Sex, Leins & Videotape #30. Paignton film critic Tom Leins goes face-to-face with a trio of off-kilter new DVD releases.
Johnny Mad Dog (Momentum) 
is a brutal, hypnotic drama about the extreme lives led by child soldiers in war-torn Africa.
Produced by French director Matthieu Kassovitz (La Haine, Babylon AD), and adapted from the book by Congolese author Emmanuel Dongala, Johnny Mad Dog is a disturbing, unpredictable look through the eyes of teenage killers. Lead character Johnny Mad Dog (Christopher Minie) is a 15-year-old child soldier who leads his own unhinged platoon of coked-up kids as they rampage across the country, shooting and looting their way through stricken villages. Whereas most movies of this nature see the protagonist realise the error of his ways, Johnny is utterly unrepentant, and his violent behaviour escalates dramatically as the movie lurches from scene to scene.
For the most part, Johnny Mad Dog resembles a series of disconcerting vignettes, rather than a well-rounded thriller, and the narrative sometimes lapses into incoherence. However, you sense that this chaotic tone is deliberate, and that the filmmakers are keen to disorientate the viewer with the sheer randomness of the horrors that are being perpetrated. Although it is tempting to describe Johnny Mad Dog as the African answer to City of God, it lacks its predecessor’s narrative flair, and never quite allies its vividly-imagined characters to a purposeful plot.
That said, the young actors involved are scarily convincing, and the surreally unhinged tone is unlike anything else in recent memory. Admittedly, the bleak mood could do with a few more flashes of humour to alleviate the misery, and one of the few laughs comes when Johnny discovers an Uzi ‘just like the one Chuck Norris used in Delta Force’! Genuinely disturbing rather than entirely satisfying, Johnny Mad Dog is a powerful, evocative piece of filmmaking.
The second feature film from British director Johnny Kevorkian, The Disappeared (Soda Pictures) is a menacing psychological thriller with a potent supernatural undercurrent. Devon-born Harry Treadaway stars as Matthew, a former mental patient still haunted by the sinister disappearance of his little brother. Ignored by his boozy, uncommunicative father, Matthew becomes obsessed with his brother’s spectre, and explores his ravaged housing estate looking for clues into his brother’s disappearance. As his investigation deepens, Matthew’s lingering psychological trauma is all too evident, and those around him begin to question his erratic behaviour.
Kevorkian’s London is a moody, unstable landscape and his gloomy aesthetics are truly impressive. Although the standard of the supporting actors is rather uneven (Tom Felton AKA Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter is particularly poor), Treadaway excels as the twitchy protagonist. Kevorkian’s references to The Sixth Sense and Don’t Look Now are skilfully handled, but ultimately The Disappeared outstays its own welcome and the bleak tone becomes rather wearying. That said, The Disappeared is a neat idea, well executed, and Kevorkian has delivered a striking, self-assured feature. Well worth a look-in, if you are after Brit-flick with a difference.
Cold Souls (Universal/IndiVision) is a wry, existentialist comedy starring Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways) as ‘Paul Giamatti’, a tormented actor who enlists the services of a new company to ‘deep freeze’ his soul. This soul storage doesn’t quite have the desired effect, and Giamatti’s marriage and acting both suffer. Instead, he decides to replace his soul with the soul of a Russian poet, and although it improves his performance in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, he ends up wracked with self-doubt. Even worse, his soul inadvertently ends up in a dubious soul trafficking scheme – appropriated by a Russian soap opera actress. Along with sexy Russian soul trafficker Nina, Giamatti sets out for St Petersburg where he (quite literally) embarks on a soul-searching expedition.
Cold Souls has echoes of Charlie Kaufman’s work – particularly Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – and will definitely appeal to fans of Kaufman’s idiosyncratic work. Novice writer/director Sophie Barthes has come up with an undeniably appealing concept for her first feature film, and it succeeds thanks to a wholehearted performance from the reliably great Giamatti. He is joined by a delightfully deadpan David Strathairn, who plays the admirably loopy Dr Flintstein – the man in charge of the soul storage operation. The jaunt to Russia may stretch your patience slightly, but Cold Souls remains an intriguing offering.
