Year: 2018
Film Review: BAD SAMARITAN (USA 2017) ***
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A pair of burglars stumble upon a woman being held captive in a home they intended to rob.
Director:
Writer:
Brandon Boyce (screenplay)
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The film BAD SAMARITAN centres on young Sean Falco (Robert Sheedan), the bad Samaritan of the title who leaves a kidnapped woman in the house he is robbing only to feel guilty after and deciding to help her. The problem is the kidnapper. The kidnapper is a filthy rich psycho who has made it his goal to destroy Sean’s life. And so the story goes in this occasionally scary horror thriller.
The film opens with Sean Falco and his best friend Derek Sandoval (Carlito Olivero) working as parking valets for a high end Italian restaurant. They have the tech ability of finding the information from the cars they park and to use the information to rob the houses of these clients. This is not the first film based on this premise. The recent Canadian drama BOOST turned the scenario into the young robber’s coming-of-rites passage turing BOOST to become one of the Best Canadian debut features of the year. BAD SAMARITAN takes a different route as a horror thriller with the victim becoming the predator in what essentially is a slasher horror flick. But as a slasher flick, Devlin’s film succeeds and delivers quite a few jump out of your seat genuine scares. The film also plays to like a abduction thriller similar to HOUSE and SPLIT. Robert Sheehan is sufficiently apt in the title role of the young lead, though the film never explains the character’s strong Irish accent.
The success of a thriller or action film often depends largely on the effectiveness of the villain. As in the recent AVENGERS INFINITY WAR that had an excellent villain in the form of Josh Brolin’s Thanos, BAD SAMARITAN’s bad guy is so evil that the entire audience will be at the point of cheering aloud when he gets his comeuppance at the end. Full credit to David Tennant as the evil beyond comparison Cale Erendreich, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Anthony Perkins. This is especially apparent in the shower scene (director Deviln’s clever nod to Hitchcock’s PSYCHO) when Cale shows up in Sean’s residence while he is taking a shower. Audiences should be pleased too at spotting a few other Hitchcock references.
The film contains a brief episode showing Sean with his parents. Both his father followed by his mother have lost their jobs, from Cale’s orchestration to punish Sean. The parents move to a hotel but nothing more is seen of them.
Devlin devices a few brilliant suspenseful set-ups, the best of these is the one that has Sean lying low in his car parked outside the villain’s house while the villain sees his vehicle and walks towards it. A few false alarms allow the audience to jump out of their seats proving that it is fun to be scared in a movie. The film’s climax is well executed with the suspense and thrills escalating to a high point.
The film suffers from a weird ending (not revealed in the review) desperate to contain a twist in the story. Other than that, BAD SAMARITAN is a solid scary horror thriller that comes recommended.
Film Review: THE SEAGULL (USA 2018) ***1/2
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An aging actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin on a country estate. On one occasion, she brings Trigorin, a …See full summary »
Director:
Writers:
Anton Chekhov (play), Stephen Karam (screenplay)
Stars:
THE SEAGULL, Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov’s first of 4 plays became one of the greatest plays in the history of Russian Theatre when Konstantin Stanislavsky directed it in 1898 for his Moscow Art Theatre. I have never read or seen Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL even though there are previous film adaptations of the play including one directed by Sidney Lumet. So, watching the film unfold, flaws and all, is still an unforgettable experience given the strength of its source material.
The story features four main characters, Irina, her son Konstantin, her lover, Boris and the son’s love, Nina – all torn between love and art.
An aging actress named Irina Arkadina (Annette Bening) pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin (Brian Dennehy) and her son Konstantin (Billy Howle) on a country estate. On one occasion, she brings Boris Trigorin (Corely Stoll) a successful novelist and her lover. Nina (Saoirse Ronan), a free and innocent girl from a neighbouring estate who is in a relationship with Konstantin, falls in love with Boris.
The film begins with the climax of the play and returns to it after the main story folds in flashback, a tactic used by director Mayer for the film. This is a common tactic in films to grab the audience’s attention at the start while bringing them back to the same state at a later part of the film. The tactic often works and works in this film as well. The brother Sorin is ill and dying while Irina visits and engages the guests in a game of ‘lotto’ a kind of bingo while something drastic takes place with her son in a back room that climaxes the story and ends the film. But quite the drama has occurred prior to this set of affairs with lives and loves being interchanged as well as unrequited love torn away from a poor woman’s heart. This is the stuff Chekov’s play is born of. Included in the story is the scene where Konstantine shoot and kills an innocent seagull (the story’s metaphor) which is placed at the feet of his true love, Nina.
There are lots of unrequited love in the story, that of Irina, her son and mostly Marsha’s (Elisabeth Moss). Irina brings to the estate the successful playwright, Boris Trigorin who falls for actress wannabe, Nina who falls for him. It is a question of he not able to get what he wants and she not able to get what she wants while each having the quality the oner desires. There is more irony in the artistic play that Konstantin writes that his mother makes fun of. Besides all this fantastic Chekov writing that is incredibly brilliant the way he brings it all together, director Mayer occasionally eclipses the brilliance with his touches. This includes, for example the scene where Konstantin makes silly ‘tweetie-bird’ faces in the mirror while his mother is desperately claiming possession in the next room, or when Kosntatntin plays the piano, the music complementing the activities going on again, in the next room.
The film, which looks fantastic (cinematography by Matthew J. Lloyd) was shot on
location at a New York State manor, using almost all natural light. In the nighttime scenes, 95 % of what you see is actually from candle light.
THE SEAGULL benefits greatly again from its actors, particularly its 3 main actresses Benign, Moss and Ronan. Relative newcomer British Billy Howle proves his acting chops as well in quite the major role. There are many reasons to see THE SEAGULL – the performances, the currently relevant tale of art and romance but especially if you are unfamiliar with this Chekhov play.
Director Mayer, who is a Tony Award Winning theatre director (SPRING AWAKENING) should do Chekhov proud with this film adaptation of THE SEAGULL.
Hot Doc 2018: THE SILENCE OF OTHERS (Spain/USA 2018) ***1/2
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The Silence of Others reveals the epic struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, who continue to seek justice to this day. Filmed over six years, the film …See full summary »
Directors:
Writers:
Stars:
One of the biggest docs to premiere at Toronto’s HOT DOS 2018 this year is Pedro Almodovar’s presentation of THE SILENCE OF OTHERS, a film about the evil of the Franco regime of 40 years. The film gets personal at the film’s start when a 90-ish old women places flowers at the side of the road.
She is still mourning the death of her mother, who was taken away by the townsfolk way back in the 30’s and left by the side of the road. Her body was not allowed to be taken to the cemetery. Footage taken in 1936 the shows Franco next to Hitler followed by massacre of rows of people and other injustices such as brutal beatings by Franco troops. All the above occurs within the first 5 minutes of the film so the audience is primed for a solid riveting historical documentary. This elderly woman is just one person seeking just for inhumanities done during the Franco regime. She and many others want their relatives’ graves exhumed for their remains. Others were tortured by officials in the regime. They,understandably want justice.
The film follows a select few of those who suffered under the Franco regime. Many want the torturers punished and go to jail while others want the bodies of their dead ones back for proper burial. The film centres on their emotions especially showing their joy and relief after the courts have passed sentence.
Trailer: http://www.critic.de/film/the-silence-of-others-11676/trailer/
Film Review: TULLY (USA 2018) ***
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The film is about Marlo, a mother of three including a newborn, who is gifted a night nanny by her brother. Hesitant to the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with the… See full summary »
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Writer:
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TULLY (is the name of the night nanny) a couple hires to help them through the difficult time of nursing a new born baby. The story follows a loving couple, Marlo (Charlize Theron) and her livable but often clueless husband (Ron Livingston). They are a middle-aged couple with a son who is attention challenged and has to be given special attention in a special school. When the film opens, Marlo is having a candid talk with the school councillor when she is ‘politely ’told her son should switch schools. In the meantime, Marlo is pregnant with third child. During a party, Marlo’s extremely wealthy brother (Mark Duplass, who appears to be just relishing his role) gives her a paid night nanny as a gift so the couple would not have to deal with the additional stress of having a third child. This is the story – how everyone, including the nanny herself, learns and gains insight from the introduction of a stranger to the family.
This is a female film, fascinating from a man’s point of view for there is so much to be learnt and noticed in the story of a woman going through motherhood again and through a mid-life daily crisis. Her husband likely needs to take major lessons as well. The mommy-milk making machine took me by surprise.
Diablo’s script is noticeably manipulative. The “I love us” dialogue is too coy. Tully does not appear in the film till the 30-minute mark. Reitman is setting the audience up for Tully to show up and do miraculous wonders. Before this time, Marlo is undergoing all the stresses of motherhood including sore nipples, spilled milk, dirty diapers and baby crying at the worse times. Tully always has the right thing to say and knows the right thing to do at the best moment. Marlo, on the otter hand, is flustered constantly but always saved by her. Marlo is given an unbelievably nice husband who the audience is led to believe, will let his wife watch him have sex with another woman.
Charlize Theron proves she has the guts to bear all in this emotionally devastating role. She is unafraid to show her frumpy side, when her teats have gone to bits and looking especially unattractive as in the shot where she is shown jogging next to a fit, slimmer and fitter jogger. (Her recent appearances vela her back to her gorgeous self.)
TULLY should be more of a crowd-pleaser with perhaps some insightful message the audience can take home to make the world a better place, but this does not happen. The film lacks the magic. One reason could be that all the trouble faced by Marlo and her husband are personal and self induced. It also shows that the nanny is just as faulty a human being as her employer, if fact worse, in terms of the romancing element.
As a film (the third collaboration between Reitman,scriptwriter Dianlo Cody and Theron, TULLY falls below standard of Reitman’s best films JUNO and UP IN THE AIR. TULLY just proves that Reitman knows how to make a female movie.
WAJOOD (SELFHOOD) Short Film – AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Video from the LGBT June 2017 Festival
Wajood (Selfhood) revolves around a young hijra’s (trans-woman) life in Mumbai, who seems to fancy herself with an auto-rickshaw driver. When confronted by the elders of her community about her unrealistic expectations, she goes on a subconscious quest to know if somebody will ever fall in love with her. Or, is this thought as naive as told by everyone around her?
- Vishal SrivastavaDirector
- Vishal SrivastavaWriter
- Vishal SrivastavaProducer
- Pranit HatteKey Cast
- Randhir ChaudharyKey Cast
- Madhuri SarodeKey Cast
- Kshitij GeraKey Cast
Project Links
- Film Type:Short
- Genres:Romance, Drama, LGBT, India, Trans, Love
- Runtime:11 minutes 30 seconds
- Completion Date:January 1, 2017
- Production Budget:3,000 USD
- Country of Origin:India
- Country of Filming:India
- Film Language:Hindi
- Shooting Format:Digital
- Film Color:Color
UNTIL DEATH DO US PART Short Film – Audience Feedback from August 2017 Film Festival
UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, 8min, USA, LGBT, Documentary
Directed by Kristine Kirchmeier
Young newlyweds Megan and Danielle Love immediately have their wedding vows put to the test after Megan is diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer a few weeks after they’re married.
CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!
MASQUERADING: TO HELL AND BACK Short Film – Audience FEEDBACK from the Dec. 2017 LGBT Festival
| MASQUERADING: TO HELL AND BACK, 13min., South Africa, LGBT/Documentary Directed by Sofia De Fay Two hilarious and eccentric old drag queens living in Cape Town, South Africa remember their lives and how they survived years of brutal and terrifying discrimination. The fifty year old drag queens remember the apartheid years, where up till 1994 in South Africa it was illegal to “masquerade” as the opposite sex. CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film! |
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