bob the moo
Isolated middle-aged Jim is idly letching over some late teenage girls on the beach when his heart gives out and he dies. Waking up in a bar, he is served his favorite pizza and beer, and shown around his new world in heaven. With all of his hedonistic pleasures fulfilled and nothing to complain about whatsoever, Jim is surprised to find himself pondering the nature of his new existence, and how satisfied he can really be if everything he desires is available, whether it is "true" or not.Limbo is quite a surprising film in some ways – and not all of them are good. It begins as a bit of a comedy, with a tone which was a bit too crude for me and probably cruder than it needed to be (the latter probably being my issue with it). There is some humor with this, but generally it works to establish that Jim has his heart's desire (or, in most cases, his penis' desire). When he starts to question his situation (in a poorly sound engineered beach scene, with the waves louder than dialogue) then he finds himself with the potential to learn the truth behind all of this afterlife business – although it has a catch that he cannot return to the (after) life that he now knows.The concept is enough to keep you watching, and the comedy adds to this by making it quite amusing. None of it is perfect, and it does have some flaws in the construction – particularly in the middle section there is not enough in the way of laughs or strength to support that core explanation from Lucy. However the final third comes around soon enough, and this is interesting for a couple of reasons. The most obvious is that we want to know where the film is heading, and the strake white emptiness of the building at the end adds to that sense of mystery. The ending may not satisfy everyone, because the inherent desire is to know what is behind the door and this is not expressly revealed. However for me personally I found this to be by the by, because the real point was that Jim could not just accept being happy, he had to worry, to seek out some 'bigger truth' rather than just enjoying things as he had them. At first glance it seems quite the pro-hedonism message, but I actually found it to be more general about those of us who have good lives, far from wars, with lots of technology and opportunities, but yet still find something to complain about, or have to seek out issues rather than just being grateful for how good we have it.It could have been smarter for first, and I think the film is flawed and does misjudge some of the humor, but generally it is an engaging piece with a quite satisfying edging, and a good performance at its core from Benjamin (better known as the title character in Archer).
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
Well no, that is not really an accurate description of this movie as truth actually means dare in here. This 15-minute movie came out in spring this year and was written and directed by Fangso Liu. Despite the name, this is an English language movie starring Jon Benjamin who I have seen (and liked) in previous projects and who should be known to American audiences at least, maybe from "Archer". He always reminds me of a rougher version of Louis C.K. Anyway, here he plays a man who dies and is sent to hell. However, the only negative thing about hell is that it is not real. It is full of fictitious pleasures including food and sex. Our hero is given the choice to stay there and keep living the sweet life or go and see truth. What will he pick? I personally liked this movie. It's well-written and well-acted by Benjamin although that is pretty much a given. A nice little watch and I recommend it.
