The East.

Director:	Zal Batmanglij
Country:	USA
Year:	2012
Running Time:	116 mins
Principle Cast:	Brit Marling	Sarah Moss
	Alexander Skarsgard	Benji
	Ellen Page	Izzy
	Toby Kebbell	Doc
	Shiloh Fernandez	Luca
	Patricia Clarkson	Sharon

Introduced at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013 by Zal Batmanglij as a movie that can be approached from different prospective and viewpoints, which I suspect he meant depended on your personnel view of the films subject matter. It's a thriller about a question that is getting ever harder to answer: the difference between right and wrong and how far you would go to punish those that in your opinion are carrying out the wrongs.

                                                                                                                    

There's always two sides in a conflict and in this case it involves a group of eco-warriors known as The East who set out to punish corporate terrorists who earn millions while ordinary people are left to suffer the consequences of there evil crimes against the environment and public health. Ex FBI agent Sarah Moss is recruited by independent security firm Hiller Brood to infiltrate an anarchist collective in an attempt to put a stop to what are known as 'jams', operations carried out by the group against the evils of modern corporations. Sarah begins to question the morals of her assignment and therefore has to decide where her sympathies lie.

Brit Marling and Batmanglij wrote the story in 2009 after the collapse in 2008 of the Corporate Banks that left ordinary bank employees out of work and feeling cheated by the system. The pair questioned if there was there some way, cinematically, of getting their own back on these uncaring organizations. They both went to live among various collectives for 12 months gathering up their political prospective which enabled them to build up there ideas for the story. This film is a thriller with a difference and says a lot about modern America where serious ecological matters are not spoken about openly and maybe, just maybe the character of Sarah Moss reflects the real life case of Edward Snowden? 

Another Earth

Two things were raised at the discussion following Monday nights RBC Film Club showing of Mike Cahill’s debut feature film Another Earth (2011). The first was whether the film was truly part of the science fiction genre and the second was the films conspicuously handheld low budget production. Looking up the definition of Sci-fi in my well-thumbed Collins English dictionary which describes it as ‘a literary genre that makes imaginative use of scientific knowledge’ while Wikipedia admits ‘that science fiction includes such a wide range of themes and subgenres that it is notoriously difficult to define’. So what chance has our film club of deciding, if Another Earth, which has as its background a planet that is getting dangerously close to mother earth and which resembles our world perfectly, falls within this genre? The camera work was criticized in some depth with accusations that included its amateurish feel and how irritating it was at times.

The evening opened with an intelligently amusing introduction by Mike Gray who explained that the task of preparing his introduction made him reflect on his feelings toward sci-fi. Not being a great fan of the genre and after listing all the films he had seen that he felt fell into the category he surprised himself by coming up with a list of 68 movies admitting that some were more fondly remembered than others. The reason for this, he went on to explain, was basically the same for any fondly remembered film, it had to have a good story, this he said was in his opinion the main criteria for any type of cinematic entertainment, and I for one would certainly not disagree with Mikes theory. Explaining to his ever-attentive audience that this independent film was reportedly made for the remarkably low sum of $200,000, virtually a no-budget film by Hollywood standards.  It starred Brit Marling (who is also the joint writer and producer along with Cahill) and William Malpother, known for his role in the television series Lost. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, where it was well received and more importantly was picked up for distribution by Fox although the general critical response has been very mixed. Mike went on to entertain us with some appropriate trivia about the film and finally the opening credits rolled (which indecently some member’s thought the best part of the film).

Brit Marling and William Malpother

The main theme of the movie involves a relationship that develops between a young college student Rhoda (Marling) and the husband and father (Malpother) of the family she killed in a terrible drunk driving accident. The New England teenager spends four years in prison for her drunken misdeeds, and on her release tries to redeem herself with the man whose life she ruined, but instead, without divulging her terrible secret, becomes his cleaner and one thing leads to another. In the meantime a space ship is being prepared to travel to what has become known as Earth 2, on which a seat is being offered to the winner of a competition. The space loving Rhoda enters the contest.

This science fantasy/drama is no more a science fantasy than a good drama. At best it’s an interesting and mildly intriguing movie with a great soundtrack. The Cahill and Marling partnership could and should have done a lot better with this interesting concept.