Half-Life

Probably the best film I saw this year at Sundance. The film is amazingly well crafted and profound. The type of film that you expect to see at Sundance. The film revolves around a family falling apart, personal identity, sexual identity, and religion, without being preachy. There are a number of very creative animated sequences, shot with the confidence of a real art film, the pace of the film is a welcome relief in our MTV quick cut era and had the best music of any film I saw at the festival (why do so many Sundance films have uninspired or just bad music) If your a fan of real art and cinema, this is the film for you!

The film explores major-themes in Multiculturalism and the human angst for the 21st century. What is specifically startling is how vibrant the aesthetic approach is in production value. Although reportedly not a high budget project, Phang's mis-en-scene is breath-taking. Also worth noting is the extremely likable performance by Alexander Agate, who rivals any child performance to date (reminded me of the powerful performance by Anna Paquin for THE PIANO.) While the pacing may not be for everyone, I think this is a film for the type of audience who enjoys a cerebral experience similar to DONNIE DARKO or Pink Floyd's THE WALL. The original score takes a post-modern approach of incidental music, which is very innovative in keeping the film from being too sentimental.

This is pretentious faux deep nonsense. It was designed so that pretentious faux deep pseudo intellectuals could watch it, then sit around, smoke cigarettes, and say pretentious faux deep things. The things they say will be gibberish, but they and their pretentious faux deep friends can pretend that they have meaning so that they feel sophisticated. Many of us knew them in college. I think a Saturday Night Live skit was made about these sorts of people featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, but I can't recall the exact episode.

I heard that this was intelligent science fiction. It wasn't. It had a pinch of vague stereotypical psi phenomena so that it could jump genres, but the psi had nothing to do with the plot. I waded through the whole thing hoping that there would eventually be some point. There wasn't. It was just the same old annoying and sometimes creepy sexual tension and promiscuity mixed with a lot of emoting and confusion.

I would give this movie one star, but that would be unfair since the acting was reasonably good. It's not the actors' fault they got dragged into this thing. They probably needed the work. The actors deserve some small concession.

"Half-Life," Jennifer Phang's first feature film is an impressive debut. A blend of family drama, magic realism and sexual exploration.

Set in the rolling hills of Northern California suburbia, "Half-Life" centers around the lives of Saura Wu (Julia Nickson), a mother of two struggling to keep herself together, her teenage daughter Pam (Sanoe Lake), her 10 year old son Timothy (Alexander Agate) and her live-in boyfriend of five weeks Wendell (Ben Redgrave).

We learn that the family patriarch abandoned the trio some time ago. The aftereffects still resonate and are played out in Saura's hurried relationship with the much younger Wendell, Pam's crush on her gay friend Scott (Leonardo Nam) and Timothy's frequent escapes to an alternate reality. The latter provides the film's fantastic animated sequences courtesy of artists Matt Pugnetti, Catherine Tate and Ryan Schiewe, to name a few, which are sure to be compared to Richard Linklater's 2001 "lucid dream" "Waking Life."

The performances in "Half-Life" are strong and evoke the sense of isolation the characters feel, none more so than young Agate's turn as the imaginative Timothy. Kudos to Phang for educing such a solid performance. Nickson and Lake are also note-perfect as the mother/daughter duo who are more alike than they realize, as they both battle to keep their lives in what little order they have left.

The rest of the cast is rounded out nicely by James Eckhouse and Susan Ruttan as the voluntarily ignorant parents of the attention seeking Scott and Lee Marks as Scott's unassuming boyfriend Jonah.

"Half-Life" moves at a methodical pace reminiscent of Shyamalan at his best. Michael S. Patterson's beautiful score expertly complements, as well as haunts, the piece lending it a quiet calm amidst a canvas awash in turmoil.

Cinematographer Aasulv Austad wonderfully captures the grace and charm and contrasting hustle and bustle of the East Bay Area.

Hearkening back to Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" and the works of the late Robert Altman, Phang possesses a touch for creating relatable characters intertwined in multiple story lines. She's definitely one to keep an eye on.

"Half-Life" is a stunning beginning to what looks to be a promising career.

HALF-LIFE is an apocalyptic tale set in a world undergoing catastrophic change. The land, seas, and atmosphere are all in chaos. With all of this happening around them, a woman, her boyfriend, and her two children struggle with issues unrelated to world-wide calamity.

Their struggles stem from the loss of the woman's husband, who deserted her and their children. The global devastation is a symbolic backdrop for the destruction caused by deep psychological / emotional loss.

Anyone who has ever lost someone dear to them, or been abandoned by someone, especially at a young age, knows the agony, terror, and cold reality presented here. Such loss knocks the world off of its axis, and nothing is ever the same.

This film is extraordinary in its exploration of this...