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Film Review: THE RIDER (USA 2017) ***1/2

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The Rider Poster
Trailer

After suffering a near fatal head injury, a young cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

Director:

Chloé Zhao

Writer:

Chloé Zhao

Stars:

Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau

 

The film’s title THE RIDER tells it all – what Chinese director Chloe Zhao’s film is all about.  The film centres on a rodeo hopeful’s life after his dreams are dashed following a serious rodeo accident.

The audience sees the pain right at the very start when Brady Blackburn, a South Dakota cowboy (Brady Jandreau) manually takes off the medical staples from his wounds. The accident is seen from a video recording, the audience obviously spared the gore and blood.

Zhao emphasizes the claustrophobic life of Brady, despite having the open ranges.  He lives with his often drunk and gambling father and mentally challenged sister, Lilly (Lilly Jandreau).  His few friends provide him a drinking outlet but it is the rodeo that makes Brady, the man.  If a cowboy cannot ride, then what good is he?  These be Brady’s own words. With his injury his brain is sensitive and riding rodeo might be the end of him.

Zhao shows Brady’s outlets for his anger.  One is the breaking in of a wild horse, named Apollo.  It is sad that the horse has to eventually be euthanized as a result of a nasty accident.  In another outlet, Brady wrestles one of his young buddies, James but ends up unable to control his inner anger.

Brady Jandreau, a wrangler in real life does an ok acting job, but his riding and horse handling that are more important.  Zhao stays away from any romance in her story.

Zhao builds good characterizations.  The father is not a one sided cardboard has been.  Despite his constant arguments with his son, it is shown at the end that he understands Brady and his decisions.  Brady’s anguish, anger and decisions are also well displayed.  The horse training and rodeo segments are effectively shot and exciting enough.  Joshua James Richards captures the landscape of the open areas of the west, where horses run free.

For a female, Zhao captures the male world of male cowboys surprisingly well.  There are only few female characters like Lilly and the absent mother.  Female directors are fond of making their male characters cry on film.  Brady does burst into tears at his breaking point in the film.  Rather than showing his weakness, it shows his desperation.  He also has to work at a supermarket to support his family.  Like her previous feature SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME, she blends in the real life of her character actors into the characters of her story.  This results in a sort of documentary but realistic feel in the film.

It is clear throughout THE RIDER that Zhao’s film is an artistic, well thought out process.  She does not resort to cheap sentiment.  There are few outbursts in confrontations.  Dialogue is simple and effective.  Zhao is fond of long slow takes to capture the mood of a segment.

THE RIDER premiered at Cannes Directors Fortnight Section to rave reviews. It is easy to see why.  Simple storytelling, a good human story and one dealing with nature makes this an excellent film.

Cannes Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbhO6MkO78U

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Film Review: TRUTH OR DARE (USA 2018) ***

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Truth or Dare Poster
Trailer

A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone — or something — begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare.

Director:

Jeff Wadlow

Writers:

Jillian Jacobs (screenplay by), Michael Reisz (screenplay by) | 3 more credits »

 Stars:

 Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane
The film title is not Truth or Dare but BLUMHOUSE’S TRUTH OR DARE.  With reason!  The game played is a Blumhouse, the film horror company’s version of the game in which players will die a very violet death if they do not tell the truth or do a dare.
The premise of the game is simple enough but the script takes the audience into a much thicker plot.  College student Olivia (Lucy Hale) wishes to use her spring break to further her work with people.  She being the heroine of the film, has to be the one to be self sacrificing to do good for mankind.  Her partying best friend, Markie (Violett Beane) convinces her to go with the gang to Mexico instead as in her words: ‘the final spring break before life tears us apart.”
In Mexico, they stumble across a missionary ruin and coerced into playing Truth or Dare by a stranger, Carter (Landon Liboron).  When it is his turn to play, Carter reveals the real truth he is there with the group – to force them into playing with death involved.  Of course they disbelieve him, till the gang starts dropping dead one by one when they do not follow the rules.
The plot follows the predictable path though to the script (written by Michael Reisz
Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach and Jeff Wadlow) has quite a few inspired twists.  The group or in this case, Olivia the heroine has to figure out the way to remove the curse and to halt the game.  The film’s ending is too ambitious for its own good an ends up being an unbelievable let-sown, judging from the response of the audience at the promo screening.
The film follows a few general rules of the typical horror film.  The corky self-centred assholes are the first to go.  All the deaths are gross enough, with the audience at the promo screening gasping aloud.  There is more character development in this film and when one of the victim dies, some of the audience is actually brought to tears.  This is a rarity in horror flicks – and a good thing.  The film also contains a brilliant anti-message.  Olivia is told off by her friend, Markie to stop thinking about others and to start thinking about herself (in order to survive).
The young actors are all believable enough as party animals brought to their senses.  The best actor of the lot is Canadian Hayden Szeto who brings his gay Canadian character, Brad to life.  He was last seen in EDGE OF SEVENTEEN.  One flaw in the plot is his character saying that he is studying in the States to be away from his father though his father turns up as a cop in the U.S. where he is studying at college.  Another is the absence of the characters’ parents except for Markie’s and Brad’s.  I have never known any Asian to be called Brad.
Blumhouse has made three box-office and critical successes with SPLIT, HAPPY DEATH DAY and the phenomenal GET OUT.  BLUMHOUSE’S TRUTH OR DARE seem to have got the lowest rating so far of the four films on Metacritic.  The reason is that the film has more story and character development than the average horror flick with no false alarms or cheap jump out of the seat tactics common to films of this genre.  Horror fans do not like their horror formula tampered with.  Still this Blumhouse film which cost $3.5 million to make is estimated to draw $15 million at the box-office which will make it as another successful Blumhouse film.

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Hot Docs 2018 Capsule Review: LAILA AT THE BRIDGE

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Laila at the Bridge Poster
Set against the backdrop of the drug war in Afghanistan, Laila at the Bridge is the story of an Afghan woman working against all odds to care for the thousands of men and women addicted to …See full summary »

Directors:

Elissa Sylvia Mirzaei, Gulistan Mirzaei

 

The bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan is a filthy and disgusting place.  Smelling of human faeces and vomit, this is the makeshift dwelling of hundreds of homeless Afghanistan drug addicts.  

As the difficult to watch (for reason of its material and harsh depiction of human hardships) film informs at the start, 90% of the world’s opium is grown in the country with more than 11% of the population addicted.  Laila is the Mother Teresa who brings the addicts home, feed, clothe and more important, try to get them clean and to stay clean. 

This is her story.  Laila is shown as a dedicated mother of sorts but not without faults.  She can be too forward, loud, and bossy, especially when trying to get government aid for her exploits.  The film shows two crucial scenes at the bridge, one with her distributing  limited food and the other searching through the rubbish for a convert.  The film ends on a note of hope with her possibly having a way to get funds for her project.  

The film is also made more alive by examining a few addicts in detail, one of whom is Laila’s brother who is presently clean and helping her, after 25 years of addiction.  A very eye-opening documentary set in a  country with a culture North Americans know very little about.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it8INQaTcB0

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Film Review: FINDING YOUR FEET (UK 2017) ***

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Finding Your Feet Poster
Trailer

On the eve of retirement a middle class, judgmental snob discovers her husband has been having an affair with her best friend and is forced into exile with her bohemian sister who lives on an impoverished inner-city council estate.

Director:

Richard Loncraine

Writers:

Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft

Stars:

Timothy Spall, Joanna Lumley, Imelda Staunton

 

(Warning: This review contains a spoiler which is highlighted in bold italics at the end.  Skip it if you intend to watch the film.)

As the title of the film implies FINDING YOU FEET refers to finding ones footing in life with dancing helping along the way.

When the film opens Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) is about to become a Lady, thanks to the success and fame of her husband, Mike (John Sessions).  They have enjoyed a good long marriage together till this party, where she catches him red handed kissing her friend in the dark.  She abandons him, distraught and shows up at the council flat of her bohemian sister.  No need to guess that she is then taught how to behave like a less haughty human being as well as to enjoy the simplicities of life, which includes attending the sister’s dancing class.  She also gives love a second chance, in the form of Charlie(Timothy Spall), who’s wife Lily (Sian Thomas) is suffering an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s at a nursing home.

Three great performances to be entertained here by Oscar Nominee Imelda Staunton (Mike Leigh’s VERA DRAKE), Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie .  These performances distract from the facts that the film is not really funny nor are there many funny parts, nor is the script particularly bright. But the charm of the actors come across quite effectively for the audience not to notice the film’s shortcomings.  Absolutely Fabulous’s Patsy (Joanna Lumley) lends her hand in the role of a five time divorcee offering advice for Sandra.  Lumley is the only real comedienne in the cast.  Staunton and Spall are known more for their serious comedies.  Director Loncraine has made comedies in the past as in Michael Pailin in THE MISSIONARY but also more serious films as RICHARD III and in one of my favourite films, BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE with a young Sting making his acting debut.

The dance performance supposedly shot at Piccadilly Circus is sufficient spirited.  London is shown in her Christmas splendour as Sandra ad Charlie take on the London lights during a romantic fling.  The two make a believable couple coming to terms with their own personal troubles.  It is this human feature of the script that makes the film work despite the script’s flaws.  The film obviously leads towards the typical happy Hollywood ending which is a real shame, since it is so manipulative and obvious as to what is going to happen.  (Spoiler alert:  But the last straw, almost unforgivable is the literal leap of faith Sandra takes to be with Charlie.)

The dance metaphor which reflects Sandra getting on back to her feet after her matrimonial disaster works quite well, though it can hardly not be noticeable.  Sandra gets back into the dance groove, together with her old cronies with a few solid but simple choreographed numbers to old tunes like Rockin’ Robin and newer numbers like La Freak.

FINDING YOUR FEET is an old folks Harlequin romance that goes through all the usual obstacles and predictability of finding true love lifted slightly by the presence of both Imelda Staunton and Timothy Spall.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Cp6ba2Y0g

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Capsule Review Hot Docs 2018: CHEF FLYNN

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Chef Flynn Poster
Ten-year-old Flynn transforms his living room into a supper club using his classmates as line cooks. With sudden fame, Flynn outgrows his bedroom kitchen, and sets out to challenge the hierarchy of the culinary world.

Director:

Cameron Yates

Stars:

Flynn McGarry, Meg McGarry, Paris McGarry

 

Documentary CHEF FLYNN picks 10-year old Flynn as is subject when Flynn first transforms his living room into a supper club using his classmates as line cooks. With sudden fame, Flynn outgrows his bedroom kitchen, and sets out to challenge the hierarchy of the culinary world.  

Like most docs on a subject that runs out of material, it gets distracted with other issues such as, in this case, the mother’s filming obsession, Fynn’s relationship with his family (father and sister) and his new restaurant’s opening night.  But when the camera is on the young chef prodigy, it gets the most interesting.  To director Yates’ credit, he ties the other issues to Flynn’s culinary duties. 

 Flynn’s culinary creations look marvellous on screen though this fine dining experience may only be suited for the rich and wealthy.  Still, it is a rewarding experience to see a talented youth (seen through the ages of 10-15) experience both the highs of his talent and pains of growing up too quickly.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvaouhB0qzc

 

 

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Film Review: BEIRUT (USA 2017) ***

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Beirut Poster
Caught in the crossfires of civil war, CIA operatives must send a former U.S. diplomat to negotiate for the life of a friend he left behind.

Director:

Brad Anderson

Writer:

Tony Gilroy

Stars:

Rosamund Pike, Jon Hamm, Mark Pellegrino

 

Set in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War, BEIRUT is a fictional action film centring on a former U.S. diplomat who returns to service in the city of Beirut in order to save a colleague who is held hostage by the group responsible for the death of his family.

Unlike films dealing with hostage situations like 7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE and ARGO, BEIRUT deals with the next best thing.  It is a fictional story based on a true event – the hostage taking during the Olympics in Munich.   While the lead is no super spy like James Bond, he is the next best thing, a diplomat that has revenge on his agenda, as in the Liam Neeson TAKEN films.  BEIRUT benefits from a script by Tony Gilroy who penned the BOURNE films and more important, also directed one BOURNE film and the excellent MICHAEL CLAYTON.  There are shades of MICHAEL CLAYTON in BEIRUT with the main character similar to the George Clooney character and a strong supporting female character here played by Rosamund Pike.  

The film opens in 1972 at a posh party thrown by  Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm), a U.S. diplomat living it up in Beirut with his wife Nadia (Leila Bekhti).   They have no children of their own, and so they adopt and treat 13-year-old orphan refugee Karim (Yoav Sadian Rosenberg) as family.  Karim serves hors d’oeuvres.  During a posh cocktail party, however, uninvited guests bring unwelcome news: Not quite so alone in the world as he’d pretended, little Karim has an older brother.  Things never go as well as planned – especially not in movies.  Mason is then informed that Karim is the brother of Abu Rajal (Hicham Ouraqa), a notorious Palestinian terrorist linked to the recent Summer Olympics massacre in Munich as well as other attacks.  Just as Mason is about to say, “I don’t believe it,” the party is stormed by gunmen under the orders of Rajal attempting to spring Karim.

To cut a long story short, Mason is sent home, takes to the drink but later asked to return to Beirut,  There he learns, that his friend Cal of the CIA (Mark Pellegrino) is held hostage by the now grown Karim.  Karim wants his brother Abu Rajal freed.

Despite the long story, it is an interesting one and one that allows a mild mannered man to resume his glory days and save the day or in this case, his best friend Cal.  The subplot between Mason an cultural attache Sandy Crowder (Pike) makes a good diversion.  The film feels like a mix between MICHAEL CLAYTON and the BOUNRE movies.  Morocco, where the film is shot stands for war-torn Beirut.

Unlike most action films where the heroes spurt out funny one-liners, the dialogue here is more subtle and at times a bit cynical, which suits the mood of the film.  Hamm makes a good reluctant hero.  

The film has had complaints of being racist.  The film’s trailer ended with voice-over from Mr. Hamm’s character: “2,000 years of revenge, vendetta, murder. Welcome to Beirut.”  It does not help too that Beirut looks nothing like the real Beirut since the film was shot in Morocco.

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

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Film Review: BORG/McENROE (Sweden/Denmark/Finland 2017) ***

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Borg vs McEnroe Poster
Trailer

The story of the 1980s tennis rivalry between the placid Björn Borg and the volatile John McEnroe.

Director:

Janus Metz

Writer:

Ronnie Sandahl

Stars:

Sverrir Gudnason, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård

 

BORG/McENROE is one of two tennis films that played at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the other one being BATTLE OF THE SEXES that had already opened.

The two films by inevitable comparison show vast differences in approach.  BORG/McENROE takes its subject of tennis very seriously capturing all the fear, all the glamour and all the stress each player faces of the matches, unlike the other film relying on comedy to stir its audience.  The results of the tennis matches are crucial for both films.  In BORG/McENROE, they are exciting and competently shot while the matches in the other film is laughable and boring.  The actors also here sport tennis bodies while Emma Stone is too skinny and Carell too bloated.

The best thing about the film are the filmed tennis matches.  The camera shows each player as they stride across the courts, their muscles often shown quivering in slow motion.  Those who are tennis aficionados will recall who won which game.  For the majority, one will definitely remember because of all the media frenzy that McEnroe beat Borg.  This is true but they did not play only one match.  So in the film, it will be unknown to many who would win the 1980 match depicted in the film.  (I play tennis and I got it wrong.)

Director Getz shows the punishment and pain each player goes through.  Though Borg is set as the stable reliable player the Swedes can count on, the film also shows Borg at his most vulnerable, buckling too under pressure.  On the other hand, McEnroe is shown as a player that strives on pressure and one that performs well on stress.  The film also shows more of Borg’s relationship with friends, coach and family then McEnroe, the reason likely being that the film is Scandinavian.

But the key to Borg/McEnroe is the story of the epic rivalry between Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) and his greatest adversary, the brash American John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf).  The film devotes almost equal time to each player,  and shows them as two totally opposite human beings, despite the fact that both compete in tennis.  But the common thing is that both know that they have been pushed to the limit to get where they are.

Gudnason and LaBeouf deliver believable performances as the tennis stars.  LaBeouf probably played himself, the angry controversial person himself in real life.  Great performances elicited by Getz all around.

BORG/McENROE is what a tennis film should be.  It celebrates the game of tennis, delivers exciting matches and teaches the audience a thing or two about the game while offering some insight of what tennis professionals go through.

The film was chosen as the Opening Gala for the Toronto International Film Festival last year and garnered generally favoured reviews. A super watch for tennis fans, especially.

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

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Film Review: BIG FISH & BEGONIA (China 2016) ****

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Big Fish & Begonia Poster
It is a world within our world, yet unseen by any human, and the beings here control time and tide and the changing of the seasons. On the day Chun turns sixteen, she is transformed into a …See full summary »

Directors:

Xuan Liang (as Liang Xuan), Chun Zhang (as Zhang Chun)

Writers:

Xuan Liang (story by), Xuan Liang (as Liang Xuan)

Stars:

Guanlin Ji, Shangqing Su, Timmy Xu

China produces quite a few animated features every year, though only a few reach North America.  BIG FISH & BEGONIA, made in 2016 has achieved tremendous success both critically and financially, thus finally making it to North American screens.  It plays and looks at times like the Studio Ghibli films as the film shares common trays like fantasy in alternate universes as well as young innocent true love.

The film’s universal appeal lies in human being’s love for fairy tales.  BIG FISH & BEGONIA has all the elements of an epic fantasy with magic, romance, sacrifice, monsters and a coming of rites passage that involves a long journey filled with wonders and danger.

For an animated feature, the story is quite complicated and requires a bit of concentration to follow.  The story is set in a mystical realm that exists beneath the human world, populated by magical-powered beings.  The protagonist is a girl named Chun and when the film opens she undergoes a coming-of-age ritual where she is transported through a portal of water to experience the human world in the form of a red dolphin.  She is warned several times never to engage but to stay away from those dreaded human beings, which means she has to fall in love with one – shades of THE LITTLE MERMAID.  In the human world, she encounters a human boy who lives by the sea and reveres aquatic creatures.  During a storm, Chun in the form of a red dolphin is tangled in a fishing net near the boy’s house, and the boy drowns while freeing her from the net. Chun returns to her world, taking the boy’s ocarina with her.

Chun bargains with the soul keeper, a resident of her world who collects virtuous departed souls from the human world, to return the boy to life. The soul keeper, a real businessman takes half of her lifespan in exchange for giving her the boy’s soul, which has manifested in this world in the form of a baby dolphin. He advises her that she must nurture the dolphin to adulthood in order to return the boy’s soul to the human world. Qiu, Chun’s childhood friend, discovers her undertaking; since beings from the human world are forbidden, he promises to help her keep her task secret. Together, they name the dolphin Kun, after a massive fish of legend.

The romances are between Chun and Kun and between Qiu and Chun.  But Chun treats Qiu as an older brother which makes him really sad.  Still, Qiu will do anything for Chun including sacrificing his life for her.

The adventures take the audience through many wondrous as well as frightening places including a big sewer filled with shit and rats where they encounter the rat matron.  She is scary to Qiu and Chun but hilarious to the audience.

The animation is nothing short of spectacular, the animators unafraid to include scenes of snow, fire and water which are difficult to animate.  The fairly tale atmosphere with Chinese architecture add to the film’s beauty.

BIG FISH & BEGONIA is the third largest grossing Chinese animated feature ever after KUNG FU PANDA 3 and MONKEY KING.  On a budget of 30 million Chinese Yuan, it grossed, up to the time of writing CN¥565 which translates to a profit of 1800%.  Hopefully, the box-office success will spurn more animated features from B&T Studios.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w1n1FX3eUA

 

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Film Review: INDIAN HORSE (Canada 2017) ***

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Indian Horse Poster
Follows the life of Canadian First Nations boy, Saul Indian Horse, as he survives residential school and life amongst the racism of the 1970s. A talented hockey player, Saul must find his own path as he battles sterotypes and alcoholism.

Director:

Stephen S. Campanelli

Writers:

Dennis Foon, Richard Wagamese (based on the novel by)

Stars:

Sladen Peltier, Forrest Goodluck, Ajuawak Kapashesit

 

INDIAN HORSE is a Canadian drama that premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, based on author Richard Wagamese’s most famous novel of the same name. Wagamese and yes, Clint Eastwood both executively produced this native Indian film.  

INDIAN HORSE tells the fictional story of Saul Indian Horse but surrounded by real life non-fiction events such as the forced attendance of native children in Indian residential schools and Canada’s love for ice hockey.

Saul Indian Horse is played by different actors at different stages in his life.  Sladen Peltier plays Saul at age 6, Forrest Goodluck at age 15 and Ajuawak Kapashesit as Saul at age 22.  The only known actor in the cast is Martin Donovan who plays Saul’s Toronto hockey father.  To the credit of director Campanelli, the transition of the actors playing Saul is smooth with no big jolt in the story telling.

The story and film is at its most exciting during the first half, especially at the Indian residential school where the Indian children are mistreated and punished.  Saul’s love for hockey is what saves him.  After cleaning the stables, he practices hockey on his own and gets the attention of Father Gaston.  He eventually gets into big league hockey.  But Saul also discovers racial prejudice and ends up disheartened by life.  There is a twist to Father Gaston’s good intentions later on in the film that has shocking consequences.

The film stresses the importance of family.  Saul’s foster mother tells him in one of the film’s sweetest moments: “You ware part of our family now, and you always will be.”

The film’s starting with Saul as a boy, surviving the Northern Ontario wilderness is also magnificent to watch.  The beauty of Canada as seen in the lakes and rivers, the rooks and terrain, the forests and trees and the wild animals needs to be seen as captured on screen.  Saul and his grandmother also escape on a rowboat that unfortunately capsizes in the rapids, excitingly captured on camera, leading to the grandmother’s death.  As expected, the first part of INDIAN HORSE is the most captivating and young Peltier who plays the young Saul is most adorable.  

After giving up hockey, Saul Indian Horse hits rock bottom.  His last drinking binge almost kills him, and is a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him.  But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story.  He embarks on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows.  The last part where he tells his story is not seen in the film and Indian Horse’s life story and the film unfortunately loses its impact, despite all good intentions.  Still, audiences get to see what natives (Canadian First nations) go through, despite the non-Hollywood ending.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02cyFlnvA4s

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Full Review: ALLURE (A WORTHY COMPANION) (Canada 2017) **

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Allure Poster
Trailer

A house cleaner meets a teenaged girl and convinces her to run away and live with her in secret.

Directors:

Carlos Sanchez, Jason Sanchez

Writers:

Carlos Sanchez, Jason Sanchez

Stars:

Evan Rachel Wood, Julia Sarah Stone, Denis O’Hare

 

ALLURE is the new title of the film A WORTHY COMPANION which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, a title more uplifting given its sombre subject matter.

Montreal-based fine arts photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez’s debut (written and directorial) feature is a hard psychological thriller which centres on Laura (Evan Rachel Wood), a thirty-year-old woman, troubled by her past and struggling with a dysfunctional relationship with her father, seeking sexual and emotional fulfillment through a series of failed relationships.  However, her life changes when she befriends and convinces an unhappy sixteen-year-old girl, Eva (Julia Sarah Stone) to run away to her house, under the guise of a confidante who wants to help.   Although the arrangement initially works, it soon becomes clear that for the young girl to stay and continue satisfying her needs, the older woman will have to employ immoral tactics. Manipulation, denial and co-dependency fuel what ultimately becomes a fractured dynamic that can only sustain itself for so long.  Laura also begins sexual advances towards Eva.

But Laura begins getting really obsessive and prevents Eva from leaving the house.  The relationship turns out to be something like the Stockholm Syndrome.  Apparently, though no details are given, Laura has had the same type of ‘stalking’ problems before, as her dad, who employs her mentions in the film.  The film is both disturbing and engaging though onot always likeable.  Both actresses Wood and Stone (who looks a-like a very young Catherine Frot, the French actress) bring compassion to their roles and show their need for normalcy.  Unfortunately, as can be seen in the film, this normalcy is not easily to come about and the state of affairs come about from their own personal behavioural flaws.  

The film’ setting is left vague.  Though the wrier/directors are Montrealers, the characters speak fluent English and there is no trace of French.  The neighbourhood does look like a typical Montreal neighbourhood though there are no signs in French.  The film begins in the fall (judging from the colour of the leaves on the trees) and ends in winter (with snow seen on the ground).  It is a school term but nowhere in he film is Eva’s school mentioned.  Eva’s schooling is conveniently left out in the story.  Or any of her friends or acquaintances.  Does Eva not own a cell phone?

The film suffers from an open ended ending, which for a film like this, one expects some satisfactory closure though one would to be surprised that there isn’t one.

ALLURE ends up an ok made, very nasty movie about nasty people dealing with nastiness.  The film began with dialogue like: “Fucking faggot!”  But one would think that this gay slant nastiness could have been down away with.

Trailer: http://www.eonefilmsmedia.ca/FileBank/Video/2018/91453-Allure%20-%20Canadian%20Domestic%20Trailer%20-%20Theatrical%20-%20Coming%20Soon.mp4

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