Boarding Gate (2007)
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Theatrical Release: Mar 21, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Director Oliver Assayas has established his name by crafting well-made erotic thrillers like DEMONLOVER and CLEAN. The director sticks closely to his guns by adding another similarly themed entry to his canon in BOARDING GATE. Assayas's film is a loosely plotted drama that stars the... Director Oliver Assayas has established his name by crafting well-made erotic thrillers like DEMONLOVER and CLEAN. The director sticks closely to his guns by adding another similarly themed entry to his canon in BOARDING GATE. Assayas's film is a loosely plotted drama that stars the provocative Asia Argento (SCARLET DIVA) as Sandra, a former prostitute with a penchant for S&M, narcotics, and assassination. Sandra's former flame, sleazy businessman Miles (Michael Madsen), wants to get back together with her, and the two meet after indulging in some steamy phone sex. Sandra murders Miles during a bout of coital rough-and-tumble, and she flees to Hong Kong to be with her new lover, Lester (Carl Ng). But Sandra finds herself on the run as she arrives in Hong Kong, with Lester's wife, Sue (Kelly Lin), aiming to permanently cut her husband's mistress out of his life. Assayas has a fondness for casting striking leading ladies, such as Maggie Cheung (IRMA VEP, CLEAN) and Connie Nielsen (DEMONLOVER), and Argento's role in BOARDING GATE fits neatly alongside these in the director's oeuvre. The early, dialogue-heavy scenes give Argento and Madsen plenty of time to establish their tawdry relationship, but when Assayas transports the action to Hong Kong, the movie takes a different turn as the director sets up some nerve-jarring chase sequences. The director infuses the movie with all his usual visual flair--the shaky, hand-held camera work and dimly lit sets perfectly reflect the seedy nature of Assayas's subject matter--but BOARDING GATE will mostly be remembered for Argento' s supremely confident performance. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Ng, Kelly Lin, Joana Preiss
DVD Info
Release:
Jun 3, 2008
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- NTSC
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Subtitles - Spanish - Optional
- Closed Captioned
Additional Release Material:
- Behind the Scenes - Making of BOARDING GATE
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
As for Argento … yeah, she’s got something. Now we’d like to see her in a movie that makes sense.
What it all means is up for grabs, but for connoisseurs of sadomasochistic nastiness, it’s a must-see.
The main thing interesting about Boarding Gate is the spectacle of Assayas' effort -- the attitude and the international backdrop -- not the story itself.
In the "B" movie days, a story like this would shoot by in about 70 minutes without time to pick holes in the motives. But Assayas takes a bloated, boring 106 minutes.
Could have been an exciting and inventive film, if only it weren't so bland and familiar.
Like just about everything in Boarding Gate, the finale suggests that its creators have been watching too many other movies with similar premises and payoffs.
The plot may be murky, but actress Asia Argento is a clear and commanding force throughout.
[Assayas] has concocted a plot that is dizzying and annoying at times, and it's hard to care about the characters in the shifting story. But B-movie veteran Argento's portrayal of Sandra is like watching a car careening down an incline.
Writer-director Olivier Assayas must have been working out some personal demons to make something as embarrassing as Boarding Gate, the most trite and trivial piece of sleaze since Abel Ferrara's Snake Eyes.
There are long, droning bouts of dialog about nothing meant to link scenes together, but all Boarding Gate really does is fixate on watching Asia Argento do stuff.
This hypnotic, angular thriller about sex, murder, betrayal and money takes you on a feverish journey from nowhere to somewhere.
A ridiculous poseur thriller that seems to be made up of the slow moments from Hong Kong action films and Euro-flashy stuff like Run Lola Run.
The latest entry in this perplexing preoccupation with lowlifes is Boarding Gate, an astonishingly un-thrilling thriller.
Seriously flawed and not for every taste, the film was shot quickly and on the cheap, and is driven by Argento's slurred, scratchy voice and Bette David eyes.
Even an ultra-feral performance by Asia Argento -- the art house Angelina Jolie -- isn't enough to suffer through Boarding Gate, a draggy and incoherent thriller by French director Oliver Assayas.
We don't want to see Asia Argento talking about her history of drugs and wild sex, we want to see her doing it.
Call it a cinema of guilty pleasure, and don't worry if you fall asleep in your seat after the sex scene is over. You won't be alone.
Boarding Gate plays with various genre codes and conventions very differently than most run-of-the-mill modern thrillers.
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