[  Mood: Amused ]
How to Get Rid of the Others

This Danish film offers a near future look at social policies gone awry. While there’s many moments of very dark humour, I hesitate to call this a comedy because the third act goes grim and doesn’t really come back.

How much value do you contribute to society? Are you worth it, and if you are, what about the others who drain society’s resources? Those are the questions posed by How to Get Rid of the Others. The Danish government (and it is hinted the EU is following their lead) has set up the New Copenhagen Criteria and is culling society for suspected non-contributors. Others follows a group of such detainees as they are processed overnight in a high school turned detention camp. The real conflict lies between the chillingly efficient Capt. Christian and government minister Folke as they sit in judgement of each detainee. Each interview is riveting, funny, and nauseating all at the same time. Then Christian and Folke’s interview process gets derailed by the mysterious Belinda, a member of the underground resistance, who isn’t who she claims to be.

Writer/Director Anders Klarlund, who created 2004’s breathtaking Strings, turns out a truly disturbing view of society. The side-stories for Belinda and Folke are distracting and maybe a little improbable at times, but really don’t detract much from the movie. Social science fiction can offer terrors no BEM can and How to Get Rid of the Others serves that up in spades.

Closing Night Film: City of Ember

Fantastic Fest closed with the adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau’s YA book, City of Ember. While this wasn’t a very well kept secret at the festival, no one knew for sure who would be attending with the film. Director Gil Kenan and Bill Murray did show and the squeeee! for Dr.Vinkman/Bob Harris/Garfield was heard for miles.

The citizens of underground Ember have lived there for two hundred years with no knowledge of anything beyond their lighted city. But Ember’s infrastructure is running down, especially the giant generator that powers everything. Doon (Harry Treadaway) and Lina (Saoirse Ronan) have been assigned the jobs they’ll work for the rest of their lives but both of them know there’s more going on in Ember than meets the eye. The two curious teens become tangled in the mystery of a long lost box, the Great Generator, and "the exit" foretold by The Builders. But to get to the truth, they will have to defy the Mayor (Murray).

City of Ember doesn’t break any new ground but does a good job of developing tension without relying overmuch on spectacle or over the top action. The two leads, Ronan and Treadaway, are quite good and Ember itself stands out as a very fantastic yet believable setting. When asked if he preferred doing movies for kids (Kenan also directed Monster House), he said they gave him the freedom to do just about whatever he wanted no matter how out there it might be. I found that interesting since it mirrors what a lot of genre authors say about the freedom in writing YA books.