Half Pint Reviews: Session 9 & Felon

Having seemingly reaquainted myself with the taste of reviewing the little known, I've decided to come back with another dose today, again putting myself onto the perch of hidden gem discoverer, an identity somewhere between a cinema-fiend Indy and arseholic magpie.

Once again, I've gone down the obscure path and picked out a couple of B-movies, one a direct to DVD prison drama outdoing its standing, the other a low budget, astute psychological thriller disguised as an ostensible horror flick.

First up is the latter, Session 9...

Session 9

Something of an oddball outing from The Machinist director Brad Anderson, Session 9 follows the week from hell endured by an asbestos crew hired to clear out an abandoned mental hospital. Overly stressed by financial obligations and a baby daughter at home, team leader Gordon (Peter Mullan) brings in a motley crew already strained by internal divides.

Disillusioned right hand man Phil (David Caruso....yyyeeeeeaaaahhh!!!) is at loggerheads with arrogant slacker Hank (Josh Lucas) after the latter stole his girlfriend, intellectual Mike (co-writer Stephen Gevedon) is pining for a return to law school, and newcomer Jeff (Brendan Sexton III) is an unruly youth with a phobia of the dark.

Creeped out by their ominous surroundings, the group begin to fracture as behaviour becomes strange and inexplicable. Gordon's home life reaches boiling point after an altercation with his wife, Mike becomes obssessed with a series of recordings featuring a former patient, and Hank's discovery of a set of valuable old coins precedes his abrupt disappearance. Tempers fly as paranoia becomes rampant and mystery grows, and still there's a tough deadline to meet.

The first thing that will strike anyone about Session 9 is its format, filmed in digital rather than film, which gives the movie a strangely intimate visual style, one that, while initially distracting, later plays into the heavy aptmosphere that the film generates as it picks up speedy, breathless momentum while heading towards the end of the second act. This, combined with filming taking place at the untouched, actual Danvers Mental Hospital in Massachusetts, gives the piece an immediately creepy vibe, one that plays with the concept of standard horror fare but in a flirty, suggestive manner which doesn't commit.

While some moments come off as inexplicably, almost comically, amateur, these asides are part of Session 9's charm, and make the story more disturbing in retrospect. An incredibly obvious use of stock audio in one pivotal moment seems silly at first, but when thought back on gives it a strange sinister quality. The acting is a mixed bag, springing into life at key points, but occasionally veering into ridiculous, sending the viewer into a state of uncertainty. Peter Mullan, in his first role in an American film, is outstanding throughout, a hard pressed and subtle performance in keeping with the film's shock ending. It is a conclusion that, while hinting at a certain ambiguity, is both refreshing and harrowing, putting a novel spin on the set up that seemed to suggest demons and spirits.

While Session 9 may disappoint scare junkies looking for monsters and set pieces, or perhaps scare off sceptical viewers with its unconventional approach, it is a film which builds a tone and feel both engrossing and hearting pumping, though only after a while. Well worth a watch.

8/10 

Felon

A hard hitting, bloody knuckled effort from former stuntman Ric Roman Waugh, 2008's Felon takes a warts and all glimpse at the inside of the New Mexico penal system as it follows the travails of an unfairly convicted family man forced to shed his self and soul to survive.

After accidentally killing a man robbing his home, husband and father Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff) takes a plea bargain including a relatively brief three years in maximum security prison. But even before he has arrived, he is thrust into the middle of a murder, and his silence, intended to keep him safe from a neo-Nazi faction within the facility, leads to further punishment. Fully intending to hold onto his identity and simply work through his time, Wade quickly discovers that adapting to his new envirnoment means partaking in the blood feuds between the gangs, culminating in a series of orchestrated fights between the prisoners, overseen by the wing's sadistic marshal, Lieutenant Jackson (Harold Perrineau).

As he grows unrecognisable to his family, and faces the prospect of his sentence being lengthened, he turns to help, both moral and substantial, from his cellmate, the legendary inmate and intellectual multiple murderer John Smith (Val Kilmer), a complex and unpredicatable con who has long since abandoned the ideals that Wade holds dear. Pushed into a corner, Wade finally finds a way to fight back against his antagonists, a risky plot that could well secure his freedom, if it doesn't kill him.

For all intensive purposes, Felon sounds like C-grade fare with all the cliched bells attached, albeit with a decent cast. But where it differs from normal such tripe is in its unapologetic authenticity, particularly in its treatment of prison politics, as well as a mature and well played sense of character development and respect for the film's players. Rather than go down the easy route, Felon highlights the segretated gang culture within the prisoners' world, and also the far from liberal attitudes and approaches of their keepers. The big bad of the story is a prison guard, and even he is portrayed as a challenging anti-villain, a loving father and friendly face outside of work but a monster inside of it.

It is also strengethed by two powerful central performances, from Dorff, inpecible in his journey from innocent to guilty man, a fresh meat slab into a respected threat, and from Kilmer, who's acting renaissance continues, albeit unnoticed. His mannered and caring portrayal of Smith is both one of the film's most memorable aspects, and one of its most intelligent strengths. There is further good work from Perrineau, a good man allowing his rage and venom to run amok while tending his charges, and from Marisol Nichols as Wade's emotionally tortured and conflicted wife. There are also well appreciated cameos from character actors Anne Archer and Sam Shepard.

Taking care of its protagonists and those who matter, while imbuing the film with a blunt realism both compelling and convincing, Felon defies all signs and becomes an emotionally powerful film that asks ugly questions of its audience, and comes out into the light by film's end. A B movie better than the majority of As.

8/10