November 30, 2014, 6:30 p.m. — Snowpiercer (2013)

Snowpiercer

2013. South Korea/Czech Republic/USA/France. Directed by Bong Joon-ho. "Bong Joon-ho’s epic adventure describes an impending ice age caused by human hand, whose last survivors are left circling the earth in a nonstop express train. The rich are in the front carriages and the poor—from whose perspective the story is told—at the back. If you walk along a moving train from back to front, you end up traveling faster than the train itself relative to the Earth. This is the dynamic force upon which Bong’s film thrives: there’s only one direction in which this revolt can go and it’ll be doomed to failure if its speed doesn’t exceed the reaction. With its impressive cast (including Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-ho, Octavia Spencer, and John Hurt) breathtaking artificial landscapes, fantastic make-up, over-the-top décor, fresh, witty dialogue, and a healthy portion of humor, Bong gives back to cinema what the Lumière brothers themselves already used to impress their audiences: the sheer force of the machine" (Berlinale, 2014). Courtesy of Radius TWC. 126 min.