Kierston Drier

Movie Review: DEVIL WEARS A SUIT, (Australia) LGBT, Sci-Fi

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Played at the June 2017 LGBT Toronto Film Festival

Directed by Eli Mak

A high-concept drama/scifi about a Jewish boy who must decide whether to ‘cure’ his homosexuality with an injection or be ostracised from his community forever.

CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!

Review by Kierston Drier

 Some films make you laugh, some make you think. Some punch you in the gut and break your heart. Few do this so well as DEVIL WEARS A SUIT, coming to us from Australia by Director Eli Mak.

In this transcendent science-fiction piece, teenage Adam from an established Jewish household, must submit to a homosexulity test at his school. If he fails and is shown to be gay, he will be kicked out of school and likely disowned by his family and community. But sweeping the world is a new homosexuality “cure”- an injection that can “make your straight.”

Adam considers his options and goes to buy the cure, when he runs into an old friend from high school he hasn’t seen in years, Jarred. It turns out Jarred didn’t move to Israel as his family has said. Jarred didn’t pass the homosexuality test years before, and is now living in near squalor conditions, a social outcast from his community. Seeing what Jarred has, and what he gave up in order to live the life he wanted, Adam must question what his freedom is worth.

Academically speaking, science fiction is a medium of storytelling that addresses a current issues, softened through the lenses of the almost-unbelieveable. When we think of the areas in the world where people must hide and conceal their sexuality for fear of ostracization, it becomes terrifyingly easy to believe a “cure” like the one is this movie might be utilized, even in today’s society. But at what cost to human lives?

Not only is DEVIL WEARS A SUIT beautifully shot, superbly casted and performed and stunningly cinematic, it’s story will leave you breathless. It’s impact will resonate with anyone who has ever questioned what a life without love is worth. It will throw into sharp focus the lengths people can go to in order to conform. DEVIL WEARS A SUIT has an ominous undertone, that foreshadows the outcome of a world that puts conditions of love.

This is science fiction at it’s finest, and it is cinema at it’s most engaging. A special note must be made to the exceptionally well chosen and well executed score, for the music in the piece adds a rich emotional element.

Bravo, Eli Mak. DEVIL WEARS A SUIT is a multifaceted, deeply layered, dramatic, emotional, thought-provoking and fundamentally beautiful film. See it.

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Movie Review: MASC ONLY (USA) LGBT, Comedy

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Played at the June 2017 LGBT Toronto Film Festival

Directed by Drew Droege

Gay best friends, Tommy and Wesley, unwittingly venture to an intimidating party hosted by the gay elite. 

CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!

Review by Kierston Drier

This racus American Comic short is a delight to the senses. Tommy is a young gay man living in New York and frustrated with his life. Why? Because he lives in the classic cliche of his community. His friends, even his best friend Wesley, are vain, superficial, sassy and larger-than-life. Acquaintances and potential lovers distill him down to a walking stereotype and it’s getting on his nerves.

Yet when Wesley invites Tommy to a party hosted by upper class gay elite, Wesley goes- looking for love, lust, a good time? He’s not sure, but something fun has to happen, right?

What is brilliant about MASC ONLY is that our character it butting against the bubble he’s been put in, while still having to actively engage in it. And this deeper social commentary is hidden within the piece, covered over by layers and layers of raucous, laugh-a-minute comedy. The piece has no bad lines, no dead air and no dull moments. It escalates higher and higher with physical and visual comedy, while still sparkling with wit. The performances are fantastic! You will laugh at every turn, but you will leave the theatre thinking.

This piece looks like a comedy and acts like a comedy, but within it beats the heart of deep social satire. A worthy watch indeed. To director Drew Droege, well done.

 

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Movie Review: HOW TO BE ALONE (Israel), LGBT, Drama

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Played at the June 2017 LGBT Toronto Film Festival

Directed by Erez Eisenstein

Relying on “How To Be Alone” – a self-improvement audio book – a heartbroken woman, struggling with her lonesome existence, decides to embrace solitude and to learn how to survive without love. 

CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!

Review by Kierston Drier

 HOW TO BE ALONE is a pensive film. Coming to us from Israel from director Erez Eisentein, this is a piece that makes you question introversion and healing from a broken heart. Our heroine, a newly single woman gets a self-help audio book about solitude, and following its’ advice, beings to live a life alone.

Regardless of the stoic, yet occasionally humorous advice the audio-book gives her, our protagonist can not seem to shake the image of her lover from her mind. Can her life be lead to it’s fullest without love in it? Will this book with it’s lonely advice deliver her to happiness and self-sufficiency, or will it drive her crazy?

This piece is a thinking piece. It takes us in, and engulfs us in our hero’s world so completely, that by the emotionally packed final scenes we are left to wonder if the book is real, or if it is all in her head.

A testament to good filmmaking, by the end of this film, we watch our hero take a plunge to get her lover back, and we are filled with the overwhelming urge to tell her to stop. Only a well crafted film could make a viewer feel so strongly for the hero’s well being.

Eisenstein has done an excellent job on examining love and human relationships through the lenses of solitude, while crafting emotion with a character that rarely speaks in the film. Silence and space are characters as much as our hero and her lover are. An introspective and poignant cinematic short.

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Movie Review: WAJOOD (SELFHOOD) (India) LGBT, Drama/Romance

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Played at the June 2017 LGBT Toronto Film Festival

Directed by Vishal Srivastava

Revolves around a young hijra’s (trans-woman) life, 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 quest to know if somebody will ever fall in love with her or is this thought as naive as told by everyone around her? 

CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!

Review by Kierston Drier

WAJOOD, or Selfhood, is a powerful short coming to us from Indian by director Vishal Srivastava. Bright with colors and boasting gorgeous cinematography, this piece sheds light on a little known part of Indian culture. The Hijra, known as the Third Gender, are a community of transwomen who are often misunderstood and shunned in society.

Yet WAJOOD takes a look at this section of society kind, compassionate and sensitive eyes. We follow our heroine through her emotional journey of dissecting her sense of self. She pines for the attractive rickshaw driver near her community, and wakes every morning to watch him. But her community members remind her that there is no future for people like herself. Her fate has been determined- she is not to be understood, and not to find conventional love. Her life, will be a lonely one. Yet a kind stranger will change her mind about what it means to be who she is.

What make WAJOOD special is it’s bravery. It tackles a topic worthy of discussion, about a group deserving of attention. More than that, it stands before adversity and shouts for recognition. But it will charm you as it does so. It will charm you with its stunning images, it’s entrancing music and it’s’ undeniably lovable and sympathetic main character.

If you watch WAJOOD, you may not identify with my main character right away, but you will love her. WAJOOD reminds us that we are far more similar that we are different.

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Movie Review: SHAPING SCARS (UK) LGBT, Dance

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Played at the June 2017 LGBT Toronto Film Festival

Directed by Zsolti Szabo

A dance journey about two girls who once loved each other, but while one is able to embrace herself openly (and therefore their relationship), the other is struggling to step into the light and shake off her demons.

CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!

Review by Kierston Drier

This 7 minute UK experimental Dance piece is a gorgeous intimate dance piece set to a riveting and sparkling slam poem. Director Zsolti Szabo must be commended on the vision behind the work, for not only is a stunning visual dance performance, but film captures its intricacies and puts the performers talents under a microscope.

Two dancer go through the motions (both symbolically and literally) of a relationship gone wrong. Beautifully choreographed and light, a special nod must be given to the performers who engage in the incredibly intricate dance and the spoken word artist who performs the piece.

What sets this piece apart from the usual, is the camera work! The shots in this piece give the feeling that you are standing right beside the dancers. Turely, as much choreography was needed for the camera person as for the dancers themselves. If the film is the eye through which we see this art, then SHAPING SCARS invites you to join the dance.

The film itself has a deeper symbolic meaning as well. Our dancers are partners, but their love is not meant to be. Perhaps what is so touching about this piece is that underneath the vibrant poetics and stunning visuals is a message: that it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. A film worth seeing, if for nothing else than that.

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Movie Review: THE 3RD TRY (USA) LGBT, Drama

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Played at the June 2017 LGBT Toronto Film Festival

Directed by Alfonso Rodriguez

An emotionally unstable lesbian couple tries to find solace after experiencing a traumatic loss.

CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!

Review by Kierston Drier

In 5 short minutes, this USA film directed by Alfonso Rodriguez will pull you in, break your heart and fill you with hope. Efficient, cutting and a packing a home-run in right in the “feels” The 3rd Try is nothing short of breath taking in its simplicity.

We barely know our main characters, except that they are couple desperate to turn their loving union into a bigger family, but for whatever reason they are never able to have a child.

Part of what is excellent about this piece, is that is not weighed down with expositional, and unnecessary dialogue. It doesn’t tell you what is exactly causing the couple’s’ pain- just that, once again, they are not having the baby they were hoping for.

It is a pain not exclusive to the LGTB community, but a pain certainly not foreign to the community either. The hope, joy, anxiety, disappointment and pain associated with expectation and loss of a child is universal. That is one of the strongest parts of this piece- anyone who has ever contemplated the love and loss of anticipated parenthood is included in this couples tragedy.

But what sets this film above others is its unquestioning resilience. Every tragedy must include hope. And this piece does not fail to deliver that either.

If you have a heart, The 3rd Try will move you. Exceptionally well acted and exquisitely cast, beautifully simply and utterly impactful, this is a film not to miss.

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Film Review: CARGO (Netherlands)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

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On a lonely ship, in the middle of the North Sea, fourteen men work together for a month. Day and night they sail around oilrigs to provide them of supplies. In this world of fellowship, waves, storms and containers, Frans, an Amsterdam sailor, seems to be at his best. However, the longer the journey lasts, the more it becomes apparent that something essential is missing in this male microcosm at sea. A small film about loneliness and the importance of love.

 

Review by Kierston Drier

CARGO a documentary about love, family and men at sea, will pull on your heart. It follows the 14 men that make up a deep sea water crew, and their time away from their families while out. Gone for long stretches of time, the crew make peace with themselves by reliving their youth, their young loves, talking of their families, their children, their birthdays.

Like any good documentary, the filming team captures moments of the crew where they take no notice of the bulky machine recording their lives. Instead, the camera floats among them like a phantom, seeing the moments they hide from the rest of the world- a birthday shared at sea, a long-lost love, a phone call home to one’s’ children: Daddy will be home soon.

Another remarkable thing about CARGO and to director Marina Meijer’s credit- is the spectacular B-Roll in this piece. Bright colors, remarkable shots and beautiful moments litter this film like gems along the ocean floor. They elevate this piece to a mastery level.

You may never have spent a day at sea, but you will feel the ocean mist on your skin while you watch CARGO.


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Film Review: THE ARK (France)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

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A rhino is walking into the ruins of a cathedral under a heavy rain.

 

Review by Kierston Drier

A two minute animation directed by Jean-Baptiste Aziere, The Ark is a powerful, riveting and emotionally provocative piece. Highly symbolic and deeply moving, it follows a Rhino slowly making its’ way to a dilapidated Christian altar where it bows with it’s final breath, then falls to its’ knees. It gives us no answers, asks us no riddles- it is simply a sharp, dramatic piece that will take your breath away.

You may argue that this is a piece about religion, or a piece about spirituality and the animal kingdom, or that it is about environmentalism, you may even argue it has no deeper meaning that what is visually there. But it cannot be denied- this is a film so hauntingly beautiful and so visually rich that once it begins, it demands your attention. Perhaps that is the most symbolic and meaningful part of the entire piece. In a world run by humanity, where things that not human are often ignored in favor of the things that are, there is not a single person in this film. Yet our hero bows like a praying human being, and dies soon after. You cannot help but be moved at the sight, interpret what you will.

THE ARK is a brave cinematic piece. Short, stunning and impactful, this is a piece that carries itself with beauty and deep meaning.


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Film Review: FAREWELL (Switzerland)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

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What happens if you want to say goodbye to a loved one but this suddenly no longer find ? The short film “Farewell” tells how want to accompany a group of friends with different characters their deceased friend and brother on a last trip and so much goes wrong.

In bizarre and comical way this short satire will pull you in its spell – and what, if such a thing happened once to me?

Review by Kierston Drier

When we love something, we let it go. Right? It is certainly something we have all been taught. But when you have your buddy’s urn with his ashes in it, you might want to keep it where you know you can find it- just in case. But for five friends charged with the task of caring for their dead friend’s ashes, things don’t go so smoothly.

Enter FAREWELL, a comedy with a curious mixture of strange happenings and humor styles. The dialogue is punchy, the action is raucous and outlandish and the tone is similar to Analyze That with it’s back to back escalation of unbelievable stakes.

Our heroes lose their friend while out to dinner before delivering him to have his ashes scattered. Where they find him? Well they need to backtrack through their steps, stopping at the restaurant, tracking down the waitresses, going through the kitchen and…well things only get more complicated from there.

Boasting some hilarious twists and turns and some great recurring humor, every character in the piece is bright, sharp and full of life. A great piece about learning not to take life too seriously.

Film Review: SEEDS (UK)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

A young female astronaut trains for the first expedition to Mars.

 

Review by Kierston Drier

A gorgeous and deeply layered piece of cinema, SEEDS does what all science-fiction genre piece hope to do: dissect a part of our modern world by throwing it through the lense of the future. A young female astronaut must decide to leave her brother (the only family she has) to go into isolation training for a settlement to be built on Mars. She will likely never return. There is an echo of other well loved science fiction pieces like “The Martian”, or even “Stranded” in this piece, although in SEEDS, our heroine is only prepping for her journey. But this film, like others before it, puts human relationships under a microscope through the examination of isolation and space. Bravo to SEEDS for being able to do this in a short film format.

Our heroine has not yet left Earth, but she is already worlds apart from her brother. Emotionally, they must make peace with one another before she leaves. But what he views as abandonment, she views as her ultimate sacrifice to her home- rising a colony on another planet may pave the way to ensure human survival for generations to come.

Science fiction is a genre used to soften the blow of asking really hard questions. SEEDS fits perfectly within its’ medium: It asks us to look at human relationships and the difficult feelings of isolation, separation and loss. It is palatable for us, because it is accompanied by the fantastical, beautiful, adventurous notion of crossing the boundaries of our own world. It asks us a big question: Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Would your love for your family keep you from being part of the journey that could save the world? Our Heroine has asked herself this. To find her answer, you’ll have to watch SEEDS.


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