecue sauce several times into a microphone. Someone in the booth keeps telling Lee to say the line again, even though they all sound exactly the same. Lee has an iconic voice, and you can see why he might be in demand to taglines on commercials.

We next see Lee in a doctor’s office nervously waiting for the doctor to appear. When the doctor finally enters the room and tells Lee that it’s not the result that they wanted. We cut to Lee in his car; he daydreams about a movie he wants to make. It’s a western and Lee is walking across a field; he walks up to what must be a tree, as we see the boots of a man that has obviously been hanged, as the legs sway a little from the help from the wind. We cut back to the car, and Lee calls his agent. He’s told the only thing available is a lifetime achievement award from some sort of western film society.

We next see Lee looking at his phone on treatments for his type of cancer, and it’s not good. He searches for his pot and only finds empty baggies. We next see him pound on the door of his neighbor. His pot dealer and good friend Jeremy (Nick Offerman) opens the door, perturbed because Lee knocked like a cop would. It’s obvious from the patter back and forth that these two friends have known each other for a long time. Lee asks for an ounce, to which Jeremy proclaims is too much that it will clean him out. Lee and Jeremy settle in to watch a Buster Keaton silent film and smoke some pot. Jeremy can tell that Lee has some news and presses his friend for the scoop. Lee hesitates and then tells the lie that he is going to make a western.

We cut to much later in the day, and it’s obvious that Lee and Jeremy have spent the afternoon smoking and eating. Jeremy is passed out on the couch, and Lee is looking at Jeremy’s laptop when someone knocks at the door. Lee wakes Jeremy up to answer the door. A woman is let in and introduces herself as Charlotte (Laura Prepon), as Jeremy goes into the next room to get some sort of drug for her. Charlotte recognizes Lee but can’t quite figure out who he is. As Lee is also sizing up Charlotte, we realize that these two just might be interested in each other. It’s a meeting that is going to change both of their lives.

I loved this film, having seen it at both the SXSW Film Festival and the Atlanta Film Festival. Sam Elliott is masterful as the actor who is known for one iconic film, a western called The Hero that was made over forty years ago. It’s a role that was tailor-made for Elliott, and he gets every bit he can out of it. Appearing in every scene, Elliott gives what is surely his finest performance of a world-weary man who is near the end of his life, a life that is full of regrets and missed opportunities. I have always been a big fan of Elliot since his brilliant breakthrough performance in the title role of Lifeguard (1976). Elliott has continually struck me as a natural actor, one who gives a slightly laid-back but nuanced performance that is a lot harder to pull off than it looks.

Elliot’s performance is bolstered by an outstanding supporting cast. Nick Offerman is incredibly funny as Lee’s drug dealer, a washed-out actor who would rather sit around the house and watch old movies while smoking pot, rather than actually getting any job. Some of the best scenes from the film are between Elliot and Offerman. There is a genuinely moving scene where Offerman reads lines with Elliott, and his character is blown away by the performance of Lee. The heart of the movie is the budding relationship between Elliot’s Lee and Prepon’s Charlotte. Prepon plays a stand-up comic that loves poetry and isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. While, yes there is a huge age gap (it’s revealed that Charlotte is at least older than Lee’s daughter), the film never hides from the subject, as it becomes not only talking points in the relationship but also a part of Charlotte’s stand-up act. There is some excellent chemistry between Prepon and Elliott, with a great give and go in their conversations. Elliott gives Lee a bit of humor in his dealings with Prepon’s character, and she gives it right back. Kristen Ritter, as Lee’s bitter daughter and Katherine Ross (Sam Elliott’s real-life wife), both give small but needed performances for us to get to know the pain that Lee has given them throughout their lives.

Co-writer/director Brett Haley, as he did with the last years touching I’ll See You in My Dreams starring Blythe Danner, gives Sam Elliott a movie in The Hero he can be proud to be headlining a film that is moving, funny and full of life. Heck, I would see that western that Lee wanted to make just to see Elliott star in another movie.    My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

For more information on ATLFF go to www.atlantafilmfestival.com