Dead Time

Joko Anwar is a former film critic turned director by freakish fate. I have had the honour to see most of Joko Anwar's projects (be it as writer or director) and it must be said that he is one name to be remembered. As potentially one of the great director's of his generation. Even more so that with each movie he seems to break his own limits and go one step beyond... irrespective of budget restrictions.

Dead Time: Kala is a weird movie full of Tarantino type homages, but at the same time distinctly different and inventive. The film is essentially neonoir with a touch of horror and a sprinkle of... (as not to spoil anything I'll keep my mouth shut). Very nicely shot with a lot of class and some memorable scenes gives this movie a clear voice with which Anwar has attacked the unsuspected audiences at home, but also at international festivals. Acting is suitable, albeit there are some glitches here and there with no actor really raising the bar.

What's the movie about? A mystery story set in an alternate Indonesian reality. A tale of murder, violence and corruption with unnatural creepy crawlies hiding in the shadows. An honest policeman and a narcoleptic journalist find themselves entangled into a case of a bizarre murder of five people.

Special effects is definitely the weak point of the movie with some of them very iffy and unconvincing (especially the CGI). Some of the story-telling could use a bit of fine-tuning, but all in all Joko Anwar is someone who has a vision and more importantly knows how to mold it into a movie. However you can still see that the director is on a learning curve, but his newest movie "The Forbidden Door" shows how quickly he is learning his trade and very soon this will be the breakthrough director of Indonesia, widely renowned and highly regarded internationally with the likes of Chan-wook Park and Takashi Miike.

When I first heard about the movie being made, I don't believe any Indonesian filmmakers will be able to do it. Once upon a time, in a city where Apocalypse is drawing near (quite similar with Jakarta situation at present), five men was burned to death near a market. The story then leads us to the investigation by local Detective, Eros, and a narcoleptic reporter, Janus, who will soon realize that they're involved in big government conspiracy and some mystical Javanese myths about the rise of Queen of Justice. Wow! It's like JFK meets The Mummy.

Joko Anwar took the risk and made it. The result : HE DID IT! Simple as that! The city looks genuine and well-polished, the camera work is astounding (Noir style), the characters are strong and believable, and the story...OH MY GOD! How he combined several genres into a movie is an absolute perfection. I cannot stop watching! And Joko gives an unusual twist at the ending, a genre twist! There are indeed several drawbacks, but all is technical because of the budget. But still, it is a magnificent movie.

Joko Anwar worked very hard to create a new standard for Indonesian Movie and he accomplished that. Now, I only pity him because in his next movie, he has to work even harder. Otherwise, I'll be very disappointed.

This film is very interesting with its storyline, it's not commonplace and maybe Indonesian horror films are starting to get really boring now, they should have a story with a storyline that gets the adrenaline pumping.

Because the setting is probably in the 90s and the dialogue is like old 90s films. It seems a bit standard and flat. The downside here is that the actors don't really explore the dialogue with very flat expressions and it's a bit annoying because their expressions are quite flat

Joko Anwar truly never runs out of ideas and always dares to explore things that are still relatively new today. However, I'm a bit disappointed with the CGI, which was still acceptable in that year But the impression is a bit painful for the eyes, but the interesting storyline helps.

Kala is big in hype, and the first 15 minutes managed to live up to it. I was easily impressed by the production value, setting, acting, art direction, and so forth. The well-structured first act also promised a lot.

However, everything went static to the next 30 minutes. The movie, dressed in noir style, started to tell a story that was neither horror, neither fantasy, or adventure. There was no whodunnit plot, there was no clear track of where the movie was going. I thought, then, the film makers perhaps wanted to offer me something new, and I had to really think out of the box. I went out of the theater because clearly I was not prepared.

I tried watching it again the next day, and this time with a new mindset, and getting ready for "something new".

However, I was not prepared for "something rotten".

As I was coping up till one hour, I started to realize that this was merely one of the most pretentious movies ever made in human history. Setting is out of this world, characterization is seemingly strong, but actually lacking of development. Fachri Albar delivered good acting skill, but the script brought him nowhere, so he ended up being a tiring person to watch. Shanty's talent was completely wasted by the pretentious characterization. Fahrani's body was exploited. The scene of her singing in a bar was clearly made only to make Kala seemed to be a real noir movie. It is not! Noir is a whodunnit plot, whereas Kala is whatthehellitis plot.

Somehow, the film managed to get worse, especially when the Reservoir-Dogs-alike scene was forcedly inserted to no particular reason. The conclusion of the "story" was foolish. I am not against homosexuality, but if Kala is made merely as a pro-Gay movement by making a statement that a gay guy is Indonesia's next big leader, then it is purely silly, unreasonable, and rather masturbatory. There was no strong reason why the leading actor should be gay, except that's just simply what the director wants. It is a very unfair treatment of a story.

Awful with capital A.

The story is about an odd murders in the "never never land" city. A narcoleptic reporter stuck in the middle of it, and a super cop try to solve it.

When I've heard about Kala, I was looking forward to seeing it. No high hope, no nothing, so I will enjoy the movie as it is.

It was good, but not that good. It's something new for indonesia movie, but I see lots of Korean n Japan movies like this. It was good execution, good character, good Cinematographic, good color, I still recommend people to watch it.

Technical problem?...well it's still OK..I think it's only a budgeting issue. Plot holes is more of my concern.

As for "noir" like people said..well, it felt like noir at the beginning but horror in the middle and ... in the end.

Overall, this is still a must see Indonesian movie. It's a breath of fresh air for Indonesian movie that full on teenage romantic comedy and horror..