Posted by Tom Stockman in General News, SLIFF 2010 | 9 comments
SLIFF 2010 Review: KREWS
Angry white commodities traders cross paths with ghetto gangsters in the culture clash drama KREWS. It’s a decent concept but the result is a stage-bound, un-involving film lacking drama, suspense, or interest. Told through the eyes of hi-tech con artist Henry (Geraghty) who, as the film opens, lands in Los Angeles from Krakow and meets up with his hot-head British trading partner Peter (Jonathan Cake) who loses his cool when he learns of Henry’s inept rubles trading (!). This plot is quickly abandoned when a botched car-jacking, followed by a shoot-out with the police, forces these two white-collar criminals to take refuge in the home of the two black drug-dealing thugs that accosted them. Over the course of one evening, their very different worlds collide and not all will survive.
Thanks to a well-staged opening action sequence, KREWS briefly feels like it’s going to a winner, but Joshua Leibner’s script doesn’t have much curiosity about its characters. The dialogue is neither smart nor revealing, only forced and banal. He has an idea, and trusts the idea to drive the plot. It’s a decent physical achievement for first-time director Hilbert Hakim.
KREWS was made on a very low budget and looks good with crisp lensing and fluid editing, but the part that needs work didn’t cost money. It’s the screenplay. Having created the characters and fashioned the outline, Leibner and Hakim doesn’t do much with these characters except to let them talk. And talk some more. And keep talking. Once they enter the house, the movie descends into a series of screamings and struggles, threats and promises, weeping and ultimatums and would-be deals, most of them so overacted that the actors must have had difficulty keeping their faces straight (though lead Brian Geraghty, from THE HURT LOCKER is quite solid). KREWS is a variation on the old hostage drama movie theme, but not much of a variation, and on a very tired theme.
KREWS will play during the 19th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on Friday, November 12th at 7:00 pm at the Tivoli Theatre.
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I saw Krews at the St. Louis Film Festival. This was a fantastic film. It kept me at the edge of my seat. The film blew me away on every level. The acting was outstanding, the plot and story kept me interested and involved, and the ending was one of the best twist ending I’ve ever seen . It was intelligent and well directed.
The lead actor, who is in The Hurt Locker plays a complex character that gave me chills. I couldn’t believe the ending could surprise me as much as I did.
It’s a slick studio looking film, but far more captivating. This is a near perfect film, the acting, the story, the directing, the score, it’s all really first rate.
KREWS is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
It was so cool to see this film last night. I love film festivals, and this is why.
It was really cool to hear the director and the producer, who is a St. Louis native talk about their film at the Q &A after the film played.
I was blown away by their modesty and courage. I couldn’t believe how much the film affected me. It’s a film every one should see. It deals with class structure and greed in a very intelligent way. The issues it raises about the world economy is very current and discussion worthy.
The acting gave me goosebumps. They were all sensational. I loved every minute of it.
The music too my breath away.
This may be a first time director, but he made a solid important film everybody needs to see.
We were there last night too. We loved this film. Everybody did. We can’t stop thinking about it.
Thank you St. Louis film fest for bringing this film to us.
Loved it.
I couldn’t believe the intensity in this film. From the opening scene there is one jaw dropping moment to another.
The story begins to unravel with a surprise ending that knocked my socks off.
The director and producers talked to us after the movie and answered some questions. I was very impressed to hear this is their first film. I give them high mark for that because it felt like a big budget hollywood movie. The actress in the film did an remarkable job of making you feel everything she was feeling. I couldn’t believe how good they all were. I loved this movie. It reminded me of Crash. But this seemed more authentic to me. Krews is one of those films we’re going to hear a lot about. And I can’t wait to see what this director and producer do next.
I’ve attending the festival here in St. Louis for many many year, and I’ve seen some memorable films. This is one of my top favorites.
I consider myself the biggest film geek of all and I loved this film.
Congratulations.
This movie has balls and a message that spoke to me on a profound level.
Krews
What many filmmakers in today’s “digital era” neglect to include in their quest for the most updated “look” of the film are the compelling essentials that define cinema. Anyone that has read Robert McKee’s Story would agree that no matter how many technological innovations a film includes, a lack of story denies the audience the main purpose of attending the movie in the first place. Do we go for the “eye-candy” and to go brain dead for two hours? Or do we go to feel something? To connect on a higher level…to feel compelled and wish for those things we see and hear on screen to resonate within us? This, in my mind, is the purpose of the art of cinema. Surely, to learn something, to feel enlightened and entertained are also benefits of the medium, but without feeling, we are left empty by the presentation. Perhaps, that emptiness so prominent in mainstream cinema is a signifier of the postmodern era we now live in, but a good story with developed characters will never go out of date.
Which brings me to how I feel about Krews. I initially was not looking forward to seeing this film, mistakenly thinking it was going to be another one of those hip-hop films that I would not relate to and being a showcase of a contemporary recording artist’s latest. The primary thing that struck me was the score. Unless one has a trained ear, one often takes for granted the wonderful power that music has to either facilitate the movie image, or hinder it. The score should be seamless and in perfect synthesis with the image, creating the magic cinema has to offer…the fusion of aural and visual into a complete idea. There are certain recent films I will not name (ahem.. it stars Leonardo and has to do with thought control..ahem ahem) in which the score completely distracted me from the story and disallowed the characters to be sympathetic while creating an anxious feeling of a two-hour trailer! The music would not cease! But I digress…in Krews the score created an atmosphere and drew me into the story immediately. Now this is not to say that this film is not commercial, in recent years that term has become soiled. I would say this is a very accessible film and that is the brilliance of it, bridging that ever widening gap between “Hollywood’s” slick fast paced empty eye candy films and the “Indie” meaningful films. Krews is indeed eye candy…but has content. It reaches mass audiences while having something to say.
The look of the film is no doubt inspired by director Hilbert Hakim’s experience working closely with James Cameron. It has a hint of near futuristic themes executed masterfully with neo-noir aesthetics. The camera actually stays still! The audience is allowed to absorb themselves in what is going on rather than being distracted by unnecessary showy cinematography and one-second edits. The action is allowed to play out maintaining its thrilling aspect while simultaneously telling a story. I had been to a double feature of The Terminator and T2 with editor Mark Goldblatt in attendance. He was asked which he preferred and he had said The Terminator because it was “more contained.” And I would have to agree that Cameron’s best work has that sense of containment…it is not all over the place both in a sense of story and location.. (i.e. Aliens, The Abyss, The Terminator). Krews is also contained. The majority of the plot takes place in a woman’s house in a low-income neighborhood where her boyfriend (without her approval) does various drug deals. It is almost as if the two worlds, that of high and low crime, are under siege as “the clock ticks”. In this intimate environment, we as an audience have the privilege of delving into those two worlds the majority of us are not familiar with. These people are real. Real does not mean more digital pixels trying to look like “real film”, it does not mean shaky cam from a “I am in the scene with them” feel, because all that can really portray is if one is sea sick and/or drunk while “they are there”, and it does not mean trying to look like a documentary to simulate reality. (ironic huh?) Tamara, Re-Bob, and Wishbone are real because their experiences and humanity are masterfully translated by the actors portraying them. They are real because the director chose not to stereotype the low-income house into the tropes other films in this genre often contain: trash out front, impoverished, malnourished children, thug-like speech that is indecipherable…etc etc. The house is actually one of respectability, as one in the variety of Tamara’s life choices would reflect. There are moments of connection between characters, people who would never have met in a million years, that other “big budget” films never have the time to slow down and have time for…I am speaking of the conversations between Henry and Tamara in the kitchen and Peter and Re-Bob in the living room. These dialogues both test the underlying universality of the human condition, and highlight that ironic impossibility for humans to co-exist peacefully because of that same human condition. Lines like “I don’t hate you because you’re Black, I hate you because you are stupid” go there. They speak the truths about racism many people feel but cannot express because of our Politically Correct conditioning and allow us to think about the bigger picture. These intimate themes facilitate thought onto the race to globalization…the impersonal attributes of technologies…the economies of the world being manipulated by the few via a keyboard and a few passwords. We are in such a race to go somewhere else; that we are no longer familiar with what is right under our noses. It often (and must) take a tragedy for people to discover their neighbor. It is not always black and white (pardon the pun) as to who is the “good guy” and who is “the bad guy”. This is an element that Michael Mann mastered in his work in the 1980s and what truly made his work compelling. That and the fact that the aesthetics were crafted to fit these discourses make his crime dramas fascinating to audiences. Krews goes back to these basics and makes the content relevant to modern audiences. This is what makes modern classics. The score during the primary police pursuit with the slick cityscapes in the background are reminiscent of 1980’s Miami Vice. The difference between Hakim’s film and Mann’s remake…is that along with the lush visuals and rich sound design, you care about the people. Filmic techniques in the past have been employed to capture that humanity. One that is now seen as archaic, but in my mind puts hand held craziness to shame, is the slow-motion shot. Many time in Miami Vice after Crockett witnesses a tragedy we see in slow-mo his reaction to the tragedy…NOT the tragedy itself. Mann betrayed this method in his remake of Smuggler’s Blues, whereas, Hakim picks up the ball and utilized this stylistic device in Tamara’s reaction to a tragedy. Paired with the score, this is a cinematic moment. Remember those? Like when Vader told Luke he was his father? Not much of “moments” anymore. But Hakim delivers.
I look forward to the work of new directors like Hakim. It is his directorial debut, but he is not a twenty-something fresh out of film school…his experience brings wisdom to the story while keeping it contemporarily fresh. . He is a craftsman.
Alexandra Nakelski, M.A Film Studies
Writer, Film Critic, Programmer of the 2010 Santa Fe Film Festival
I liked the movie. I understand about portraying urban realism, but I tired hearing so many “F” and “N” words. I must be slow. I didn’t understand the ending. I couldn’t read the note the single mother read. I thought the London dude (Peter) was married to an African-American woman, but I didn’t understand what was so significant about the blonde-hair dude calling Peter’s wife when Peter told him he had already done so. Can someone explain it to me? Thanks!
I just saw this movie today on Starz and it blew me away!!! So much that I came to google it. I had never heard of it and so baffled as to why this was not known everywhere. I absolutely love this movie, it kept me so eager to watch. Love the plots, unexpected ending, twists, grittyness (though I hate too much f words it made sense to exhibit the “culture” of drug dealers)and how everything pieced in together. Actors/Actress did a phenomenal job as well! Will have to watch this again!