 
They Came Back He may be tearing up the big screen as Batman right now, but it wasn’t too long ago that Christian Bale shed 63 pounds to look as if had stepped out of a concentration camp for his role as Trevor Reznik, a machine shop worker who hasn’t slept for the past year. Trevor looks terrible and finds his only solace is in the arms of a hooker played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and in his nightly conversations with a waitress (Aitana S·nchez-GijÛn) who works at an an airport terminal cafÈ. He begins to hallucinate often, compromising his concentration and resulting in a tragic industrial accident at work. As his mania becomes more pronounced, there is a shift in perception (both for him and the audience) that leads to the surprise ending that I won’t divulge here. Bale is creepy-spooky as the haunted, emaciated machinist and Jason Leigh is terrific as always as a world-weary girl, looking to settle down with the right man. You many never think of Post-It Notes in quite the same way ever again after watching The Machinist. Equally creepy, but in a more existential way, is the French zombie flick They Came Back. One morning, 13,000 of the recently deceased stumble out of the graveyard and into the small town where they once lived. Unlike a George Romero film, these zombies aren’t hungry for brains, but yearn to be assimilated back into their old lives. Reaction from the townsfolk is mixed – some respond with joy, while others attempt to reconcile their grief and the closure experienced when their loved ones passed away. For their part, the undead have some initial motor-reflex issues, but soon begin acting more or less normally. That is of course until they start holding secret meetings late at night, because they don’t sleep either….Since it’s French, there’s a lot of thinking going on and plenty of silence, where other films would try and manipulate your emotions with a soundtrack. It’s also interesting to watch the local government debate the economics of installing the zombies back into the workforce and attempt to juggle the feelings of both the living and the dead with compassion and sensitivity. Definitely one to look out for. - David Bassin
|
The
Machinist