Displaying items by tag: Sam Reid

2: 22 

Australia/US, 2017, 98 minutes, Colour.

Michiel Huisman, Teresa Palmer, Sam Reid, John Waters, Kerry Armstrong, Maeve Dermody.

Directed by Paul Currie.

While the film is billed as an American science-fiction drama, it is actually an Australian production, filmed in Sydney, most of the cast being Australia. The main exception is the leading man, media house, American.

The film was not successful on its release, billed as the film with the least box office 2017. However, it has had a firmer further life on television and streaming.

Michelle Houston plays an air traffic controller with some kind of psychic powers. However, in cycling through New York City, he has a lot of repetitious, déjà vu sites and experiences, especially at Grant Central Station, and everything, an ageing at the time of 2:22.

He has to give up his traffic controlling work when there is almost an accident – and the encounters a heart dealer, Teresa Palmer, who was on the plane. She also has a boyfriend, an artist, played by Sam Reid, who deals in holograms.

So, while there are the romantic complications in the present as well is the mystery of 222 and the characters and sites that are seen, it then becomes a link to a death 30 years earlier, the day that the two central characters were born, and some kind of dramatic psychic connection between those events and the present.

Which means that the audience does have to pay attention to sort out the various threads of the plot. The film looks quite good, the two central characters sympathetic. A science fiction/fantasy pastime.

1. Silence-fiction? Science fantasy?
2. The Australian production, filming in the US and Australia? American style, Australian supporting cast? The recreation of New York City, apartments, Grand Central station, Kennedy airport and flight control? The musical score?
3. The title, the time, Dylan and his experiences, his interest in stars, constellations? His background, family, training, fear of flying, flight control? His friendships? His hallucinations? Saving the planes from colliding? Being suspended?
4. His life, his apartment, his interests, the encounter with Sarah, his ticket to the aerial ballet, talks with Sarah, the audience having seen her on the plane about to crash? Her life and work, the art gallery, Jonas and his work? Dylan going to the exhibition, the holograms, the characters and situations of his 2:22 situation, his mad outburst and destructive?
5. Travelling in New York City, the camps, the recurring situations, same people, talk, the businessmen, the children, the pregnant woman, 2.22, the electrical fault?
6. The bond with Sarah, the sharing the same birthdate? Dylan and the information about the past, the events it Grand Central, Jake and Evelyn? 30 years earlier, the stars and constellations?
7. Dylan, realising that he and Sarah had to relive the 30 years events of the past, Evelyn as the dead woman, his going to see Catherine her sister, the discussions, Catherine sceptical?
8. Jonas, wanting to go away with Sarah, Dylan and his finding that Jake, the alleged murderer, lived in the apartment, the search, the discovery of the letters, reading the stories? Confiding in Sarah? Her hesitation?
9. The buildup to the climax, the repetition at Grand Central, Jonas, his reliving the murderer, Jake and Evelyn victims, Jonas shooting at Sarah, Dylan intervening and shot, recovering? Jonas shot by the police?
10. The aftermath, happiness, stillness pilot, Sarah and the baby?

DESPITE THE FALLING SNOW

Canada/UK, 2017, 93 minutes, Colour.

Rebecca Ferguson, Sam Reid, Charles Dance, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Anthony Head, Antje Traue.

Directed by Shamim Sarif.

Despite the Falling Snow is a film about the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Soviet Union, transitions, espionage. The director, Shamim Sarif, adapted the screenplay from her own novel.

The film has two time eras, the late 1950s in Russia, the early 1960s in the United States. This establishes the main characters, especially the Russian, played by Australian Sam Reid (Interview with a Vampire, The Newsreaders). Then there is Russia in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as will the sequences at this time in the United States. The Russian displayed this time by Charles Dance.

There are complexities in relationships, seeming betrayals, efforts to make atonement. The leading character in the later period is played by Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible, Dune).

The film was made in Serbia standing in from Moscow. At the time of this film’s release, even the 1990s was becoming part of Soviet and American history.

1. The title? Moscow and snow? Moscow and espionage? Moscow and romance?
2. The work of the director, novel, screenplay, production, direction?
3. A cold war story? The USSR in the Christian era? The US in the Kennedy era? The transition to 1992, election year for Bill Clinton, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin?
4. The filming in Serbia, the Moscow sequences, the winter, the streets, the river, the Kremlin, official offices, apartments, schools? The contrast with the US, receptions in the 1960s, apartments in the 1990s? The musical score?
5. The introduction, the US reception, 1961, meeting between Soviet officials and Americans? Sasha and his presence, nervy, accompanied, meeting the US contact, his making a run for it, pursued, the car, the photo of his life, the contact had been lost?
6. 1959, Sasha, is political career, his parents, friendship with Misha, his boss, severe protocols in secrecy? The meeting with Katia? The attraction? His being used, her getting the documents, her falling in love, mission and his influence, the preparation for the wedding, her hesitancy, her commitment, life together? The romance with Katia? Meal with his parents? His going to the US, the on, security? His boss, the revelation of espionage? Katie telling him the truth, the effect on him, wanting to save her, going to America?
7. The film has cut his story, her background, the flashbacks to the brutality against her family, work at school, connections with Misha, the contacts, the documents, passing them on? The relationship with Misha? The relationship with Sasha, using him, his attraction, her attraction, the decision for the wedding, life with Sasha, the revelation of the truth, the dangers?
8. Misha, his political affiliations, espionage, photographing documents, passing them to County, his friendship with Sasha? The complications, the discovery?
9. 1992, the older Sasha, his war with the documentation, the loss of cut here? With his niece, her artwork? Going to Moscow? His being unwilling to go?
10. Laura, artwork, going to Moscow, the Moscow connection, the artwork of cut here, the exhibition? The impact of the art of cardio on visitors, on the audience? Is trying to make connection with Misha?, Personality, reserved? Pretending to make the contact? Lauren, lesbian, her approach to mania? Millions resistance? Telling the truth, the conflict between the two?
11. The visit to measure, old age, invented, staying in Moscow? His hostility, drinking? His going to the exhibition, getting the suitcase? Seeing the artwork? Meeting with Sasha? The clash, leaving the suitcase?
12. Sasha, going to Moscow, the exhibition, the encounter with Misha, the suitcase, the letter and his reading it?
13. The audience seeing the flashback, Misha and the torture, the soldiers, his meeting with Katia, the confrontation, her running, her being shot?
14. An espionage story? The Cold War? 30 years later and consequences? But, principally, a romance story?