Polygon’s animation team is connected to the Sundance Film Festival 2021, which is going virtual for the first time. Here’s what you need to know about the indie gems coming soon to streaming services, theaters, and the cinematic zeitgeist.
Logline: When Bernice (Sofia Boutella) disappears in a post-apocalyptic desert, her wealthy and well-connected adoptive grandfather takes a bank robber (Nicolas Cage) from prison, ties him up in a leather suit equipped with a bomb, and him gives five days. to recover it – or suffer explosive consequences.
Longest line: Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono has made a career in extremism. Movies like the four hour game on sex and religion Love exhibition and the street musical Tokyo tribe These are the musings of a movie madman. Pairing him up with Cage doesn’t just sound like a good idea, it feels like cosmic law. These two good chaotic titans had make a movie together before the end.
Delve too deep into the plot of Prisoners of Ghost Country not so much a spoiler problem as a futile attempt to describe a mix of genres with hedonistic impulses, but anyway here is a sample: after a failed bank robbery spills innocent blood, “Hero” (Cage) and its bulky accomplice (Nick Cassavetes) is locked in the dungeons of Samurai Town. In the East and West niche, samurai roam the streets and a Kentucky Fried gentleman named The Governor (Bill Moseley) reigns as a Mafia boss. The Governor recruits Hero as his own suicide squad to recover Bernice from the post-apocalyptic dead zone beyond the walls. To make sure the criminal doesn’t get too crafty, the gangster locks Hero up in what is aptly called Chekov’s Limb-Splodin leather suit. If something is wrong with the mission, goodbye precious body parts. There are even two small bombs located on Hero’s testicles. No spoilers, but Sono doesn’t let the ball hang in the air for long.
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:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22272217/PRISONERS_OF_THE_GHOSTLAND___4.jpg "Ghostland Prisoner Review: Nic Cage Gets Mad Max 1 Samurai Movie")
Image: RLJE Films
The following is basically that of Nic Cage Mad Max: Fury Road. The title’s “ ghost country ” is an irradiated area with a good number of infected citizens seeking a better life and spooky zombies for Cage. When Hero connects with Bernice, the two unravel the mysteries behind how things turned out and why some desert cultists are screaming. “THE PROPHECY! ”And“ THICK RED BLOOD! ”Throughout the journey, Hero remembers the traumatic moments of the heist gone awry and works through the mistakes of his past to find something that looks like redemption. also a group of ninjas.
what is it Prisoners of Ghost Country Try to do? Hit the Hollywood blockbuster bomb versus the Japanese action movie bomb to see what happens. From the exhilaration of a Cage motorcycle as the pinnacle of cool (someone offscreen literally says “This is … so cool”) to near-satirism of the Kurosawa tropes, Sono tastes like the globe. -trotter and no restraint to put every lost idea on the screen. Yet, unexpectedly, this is one of the director’s most important endeavors. What could easily become a Crank-As hyperactivity exercise is done with a steady hand and an appreciation for details. Sono wants his audience delight in the brutal beauty of Boutella wielding a Gatling gun.
In his notes for the film, Sono says that if Prisoners of Ghost Country puts a love of pop entertainment on the screen, “What I really wanted to create behind all of this were distortions of modern society making the unreal world a reality. I think we live in an irrational world. It’s hard to disagree, although the film doesn’t spend much time considering these distortions. Yes, Ghostland is the byproduct of a toxic spill, and its inhabitants, good and bad, are suffering. But the possible social or ecological comment never returns. In cambio, lo que vemos es lo que obtenemos: los “fantasmas” son literales, la linea de tiempo de la radiación es mitología y el mundo diezmado es terreno fértil para las profecías de Hero’s Journey acerca de que Cage es el “reloj más poderoso “or something like that. Sono seems to have set himself the challenge of making the most entertaining movie ever.
The quote that says it all: [Extreme Nic Cage acting voice] “I AM RADIOACTIVE.”
Does he succeed? Prisoners of Ghost Country is set up for the midnight slot machine, full of people and few drinks. Presented in a less than ideal location at home, by the nature of virtual Sundance, it’s a delightful love letter to action movie excess. Like the Wachowski ascent to Jupiter or, more literally, Who killed Roger Rabbit, Sono takes the absurd logic of the cartoon to lead Cage to each of the film’s unexpected mile markers. The governor is American, so obviously he walks around dressed in white and wearing a cowboy hat. Samurai warriors could also take on the role of NPCs engaged in a sword battle set in Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”. Sequence depicting the accident that melted the field into a decomposed hue of what it was before scrolling across the screen like the pages of a manga. A star who perfected her open mouth raised her eyebrows “Wut?” The face is the glue that holds all the pieces together when gluing.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22272221/PRISONERS_OF_THE_GHOSTLAND___1.jpg "Ghostland Prisoner Review: Nic Cage Gets Mad Max 2 Samurai Movie")
Photo: RLJE Films
But let’s not underestimate Cage. It goes up to the level of Sono. With the odd sprayed Ken doll makeup and the killer energy of Lee Marvin, Cage becomes a living action figure. He even has a handful of kung fu! In a third act sequence, Cage (or at least a double armored corps) comes face to face with the samurai’s head, making movements that keep pace with the kinetic work of the camera. If only Sono had found more things for Boutella to do, Prisoners of Ghost Country he could have achieved instant cult status. With action credits like Kingsman, Atomic blondeYes Star Trek Beyond to his name, he is more than capable of performing stunts and choreographies. Sono loses her in Cage’s shadow, but then again, she can really blackmail that Gatling gun.
Like previous Sono films, Prisoners of Ghost Country it is striking. The costumes, ranging from anti-fallout gear to luxurious traditional dresses, tell as much story as any explanatory dialogue. The sets, while sometimes resembling soundstage stand-ups, continue the director’s aggressive approach to Dada. One minute Sono takes viewers to the Tokyo-inspired streets of Samurai Town, then seconds later we’re in Ghostland, a junkyard built like a Hook. It’s full of quirks.
What does this bring us? A great reminder that fast-paced action movies don’t have to cost $ 200 million. Sono’s production may never make it to exports from Japanese anime or from Korean writers like Bong Joon-ho, but for anyone exhausted by the homogeneity of American superhero cinema, there’s a whole catalog awaiting you. . Prisoners of Ghost Country it’s an excellent digestible start.
And a note on Cage: after encountering financial problems in the 2010s, the former A-lister is suspected of having signed a script that falls on his desk. Okay, there is some smelly stuff in his filmography to support the theory, but Cage, unlike Bruce Willis and his current DGAF-on-DTV run, shows up for every fucking movie he’s in. It seems to find the cornerstone in rare and extreme cases. Sono is on the same mission. There is no winking cynicism in choosing Cage for this role. He’s a huge movie star with no BIG movies to star in. Prisoners of Ghost Country
The most memorable moment: In case it wasn’t clear from above… I really want to talk about what happens to testicular pumps.
When can we see it? Prisoners of Ghost Country comes later this year from RLJE Films, the distributor behind Cage’s other recent crazy films. Mandy Yes Color out of space.