Tag Archives: ‘Ex Machina’

Movie review: Portman’s ‘Annihilation’ thought-provoking sci-fi thriller

VIDEO: See Tim’s review of “Annihilation” with Zachery Lashway on KARE 11.

“Annihilation” (R)

Natalie Portman makes a rare appearance outside of her largely dramatic film career with “Annihilation,” a thought-provoking sci-fi thriller that elevates the genre to the next level.

Portman plays Lena, an expert biologist who joins a secret expedition to investigate an alien phenomena call “The Shimmering,” a prism-type of barrier that surrounds a huge quarantine zone in the Florida wild. Many people have entered The Shimmering but no one has returned, apart from Portman’s husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), who emerges in a zombie-like state and on the verge of death.

Once inside The Shimmering, Portman and her fellow expeditioners (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson among them) discover everything inside the dreamlike zone from plant to animal life mutates, leaving Lena and the team in a desperate situation to discover its mysteries since borders of the quarantine zone are rapidly expanding and consuming everything around it.

A brilliant follow-up to his stunning debut “Ex Machina” with Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson and Issac, “Annihilation” feels refreshingly original, even though it draws from many sources including “Arrival,” “Alien” and “The Thing.” It’s hauntingly atmospheric, as well as very violent and bloody at times, yet it’s definitely not a typical sci-fi film. Instead, it mirrors the greatness of “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone,” but with the benefit of a bigger budget.

Defying sci-fi film convention (in a welcome shift, the film’s protagonists are a group of five females with scientific backgrounds instead of the usual group of macho male lunkheads spewing one-liners), “Annihilation” ultimately offers a narrative much more cerebral and thought-provoking, and the conclusion leaves as many questions as there are answers — something that makes sense since it’s based on the first book in author Jeff VanderMeer’s “Southern Reach” trilogy. With any luck, “Annihilation” will do well enough at the box office so Garland can complete the thrilling tale.

Lammometer: 8 out of 10

AUDIO: Hear Tim’s review of “Annihilation” and “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 3 with Tom Barnard on “The KQ92 Morning Show” (segment begins 2 minutes in).

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

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Interview: Alicia Vikander talks ‘The Danish Girl’

Alicia Vikander couldn’t be more thrilled over the release of the critically acclaimed drama “The Danish Girl” to the masses, considering it’s the seventh film here this year to feature the rising film star from Sweden.

But speaking louder than the volume of her work, the 27-year-old actress said, is the importance of “The Danish Girl” because it reveals the extraordinary true story of transgender Danish artist Einar Wegner/Lili Erbe and his wife, Gerda; a story that has remained a mere footnote in history until now.

“Everybody I’ve talked with who worked on this film but (director) Tom Hooper — who’s been working on it for seven years — seems to be in the same position, going, ‘Wow, how come I don’t know about this story? How come I don’t know about this extraordinary love story? How come I don’t know how pioneering these women were 100 years back and the transition Lili made?'” Vikander told me in a recent phone conversation. “I read the script and was blown away, and went online as we do nowadays, and I was surprised by the fact that there was not much information about her. That made it even more important for us that the story be told.”

Now playing in select cities and expanding into more theaters Christmas Day, “The Danish Girl” stars Eddie Redmayne and Vikander as Einar and Gerda, starting with their life together in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the mid-1920s. Their lives take a dramatic turn one day when Einar, a successful landscape painter, is asked by Gerda to sit in for a female model who was late to session of a portrait she was working on. Wearing the woman’s wardrobe proved to be a fateful event for Einar, as the realization set in that he was most comfortable identifying himself as a female.

Dubbed “Lili” by Gerda’s friend, Oola (Amber Heard), Einar begins his complex transformation into Lili Erbe, who has become a muse to his wife and her paintings. Despite the fame this brings Gerda and comfort it brings Lili, the revelation is also tearing their marriage apart.

Interview: Alicia Vikander talks ‘Testament of Youth’

While the film is titled “The Danish Girl,” the film is just as much about the struggles Gerda faces when she comes to the realization that Einar’s transformation into Lili could end their relationship.

“Lili doesn’t have a choice to but to become who she is and be herself, while Gerda has to make a choice,” Vikander said. “She makes a choice and becomes so supportive, being the one who stands next to her loved one. She chooses to stay and remain loving, even though she had to risk the possibility of losing somebody along the way. I found it extraordinary that she had that bravery of doing that.”

Playing Gerda and her complex range of emotions — love, confusion and even jealousy — presented Vikander perhaps their most challenging roles to date.

“Both Eddie and I had so much to play with every single scene and every single take,” said Vikander, who to date with Redmayne have each been nominated for Screen Actors Guild and Critics Choice Movie Award honors. “It felt we could always push each other to explore different emotions and thoughts that weigh into a scene.”

Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander in 'The Danish Girl' (photo: Focus Features)

Essentially, making “The Danish Girl” was a transformative experience for Vikander, making her admire the courage both Gerda and Einar had in a time where the defiance of social mores and in Lili’s case, gender reassignment, was virtually unheard of.

“I love that in the beginning of the film how Einar is a supportive husband to a woman who is not only an artist, but a working woman. I saw that in her marriage, too. She must have felt loved and supported,” Vikander observed. “But there were also a lot of issues that they went through that made it so difficult. Lili was going through a transition at the time where there were no references, and it was all illegal. They also faced a lot of issues, sadly, that are still current 100 years later.”

Although she’s won acclaim for her roles in such films this year as “Testament of Youth” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” it was Vikander’s stunning turn as the android Ava in “Ex Machina” that catapulted her career into the stratosphere. But now that the actress has made such of an impact in dramatic films like “The Danish Girl,” don’t count her out to do more films in the vein of “Ex Machina.” No genre — especially science fiction — is beneath her.

“I love sci-fi. I said to my agent before ‘Ex Machina’ came to my table that I had seen ‘Moon’ for the second time and I would love to do something in sci-fi — and then the script for ‘Ex Machina’ showed up,” Vikander said, laughing. “There have been a lot of sci-fi films over the last few years, but because of ‘The Martian’ and a lot of films in the making it feels like the genre has a new swing.”

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Interview: Alicia Vikander talks ‘Testament of Youth’

To say it’s been a whirlwind year is an understatement for Alicia Vikander, the Swedish-turned-Hollywood film sensation. In the past four months, she has had starring roles the fantasy adventure “Seventh Son,” the sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina,” and now, the lead as real-life pacifist and feminist icon Vera Brittain in the World War I drama “Testament of Youth.”

If that isn’t enough, she’ll star in August opposite Henry Cavill and Army Hammer in the 1960s spy drama “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” and later this year, opposite Bradley Cooper in the comedy “Adam Jones.”

If there’s anything distinct about those credits, the roles come five completely different genres — an actor of any age’s dream, much less a 26-year-old relative newcomer to the Hollywood scene.

“I don’t really have a great plan about what types of films to do, but I try to look for films, projects and ideas that are different from anything I’ve done before,” Vikander told me in a recent phone call from New York. “So it’s more really about that than planning ahead.”

Opening in New York and Los Angeles Friday, “Testament of Youth” is the big-screen adaptation of Brittain’s famed, best-selling memoir. It chronicles her time as a promising student who fought to get into Sommerfield College at the University of Oxford in England, only until the breakout of World War I compelled her to enlist as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in 1915 to providing aid and comfort to wounded soldiers.

Despite several personal tragedies, Brittain pressed on as a VAD nurse throughout  the entire war and eventually, went on to become an author. She published “Testament of Youth” in 1933.

Directed by James Kent, “Testament of Youth” also stars Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones”) as Brittain’s fiancé, Roland Leighton; Taron Egerton as her brother, Edward Brittain; and Dominic West and Emily Watson as Brittain’s parents.

Vikander admitted that she was exhilarated to be cast as Brittain, but terrified at the same time. The literary legend has only been portrayed a handful of times before, first and most notably by British actor Cheryl Campbell in the 1979 BBC miniseries production of “Testament of Youth.”

“Vera Brittain is such a big British icon, so with me being foreign from Sweden, it meant a lot to be entrusted with the part,” Vikander said. “I not only wanted to pay tribute to the people who read her books, but her family — the people who loved her and adored her. As her book ‘Testament of Youth’ came to me, knowing they were going to make a film of it, I felt so much for this woman, and her story of  love and loss. I so much wanted to be a part of it.”

Alicia Vikander in 'Testament of Youth' (photo -- Sony Pictures Classics)

Vikander said she couldn’t help but be inspired by Brittain’s resiliency through all the personal tragedy she suffered during World War I, and playing the role made the actor realize just how honored she was to have the opportunity to tell her story.

“In this industry, in general, it’s very rare to find deep, complex female leading roles, and this role was one of them,” Vikander said. “I admire her so much and was so intrigued by the chance to get to portray her. She became one of the biggest pacifists and feminists in history. I knew it was going to be very intense — and it was.”

Thankfully, Vikander said, she had Kent to help her ease into the role — and his background in documentary filmmaking came it quite handy.

“James allowed us to be very raw and in the moment, and in his documentary style, he tried to catch it while it happened,” Vikander explained.

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