{"id":15325,"date":"2014-07-05T16:17:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T20:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/movie-blog\/2014\/07\/captain-america-goes-arthouse-in-snowpiercer-only-at-the-spectrum.html"},"modified":"2018-06-29T08:22:14","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T12:22:14","slug":"captain-america-goes-arthouse-in-snowpiercer-only-at-the-spectrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.albany.com\/movie-blog\/2014\/07\/captain-america-goes-arthouse-in-snowpiercer-only-at-the-spectrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain America Goes Art-house In Snowpiercer, Only At The Spectrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood inexplicably walked away from about $100 million in receipts by not releasing any blockbuster movies over the 4th of July weekend. Why was Spider-man 2<\/em> positioned in the early spring, leaving Earth to Echo<\/em>, a low-budget kids movie, the only big draw this weekend? Even the Roger Ebert biopic Life Itself<\/em>, which deserves the wide berth, is only in (very) limited release this week.<\/p>\n

Well, at least the Spectrum in Albany filled their dance card with a bevy of new suitors. Seriously, their schedule this weekend is about the best they’ve ever had, including a remarkably good sci-fi actioner: Snowpiercer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Without getting too deep, this is a South Korean, apocalyptic future, locked-room, clash of the classes survial film. Madmax <\/em>on a train. For realz. There are limitations to the format, and the makers expect us to just accept there are many more cars that we never see, which certainly must be there. Admittedly, Asian viewers tend be be a lot more forgiving when it comes to liberties of the absurd, especially with science fiction (think of Kung-Fu Hustle <\/em>or early Jackie Chan films, or Brazil <\/em>as a Western example). But the film’s also splendidly more cerebral than most modestly budgeted sci-fi films, though not really as clever as it wants to think it is. It’s pretty clever, more than most, just not exceptionally clever.<\/p>\n

Above all else, Tilda Swinton has been on fire recently (The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>, and Only Lovers Left Alive<\/em>), and if any film will ever show how exceptional she is, it’s this one. Anyone who remembers Imelda Staunton’s portrayal of Harry Potter’s <\/em>Dolores Umbridge will feel the echos of such a performance in Swinton’s Mason here.<\/p>\n

Swinton plays Mason, a mid-level bureaucrat too socially under-developed to successfully manage her own authority with finesse. A small person handed great power, Mason wields it like a small child trying to walk in mommy’s shoes. Words are delivered with a nasal condesention and curt inflections, revealing a simple individual sensitive to an understood lack of respect. And it’s not just the bad attempt at a sophisticated haircut or those killer, oversized, 1980’s Soviet issued glasses that would be chosen by such a sad person. (Mason uses them and their tint as much to insulate herself from the masses as she does to present an authoritative sheen.) Every pose, expression and mannerism has been deliberately crafted, each carefully restrained and yet awkwardly exaggerated with precision. Just look at Mason’s ‘smile’ in the photo below. The character is brilliant.<\/p>\n

Snowpiercer first opened in August last year in director Joon-ho Bong’s home country, South Korea, and very much like the Russian vampire thriller Night Watch just a few years ago, it quickly proved a record breaking hit. Already banking $80 million internationally, and despite its phenomenal international success and critical acclaim, Snowpiercer’s only now getting noticed in the U.S. This was largely due to Harvey Weinstein’s tussle with the director over whether or not he would be willing to cut the film down by 20 minutes, to make it more digestible to American audiences. The director, thankfully, didn’t budge. Given a choice this weekend between Transformers 4<\/em> and this, well, there is no choice.<\/p>\n

Chris Evans (yes, the <\/em>Chris Evans – Captain America) leads an impressive international cast, including Kang-ho Song, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, Alison Pill, and many others. Already praised for his sea-monster thriller The Host <\/em>(2006), Bong demonstrates unusual skill here, giving each character at least one scene focused entirely on them, truly featuring their dramatic skills without seeming just a perfunctory gesture for its enseble cast.<\/p>\n

There’s at least 4 other really great films at the Spectrum this weekend, each of a different genre, and it’s a rare thing for an art house theater to trump the big guys in action films.<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, Snowpiercer is the English-language debut of filmmaker Bong Joon-ho. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller where all the remaining members of humanity inhabit a train ruled by a totalitarian overclass.In 2014, an experiment to counteract global warming causes and ice age that kills nearly all life on Earth. The few remaining members of humanity struggle to survive an inhospitable world covered in ice on a massive train, powered by a perpetual-motion engine, that travels on a globe-spanning track. A class system is installed, where every cabin is classified in social stratification. The lowest-class inhabitants occupy the tail of the train amidst squalid conditions, and cruel treatment, with very limited food which is delivered by guards. In 2031, the tail inhabitants prepare for the latest in a series of rebellions<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Showtimes<\/b> this weekend: 12:20 PM , 3:35 PM , 6:35 PM & 9:40 PM<\/p>\n

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SNOWPIERCER (R)<\/h3>\n

A post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller where all the remaining members of humanity inhabit a train ruled by a totalitarian overclass.<\/p>\n

In 2014, an experiment to counteract global warming causes and ice age that kills nearly all life on Earth. The few remaining members of humanity struggle to survive an inhospitable world covered in ice on a massive train, powered by a perpetual-motion engine, that travels on a globe-spanning track. A class system is installed, where every cabin is classified in social stratification. The lowest-class inhabitants occupy the tail of the train amidst squalid conditions, and cruel treatment, with very limited food which is delivered by guards. In 2031, the tail inhabitants prepare for the latest in a series of rebellions. This fascinating film, based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, <\/i>is the English-language debut of filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (The Host<\/i>). Chris Evans, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, and Octavia Spencer star. 126 min. (R)<\/p>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/spectrum8.com\/2014\/06\/24\/snowpiercer\/#sthash.LjzBZLAa.dpuf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

SNOWPIERCER (R)<\/h3>\n

A post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller where all the remaining members of humanity inhabit a train ruled by a totalitarian overclass.<\/p>\n

In 2014, an experiment to counteract global warming causes and ice age that kills nearly all life on Earth. The few remaining members of humanity struggle to survive an inhospitable world covered in ice on a massive train, powered by a perpetual-motion engine, that travels on a globe-spanning track. A class system is installed, where every cabin is classified in social stratification. The lowest-class inhabitants occupy the tail of the train amidst squalid conditions, and cruel treatment, with very limited food which is delivered by guards. In 2031, the tail inhabitants prepare for the latest in a series of rebellions. This fascinating film, based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, <\/i>is the English-language debut of filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (The Host<\/i>). Chris Evans, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, and Octavia Spencer star. 126 min. (R)<\/p>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/spectrum8.com\/2014\/06\/24\/snowpiercer\/#sthash.LjzBZLAa.dpuf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

SHOWING : 12:20 PM , 3:35 PM , 6:35 PM & 9:40 PM <\/span><\/div>\n