Heroes & Demons

14 May 2018

Heroes and Demons

• Director: various
• Based on book: no, but the one with Kirsten Dunst is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami
• Cast: Andrew Garfield, Mark Strong, Kirsten Dunst, Michael Sheen and others
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Andrew Garfield – Never Let Me Go, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Boy A, Doctor Who,
• Mark Strong – Before I Go to Sleep, The Imitation Game, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Eagle, Sherlock Holmes, Young Victoria, Stardust, Sunshine, Sunshine (the other one), Fever Pitch
• Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Levity, Virgin Suicides, Little Women
• Michael Sheen – Passengers, Far from the Madding Crowd, Frost/Nixon, Blood Diamond, The Queen, Kingdom of Heaven, Bright Young Things, Wilde, Mary Reilly, Othello
• Why? Sci fi, Andrew Garfield
• Seen: 11 May 2018   

        Hmmm, as we start watching, this seems to be a collection of short films, not at all connected to the DVD cover which shows a kind of apocalyptic future city. Well. Here they are:

1. Michael Sheen is a nerdy scientist working in a sperm bank, unrequitedly in love with a doctor in the fertility clinic. Creepy
2. An American Jewish family is having dinner. Nerdy genius son has invented a time machine and they keep repeating the dinner as he tries to get rid of the Nazis. Sci fi, absurd, amusing.
3. Custody conflict. Mark Strong has his two kids on an outing to the sea before their mother moves with them to the US. Tragic ending.
4. Andrew Garfield is Tom, wandering in the Texas desert. He’s a geology student. He encounters a strange young boy who, it turns out, is a ghost. Tom, it turns out, is a ghost too.
5. Kirsten Dunst is half of a newlywed couple who wake up hungry so decide, in order to break an old curse caused by husband’s previous crime, to rob a bakery. No bakery is found so they rob a hamburger joint.
6. A man rescues fragile people. When a new one shows up, the previous ones are jealous.

        This is so not at all what we had planned on seeing this evening. For the same reason I’m not keen on short stories, I’m not a great fan of short films, but these are very well done with good acting and strong stories throughout.

3 ½ * of 5