Review by Matt Barone (@MBarone)
Director: Ron Morales
Stars: Arnold Reyes, Dido Dela Paz, Ella Guevarra, Menggie Cobarubbias
Rating: R
Running time: 84 minutes
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Score: 8/10
Filipino writer/director Ron Morales clearly doesnât like to pussyfoot around. In the lean, 84-minute, and vigorously breathless thriller Graceland, the filmmaker quickly presents his case, raises the stakes to gargantuan heights, and roars through a plethora of shocks, dangerously concealed secrets, and thick intensity so to-the-point that youâd think heâs got a bus to catch.
It's a good thing that heâs in such a hurry, too, because Graceland is a harrowing journey alongside a very sympathetic protagonist that remains dour even when itâs veering into optimistic narrative directions. But then again, itâs difficult to feel all warm and fuzzy when itâs been less than an hour since youâve seen an innocent little girlâs brains get blown all over a carâs backseat window.
Thatâs the horrific image that pushes Graceland into its central conflict with a paralyzing urgency. The body count rises after Marlon Villar (the excellent Arnold Reyes) gets pulled over by whatâs supposed to be fuzz while his young daughter and her schoolmate friend ride along with him. Heâs the chauffeur/errand boy for dirty politician Manuel Chango and his seedâs gal-pal is his bossâ own daughter; her killers, the ones whoâve ambushed Marlonâs car and fast-tracked his life into an earthbound Hell, have a score to settle with Mr. Chango, and before Marlon can find out what exactly that beef is, heâs knocked out cold and daddyâs little girl gets kidnapped.
And that all happens within the filmâs first 15 minutes, leaving another 70 for Morales to progressively darken matters even further. Adding glimpses of brightness to all the ethical decimation is Gracelandâs headliner Reyesâ, a fascinating on-screen presence whose vulnerable and sturdy performance embodies the steadily altering dimensions of a kind-hearted, hard-working man stricken with both guilt over his familyâs current nightmare and the helplessness associated with being at the mercy of homicidal criminals and a child-molesting authority figure. Directing comfortably in front of such an able performer, Morales never wavers from Gracelandâs core dilemma, that of rescuing the kid by any means necessary; the unpredictability and sheer fearlessness of how he gets from Marlonâs tragic starting point and hardly any less catastrophic resolution is what powers the film into superiority.
In addition to the aforementioned underage victimâs slaying, in all of its naturally staged and gruesomely punctuated horror, Graceland delves into extremely uncomfortable realms of pornography, none of which shows any in-out/in-out yet still easily induces displeasure. Credit much of that effect to Moralesâ handheld camerawork, an up close and personal approach to visualization designed to make the violence (gunshots captured within an armâs reach) and moral repugnancies (i.e., a sequence set inside an underground sex slave operationâs headquarters full of high-school-aged âworkersâ) bleakly intimate, a mission thatâs very effectively accomplished.
When Gracelandâs haunting final message surfaces, the visceral realization that a grown-upâs darkness inevitably begets the same sullied godliness in the sinnerâs nearest and dearest loved ones caps off the preceding 80 minutesâ worth of gut- and chest-punches by topping the viewerâs heart with a figurative ice-pack. Itâs a coldness worth braving, though.
Gracelandbegins its VOD/iTunes run today, before opening in limited theaters April 26, via Drafthouse Films.
Review by Matt Barone (@MBarone)