Film Review: FREAKS (USA 2018) ***

September 8, 2019 festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized Adam B. Stein, Bruce Dern, Emile Hirsch, film reviews, FREAKS, Lexy Kolker, Zach Lipovsky

A bold girl discovers a bizarre, threatening, and mysterious new world beyond her front door after she escapes her father’s protective and paranoid control.

FREAKS, which premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival features an impressive low budget dystopian apocalyptic scenario that though runs into familiar territory. Still, it has a unique feel to it. The film looks good in its production values. Writer/directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky craft a creepy tale that keeps the audience guessing what is happening especially in the first half.

Everyone loves a good thriller, especially when one knows literally nothing about the plot. FREAKS is that thriller provided you have not read anything about it.

The film opens on the insides of a dilapidated house where a man (Emile Hirsch) and a daughter (Lexy Kolker) reside away from anyone else. This immediately brings the recent dystopian father and daughter drama LIGHT OF MY LIFE which Casey Affleck starred and directed where the father and daughter live on their own away from strangers after some plaque has destroyed most of the females in the world. But nothing is initially stated at the starting of FREAKS except of what one hears from the father.

Chloe’s father (Hirsch) prevents her from leaving their dilapidated house or from even looking outside their board-up windows. It is not clear if there are actual dangers outside, as “Dad” believes, or if there is something psychologically wrong with him. This is where the film works really well. There is an image on the television with the words: “Drone targets house in Seattle”. What does this all mean and why is dad warning Chloe of evil men outside.

It is right after the father returns from getting supplies that he gets wounded and passes out. Chloe escapes through the front door to meet a strange Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern) who entices her with a chocolate ice-cream cone.

When the elderly Mr. Snowcone takes Chloe to the park, he scare hers by pushing her too high on the swing. When a cop arrives, it turns out that she can make the cop go away by her sheer will. Nothing is what it seems and the film takes a brilliantly chilling turn.

At this point, one can hope that the film gets better as the script also written by the two directors have put in many odd set pieces in the first 30 minutes that need to be explained. For one, Chloe is locked up in the closet where she meets her apparent sister. The people outside the house seem to know Chloe’s name and Chloe’s mother, though the audience have no knowledge where or who Chloe mother is. The neighbour appears to resemble the mother too.

It is right at the half way mark that everything is explained. The film turns into action mode and this is where the film turns less interesting once the mystery is revealed.

To the directors’ credit, they still keep a few surprises of the story for the second half, which though not as absorbing as the first half still makes not a bad sci-fi thriller.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qdr8sbhz30

Film Review: THE MUSTANG (France/Belgium/USA 2017) ****

March 16, 2019 festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized Bruce Dern, film reviews, gilbert seah, Jason Mitchell, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Matthias Schoenaerts, THE MUSTANG

MUSTANG tells the story of Roman Coleman, a violent convict, who is given the chance to participate in a rehabilitation therapy program involving the training of wild mustangs.

Director:

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Writers:

Brock Norman Brock, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Mitchell, Bruce Dern

Credited as a 2019 American-French-Belgian production, the film’s end credits list 2017 as the year of production. Regardless, THE MUSTANG is a pretty solid dramatic film and a textbook example of how following formula can still work to create an excellent film.

THE MUSTANG is basically a film about a boy and his horsie which in this case is really about a wild horsie and a wild boy. As these stories go, the wild can never be tamed and has to be set free. The horse teaches the boy in his case a man or rather tames him as he tames the horse and as expected the horse is awarded his freedom.

The film begins with the rounding up of wild horses in the U.S.’s west. The segment emphasizes the open spaces and the wild animals having their freedom taken away. The scene is contrasted by a prison interview in establishing the character of the film’s protagonist. The man is an unrepentant and violent convict named Coleman Roman (played by Belgium actor Matthias Schoenaerts). In an interview with his worker, he loses it while claiming the understatement that he has a problem of not getting along with people when asked whether he values his freedom. He is reluctantly and accidentally put into a program (called the wild horse inmates program in some states in the U.S.) where convicts train and tame wild horses to be later auctioned. The man in charge of the program is Myles (Bruce Dern) a cynical but not necessarily a good man. Myles knows and loves horses.

The serious nature of the film’s subject does not mean the film is without humour. When Roman has a surprise visit from a young woman, he sits at the wrong table with another young lady. A plaque of Myles reads: “If my horse doesn’t like you, I won’t either”.

The film benefits immensely from two outstanding Academy Award worthy performances by Schoenaerts and Dern. Dern, who has been nominated many times might see his first win. Schoenaerts is also extremely good and carries the film but the Academy is not one to give an unfamiliar name especially a non-American the award.

Besides Roman’s violent nature, the script which was co-written by the director with Mona Fastvold and Brock Norman Brock subtly reveals the sensitive side of the violent Roman with one scene showing him breaking down with tears and another of him showing loyalty to his co-trainer. The film is able to connect the audience with the material, so important in any movie. The film keeps key plot points from the audience revealing them as necessary thus heightening the audience anticipation factor. Who the young lady visitor is and what crime Roman committed are only revealed later on in the film.

But the film’s absolute prize and delight lie in the film’s surprise closing and extremely moving shot.

To emphasize the authenticity of the film’s story, the end credits show images of convicts and their horses: Dan and Pete, Jason and Jessie, Luis and Smokey among others.

THE MUSTANG is a well-made film in all departments, entertaining at the same time and garnishing a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. The film was obviously made with great pride and respect for horses, and it is executively produced by Robert Redford famous for a related film, THE HORSE WHISPERER.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0KFTj50zI