Eureka

Eureka

Three stories, three periods, three treatments. All connected by a blurred frontier between life and death.

A gritty black and white western condensing most of the usual tropes of the genre in a badass and powerful first part.

A clever transition to a more naturalistic Fargo-like main part where we follow a police officer played by (very believable because she's an actual police officer) Alaina Clifford. She's on duty at night in the freezing cold of Pine Ridge Reservation South Dakota dealing with a native population struggling with poverty and slow suppression.

Alaina's character niece, a young basketball trainer played by very talented and poignant Sadie LaPointe will lead us to a third part through a more symbolic and spiritual treatment.

Like the first two, the third act is also treating the theme of colonial oppression on a native population. This time in the 70s somewhere in Brazil (and/or different locations?) following a young man who has to leave his village and work with gold prospectors.

This is unconventional storytelling, sometimes pushing the shot economy to the limit of bearable, working partially with non actors, improvising a lot, leaving open questions and resolutions.

This can be frustrating or confusing. But there's definitely beauty, spiritual elevation and powerful images in this cinema, which is in my opinion precisely made to be experienced in cinemas.

Greetings again from the darkness. Part of my attraction to arthouse films is the often-unconventional path to storytelling that the filmmakers take - sometimes expending more effort on the look and style than on the characters and plot. These films once only had life in film festivals, and today many also carry on in the streaming revolution. I'll go ahead and admit upfront that this latest from Argentinian filmmaker Lisandro Alonso (JUAJA, 2014) and co-writers Martin Caamano and Fabian Casas is a bit esoteric for my tastes ... although it looks beautiful.

There are three pieces to Alonso's film (a triptych) and they are not connected by character or location or time, but rather by spirit and the journey of indigenous people. The opening segment plays like a traditional western (filmed in black and white) with Murphy (Viggo Mortensen) searching for his daughter who has been taken by an outlaw. After catching a wagon ride from a nun in tattered habit, Murphy deals with the town's lady boss (Chiani Mastroianni). The segment ends abruptly, and we find ourselves in modern day with Alaina (Alaina Clifford) and her niece Sadie (Sadie LaPointe). Alaina is a Sioux reservation policewoman in South Dakota and Sadie is an upbeat basketball coach at the local high school. We ride along with Alaina on her frustrating evening route, and Sadie visits her brother in jail, and makes a final call on her grandfather. A giant pelican-type bird then takes us back a few decades to a South American jungle for the final segment. A ragtag gold prospecting crew is made up of locals trying to get rich and those trying to take advantage.

No more should (or even can) be told about these three segments, and filmmaker Alonso purposefully leaves any message up to individual viewers' perspective and interpretation. Most will agree that each segment is beautifully filmed and acted, even if a traditional story is nowhere to be found.

In limited theaters on September 20, 2024.

I love slow film- but this film is pretentiously long with nothing to say. It's like the director watched Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women and wanted to recreate the temperament but didn't know why. The direction is quite weak, all actors don't seem to feel much of anything when they speak their lines. They don't seem to mean anything. The annunciation seems to always be at the wrong parts of the words, might be a non native English director thing?

146 characters to go. I don't have much else to say. Just disappointed something like this can be accepted into Cannes. Maybe because of indigenous people and first time actors and Viggo and nice glass behind the camera? I can't think of other reasons why.

Five stars. Because the film is a tedious, meandering mess with occasional nuggets of good acting. The run time of 2:27 is in the service of a "story" that could be just as well told in 40 minutes. But, of course, there really isn't a story here. There are three tenuously connected bits, all of which dither around with unresolved plot threads and LOTS of shots that go on for several minutes, when they've done their service to the film in the first few seconds.

It's clear that Alonso is trying for some sort of profound statement about the role of Native Americans in western New World societies. And it's just as clear to me that he failed to pull it off by ignoring basic story telling. So it isn't profound, it's just annoying. My wife just gave up in the middle of the third bit, and laughed out loud when I told her how it ended. I really doubt that's the reaction Alonso was aiming for.

There is some good acting in here. Viggo Mortensen always delivers, even if his choices veer into these sorts of trainwrecks (he also starred in Alonso's "Jauja" -- another failed attempt at profundity). He's the central figure in the western parody at the start. Alaina Clifford does a splendid job as a main figure that turns into a tangent in the modern South Dakota rez section.

I'll give props to Sadie LaPointe, for at least giving it a go, as Clifford's daughter. But she clearly didn't know what to do in all those tedious long takes where nothing is happening.

Alonso seems to get a lot of cred as a "visionary director" I've seen two of this films, and I thought both of them were lousy. If you're a fan of REALLY long artfull shots where nothing actually happens, you might differ. 13 August 2025.

I signed up for MUBI for 1$ and was hard-pressed to find anything suitable (for me) to watch. However, I like Viggo and decided to give EUREKA a try. Don't worry about spoilers since I have NO plot facts to explain. I haven't a clue.

We start with an Old West tale: Viggo rides into the most decrepit town EVER in the old West, looking for his kidnapped daughter. In short order, he shoots 4 people. He finds her in some rich guy's room. Issue unresolved.

Next, we meet a pretty, but slightly overweight, female patrol officer (modern times), probably a single mom, out of a N. Dakota Indian tribe. The pace slows down, more questions are asked, and only half are answered. If this part of the story was designed to give us insight or positive feelings about our Aboriginal people, the Scriptwriter needs a serious refresher course. One young level-headed female tells her brother that she probably will take a trip. Where?, he asks. I don't know, she answers. Then her grand-father gives her a magic cup of tea and a stork shows up. (Oh.. I forgot: I think the police officer is MIA.. no explanation).

The stork whisks us to a small village in Brazil. Kids play in a spring. (This reminds me of a poem written by a high school colleague. His review question was, What is meant by Olaff's head? -There was no Olaff in the poem). Then, the rural police show up and a train rolls by. Huh?

I am a Bob Dylan fan and I can explain any number of symbolisms in his obscure lyrics ('Ghost electricity howls in the bones of her face, But these Visions of Johanna have not taken my place').. But EUREKA? Haven't a clue.