Thursday 25 July 2013

NZIFF Film Review: "Prince Avalanche" (2013).


The new film by David Gordon Green comes Prince Avalanche. This comedy-drama film adapted and directed by Green from the 2011 film Either Way by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson. The film follows two road-crew workers, who spend the summer of 1988 isolated and away from their city lives, eventually finding themselves at odds with each other and their women back home.

Following the restoration of Bastrop State Park, following the 2011 Bastrop County Complex fire, the band Explosions in the Sky proposed the idea of making a movie with Green. Green then adapted Sigurðsson's film. Despite the 65-page script, the project was fast tracked in to production and completion. Green commented "We really didn’t have time for proper or traditional development... We had the idea in February of 2012, we were filming in May, and sound mixing in July. It was an unusually tight production schedule." Paul Rudd joked to Entertainment Weekly, "I found the biggest challenge of working on this was trying to stifle my alpha-male [masculinity]." The film's entire production was done in secret; it was only announced to the public after completion in June 2012. After his last three films were completed by a major film studio, Green wanted to get back to his independent roots. In May 2012, principal photography and lasted for sixteen days. Filming took place in Bastrop State Park. Because of its scale, the film was shot with a small 15-person film crew.

The film stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. The film's success is due in large part to actors who are both faithful to all the social minutiae and genuinely compelling enough to keep you watching. Although, they show how people learn codes of affection and aggression from having as much fun as possible in a small town, but when they try to pull them off in crucial situations they did come out a little bit awkward, embarrassed and futile.

With fine acting and considerable emotional depth, Prince Avalanche aptly captures the highs, and especially the lows of human relationships. The film is a compelling, and often comedic, portrait of small-town lives. It's surprisingly good, while also writing, the film's characters get inside your skin, your soul. It's enough to make you want to both laugh and cry. So when the film's moment of drama arrives, it's not with comedy but instead the sort of dully anticipatory inevitability that drains as much energy from the story as from the audience. It's well-made. Searingly acted. Potent. And by the time it was over, its climax realised at the point of acceptance and friendship, I felt as though I've been on a emotional roller coaster ride. Yes, it's painful, but the film is so full of rich performances and characterisations that even a fire can't kill it. The film is aching with cross-purposes and shimmering with simple yet effective jokes. Impressive for the mood it creates, the film may not totally satisfy, but the characters are richly depicted and reflect the snowy winter chill that surrounds them.

Simon says Prince Avalanche receives:



Also, see my NZIFF review for Charulata (চারুলতা).

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