The Elephant King (2006)

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

a story like a ladder. or labyrinth. about searches, fake victories and a place of Asia. sad, beautiful, salt for emotions and impressions. at first sigh, a basic story about a family. at the second, stage of need of sense. run against yourself. and balls of illusions, temptations, forms of hate, love and expectations. the axis - delicate performance of Ellen Burstyn. sure, it is not a surprise but the joy to admire her in a special role is seed of pure delight. her character is so fragile and wise, so strong and powerless. but she remains the character who can make things be OK. and this is secret of movie. the subtle taste of childhood and the unique patience of a mother. the small crumbs of fairy tale and the silhouette of peace in heart of dizzy storm. a film - key of questions.

Oliver Hunt is a young New Yorker who is a secret writer, still living at home. When we first meet him, he is working as a dishwasher in a restaurant. He has a brother, Jake, who has been living in Thailand. Jake has left New York under the pretext of studying Thai culture, but he is really a piece of work, whoring around, indulging in drugs, Thai boxing; he is living a life of excesses. His worrying parents relent in letting their son Oliver travel to Thailand in order to bring his debouched brother back home where he is supposed to face the music.Alas, poor Oliver is charmed by the sights around Chiang Mai, where Jake introduces him to the bar scene. Jake is a nasty sort who hasn't exactly endeared himself to the locals. They see in him a detestable person who has overstayed his welcome among the easy going locals. Oliver falls hard for the beautiful Lek, a bar hostess that introduces the naive man into pleasures he hasn't known. Lek, who is loved by a local musician, who will come between her and Jake, a situation that will be fatal in the end."The Elephant King", written and directed by Seth Grossman, was a rare find. It examines the lives of the brothers in an unfamiliar locale. Mr. Grossman presents a credible story about the siblings that are so different, yet so much alike. By taking the action to Thailand, he introduces another layer of cultural differences that plays well in what he is trying to say.Tate Ellington appears as the shy Oliver in an understated performance. The more flamboyant Jonno Roberts' Jake shows a young man who has gone beyond his capabilities and has stepped in too many toes. Mr. Roberts is also an asset. The lovely Florence Faivre is the object of both brothers desires. Ellen Burstyn is seen briefly in her usual fine style as the Hunt brothers' mother. Josef Sommer doesn't have much to do.Mr. Grossman promises to be a director with talent and who, no doubt, will be around for quite a while, judging by what he was able to create in this film.

A young New Yorker travels to Chiang Mai on an anthropological research grant and quickly loses himself in drink, drugs and loose women. Sound familiar? Substitute gender, nationality and mission as needed, and this plot could be about many foreigners who arrive in Thailand intent on noble causes and find themselves a bit distracted.The Elephant King was shot almost entirely on location in and around Chiang Mai, Thailand's northern capital, and one of the film's primary characters is Chiang Mai itself. A montage of muddy city walls and steaming moats, 7-Elevens and abandoned housing estates, Space Bubble disco and Wat Chet Yot, night markets and old wooden houses, the city's paradoxical grit and grace have never before been so well-captured in any feature film, Thai or international. The script in fact turns Chiang Mai into a microcosm of Thailand, thrusting Western stereotypes about the country to the fore - and then turning them inside out.But the core story isn't about Chiang Mai or Thailand at all, but about Jake (Jonno Roberts) and Oliver (Tate Ellingham), two brothers locked in a bully-victim relationship which both are struggling to transcend. Expat life in Chiang Mai, and their competing love for the same bar girl (Florence Vanida Faivre) merely serve as catalysts for the relationship to achieve its bloody catharsis.Several parts of the film, including the opening sequence, were shot in New York and include memorable performances from Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) and Josef Sommer (The Enemy Within, An American Story), playing the brothers' parents, Diane and Bill. As a father envious of his sons' carousing in Thailand, Sommer provides several of the film's best comedic moments. Burstyn shines during her time on film, playing the weepy, overly-doting mother with textbook technique.Because co-producer DeWarrenne Pictures is a Thai-registered company, the screenplay did not need advance government approval. This means we get an unvarnished - if somewhat Western-orientated - look at Thai culture and society. If and when the film does receive distribution in Thailand, there's a good chance some scenes will be censored for depictions of drug use and sex, even though these elements are neither overly graphic nor gratuitous to the story.Although this is writer/director Seth Grossman's first feature film, I'd say chances are good to excellent that the effort will be well received critically. The film pegs Grossman - an NYU film grad who loosely based the movie on his own experiences living in Chiang Mai as a Princeton-in-Asia scholar four years ago - as something of a story-telling genius.His art film attitude - which is thankfully more substance than pose - is ably assisted by the intense cinematography of Diego Quemada, a disciple and close associate of camera wunderkind Rodrigo Prieto of 21 Grams fame. Whether or not the film does well commercially, The Elephant King could easily reap a few international film festival awards, perhaps even becoming an underground classic along the lines of Trainspotting.

I saw the second showing of The Elephant King at the 5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 29th, 2006 and was thoroughly entranced by this cinematic masterpiece. Unfortunately I was not able to make it for the premiere of the film on Wednesday, April 26th, but I think that this showing was equally or possibly more enjoyable, due to the fact that it was shown in a larger theater with a larger, brighter screen and a better sound system (I have been told). The 400 seat theater was filled to capacity, with people still filing in half an hour after the film had started.The film itself is beautifully shot, with lush, gorgeous scenes of both rural and urban Thailand. As the Tribeca Film Festival website states, "This pensive, artfully crafted drama explores the twisted symbiosis between two American brothers-one domineering and nihilistic, the other guileless and introspective-as they binge on drink, drugs, and women in exotic Thailand." The two brothers' relationship spirals out of control to a dramatic conclusion.The cinematography is not the only area of excellence in this movie. The acting, directing and screen writing were also top-notch. Jonno Roberts as the domineering older brother Jake transforms from lovable to despised almost effortlessly during the course of the film. And the transformation of Tate Ellington as the younger brother Oliver from a depressed man-child to a fully developed and confident man develops quite naturally.Seth Grossman is an amazing screenwriter who really shows his chops in this movie, his debut film. Loosely based on a novel he wrote while living in Thailand teaching English, the inspiration for this movie was fully developed prior to the beginning of the screen writing process. This may have made the writing process develop quicker, but it does not take anything away from the freshness of the final product.There are many opportunities to laugh during the first act of the film, which helps to quickly drawing the viewer in to the more dramatic second and third acts. It was easy to identify with the characters, who grow to feel like family by the end of the film. I recommend this film to anyone who has ever traveled to a faraway land or just dreams of such travels.