Newsmakers

[pro-bassoonist]

Anders Banke's Goryachie novosti a.k.a Newsmakers (2009) has been set to be released on May 3.

Film Forward:

A Swedish/Russian co-production, Newsmakers is a shoot-’em-up political satire, an action-packed remake of Johnnie To’s more stylish Hong Kong cops vs. robbers vs. the media thriller Breaking News. It should find a wider audience. While the reality TV stunt no longer seems futuristic, the dynamic actors dominate the gritty, yet humorous goings-on that could make them rising stars in world cinema—they will doubtlessly be showing up as villains in an action franchise.

Jason Bailey:

Anders Banke’s Newsmakers is a slick, sleek, professional thriller with all the trimmings—chases, car crashes, explosions, and shoot-outs. Lots and lots of shoot-outs. It was also made in Russia. That’s worth mentioning right off the top, since it’s sturdily constructed and plenty entertaining, but I can’t help but wonder how much attention it would get if it were English.

Director Banke has got a great eye; his picture is handsomely photographed with an abundance of gloss and style. And, refreshingly, it has a sense of humor; there are all kinds of little verbal and visual jokes (my favorite was the lunchtime sequence, with the scores of cops in their riot gear, enjoying their take-out sushi).

He also has a sure hand with action; the violence comes fast and frenetic, exploding in bursts of furious energy. But the fact of the matter is, he’s aping countless cops-versus-killers action/comedies, throwing in chunks of gang war pictures and hostage movies into a blender and pureeing, and while there’s nothing shameful in that, let’s also not make it more than it is. If it were, in fact, the glib Hollywood actioner that it looks so much like and may very well still be remade into (I’ve got a feeling Angelina Jolie may have already been rung about stepping into Katya’s high heels), it certainly wouldn’t be playing at Tribeca and other film festivals.

And it’s not a matter of doing what other foreign directors have done with American genre pictures; when Truffaut and Godard paid homage to the old Warners gangster movies, they mated them with their own unique ideas about character and construction, and when John Woo did his Hong Kong action flicks, he amped up the gunplay and choreography into the realm of the surreal. Anders Banke made a fine, sturdy action picture in a hard, cold, efficient way. It gets the job done. But let’s not go mistaking it for art.

Pro-B