Talking Tribeca: Cargo

I’ve had the pleasure this year of screening a number of selections from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place April 18th-29th.

Cargo
Directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke
Midnight

Zombies are everywhere right now in film and television, existing undead in various forms that find them feasting on brains and generally not gelling completely with whatever remains of the human population. Certain tenets seem to be consistent across the cinematic zombie universe, while the level of brain functionality and ability to communicate verbally vary, as does the cause of the virus that turned people and whether there’s any hope of an antidote. Lighter fare with comedic interpretations of undeadness like “iZombie” and “Santa Clarita Diet” have become common recently, but an old-fashioned serious take on the inevitability of becoming a zombie still proves reliably dependable.

Andy (Martin Freeman) is floating along the water in a house boat in the Australian Outback with his wife Kay (Susie Porter) and his infant daughter, scavenging for food and trying to make human contact in the aftermath of a devastating outbreak that has turned most people into zombies. The government supplies kits with instructions and materials for what to do if you are bitten, including a watch that counts down the forty-eight hours until you turn and an epi-pen of sorts to inject straight into the brain. When the unthinkable happens and the clock starts, Andy must do whatever he can to ensure that Ruth has a chance at survival.

The setting of rural Australia works very much to the film’s advantage, with seemingly endless landscapes providing little hope for salvation or a crucial alliance. The inclusion of Aboriginal characters including young Thoomi (Simone Landers), who supervises her undead father with the hope that she can rescue his soul, is a boon to the film and its contemplative approach to mortality. The focus here is so much on what comes next once death, or something much worse, is positively certain, and the way in which that guides Andy’s determination to save his daughter is immensely compelling and serves this film remarkably well.

Freeman, known primarily for his role in the Hobbit movies and on “Sherlock,” delivers a committed, unflinching performance that shows the lengths he will unhesitatingly go to for even a chance that his daughter can be allowed to grow up once he is gone. The entire experience is gripping and involving, which is even more impressive given how much of it features aimless wandering. It’s reassuring to know that, in the unlikely event of a zombie apocalypse, there’s still new ground to be covered in telling the story of those who survive.

B+

Movie with Abe: Cargo

Cargo
Directed by Yan Vizinberg
Released October 21, 2011

Human trafficking is a relatively common theme in cinema, ranging in focus and scope depending upon the specific project. In August’s “The Whistleblower,” based on a true story, Rachel Weisz’s UN peacekeeper fought to expose a ring of traffickers within the UN and to free the innocent girls involved. “Cargo,” which is an original story, uses a much narrower lens to explore the dynamic between Natasha, a young Russian woman hoping to make it as a model in New York, and Sayed, the serious, quiet Egyptian smuggler tasked with discreetly driving her from Mexico to the United States to meet her fate.

Intimacy doesn’t always equal meaning, and spending over an hour with just these two people doesn’t lead to depth or powerful revelations about these two. Instead, “Cargo” follows an extraordinarily predictable, often painfully slow trajectory in which Natasha, in disbelief, refuses to accept the reality of her situation, and Sayed gradually comes to care for the woman he is supposed to regard as nothing more than important cargo. The script is stuffy and uninventive, and all of their conversations feel familiar. It’s very much like a dramatic, action-less version of “The Transporter,” in which the title character breaks his one and only rule: don’t open the package. The difference is that Sayed is well aware of what his package is, but she’s determined not to be like other women before her.

Part of what holds “Cargo” back is that it doesn’t know what kind of film it wants to be. Its poster suggests that it might be a horror movie, as does its tagline, “What if you were the cargo?” It feels much more like a drama, though it occasionally borders on venturing into thriller territory, a journey for which it is not well-equipped. Much of the film’s success hinges on the impact of its lead performers. Natasha Rinis tackles her first major film role as Natasha, and she manages, if nothing else, to appropriately convey the terror of being trapped in an inescapable situation, determined not to let it break her. Sayed Badreya, whose career has consistently mostly of villainous supporting parts, isn’t asked to do much and responds accordingly. Both actors imbue their roles with passion but not necessarily believability, and the script doesn’t help much in that area. “Cargo” is a generally unpleasant experience that doesn’t manage enough intrigue to truly draw in its viewers and make itself memorable.

C-