Arts & Entertainment

This Week at the Movies

Reviews Include the Creepy "Insidious," the Labyrinthine "Source Code" and Oscar Winner "In A Better World"

Two of last weekend’s major releases are genre films that managed to mostly steer clear of the clichés that often plague similar pictures.

Duncan Jones’ twisty “Source Code,” which combines an “Inception” type of story with the structure of “Groundhog Day,” just nearly gets it right. But James Wan’s “Insidious” is the best of its kind in some time – a horror film that genuinely creeps you out without resorting to cheap scares or bloody violence.

“Source Code,” Jones’ follow up to the critically acclaimed “Moon,” is a fast-paced science fiction thriller that boasts some nice performances from its cast, which includes Jake Gylenhaal and Vera Farmiga.

Find out what's happening in Bayside-Douglastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At the film’s beginning, soldier Colter Stevens (Gylenhaal) awakens to find himself on a train, not knowing how he came to be there and why he sees the face of another man when he looks in the mirror. Just moments later, the train explodes, killing everyone on board.

Stevens again awakens, but this time finds himself in a secret military lab. It turns out that the train was bombed and the memories of one of the passengers have been captured by military scientists. Stevens is sent back into that passenger’s mind time and time again in an attempt to figure out who detonated the bomb.

Find out what's happening in Bayside-Douglastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The film moves along at a brisk pace and the cast ably fleshes out their characters, despite the picture’s relatively short running time. But the filmmakers have a little more difficulty explaining the detailed, complex procedure through which Stevens returns over and over to the scene of the crime. Perhaps, they bite off slightly more than they can chew.

Wan’s “Insidious” is a diabolical haunted house movie. Much like Jones’ film, the picture involves some form of astral projection or out-of-body experience. At the risk of giving away the movie's secrets, I will not explain the details.

At the film’s beginning, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) have moved their family, which includes two sons and an infant, into a new home. One of their young boys explores the house’s spooky attic, falls off a ladder and hits his head. All seems well until he is unable to awaken from his sleep the next morning.

Several months later, the family begins seeing frightening visions in the home. Rather than resort to jump scares, Wan often places his creepy imagery carefully within the shot, allowing viewers to slowly adjust their eyes to what they are seeing.

Several shots – a face looking out from behind a baby’s crib, a dark figure with long fingers standing in the shadowed corners of a child’s room and a ghoulishly smiling family sitting around a living room – are particularly noteworthy.

In its final act, Wan‘s film takes a few turns toward the surreal and a few scenes are unnecessarily over the top. But the picture is one of the better examples of its genre in several years. It may give you pause before turning off the light.

Screening in limited release this week is Susanne Bier’s “In A Better World,” which nabbed the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

The film bears some similarity to films like “Babel” and “Syriana,” in which multiple story lines in various locales feed into a theme that links a group of characters. In this case, that theme is man’s capacity for violence.

In one story, a Swedish doctor working in Kenya struggles with whether he should treat a vicious warlord who has been mutilating pregnant women. Back in Denmark, his son is being picked on by bullies and is afraid to retaliate. The boy crosses paths with another youth who has recently lost his mother to cancer and is prone to violent behavior.

Bier, who directed the Oscar-nominated “After the Wedding,” treads some familiar ground as the story moves into its third act, occasionally flirting with clichés. There is one story line for which I predicted the outcome and was slightly disappointed to be correct.

But the film has its share of powerful moments, some great photography and solid performances. It’s a gripping experience.

“In A Better World” opens at Kew Gardens Cinemas on April 22.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Bayside-Douglaston