SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: DAY X

DAY X (TAG X) (2019)

Starring: Carina Diesing, Tobias Kay, Reinhard Paul Seyer

Writers: Manuel Weiss, Jessica Renelt

Director: Manuel Weiss

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING (2020)

Starring: Samuel Nicholls, Emma-Kate Barry, Charlie Howard

Writer: Harvard John

Director: Harvard John

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: VHS MASSACRE TOO

VHS MASSACRE TOO (2020)

Starring: Lots of folks

Director: Thomas Edward Seymour

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Also, The Howling VII, anyone? You've got to see this just to find out about that.

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: LIKE

LIKE (2019)

Starring: Rebecca McDiarmid, Brodie Young, Fiona Whitelaw

Writer: Michael Frank

Director: Michael Frank

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: AMERICAN SCIFI

AMERICAN SCIFI (2020)

Starring: Hannah Swayze, Robert Hoffman, Chris McElroy

Writers: Chris McElroy, Corey Schmalzle

Director: Chris McElroy

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 2020: EXIT

EXIT (2020)

Starring: Billy James Machin, Leonarda Sahani, Christophe Delesques, Charlotte Gould

Writer: Matthew Bayliss

Director: Michael Fausti

 
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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

MY TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2018

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.

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.

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.

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.

Okay, let's go...

BLACKKKLANSMAN

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...

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.

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 beliefs.

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.

BLINDSPOTTING

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 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. Can he negotiate all of these problems to land himself on the straight and narrow?

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.

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.

THE BREADWINNER

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.

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.

An honest, emotionally-charged piece of work, this demonstrates perfectly that animation can be as affecting as any other film genre.

THE ENDLESS

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.

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.

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?

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. 

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.

LEAVE NO TRACE

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.

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.

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.

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.

LIFECHANGER

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".

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.

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.

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.

MANDY

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...

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.

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.

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.

I also know that a lot of you out there absolutely hated 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.



ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

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.

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.

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.

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.

POM! 

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

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...

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.

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? 

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

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.

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.

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.

Troubling? Yes. Problematic? Certainly. One of my favourites of 2018? Definitely. 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:

Blue My Mind - 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.

Ghost Stories - 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.

Knife+Heart -  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.

The Nurse With The Purple Hair - 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.

A Quiet Place - 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.

Revenge - 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.

The Shape Of Water - 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.

Tigers Are Not Afraid - 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.

Upgrade - 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.

Wolfman's Got Nards - 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.

You Were Never Really Here - 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.