Commentary

FILM REVIEW: Arctic

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Penna and co-writer Ryan Morrison have given this bone-chilling adventure a very simple premise: Man against nature, man against himself.

Published

5 years ago

February 8, 2019

Oakland Post

By Dwight Brown NNPA News Wire Film Critic

English singer/writer David Gray released a very evocative song in 2014 called “Birds of the High Arctic.” The verse is about a lost lover and the poignant refrain says: They’re calling. Like the birds of the high Arctic. “This darling. For the light in your eyes sparked it. Two sheets to the wind.” In just a few words and with a pleading voice Gray conjures visions of the cold barren Arctic that are indelible and haunting.

Mads Mikkelsen stars as Overgård in ARCTIC, a Bleecker Street release.
Credit: Helen Sloan SMPSP / Bleecker Street

First-time filmmaker Joe Penna is a musician who created the internationally popular YouTube channel, MysteryGuitarMan. The channel became a viral sensation and he amassed two million followers. He’s shot commercials (Coca Cola and McDonald’s) and short films (Turning Point). Arctic pulls his skills into the feature-film format where he demonstrates the basic mechanics of filmmaking but not the artistry. Nothing sticks with you, nothing is visually stunning or memorable.

Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt, Casino Royale) is stranded in the Arctic. His only shelter is what’s left of his plane, which crashed into the icy, barren wilderness. To add a grain of sanity to his endless days and nights, he keeps a routine. According to periodic alarms on his watch, he gets up, fishes, works on a rescue sign and looks for a radio signal. He confronts the freezing elements and the occasional stare of a polar bear. It’s a lonely, melancholic existence that won’t change unless there is a new stimulus. That spark comes after a rescue helicopter crashes, leaving another survivor (Maria Thelma Smáradóttir, Prisoners). Now Overgård is fighting the elements and making life-saving choices for two.

Penna and co-writer Ryan Morrison have given this bone-chilling adventure a very simple premise: Man against nature, man against himself. You don’t see the plane crash. There is no backstory. You don’t know how the central character got himself into such a bleak situation, or why he has superior survival skills and can fix electronics. The writers and director don’t let viewers put the protagonist’s dilemma into perspective, and that’s a gutsy or foolhardy choice, depending. Still, the set-up and location is so unique that many will go along on this improbable excursion, regardless.

Mads Mikkelsen stars as Overgård in ARCTIC, a Bleecker Street release.
Credit: Helen Sloan SMPSP / Bleecker Street

Penna’s direction is adequate. No major mistakes. No fits of genius. Cinematographer Tómas Örn Tómasson (Pacific Rim: Uprising) has missed an opportunity to make the wintry scenes look gorgeous or ghostly. Instead, it’s as if he shot the unexciting footage on a smartphone. Ryan Morrison’s editing manages a solid tempo for 97 minutes. Joseph Trapanese (Straight Outta Compton) creates a musical score that stays in the background and never intrudes. The tech aspects are neither a credit or a hindrance.

With a cast of just two actors and virtually no dialogue, the weight of the film rests on veteran Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Most of the time he has no one to talk to. It’s just him, pulling the story forward and making his emotions (fear, anger, courage, indecision, regret) the central focus. Facial expressions, his walk and other non-verbal communications give his character depth. There are many instances that require Overgård to make monumental choices and live with the consequences. You can see the gravity of those decisions in Mikkelsen’s eyes.

The film doesn’t display a brutal, raw realism that blows your mind. The finale is fitting, not a shocker that will make your heart race (The Vanishing, 1988). The climax is not an escape from a deadly situation, although there are a few of those. Instead, the most dramatic, stomach-turning scene is when the protagonist must come to terms with the karma he faces for putting his needs first. This is the “aha” moment when the thin screenplay finds another dimension and Penna proves he’s more than just a trendy YouTube video entrepreneur.

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Arctic has a very similar feel to the James Franco film 127 Hours, where a hiker gets himself stuck in-between two boulders and resorts to cutting off part of his arm to escape. The hubris in that character made it a challenge to empathize with his dilemma. Overgård is humble and likable throughout.

There isn’t anything gross or repugnant about what’s on view, like in the disaster movie Alive, when a Uruguayan rugby team ate each other to stay live. Audiences looking for a basic survival film will likely be satiated. Penna’s simple storytelling and perfunctory direction is tolerable and Mikkelsen’s stirring performance brings what’s on view up a notch.

Arctic doesn’t have a long-lasting impact. Without artistry and an indelible atmospheric impression, it’s just another film you’ll vaguely remember. What’s missing is the kind of haunting feeling sensitive artists like David Gray can conjure.

Visit NNPA News Wire Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com and BlackPressUSA.com.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

7 days ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!

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Commentary

Commentary: Republican Votes Are Threatening American Democracy

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We needed to know the blunt truth. The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening. That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

By Emil Guillermo

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We needed to know the blunt truth.

The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

And to save it will require all hands on deck.

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening.

That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

No man is above the law? To the majority of his supporters, it seems Trump is.

It’s an anti-democracy loyalty that has spread like a political virus.

No matter what he does, Trump’s their guy. Trump received 51% of caucus-goers votes to beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who garnered 21.2%, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who got 19.1%.

The Asian flash in the pan Vivek Ramaswamy finished way behind and dropped out. Perhaps to get in the VP line. Don’t count on it.

According to CNN’s entrance polls, when caucus-goers were asked if they were a part of the “MAGA movement,” nearly half — 46% — said yes. More revealing: “Do you think Biden legitimately won in 2020?”

Only 29% said “yes.”

That means an overwhelming 66% said “no,” thus showing the deep roots in Iowa of the “Big Lie,” the belief in a falsehood that Trump was a victim of election theft.

Even more revealing and posing a direct threat to our democracy was the question of whether Trump was fit for the presidency, even if convicted of a crime.

Sixty-five percent said “yes.”

Who says that about anyone of color indicted on 91 criminal felony counts?

Would a BIPOC executive found liable for business fraud in civil court be given a pass?

How about a BIPOC person found liable for sexual assault?

Iowans have debased the phrase, “no man is above the law.” It’s a mindset that would vote in an American dictatorship.

Compare Iowa with voters in Asia last weekend. Taiwan rejected threats from authoritarian Beijing and elected pro-democracy Taiwanese vice president Lai Ching-te as its new president.

Meanwhile, in our country, which supposedly knows a thing or two about democracy, the Iowa caucuses show how Americans feel about authoritarianism.

Some Americans actually like it even more than the Constitution allows.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1.