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ACTOR
Sanoe LakeJulia NicksonLeonardo NamBen Redgrave
DIRECTOR
Jennifer Phang
SYNOPSICS
Half-Life (2008) is a English movie. Jennifer Phang has directed this movie. Sanoe Lake,Julia Nickson,Leonardo Nam,Ben Redgrave are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2008. Half-Life (2008) is considered one of the best Drama,Sci-Fi movie in India and around the world.
A precocious boy and his jaded sister use their imaginative powers to escape a confining home-life, save their self-destructive mother from her charmingly manipulative boyfriend, and finally reinvent their world in a mind bending conclusion.
Half-Life (2008) Trailers
Half-Life (2008) Reviews
Best of Sundance
The film explores major-themes in Multiculturalism and the human angst for the 21st century. What is specifically startling is how vibrant the aesthetic approach is in production value. Although reportedly not a high budget project, Phang's mis-en-scene is breath-taking. Also worth noting is the extremely likable performance by Alexander Agate, who rivals any child performance to date (reminded me of the powerful performance by Anna Paquin for THE PIANO.) While the pacing may not be for everyone, I think this is a film for the type of audience who enjoys a cerebral experience similar to DONNIE DARKO or Pink Floyd's THE WALL. The original score takes a post-modern approach of incidental music, which is very innovative in keeping the film from being too sentimental.
Best of Fest!
Probably the best film I saw this year at Sundance. The film is amazingly well crafted and profound. The type of film that you expect to see at Sundance. The film revolves around a family falling apart, personal identity, sexual identity, and religion, without being preachy. There are a number of very creative animated sequences, shot with the confidence of a real art film, the pace of the film is a welcome relief in our MTV quick cut era and had the best music of any film I saw at the festival (why do so many Sundance films have uninspired or just bad music) If your a fan of real art and cinema, this is the film for you!
Half-Life is a wonderful piece of cinema. Hands down.
It's pretty well described as "pre-apocalyptic drama" (though I'm not sure "drama" is the right wordÂ… it does have pretty hilarious moments too.), where a family finds themselves in a world sunk in environmental chaos, while still trying to cope with their own problems. The focus, of course, is not in the setting, but the particular ordeals that the incredibly diverse family have to face: a stressed out mother, Saura, a jaded daughter, Pam, and a reclusive younger son with strange paranormal powers, Tim. Also surrounding the family is Saura's manipulative boyfriend Wendell and Pam's recently outed best friend Scott, for whom she happens to hold deeper feelings than mere friendship. And fully closing the circle there's Tim's teacher and Scott's lover. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Scott's parents are zealous Christians? The movie manages to blend in live-action scenes with beautifully hand-drawn surreal animated scenes to represent the main characters' fantasy world, giving it a really unique and original feel. I was even told by the filmmakers that they spent three years on the animation alone, so basically most of it was hand drawn frame by frame! As you can see, there are A LOT of stories to be told, and Jennifer Phang's script does it wonderfully, not leaving a single detail out. The script is beautiful, even poetic, with the characters and their motivations tangible in every scene. But the movie is not just drama; like when Scott is talking to his father about 'reasserting things'. Scott's reply is just PRICELESS: "reassert what, my rectum?". And with some very laugh out loud moments like that one, the movie takes on an even more realistic feel. One thing I really enjoyed was the music: it just felt RIGHT for every scene and it was beautifully written. If you're looking for a beautifully told -and on top of everything VERY HUMAN- story, Half- Life may just do it. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
relevant and beautiful pre-apocalyptic vision
It was better than I expected from the trailer -- I was recommended by a friend who saw it at a film festival, and I found the themes resonating with the turmoil in many lives around me. Haunting and beautiful, eerie and prescient. The performances by the younger actors (Sanoe Lake and Alexander Agate) were inspiring and charged with the right level of emotional inflection to make their characters seem real. There was a really strong supporting cast, with quirky moments that were darkly funny. The animation, for an independent film, was creative and invoked the alternate reality quite well. I would definitely recommend the film, and it was great to see a new emerging female director premiere at Sundance!
Enter the Dream.
"Half-Life," Jennifer Phang's first feature film is an impressive debut. A blend of family drama, magic realism and sexual exploration. Set in the rolling hills of Northern California suburbia, "Half-Life" centers around the lives of Saura Wu (Julia Nickson), a mother of two struggling to keep herself together, her teenage daughter Pam (Sanoe Lake), her 10 year old son Timothy (Alexander Agate) and her live-in boyfriend of five weeks Wendell (Ben Redgrave). We learn that the family patriarch abandoned the trio some time ago. The aftereffects still resonate and are played out in Saura's hurried relationship with the much younger Wendell, Pam's crush on her gay friend Scott (Leonardo Nam) and Timothy's frequent escapes to an alternate reality. The latter provides the film's fantastic animated sequences courtesy of artists Matt Pugnetti, Catherine Tate and Ryan Schiewe, to name a few, which are sure to be compared to Richard Linklater's 2001 "lucid dream" "Waking Life." The performances in "Half-Life" are strong and evoke the sense of isolation the characters feel, none more so than young Agate's turn as the imaginative Timothy. Kudos to Phang for educing such a solid performance. Nickson and Lake are also note-perfect as the mother/daughter duo who are more alike than they realize, as they both battle to keep their lives in what little order they have left. The rest of the cast is rounded out nicely by James Eckhouse and Susan Ruttan as the voluntarily ignorant parents of the attention seeking Scott and Lee Marks as Scott's unassuming boyfriend Jonah. "Half-Life" moves at a methodical pace reminiscent of Shyamalan at his best. Michael S. Patterson's beautiful score expertly complements, as well as haunts, the piece lending it a quiet calm amidst a canvas awash in turmoil. Cinematographer Aasulv Austad wonderfully captures the grace and charm and contrasting hustle and bustle of the East Bay Area. Hearkening back to Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" and the works of the late Robert Altman, Phang possesses a touch for creating relatable characters intertwined in multiple story lines. She's definitely one to keep an eye on. "Half-Life" is a stunning beginning to what looks to be a promising career.