Headshot (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang)

[Stay Puft]

HEADSHOT
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1682186/)

http://i.imgur.com/y7w5I.jpg

[Stay Puft]

Saw this at TIFF last year; it opened in limited release last week.

I enjoyed it, as I do all of Tom's work. I struggle to call the film great; there's something simultaneously preposterous and compelling about each of his films, something ineffable. And yet. My first though was that this might be his most accessible. It's a stylish, grim, and violent movie about a hitman and there are shootouts and a revenge plot. Sounds good on paper. Of course, like Nymph before it, and exercise in genre slowly unfurls into something like an existential mood piece, characters set adrift in time and space (yet still hitting the necessary narrative beats), slowly approaching their end (or the end of the movie).

Case in point: The protagonist of Headshot is shot, well, in the back of the head. He survives, only to discover that he now sees everything upside down. But where this would ordinarily be an invitation for visual gimmicks - particularly for an action movie! - Tom keeps such flourishes to a minimum (there are a few brief moments where we see from Tul's perspective, usually for poetic emphasis, but we probably spend more time seeing through his eyes before the accident, as the film opens with an entire first person sequence, right side up). This restraint, combined with the sparse action choreography, is smart: It keeps the focus of the film on the mood, on the internal, the existential, while also imparting the few moments of violence, and the few poetic snapshots of the world upside down, emotional weight.

I've always had trouble articulating the effect Tom's films have on me, but they always work for me. I wasn't surprised to learn recently that he's a huge Jarmusch fan. That actually explains a lot. It had never occurred to me before, but Jarmusch's cinema often has the same effect (I can sense the analogue between Tom's films and something like Permanent Vacation, or Dead Man).

[Stay Puft]

This is also on Netflix IW but I suppose I'm not surprised that I'm the only one who has seen it. I don't know that I'd casually recommend Tom's films to anybody. I know there are some fellow fans on Match Cut, though. Where did they go?

[Raiders]

I enjoyed the beauty of Last Life in the Universe, which is what I think put him on the map here in the west. I tried 6ixtynin9 and was less impressed, with most of its whimsy and tonal shifts feeling awkward and overly self-conscious. Been a long, long time since I have seen either of them though. Don't hear much about "Tom" these days, at least in US critical circles.

[Stay Puft]

That's true, his last two films weren't even released over here. Nymph got a bit of attention at Cannes, anyways. I don't think too many people here saw that one, either, but I loved it.

[dreamdead]

Man, this was so damn good. That shoot-out in the nighttime forest was strangely affecting, and that final image is just devastating. Need more time to think about it, but its beats resonate in the same way that LLitU did. Haunting, despite its genre paces. The mood it establishes sustains itself throughout. So melancholy.

Thanks for the heads-up that this is on InstantView, SP.

[Stay Puft]

Thanks for the heads-up that this is on InstantView, SP.

:pritch:

[ledfloyd]

I've been meaning to check this out. I'm a huge fan of Last Life and especially Ploy. I wasn't quite as wowed by Nymph, but still excited about this one.

[dreamdead]

Bit of a thread derailment, but Pen-ek's Invisible Waves and Ploy were recently added to the Streaming options. Anyone have advice or thoughts on the quality of these two? Rather loved the Asano/Tom/Doyle pairing in Last Life in the Universe, so I'm hoping these are equally solid.

[ledfloyd]

I adore Ploy, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

I haven't seen Invisible Waves yet. *adds to queue*

[Li Lili]

I hesitated to see it. I loved his previous films, especially Invisible Waves & Last Life in the Universe. I haven't seen Nymph yet, but will see it soon.

[Li Lili]

Well, I must admit I was disappointed. The film claimed to be a Film Noir and is based on its atmosphere, but there are several effects that seemed to be use just for a style, nothing more, it's too formal. For instance the subjective camera used suddently for a few scenes doesn't give anything than just a formal effect, same for the voice over and so on... Also, it's a pity that the film doesn't use well enough the fact the main character sees up side down, only when he says he sees things up side down, suddently we see how he sees, but nothing more, so what's the point ? Otherwise, yes, it's well shot, it's a non linear narrative film, the acting is ok (it could have been better though, but perhaps it's because the film is based on the atmosphere)...