tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86732004068112029592024-03-13T03:27:37.226-07:00The Strange Colour Of Deej's ReviewsNo frills, just film reviews. Some of those films will be old, some will be brand new. Some reviews you may agree with, a lot you won't agree with at all. It's just a matter of opinion and I'm no more right or wrong than you are. Okay, now we've got the ground rules out of the way, let the reviewing commence. If you like what you read - or if you want to point out to someone what an idiot I am - feel free to share.
If you'd like to follow me on Twitter that would be great: @darren_gaskellDarren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-14602321274818774662021-05-14T03:48:00.004-07:002021-05-14T03:54:15.475-07:00DEATH LINE<p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>DEATH LINE (1972)</b></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Starring: Donald Pleasance, Norman Rossington, David Ladd<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Writer: Ceri Jones<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Director: Gary Sherman</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MrK3Zuo97kM/YJ5VaPOjocI/AAAAAAAACV4/JIsKBMqbKyE38ZEq9V0qtJzYY9JgAEFAACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Death%2BLine%2B-%2Bstill.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MrK3Zuo97kM/YJ5VaPOjocI/AAAAAAAACV4/JIsKBMqbKyE38ZEq9V0qtJzYY9JgAEFAACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Death%2BLine%2B-%2Bstill.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">When a government official goes missing after last being
seen in Russell Square tube station, Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence) of
Scotland Yard sets about solving the case, aware of several other disappearances
which have previously occurred in the same area. Calhoun hopes that a young
couple (played by Sharon Gurney and David Ladd) who saw the man alive just
before he vanished will provide the answers he needs but, as we get to know
before he does, something far more tragic and gruesome is going on…</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Having not seen this for several years but having remembered
how much I enjoyed it back then, I’m delighted to confirm Death Line is a
bonafide classic, not just because of its plentiful humour and well-placed gore
but because of its assured film-making by Gary Sherman and a brilliant, biting
script from Ceri Jones (from Sherman’s original story).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Astonishingly, given the craft on display and the general
confidence of the piece, this was Sherman’s debut feature and he was only in
his twenties at the time. There’s a care evident in every frame of this, not
least a stunning tracking shot of over seven minutes in length which gives us a
leisurely, not to mention queasy, tour of a nightmarish setting for human
slaughter. The crisp cinematography is courtesy of Alex Thomson who was a
camera operator for Nicolas Roeg before he became a fully-fledged DoP. He also
lensed such films as Dr. Phibes Rises Again and deep-sea monster flick
Leviathan.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Also, watch the scene in which Calhoun encounters his MI5
nemesis Stratton-Villiers, played by Christopher Lee (whose appearance
apparently took up around half of the budget – money well spent, in my opinion).
For one, it’s a joy to watch Pleasance and Lee play off each other but pay
attention to how each character is shot as the dynamic shifts in their
conversation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death Line was ahead of its time in terms of startlingly
gory moments – it still packs a grisly punch now – and provides a stark
contrast to the rather more chaste approach of, say, the Hammer output of the
era. This was progressive horror in all senses of the word, taking its cues
from the political landscape, class warfare and social injustices both modern
and historic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s arguable that the most sympathetic person in the entire
movie is the killer himself. He cares more for those around him than anyone
else in the story and he’s driven to kill by circumstance and a need to survive
outside the norms of society. In Gurney’s Patricia, The Man – as he’s referred
to in the credits – desperately tries to make himself understood but it’s the
lack of understanding between both parties that ends in a terrifying act of
violence, the one moment in the proceedings where empathy for this poor
creature is substantially diminished.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As The Man, Hugh Armstrong is exceptional, somehow coming
across as warm-hearted even though he’s been dining on commuters for who knows
how long. Communicating through howls, grunts, whimpers and the one phrase of
English he’s picked up (“Mind the doors!”) he’s still more principled and unselfish
that those above ground and his innocence gives context to the dreadful things
he’s forced to do. He’s also more loving than Patricia and Alex (Ladd), who
live together but don’t seem to have much affection for each other at all.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Donald Pleasance and Norman Rossington (as Calhoun’s
sidekick, Detective Sergeant Rogers) are brilliantly entertaining as Scotland
Yard’s finest, Rossington playing the knowing straight man to Pleasance’s
wisecracking Inspector. Calhoun’s dialogue is frequently hilarious, often
revolving around where his next cup of tea is coming from, and it does seem
that Pleasance is having an absolute ball here, There’s also a lovely gag
involving a dartboard in Calhoun’s office that’s dealt with in such a
wonderfully throwaway manner that you know the people behind this are not
wanting to hammer home every little detail to their audience.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death Line is a superb, offbeat horror/thriller made with
heart and guts (literally, in a few scenes), refusing to resort to ticking off
the usual shocker checklist and delivering a truly outstanding piece of work in
which even the standard triumphal ending is replaced by something more sobering
and thoughtful. As Calhoun says: “What a way to live”. And what a film this is.
If you haven’t seen it, please seek it out. Seventies fashions aside, this is
as fresh and vital as the day it was first released.<o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-31629535595719120062020-10-17T14:42:00.001-07:002020-10-17T14:42:40.002-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: ANONYMOUS ANIMALS<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">ANONYMOUS ANIMALS (2020)</span></b></h2><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: </span>Thierry Marcos, Aurélien Chilarski, Pauline Guilpain</b></p><p><b>Writer: Baptiste Rouveure</b></p><p><b>Director: Baptiste Rouveure</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yHMj-Fbqgvg/X4rS1bf_oTI/AAAAAAAACQs/ImqaPcyI-pACvfI1-4Fdqyiay6UU_I1MACLcBGAsYHQ/s376/Anonymous%2BAnimals.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="264" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yHMj-Fbqgvg/X4rS1bf_oTI/AAAAAAAACQs/ImqaPcyI-pACvfI1-4Fdqyiay6UU_I1MACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Anonymous%2BAnimals.jpg" /></a></div><p>The roles of humans and animals are reversed in a series of vignettes which focus on the experiences of those held captive in a rural area. Humans are treated as animals would be, by humanoids with animal heads. As the blurb for this movie states, "Who and what are these people?".</p><p>Well, in answer to that question, I'd have to say that those people are us as a human race. And we don't come off well in Anonymous Animals in terms of our general concern for animal welfare. An anthropomorphic bull proves to be more than happy to over use a cattle prod. The life of a human puppy for its dog owner turns very dark, very quickly. There's far worse to come.</p><p>All of this plays out with absolutely no dialogue and only the occasional grunt/growl/neigh from the creatures in charge and this approach works superbly, immersing the viewer in the world of the animal, unable to comprehend what's going on around them, almost constantly afraid. The low camera angles force participation in the most terrifying of sequences and there's no let up across its 64 minutes.</p><p>To be honest, the running time of just over an hour is perfectly judged. The intensity of the piece is such that I was exhausted by the end. On one hand, I'm not sure I could have taken much more of the unrelenting grimness and on the other hand the overriding message doesn't have to be hammered home any more than it is. As an aside, if you can take more and are looking for a companion piece, I recommend Melanie Light's excellent short The Herd.</p><p>Which brings me to the message. For those of us who have any concern about how animals are treated, this will stir up our feelings and leave us examining our own lifestyle choices. It could possibly be viewed as vegan propaganda and although I do see that viewpoint I don't think it's quite as clear cut as that. As for those of us who didn't care about this before, will this film at least give them pause for thought? I'm not entirely sure.</p><p>For a film with such bleak subject matter, its look is stunningly beautiful by contrast, with gorgeous russet tones infusing the shots of the attractive woodland settings. Even the shots of the rundown farm's exteriors find the attractiveness in the shabby, a world away from the cold reality happening just yards away in its buildings. </p><p>The imagery is often striking, particularly the stag who happens to be the gamekeeper, patrolling the area, double-barrelled shotgun in hand. The ongoing thread about the dog was, for me, the most chillingly effective, the sense of hopelessness building as the revelation I'd be fearing came to be. It's a draining, distressing sequence with an abrupt, brutal conclusion that had me in tears.</p><p>The experimental approach of Anonymous Animals pays off handsomely and its absence of expositional talk only serves to heighten the nightmarish quality of the situations on display. The lack of subtext may leave some viewers battered by the message but Baptiste Rouveure has made a morally charged, challenging film that will linger uncomfortably in the memory. As a genre movie, it delivers true, unfiltered horror that will provoke discussion. A tough watch, no doubt, but it should be seen.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-35019282709105115902020-10-17T12:58:00.001-07:002020-10-17T13:18:38.906-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: BRUISER<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">BRUISER (2020)</span></b></h2><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Dustin Whitehead, Callan White, Jeff Benninghofen</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Writers: John Mark Nail, Joshua Russell, Dustin Whitehead</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: John Mark Nail</span></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mj1YGSRrQ8E/X34yCjSpR4I/AAAAAAAACPs/pMWDQXziU206xuu154VuKBo1Oz4xSATQACLcBGAsYHQ/s960/Bruiser.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mj1YGSRrQ8E/X34yCjSpR4I/AAAAAAAACPs/pMWDQXziU206xuu154VuKBo1Oz4xSATQACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Bruiser.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Small time criminal Jack Rose (Whitehead) is the reliable go-to man for local shady businessman Harry (Benninghofen) and this profitable sideline helps to keep the small motel run by Jack's father afloat. When a lucrative job involving smuggled cargo presents itself, Jack accepts without realising what the cargo is and how dangerous it will turn out to be for both him and everyone else around him...<div><br /></div><div>The opening sequence of Bruiser is a masterclass in how to introduce the bulk of the protagonists in the most economical and entertaining way possible as we swirl around the parking lot of the motel seeing how the lives of these people overlap. It also establishes the link between Jack and Harry and their far from easy going relationship, which will be tested to its extreme as matter spin out of control.</div><div><br /></div><div>Co-writer Dustin Whitehead is outstanding in the lead, initially coming across as little more than a thug for hire but soon revealing a much more caring side in his dealings with his father and stepmother then the inner conflict which comes from being involved in a criminal enterprise far more disreputable than his usual work but one whose financial side could solve a lot of problems. What he doesn't realise is the profoundly serious problem that is about to be caused by crossing the wrong people.</div><div><br /></div><div>The supporting cast is just as quirky and impressive. Jeff Benninghofen is both charming and quietly menacing as Harry, who is happy to chat with a customer about the plants he's selling one minute and then ordering Jack to beat the crap out of someone the next. Callan White is excellent as Dina, helping to run the hotel in her own pleasant but no-nonsense way. </div><div><br /></div><div>Also, watch for the eerily brilliant Colin Wasmund as the character credited only as The Time Keepin' Man. This is someone extremely focused on his job, right down to the exact lines of dialogue he will say, in the fashion he chooses to say them, in the situations in which he will deliberately place himself. This act is crafted to fashion a veneer of forgettable mundanity over the terrifying man underneath, an ice-cold killer with a particularly horrible M.O.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bruiser is an adroit mix of the brutal, the blackly comic and the surprisingly tender. Scenes of the motel's inhabitants sharing their days with each other - one specific sequence involving an outdoor picnic is genuinely heartwarming - rub up against beatings, shootings and stabbings with nary a misstep. A few surreal moments are thrown into the mix too and these fit the offbeat tone rather well.</div><div><br /></div><div>The time taken to get to know the protagonists and the various little idiosyncrasies of theirs we're shown means the violence around them hits all the harder because we care about these strange folks. They may be classed as lowlifes but there's a curious decency to them even if their earnings don't always come by the most legal of means. This leads to moments where we're dreading what we might find behind that closed door or around the next corner. The build of tension is expertly constructed and almost unbearable on occasion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fans of thrillers should make a beeline for Bruiser. Its unconventional spin on many classic thriller tropes makes for an experience which hits all of its targets in terms of offbeat humour and grimy, down and dirty violence. It also packs an unexpectedly emotional punch, especially in terms of the bittersweet ending which sums up the unstinting lack of sentimentality in John Mark Nail's cracking crime story. For me, this is easily one of the films of the year in its genre and you should rush to see it.</div>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-4348557911343965682020-10-17T07:21:00.000-07:002020-10-17T11:27:04.593-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: A SAVAGE NATURE<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>A SAVAGE NATURE (2020)</b></h2><p><b>Starring: Joanna Whicker, Steve Polites, Jon Hudson Odom</b></p><p><b>Writers: Paul Awad, Kathryn O'Sullivan</b></p><p><b>Director: Paul Awad</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e6CDUQ-XHds/X34xrtkOf6I/AAAAAAAACPc/ReRaWvOMwJAZrc0BSG96mh1eIw5FN_ddgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/A%2BSavage%2BNature.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e6CDUQ-XHds/X34xrtkOf6I/AAAAAAAACPc/ReRaWvOMwJAZrc0BSG96mh1eIw5FN_ddgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/A%2BSavage%2BNature.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Lonely waitress Beth Walker (Whicker) is trying to make the best of her life in a quiet corner of Virginia. Her Afghanistan-veteran-turned-law-enforcer husband Pete (Polites) isn't the easiest person to live with but she's determined to make their marriage work. Beth has an unpleasant encounter with a couple of unsavoury types in the diner where she works but doesn't want Pete to know about it. This may not turn out to be the smartest decision ever when said unsavoury types turn up at their door later - and it's not to join the couple for dinner...</p><p>Starting out as a quintessential thriller set-up, complete with frail looking but potentially plucky heroine running up against some very bad guys, A Savage Nature then heads towards typical home invasion horror territory. So far, so sweetly assembled, putting everything in place for the expected battle for survival to play out when...well, I'm not going to tell you what the twist is here but it's a damn good one and all bets are off, let just leave it at that.</p><p>A Savage Nature's small cast means that the story can explore all of the characters in more detail than most genre pieces. Beth is given the most depth, as you'd expect, but the villainous pairing of Doug (Odom) and J.B. (Joseph Carlson) portrays them beyond just a couple of felons, hinting at a partnership that's endured more than a few bumps in the road. As the taciturn Pete, Polites is excellent at playing a guy whose military experiences have left him almost completely unable to express himself even though he knows this is damaging his marriage.</p><p>Of course, due praise, and much of it, must be given to the terrific Joanna Whicker, whose portrayal of Beth twists and turns with the plot as we discover she's a much more complex person than the timid waitress we first encounter in the diner. As with almost everyone in the story, she's hiding something and as the varying traits of her personality come to light it's testament to Whicker's performance that all of the shifts seem extremely plausible.</p><p>The screenplay, by Paul Awad and Kathryn O'Sullivan, contains not only that artfully crafted, aforementioned twist but several other rug pulling moments in which you're sure you're one step ahead of the plot only to find you're not. Once the action kicks into gear, the level of suspense continues to wind up and the only thing you can be certain of is that, for some of the folks featured, it's not going to end well.</p><p>A Savage Nature, in keeping with its title, does explode into effective bursts of violence from time to time but these are kept brief and the emphasis is firmly on building tension or adding another brain twisting layer to the plot. As the climax nears, that usual feeling of knowing who's going to walk out alive and who isn't is far less dependable for the viewer. Given the preceding events, you'll probably be waiting for one final, nasty surprise to throw you for a loop. Does it happen? Again, I'd be spoiling your enjoyment if I divulged any further information.</p><p>A slick, efficient, well-written thriller with a slew of savvy performances and, of course, the point where I actually said "Ooh, that's a twist" out loud as I was watching it, A Savage Nature delivers its pared down, keyed up goods with aplomb.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-2561296488664203852020-10-17T06:27:00.002-07:002020-10-17T09:35:25.148-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: TAKING THE FALL<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TAKING THE FALL (2020)</span></b></h2><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Munro Chambers, Roland Buck III, Katie Gill</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Writer: Steven Hellman</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: Josh Marble</span></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tw0k3RWWk7A/X34x0Qc387I/AAAAAAAACPk/y4jJZqqJ_NUMQjY_zQQQaDkvVd_BuwcyQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1914/Taking%2BThe%2BFall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="1914" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tw0k3RWWk7A/X34x0Qc387I/AAAAAAAACPk/y4jJZqqJ_NUMQjY_zQQQaDkvVd_BuwcyQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Taking%2BThe%2BFall.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Released from a six-year stretch in prison for possession of marijuana, Tyler (Chambers) is met by best buddy Justin (Buck III) and taken to a place that's been rented specially. Tyler is expecting a night of catching up and getting drunk with Justin but he soon finds out that the other friends in their group are joining them too for a dinner party.</span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">What starts off as a somewhat awkward reunion party becomes increasingly fraught as Tyler discovers the people he left behind all those years ago are struggling with their jobs, relationships, finances and an increasingly difficult pursuit of happiness. Even so, it's hardly comparable with spending six years behind bars, right?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div>The focus of Josh Marble's film - the struggles of a particular generation - has been covered before but Steven Hellman's script rings with truth and the piece is anchored by accomplished performances from Munro Chambers and Roland Buck III. The former nails the awkwardness of a man finding himself not only dropped back into normal society but immediately having to deal with the social group he was torn from. The latter is charming and fun as the best friend who doesn't allow the baggage of millennial culture to weigh him down.</div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's initial amusement to be from Tyler being out of the loop for so long - he can't get his head around the popularity of yoga, for instance - before the second act settles into a more dramatic groove as the guests arrive. Tyler and Justin's other close male friend Pete works in a well-paid job which he hates but tolerates because he was given the role by the father of his partner Michelle.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div>Then there's Allison, a single mother who shows up with daughter Selena (and Selena might just be more together than the mother). Finally, there's Kate (played by the wonderfully named Avalon Penrose) with whom Tyler was romantically involved. Six years down the line, however, she's moved on and she's now with Zachary (Jonathan Dylan King) who doesn't seem to be in any hurry to find gainful employment and is more interested in brewing his own craft lager.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's clear that long-simmering tensions - or in the case of Tyler and Zachary, freshly-minted tensions from an instant dislike - will come to the fore but none of the flashpoints are overplayed even when the past is revisited and we're given the details of how Tyler ended up doing time. Ensemble pieces such as these can end up in screaming matches and destroyed relationships because it's the showy thing to do. Taking The Fall gives the histrionics a swerve; its confrontations are effective because they're more measured and authentic.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the end of it all, there are no easy answers provided but there is hope for those who won't settle for their lot in life. It's an idealistic stance but, set against the drudgery of the current existence of many of its characters, what is there to lose? In terms of the ongoing friendships of the various characters, there's a feeling that nothing is final in spite of the evening's events and the tale will continue in its messy way long after the credits have rolled.</div><div><br /></div><div>You may get the feeling you have seen similar films of Taking The Fall before and it's fair to say that you probably have, but this particular effort is worth sticking with for its well-observed writing and accomplished performances. Perhaps you'll be glad that you haven't scored an invitation to this dinner party but it's intriguing to be on the outside looking in.</div>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-16345257285687148222020-10-16T10:11:00.000-07:002020-10-16T10:55:02.200-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: MIDNIGHT RUN<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>MIDNIGHT RUN (2020)</b></h2><p><b>Starring: Alex Santana, Justin Huff, Alejandro Agudelo</b></p><p><b>Writer: Richard Hernandez</b></p><p><b>Director: Richard Hernandez</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PWgUtWmL5TE/X34xMFkYU1I/AAAAAAAACPE/2Nl-vkcN4WMFcPh4mFwmcpwfShENVWdzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/Midnight%2BRun.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PWgUtWmL5TE/X34xMFkYU1I/AAAAAAAACPE/2Nl-vkcN4WMFcPh4mFwmcpwfShENVWdzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Midnight%2BRun.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />As a Halloween party breaks up, best friends Bryan (Santana) and Felix (Huff) decide not to wait for a possible ride home that may never materialise and set off on the long walk there instead. This instantly proves to be a bad idea as they are set upon and robbed by a gang of masked skaters. Now the two friends need to find the skaters and get their stuff back, encountering the odd characters who inhabit River City as they attempt to complete their seemingly impossible quest in the dead of night.<div><br /></div><div>With the tunes of DJ Santiago (Gilbert Carranza) soundtracking the pals' journey across the suburbs and chapter headings signalling the next stage of their episodic adventures, this feels like a less violent and destructive GTA side quest combined with a reversed, low-speed take on Vanishing Point. In addition, a mysterious and oddly helpful stranger called Joe (Agudelo) shows up to assist in their mission. This stranger seems to be anything but to the residents of River City and it would seem that he has his own unfinished business to take care of.<p></p></div><div>Writer/director Richard Hernandez' zero budget feature - that's right, the budget for this one was ZERO dollars - quickly establishes a living, breathing, nocturnal community across East LA, replete with characters of varying viewpoints regarding what's morally and legally right and wrong. For some, revenge is not the answer. For others, it's all about shooting some bloke with a BB gun.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the most part, Midnight Run is more a study of two guys who are forced to examine their long friendship in the strangest of circumstances. Their pursuit of retribution is helped and hindered by their own history and their possible future, a future which may split the two of them as Bryan has designs on leaving town and joining the Army. Unsurprisingly, there's a large amount of rethinking to be done as they get ever closer to the skate gang. That's when they've come down from the painkillers they've taken and the accompanying trippy back projection has ceased.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you like your movies to nestle neatly into a specific genre pigeonhole, this one's going to give you a headache. There are many comedic moments but there's also a decent helping of drama and even a smattering of thriller elements, balancing all of these rather nicely. You even get a helping of action courtesy of a chase between a car and a skateboard and there's the opportunity to chill out with a brief musical intermission courtesy of the aforementioned DJ Santiago.</div><div><br /></div><div>Santana and Huff are convincing as best friends, bickering amusingly over next to nothing for a lot of time but clearly having the other's back when the chips are down. These two heroes are pleasingly unheroic, having few ideas about how to get their possessions back and generally making random decisions on a wing and a prayer. Just like the rest of us, really.</div><div><br /></div><div>Agudelo's character is something of an enigma and we're only given hints of his past, which is fun as we don't ever truly know if he's on the level regardless of his altruistic offer to help two guys he hasn't even met before. He's on a collision course with one specific resident of River City but again the facts behind the bad blood between them are left tantalisingly unsaid. If you need your exposition detailed and your plot threads tied tight, you may be left wanting. Me? I thought the opportunity to fill in the gaps - or just settle with leaving matters obscure - was all part of the enjoyment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Midnight Run is its own beast, a film that isn't always concerned with its structure or its forward momentum. It does pretty much what it wants to do, when it wants to and if you're not willing to go with it you'll only end up frustrated. There are sections in the film where the two lead characters don't even feature, shifting the focus to the supporting players for a while. This might slow the action a little but it also paints a richer picture of the neighbourhood.</div><div><br /></div><div>The patchwork nature of the story does result in the work feeling a touch disjointed on a couple of occasions but Midnight Run is never less than interesting because there's a genuine air of not knowing what the hell is going to happen next. Even when you're expecting a huge reveal and nothing happens, it's still fun. And it was made for no dollars. Imagine what Richard Hernandez could make if someone threw a couple of hundred bucks at him. I jest, but there's a serious point to be made here - I firmly believe this filmmaker could give us something even more out of the ordinary with a decent budget.</div>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-48873318921203095722020-10-16T07:44:00.001-07:002020-10-16T10:55:08.642-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: LIKE LOVE<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">LIKE LOVE (2020)</span></b></h2><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Lily Yasuda, Joseph Bricker, Kelly Barber</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Writer: Lily Yasuda</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: Michael Wolfe</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E3je-QaHwPI/X34xcaSX-dI/AAAAAAAACPU/B2A3bSibtwU1lZpqNwB6bb9vOPSX5ndnACLcBGAsYHQ/s1334/Like%2BLove.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1334" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E3je-QaHwPI/X34xcaSX-dI/AAAAAAAACPU/B2A3bSibtwU1lZpqNwB6bb9vOPSX5ndnACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Like%2BLove.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>When waitress Harper (Yasuda) breaks up with boyfriend Jude after discovering he's slept with one of her friends and colleagues, she also has to find a new place to live. Finding a perfect place to relocate in the home of Jackson (Bricker), she's offered a room at a ridiculously low rental price despite her semi-unintentional efforts to embarrass Jackson into throwing her out.</p><p>Over the next few weeks, the friendship between Jackson and Harper blossoms. Jackson has thoughts of taking things to the next level but Harper isn't particularly interested in a relationship, may never have been previously, and may never will. How could this situation possibly work itself out? You may think you know where this is going but just hold on a moment...</p><p>Like Love may position itself as a next gen "When Harry Met Sally", right down to the video interviews with other partnerships at regular intervals, but it has a wit and charm all of its own. This doesn't fall over itself attempting to engineer zingers, allowing the laughs to develop more naturally and not constantly checking its gags per minute ratio. This is a comedy that is confident enough to know it doesn't need to make its audience roll in the aisles all the time.</p><p>As for its protagonist, I would suggest that Harper is adorable but if that character were looking over my shoulder as I type this she would be advising me, in no uncertain terms, to delete that description. She is, though. And yet, even though you'll be siding with her instantly because of the situation with her cheating boyfriend, the plot lets you know pretty soon afterwards that your heroine is probably not the easiest person to be around, especially in a relationship. She's drifted into the whole situation as a matter of convenience and now she's kicking out at everything about it - and, by extension, Jude - that irritates her.</p><p>It's surprising that she doesn't throw Jackson through a window too because she discovers that he's one of "the love people", a man who believes in soulmates and all of that idiotic, idealistic crap. However, their shared sense of fun, despite and maybe because of their differences, is what brings them together. Of course, these are exactly the same things that could tear them apart.</p><p>Lily Yasuda is perfect as Harper, exactly the sort of person you would love to have as a friend. She's strong, smart, hilarious, modest and can shoot a world-class withering look. She's also the kind of buddy you could suddenly find yourself falling in love with at the drop of a hat, which is her new housemate's issue almost from the get-go.</p><p>Bricker is an excellent foil as Jackson, allowing Yasuda to bag most of the choice lines but still carving out an engaging character of his own. Jackson may have the well-to-do parents which afford him his chilled, leisurely lifestyle but he's a nice guy. Even when he's causing the largest amount of strife for Harper, it's still because he's trying to be a nice guy.</p><p>The screenplay, also by Yasuda, opts for a steady stream of lower-key chuckles than going for the overblown, ridiculous and highly improbable set pieces which many romantic comedies can't resist throwing in just to establish its wacky credentials. It's all the better for it and allows for nicely-timed shifts into the dramatic without it ever feeling like that point you reach in more mainstream efforts where you can check your watch and think "Getting near the end, it's going to have to get serious now".</p><p>Yes, there are lessons, and characters do learn, but no one is totally transformed at the end of this one. Life is often messy and this film offers no magical solution to its thorny relationship problems. Its refusal to tie up many of the story's loose ends might frustrate but if you've been following the previous seventy-odd minutes then the ending should come as no surprise. You can't reach the end of Like Love and say "Well, that wouldn't have happened".</p><p>This may not turn those romcom tropes on their heads completely but it certainly gives them a more than noticeable tilt. Of course, most viewers will be looking for a happy ending but as the story plays out, you'll be questioning more as more what actually would constitute one of those. This is down to the clever writing and playing, Lily Yasuda dominating the film with her striking but resolutely unshowy performance. Whatever she appears in next, take my money, I want to see it. </p><p>Love Life is very much like its main character; sharp, witty, spiky on the outside but with a surprisingly sweet centre. For all of you out there looking at those folks in relationships and thinking "Just what is the point?", you have a new champion and her name is Harper. I think you'll enjoy spending time with her as much as I did and you should definitely make the necessary commitment.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-32778313865075062582020-10-16T07:07:00.003-07:002020-10-16T10:55:13.308-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: DAY X<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>DAY X (TAG X) (2019)</b></h2><p><b>Starring: Carina Diesing, Tobias Kay, Reinhard Paul Seyer</b></p><p><b>Writers: Manuel Weiss, Jessica Renelt</b></p><p><b>Director: Manuel Weiss</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XSHm4YUGpqs/X34wtKWAB5I/AAAAAAAACOw/PoWdLcP39D4VXytMlgD48h0nMqCYZ9FMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/Tag%2BX.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XSHm4YUGpqs/X34wtKWAB5I/AAAAAAAACOw/PoWdLcP39D4VXytMlgD48h0nMqCYZ9FMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Tag%2BX.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Widow Tanja (Diesing) suddenly begins to receive strange phone calls and then notices a shadowy figure across the road from her house. Matters escalate when Tanja's daughter Lilly goes missing and a disturbing secret from the past comes to light, which may be connected with the disappearance of another young girl five years previously...</p><p>A slow burner that takes at least some of the essence of Scandi-noir and takes it on a trip to Germany, Manuel Weiss' doomy thriller opens just at the point of something dreadful happening and then rewinds a few days to allow for an unhurried set-up in which we see how Tanja is attempting to cope with the loss of her husband. Things are obviously not helped in the slightest by her potential stalker and she's pushed towards the edge of sanity once Lilly is abducted.</p><p>On hand to investigate is Kommissar Schwarz (Kay), a caring detective who wants to solve the crime because, of course, he's a cop, but he also thinks that Tanja has had more than enough trauma in her life up to this point. However, with no obvious clues and the shadow of the previous unsolved case hanging over the department, he's under his own stresses too.</p><p>Wisely, the most disturbing plot developments are kept off screen as the story heads to some particularly dark places in its second act, introducing characters who may be key to the investigation or will function as just another layer of obfuscation - or both. The script plays upon the obvious parallels between the crimes of the present and the past but takes the proceedings in a less than obvious direction.</p><p>The expected cat and mouse between the various protagonists does take place but not in the usual "evil genius versus dogged cop" way. Tag X places a great deal of emphasis upoon the everyday, whether it's the crimes themselves or the effects on those touched by them. It's less of a procedural than a study of the psychological breakdown of the investigators, the victims and the perpetrators so if you're looking for scene after scene in conference rooms with cops sticking Post-Its to board, those are in very short supply.</p><p>The pace may be a touch languid but the hopelessness which suffuses the situation is well crafted and even the smallest breaks in the case provide no easy answers, leading to a final act which will no doubt divide due to its chillingly prosaic conclusion. There's no breathless pursuit of suspects, no race against time and little in the way of relief for its audience, ending abruptly and leaving the viewer to deal with its ramifications long after the end credits have rolled.</p><p>With so many thrillers of this ilk fighting for space in the genre as movies and longer-form TV series it's easy for the lower-budgeted and less marketed titles such as Tag X to get lost in the shuffle and although it's by no means a game changer it doesn't deserve to be confined to be bin of obscurity either. It's committed to the dark path it follows and for those of us who don't mind spending an hour and a half or so in such a murky world it's undoubtedly watchable and occasionally gripping in its own sobering way.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-83936328392948769682020-10-16T03:03:00.000-07:002020-10-16T10:55:17.984-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING (2020)</b></h2><p><b>Starring: Samuel Nicholls, Emma-Kate Barry, Charlie Howard</b></p><p><b>Writer: Harvard John</b></p><p><b>Director: Harvard John</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wjtH3BgyCU4/X34w67uhRYI/AAAAAAAACO0/5nbDKWhuOBAp3cFO3oF-OvaPDzvwtuoGACLcBGAsYHQ/s1728/Sticky%2BToffee%2BPudding.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1728" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wjtH3BgyCU4/X34w67uhRYI/AAAAAAAACO0/5nbDKWhuOBAp3cFO3oF-OvaPDzvwtuoGACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Sticky%2BToffee%2BPudding.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Still reeling from the death of his best friend, 17-year-old Shelby (Nicholls) returns to his boarding school to continue his studies. Lilibet (Barry), the most popular girl in the school, decides to take Shelby under her wing and with that comes an introduction to a brand new circle of friends. Charting his final year at the school, Shelby finds himself in a world of regular partying, with the lure of drink, drugs and sex always on the menu. Can he come to terms with the past or will his unresolved grief wreck his life?</p><p>The subject of privileged kids going off the rails at a private school is not exactly a new one but the lower-key approach of Sticky Toffee Pudding to its scenes of smoking, boozing and drug taking lends the proceedings a more realistic feel. The partying is not as elaborate and glamorous as other titles in the field would portray it and the consequences of it aren't over-dramatised in the main.</p><p>This also benefits from a couple of main characters who don't quite fit the template for this sort of thing. Shelby is a sensitive type but he's not given to the constant agonising that his role could have descended into. Yes, he keeps the journal of his deceased friend with him but he isn't prone to wandering the fields, quoting from it and moping around.</p><p>Similarly, Lilibet is set up as the sort of girl who would normally be bright and friendly on the surface but a thoroughly nasty piece of work underneath. Not so here, she turns out to be supportive and generally nice, even though she's particular about which people are allowed in her clique. There's also a will they/won't they subplot involving her and Shelby which is dealt with in a way other than the one you might be expecting.</p><p>In fact, the featured group of friends, as detached as they may be from the daily woes of folks in a much lower income bracket, broadly come across as less spoiled than the archetypes of this type of tale and most of them are not depicted as the braying, astonishingly irritating sort. They behave like most teenagers who are trying to be adults, regardless of their surroundings.</p><p>Within the group there are clashes between those who come from old money and the nouveau riche interlopers and there's one particular character that just has to be a bigoted, aggressive lunk to drive some of the action but the ensemble is interestingly flawed and didn't make me want to run screaming from the room.</p><p>Not everything may land, especially if you're not keen on listening to a dead girl reading flowery passages from her diary as a voiceover to flashbacks and hearing the odd line of dialogue such as "No point living in the past, singing with the ravens". The one character who isn't straight is somewhat underdeveloped and unfortunately he's something of a caricature. His story arc starts out intriguing and then heads down a dead end that isn't exactly the most unpredictable you'll have seen.</p><p>In avoiding an ending that winds up the melodrama, there might be a feeling that you've been short changed but the lack of screaming and tragedy upon tragedy fits pleasingly with the overall tone of the piece. Huge worries turn out to be nothing of the sort and it's the small things that you don't notice at the time which sometimes threaten to derail you.</p><p>When it comes down to it, this is a story about a group of folks who you might term "posh kids" but the absence of the ostentatious flourishes and exaggerated revelry usually associated with this variety of coming of age movie grounds it, making it more accessible. It may run too long - the middle section does sag a little - but the central performances from Nicholls and Barry make this worth seeing.</p><p>Yes, the arty contrivances of those journal sequences may be an acquired taste but they're meant with the best of intentions and although Sticky Toffee Pudding doesn't avoid all of the clichés it tries for something a little different and that's commendable. This may not, er, stick in the memory but it's sweet without being too sickly.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-33679938077369203102020-10-15T10:12:00.002-07:002020-10-15T10:22:44.054-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: VHS MASSACRE TOO<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">VHS MASSACRE TOO (2020)</span></b></h2><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Lots of folks</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: Thomas Edward Seymour</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xf466hOjQeE/X34xVuDKDSI/AAAAAAAACPM/At-mRNgWIrsaQoVSXDaekvsZPQckqAC4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1730/VHS%2BMassacre%2BToo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="1730" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xf466hOjQeE/X34xVuDKDSI/AAAAAAAACPM/At-mRNgWIrsaQoVSXDaekvsZPQckqAC4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/VHS%2BMassacre%2BToo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The documentary follow-up to, unsurprisingly, VHS Massacre uses the death of the "mom and pop" video store as the stepping off point to explain how this event made it so much more difficult to make and distribute exploitation movies. Such no-holds barred cinematic gems immediately ran into censorship issues that arose in the process of trying to find a rental home with giants such as Blockbuster. Thomas Edward Seymour's film travels the USA to talk to various people across the industry and examines the battles being fought every day to keep indie cinema alive.</p><p>Starting off with clips of early exploiters such as Mom and Dad and Reefer Madness and calling off momentarily to say hello to sub genres such as biker movies and blaxploitation on its way through to the video age of indie classics like Surf Nazis Must Die, the mini-reminders of such movies spark the feelings that these stubbornly outré titles gave to those of us looking from something, anything outside the mainstream all those years ago.</p><p>The division of the documentary into chapters such as "The problem with Blockbuster Video" or "The risk of making exploitation films" does put the various issues into their own context and prevents the film from just becoming a series of talking heads. The section on video rental places, and the last surviving Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, did rekindle those memories of my younger self plucking anything from the shelves, especially if it had cool artwork.</p><p>Yes, the diet of straight-to-video titles was mostly crud, but a lot of it wasn't bad crud, and there were a handful of diamonds among the dirt which would never have played the cinemas where I lived. I rented so many movies over the years that I was ultimately given a confidence in my level of cinematic knowledge to think that I wouldn't be too bad at writing reviews so you can take that as either a blessing or a curse, I don't mind which.</p><p>It might be seen as poetic justice that Blockbuster, the entity held responsible for putting the smaller rental outlets out of business, was eventually put out of business itself as the model for marketing and distributing home entertainment evolved but that's of little comfort to the people who could no longer make the films they wanted to, without the restrictions that would have been necessarily to give their product the "family friendly" seal of approval. One of the questions posed is "Can films go too far"? Well, if you wanted them on the shelves of Blockbuster, chances are they couldn't go very far at all.</p><p>Of course, no self-respecting doc regarding indie film production would be complete without a visit to Troma and we're duly presented with this towards the end, Lloyd Kaufman coming across as his usual genial, smart self. Even the Troma method of filmmaking is coming under threat with smaller royalty payments given per view by the streaming services and there's a clear warning that big budget Netflix productions, in addition to the mainstream studio movies from the majors, pose an increasingly large threat to the indie film industry.</p><p>However, it's not all doom and gloom as Seymour chooses to throw some of the focus on to filmmakers who've done it their way with dedication and sheer hard work, despite the most limited of resources. I felt that as long as there are creative folks such as those out there - and I believe there will always be - indie productions will endure wherever the next attempt to kill them off comes from.</p><p>A rallying cry for all of us to support independent cinema, whether we're filmmakers or film fans or film reviewers or whatever combinations of those, this may occasionally find itself heading down the odd cul-de-sac and some of the contributions are too brief - I would have loved to hear more from genre stalwart Michael Biehn, for instance - but there's no doubting the fierce passion on display here and the arguments in defence of low-budget cinema and the fair treatment of those who bring us those labours of love can't be denied. It may lack a truly sharp focus in its eagerness to cover as many bases as possible but its intentions are pure.</p><p>Having said that, VHS Massacre Too does make a number of salient, not to mention depressing, points about how the odds are stacked against the indies from the get-go. Goalposts shift without warning in terms of revenue from streaming services and how certain films can effectively end up being banned from streaming. Profits mysteriously vanish from movies which have clearly performed well enough to see some small financial restitution for those who toiled for years to get their production out there.</p><p>Watch this documentary to be reminded, once more, that you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Appreciate the miracle that you still have indie cinema right now and make sure you support it as much as you can from now on. You don't want to wake up one day and find your choice of viewing is a hundred variations on the same old dull, formulaic tripe.</p><p>Also, The Howling VII, anyone? You've got to see this just to find out about that.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-54987236293414549592020-10-15T10:11:00.000-07:002020-10-15T10:13:26.630-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: LIKE<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>LIKE (2019)</b></span></h2><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Starring: Rebecca McDiarmid, Brodie Young, Fiona Whitelaw</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Writer: Michael Frank</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Director: Michael Frank</b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7D_cLRH6oJ0/X34yMbwyCBI/AAAAAAAACP0/eXvQp-iHtvoxT85NTfrxgSJTRqNzBQHlgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/Like.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7D_cLRH6oJ0/X34yMbwyCBI/AAAAAAAACP0/eXvQp-iHtvoxT85NTfrxgSJTRqNzBQHlgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Like.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Polly (McDiarmid) and Kelsey (Young) are two teenage girls who, like so many, conduct almost all of their lives on social media. They meet their friends on video chats more than they do in person and even the most mundane parts of their day are live streamed with the intention of getting as many likes as possible.</p><p>Neither girl's home life is idyllic, particularly Kelsey's as she has been sent to live in a children's care facility. Role models are in extremely short supply and it seems the only adult with whom they have any regular contact is Brenda (Whitelaw), a local woman with a severe alcohol problem and mental health issues. Brenda is useful to the girls as she will buy them the booze they can't get due to them being under age.</p><p>A cautionary and ultimately terrifying tale based on a real-life incident, Like is played out on the various screens we know so well in this age of technology, be they from a phone camera, a Zoom chat or a website streaming channel. The opening scene is of interview footage from a police station. Something unspeakably dreadful has clearly happened and we're about to head back in time to discover what led to the tragic events which took place.</p><p>Early on, the constant quest for online affirmation is writ large. Polly and Kelsey's mantra is "like me", even if they're done next to nothing in their videos. They're trying so hard to get the love which is in desperately short supply elsewhere. Let's be honest, we all get a little buzz when someone likes a post of yours. We all need a little boost to our ego. Here, however, this is taken to its most extreme.</p><p>Polly and Kelsey are part of a wider network of friends, most of whom share their obsession with cultivating a cool online presence. One of them says "Why would you have social media if you're not going to broadcast your entire life?" and ridicules another for not putting absolutely everything on Instagram. Another chilling line of dialogue is "If you didn't put it on social media did it ever happen?".</p><p>As much as I urge you to see Like, I do so with caution. The grim view of modern teenage life it paints here is heart-breaking and never shies away from portraying contemporary issues such as self harming and online predators. The family units portrayed here are dysfunctional at best, often broken beyond the point of repair. Sarcasm is the only language with which many of the characters can identify, to the point where Kelsey doesn't even realise when one of the supervisors attempts to heap praise upon a piece of her artwork and causes a confrontation where there should never have been one.</p><p>As an audience, you're dealing with an hour of ghastly actuality even before the film gets to its most troublesome stretch as the troubled protagonists' flimsy grasp on any consequences in the online world is lost completely as a visit to Brenda's house turns into a sickening ordeal, broadcast with hideously cheery detachment and bickering banter on a video-sharing platform.</p><p>The final act, though skilfully steering away from anything which could be classed as gratuitous, is upsetting in the extreme. The casual brutality and the marrow-freezing lack of remorse shown by its perpetrators is some of the most difficult material I've watched in a while. You'll want it to cut away the moment it starts. It doesn't. The excellent performances and matter-of-fact staging just make it all the harder to sit through.</p><p>Like is a brilliant, brilliant movie. If your idea of a good night at the movies is something other than an overwhelming sense of anger and despair as the credits roll then perhaps this isn't for you. For me, movies are meant to make you feel something or they haven't done their job. This film does its job and then some. It never tries to preach about the pervasive nature of social media, it doesn't jab its finger at you and tell you it's the root cause of all the problems shown here. There are other factors at play including the responsibility of individuals and parents.</p><p>Shot on a variety of mobile devices, Like would stand as a technically impressive achievement but what lifts it way above the norm is its deft representation of a toxic online culture, a place where constant affirmation is sought and the lines between acceptable and unacceptable are becoming ever more blurred. The lack of hyperbole increases the power of the piece and the naturalistic quality of the playing across the board plunges the viewer into the damaged environment of its characters.</p><p>Special credit must go to McDiarmid and Young, both delivering astonishing, complex performances as in the lead roles. They're never anything less than totally convincing as the plot focuses on their odd, complicated relationship. Surely these are two names to keep a close eye on in the future. As to the film itself, you may not like Like in the conventional sense - its shocking subject matter makes it a problematic viewing experience - but it's a truly outstanding work which left a lasting impression on me. Highly recommended, for sure, but brace yourselves.</p>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-5804014586969783942020-10-15T10:08:00.002-07:002020-10-15T10:13:30.672-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: AMERICAN SCIFI<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>AMERICAN SCIFI (2020)</b></h2><p><b>Starring: Hannah Swayze, Robert Hoffman, Chris McElroy</b></p><p><b>Writers: Chris McElroy, Corey Schmalzle</b></p><p><b>Director: Chris McElroy</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9sB_inyOFo/X34xD94l1WI/AAAAAAAACO8/OHIAJDulRWY3c5Uf3bBUVQ-DpvNuB79SwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/American%2BSciFi.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9sB_inyOFo/X34xD94l1WI/AAAAAAAACO8/OHIAJDulRWY3c5Uf3bBUVQ-DpvNuB79SwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/American%2BSciFi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Teenagers Liv (Swayze), Tyler (Hoffman) and Jared (McElroy) work at a fun park - well, Liv works there while Tyler and Jared seem to spend most of their time thinking of ways to avoid work. The three of them are plunged into an unexpected adventure when a mysterious object falls from the sky and lands in the parking lot. Is this the beginning of an alien invasion?<div><br /></div><div>Not only does Chris McElroy appears in this as the kind of guy who will think of a thousand other things to do than clean up an ice cream that some kid has accidentally dropped right in front of him, he also directed, co-produced and co-wrote the screenplay. I'm guessing that he probably did the catering and drove everyone to and from the set.</div><div><br /></div><div>Made for just $1,500, this is a prime example of taking the resources you have available - including the excellent setting of the local Costa's Family Fun Park in Hawley, Pennsylvania - and weaving those into its skewed take on a classic science fiction body snatchers plot where there appears to be no escape from either the forces of federal law and order or the extraterrestrial menace.</div><div><br /></div><div>American SciFi also makes use of, er, American sci-fi, with clips from many public domain movies incorporated into its tale of disgruntled employees being thrust into a life or death struggle. Not that anyone other than Liv particularly understands the gravity, pardon the pun, of the unidentified fallen object which has literally put a dent in everyone's plans.</div><div><br /></div><div>Park manager Dave (Zachary Caruso) is too busy sucking up to the FBI guy in charge of the investigation and dispensing what he believes is wisdom from his supervisory playbook. Tyler is distracted by Joanna, the object of his affection. Jared, well, he doesn't really want to be there apart from the fact his two best friends are in the same place.</div><div><br /></div><div>In terms of people who don't want to be there, this does have that flavour of other low-budget indie fare such as Clerks but this is far less abrasive and the humour is infinitely less profane. The comic timing isn't always as crisp as it could be but there are more than enough gags crammed in to allow for some of them to miss the target without adversely affecting the general high jinks of the piece.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's a particularly fine car chase towards the end which is chucklesome to begin with and then even funnier when it switches to the reality of the action sequence. Similarly, the warning about not running in the Lazer Tag arena coming home to roost had me giggling a whole lot. Okay, so there are points where the humour is forced towards breaking point but the whole enterprise is so good natured and eager to please its audience that you can't help but be on its side and allow it the odd moment or two where it doesn't know when to stop.</div><div><br /></div><div>American SciFi has a strong, engaging, female lead in Swayze, one who invariably comes up with all of the potential solutions for problems both ordinary and extraordinary, even if the guys around her often take the credit for them. Liv is clearly destined for greater things and one of the subplots deals with how her scientific excellence will take her away from Hawley and her close friends. Refreshingly, she isn't saddled with the age-old realisation that she's in love with one of them. No, she's there to solve the alien mystery and romance is not going to get in the way.</div><div><p></p><div>This is a mix of the inspired and the endearingly ramshackle. Sure, it may be a tad clunky in places but on a budget of just $1,500 this is little short of a marvel. McElroy the actor/writer/producer/director/ whatever other jobs he took on should be rightly proud of the finished product. It's confidently put together; it brims with ideas and bodes well for whatever project he decides to make next.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the fun park's chef Jeff actually cared about his job and American SciFi was on the menu, he might describe it as a warm, tasty slice of Americana topped with a sweet tale of friendship plus a side order of gloopy alien action served up for good measure. Jeff, however, is clearly not that chef, so I'm telling you instead. Oh, and it turns out that occasionally it's better to take the low road and to not to clean up that dropped ice cream. Who'd have thought that?</div></div>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-73470521656074508502020-10-15T10:06:00.000-07:002020-10-15T10:13:21.299-07:00SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: EXIT<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">EXIT (2020)</span></b></h2><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Billy James Machin, Leonarda Sahani, Christophe Delesques, Charlotte Gould</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Writer: Matthew Bayliss</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: Michael Fausti</span></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J67lWKhyYu8/X34xkZhMAWI/AAAAAAAACPY/7fpky9bg1AQlLyCtmXKVsga22SPlIZShgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1442/Exit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1442" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J67lWKhyYu8/X34xkZhMAWI/AAAAAAAACPY/7fpky9bg1AQlLyCtmXKVsga22SPlIZShgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Exit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <br />A double booking for a luxury apartment leads to two vastly different couples spending the night there. Steve (Machin) and Michelle (Sahani) are typically English. They're unadventurous, solid and like to be in their comfort zone. Steve likes lager. Michelle likes to please Steve. Neither of them likes horror. Christophe (Delesques) and Adrienne (Gould) are French. They're cosmopolitan and don't know what a comfort zone is. Christophe likes wine. Adrienne likes wine. Neither of them likes convention.<p></p><div>With two such contrasting partnerships and a whole evening ahead of them to eat, drink and get to know each other, everything's going to go swimmingly, right? Of course not. Christophe and Adrienne are already intent on a heavy session of drugs and debauchery and their new English acquaintances are coming along for the ride. And what the hell's going on with the apartment itself? What's going on in the attic can't have been mentioned in the brochure.</div><div><br /></div><div>With its tale of steadfast Brits trying desperately not to be lured into the pits of depravity by louche foreigners, Exit's allegorical trappings in relation to the UK's departure from a certain overseas bloc are there to be drawn. From Steve in particular, there's an unwillingness to communicate with anyone he sees as different. Christophe's multilingual stylings, in particular, don't sit well with Steve - it's just some poncey French bloke showing off as far as he's concerned.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's class conflict too, most of it confined to rumblings in the subtext save for one outburst that's far too on-the-nose, double underlining a point it doesn't need to. The plot doesn't go into any sort of detail about what the four do for a living but there's a certain clash of the practical versus the creative, the buttoned-down versus the bourgeois which almost never ends well. Suffice to say, I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that this is most definitely the case here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, if you've no time for all of that political nonsense then it's perfectly fine to approach this as a horror/thriller in which you can take bets on who's going to make it out of the place the following morning, if indeed any of them are. I would say there's an undercurrent of sexual tension too but there's nothing under about the current at all - from early on, those liberal French types are shown to be Anglophiles in every sense. </div><div><br /></div><div>Exit has its moments but an awful lot of the wind is taken out of those by the stylistic choices - visions, flashbacks, flash forwards and lots and lots (and lots) of slow motion. The potential queasiness and ferocity of the pivotal plot points is vastly reduced by having them play out at a crawl. Yes, there's tension to be wrung from playing out a pursuit at an agonising creep but having a fight run at the same pace just sucks all the thrills from it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Elsewhere, the subplot concerning the sinister reason for the existence of this particular apartment is left largely unexplained, which leaves room for the audience's imagination but doesn't make as much of an impact as it should. Having said that, the opening tour of the place, conducted by the excellent Tony Denham as Russell Bone, landlord from Hell (perhaps literally), is both amusing and worrying in equal measure. It's a bit of a shame he isn't in this more as he strikes just the right balance between funny and oddly frightening.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even if the material doesn't quite stretch to cover the whole running time, it's encouraging that there's no obvious Exit route. Sahani, as the initially nondescript supporting character who suddenly and interestingly becomes the lead, deals capably with the various twists and turns. The vivid colours and trippy soundtrack give the proceedings a suitably discordant edge and although matters don't turn as spectacularly bloody as you may be expecting there are a couple of effectively nasty moments. </div><div><br /></div><div>Various parts of Exit don't click together as they ought to but it's fascinating to see how a parable for the here and now is told through the filter of a down and (sometimes) dirty horror/thriller and it deserves credit for that at the very least. I would much rather watch a movie that aims high and doesn't quite hit the target than one which plays it annoyingly safe.</div><div><br /></div><div>The feeling I couldn't shake after seeing this is that a just a slight tightening of two or three sequences, plus a reduction in the deployment of the slow-mo, would have resulted in a 75-minute film that delivered on a more regular basis. As it is, despite its flaws, Exit is still worth the entrance fee.</div>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-19403851042270171152018-12-31T07:53:00.001-08:002020-10-07T06:07:52.023-07:00MY TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2018<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Can it be twelve months since I picked my Top Ten Movies of 2017? Well, yes, it must have been twelve months and what an idiot I am for even opening this blog post with that.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As usual, my Top Ten films are listed in purely alphabetical order. I'm not even going to try to assign any sort of ranking to them - these are the ten movies I enjoyed most in 2018 plus eleven honourable mentions this time out because I just couldn't narrow it down to ten.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Your Top Ten is probably completely different to mine. That's fine. You may hate some of the titles I've chosen. That's also fine. Just don't @ me telling me how much I suck as a person because I happen to love Mandy.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">This year, there's no short movie in the Top Ten although I saw some very good ones and there's still a lot of great work to be found in that medium. For those of you fine folk who trudged dutifully through my "Best of 2017" post you may spot that one of those movies also appears on the 2018 list as well. There are also two animated movies which find themselves in the Top Ten this year and, as is customary, a smattering of the very best titles on the horror festival circuit.</span><br />
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Okay, let's go...</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>BLACKKKLANSMAN</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PJ0OI9CR1kg/XCTQ9PFEseI/AAAAAAAAB-Y/1HmBanTt5I0thVn01MTTI2-kAtp7jLf3wCLcBGAs/s1600/Blackkklansman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PJ0OI9CR1kg/XCTQ9PFEseI/AAAAAAAAB-Y/1HmBanTt5I0thVn01MTTI2-kAtp7jLf3wCLcBGAs/s1600/Blackkklansman.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), a black police officer from Colorado Springs, manages to infiltrate the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan with a few well-placed phone calls and the assistance of fellow officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) who goes undercover as Ron at the Klan meetings. Pretty soon, "Ron" is attracting the attention of the senior figures in the KKK, including Grand Wizard David Duke (played by Topher Grace) himself...</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">A story so bizarre that it could only be true, BlacKkKlansman is a movie which will have you laughing out loud one moment and clenching your fists in anger the next. Spike Lee's film shows just how ridiculous bigotry is by playing it mostly for effective laughs, although there are moments of almost unbearable tension as Driver faces situation where he may be found out at any moment.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The tonal shift towards the end may seem a little jarring but I thought it fit the movie very well. Yes, there's plenty of fun to be had pricking the pomposity of those who see themselves as superior but some of those people are genuinely dangerous and motivated to carry out the most horrible of acts to demonstrate the strength of their belief</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">s.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">BlacKkKlansman puts its message across without the need to get too preachy about it. It'll leave you thoroughly entertained but it'll also leave you thinking, which can't be a bad thing.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>BLINDSPOTTING</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2rCC-XGzdHg/XCTSGVUgOiI/AAAAAAAAB-k/cgD84AV8tU08Vwme4NoKGIZ4iEAA6zSygCLcBGAs/s1600/Blindspotting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2rCC-XGzdHg/XCTSGVUgOiI/AAAAAAAAB-k/cgD84AV8tU08Vwme4NoKGIZ4iEAA6zSygCLcBGAs/s320/Blindspotting.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">On the final three days of his probation, Collin (Daveed Diggs) witnesses a policeman shooting a fleeing black man, which causes him to miss the curfew at the halfway house where's he staying as part of his parole terms. He also </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">somehow finds himself in possession of a gun owned by Miles (Rafael Casal), his somewhat loose cannon of a best friend. Collin's previous romantic relationship with removal company dispatcher Val looks to be in tatters and she doesn't seem overly keen to be associating with Collin any more. </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Can he negotiate all of these problems to land himself on the straight and narrow?</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As well as starring in the film, Diggs and Casal wrote the screenplay, which adroitly tackles race, class, gentrification and more besides in a down-to-earth, honest, often amusing manner. I admit that I don't know a great deal about Oakland but the way it's portrayed in Blindspotting felt authentic to me - a community doing its best to thrive despite numerous issues.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">A winning combination of the comedic and the dramatic - and with a portrayal of male friendship that rings with truth - Blindspotting is a fascinating slice of life in the Bay Area made with heart and soul. Suffice to say, I'm very much looking forward to the next Daveed Diggs/Rafael Casal collaboration.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>THE BREADWINNER</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q0-udJiEEsw/XCTSkuCChiI/AAAAAAAAB-s/Org2BWrVo4EksIIN4KcCbuDctz3B9xQcQCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BBreadwinner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q0-udJiEEsw/XCTSkuCChiI/AAAAAAAAB-s/Org2BWrVo4EksIIN4KcCbuDctz3B9xQcQCLcBGAs/s320/The%2BBreadwinner.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">In the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan of the early 21st century, 11-year-old Parvana's father is wrongfully arrested and she has to provide for her family by disguising herself as a boy. If that wasn't dangerous enough, Parvana used her new-found freedom to hunt for the means by which her father can be freed and her family reunited.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The utterly gorgeous animation in Nora Twomey's feature contrasts superbly with the genuinely dark and tense tale being told. The Breadwinner is powerful, gripping and has so much to say about a kind of society which may not be immediately familiar to many of us. Above all, for me, it's a story which celebrates strength of character and the power of hope, even in the most desperate of situations.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">An honest, emotionally-charged piece of work, this demonstrates perfectly that animation can be as affecting as any other film genre.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>THE ENDLESS</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6CIHOhQ3L9E/XCTTLt5aVMI/AAAAAAAAB-4/TzzJdFOvNpowDyq1ms1Gerf44cC5Q-xGwCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BEndless%2B2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="604" height="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6CIHOhQ3L9E/XCTTLt5aVMI/AAAAAAAAB-4/TzzJdFOvNpowDyq1ms1Gerf44cC5Q-xGwCLcBGAs/s320/The%2BEndless%2B2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So if you read my "Best Of" list for 2017, you might be thinking that I've made some kind of mistake because The Endless was indeed in last year's Top Ten. Well, I saw it again (and again) in 2018 when it received a wider release outside of the festival circuit and I loved it even more on further viewing so here it is again.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">After Resolution and Spring, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead made it three unmissable films out of three with this genre-hopping, mind-melting tale of Justin (Benson) and Aaron (Moorhead) who return to the "UFO death cult" from which they escaped years previously.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Resolutely refusing to stick to any standard template, The Endless constantly leaves the viewer genuinely unsure of exactly where the story is going and what the hell is going to happen next. It also avoids going down the usual route of having cult members behaving like lunatics within nanoseconds of being introduced to them. In fact, they actually seem like reasonable people with a purpose. Or is that what the movie wants you to think?</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Taking the lead roles in their own film is something of a risk but Benson and Moorhead carry the film very well, helped by a fine supporting cast. The visual effects are glorious (and nothing short of miraculous considering the budget), the jokes work, the tension is built carefully. It's a perfect example of unshowy but supremely confident film-making. </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">With beautifully executed, satisfying callbacks to their previous work - which also explain at least some of the quite frankly head-spinning plot developments - and a deliberate pace which allows you to both soak up the atmosphere and attempt to second guess what might be going on, The Endless rewards patience and attention. You may leave the cinema with your mind blown but trust me, you'll feel better for it.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>LEAVE NO TRACE</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DsWCKyq3mFE/XCTTtwlQHbI/AAAAAAAAB_A/EKp9PzGB7C0EHSehETRigjO7qzXDIvLTQCLcBGAs/s1600/Leave%2BNo%2BTrace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DsWCKyq3mFE/XCTTtwlQHbI/AAAAAAAAB_A/EKp9PzGB7C0EHSehETRigjO7qzXDIvLTQCLcBGAs/s320/Leave%2BNo%2BTrace.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Iraq war veteran Will (Ben Foster) and his daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) are living off the grid in the forests of Oregon, careful not to attract any attention to themselves. That is until a mistake results in them in the hands of the authorities and they're both put into the care of social services who try to integrate them into society gradually.</span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Perhaps the paragraph above isn't going to get you running to see this but that's down to my summary and nothing to do with Debra Granik's superb film. Ditching all of the histrionics that would have been all too easy to deploy here, Leave No Trace is a low-key masterpiece which doesn't have to shout its message in your face to be a real heartbreaker.</span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The performances match the subtle tone perfectly too. Foster is a mass of repressed emotions and his inability to reconnect with the world is agonising to watch - I wanted to reach into the screen and give the guy a hug. Newcomer McKenzie is exceptional, giving us a totally convincing portrait of a tough but sensitive teenager without the overblown tantrums we've seen hundreds of times elsewhere.</span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm frustrated that this movie wasn't huge - I saw it on at a late showing one weekend with only a few others and it was clear from the reaction as we left the cinema that everyone loved it. It doesn't have the budget or the brashness of so much multiplex programming these days but Leave No Trace has no desire to be that kind of film. it's a moving story, told brilliantly, with two central performances we should be talking about much more. I urge you to see this.</span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>LIFECHANGER</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RSvIjOEe0G8/XCTT_9x1QZI/AAAAAAAAB_M/pTXxkYL-8FwaQo0aludNQ7SZPxo0Lp7dACLcBGAs/s1600/Lifechanger.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RSvIjOEe0G8/XCTT_9x1QZI/AAAAAAAAB_M/pTXxkYL-8FwaQo0aludNQ7SZPxo0Lp7dACLcBGAs/s320/Lifechanger.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The imdb summary on this one says the following: "A murderous shapeshifter sets out on a blood-soaked mission to make things right with the woman he loves".</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And that's more or less all I can tell you about it because to give you any further details would be to ruin the experience of going into it knowing nothing and wondering just where the hell it's going to go next. Suffice to say, we're straight into the world of the main character from minute one and looking at a situation which could spin off in a huge number of directions.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As the focal point of the plot, Lora Burke is casting gold as the engaging, good-natured but emotionally damaged Laura. From the moment we meet her she's a person we identify and connect with and will come to care about very much, which amplifies any potential danger to her all the more.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Lifechanger ended up being my favourite film of this year's Celluloid Screams festival. Considering how strong its 2018 line-up was that should give you some idea as to how much I rated it. It's a melancholic, chilling, romantic, engrossing little gem of a flick which I would recommend to horror and non-horror film fans alike.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>MANDY</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Jjx2u60-9s/XCTUypraEeI/AAAAAAAAB_U/blhVeg4-tqEtidgcEzXvEvti9A2BFAB3ACLcBGAs/s1600/Mandy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1164" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Jjx2u60-9s/XCTUypraEeI/AAAAAAAAB_U/blhVeg4-tqEtidgcEzXvEvti9A2BFAB3ACLcBGAs/s320/Mandy.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Lumberjack Red (Nicolas Cage) is living the quiet life in the wilderness with his bookish, rock chick partner Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) when their idyll is shattered by the arrival of a crazed hippie cult led by the creepy Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache). Suffice to say some very bad things happen, leading Red down a path of bloody, surreal vengeance...</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Re-tooling the revenge flick as a vivid, trippy, retina-scorching nightmare, Panos Cosmatos' debut feature will no doubt alienate as many as it impresses. The deliberately slow build of a first half gives way to a gore-splattered, unfettered riot of a second as Cage takes on LSD-addled bikers from Hell and eventually the cult itself.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">It would be easy to focus on Nic going full Cage here but that would be to detract from what is essentially a, ahem, knowing (sorry) and enjoyable performance. Riseborough is, as always, terrific as title character and although Roache's villain has shades of the pantomime baddie he also manages to unnerve and disturb, his performance matching perfectly with the quite frankly batshit crazy things going on here.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The film also looks beautiful, full of wonderfully conceived visions of tranquillity and purgatory. It seems a tad lazy to call this an assault on the senses but that's exactly what it is and some viewers may not stay the distance because of the unrelenting visual and auditory pounding it dishes out. This is an immersive, impressive headfuck, it's off-kilter off the scale and I loved it to bits.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I also know that a lot of you out there absolutely <i>hated</i> Mandy and I understand why. It's probably the most divisive film I've seen this year. Forget that, it's definitely the most divisive film I've seen this year.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>ONE CUT OF THE DEAD</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tOx4ZfkvCGs/XCTVIzG2-hI/AAAAAAAAB_c/ZwTlTmglg647ur5lvnRbjg_lrwPg8xjNACLcBGAs/s1600/One%2BCut%2BOf%2BThe%2BDead.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="670" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tOx4ZfkvCGs/XCTVIzG2-hI/AAAAAAAAB_c/ZwTlTmglg647ur5lvnRbjg_lrwPg8xjNACLcBGAs/s320/One%2BCut%2BOf%2BThe%2BDead.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As much as I love cinema there are times when I get a touch of movie fatigue, usually when I see a bunch of stuff that's so by-the-numbers I'm reciting the next line a character is going to say. It's at this point that I'm looking for the movie that's going to knock me out of my seat in genuine surprise. This year, that movie was micro-budgeted Japanese miracle One Cut Of The Dead.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I know you're going to have heard this before but that's more or less all I can tell you about it because to give you any further details would be to ruin the experience of going into it knowing nothing and wondering just what's going to happen next. Yes, initially you'll be impressed with the technical achievement of the very, very, VERY long take which opens the film, then you'll be wondering why a particularly well used - dare I say clichéd ? - plot device is thrown into the mix. You may even think you're going to get a tad bored with the rest of it. Trust me, you're not.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By the end of this, you're going to want to go back and watch it again immediately as the plot reveals just how incredibly clever it is. Seemingly minor details become major points in the unfolding story and character traits which appeared unimportant in the first instance are played for unexpectedly hilarious effect.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Proof once more that the horror genre continues to produce the most inventive output in cinema right now, One Cut Of The Dead is an absolute delight.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">POM! </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jYjjDcv9dWA/XCTViMbCAgI/AAAAAAAAB_k/FBjd6rv7G_ApuirkBvU8tlxoJUR8rjDsACLcBGAs/s1600/Spider-man%2BInto%2BThe%2BSpider-verse.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1068" height="215" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jYjjDcv9dWA/XCTViMbCAgI/AAAAAAAAB_k/FBjd6rv7G_ApuirkBvU8tlxoJUR8rjDsACLcBGAs/s320/Spider-man%2BInto%2BThe%2BSpider-verse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After Peter Parker is killed attempting to stop the villainous Kingpin from activating a particle accelerator device which could open the doorway to parallel universes, teenager Miles Morales aims to become the new web slinger in town. Soon after, he runs into Peter Parker, who's anything but dead. And from another dimension. Things are complicated further when other spider-folk from other universes are dragged into Miles' version of New York and they all need to get back home...</span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Easily the best superhero movie of 2018 as far as I'm concerned, this sidesteps huge, interminable scenes of mass destruction (save for the climactic showdown) and focuses on both character development and the possibilities of the multiverse. It also has a relaxed, warm sense of humour and makes some smart choices - for instance, classic nemesis Doctor Octopus is involved, but with a twist here because...well, just watch and smile at the reveal.</span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It also has a pleasingly authentic comic book look, right down to some of the action taking place in lovingly-rendered panels across a beautifully animated New York. The idea of a team of Spider-folk banding together to take down the bad guys is a fine one and each has their own very specific identity. It's also a sweet coming-of-age story and it's a race against time to save the city. And it has Nic Cage as Spider-Noir. What more could you want? </span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ujDRrKIIwNg/XCTVsp2LYNI/AAAAAAAAB_o/dgW-LPbUPrc2VCeLcLuQqGxQIrzzJ40QgCLcBGAs/s1600/Three%2BBillboards.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ujDRrKIIwNg/XCTVsp2LYNI/AAAAAAAAB_o/dgW-LPbUPrc2VCeLcLuQqGxQIrzzJ40QgCLcBGAs/s320/Three%2BBillboards.png" width="215" /></a></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Frustrated with the lack of progress made by the investigation into her daughter's murder, Mildred (Frances McDormand) pays for a rather pointed series of messages to be displayed on the titular billboards, challenging local police Chief Woody Harrelson and his violence-prone second-in-command Sam Rockwell to up their game.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">If you know the work of Martin McDonagh you'll more or less know what to expect here and to be fair Three Billboards will probably grate with those who just can't get on with his somewhat bleak view of the world but if you enjoyed his previous movies then all of the ingredients are present and correct: flawed characters, abrasive dialogue, jet-black comedy and bursts of unsettling violence.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Few of the characters may be especially likeable but it's their journey which kept me hooked. McDormand is predictably brilliant as the mother seeking justice and she's matched all the way in the performance stakes by Sam Rockwell who's incredble as the immature, bigoted mummy's boy of a Deputy who finds his life taking a series of turns he really doesn't expect. Even at the end I'm not sure I liked him much more than I did at the start but I understood him and that's part of the genius of this film.</span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />Troubling? Yes. Problematic? Certainly. One of my favourites of 2018? Definitely.</span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And here are eleven extremely honourable mentions. All of the following may not have made it into the list above but you should still make a point of tracking them down because I think they're all excellent:</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Blue My Mind </b>- Quite possibly the least wistful coming of age story you'll see (this throws booze, drugs, hardcore pornography clips and shoplifting into the mix), Lisa Brühlmann's film melds this with a body horror plot as teenager Mia (the excellent Luna Wedler) goes through changes like none of her other friends. A truly leftfield take on teenage friendships and adolescent angst with a gloriously strange and emotional pay-off.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-weight: bold;">G</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>host Stories</b> - Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's chiller owes a lot to those classic anthology movies by studios such as Amicus but they also bring a great deal of horror expertise to the party themselves as Professor Phillip Goodman (Nyman) sets out to explain three cases of the supposedly supernatural and finds a few nasty surprises waiting for him. Scary (particularly the opening case involving Paul Whitehouse as a night watchman) and funny with a lovely, rug-pulling twist at the end, this is a cracking example of modern British horror which also acknowledges its influences in an astute, entertaining way.</span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Knife+Heart</b> - A giallo-infused horror/thriller set in the world of gay porn movies, film director Anne (a wonderfully mercurial Vanessa Paradis) sets out to find who's offing her cast in very bloody, not to mention artful, ways. All the genre touchpoints - flamboyant characters, crazy plot twists, lurid murders - are handled with consummate skill and the proceedings are further elevated by some genuinely funny comedic moments and a pounding M88 score.</span></div>
<div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>The Nurse With The Purple Hair</b> - Sean S. Cunningham's powerful documentary about hospice care approaches its subject in an admirably frank and straightforward way but also with an unexpectedly life-affirming streak of joyful humour. You'll shed tears (I think I was crying for about 25 of its 47 minutes) but, to quote someone within this vital piece of work, they're good tears. It will also make you look at a difficult subject in a totally different light.</span><br />
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>A Quiet Place</b> - John Krasinski's masterclass in suspense pits him, wife Emily Blunt and their family against an alien menace which can't see for shit but is lethal at tracking its prey by means of sound. Certainly one of the quietest nights I've ever had at the cinema, the expertly-cranked tension made for a lot of moments when the audience held its collective breath. The set-pieces are great and the pay-off is both heart-wrenching and air-punching.</span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Revenge</b> - Coralie Fargeat's ferocious thriller pits left-for-dead mistress Jen (Matilda Lutz) against her sleazeball lover and two of his equally repulsive associates. Toxic masculinity gets a swift kick in the balls (not to mention a bullet to the head) as Jen turns the tables in a blaze of extreme, bloody, breathtaking violence. Obviously not for the delicate but for the rest of us this is a strikingly shot burst of cinematic adrenaline.</span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>The Shape Of Water</b> - Mute cleaner Sally Hawkins falls for a captured sea creature at the facility in which she works and attempts to free him from the clutches of brutal Government security guy Michael Shannon. A potentially hokey plot is woven into something truly magical courtesy of Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor's screenplay and, of course, Del Toro's savvy direction. The 1960s setting is wonderful, the performances are absolutely bang-on across the board and it's a fairytale treat for adults.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b><br /></b></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Tigers Are Not Afraid</b> - More fairy tales but with a much darker edge as Issa López follows five orphaned children attempting to survive in an urban landscape torn apart by an ongoing drug war. The fantastical elements are deftly handled and are never allowed to overwhelm the grim, gritty reality. A slew of astonishing performances by the child actors and a thoroughly unnerving sense of creeping doom only add to the reasons you should see this one.</span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Upgrade</b> - After an attack leaves him paralysed, technophobe Grey (Logan Marshall-Green) reluctantly embraces the cutting edge of science when he receives an experimental implant chip. This not only allows him to walk again but also to hit the time-honoured revenge trail. Leigh Whannell's creative collision of sci-fi and horror is full of shrewd ideas, black comedy and full-on, gory action. It's so much fun I wanted to watch it again as soon as the end credits rolled.</span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Wolfman's Got Nards</b> - Andre Gower's documentary about The Monster Squad - its making, its initial failure at the box office and the amazing second life it's currently enjoying - delivers all of the on-set anecdotes you'd hope for but then bolsters that with a surprising emotional punch as fans and film-makers (plus film-makers who are also fans) underscore the sweet tone.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>You Were Never Really Here</b> - Lynne Ramsay's dark, deconstructed action thriller sees Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, an expert at finding missing teens who's also a dab hand at doling out sickeningly horrible violence. The plot is of the familiar "straightforward case goes awry/powerful people involved/lots of people die" variety but it's handled in a way you won't have seen before and Phoenix makes for an intriguing anti-hero who's both sympathetic and terrifying at the same time.</span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-54750888018958604652018-11-16T03:50:00.001-08:002018-11-16T19:20:31.457-08:00CELLULOID SCREAMS 2018: DAY FOUR<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Day 3 brought the Celluloid Screams crowd spooky shenanigans by the sea, warped wishes from Mexico, Squad goals across the world, monsters in New Zealand, plus vigilante mobs and a camp counsellor cull in the good ol' U.S. of A. Where would Day 4 take us? You're about to find out...</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>LIFECHANGER</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K4j_A0g0xxg/W7tRiHJ5_9I/AAAAAAAAB8c/zGDIVItnffwnHUg1hfkcJbknoyUoIlxLACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BLifechanger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K4j_A0g0xxg/W7tRiHJ5_9I/AAAAAAAAB8c/zGDIVItnffwnHUg1hfkcJbknoyUoIlxLACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BLifechanger.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's go with the imdb summary on this one: "A murderous shapeshifter sets out on a blood-soaked mission to make things right with the woman he loves".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apart from that, I feel I should avoid giving away any details about the plot of Lifechanger because it's best that you go into it knowing as little as possible. If you really want me to provide a lazy comparison, think of it as The Hidden with less gratuitous carnage, more interesting existential musings and a welcome, unexpectedly warm dash of romance added to the mix (if you think the latter will lessen the body count then don't panic, it really doesn't).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drawn you in? Okay, now forget that it's anything like The Hidden. Lifechanger has an M.O. all of its own and a lot of intriguing questions to pose. I was told this might be a bit of a slow-burner but I was gripped instantly by the situation of the central character and wondered where it was going next - not always where I thought, it turned out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the focal point of the plot, Lora Burke is casting gold as the engaging, good-natured but emotionally damaged Laura. From the minute we meet her she's a person we identify and connect with and will come to care about very much, which amplifies any potential danger to her all the more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In a festival packed with gems, Lifechanger ended up being my favourite movie of the four days. I'm going to spoil it no further. All I can do is urge you to see this movie. It's bloody great.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>POSSUM</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p71C6MG7j_8/W7tRngUZrwI/AAAAAAAAB8g/Kw4yJ2Wz6i8Wvg78eiRDNILS6PWEGN92QCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BPossum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p71C6MG7j_8/W7tRngUZrwI/AAAAAAAAB8g/Kw4yJ2Wz6i8Wvg78eiRDNILS6PWEGN92QCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BPossum.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Philip (Sean Harris) is a troubled sort, carrying around a nightmarish hand puppet - the Possum of the title - in a leather case. Staying with in the run-down house which used to be his chidlhood home, traumatic memories begin to surface and his attempts to destroy the puppet come to nought. Meanwhile, a local child disappears and Philip is very high on the list of suspects...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director Matthew Holness is known, by me at least, for Garth Marenghi's Darkplace but anyone going into Possum thinking that it shares some - indeed, almost any - of Darkplace's DNA is in for a bit of a shock. You will not be laughing at any point in this movie. It's more than likely you'll be sitting there with a sense of growing unease. You may want to leave the cinema entirely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've rarely seen a movie with such an unrelentingly oppressive and fetid atmosphere and the skill with which this is evoked is beyond question. Whether you want to experience this for 85 minutes is entirely up to you. The grime threatens to spill from the screen, some of the dialogue is mumbled, the relationship between Philip and his stepfather makes your skin crawl - this is testing stuff, deliberately so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I left the screening unnerved and a little overwhelmed, not really sure what to make of the film. Since then, the more I think of Possum the more impressed I am at its performances - both Harris and Armstrong are outstanding - its atmosphere and its unwillingness to pander to the audience. You may be looking for the film to give you an easy out but it doesn't do so. Not once.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recommended, but brace yourselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>SUMMER OF '84</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ITxFKoXhI2U/W7tRvZ5jVeI/AAAAAAAAB8k/c2HtEpU20fkNGC_3hvDuuULZCNz29l6RgCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BSummer%2BOf%2B84.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ITxFKoXhI2U/W7tRvZ5jVeI/AAAAAAAAB8k/c2HtEpU20fkNGC_3hvDuuULZCNz29l6RgCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BSummer%2BOf%2B84.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Teenage wannabe film-maker Davey (Graham Verchere) suspects that one of his neighbours is a serial killer and enlists the help of his friends in order to gather evidence but the closer they get to the truth the more they find themselves in danger...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the surface, Summer Of '84 is a familiar coming of age story. Bunch of teenagers hanging out? Check. One of them's a lot cooler than the others? Check. Main character has a massive crush on an older girl? Check. It also taps into the rich vein of nostalgia as makers RKSS did in their previous Turbo Kid.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, there's also something much, much darker at work here. The cool kid, it turns out, has a really dreadful home life. The town's parents don't seem particularly invested in the possibility they're living alongside a potential serial killer. And there's a truly nasty kicker waiting for the group of friends as they edge ever closer to solving the mystery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some may not enjoy the shocking, jet black turn the plot takes late on but I thought it fit the mood of the piece very well indeed. The movie opens by making a point about how even though a place may look perfect it's merely a façade which is concealing something abhorrent. Summer of '84's conclusion echoes its initial gambit and then some, closing with a genuine, unresolved sense of disquiet. Growing up can be a painful experience.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only duff note? I thought that Nikki, the object of Davey's crush, was somewhat peripheral to the proceedings and a tad underwritten but apart from that Summer Of '84 is a suspenseful, accomplished piece of work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0jQOanGt9aY/W7tR3t5EkOI/AAAAAAAAB8s/ybtAMn9sxkIK8Ax6uaFOug8ZXB2V0EVmACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BPuppet%2BMaster%2BTLR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0jQOanGt9aY/W7tR3t5EkOI/AAAAAAAAB8s/ybtAMn9sxkIK8Ax6uaFOug8ZXB2V0EVmACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BPuppet%2BMaster%2BTLR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When comic book aficionado Edgar (Thomas Lennon) heads to a convention where the 30th Anniversary of the "Toulon Murders" is being commemorated, all he wants to do is sell off the Toulon puppet he's acquired so that he can make some easy money. What he hadn't counted on was the puppets being re-animated by an unseen force, triggering a whole new murder spree...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Written by S.Craig Zahler, scribe of both Bone Tomahawk and Brawl In Cell Block 99, this foregoes the slow-burn of those but retains their gory sensibilities as utterly disposable characters are burned, decapitated, dismembered, slashed and stabbed in glorious colour. The special effects crew was definitely kept busy during this project.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unrestrained by anything approaching good taste, this is a complete and utter riot for anyone who isn't looking to be offended. If you are looking to be offended, it's a veritable smorgasbord of points about which to complain. Case in point: the sequence in which Edgar's pal Markowitz battles with a "Hitler baby" doll, leading to a hilarious pay off accompanied by a line which brought the Celluloid house down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's plenty of exploitation cred in the cast too, with </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Michael Paré as a detective, Barbara Crampton as an ex-cop-turned-expert Toulon murder tour guide and Udo Kier as Toulon himself. The final moment of The Littlest Reich is totally in keeping with the generally off-kilter nature of the piece. Obviously I'm not going to give it away but what I will say is that you'll find it frustrating or an absolute hoot, depending on your point of view.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>CAM</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l8QbPIJxev0/W7tR_tn4LtI/AAAAAAAAB80/HwkMTZ0dP6EehWkj-l4gtdotqyGDAExkACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BCam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l8QbPIJxev0/W7tR_tn4LtI/AAAAAAAAB80/HwkMTZ0dP6EehWkj-l4gtdotqyGDAExkACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BCam.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Webcam performer Alice (Madeline Brewer), who's looking to increase her popularity with a series of increasingly sensational web shows as her online persona Lola, suddenly finds her channel locked out and hijacked by a doppelganger who appears to want to push the envelope even further. Can Alice get her channel, her followers and her life back?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cam is an intriguing ghost in the machine tale given real depth and authenticity courtesy of a brilliant screenplay by Isa Mazzei which shines a sympathetic and fascinating light on the lives of the web performers and, like any workplace, the politics which exist the industry (watch for Samantha Robinson from "The Love Witch" on particularly pithy form in a supporting role). The writing crackles with truth, whether it's the ongoing competition to be the most popular girl on the webcam world or the quieter, poignant moments showing Alice's attempts to keep the details of her real job from her family.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the main role(s), Brewer is exceptional: smart, sassy, savvy but also with a convincing streak of vulnerability which she tries to keep hidden most of the time. The movie doesn't slip into demonising all of the guys who enjoy the webcam shows either although it makes many salient points that, as in all walks of life, there are some weirdos out there and some men who get off on the control of women. It happens and the movie deals with it in an assured way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cam is an excellent exploration of the complex dynamic between the webcam stars and their followers, delivering its high-tech horror with humour and heart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>SEVEN STAGES TO ACHIEVE ETERNAL BLISS BY PASSING THROUGH THE GATEWAY CHOSEN BY THE HOLY STORSH</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fr0fPRCaaLs/W7tSG71kRAI/AAAAAAAAB84/XCe5woeL44EIjdLPX9gwbYKB1ZlxTODvACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BStorsh.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fr0fPRCaaLs/W7tSG71kRAI/AAAAAAAAB84/XCe5woeL44EIjdLPX9gwbYKB1ZlxTODvACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B4%2B-%2BStorsh.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Closing the festival with a movie bearing the snappy title above, "Storsh" (as I will refer to it from now on) is the tale of a couple (Kate Micucci and Sam Huntington) who move to LA and snap up an apartment which is suspiciously cheap to rent. They soon find that this is because a cult leader (played by Taika Waititi) committed suicide in their bathtub, encouraging his followers to break into the property in order to follow their leader through said gateway of the title by killing themselves in said tub.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The potentially dark material here is expertly skirted by dialling up the comedy and pushing the absurdity of the situation for all its worth. Micucci's aspirational go-getter and Huntington's slacker make for an engaging double act and it's pleasing how the initial view of Storsh himself - he must have been some sort of crackpot - begins to give way to "hmm, maybe there <i>is</i> something in what he was saying".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The frequent suicide attempts are a great excuse to feature talented comedy performers in cameo roles (Maria Bamford and Mark McKinney* to name but two) and although a procession of cultists attempting to do themselves in doesn't sound like an especially enjoyable evening of cinema entertainment, the execution - maybe I should have chosen a better word there - will more than like make you smile, maybe even laugh quite a few times.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Surprisingly sweet given the subject matter, Storsh is more delicately dark comedy than hard-driving horror but it will appeal to fans of the genre. The laughs dry up a little towards the end but that doesn't spoil what's gone before. Considering there's quite a lot of death in this movie it's a charming, offbeat yarn with an almost constant stream of chuckles. Give it a go, it's rather lovely in its own strange way.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">EPILOGUE</span></u></b><br /><br />And that, as they say, was that. The 10th Edition of Celluloid Screams delivered another strong line-up of films - quite possibly its strongest yet. I know I say that every year but I can always make a case for it. It gets bigger, it gets better, the Celluloid Screams family grows every year and the social side of the festival is just as important and enjoyable as the films being shown.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To everyone I met in person for the first time this year, it was great to finally get to chat. To the returnees who still speak to me, it's great to catch up. To those who I got to know in the festival's infancy and continue to annoy every single year, I apologise for the ramblings and occasional rants. You people are the best.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course, I can't close without thanking those behind the festival who spend a huge amount of time seeking out films and making sure that the extended weekend ran like clockwork - or made it appear it was running like clockwork even if it wasn't. When it looks effortless you know it really isn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, a huge, heartfelt thank you to Rob Nevitt, Polly Allen, Lucy Swift, Clare Platton and the rest of this absolutely amazing team. You always knock it right out of the park and I'm in it for as long as you are. It's always a highlight of my year and I'm sure Celluloid Screams 2019 will somehow be even more awesome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And to anyone who was trapped in the bar during my end of festival karaoke performance, I'm really sorry. Probably a good time to also apologise to Nena for mangling the German language. It won't happen again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or will it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*Full disclosure - I'm a massive fan of The Kids In The Hall. "I'M CRUSHING YOUR HEAD!!!"</span>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-61733320822429288912018-11-09T09:21:00.001-08:002020-10-07T04:41:10.153-07:00CELLULOID SCREAMS 2018: DAY THREE<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Relationship revelations, giallo goings-on in gay porn and celluloid carnage featured in Day Two. Here's what happened over the course of Day Three...</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>THE CRESCENT</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XD_xDByQWD0/W7tRGggwO5I/AAAAAAAAB70/1CjJMdXEVW4KGIBeooBY6NBYdEWyP_bxwCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BThe%2BCrescent.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XD_xDByQWD0/W7tRGggwO5I/AAAAAAAAB70/1CjJMdXEVW4KGIBeooBY6NBYdEWyP_bxwCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BThe%2BCrescent.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">After a death in the family, Beth (Danika Vandersteen) takes her son Lowen (Woodrow Graves) to her mother's beachfront house in the hope that the change of location will help with the healing process. Do you think it will? This is a horror movie after all and it becomes obvious that something is clearly not right. Is it the house, is the somewhat odd local population or is it something else?</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">A slow burner - the spooky stuff doesn't really begin to kick in until about 45 minutes have passed - it's clear that The Crescent is playing its cards very close to its chest and isn't going to reveal its hand in any kind of sudden, grand gesture. Even the end of the movie is open to several interpretations and if you're the sort of person who wants a explanation for all of the weirdness then you might be frustrated at where this ultimately goes (or doesn't go).</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">This is the kind of movie where it's entirely possible to just sit back and soak up the atmosphere - and I really enjoyed doing so - but I appreciate that this may not be enough for everyone. Vandersteen is excellent in the lead role and Graves is amazing. He's the focus of the movie for an unexpectedly large amount of time and he's never less than totally convincing so bravo, young sir.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The Crescent offsets its somewhat languid pace with its fine performances, arty visuals and agreeably tuned sense of creeping dread. There's much to admire but I was also struck by the thought that it would have also made a breathtaking short.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-maxkUomFjPU/W7tRLZ36_eI/AAAAAAAAB78/vUIhHjzc9G0Y0ib5ASroUr6g6WCoY--_gCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BTigers%2BAre%2BNot%2BAfraid.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-maxkUomFjPU/W7tRLZ36_eI/AAAAAAAAB78/vUIhHjzc9G0Y0ib5ASroUr6g6WCoY--_gCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BTigers%2BAre%2BNot%2BAfraid.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">After her mother is kidnapped by a drug cartel, 10-year-old Estrella (Paola Lara) falls in with the streetwise El Shine (Juan Ramón López) and his gang of orphans. Given three wishes, Estrella looks to use them for good but with a tide of violence threatening to engulf the city and a vicious drug lord in pursuit of the children those wishes don't quite have the consequences she'd expected...</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">An undoubted highlight of the festival, Issa López's film may invite comparisons to the work of Guillermo Del Toro but the fantasy elements in Tigers Are Not Afraid are not as pronounced and are never allowed to overwhelm the grimy, terrifying reality of the situation portrayed here.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">An early sequence in which a class of kids press themselves to the floor as a gunfight rages on the streets outside is a masterclass in unbearable tension and unseen terror, setting out the movie's stall with consummate skill. You'll have few chances to breathe easily over the 83-minute running time and at the end of it all you may want to take a few quiet moments to appreciate fully this extraordinary movie. </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The performances of the child actors are nothing short of astonishing and they carry the movie with a confidence and magnetism which belies their years. The urban setting is a fascinating one, with rooftops, abandoned buildings and the darkest recesses of the city being played for both their magic and squalor. The scares are skilfully played, the emotional journey devastating.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">A beautiful, brutal piece of cinema, this is essential viewing.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>WOLFMAN'S GOT NARDS</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hdm_bKePbmY/W7tRQ4-3zII/AAAAAAAAB8E/Wb67PfFZId4AP-M0zq-4sVIYE52BOG8bACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BWolfmans%2BGot%2BNards.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hdm_bKePbmY/W7tRQ4-3zII/AAAAAAAAB8E/Wb67PfFZId4AP-M0zq-4sVIYE52BOG8bACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BWolfmans%2BGot%2BNards.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Who remembers The Monster Squad? I certainly do. However, it appears as though many people out there don't, or at least didn't. André Gower's documentary traces the making of the film, its subsequent - and thoroughly undeserved - tanking at the box office, and its unexpected resurrection as an ever-growing bunch of fans championed the film (and continue to do so).</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">With contributions from the film-makers and the fans, Wolfman's Got Nards expertly balances anecdotes relating to the shooting of the original movie itself with a variety of vignettes featuring those for whom the 1987 monster mash holds a special place in their heart.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The subject matter would be more than interesting enough to work as a documentary on its own but where Wolfman's Got Nards truly scores is the unexpected emotional punch it packs, whether it's Fred Dekker musing with no little candour on the piece of work which severely damaged his career following its failure at the box office or the heartwarming stories of TMS' legion of fans both young and old.André</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">It's also pleasing to catch up with the Squad's cast as we follow them on a tour of the US (and beyond) to screenings of the film and their joy at being a part of what's clearly becoming a phenomenon genuinely comes across - they seem such a nice bunch I was left feeling glad that the world finally caught up and realised their horror film is not only terrific but appeals to all age groups. That's something worth celebrating.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Ultimately, it's a story of family (both that of The Monster Squad's cast/crew and the wider horror community), a tale of an injustice being righted - as the movie finally began to gain the traction which had eluded it for so long - and a timely reminder of just how bloody good The Monster Squad is. It fully deserves to be loved by an entirely new generation of viewers and Wolfman's Got Nards is the perfect companion piece.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Oh, by the way, I mentioned that the cast seemed such a nice bunch in an earlier paragraph. Well, André</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Gower - the director of Wolfman's Got Nards and Sean in The Monster Squad - was in attendance at Celluloid Screams and I don't really know how to break the news to you but...yes, he's a cool, smart, funny guy who happens to have been in a great horror movie and has now made a great documentary. </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Damn you, </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">André.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>WELLINGTON PARANORMAL</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dGebrO5Qj6A/W7tRVmk9CDI/AAAAAAAAB8I/4859BQwHG5Q_qK8_GPlsrZE89_WpCHF5wCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BWellington%2BParanormal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dGebrO5Qj6A/W7tRVmk9CDI/AAAAAAAAB8I/4859BQwHG5Q_qK8_GPlsrZE89_WpCHF5wCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BWellington%2BParanormal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Since their appearance in What We Do In The Shadows, you might have been wondering exactly what Wellington Police Department Officers O'Leary (Karen O'Leary) and Minogue (Mike Minogue) have been doing. Wonder no longer as we discover they're, er, still with the Wellington Police Department and they're about to be assigned to the brand new, ever so hush-hush Paranormal Unit which has been set up by their Sergeant (Maaka Pohatu).</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Over the course of six episodes we follow O'Leary and Minogue in documentary style as their investigations bring them face to face with demons, aliens, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, zombies and, most terrifying of all, clowns. It's all part of the job as they work the focal point of supernatural occurrences that is New Zealand's capital city.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">This series is scheduled to be broadcast in the UK in 2019 and I would urge you to catch it because I don't remember laughing this much at anything in a very long time. There's an innate understanding of classic horror monsters and tropes at play here and this is used to mine the proceedings for maximum comedy effect.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The Law of Averages (and episodic television) would suggest that, out of the the six episodes which form Season One, there'd be a duff one among the bunch. Not the case here as the quality is ridiculously, consistently high. Each investigation is packed with laugh out loud moments and across the instalments there are some nicely played</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> running gags, particularly one concerning the security systems which, er, "protect" the access to Sergeant Maaka's "secret office".</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Of course, this wouldn't work quite as well if the two leads weren't so engaging. O'Leary and Minogue as, er, O'Leary and Minogue are bloody hilarious and their deadpan double act is an absolute joy. Even their most mundane exchanges are loaded with comic smarts to the point where there's a risk you might miss the odd gag because you're still laughing at the previous one.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The two stars were also in attendance - in character - at the Celluloid Screams screening to introduce their series and to provide assurance on the safety precautions which had been taken to ensure our safety. They also managed to weave in a brilliant joke about something which had happened during the screening of Halloween a couple of nights earlier and Officer O'Leary was on hand to helpfully explain the cuts to black which signalled the ad breaks.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Possibly the most fun I've ever had at a cinema screening, this was three hours (including Q&A session) of pure delight and the experience of being in a packed auditorium laughing themselves silly over and over again is something that will stay with me for a very long time. What else can I say about Wellington Paranormal but "more please". And it looks like there may very well be more, which is great news.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>ASSASSINATION NATION</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DEd_T18LzEk/W7tRaAMMJNI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/x5w10CHgpJ0f1jSVQI-yzBBa0ZNSRThewCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BAssassination%2BNation.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DEd_T18LzEk/W7tRaAMMJNI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/x5w10CHgpJ0f1jSVQI-yzBBa0ZNSRThewCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BAssassination%2BNation.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">When a local politician's salacious online details are hacked, the small town of Salem is abuzz with gossip. Things take a much worse turn when all of the town's dirty secrets are leaked, leading to local girl Lily (Odessa Young) finding herself at the centre of the subsequent witch hunt (well, that's what happens when you live in Salem) and ending up in a fight for her very survival along with three of her friends...</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Beginning with the Universal ident, I was ready for this to deliver a studio-neutered vision of mob violence, soft-pedalled vigilante justice and multiplex-friendly "abhorrent" behaviour. Boy, was I wrong. Assassination Nation pulls very few punches in its two-hour attack on what a bunch of preening, privileged, pathetic little pricks human beings can be.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Apart from one overly theatrical flounce out of the cinema (dramatically pronouncing the film to be "an abomination" - yeah yeah, wanting attention much?), the feeling after the screening was that a large proportion of the Celluloid Screams audience found this a gripping, confrontational experience.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Boasting a quartet of teenage female characters that actually feel like smart, rounded people rather than a collection of wisecracks and angst which just sounded good to the writer, Assassination Nation builds nicely, wisely saving its full tilt into gory horror for its third act when the shit really hits the fan and everyone gives full vent to their inner keyboard warrior.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The potential ills of social media may be something of a soft target but this film deals with the subject in an adept, fearless way, mixing its terror and suspense with a deliciously dark dash of comedy. It's bold, it's brash and it's rather brilliant.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>YOU MIGHT BE THE KILLER (CELLULOID SCREAMS SECRET FILM)</u></b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hBxrPOItktE/W89-GE6zsqI/AAAAAAAAB9o/SPMrap3R0UkHK3XrMF_uvwENY2Xcx7-XQCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BYou%2BMight%2BBe%2BThe%2BKiller.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="658" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hBxrPOItktE/W89-GE6zsqI/AAAAAAAAB9o/SPMrap3R0UkHK3XrMF_uvwENY2Xcx7-XQCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BDay%2B3%2B-%2BYou%2BMight%2BBe%2BThe%2BKiller.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Camp counsellor Sam (Fran Kranz) calls his good friend Chuck (Alyson Hannigan) with a doozy of a quandary. He has sketchy memories of the previous few hours and now there are murder victims littering the place. Chuck's knowledge of horror movies will come into play as she and Sam attempt to piece together what's been going on because at first glance it seems as if Sam might be the killer. Well, it is in the title, after all.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">A deconstructed slasher film which begins near the end and then spends its 90 minutes filling the gaps in the plot's timeline in ways which are frequently non-linear, this has a fair amount of fun with its premise and it's crammed with amusing nods to the all-too-familiar tropes of the camp counsellor carnage flick.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">It's also fun to see Alyson Hannigan back in the genre and, although she spends the movie dispensing advice over a phone line while wandering the one location in which she works, her performance is one of the film's strengths. As the sweet but fiercely logical voice of reason, Chuck attempts to keep Sam on the rails as his situation goes from bad to worse.</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">In the final analysis, YMBTK doesn't turn out to anywhere near as groundbreaking as the early action may hint at but it's an amusing, gory, entertaining romp which didn't outstay its welcome and had me leaving cinema with a smile on my face. Which can't be a bad thing.</span><br />
<br /></div>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-71577536544542856572018-10-26T09:56:00.002-07:002018-10-26T09:56:24.737-07:00CELLULOID SCREAMS 2018: DAY TWO<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After Day One's mixture of Cage rage and Michael Myers mayhem, what did Day Two have in store for the Celluloid Screams crowd? Read on...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H33205x7CUg/W7tQyRef-eI/AAAAAAAAB7k/grNphcOTlNs0fJi2yDnlXvOsnCVSMp_kgCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B2%2B-%2BWhat%2BKeeps%2BYou%2BAlive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H33205x7CUg/W7tQyRef-eI/AAAAAAAAB7k/grNphcOTlNs0fJi2yDnlXvOsnCVSMp_kgCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B2%2B-%2BWhat%2BKeeps%2BYou%2BAlive.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Loved-up couple Jackie (Hannah Emily Anderson) and Jules (Brittany Allen) head out to a remote woodland location to celebrate their first wedding anniversary and all is going swimmingly until a visitor unwittingly lets slip a piece of information about Jackie which will have Jules questioning everything she knows - or thinks she knows - about her wife...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've been careful to say as little as I can about the plot because the less you know going into What Keeps You Alive the more you'll enjoy it. Just over 20 minutes in there's a breathtaking surprise in store (I think most of the Celluloid Screams audience had the same "WTF?" reaction I had) and from there on it's fun to just roll with the story to see exactly where it heads next.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Strong performances from Anderson and Allen (both excellent in very different ways, but I can't tell you what those ways are) anchor the somewhat outlandish cirumstances to a bedrock of chilling plausibility, not to mention keeping the tension simmering nicely. There's also plenty of cracking, darkly comic dialogue to be savoured. I just can't tell you what that is for fear of giving something, anything away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer/director Colin Minihan piles on the twists and turns to such an extent that by the end you might feel it's possibly taken one or two too many plot swerves but that's a very minor gripe about a film which confidently raises the suspense stakes time after time. See it and be thoroughly entertained by all of the things I can't tell you about in this mini-review, then you'll know exactly why I'm being so frustratingly light on detail here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You're getting no more from me on this subject. Go watch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>KNIFE + HEART</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jtVnyy75zBE/W7tQ4jTGxPI/AAAAAAAAB7s/sVTzXSkPeIgQn1J6plWoHne8edxmnWIWgCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B2%2B-%2BKnife%2B%252B%2BHeart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jtVnyy75zBE/W7tQ4jTGxPI/AAAAAAAAB7s/sVTzXSkPeIgQn1J6plWoHne8edxmnWIWgCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B2%2B-%2BKnife%2B%252B%2BHeart.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gay porn film producer Anne (Vanessa Paradis) is having relationship trouble with her editor/lover </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Loïs (Kate Moran) but that's nothing compared to trouble she's about to face when one of her actors is brutally murdered. Using the ongoing police investigation as the inspiration to make a more ambitious adult movie, Anne is fully aware that everyone is a potential suspect or victim as the masked murderer sets about making their own cuts to those involved...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Knife+Heart's refreshingly different setting provides the perfect backdrop to a stylish, giallo-inflected treat, packed with extravagant characters and lurid killings, all sumptuously filmed in gorgeous 35mm, its musical heart driven by a pounding M83 synth score. Paradis is excellent in a complex role and the film-within-a-film's cast are brought to flamboyant life, particularly Nicolas Maury as the sympathetic but no-nonsense Archibald.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The third act, true to the classic examples of the subgenre, dials up the weirdness even more as the killer's background and motives are slowly revealed, culiminating in their attempt to complete their peculiar plan at a cinema where Anne is watching one of her previous productions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To say I'm a giallo fan is something of an understatement so Un Couteau Dans Le Coeur (to use its French title) was high on my list of must-sees at the festival and it did not disappoint in the slightest. All the elements are present and correct - psychological horror, dreamy interludes, graphic bloodshed and sexploitation - and these seem to be more at home than ever in the close-knit community portrayed here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sexuality of the characters is not a big deal here, thank goodness. Yes, I did notice a comment on social media referring to the number of blowjobs in this film but a) they're tastefully framed, b) they're filming an adult movie, that kind of thing is going to happen and c) they're so incidental to the story that I'm not sure why anyone would focus on them. This is a deftly crafted, naturalistic portrayal of the dynamics between a group of LGBT people who just happen to be making porn. Some of us need to grow the fuck up and appreciate the view from elsewhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Okay, lecture over. Knife+Heart is beautiful, bloody and brilliant. It has the brutal murders and all of the strangeness you'd expect but it also possesses real warmth and heart plus a welcome dash of intentional comedy. How could you not embrace something that has a character called the Mouth Of Gold?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>NIGHTMARE CINEMA</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QsylVcgjzwM/W7tQ-Qd0c7I/AAAAAAAAB7w/PnHakanEkuQUQuln4nl-k82Tugas4CImACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B2%2B-%2BNightmare%2BCinema.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QsylVcgjzwM/W7tQ-Qd0c7I/AAAAAAAAB7w/PnHakanEkuQUQuln4nl-k82Tugas4CImACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B2%2B-%2BNightmare%2BCinema.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Five people (well, six to be totally accurate as one segment features a couple) wander into a spooky theatre and, once inside, they're each treated to a short movie they probably weren't expecting. The film they're watching features themselves in a tale of terror and chances are it's not going to be "the feelgood movie of the year"...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a fan of portmanteau movies - especially the Amicus ones such as Asylum and Tales From The Crypt - and with knowledge of the remarkable directorial talent involved I have to admit that I went into this one secretly hoping that it would be great. Unfortunately, I came out of it feeling more than a little deflated.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As with any example of this type, the individual segments should take different approaches (which they do) which means they'll land in different ways (which they do) and as long as the hit-to-miss ratio is acceptably high I don't see how that's an issue. I really didn't expect five classics and nor should I have. Here, out of the five stories, I really enjoyed one, liked one, tried hard to like one but couldn't quite manage to and didn't really care about the other two.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes, there's gore aplenty and although there are a number of intriguing ideas bubbling under the surface these take flight very rarely, which means that a particular story ends up going absolutely nowhere, another stops pretty much dead with little revelation while another falls back on having a lot of people meeting bloody ends.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, the overarching device - involving Mickey Rourke as the projectionist of the titular theatre - is frustratingly underdeveloped and I would have liked his character to have been fleshed out a little more. Well, make that fleshed out at all. The potential to showcase a great character is pretty much thrown away as all he really ends up doing is pointing out to each unfortunate cinemagoer just how screwed they are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted to love this so much and it's incredibly frustrating to me that I didn't (judging by the chatter after the screening I'm sure many people rated it highly). I still think there's mileage in the concept though and despite the fact that this missed the mark for me I'm not averse to a Nightmare Cinema 2 with new stories and directors.</span>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-18957679209807898282018-10-25T09:54:00.001-07:002018-10-25T09:54:57.547-07:00CELLULOID SCREAMS 2018: DAY ONE<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Celebrating its 10th Edition with a four-day fest instead of the usual three, Celluloid Screams took up its usual residence at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield with some bold programming choices in its varied slate of films, the showcasing of a hilarious new TV series and an after party which literally refused to quit. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's rewind all the way back to Day One which featured two eagerly anticipated movies...</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>MANDY</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F4ZPeCePw94/W7tQiMZDBcI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/8Zh8PVdeVgkbthnVtyyleViaRr8BIufxgCLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B1%2B-%2BMandy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F4ZPeCePw94/W7tQiMZDBcI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/8Zh8PVdeVgkbthnVtyyleViaRr8BIufxgCLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B1%2B-%2BMandy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lumberjack Red (Nicolas Cage) is living the quiet life in the wilderness with his bookish, rock chick partner Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) when their idyll is shattered by the arrival of a crazed hippie cult led by the creepy Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache). Suffice to say some very bad things happen, leading Red down a path of bloody, surreal vengeance...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Re-tooling the revenge flick as a vivid, trippy, retina-scorching nightmare, Panos Cosmatos' debut feature will no doubt alienate as many as it impresses. The deliberately slow build of a first half gives way to a gore-splattered, unfettered riot of a second as Cage takes on LSD-addled bikers from Hell and eventually the cult itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It would be easy to focus on Nic going full Cage here but that would be to detract from what is essentially a, ahem, knowing (sorry) and enjoyable performance. Riseborough is, as always, terrific as the bookish, rock chick title character and although Roache's villain has shades of the pantomime baddie he also manages to unnerve and disturb, his performance matching perfectly with the quite frankly batshit crazy things going on here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The film also looks beautiful, full of wonderfully conceived visions of tranquillity and purgatory. It seems something of a cliché to call this an assault on the senses but that's exactly what it is and some viewers may not stay the distance because of the unrelenting visual and auditory pounding it dishes out. This is an immersive, impressive headf**k, it's off-kilter off the scale and I loved it to bits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>HALLOWEEN</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MRpZkTTyeP8/W7tQnzxAhOI/AAAAAAAAB7c/u5iAj1s9BtwP1lv8QKkd6qgGpEVe_wm2ACLcBGAs/s1600/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B1%2B-%2BHalloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="680" height="178" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MRpZkTTyeP8/W7tQnzxAhOI/AAAAAAAAB7c/u5iAj1s9BtwP1lv8QKkd6qgGpEVe_wm2ACLcBGAs/s320/CS%2B2018%2BNight%2B1%2B-%2BHalloween.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Retconning the Halloween tale so that the story picks up 40 years on from the events of the original movie, Michael Myers escapes during a patient transfer between psychiatric facilities and, after bumping off a few unfortunates who happen to cross his path, he dons the Shatner mask once more and heads back to Haddonfield to confront old foe Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis - I'm pretty sure you didn't need me to point this out).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, as one of the most anticipated horror sequels for some time, does the 2018 incarnation of Halloween measure up? Well, yes and no. There are some lovely touches, such as the use of the classic theme and a smattering of neatly deployed, pleasing callbacks to the original. Even the opening titles are smart as the pumpkin is quite literally resurrected.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The suspense is competently cranked up too, resisting the temptation to throw in too many fake jump scares (although there are a couple just to keep you on your toes). Michael Myers is a scary enough character to generate tension just by the fact that he's lurking in the background somewhere and the makers of H2018 know this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The kills are plentiful and surprisingly brutal but this isn't an enterprise which wallows in its gore. It earns its 18 certificate, don't get me wrong, but it isn't a movie which is keen to rub its viewers faces in bloodied viscera and the on- and off-screen murders are balanced rather well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly, Jamie Lee Curtis is great and the movie lights up whenever she's on screen. Even a few tired character developments - including the fact that Laurie Strode is now something of a recluse and also has an alcohol problem - don't get in the way as much as they could because Curtis has the presence and the skill as an actress to transcend all of that. It's testament to her performance that, when she's sidelined for a while - to allow new characters to be woven in the plot - you can't wait for her to show up again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where the film is less successful is in its introduction of those new characters such as Laurie's daughter Karen, played by Judy Greer. This isn't Greer's fault at all - she's saddled with an underwritten character whose chief role is to be exasperated at the "survive at all costs" mentality of Laurie. There's also a "new Loomis" played by Haluk Bilginer who's actually referred to as "the new Loomis" and who provides the film with an especially clunky left-turn towards the end.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Halloween 2018 isn't the train wreck I feared it would be, nor is it the game changer it could have been. Let's face it, it would have had to go some in order to better Carpenter's landmark of the genre but it's an efficient, enjoyable follow-up that's likely to satisfy a large proportion of horror fans. It's also some way better than most of the sequels (which now exist in a parallel universe as a result of this follow-up).</span></div>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-17691279434364372842018-10-14T10:09:00.002-07:002018-10-14T10:09:15.972-07:00MILE 22<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Iko Uwais, Lauren Cohan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer: Lea Carpenter </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Peter Berg</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EVzsWSxtXBo/W6asegCGf8I/AAAAAAAAB6s/TEfclrdJOeEmysnpb3nAF93NNLUNOTuYwCLcBGAs/s1600/Mile%2B22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1200" height="186" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EVzsWSxtXBo/W6asegCGf8I/AAAAAAAAB6s/TEfclrdJOeEmysnpb3nAF93NNLUNOTuYwCLcBGAs/s320/Mile%2B22.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">James Silva (Wahlberg), part of an elite CIA unit called Overwatch, is tasked with locating a missing shipment of caesium before it can be weaponised and used to kill many thousands of people. Indonesian police officer LI Noor (Uwais) turns himself into the American Embassy claiming to know where the caesium is and he'll make that information known if he can be given safe passage out of the country. Of course, there are various other interested factions who want to stop this from happening...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the face of it, Mile 22 is a complex, high-tech espionage thriller with a side order of gunfire and martial arts mayhem, marshalled by a director and star whose previous team-ups have proven their chops with both military manouevres (Lone Survivor) and steadily-wound, reality-grounded suspense (Deepwater Horizon). In actuality, however, it's a bit of a mess. No, make that <i>a lot</i> of a mess.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are numerous moments in both plot and action where it's difficult to know exactly what the hell is going on. Don't get me wrong, I love not knowing where a story is going next but not actually knowing if I'd missed the previous five minutes is just confusing. I looked around the cinema, hoping to catch the gaze of someone else in the audience so I could mouth the words "Do you know what's happening?" but I had no such luck.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The action sequences are edited in such a twitchy manner that the shootouts are robbed of any tension because half of the time you're not sure where anyone is and which person is opening fire on who or what. Worst of all, the major fight in the flick which involves Iko Uwais constantly changes angles - even switching to a view from a security camera - so all you're left with is a headache rather than an adrenaline buzz.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, if you're going to cast Ronda Rousey in a film, I expect to be treated to at least one sequence in which she kicks someone's ass into the middle of next week. Yes, it was a surprise that this didn't happen and I accept that this played against my expectations of how her character arc played out. But she's cast as a bad ass, so would it have been so terrible to give her a moment in which she was allowed to give full vent to her undoubted badassery?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A lot of the above could be mitigated to some degree if the characters were engaging but unfortunately they're some of the grumpiest, downright unpleasant people you'll ever spend ninety minutes with. I'm fine that the CIA's top operatives aren't sweetness and light but this bunch are so aggressively horrible to both their enemies and each other that by about half an hour in I was finding it very difficult to care about them. Or anyone else for that matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which brings me to Lauren Cohan. Loved her in both The Walking Dead and The Boy. Here she's handed one of the most exhaustingly depressing characters in movie history. As Silva's second in command Alex, she's usually being told how terrible her informants are and how she can't really do her job properly. Of course, this is just tough love from Silva who's only pretending to be an arsehole to give Alice extra motivation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Except this isn't true because Silva <i>is</i> a total arsehole, taking a break from said arsehole behaviour only when he decides it's time to be a massive dickhead to all and sundry. Of course, this is because Silva was a gifted kid who had a rough childhood and grew up to be a tactical genius and yes, he might be on the spectrum but dammit! He's the best damned guy they've got. He's just a massive dickhead, that's all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, not only does Alice have to contend with the tantrums of Massive Dickhead, she's also got problems with her ex and her globe-trotting job is seriously getting in the way of spending any time with her kid. Cue awkward phone conversations about access when Silva wants Alice to be leaning on Li Noor and/or thinking how about many people she might have to kill to complete the mission.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Likewise with the Indonesian security, headed by Sam Medina as yet another instantly angry and dislikeable sort. He's there to butt heads with Wahlberg and set up the series of chases and gunfights which make up the bulk of the second half. This also leads to a climactic stand-off between the two which redefines the word "disappointing".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elsewhere, there's a team of Russians monitoring the ongoing action but they're given such scant attention by the story that it's difficult to buy into them as the nominal bad guys or understand their motivation although the story keeps returning to them just a tad too much for them to be a sideshow and a third act reveal lifts the lid on exactly why they're so interested in the mission. It's plausible enough, it ties in well with the earlier events of the plot - and closes the movie on a note that's slightly unexpected - but as with so much about this movie it's vaguely sour and leaves the viewer wondering what the point of the whole thing was.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, Mile 22 isn't worth the trip. The journey is frustratingly lacklustre and the destination is disappointing.</span><br />
<br />Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-8380262304929205182018-09-01T13:26:00.001-07:002018-09-02T12:14:45.677-07:00SLENDER MAN<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer: David Birke</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Sylvain White</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BBPgBCIZanM/W4UgDdovCVI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/yvKL4b2emLMVbITMxdVyaS801Pfy0mpWQCLcBGAs/s1600/Slender%2BMan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BBPgBCIZanM/W4UgDdovCVI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/yvKL4b2emLMVbITMxdVyaS801Pfy0mpWQCLcBGAs/s1600/Slender%2BMan.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Four teenage friends interested in the urban legend of the Slender Man decide to participate in a ritual which will supposedly summon him. A week later, one of them disappears and it becomes apparent that she wanted the Slender Man to take her, leaving the remaining three with the task of somehow getting her back...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To say Slender Man was a troubled production is probably something of an understatement. With its featured mythical character previously cited as the motivation for a particularly brutal stabbing committed by two 12-year-old girls in Wisconsin, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to push on with the movie it but here it is, sneaking out almost apologetically with few trailers, scant publicity and reports of a studio who had shown little or no support for the project.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To add to this, Screen Gems had insisted on a lower, more teen-friendly rating for the movie, the original script underwent radical changes and several scenes were removed over fear of viewer backlash had they been left in the completed product. Is there any way that the movie could somehow transcend all of these things and end up being surprisingly brilliant?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Absolutely not is the short answer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Slender Man is a total mess from start to finish. The changes to the story are also writ large upon the screen as plot threads are picked up and then dropped unceremoniously, characters - even major ones - drift in and out of the proceedings seemingly at random and the tone is uncertain throughout. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The dialogue is often dreadful, most of it being of the type that would only ever be said by teenagers in a movie. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The powers of the Slender Man are dealt with somewhat inconsistently, setting him up as an entity who can bend reality and take whoever has invoked a connection with him but then having him not do that very thing on several occasions where he quite easily could have. He's unstoppable but this only seems to apply to those moments where the plot requires him to be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Worse still, it's not scary in the slightest. The Slender Man himself may be an interesting creation but he doesn't generate the necessary dread and the film relies instead on a tiresome series of mechanical jump scares which even the most casual horror fan will consider hackneyed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Visually it's one of the least inspiring fright flicks of late, its washed-out palette never catching the eye. Even the Slender Man's forest domain, with its tentacle-style branches, comes over as something that's been done before, many times, in much more impressive fashion. Elsewhere, the by-the-numbers camerawork doesn't immerse the viewer in the situation one little bit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The performances are.....well, you know what? The performances are actually the best thing about this whole sorry business. Despite the utterly inane lines they're saddled with for most of the running time, Slender Man's young leads are all rather watchable, Julia Goldani Telles being the pick of the bunch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flat, suspenseless and remarkably dull, Slender Man makes 93 minutes feel like an eternity and for me it's the worst mainstream horror release in a very long time. Its talented cast deserves so much better. Chances of this film getting a sequel? Slender, I think.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-74455072163069359422018-09-01T09:06:00.001-07:002018-09-01T09:06:09.652-07:00UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: Colin Woodell, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Betty Gabriel</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer: Stephen Susco</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Stephen Susco</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UgPAmVhrJ9s/W3bPZb75tCI/AAAAAAAAB5g/vsA7r7ilYq0LEuxn344xn4r0p6GyORiiQCLcBGAs/s1600/Unfriended%2BDark%2BWeb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="543" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UgPAmVhrJ9s/W3bPZb75tCI/AAAAAAAAB5g/vsA7r7ilYq0LEuxn344xn4r0p6GyORiiQCLcBGAs/s320/Unfriended%2BDark%2BWeb.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After an amusing opening sequence in which an unseen user attempts to log in to a computer with a series of passwords - some all too familiar, some obscurely rude - we then see the webcam become active and discover said user is Matias (Woodell) who is glad that his new laptop is way better than the previous "piece of crap" he had, mostly because he can continue working on an app he's been developing which will help him communicate better with deaf </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Setting up a game night (which was apparently the working title of this flick and I'm guessing was ditched when the Bateman/McAdams comedy/thriller of the same name got there first) on Skype with a group of his friends, Matias is also trying to smooth things out with Amaya as their relationship has hit a rocky patch partly because he isn't really committing to learning sign language.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Things, however, are going to get a lot whole worse than a potential break-up when Matias starts to receive strange messages directed at the previous owner of the laptop and it's not long before the previous owner of the laptop themselves gets in touch to say that it was stolen from them and they <i>really</i> want it back. Now don't you go hunting around that hard drive, Matias...whoops, too late...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not going to give any more away of Dark Web because it heads off in some creepy and interesting directions which may not exactly be groundbreaking in terms of the horror genre but provide some solid chills and a couple of satisfying twists as Matias, his friends and even Amaya inevitably find themselves in danger.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The format is very much that of the original Unfriended, with Messenger conversations aplenty and characters appearing on - and occasionally disappearing from - video chat screens. There's buffering - referred to at one point as "the beach ball of death" - as the technology grinds to a halt, image resolutions break down, there's handy interference which obscures potentially awful things which may or may not be about to happen. In short, the usual ticks and tropes of social media which were exploited fairly well by the original movie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dark Web uses all of the above but also layers in an old school bulletin board which has a background animation straight from a level of the first release of Doom and then heads to the other end of the tech spectrum by including a subplot about a cryptocurrency account. These touches are smart without being smart-arsed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director (and writer) Stephen Susco is confident enough in the material not to play it for cheap scares, choosing instead to build the suspense slowly and carefully so that by act three the tension has ratcheted up to a genuinely impressive level. Placing each of the characters in their own window heightens the claustrophobia, as well as giving us just enough of their surroundings in the background to familiarise ourselves with their locations but not quite enough to see what might be lurking outside the view of the webcam.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's probably not too much of a spoiler to reveal that people die in this one. And without reverting to gratuitous gore, what cruel, nasty deaths they are, ushered in by means of a hacked history of the poor victim's online highlights before their fate is engineered in a suitably awful manner. This both sets up the viewer for the kill scene and sets them on edge as to how it will play out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Assured</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> and accomplished, Unfriended: Dark Web may not ultimately trouble anyone's all-time list of horror highs but it delivers its chills in an efficient, enjoyable, entertaining manner and has no qualms about dispatching characters it's taken the trouble to make you care about. Definitely worth making the connection.</span></div>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-34589551882260578702018-08-25T13:21:00.001-07:002018-10-04T09:11:55.190-07:00WHITE OF THE EYE<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: David Keith, Cathy Moriarty, Art Evans</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writers: China Cammell, Donald Cammell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Donald Cammell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8dvra8JJAYo/W3irDO5TwpI/AAAAAAAAB50/3jd7NIRZEF4NfEDO83whHuO-4Ep6c6AEACLcBGAs/s1600/White%2BOf%2BThe%2BEye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="1024" height="277" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8dvra8JJAYo/W3irDO5TwpI/AAAAAAAAB50/3jd7NIRZEF4NfEDO83whHuO-4Ep6c6AEACLcBGAs/s320/White%2BOf%2BThe%2BEye.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ***</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Around the area of Globe in Arizona, wealthy women are being murdered and the prime suspect appears to be hi-fi expert Paul White (Keith) who makes a living installing bespoke sound systems for rich clients. As the investigation into the killings continues, Paul's wife Joan (Moriarty) begins to question just how much she really knows her husband...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With a stylish, dazzlingly shot opening murder sequence and a Mahler-loving detective (Evans) on the case, White Of The Eye instantly sets itself up as a whodunit and then almost immediately heads in the opposite direction, delving into the relationship between Paul and Joan and flashing back to exactly how their paths crossed, a time when everyone was in 70s threads, Joan was driving across country with snazzily-jacketed Mike (Alan Rosenberg) and Paul was sporting the world's most spectacular mullet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At this point, anyone tuning in for a high body count and rivers of gore is going to wonder what the hell is going on and the bulk of the first hour plays out more like a particularly off-beat family drama as the Whites do their best to raise daughter Danielle in the right way and the main threat to their domestic bliss doesn't seem to be an ever-tightening police net but the town's ultimate bored, rich housewife Ann Mason (a disturbingly detached Alberta Watson) who has her sights on Paul.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's the refusal to stick to the expected template of the serial killer movie which makes White Of The Eye so intriguing. The police investigation runs throughout the movie but the film's unconcerned with the mechanics of that procedure and doesn't really focus on generating much in terms of suspense, even if it does throw in a red herring or two from time to time. Neither does it concentrate especially hard on getting to grips with the "why" much beyond one specific scene in which the killer describes their experience of committing murder.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No, this movie has a unique take on familiar themes and if you don't like how it's going about its business it's not going to meet you in the middle. It isn't even going to take so much as a step towards you. You're going to have to do the work here and if you can tap into its skewed world view then there's a lot to enjoy. if not, this is possibly going to be the longest 111 minutes of your life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The performances are generally excellent, even if there's an argument that Keith's character seems to be something of a nutjob from the moment we first meet him. Cathy Moriarty is brilliant to watch as usual - Joan is smart, sassy and a real match for those around her. Evans (who you might recognise from more commercial fare such as Die Hard 2) brings a pleasingly three-dimensional portrayal to what could have been a standard quirky investigator role and Rosenberg is impressive as the "before" and "after" version of Mike.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you even take so much as a cursory glance at Donald Cammell's directorial outings previous to this - Performance (co-directed with Nicolas Roeg) and Demon Seed - these point to a creative talent with absolutely no interest in convention. This holds true for White Of The Eye, contrasting the banality of small town life with the sensationalism of violent, gruesome murders but viewing them through its own eccentrically-crafted filter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The final act is both disconcerting and absolutely bonkers as Paul totally cracks, becoming a genuine threat to the lives of both Joan and Danielle. It's also time for Mike to make a significant re-appearance, leading to an explosive (in all senses of the word) climax. Even this doesn't quite play out as it would in other serial killer flicks, with the complicated dynamic between the principal characters coming to the fore.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And after all of this, White Of The Eye still has one final slice of oddness to serve up, wrapping up with a strange, almost throwaway scene in a diner which ends on a mundane but at the same time bizarre exchange of dialogue, leading the viewer into the credits with a distinct feeling of "Huh?".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It would be easy to give up on this movie early on and its oblique approach doesn't help but this is not a film which is keen to win you over. This is a singular vision from an artist who made films his way and the very fact that this is such a unique experience should give you all the impetus you need to seek this out and soak up the authentic strangeness within.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tragically, Cammell took his own life in 1996 shortly after completing his next film Wild Side, a troubled shoot which resulted in a movie which was drastically recut by its producers who disliked the original version. Donald Cammell left a legacy of just four feature films shot over twenty-five years but every one of them is worth your time. White Of The Eye is a fine example of the Cammell experience: weird, exasperating, beautiful, sometimes impenetrable but ultimately unforgettable. And we should all be grateful that it exists.</span>Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-35403738927348638132018-08-16T17:16:00.001-07:002018-08-17T06:37:46.681-07:00UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB (SCREENING 1)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: Colin Woodell, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Betty Gabriel</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer: Stephen Susco</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Stephen Susco</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FXC_5BtlP3I/W3YEpnbWe1I/AAAAAAAAB5U/eKt6UrJKbDEfMyQ1A73MgVp8SebELv97wCLcBGAs/s1600/Unfriended%2BDark%2BWeb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="543" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FXC_5BtlP3I/W3YEpnbWe1I/AAAAAAAAB5U/eKt6UrJKbDEfMyQ1A73MgVp8SebELv97wCLcBGAs/s320/Unfriended%2BDark%2BWeb.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't think I can review this film properly until I've seen a screening of it in which at least most of those who are supposedly watching it aren't talking through most of its running time. So let's review the behaviour of the audience instead.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Okay, so we get the opening bit, in which various passwords are tried on a start-up screen.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"He's trying passwords."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Heh heh. Password."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Heh heh. Password. In upper case."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Heh heh. Did you see what he just typed?" (It was something rude)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At this point I get two teenagers talking about nothing to do with the movie, just for balance.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then we get the two guys towards the back of the cinema, who seem to be trying material out for their MST3K-style comedy act. It starts badly. No one laughs except them.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Messenger window appears on screen. Someone reads the entire text of the conversation aloud. The person next to them asks how they can see the text as it's quite small.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's some text in French. Someone says they can't understand it. Someone else asks whether or not it's in French. Someone else asks how we're supposed to know what it means. I wait to see if the guy uses Google Translate. He does. There's a hush as the words reveal themselves in English. It's like the audience has discovered fire. Maybe this is the point where everyone finally shuts the hell up.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The hush lasts about another five seconds.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The comedy guys give it another shot but there's nothing much happening on screen and it falls flat once again. Timing is everything.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Video files are discovered on the computer and played. It's reasonably obvious what's going on in most of them but there's a very audible "What's going on?" from one of our fellow viewers.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a Skype conversation with a deaf girl and the possibility of an intruder in her place. A voice says "Why doesn't she know he's there?" I feel myself getting more stupid by osmosis.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Someone is shown two people and given a choice of who lives and dies. Reaction: "Why's she crying?"</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And so it goes on. And on. And on.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />"Who's that girl?" "Isn't she from earlier?" "When?" "Isn't she the girl in the video?" "Which video?"</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"He's going to die." "Yeah, he's going to die." "He's going to die."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The comedy guys get louder, but no funnier.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Someone falls from the roof of a building and is seen next face down on the pavement in a pool of blood. The unsolicited announcement which follows is "They're dead". I'm glad they pointed that out as the fate of the character seemed pretty ambiguous to me. Oh no, hold on, they fell from the roof of a building and they're now face down in a pool of blood.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tension in the movie ramps up considerably. Or it would have done had it not been like sitting in a dimly-lit coffee house trying to watch the movie while trying to ignore the conversations of a dozen other people.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CCTV footage plays - you know what's probably coming next, but someone's there to comment loudly upon it anyway, just to batter any last, tiny iota of suspense out of the sequence.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two people leave when they think the movie is over, strolling past most of the audience then in front of the screen and out of the door, meaning they miss the final reveal. Clue: it was still pitch black in the cinema, they'll raise the lights when the flick is actually done.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The comedy guys give it one last shot as the credits roll, but yet again their banter doesn't land. The two teenagers continue to babble on as they leave the auditorium, having now managed to chatter continuously since the ads began without pausing for breath.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The credits roll. Someone near me says it was a terrible film, which is amazing considering they spent most of it looking at their phone (thanks for lighting up the surrounding area, it was very considerate of you). I make my way out of the place, passing a guy a few rows from the front. He looks fed up and seems to be shaking his head at the rest of us.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hey, I felt your pain and at that point I was slightly ashamed of the fact I didn't stand up and say something early on in the film but how do you get a whole bunch of people to be quiet when there's just one of you to do it?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will go to see this again and I hope to be able to review the film itself next time. At far as this screening goes, I'd like to thank those around me tonight for making it such a wretched, frustrating experience. I'd suggest to them how they'd feel if someone sat next to them and constantly disrupted their enjoyment of something they liked but with such short attention spans I don't think it would make any difference to them.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If I want to talk to someone for 90 minutes, I go for a coffee with them, maybe have dinner. I don't sit in a cinema. Call me old-fashioned. Also, call me very pissed off for having my night at the flicks spoiled. End of message.</span></div>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-38979975251881134522018-08-10T10:47:00.002-07:002018-08-10T10:47:52.766-07:00MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer: Christopher McQuarrie</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Christopher McQuarrie</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aJp2LX8cqkc/W137DfDNP2I/AAAAAAAAB4k/LkjYg2yMh70MzgJuee2mATYGspPkQo0ggCLcBGAs/s1600/Mission%2BImpossible%2BFallout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1018" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aJp2LX8cqkc/W137DfDNP2I/AAAAAAAAB4k/LkjYg2yMh70MzgJuee2mATYGspPkQo0ggCLcBGAs/s320/Mission%2BImpossible%2BFallout.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ***</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latest movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise sees Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team on the trail of three missing plutonium cores which some very bad guys intend to use in nuclear bombs. In addition to the usual team, buff, perma-scowly CIA agent Walker (Cavill) is also along for the ride.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hunt's path will also cross not only with that of old foe Solomon Kane (Sean Harris) but also on/off MI6 agent - and cool, classy kicker of arse - Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). What do these two have to do with the plot? I think I know, having watched it, but to quote some dialogue directly from the movie it's "f***ing complicated".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Opening with the classic self-destroying message being delivered to Hunt, MI: Fallout then takes off at a fair old clip and somehow manages to pick up the pace from there, delivering turn upon twist upon double cross upon betrayal as it races from location to location courtesy of a series of dizzying and ever more frantic action set-pieces.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fact that the movie almost never stops for breath means that you rarely have time to process the quite frankly bonkers plot. Even when Hunt stops off for a drink with shady arms dealer White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) it soon turns into a punch-up. You get the feeling that Ethan Hunt doesn't even get any peace when he goes to the bathroom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Actually, he doesn't get any peace when he goes to the bathroom as there's a fight in there too which destroys most of the place. You get the feeling that the best thing for Ethan Hunt to do would be to get on his motorbike and take a leisurely ride around the streets of a European city.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Except that the European city is Paris and he's just hijacked a convoy which was transporting a very, very bad guy</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and now he's getting chased by what seems to be half of the police force there. Oh, and he's going the wrong way around the roundabout at the Arc De Triomphe. What he needs is to see the world from the air, away from all of that chaos on the ground.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Except that he's got himself aboard a helicopter which is chasing another helicopter because on the other helicopter is...I think you get the idea now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you saw Mad Max: Fury Road, do you remember just how much action was in it? We're talking those levels here and most of it centres on Cruise in all of his HALO jumping, running, climbing, driving, riding, shooting and thumping glory. It's absolutely bloody exhausting just watching him go about his work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, as an action flick this is chock-full of the stuff and there are very few chances to catch your breath even though this is the longest Mission: Impossible film, clocking in at a bum-numbing 147 minutes. In fact, there's so much that there is a slight risk of fatigue setting in. However, Fallout routinely outdoes itself in terms of eye-saucering stunts and, for good measure, throws in a climatic race against the clock where the stakes suddenly become even higher for Hunt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, it's Cruise's movie but the supporting cast generally get their own moments in the spotlight, even if there's <i>never</i> enough of Ving Rhames. Rebecca Ferguson, so good in Rogue Nation, makes a welcome return to the fold, kicking some serious arse in the process. Simon Pegg has the reluctant geek-turned-field op routine down pat and Cavill makes an impact, both figuratively and literally. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The scene where he and Cruise attempt to capture a bad guy in a rather posh (for about 20 seconds) bathroom is a hyper-kinetic, bruising encounter and would be the highlight of most other movies but in this film it's just one of half a dozen sequences vying for that title.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I now feel sorry for any action movie that's released from this point onwards - and that includes the next chapter of this franchise - as it'll almost certainly be judged against this one. For now, choose to accept this mission. This review will self-destruct in five seconds...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">4...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">3...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">2...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">1...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">....nah, it won't.</span></div>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673200406811202959.post-85376232964320590602018-07-29T04:36:00.001-07:002018-07-29T04:36:32.014-07:00HOTEL ARTEMIS<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starring: Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writer: Drew Pearce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director: Drew Pearce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gY5xVtBjXDA/W12J2xL8DxI/AAAAAAAAB4Y/2C0QpOqBeOkXhBjrq5sluU3oQ5Pj3Om3gCLcBGAs/s1600/Hotel%2BArtemis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gY5xVtBjXDA/W12J2xL8DxI/AAAAAAAAB4Y/2C0QpOqBeOkXhBjrq5sluU3oQ5Pj3Om3gCLcBGAs/s320/Hotel%2BArtemis.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ***</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the wake of a bank heist that's gone spectacularly wrong, career criminal Brown hauls his injured self and his even more shot-up brother to the titular hotel where a no-nonsense Nurse (Foster) runs an emergency healthcare centre for those who can't get patched up in a normal hospital without being arrested. The rules of the place? No real names, no guns, no cops and no killing the other patients.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, period of convalescence, slip out without being noticed by the cops, right? Well, as you'd expect, there are complications. For starters, there's a riot going on in the city and it's edging ever closer to the hotel. Brown's brother needs a 3D-printed replacement liver which may or may not take.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a beautiful, deadly assassin (Boutella) with whom Brown has a certain amount of history. There's an arms dealer (played by Charlie Day) whose M.O. is to be a monumental pain in the arse. There's a seriously wounded crime boss on his way in and he's going to cause trouble for absolutely everyone, one way or another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you saw the trailer for Hotel Artemis before seeing the movie you'd be forgiven for thinking it would be 94 minutes of breathless, blazing action and to be fair there are effective bursts of the slam-bang stuff, a corridor-set scrap between Boutella and multiple assailants being a highlight. However, it's more of a character-led thriller as our various ne-er-do-wells converge, crack wise and criss-cross each other in a plot that conveniently connects them all without feeling overly forced.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another thing the trailer arguably teases is a lot more of Jeff Goldblum and Zachary Quinto than you end up getting. Their appearances in this amount to little more than extended cameos, which will inevitably leave some viewers feeling a little short-changed. Goldblum is typically great, though, his trademark laconic delivery laced with real menace. Quinto, as Goldblum's hot-headed son, isn't given enough to work with but still manages to make his mark.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Action fans may be disappointed, sure, and the movie certainly wears a few crime movie tropes on its sleeve - for instance, the characters are given code names based upon the room they're staying in, Brown being given the handle "Waikiki" - but its the back and forth between our anti-heroes which keeps things interesting even if you have that faint feeling of having seen all of this before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course, Hotel Artemis' trump card is having Jodie Foster front and centre amidst the escalating chaos and unsurprisingly she commands the film, dishing out spiky banter to all and sundry, including fellow healthcare professional Dave Bautista. The exchanges between them are amusingly grouchy and yet there's real warmth under the surface as they fight to save their patients and ultimately both themselves and the Artemis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It may be interesting to know why Foster chose this particular movie as her return to the screen after several years away but to be honest I'm not especially interested in the whys and wherefores, it's just good to see her back. Hotel Artemis is far from perfect and there are points during the story where the proceedings seem to be treading water a tad too much but this is Jodie's movie and she reminds us of how terrific a performer she is, playing a troubled, careworn soul who pulls the viewer into her plight and doesn't let go. She's so good that even the odd clunky line is given resonance and heart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elsewhere, Brown is engaging as the default "hero" of the piece and it's good to see that the script resists the temptation to turn him into an irresistible force in the story's climax, staying consistent to the character as he relies on his smarts above firepower as he tries to make it out alive. It's Boutella who is by far the most dangerous here, serving up a smart, seductive slayer who could easily kill you with a piece of a broken coffee cup.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The ending manages somehow to be both messy and a little too neat at the same time (you'll have to watch this to see what I mean) as the various plot strands are yanked together to create even more conflict, leading to one potentially fascinating set of "what happened next?" questions which are suddenly ditched as the story throws in one last twist. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, this did make matters slightly less interesting but this final turn is more of an audience pleaser so it would be churlish of me to gripe about it too much. There's also a hint of a particular character's hitherto unknown fate during a brief sequence which cuts into the closing credits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hotel Artemis, as a film, is a reflection of its characters, setting itself up as one thing and then revealing something quite different. Anyone expecting a bullet ballet and nothing may leave frustrated but its quirks and accomplished cast won me over. It may not be getting the highest ratings on Trip Advisor but the stay was certainly interesting and it's worth checking in to if only to see Jodie Foster on top form.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
Darren Gaskellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03716195089364272203noreply@blogger.com0