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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 March 2025

Many ambitious movies opening this week - all not ending up that impressive.  Read on.......

FILM REVIEWS:

DELICIOUS (Germany 2025) **
Written and Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen

DELICIOUS (Germany 2025) **
Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen

A German family's idyllic summer at their French villa in Provence (film shot in Avignon, according to the credits) unravels after they accidentally hit a young woman working at a tourist hotel, on a country road and take her in.  They take her in for fear of her going to the cops creating a hassle.  The wife thinks he can fix this.  Or can she?  Initially appearing helpful, each family member soon reveals their own hidden motives, seeking something different from the woman.  This mistake leads to unforeseen consequences that ultimately transform the entire family's lives.

This is not the first film in which a stranger totally destroys a family.  One that comes to mind is one from Chile where a maid has a secret with each family member and uses it for greed.   Another is Harold Pinter’s SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, in which a young and gorgeous Michael York enters and aristocratic German family and has sex with each family member from the mother played by Angela Lansbury to the daughter and homosexual son.

The film plays like a mystery banking on the uneasiness of the audience,  The tactic works in which audience anticipation (like a Hitchcock movie) is always at its height.  Quite different form the Chilean maid and SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, this film unfortunately falters at the end when the twist in the plot turns it from reality family check to a modern gothic horror piece.

At best the film plays the poor and the rich against each other, taking the side of the rich though the poor also gets their say, but in a  weird manner.

DELICIOUS opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 7th.

Trailer: 

(full review to be posted weekend)

MICKEY 17 (USA/South Korea 2025) ***
Directed by Boon Joon-Ho

The new Bong Joon-Ho movie after his much-celebrated Academy Award multiple winner PARASITE is available to watch in IMAX. It is touted as a futuristic $118 million blockbuster and is called MICKEY 17. But because of its premise, it could also be called MICKEY 18 or MICKEY BARNES.

Wanting to get off Earth, the financially destitute Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up to be an "expendable", a disposable clone worker, on the human colony Nilfheim. As an expendable, Mickey undertakes several dangerous assignments he is not expected to survive, with a new body being regenerated each time he dies. During one such assignment, one of his clones, "Mickey 17", is incorrectly assumed dead and prematurely replaced. Mickey 17 finds his way back to the colony and meets his replacement, known as Mickey 18. Under the colony's rules, only one iteration of an expendable may exist at one time, and if Mickey 17 is discovered, both he and Mickey 18 will be destroyed. Both the previous and current versions of Mickey Barnes have to grapple with the nature of being expendables and fight back against the oppressive leaders governing the colony.

Pattinson steals the show exhibiting a wide range of acting variations especially displaying different traits for MICKY 17 and MICKEY 18 as both human prints exist side to side and also fight each other.  Pattinson displays manic behaviour as well as rational ones proving himself to be quite the versatile actor.  Mark Ruffalo also deserves mention.  He plays Kenneth Marshall, an egomaniacal politician with sinister designs for Nilfheim.  He clearly pokes fun at President Trump showing his character and Trump’s as a ridiculous madman capable of much danger if left unchecked.

Three under-written roles include Naomi Ackie as Nasha Barridge, a security agent and Mickey's love interest and the girlfriend of one of his previous clones, Steven Yeun as Timo, a pilot and Mickey's childhood friend and the amazing Toni Collette as Ylfa, Marshall's devious and controlling wife.

Being a South Korean co-production, a lot of the extras are played by Koreans, more than one expects to see in a Hollywood movie.

But Bong’s film is a poorly written narrative mess with humans, creepies and megalomaniacs interacting on Earth and on another planet.  Given a huge over $100 million budget, Bong goes as crazy as his character Mickey Barnes in the adventure of one or several lifetimes.  Despite the film’s flaws and running time of over two hours, the first two thirds are an incurable compelling watch, flaws aside.  The film begins to bog down a little in its last third, Bong is unable to maintain his over-the-top craziness.  It is a classic case of fatigue and too much of a good thing.

The film’s special effects and cinematography are nothing short of stunning, a  given must these days for Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters.  In the beginning few months of every year when cinema is in the doldrums, MICKEY 17 should lift box-office returns for 2025.  MICKEY 17 opens in theatres on March 7th.  Being a sci-fi futuristic epic, the film warrants being seen in the IMAX format.

Trailer: 

NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE (Canada/France/Belgium 2024) **
Directed by Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro

The January and February months of every year is the lull for the new movies opening in theatres.  The same can be said for animated features and the new one, an international co-production is infantile and unfortunately falls into this category.  NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE (originally titled Night of the Zombies) is a 2024 animated comedy horror film directed by storyboard artists Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro, written by James Kee and producer Steven Hoban, and inspired by a concept by Clive Barker. The film follows a group of animal survivors in a zoo where a meteor virus turns various zoo creatures into slobbering mutant zombies.

A meteor containing a mysterious space virus crashes into Colepepper Zoo turning the animals into vicious gummi-like zombie mutants. A young wolf named Gracie (it takes the film 15 minutes before disclosing that the cartoon protagonist is wolf0 teams up with a gruff mountain lion named Dan to find a cure, while leading a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the leader of the zombies, Bunny Zero, from taking over the world.

Though it can be argued that this feature is aimed at kids, many animated features have included (is it that difficult?) to include adults to be entertained.  NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE is definitely a bore for the adults.  Myself I did not utter a laugh-out-loud even once.  The antics of the characters are infantile, silly, and pointless and the inter-communication lacks any imagination either.  The entire hour and a half already feels too long.  Apart from the satisfactory animation, there is nothing much this film has to offer.

NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE premiered October 6, 2024, at the 57th Sitges Film Festival,  Rest of the world: January 29, 2025 (France) and March 7, 2025 (United States and Canada)

Trailer: 

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (New Zealand 2024) ****
Directed by James Ashcroft

Opening Friday in theatres , and coming soon on the prime horror network for anything frightening comes a surprisingly must-see horror shocker from way down under New Zealand that could be destined to be a cult classic.  Two ageing stars Oscar Winner Geoffrey Rush from SHINE and John Lithgow (last seen in  CONCLAVE) play two ageing males in a nursing home at loggerheads (to put it mildly, since there is a fight to the death at the end).

Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called "The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen's pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy's reign of terror.

Rush plays a toxic resident who has suffered a stroke while pronouncing a sentence in a case involving child abuse and murder.  He is only too angry to find himself with a roommate, demanding angrily from the staff that he has applied for a private single.  Obviously this man did not read the fine print.  He is unlikable despite doing a good job as a judge.  It is good to see two great stars face off, as in the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford cult classic WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?  Lithgow, an American has a problem with his New Zealand accent and it would best to have given an excuse in the script for the character to be American.  Still, he is good to watch.  These are two characters. toxic as poison, who deserve each other.

The reason the film is called THE RULE OF JEENY PEN is not revealed and is a mystery even up to the film’s halfway mark.  The script teases.   Just like the start of the movie when the camera is on the faces of the judge. the accused killer and a crying mother.  At this point, the audience wonders what the rest of the film will be about.  It turns out to be the judge, who had just condemned the killer and the mother who had done nothing but let the tragic event happen. Now the judge himself is faced with the identical situation in which he is stuck with a stroke in a wheelchair able to do early anything while an abuser does havoc in the nursing home.

The less known about the film the better, as there are surprises around every corner.  The director is always several steps ahead of the story.   The best praise can be seen below - a quote from the horror master himself.

"One of the best movies I've seen this year."

• Stephen King

IFC FILMS’ THE RULE OF JENNY PEN opens Friday and should be on every horror fan’s watch list.

SEVEN VEILS (Canada 2023) **
Directed by Atom Egoyan

After years away, theatre director Jeanine (Academy Award® nominee Amanda Seyfried) re-enters the opera world to stage her former mentor’s most famous work. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to colour the present as her personal and professional lives begin to unravel.

The story of Salome is an old story and a lot needs to be known about Salome and the title SEVEN VEILS before venturing to watch this complex, messy but nevertheless intriguing Atom Egoyan movie.

Simply from the Bible’s Gospel according to St. Mark: But an opportunity came when King Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."  The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

In the film SEVEN VEILS (that is the name given to the dance given by Salome to King Herod), the story is told via opera.  The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Jeanine, a theatre director who is dealing with repressed trauma as she prepares to mount a production of the opera Salome.  She was working with Charles when he passed on, passing the baton to her to continue the production.  “I will make small but meaningful changes,” she says.  It also becomes known that Jeanine has had an affair with Charles.  Jeanine also suffers trauma from abuse as a child.  To add fuel to the fire, the German opera singer sexually abuses the prop artist. 

Director Egoyan fumbles through all the events with mass editing, flashbacks and messy storytelling.  With too many stakes at hand, not every one of the issues is solved satisfactorily.  One should give Egoyan credit for doing opera, tying in problems with staging it, and tying in current problems with the Salome story.

Atom Egoyan has lots to do with SALOME.  In the film SEVEN VEILS, Vinessa Antoine, as well as Ambur Braid as Salome and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as John the Baptist. Braid and Kupfer-Radecky both starred in the Canadian Opera Company’s most recent production of Salome, which Egoyan also directed after first directing the opera for the Company in 1996.

SEVEN VEILS premiered in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.  is in select theatres (at the TIFF Lightbox) across Canada on March 7

Trailer: 

THE SILENT PLANET (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Jeffrey St. James

THE SILENT PLANET  is a Canadian science fiction film, directed by Jeffrey St. Jules that premiered at the Fantasy Film Festival in 2024, where it was first runner-up for the Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature.  

Theodore (Elias Koteas, CRASH, CHICAGO P.D.) is alone.  Far from the Earth’s surface, he's a miner in the Capillian Star System on penal colony planet #384, sending extraterrestrial minerals to Earth via an interplanetary delivery system. It’s an experimental colonization project, and he is the only prisoner there. Ailing and half-sane, his life is routine, with journaling, watching TV show reruns, and taking comfort in memories of his life on Earth.

When a young woman named Niyya (Briana Middleton, SHARPER, THE TENDER BAR) is sent to planet #384 on terrorist charges, her tragic past follows her. Adopted by an alien race called “Oieans,” her resistance to prejudice towards the aliens and the history of their massacre lands her on this planet with Theodore. As they learn more about each other, Niyya suspects an ugly truth lies deep in Theodore’s deteriorating mind.  The  Oieans have their own language.  In fact the fill begins with one of their quotes, surprisingly the viewer's first impression is to think that Oiean is the name of a writer,

THE SILENT PLANET is set on an isolated planet, supposedly a penal colony for convicts who have committed treason, murder or terrorism.  The film is basically a two-handler, one of Theodore the sole living inhabitant convict on the planet,  When he is dying, someone is sent to replace him, Niyya—the interaction of the two forms the film’s premise.

The film covers issues of politics like genocide and also living in isolation.   Is Theodore crazy?  If one lives in isolation, does it matter?  And also comes to debate on truth.  Is his past a lie, made up, or is it the truth?  And does it really matter?  When one loses one's memory, everything is gone, which is a scary thought that haunts Theodore.  Or is he really Nathan, another person of the past?

For a small-budget film, director St. Jules covers the issues admirably.  The film is also simple in delivery, thus making it difficult to find fault with.  The film also possesses a sci-fi look, one reminiscent of the 70’s sci-fi films.  The lodging where the two are put up is minimal which allows a quaint and futuristic design (great production design by Andrew Berry).

The director Jeffrey St. Jules is no stranger to sci-fi films.  Neither is he a novice.  Jeffrey St. Jules is well known as a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who won the Claude Jutra Award in 2015 for his debut feature film BAND BANG BABY.   The film also won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.  His reputation allowed him to get veteran Canadian actor Elias Koteas to star in THE SILENT PLANET.

THE SILENT PLANET opens in Toronto at the Carlton Cinemas on March 7th.

Trailer: 

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 21 February 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BODY ODYSSEY (Italy/Switzerland 2023) ***
Directed by Grazia Tricarico

BODY ODYSSEY directed and co-written by Grazia Tricarico is described as an obsessive female bodybuilder’s quest for a perfect body and perfection. Of course, nothing will go the way she intends in this stylized horrific psychological drama.  The film is shot in English though it is a co-production between Italy and Switzerland.

Mona (Jacqueline Fuchs) is a female bodybuilder obsessed with an ideal of perfection and beauty. The body is her inseparable container, her most faithful ally, her partner responding to laments. Together they find themselves on the threshold of their destiny.  Fuchs is nothing short of phenomenal in her role, capturing the weirdness and completely insane obsession that she has.  Her daily schedule is carefully followed by her obsessive coach, Kurt (Julian Sands in one of his final performances), who rigorously monitors her every action like a demiurge: her sleep, her nutrition, her training, her doping, her psychology and even her sexual life. This unyielding regimen, however, becomes disrupted when a brief romantic encounter with a young man impacts both her discipline and her will.

The film’s beginning sets the tone for what is to come.  The female bodybuilder’s body flesh is pinched at different parts, and no matter how bulked she looks, there is always some loose skin somewhere.  But she is told that she is up to standard.  As she tours the gym, she is asked for tips by a fellow bodybuilder who says he wants a game changer.  “You need a change in your mindset,” comes her reply.  As she tours the gym, she sees a fat man using the treadmill, slowly but surely.  She moves to his machine and speeds up the dial from 3.0 to 8.0 as he watches one and increases his pace on the machine.  Quite an impressive start to this stylized drama.

Director Tricarico ups the ante during the last third of the film with it getting grimmer and scarier.  He uses a variety of techniques including sound, colour (bluish and greens as if shot on another planet), and fade-outs to black but mostly images of the perfect yet grotesque and o over-muscled competition body.  Mona also hears sounds just like a psychotic person hears the voice of demons.  Watching the film is like living through a nightmare and though the film is well made, the ultimate question on the tongue of audiences will be: Are we actually enjoying this?

Mona’s home invasion scene is also discomforting and marks the film’s most disturbing segment.

The film has a definite David Cronenberg feel, as in his horror hits like THE FLY.  Grazia Tricarico, who captured Best Director at Sitges in 2024.

BODY ODYSSEY is dedicated to Julian Sands as this is his last film.  The words “To Julian….” appear at the beginning of the film. Sands is a good-looking British blond actor known for films like the horror flick WARLOCK in which he had the title role.

BODY ODYSSEY makes its North American premiere on Indiepix Unlimted on February 28th, 2025.

Trailer: 

LAST BREATH (USA/UK 2025) ***

Directed by Alex Parkinson

LAST BREATH is the live-action 2025 survival thriller film directed by Alex Parkinson and written by Mitchell LaFortune, Parkinson, and David Brooks. It stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, and Cliff Curtis. It is a feature film remake of the 2019 documentary that Parkinson co-directed with Richard da Costa.

The 2019 Netflix documentary used genuine footage and audio recorded at the time of the accident on the divers' radios and body cameras, supplemented with interviews of several of the individuals involved, as well as some reconstructed footage, to tell the story of the accident. Chris Lemons, along with his colleagues Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa, was carrying out repairs 100 metres (330 ft) below the surface of the North Sea, supported by the support vessel Bibby Topaz.  The vessel's dynamic positioning system, supplied by Kongsberg Maritime, failed. This caused the vessel to drift in rough seas, dragging the divers away from the area they were working and eventually snapping the umbilical tether that provided Lemons with heliox to breathe, as well as hot water to heat his suit, power for his light, and a communications link to the surface.  He was left with only five minutes of breathable gas contained in the cylinders he wore on his back.

The new film follows very much the story of the doc with stars Woody Harrelson playing Duncan and Simms Lio and Finn Cole the two divers.  More is added in the 2025 version in terms of emotion and human characters.  The result is not always good, with the film teetering towards unnecessary sentimentality and artificiality.   The ultimate question is whether the world needs a remake when the doc is still available to watch.  The 2025 version also shows the intricacies of the vessels and equipment used to mend the pipeline.  Again the question arises whether it is worth putting human lives and the environment at stake for the purpose of complying profit in oil.  There is a slight debate about risking human lives to save the environment, a solid debate topic but which is unfortunately not taken any further.

The big miracle of the whole incident is Chris Lemmons’ survival against all biological and medical reasoning.  For reasons that are unclear to Lemons and his colleagues, but attributed in part to the cold water and having been breathing a gas mix with a high partial pressure of oxygen, Lemons survived for around 30 minutes while he was located by a remote underwater vehicle and then by Yuasa, who was able to pull him back onboard the diving bell.

LAST BREATH opens in theatres on February 28th.

Trailer: 

SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON (India 2024) **

Directed by Reema Kagti

Directed by Reema Kagti, SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON chronicles the life of Nasir Shaikh, whose no-budget, community-sourced movies turned his hometown into an unlikely dream factory.  This is not the first film made about Nasir (Supermen of Malegaon or Malegaon Ka Superman) was made in 2008 as a Hindi documentary) as this true story is perfect feel-good filmmaking fare.  It is 1997, and movie-mad Nasir (Adarsh Gourav)  is certain he’s destined for cinematic greatness, but great cinema never came out of his humdrum small hometown of Malegaon.  Borrowing gear from a wedding videographer and assembling a cast and crew of locals and friends, Nasir sets out to remake Ramesh Sippy’s beloved 1975 film Sholay.  At best, the film reveals both the life of the people in the small town of Malegaon, where poverty rules and people are looking for escapism in the movies and the problems and conflicts involved in making a movie, at its worst, director Kagti resorts to humour and silly antics of the characters pursuing lighter entertainment and compromising more important issues.  

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 16 February 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

THE MONKEY (USA 2025)s**
Directed by Osgood Perkins

THE MONKEY comes with the accolade that it is based on a Stephen King short story, one that was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1980.  It is a 1980 horror short story by Stephen King featuring a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy.  There are two differences between the short story and the film already,  One is that the characters in the film refuse to refer to the monkey as a toy, and in the film the monkey plays the drums instead of cymbals,  The cymbals are surely scarier but the film’s director begs to differ.  The other reason is that the monkey with the symbols is a Disney-patented toy. THE MONKEY also comes right after writer/director Perkins horror hit LONGLEGS.

After stumbling upon their father's vintage toy monkey in the attic, twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Theo James) witness a string of horrifying deaths unfolding around them. In an attempt to leave the haunting behind, the brothers discard the monkey and pursue separate paths over time. However, when the inexplicable deaths resurface, the brothers are compelled to reconcile and embark on a mission to eliminate the cursed toy permanently.

There are also major changes in the film.  In the King’s story, the monkey in a flight bag is weighted with rocks and thrown to the deepest part of Crystal Lake. As the bag sinks, the faint sound of the monkey's cymbals clapping can be heard.  During the disposal, the boat starts breaking up, but the Hal character manages to swim ashore safely to his son, Petey. The story ends with a newspaper clipping showing that hundreds of fish in the lake have died as a result. 

This is a more subtle and scarier ending which the film dismisses.  

THE MONKEY is nothing much more than a slew of very, very violent killings similar to the SAW horror franchise with the difference of the monkey doing the killing.  The killings are all at random so director Perkins has more liberty for various ways to dispose of the victims.  There is no subtlety here.

Perkins’ script has the main character Hal have an evil twin brother.  The enmity between the two forms a main part of the story,  The evil money in question is assumed by the evil twin to be able to cause damage as well as provide immortality.  The immortality is never clearly explained and serves to cloud the situation.  

THE MONKEY like the SAW franchise can be praised for the extreme violence and innovation of novel killings.  Apart from that, nothing really new or exciting has been brought to the horror genre.  Whether the changes from Stephen King’s short story improve the film’s story is questionable at best.  The characters in the film are also too wishy-washy to be sympathetic.  The  MONKEY toy should have never been taken out from Hal's father’s closet and the script for THE MONKEY should be locked in one

THE MONKEY opens in theatres on February 21st.  With its modest budget, the horror flick should bring in a tidy profit.

Trailer: 

OKIKU AND THE WORLD (Japan 2023) ***½

Written & Directed by: Junji Sakamoto

Two Japanese films have emerged in 2023 about toilets and shit.  One is the 2023 Oscar-nominated Best International Feature PERFECT DAYS from Wim Wenders about a public toilet cleaner employed in Tokyo who takes his job dead seriously.  Yes, cleaning shit is a serious but dirty job.  This film OKIKU AND THE WORLD is also about shit.  But this is a black and white film, though it does break into colour at one point, a period piece set in Edo, Japan.

Edo-era Japan is remembered for many things — brutal nation building, isolationist foreign policies, and the last samurai.   Leave it to veteran auteur Junji Sakamoto to remind audiences that it also marked the culmination of a truly sustainable ecosystem. OKIKU AND THE WORLD, tells the story of Yasuke (Sosuke Ikematsu), who makes a living out of selling human waste to farmers and persuades the young paper seller Chunji (Kanichiro Sato) to be his business partner.   Like PERFECT DAYS, the director takes great pains to show how the work is done - in this case scooping shit from the outhouses and mansions carrying the buckets of waste out, often travelling by boat, and then selling their wares as fertilizer to the farmers.  The film is shot in black and white so the waste looks even more real and gross.  The scenes are indeed enough to stop your appetite.

While sheltering from a storm, the pair meet Okiku (Haru Kuroki), a young schoolteacher and daughter of a disgraced samurai (Koichi Sato).   Okiky initially despises Yasuke but not Chunji who is at the time just selling newspapers, before being taken in as the shit apprentice.   She is haughty and proud and like many others cannot stand the stink and look down on the trade.  But things change after having Okie’s vocal cords severed during a brutal attack that also results in her father’s death and unlocks her new life, though she remains in her house for a long time, like a cocoon before coming out of her shell  Okiku falls in love with Chunji–yet how can their love blossom given his low social status and her inability to speak?

The film looks simple and plain, but there is more emotion and drama than meets\ the eye.  For one, it studies prejudice while showing a part of the period Japan Westerners are totally unfamiliar with.  This is where the film succeeds in fascinating the audience with a story as strange as its setting.

Performances by relatively unknown Japanese actors are sincere and credible.  The look of Edo with tis tenement row housing and countryside farming with the river as a backdrop all add to the authenticity of the story.

  Sakamoto’s latest period drama is a groundbreaking, realist work that revolves around the themes of youth, love, and sustainability, interspersed with a good dose of toilet humour.

OKIKU AND THE WORLD makes its North American premiere on Film Movement Plus, the new streaming service also available in Canada on February 21, 2025.

Trailer: 

PARTHENOPE (Italy/France 2024) ****

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

The film begins in 1950.  With the help of midwives, a baby girl is born in the sea of Naples that lies below her family’s wealthy home.  She is named Parthenope, named for the mythological Greek siren who’s credited with founding ancient Naples by an elderly gent known as the Commander.  This is the life story of Parthenope, right down to her in her old age.

  From 1950, the film fast forwards.  Now 18 years old, Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta) is again emerging from the sea, this time in a bikini (like the James Bond girls).  Thus begins her journey through teenage summers and young adult years.  Just about everyone is smitten with
Parthenope – playboys, strangers, her childhood friend (Dario Aita), and even her
brother (Daniele Rienzo) and a bishop (Peppe Lanzetta), neither of whom should be.

The film is set in the sunlit city of Naples. The smiling Parthenope recalls her childhood, in which her brother was obsessed with her.  Her anthropology professor finds her a brilliant student.  She considers becoming an actress but is not inspired by her eccentric acting coach. She wonders about becoming an aesthete and meets the drunken writer John Cheever (Gary Oldman), whose work she admires. Or perhaps she could have a romantic fling with the ugly bishop who attends the miracle of the dried blood that turns liquid each year, the phenomenon she is studying in anthropology.

Sorrentino’s Naples at times feels like a Federico Fellini movie for its excesses and indulgence.  The films of both directors can be difficult to take but not without their rewards.  Sorrentino’s PARTHENOPE, at least abstains from the ghastly and weird.  For example in FELLINI’S SATYRICON, there is the chopping of a hand on stage for entertainment, or the farting of a performer wearing an animal costume with the tail lifting and falling as  he farts on stage.  Sorrentino, on the other hand, embellishes beauty,

And Sorrentino knows how to shoot beauty.  This is evident in the film’s early scenes where he films beautiful young girls and men in colourful garments in slow-motion as they jump up and down or frolic in the open.  He also films a very seductive sex scene between a nubile couple as watched by a live audience.

The supporting men in Parthenope’s life are more interesting than hers.  The actors also outshine the actress’s performance, which can be described as forgettable as best.  All Celeste Dalla Porta can do is look beautiful, which she does quite magnificently.  The older Parthenope is portrayed by Stefania Sandrelli famous for her Pietro Germi’s 60 films like DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE and SEDUCED AND ABANDONED.  She is one reason to see this film.

Parthenope is gifted with both beauty and talent.  Yet her personality is clouded by her encounters.  The drunken writer, her professor and her mentors all serve to upstage her.  She meets her match when she meets the diva of divas who insults the entire Naples in her degrading speech to the city’s people

There is a good play with words in the film’s dialogue.  Parthenope is great at rebuttal comebacks.  “When chastised, she says at least it is original.”  To which comes:  “But it must be true.”  Every character has a good line at one point or another from the bishop to the commander but none can match the lines of Parthenope.

PARTHENOPE is gorgeous, irrelevant and entertaining, there are adjectives that can be used to describe director Sorrentino’s film as well as his other films   Despite the weak narrative, there is a story but it is the visuals and excesses that make the film.  Be prepared to be astonished by the film that premiered at Cannes last year winning a reported 9-and-a-half-minute standing ovation.

Parthenope was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 21 May 2024,  and opened in theatres on February 21st.

Trailer: 

THE QUIET ONES (Norway 2024) ***
Directed by  Frederik Louis Hviid

THE QUIET ONES is based on the true story of Denmark’s biggest-ever robbery in which $10 million US was taken and the 14 involved were caught and imprisoned.  

THE QUIET ONES is a suspenseful action thriller depicting a team of ambitious and uncompromising criminals who all share the same goal: To achieve the impossible— despite great obstacles and personal costs.

Director Frederik Louis Hviid’s heist thriller is typical of the crime capers made in the 60’s and 70’s.  It highlights the steely professionalism of men operating outside the law.  The exciting and suspenseful film centres on a group of men from Denmark in 2008, when across Europe pulled off the biggest heist of all time on Danish soil. Kasper, a boxer with few chances left in life, is offered the opportunity to plan the robbery by its foreign initiators.  At the risk of losing his family and everything that matters to him, he takes on the challenge in a bid to break all records and secure his place in the history books.  As he plans the job alongside an enigmatic hard-core, Kasper displays the kind of exacting professionalism that might’ve taken him far in a more legitimate line of work.  The little violence in the film is replaced by suspensful scenes.  THE QUIET ONES open in theatres and on Demand on February 21st.  The film premiered at TIFF last year.

Trailer: 

LAS TRES SISTERS (USA/Mexico 2023) **
Directed by Mar Novo

Facing the realities of life’s ups and downs, three sisters reunite, after years of estrangement, to complete their beloved Grandmother’s pilgrimage through rural Mexico.  One of the sisters is seeking a miracle, a cure for her terminal illness as she has been diagnosed with cancer.  She keeps the illness from the sisters who think she is there to solve her marriage problems.  With an old map, no hiking experience, and their lives unraveling around them, the sisters encounter what is hoped to be hilarious and touching experiences on the Talpa de Allende trail - that is until Kin, a local with a dark past, brings them together in order to reach the Miracle that awaits at the end of the trail.

Ted Lasso’s Cristo Fernandez who has a supporting role, as Ken, who has sex with one of the sisters.  He also executively produced the film The sister who organizes the pilgrimage is Maria (Marta Mendez Cross (THE BOUNCE BACK) who believes in a miracle of healing.  The loudest of the sisters Sofia (Virginia Novello) who if not drunk half the time, is making a fool of herself while flirting around at the same time.  The third sister who cannot get along with Sofia is Lucia (Valeria Maldonado, COCO) the most anal-retentive of the sisters who has just walked out of the job because she cannot stand being unappreciated.  She also looks after their mother and mothers her too much.  The mother hires a nurse so that she can go with the sisters.

Though the film lists 4 writers in the credits, the story of three sisters and their journey that involves sorting out what might be considered incorrigible differences is hardly original.  The humour is slight and the drama appears forced at times.

Three sisters mean that there needs to be three happy endings that the audience is forced to tolerate and sit through.  The film gets too sappy at th end, complete with a sing-a-long Spanish song by the three sisters.

LAS TRES SISTERS opens in theatres on February 21st.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 10 February 2025

The Oscar-nominated shorts are always a delight, year after year and 2025 is no exception.  Highly recommended!

There are 3 categories and it is hard to predict which one is best.  One year it could be documentary and another live action.  As the shorts were received late, this article will be updated daily till all the shorts are reviewed.

Documentary

ANIMATION

BEURK! (YUCK!) (France 2024) ***½

Directed by Loic Espuche

This short short runs around 12 minutes but it is a sheer delight and perhaps the most fun of all the animated shorts nominated for the Oscar.  A group of kids at a camping site cannot help it group together to watch adults kiss.  When they kiss, the words “Yulk!, Gross!  I will never do that when I grow up.)  come out of the children’s mouths.  One other kid even claims it is even more gross as he had also seen his parents ‘doing it’.    Couples kissing on the mouth are gross.  And the worst is, you can't miss them: when people are about to kiss, their lips become all pink and shiny.  Little Léo, which the short centres on laughs at them, just like all the kids at the summer camp.  But he has a secret he won't tell his friends: his own mouth has actually begun glistening. And, in reality, Léo desperately wants to give kissing a try.  BEURCK is the French word for Yuck meaning ‘a mess’.  There is actually more to the laughs as the short tackles deeper themes like growing up.

BEAUTIFUL MEN (Belgium/France/Netherlands 2023) ****
Directed by Nicolas Keppens

Three brothers (Steven, Koen and Bart) travel to Istanbul in 2021 (pandemic is on as can be seen by the wearing of masks) to get a hair transplant.  Apparently, once bald men get their hair they are on top of the world.  The clincher is that there is only one spot for one transplant, and not three.  The idea of homosexuality is eliminated by the fact that the three are brothers.  Using stop-animation, Keppens delivers a sensitive, insightful, and mature look at masculinity.  As they wait for the transplant, they wander around Istanbul and discover more of themselves and of each other.  Aptly animated (with details like the crumbling of a sock), entertaining and the element of curiosity about what happens in the story is maintained throughout.  This is an odd delight, having made its rounds through international animation film festivals while garnishing many awards.

MAGIC CANDIES (Japan 2025) ****
Directed by Daisuke Nishio

No one wants to play with Dong Dong.  The other kids at the park never ask Dong-Dong to play. That's ok. He's fine just playing marbles on his own. One day, he buys a bag of colourful candies instead of new marbles. The first time he pops one of them into his mouth, his old sofa starts talking to him. The two share an unexpected conversation before the sweet melts away. As it happens, the people, animals, and objects in Dong-Dong's life have a lot to say.  (The candies could stand for drugs adults take to hallucinate - but let's consider this short as a harmless magical tale!… )  With each candy, he discovers new voices and perspectives, including his own. Heartfelt and totally strange, Magic   Candies will have you rethinking how you treat the objects, and others, in your life.  The talking sofa is the funniest, the talking dog Gunsuri the most insightful and the resurrected grandmother the most heartfelt.  This one gets my vote for Best Animated Short!

WANDER TO WONDER (France/Belgium/Netherlands/UK 2023) ***½

Directed by Nina Gantz

If there is a weird one, WANDER TO WONDER would be a hard one to beat.  Though only 14 minutes in running time, the short covers a lot of material in terms of thinking.  In the 1980s, Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton starred in the children's television program Wander to Wonder. They are left alone in the studio after the show's originator passed away.  Left alone in the studio without any clue how to survive, the trio in essence wander to wonder how to carry on. Struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans. They cope, but only to a point when things start to turn crazy.  Toby Jones is the well-known Brit actor who voices Fumblteton.  The short is odd and funny, then turns seriously curious tacking issues like loneliness, death, and emotional stability.

DOCUMENTARY

DEATH BY NUMBERS (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Kim A. Snyder

A harrowing experience of trauma and survival given the full serious treatment of a survivor, Sam Fuentes of a mass killing in her school.  She confronts the killer at the ending scene in which she delivers, in court, a testimony (an unforgettable scene) of what she went through in terms of trauma and survival (she was wounded) and how she tells him what he had become.  Death by Numbers had its world premiere on October 5, 2024 at the Hamptons International Film Festival and finally won the prestigious nomination for Best Oscar Nominated Short.  Another brilliant film that comes to mind about a mass shooting is Lynne Ramsay’s 2011 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN which would be the ideal companion piece with this short.

I AM READY, WARDEN  (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Smriti Mundhra

The short opens with convicted murderer John Henry Ramirez speaking to the camera, 6 days before his execution for the murder of Pablo Castro after 29 stabbings outside a convenience store.  John Henry thanks those who have supported him and talks about his regret of his deed and indeed, he is ready for his execution.  The short puts the quince on his side before turning the tables when the next scene shifts to the son, 14 at the time when his father was senselessly murdered.  He, understandably wants justice in the death sentence.  The short also looks at Pastor Dana’s point of view when she says that John Henry is a changed man, and no longer the man he was before.  I AM READY WARDEN does to judge but allows the viewer to do so on their own terms.  But more important of all, is the question of capital punishment.  When questioned by ex-PM Brian Mulroney on bringing back capital punishment, his reply was that Canadians would never return to primitive times.

 INCIDENT (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Bill Morrison

INCIDENT gets my vote for the most arresting doc short eliciting raw emotions, uneasiness, and conscience.  This is film editing at its most efficient. And all based on a true but regretful event that should never have happened.  The film reconstructs a 2018 police shooting in Chicago, reassembling the event and its immediate aftermath from a variety of sources, including surveillance, CCTV, dashboard, and body-worn cameras, as a synchronized split-screen montage. A black barber is shot to death for no reason at all, the cops were responsible though they had thought that he had a gun hidden under his shirt, though he did not.  The cops try to cover it up - obviously, especially the white female cop Halley who clearly is the vicious villain in the short, lying through her teeth and protecting her partner,  See this short at your own risk!

INSTRUMENTS OF A BEATING HEART (Japan 2024) ***

Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki

The documentary follows Ayame, a schoolgirl, Ayame eager to participate in a group performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" to welcome new first graders.  Encouraged by the teacher to think beyond herself, Ayame wins the cymbal role in the audition.  However, a lack of dedication to her task leads to mistakes during rehearsals, prompting the teacher to emphasize the importance of harmony and diligence.  Following a reprimand during practice, Ayame loses confidence. Classmates and teachers offer encouragement and support, leading her to rejoin the group and become a part of its eventual success.  The film is performed by the teachers and students of a Tokyo public school which gives the short authenticity and credibility.  Accolades too, for young Ayame playing herself, delivering a knockout performance for such a youngster.

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Molly O’Brien

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA (the Philharmonic) is as the title of the short implies, a short with a strong female slant.  And with reason.  In 1966 conductor Leonard Bernstein praised Orin O’Brien as a miracle.  Orin O'Brien, a trailblazing double bassist, became the New York Philharmonic's first female musician in 1966, hired by Leonard Bernstein. Now 87 and recently retired, she reflects on her remarkable career, valuing a quiet, supportive role for loved ones and students. The documentary by her niece, Molly O’Brien, highlights Orin’s impact and her belief that fulfillment lies in embracing a secondary role.  The film is an homage to the O’Briens and all women who strive to excel in the field of their dreams.  And if that is not enough - the soundtrack of classics such as Mahler’s Symphony Number 2 can be heard throughout.  THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA is now playing and can be viewed on Netflix.

 LIVE ACTION

ANUJA (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Adam J. Graves

ANUJA is a 2024 American Hindi-language short film written and directed by philosopher-turned-filmmaker Adam J. Graves.  Starring Sajda Pathan, Ananya Shanbhag and Nagesh Bhonsle, it tells the story of a gifted (in Mathematics) nine-year-old girl who, alongside her sister Palak, faces a life-changing opportunity that tests their bond and mirrors the struggles of girls worldwide.  The setting is a clothing sweatshop in overcrowded New Delhi where the two siblings work.  The seriousness of the message of the film, which is assumed to make the world aware of child labour and other abuses, is undermined by the incident of Anuja trying to sell stolen goods from the authorities.  Anuja is seen running around with her pursuers but the camerawork looks amateurish and forced,  ANUJA is available to be watched in Netflix.

I AM NOT A ROBOT (Belgium/Netherlands 2023) ****
Directed by Victoria Warmerdam

In Drew Hancock’s recent COMPANION, the premise of the film purports that the sex doll can be attuned to A.I. capabilities resulting in a programmable companion for any human being.  The impressive short I AM NOT A ROBOT treads along the same lines but though only a short, it accomplishes more than Hancock’s feature-length film.  It parodies much of what social media does.  The film’s protagonist, Lara is told by her boyfriend and his new girlfriend that she is a ‘bot’ She questions the fact as the internet says she is 87% probability offing a robot, especially after repeatedly failing Captcha tests.  The answer comes at the very end forming the short's climax.  Very smart, very imaginative, very current, and thoroughly entertaining!

A LIEN (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by David Cutler-Kreutz and Sam Cutler-Kreutz

In this short, what property is a lien is up to the audience to figure out.  But this is an emotionally charged short that is as current as President Donald Trump evicts illegal immigrants from the U.S. using g the ICE, clearly the villains of the piece.  Trump has no respect for humans and treats immigrants as trash.  Oscar and Sophia Gomez are a married couple with a young daughter, Nina, en route to an immigration interview that they hope will grant Oscar a path to citizenship. Oscar is to be interviewed first regarding their marriage, and he takes Nina with him, leaving Sophia alone in the waiting room. When asked if he has ever returned to his country of origin, Oscar explains to the interviewer that he first came to New York in 1994 and feels no connection to his home country. Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Sophia notices other undocumented immigrants being detained and taken out of the office in handcuffs by ICE. When they begin calling Oscar's name over the loudspeakers, she panics, fearing that they intend to arrest him as well.  There is no happy ending here as during Trump’s 4-year term, but there is only hope.

THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT REMAIN SILENT (France/Croatia/Slovenia/Bulgaria 2024) *****
Directed by Nebojša Slijepčević

The film depicts the true story of the kidnapping and crime in Štrpci (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on February 27, 1993, on a passenger train travelling from Belgrade to Bar, when the Beli Orlovi paramilitary unit dragged 24 Muslims from the train and ended up killing them.  Dragan is a middle-aged man in a train car with several other passengers, including the teenager Milan, a grandfather and granddaughter, and a college student. The train stops unexpectedly, and the White Eagles are granted access to the train by the conductor. The soldiers force each passenger back into their seats and demand documentation and personal details from each. Many passengers are heard being forcefully dragged out. Milan admits to Dragan that he has no paperwork, and will also be arrested, but Dragan assures him that nobody in the car will let anything happen to him.  But the film’s non-silent man is not Dragan but another passenger, Tomo, whom the film is deicated to.  Based on true events, the short unfolds like a true suspense train thriller.  The short also won the grand prize for Best Short at Cannes,  Clearly the Best of the lot.

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 30 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BOGOTA: CITY OF THE LOST (South Korea 2024) ***
Directed by Kim Seong-je

Premiering at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2024, BOGOTA: CITY OF THE LOST tells the story of Kook-hee (Song Joong Ki), a young South Korean man who finds himself navigating the dangerous criminal underworld of Bogota, Colombia, after his life is turned upside down by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. 

The film opens in the wake of the Asian financial collapse, in 1999, which devastates South Korea and forces Kook-hee's family to flee their home country for a better life in Colombia. 

BOGOTA: CITY OFTHE LOST is a 2024 South Korean crime film co-written and directed by Kim Seong-je, starring Song Joong-ki, Lee Hee-joon and Kwon Hae-hyo. It tells the story of immigrants who start dangerous deals to survive in Bogotá, the last land for hopeless lives.

Bogotá is Colombia’s sprawling, high-altitude capital. La Candelaria, its cobblestoned center, features colonial-era landmarks like the neoclassical performance hall Teatro Colón and the 17th-century Iglesia de San Francisco. It's also home to popular museums including the Museo Botero, showcasing Fernando Botero's art, and the Museo del Oro, displaying pre-Columbian gold pieces.  The film serves a tourist promotion as can be observed in the one scene where Guk-hee is driven by a Colombian into the forests where several waterfalls in all their majesty canoe observed.

The film celebrates both South Korea and Colombia.  Though Colombia is known for drugs and dirty dealings, these are kept at a minimum, just enough to get the story going.  Those unfamiliar with Colombia should have a field day, as the film, shot in both Korean and Spanish paints a very insightful picture of Colombia.

Unable to escape the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, 19-year-old Guk-hee moves to Bogotá with his family, wishing for a better life only to end up living from hand to mouth. To survive in this unfamiliar land, Guk-hee starts working under Sergeant Park, who holds power in the Korean Merchants’ Association. Catching Park's eye with his diligence, Guk-hee is tasked with participating in a smuggling operation for clothing as part of a test. Amid a life-threatening crisis where Colombian customs nearly apprehend them, Guk-hee risks his life to protect Sergeant Park's goods, leaving a lasting impression not only on Park but also on Soo-yeong, a customs broker. Soon, Soo-yeong makes Guk-hee a dangerous proposal. Realizing that his choices can change the landscape of the Korean community in Bogotá, Guk-hee begins to yearn for even greater success.

Told and narrated by the 22-year-old Guk-hee, the film has a personal touch that allows the audience to identify with the protagonist and his family.  The film stays away from the easy wrought of being an action film but instead focuses on a story that deals with the resilience of the human spirit - in this case the survival of a man and his family in a strong and foreign new world - the world of Bogota, Colombia.  It is also a coming-of-age story of Guk-Kee as he examines the many options available to him, some of questionable ethics but might provide an easier way out.  And there is also an action-packed last third to satisfy action fans,

The film premieres in Canada on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

BRING THEM DOWN (UK/Ireland 2024) ***½

Directed by Christopher Andrews

Shot in rural Ireland, this intense and depressing film displays the hardships of sheep farming with the added stress of feuding neighbours.  Michael (Christopher Abbott) tends his family’s sheep business entirely on his own. His father (Colm Meaney) is disabled, and his mother died years ago in a car accident in which Michael was the driver.  Michael has lived with guilt ever since — as well as a secret he hopes will never come to light.  Michael’s ex, Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), was also in that car accident and has the scars to prove it. She wound up marrying Gary (Paul Ready), another sheep farmer. Near the start of Bring Them Down, Caroline and Gary’s son, Jack (Barry Keoghan, also at the Festival with Bird), claims that two of Michael’s prize rams were found dead on his family’s property.   Michael’s suspicions are aroused, old wounds are opened, and the two families, with neither willing to stand down, find themselves on a perilous collision course.  The film repeats a few scenes resulting in a disordered chronological order, but the narrative is still easy to follow,  A solid climax brings the riveting film to an unexpected end.

LOVE HURTS (USA 2025) *

Directed by JoJo Eusebio

Ke Huy Quan stars as Marvin Gable, a realtor working the Milwaukee suburbs, where 'For Sale' signs bloom. Gable receives a crimson envelope from Rose (Oscar® winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story, Argylle), a former partner-in-crime that he had left for dead.  She’s not happy. Now, Marvin is thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen, filled with double-crosses and open houses turned into deadly war zones. With his brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu; Tomb Raider, Warcraft), a volatile crime lord, hunting him, Marvin must confront the choices that haunt him and the history he never truly buried.

Universal gives Ke Huy Qian, the recent Academy Award Winner from EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE a leading role in his first movie,  Unfortunately, LOVE HURTS ends up a terrible movie, a pauper’s version of KINGSMAN or even JOHN WICK films.  Ke looks like a poor man’s Jackie Chan either way his comedic Martial-Arts fights are not funny nor exciting.  The interjection of the Valentine’s Day romance is silly and a cheap rip-off of the holiday celebrations.  The film is also unnecessarily violent.  The story is infantile, the performances infantile and the Chemistry between Ke and DeBose non-existent.  The sure worst film of 2025 so far.  This film HURTS!

Trailer: 

THE MONKEY (USA 2025) **
Directed by Osgood Perkins

THE MONKEY comes with the accolade that it is based on a Stephen King short story, one that was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1980.  It is a 1980 horror short story by Stephen King featuring a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy.  There are two differences between the short story and the film already,  One is that the characters in the film refuse to refer to the monkey as a toy, and in the film the monkey plays the drums instead of cymbals,  The cymbals are surely scarier but the film’s director begs to differ.  The other reason is that the monkey with the symbols is a Disney-patented toy,

After stumbling upon their father's vintage toy monkey in the attic, twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Theo James) witness a string of horrifying deaths unfolding around them. In an attempt to leave the haunting behind, the brothers discard the monkey and pursue separate paths over time. However, when the inexplicable deaths resurface, the brothers are compelled to reconcile and embark on a mission to eliminate the cursed toy permanently.

There are also major changes in the film.  In the King’s story, the monkey in a flight bag is weighted with rocks and thrown to the deepest part of Crystal Lake. As the bag sinks, the faint sound of the monkey's cymbals clapping can be heard.  During the disposal, the boat starts breaking up, but the Hal character manages to swim ashore safely to his son, Petey. The story ends with a newspaper clipping showing that hundreds of fish in the lake have died as a result.

This is a more subtle and scarier ending which the film dismisses. 

THE MONKEY is nothing much more than a slew of very, very violent killings similar to the SAW horror franchise with the difference of the monkey doing the killing.  The killings are all at random so director Perkins has more liberty for various ways to dispose of the victims.  There is no subtlety here.

Perkins’ script has the main character Hal have an evil twin brother.  The enmity between the two forms a main part of the story,  The evil money in question is assumed by the evil twin to be able to cause damage as well as provide immortality.  The immortality is never clearly explained and serves to cloud the situation. 

THE MONKEY like the SAW franchise can be praised for the extreme violence and innovation of novel killings.  Apart from that, nothing really new or exciting has been brought to the horror genre.  Whether the changes from Stephen King’s short story improve the film’s story is questionable at best.  The characters in the film are also too wishy-washy to be sympathetic.  The  MONKEY toy should have never been taken out from Hal's father’s closet and the script for THE MONKEY should be locked in one

THE MONKEY opens in theatres on February 7th.  With its modest budget, the horror flick should bring in a tidy profit.

Trailer: 

NO OTHER LAND (Norway/Palestine 2024) ****

Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor

The film NO OTHER LAND is about Palestinians but focuses on the few living in the West Bank.  The Gaza Strip has recently been in the news since the idiotic President Trump created chaos as usual by opening his big mouth wanting to claim the Gaza Strip from the U.S.  Can the Americans be more despised by the world?  There are similarities and differences between the two lands, and a bit of history is important in order to appreciate this awesome documentary better.

The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are two Palestinian territories that were part of Mandate Palestine and were captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. There are over 5 million Palestinians combined living in the two territories. The West Bank is an area of land located within the country of Israel.  The West Bank stretches across the eastern border of Israel along the west banks of the Jordan River and most of the Dead Sea, which is how it received its name.  In 1967, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria were involved in a military struggle most commonly known as the Six-Day War. Up until that point, the Gaza Strip had been under Egypt’s control and the West Bank under Jordan’s. However, after the Six-Day War, both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were seized by Israel.  Since the Six-Day War, though, the tension between Israelis and Palestinians living in the territories has been constant, often ending in violence. Because Israel controls all access to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Palestinians living there are under military occupation and are subject to Israeli restrictions, often depending on aid for food, water, and supplies.

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community's mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood.  The film begins with his narration at the age of 5 (when he first saw his father arrested) moving on to 7 (his first protest).  Basel documents the gradual erasure of the community of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, as soldiers destroy the homes of families - the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. The extreme inequality between them haunts their complex bond: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

NO OTHER LAND is a very personal and moving film that effectively gets its message across.  Though there is still no peace or resolve in the century-old conflict, the doc allows the audience to appreciate the meaningless human suffering that has resulted.  NO OTHER LAND is nominated for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary.  It opens at the TIFF Lightsbox on Friday, February 7th.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 27 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

THE DEAD THING (USA 2024) **
Directed by Elric Kane

THE DEAD THING is an ambitious new horror film directed by Elric Kane and co-written by Kane and Webb Wilcoxen.

What is THE DEAD THING that is referred to by the film’s title?  The answer is clear only in the last 15 minutes of the film’s 90-minute running time.

The film is described as an erotic horror thriller.  That it is, but the film takes its time to establish its footing.  It begins by focusing on its protagonist, a young pretty girl, Alex (Blu Hunt) stuck in a computer client-based job who finds sexual distraction by going on dating apps and meeting up with random strangers thus having sex with them.  All her hook-ups are quite good-looking, also of which forms the erotic element of the film, though with little nudity.  (Who says there must be nudity for a film to be erotic?)  But the encounters are meaningless until she finds Kyle, a mysterious crew-cut hunk named Kyle (Ben Smith Petersen) who seems different from the rest of her meet-ups.

But he is as strange as can be.  He disappears for no apparent reason and she catches him dating another girl.  He becomes an obsession for her.  She discovers that he is actually dead, but then sees him and meets again with him.  The relationship turns really weird.

The film is ok to this point, though the slow burn might frustrate horror fans expecting more.  It does not help that the film contains a totally muddled ending.  The extremely slow build-up, lack of scares, and muddled ending make the film more frustrating.

THE DEAD THING premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival.  It opens on the Shudder streaming service on February 14th.

Trailer: 

DEATH BEFORE THE WEDDING (Poland 2025) **

Directed by Tomasz KoneckiIwona and Ogonowska-Konecka

When Maja brings her fiancé home, her traditional parents must overcome their cultural biases amidst a crisis at their dairy farm. Can love find a way?  GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER Polish style.  But the drama is replaced by aught comedy in this Polish entry

The death referred to in the title refers to the sudden death of the manager of a dairy plant called Little Dairy.  The CEO of the chain wants to shut this plant down, it being the smallest and most insignificant.  But Miren who runs the company tries to keep the plant going,  But that is not the only problem.  he has forgotten his pearl wedding anniversary and his wife, Regina is more distraught than angry.  His daughter is engaged to be married but to a coloured man.  The condition the CEO gives Mirek for not shutting down the plant is to allow his wife to paint the daughter’s wedding.  In the meantime, Mirek has to find a new manager and come up with a viable plan for the plant.

That is a lot going for Mirek and the film in particular.  It is amusing to watch the racist and male chauvinist Mirek bumbling his way around trying to balance all his tasks while keeping a sound mind.  But hilarious it is not with the film being mildly entertaining at best.

DEATH BEFORE THE WEDDING opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

LA DOLCE VILLA (USA 2025) **
Directed by Mark Waters

Written by Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy and directed by MEAN GIRLS director Mark Waters, LA DOLCE VILLA (the name derived from Federico Fellini’s classic LA DOCLE VITA  is one of the too many romantic comedies opening this Valentine's Day week.  It stars Scott Foley who learned Italian for his role, a more senior adult romcom playing the father, Eric Field of a daughter in Italy finding romance when he starves in a small Italian village.

The reason for his visit to Italy is to prevent his daughter from buying a one-euro house.  Apparently, the Italians do this to entice investment.  So like Liam Neeson in TAKEN, the father travels to Italy to bring his daughter home while convincing her not to purchase the one euro vill.

Romcoms are my least favourite film genre, but this one caught my attention for a while.  There are several reasons that make LA DOLCE VILLA watchable.  One is the gorgeous Italian countryside and quaint village.  Filming took place in Rome, eastern Lazio, and Tuscany. The villa's interiors were constructed at Cinecittà Studios in Rome.  The second is the initial fast moving and quite witty dialogue in the script and thirdly,  the subject of an older person falling in love is a welcome change.  But the attention lasted only 15 minutes before it fell into cliched territory.  It does not take a genius to guess that Eric Field falls in love with the pretty town mayor.

Apart from the above reasons. LA DOCLE VILLA is an entertaining enough warthog.  It opens for streaming on Netflix the Valentine’s Day weekend.

Trailer: 

LUNE DE MIEL AVEC MA MERE (Honeymoon Crasher) (France 2025) ***½

Directed by Nicolas Cuche

Bridegroom Lucas (Julien Frison) is abandoned at the wedding altar while his parents Lily (Michele Laroque) and Michel (Dad Merad) look on.  This opening comedic scene could have been funnier.  But the film does get better.  The premise of the film based on the Spanish film (AMOR DE MADRE - Mother’s Love) is actually fresh since it has not been known in English-speaking North America.  Lucas has spent his hard-earned teaching job on a Mauritius honeymoon and there is no refund.  When this ex-bride calls him to ask to pick up her keys, he tells her that he is going on the honeymoon anyway, with someone else.  That someone else happens not to be his new girlfriend but his mother, who had not gone on her honeymoon because she was too busy having him.

The film is set up for full-potential comedy and hits the right spots every so often with a greater-than-average hit-and-miss ratio.  The mother and son duo is totally watchable as the mother looks young enough to pass as his bride through an older one.  Everyone in the honeymoon resort is impressed with Lily as it is seldom one sees an older woman with a young man.  The mother and son pretend to be newlyweds in order to get the super upgrades given by Gloria the hostess, wonderfully played by Rossy de Palma.

The contrast of personalities - Lucas is introverted while Lily is the opposite.  She is hung ho for everything exciting.  The one exception is when Lucas insists on telling the couple seated with them how they had met - in the maternity room, which makes up the film’s funniest segment.

The film also contains some serious drama, which works, that involves the mother-and-son relationship.  The dramatic parts work wonderfully.  They also display the talent of the two actors - Frison and Laroque.  The mother wants the best for her son -the son thinks she is suffocating him.  Both are right.

The film’s main setting is the honeymoon resort in Mauritius.  Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar.  The country is African.  The shots of Mauritius are nothing less than stunning,

HONEYMOON CRASHERS got a likely higher rating than most other critics or viewers would give it for the reason that I love French comedies.  This one is no exception to the rule - with a fresh premise and good clean fun with some dramatic moments put in that actually work, the film just begging for a Hollywood remake,  But there are some things one cannot remake, like the performance of Roissy de Palma as Gloria The Spanish actress who has been seen many times in Pedro Almodovar’s films - performing to the point of pure hilarity.

LUNE DE MIEL AVEC MA MERE (Honeymoon Crasher) (The English translation to the French title is Honeymoon with My Mother(opens for streaming on Netflix on Valentine’s Day - a different kind of love story.

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KNOW MERCY (USA 2024) **
Directed by Pernell Richardson

Stranded on Earth for centuries, Hanokh (Xavier Avila) is an immortal man conflicted by the ever-present question of his purpose.   Truth be told, every human being should be wondering for his or her won purpose on the planet.  As he navigates through time and the modern world, he yearns to uncover the secret of his existence.  A brilliant but terminally ill scientist (the villain of the piece) becomes obsessed with capturing Hanokh and believes that his immortality holds the key to his own salvation. His relentless pursuit jeopardizes Hanokh and the safety of the woman (Elia Williams who also co-wrote the script) he has grown to love after a life of solitude. As he closes in, Hanokh must confront the powerful force that wants to exploit him and navigate the betrayal of those closest to him. In a desperate race against time, he grapples with the moral implications of his immortality while simultaneously striving to protect the woman he cherishes. All the while, he also sought answers that could either liberate him or trap him in the eternal quest for meaning in a world where life and death are intricately connected.

The only actor who gets it right is Juhahn Jones in the supporting role of  Father Thomas who houses and mentors Hanukah.  He plays the role of Father Thomas for laughs and this is how the film should be.  With such an outrageous plot like time travel and events that occur without any rhyme or reason, it is all tongue-in-cheek material and yes, it has been said - Jones does it right.

Director Richardson’s film is all over the place, finally settling with a serious faith-type message similar to that of Christianity and John 3:13.  The film also gets too serious for its own good with director Richardson taking his project too seriously.  The quotation: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  God comes into the story ninth last part of the film with Hanukah placed on earth supposedly to fulfill one of God’s missions.   Is KNOW MERCY supposed to be a faith Christianity movie?  No one can be really sure.

Though KNOW MERCY is watchable and entertaining to a point, it ends up a puzzling and mostly frustrating enterprise in which nobody cares for the message (if it can be deciphered) or for the story’s characters.

The film has won the Grand Prize for Best Picture at the Culver City Film Festival and was nominated for the Audience Award at the Cleveland Urban Film Festival.  It was also screened at the San Diego Black Film Festival in late January. KNOW MERCY also received a ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced hiring.

Gravitas Ventures will release KNOW MERCY on digital platforms on February 18, 2025. The film has a running time of 1 hour and 23 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA.

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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (Indonesia 2025) **½

Directed by Robert Ronny

A playboy stages a dating show to earn his inheritance by granting his father's last wish, for his son to marry the most beautiful girl in the world.

Reuben and Kiara are not Romeo and Juliet.  They fall into the typical Harlequin couple mold.  They have disdain for each other h other but slowly all will dissolve into the mixture of love.  THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD is yet another one of too many romantic comedies driving during the Valentine’s Day season, this one running over 2 hours.

Despite the Chemistry of the two leads and the fresh setting of modern Indonesia (most of the films arriving here are Indonesian horror flicks set in rural Indonesia) and the parody of reality television THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD almost succeeds.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD opens for streaming on Netflix on Valentine’s Day.

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ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO (Japan 2024) ***
Directed by Joshua Woodcock

The film opens with the protagonist, Sam (Reza Emamiyeh) arriving at Tokyo airport.  It is 130 pm in the afternoon.  So, the night of the film’s title has not begun yet. Sam also stays in Tokyo for more than a night, so the title is misleading.  The ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO refers to the essential time in Toyo that changes Sam’s life.

One of the best things about ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO occurs at the film’s start where the audience sees a foreigner, Sam navigating Tokyo to find his girlfriend Becca (Cailee Oliver).  He arrives in Tokyo, at the airport and Becca is not answering her phone nor is she showing up as agreed before to meet him.  He takes the subway, with all the machines with instructions in Japanese characters.  Japan is a beautiful place, but the culture shock is often never mentioned in any film that features Japan as a setting.  There is no English, no letters of the alphabet and Japanese characters are totally impossible to read.  Even when meeting, for example, someone at a subway station is difficult.  Many stations are huge with as many as half a dozen exits.   Sam resorts to asking other caucasian directions, eventually finding Becca’s home.

Sam arrives in Tokyo to visit his expat girlfriend Becca -- only to be broken up with as soon as he arrives at her apartment. Left wandering around Tokyo alone, he decides to return to the U.S. the next day. Stuck for the night awaiting his new flight, he makes an unlikely friend in Ayaka (Tokiko Kitagawa), who reluctantly takes him out with her friends.

As Sam and Ayaka both struggle to communicate due to their language barrier, trust and reliance on each other become imminent when betrayal sends their worlds crashing down. As the pair venture through the mesmerizing streets of Tokyo together, they must not only overcome obstacles to understand each other but also break down their own walls to understand themselves.

The film succeeds more as an observational piece.  There is much to observe about the cultural differences between Japan and the West, about human personalities and character as well as human relationships.  The film does not strive to work as a drama, romance or moral tale.

Other keen observational points:

• one can observe how Japanese cliques behave (not much different from American ones)
• how breakups occur
• the actor as well as the character is Iran by decent, if one is wondering.  The actor’s first name, Reza is a common Iranian one though non-Iranians might not be aware of the fact
• how work always clouds up one's holidays
• how  a newcomer behaves in a new group

It should be noted that ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO is not much else.  There is no super romance or drama being told, no great performances (though the two actors are not bad), or super writing.  If one does not get a kick out of observing other human beings or situations, the film will seem boring and meaningless.

ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO is available on Digital/VOD on February 14th.

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PADDINGTON IN PERU (UK 2024) ****
Directed by Dougal Wilson

PADDINGTON IN PERU is the third Paddington film based on the lovable Paddington Bear created by Michael Bond.

The adventure begins with Paddington reaching for an orange on a branch that breaks.  Paddington falls into a gushing river and goes over the falls, only to be rescued by his Aunt Lucy.  When Aunt Lucy from the Home of Retired Bears run by a singing nun (Olivia Colman) goes missing in Peru, Paddington, now living with the Browns in London leaves with the entire Brown family to search for the lost Aunt Lucy.  Determined to solve the mystery, they soon stumble across a legendary treasure as they make their way through the rainforests of the Amazon.

The story by Paul King, Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton is inventive enough with lots of opportunities for adventure, humour, moral and family values and even some magic, as well as the best famous old movies especially THE SOUND OF MUSIC since Olivia Colma’s singing nun is a major character in the story.  There is one song and dance number similar to the singing nun number “Maria” in THE SOUND OF MUSIC with Colman banishing a guitar similar to the Singing Nun Julie Andrews  carried when she sang “I Have Confidence In Me” a number that ends with the background of hills similar to the start of THE SOUND OF MUSIC where Andrews sang “The Hills Are Alive”,

The British sense of humour is evident throughout the movie, which is hilarious enough to entertain any adult who has brought his children to see the lovable bear.  The values (very clever indeed) include the importance and difference between family and clan, as well as where one belongs and where one comes from.  

Voice characterizations are provided by a cast of classic British stars like Golden Globe Winner Julia Walters and Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (as Aunt Lucy). Paddington is voiced by Ben Whishaw (THE LOBSTER).  The real actors also ham it up very well from Colman who seems to have a chant for such things to Antonio Banderas as the handsome Captain crazy about finding gold.  Sally Hawkins who voiced Mrs. Brown in the first two Paddington films is replaced by Emily Mortimer.

Queen Elizabeth II briefly appears in the film in a framed photograph with Paddington, taken from the short film featuring the two produced for the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.   Michael Bond also appears briefly on a stamp in a letter Paddington receives at the start of the film.

Stay for the end credits.  There is a surprise cameo- A British actor (the identity of whom will not be disclosed here) but he appears twice once at the start of the closing credits and once again right at the end of the closing credits.  The closing credits run close to 10 minutes, so one has to be patient and stay right to the very end

The PADDINGTON franchise has been a solid film franchise with the latest PADDINGTON IN PERU being no exception.  PADDINGTON IN PERU opens in North America on February 14th and has already grossed around $100 million at the box office.   The film also marks the best film to open in 2025 so far.

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SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN (Que nadie duerma) Spain/Romania 2023) ***½

Dirigida por Antonio Méndez Esparza

A steamy encounter with a new neighbour who has gone missing leads the recently unemployed Lucia (Malena Alterio) to take on work as a cab driver in hopes of finding the man that reawakened her latent sexuality.  Using her new vocation as a means of radical connection and self-reinvention, she finds both erotic and intellectual stimulation from her clientele. However, the more Lucia freely gives of herself to strangers, the more it becomes clear that she might be the target of a nefarious plot with violent consequences.

Based on Juan José Millás' novel Que nadie duerma, the screenplay was penned by Antonio Méndez Esparza alongside Clara Roquet.  It was Méndez Esparza's first time working with a professional cast.   Roquet described the lead character as a female version of the protagonists of JOKER and TAXI DRIVER though this film has a lighter touch, until the very end at least, which is a shocker. while still maintaining the story’s urgency.

Lucia is terribly optimistic.  Lucia loves listening to opera though she does not understand it.  She loves listening in, particularly to Puccini’s Turandot, the famous song, Dessun Dorma from it heard many times in the soundtrack.  She also takes opera singing lessons.  She believes something is about to happen - and it is good, despite her current circumstances.  Lucia has just lost her IT job and decided to become a taxi driver.  She has a short fling with a neighbour one evening and believes she has fallen in love.  While she dresses up in a Chinese Cheong sum resembling a Chinese princess as in the opera Puccini’s Turandot, she finds that her neighbour has moved out without any prior notice. Still, she is in high spirits.  There is clear audience anticipation at this point in the movie and the 45-minute mark, that indeed SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, and likely it will not be good.

The film/story sidetracks with a few side paths.  Lucia has to care for her ailing father.   She pines over her mother who had committed suicide by jumping out a window,  Her various sexual escapades while driving her cab serve some erotic fodder.

Actress Malena Alterio (looking a bit like Carmen Maura in the early Pedro Almodovar films) excels in Lucia's lead role.  No raging beauty, but still an attractive woman by ordinary standards, she brings emotion and humanity to her role.  The audience feels for her demise and hopes that something good will happen to her. The film captured a Goya Award for Best Lead Actress for Malena Alerio.

The film covers many genres, making it more interesting a film.  It is a part romantic drama, surreal suspense, character story and sexual thriller.

SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN has its world premiere at the 68th Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) on 22 October 2023.  It opens on VOD, Digital, and on Film Movement on February 14th - a different type of romantic thriller.

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TIMESTALKER (UK 2024) ***
Directed by Alice Rowe

Agnes (Alice Rowe), a hapless heroine, falls for a mysterious man, known throughout the ages as Alex (Aneurin Barnard) and promptly meets her bloody demise, and then is reincarnated a century later.  When she meets her love again, the cycle begins anew. As Agnes traverses through time, she repeats all the messy thrills and spills that come with daring to follow one’s heart. How can she ever hope to break the cycle when she’s destined to be a fool for love?  The film’s caption: Romance is Dead!

(Review to be posted on week of film's opening)

TIMESTALKER opens exclusively in theatres and ON DEMAND starting February 14th (Valentine’s Day) making it a worthwhile romance alternative.

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THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP (South Korea/|USA/Poland 2025) ***
Directed by Kang Hei Chul

THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP is the second anime feature film following The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.  It is a 2025 adult animated fantasy drama film set in The Witcher universe. It was directed by Kang Hei Chul and written by Mike Ostrowski and Rae Benjamin.

The film opens with a fight scene with a monster called the Allamorax and a hunter named Geralt The Witcher.  The Witcher has been hired to kill the monster, his quest accompanied by a young man, Jaskier following closely hoping to create a ballad out of all this.  The Witcher meets the monster and in a 10-minute fight scene is unable to destroy it when he discovers it is a harmless creature that only eats oysters.

The Witcher is a series of 8 fantasy novels and 15 short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.  The series revolves around the eponymous witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Witchers are monster hunters given superhuman abilities for the purpose of killing dangerous creatures.  The Witcher began with a titular 1986 short story that Sapkowski entered into a competition held by Fantastyka magazine, marking his debut as an author.  Due to reader demand, Sapkowski wrote 14 more stories before starting a series of novels in 1994.  Known as The Witcher Saga, he wrote one book a year until the fifth and final installment in 1999.  The books have been described as having a cult following in Poland and throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

The animation, though not bad (always check out the animation of water in any animated feature) is nothing really out of the ordinary.  The main fascination with the film is the animated story that comes from the Polish Witcher universe, which at present has quite a cult following,  Though not as famous as Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Rings Universe, The Witcher series has its devout followers.

THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP is based on Andrzej Sapkowski's short story 'A Little Sacrifice', the animated adventure film picks up with Geralt and his trusty companion Jaskier (voiced once again by Joey Batey) on a new mission. This time, they're hired to investigate a series of mysterious attacks in a seaside village. Naturally, it proves to be more than what the monster hunter bargained for as he's drawn into a centuries-old conflict between humans and merpeople that shows no sign of abating.

The precious commodity in question in this story is oysters.  Humans have pillaged oysters and the pearls beyond acceptance and even hired a witcher to destroy the Allamorax, a harmless monster that only consumes oysters not hurting anyone

One of the film’s dialogues: “If a human opens his mouth, only a lie comes forth.”  The scriptwriters must have President Donald Trump in mind when they wrote that line of dialogue.

There is the impending war between the humans and the sea creatures.  The war has to be prevented at all costs.

THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP is now one for streaming on Netflix this week, a welcome break from all the romantic comedies and dramas that are filling the theatre and streaming screens during Valentine’s Day week.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 20 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BAM BAM: THE SISTER NANCY STORY (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Alison Duke

The Crave original documentary celebrates Sister Nancy.  Ophlin Russell (born on 2 January 1962), better known as Sister Nancy (or Muma Nancy), is a Jamaican dancehall DJ and singer. She is the first female dancehall DJ and was described as a "dominating female voice for over two decades" on the dancehall scene.

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s.  Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.  It was not until the 1980s when the style was officially named when the two words Dance and Hall the common venue joined to make one word DanceHall; for the first time, it was staged and promoted internationally.

In the film BAM BAM: THE SISTER NANCY STORY, award-winning filmmaker Alison Duke combines dynamic tour performances; insightful interviews with industry figures like Janelle Monae, Young Guru, and Pete Rock; and archival footage of the early dancehall scene illustrating Sister Nancy’s enduring prominence in reggae and hip hop. Entertaining and empowering, Sister Nancy’s story proves that great music overcomes obstacles, and staying true to oneself is the key to success — both in the music industry and in life.

The film is only part biopic as it concentrates on her career as a grown-up.  There is no mention of other childhood, she was one of 15 children growing up in Jamaica.

A few of Sister Nancy Nancy’s quotes:

“If there is money, I will keep working.”

“I do everything for myself.”  (She is unafraid of saying she does cocaine on camera in the film.)

What does Bam Bam (pronounced Bum Bum) mean?  Bam Bam is the hit song of Sister Nancy in the 60s.   “When you come mess  with me then, it will be Bam Bam.”  That is how Bam Bam can be interpreted.  Bam Bam is a very iconic song, one that creates a moment of hurt.  The hit song “Bam Bam” has long held the status of an anthem in the reggae genre and is one of the most sampled vocals ever. Less known is the story behind the song and, even more so, the woman behind the voice.  There is footage of Sister Nancy performing Bam Bam around the world, from Croatia, Australia, Hong Kong and New York City.

The doc is as energetic and hilarious as its subject, Sister Nancy.  This reggae artist rocks and so does the film, especially when she is shown performing on stage.  The last part of the doc follows the trailblazers as they fight for ownership of the song.  Unfortunately, this is not that compelling a watch.

It is funny that she worked as an accountant at a bank in New Jersey (and is now currently retired from the profession.)   She could relax and do what she wanted after being awarded royalties that were finally paid to her while she was at the bank.

BAM BAM: THE SISTER NANCY STORY opens in select theatres on January 31st and streams on Crave from February 17th.

CLONE COPS (USA 2023) **
Directed by Donny Dones

CLONE COPS is a goofy and campy sci-fi comedy with a cops and robbers theme.  It takes a while to establish what is going on from the first 15 minutes. 

CLONE COPS  tells the story of an alternate future where a gang of outlaws must defend their lives against an assault from the hottest product on the market -- a disposable police force cloned in a lab and programmed for violence. The gang battles waves of replicating security forces until they discover a shocking secret about who they are and what they're up against. \

Ahead of the official release, Dones shared of his movie, “We made this movie for people who love campy sci-fi comedies, and we’ve been having a blast showing it to them at festivals and theaters across the country.  Now, we can finally bring this weird little indie flick to people’s living rooms! I want to thank our incredible cast and crew for everything they’ve contributed, and the continuing support they’ve shown for Clone Cops as we’ve worked to bring it to screens large and small. Making this movie was so much fun, and now we get to share that experience with audiences everywhere!”  Well, the film is campy and silly, but not as funny as Dones thinks it to be.  When shown in festivals, the festival audiences are usually kinder to the filmmaker, who is almost always there to introduce his or her film,  The film plays like a childish comic book with a nostalgic 70s sci-fi look at best.

CLONE COPS opens in limited release in the United States in select cities but is available on VOD across North America on the same day.

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COMPANION (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Drew Hancock

` Everyone loves a companion.  The premise of the film purports that the sex doll can be attuned to A.I. capabilities resulting in a programmable companion for any human being.  Just like last year’s horror hit THE SUBSTANCE, things will go wrong if one does not follow the rules and instructions.  When the ‘companions’ are re-programmed by the user, especially for in intelligence to go up to the level of 100%, only disaster can be expected.

The white eyes of the girl in the poster without any black pupils give it away that the girl is some A.I. robot.  And indeed this is the case, as the first twist in the plot occurs roughly around one-third of the film’s running time.  This is not the only twist in the plot, thankfully, a plot containing a story is clearly the best thing about this otherwise just ok movie.  Director Hancock makes it a point to up the ante whenever he can, which more than pleases the crowd at the promo screening Attended.  It takes the first third of running time before the film gets its footing, the first third just trudging along with cliched events, though one can argue the events are supposed to be that way.

COMPANION follows a weekend getaway among friends at a remote cabin, which unravels into chaos after a revelation that one of the guests is a companion robot.

Performance-wise, the cast does a fair job, no complaints but expect no Shakespearean acting here.  The actors react more than act.  Fortunately,  there is more to react to in the film.

COMPANION tries to score the high bar that last year’s THE SUBSTANCE achieved,  It never achieves that level, but given the multiple twists and turns in the story, COMPANION makes a good entertaining companion piece to it.

COMPANION, with a modest budget of only $10 million is the sort of perfect financial filmmaking.  In this sparse time of new releases, COMPANION should not doubt to uncap its production costs and give Warner Bros. a tidy profit.  The film opens in theatres on January 31st.

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I’M STILL HERE ("Ainda Estou Aqui”)(Brazil/France 2024) ****
Directed by Walter Salles

I’M STILL HERE is foremost a political film, as the words on the screen at the start inform of the Brazilian dictatorship in Brazil and the runaway inflation,  before the film centres on a family in Rio de Janeiro.   The film is based on the book of the same name ("Ainda Estou Aqui") by Marcelo Rubens Paiva; tackling the arrest and disappearance of Rubens Paiva in 1971, Marcelo's father, during the military dictatorship in Brazil.  The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and the Oscar for the year's Best International Feature.

I’M STILL HERE is directed by renowned Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles.  He has not made a film in 12 years, the last one being ON THE ROAD in 2012.  Salles is most known for his Golden Bear-winning film CENTRAL STATION.

I’M STILL HERE  is a layered film covering multiple genres and storylines.  The film could have been made into separate films.  The film takes a primary look from the female side from the family's matriarch as well. as a little, from the eldest daughter.  The father of the family is also given due screen time, him revealed as a caring father though sympathetic to political causes, thus making him 'suspect' by the dictatorship.   As far as different genres go, the film is part of a family relationship/drama, a political thriller (with disturbing prison conditions) and coming-of-age as in the daughter's view.

Director Salles hones in on the psychological effect of ‘not knowing’.  When the father is taken away, the family is left uninformed of his whereabouts as well as the reason for the affair, where he was arrested or kidnapped.  When the mother is in prison, she is hooded, so she does not know where she is being taken.  She also does not know where her husband is, her daughter is and how long she will be kept in custody,  The effect of not knowing is often worse than revealing one’s worst fears.

The film has a strong political slant.  In one scene, a prison guard who takes Eunice away tells her in confidence that he disapproves of what is happening.  The segment shows that many people feel the same way but are too scared to do anything.  A political activist,  in December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Salles signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid and the release of hostages.

I’M STILL HERE had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim, with unanimous praise for Torres' performance, and was awarded the Best Screenplay prize. In September 2024, the film was selected as the Brazilian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards. The film won the nomination.  It opens on January 31st.

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LUCCA’S WORLD (Los dos hemisferios de Lucca) (Mexico 2025) ***
Direct3d by Mairana Cheniio

Lucca was born with severe cerebral palsy and his mother will stop at nothing to help her son survive.  This involves mortgaging their residence and paying for the family to travel to India for Lucca’s treatment.  Based on a true story. The film is based on the book Los dos hemisferios de Lucca.

The film starts at the very beginning with Lucca’s birth.  Bárbara Anderson (Bárbara Mori) is an expectant mother with all the jitters of a first-time pregnancy. She and her husband Andrés (Juan Pablo Medina) arrive at the hospital too early–but then her water breaks, starting the clock to when contractions get shorter and it’s time to give birth.  She delivers Lucca * (Julián Tello) but blames herself for not pushing enough for Lucca’s demise.

The film tries to cover all areas of the family drama.  The money involved, the husband and wife conflict, and the hope in the face of hopelessness are all included to show the audience how much the family and particularly Barba4a is going through.  The husband is supportive and the audience can see, it is only up to a point.  To make matters worse, Barbara loses her job in the process for spending too much distraction from her work,

All this is fine, but director Chenille tries too hard to take the message across.  At its worst, there is a song with lyrics to tell exactly how the audience should feel.

It would be cruel to crucify a film like LUCCA’s WORLS for its good intentions in trying to show the triumph of the human spirit over all adversity,  And, in terms of production values and performances, the film cannot be faulted.

LUCCA’S WORLD is available to stream on Netflix this week.

Well-made triumph over the human spirit family drama that tries at times too hard that it becomes obviously manipulative

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 12 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS: 

BACK IN ACTION (USA 2025) *

Directed by Seth Gordon

BACK IN ACTION is a 2025 American action comedy film (the title refers too to a number of other films with the same title) directed by Seth Gordon from a script he co-wrote with Brendan O'Brien.  The film stars Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Andrew Scott, Jamie Demetriou, Kyle Chandler, and Glenn Close. 

The film begins with an uninspired action set piece in which two CIA agents are undercover, and who have been sleeping together.   Emily Cameron Diaz) discloses that she is pregnant.  She and Matt (Jamie Foxx) escape a near-death mission that invokes some silly key.  They use their escape to escape the CIA and adopt new identities.  Flashforward.  They are now parents with a smart-mouthed daughter and son.

At the 30-minute mark, one realizes how lame the script is, and that the film has not generated a single laugh-out-loud laugh.  Not to mention the lacklustre action scenes.  Romantic action films are hard to excite genres, the most successful so far appears to be THE FALL GUY, which was in reality just so-so,  though aided by some death-defying stunts.  Then, Former CIA spies Emily and Matt are pulled back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed.  Ir is a hard fight which film is worse?  The ridiculous black  ANNIE also starring Foxx and Diaz or this one?

A bit of boredom relief comes from actress Glenn Close playing Emily’s mother

Netflix releases BACK IN ACTION on January 17, 2025.  Best to be missed!

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THE LAST SHOWGIRL (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Gia Coppola

Shelly (Pamela Anderson) has been a Las Vegas showgirl for over 30 years, the feather and crystal-adorned centrepiece of Sin City’s last remaining traditional floor show. The stage and the women she shares it with are her loving, bickering, sequin-clad family. When the stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista, an island of masculinity in a sea of women) announces the show will close permanently in two weeks, Shelly and her co-workers must make decisions for their future.  But the future looks different when you are 50 (or 57 to be more accurate, of Shelly’s age) rather than 20, and your sole job skill is dancing.

Emotionally floundering, Shelly tries to reconnect with a daughter she hardly knows, which proves just as difficult as losing the only job she has ever had. Bolstered by her best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), a brash cocktail waitress who laughs a little too loud and too often, Shelly must find her place in a world that she shut the (stage) door on years before.

As outlined in the film’s plot, the theme is sombre and depressing.  It does not help that the script stays away from much-needed humour or from any uplifting feel-good moments,

Clearly, this film is intended to do BAYWATCH’s star Pamela Anderson’s celebrity comeback.  It is a tough role and credit is due to the actress playing herself, a one-time sex symbol now suffering from the clutches of aging.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Pamela Anderson deliver brave performances that highlight the cruelty of aging.  The body might still look good, as in the case of the two characters the two actresses play, but the wrinkles in their over-made-up faces give their ages away.  And no amount of makeup can hide them.  When Shelly is shown an audition dance by a young cast member for a new job, Shelly has to admit that she cannot perform all the flexible moves.  They wish to settle down but time is no longer on their side.

Director Coppola’s film stays away from the Las Vegas live show performances.  Through this omission, the film lacks the razzle-dazzle of the show business industry that also undermines the tragedy of growing old in an industry that does not take care of its people.  Director Coppola seems more eager to show the downside of the business.  The beginning scene with Shelly failing an audition is an example, the segment is too brutal to watch, as Shelly insists that she is still beautiful at the age of 57.  The film tells of Pamela Anderson’s Shelly’s difficult life that comes with aging, which is in truth, her own life as well.  Anderson plays herself and it is a shame Jamie Lee Curtis steals the show from under her feet,

But something feels missing in director Coppola’s film.  One thing for sure is that there is nothing in the film that is insightful and what transpires on screen is what is expected and predictable.  It is also brutal to see old age catch up on someone as it catches up on everyone including every person in the audience watching the film.  There seems to be nothing at the end of the rainbow of age.

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LA PIETA (also known as PIETY) (Argentian/Spain 2022) ***
Directed by Eduardo Casanova

A mother and son relationship taken to the extreme is the premise of this new disturbing surreal and horrifying drama entitled LA PIETA (The Pity) an Argentinian film that opens this Friday on  Digital including Film Movement.

A mother-son relationship has always attracted attention, though mostly in a negative way.  The cause of homosexuality was initially believed to be due to the strong bond between the male and son of his mother.  In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex (also spelled Œdipus complex) refers to a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father (Shown in the film with a torn photograph of the father) first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. 

Mateo and his mother Lili (Ángela Molina) have been inseparable for years. The two share an apartment, answer questions for each other and spend practically all their moments together.  But this bond becomes fraught when Lili is diagnosed with a fatal illness.  This is where the film starts when the words: “You have cancer” are heard on the soundtrack with the clock showing 6 sharp in the year 2011.  The film then flashes back to three weeks earlier of the diagnosis.  With the limited time Lili has left, the pair take their toxic mother-son relationship to extreme ends.

The pair do everything together for eating. sleeping and even vomiting together.  There is no escape.  In one scene in the hospital where the son is taken, the mother insists on being in the same room with him, and when the response is a ‘no, she insists that the door of the room remain open.  But even when the son, attempts to leave the hospital through the exit, he finds himself unable to do so.  Then, the mother appears to stop the boy.

In Spain, teenager Mateo and his mother Libertad live together in a lavish, pink apartment. Mateo is increasingly aware of his mother's overbearing behavior, such as refusing to ever get separated in public, always sleeping together, and answering for him when asked questions. After Mateo tries to flee during Libertad's hospital checkup, she purposely injures Mateo's toenail when trimming him back at home. When she is sleeping, Mateo tries to run away, but experiences a severe headache and collapses on the street.  There is news on TV about North Korea and the events there eventually play a part in the lives of the two.

Director Casanova loves to film in pink.  From the wardrobe of the two at the dinner table to the pajamas and bedroom into the bedroom to even the floor and walls of the residence, pink is the preferred colour of choice.  The colour gives the boy the look of being gay, though the sexual orientation is never addressed in the film.  The pink look also gives the film a surreal and futuristic look.

It should be noted that this film is produced by Spanish horror master Alex de la Iglesia, famous for films like MUTANT ACTION, DAY OF THE BEAST, THE LAST CIRCUS, and WITCHING AND BITCHING.  LA PIETA is a “gorgeously vulgar and shocking” work unlike any other. Winner of the Special Jury Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Casanova’s latest film is a “strange, yet surprisingly heart-breaking film” that encapsulates “bizarre art horror at its finest" (as described by Dread Central).

Intriguing, disturbing but ultimately wickedly entertaining, LA PIETA feels like a cross between Alex de la Iglesia who produced the film, and Pedro Almodovar.

LA PIETA primers on VOD, Digital and Film Movement January the 17th, Friday.

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SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT (Belgium/France/Netherlands 2024) ***½

Directed by Johan Grimonprez

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT is a 2024 documentary film directed by Johan Grimonprez about the Cold War episode that led American musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

The word music or jazz is omitted from the title as the soundtrack also contains narration.  Featuring excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga and Back by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated by Patrick Cruise O’Brien), and audio memoirs by Nikita Khrushchev.

For lovers of jazz, the doc includes archive footage of performances of the best jazz musicians of the century led by Louis Armstrong.  These include Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Melba Liston, Eric Dolphy, and others.

The film begins on a morning in February 1961.  Singer Abbey Lincoln and drummer Max Roach crashed the UN Security Council to protest the murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the newly independent Congo. Sixty yelling protesters throw punches, slam their stilettos and provoke a skirmish with unprepared guards as diplomats look on in shock. Decolonization spins the world upside down, infusing it with a sense of hope.

Six months earlier, sixteen newly independent African countries were admitted to the United Nations, triggering a political earthquake that shifted the majority vote away from the old colonial powers. The Cold War peaks as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk at the UN General Assembly, in reaction to the neo-colonial power grab unfolding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Denouncing America’s color bar and the UN's complicity in the overthrow of Lumumba, he demands immediate decolonization worldwide.

To retain control over the riches of what used to be Belgian Congo, King Baudouin of Belgium found an ally in the Eisenhower administration, which feared losing access to one of the world’s biggest supplies of Uranium, a mineral vital for the creation of atomic bombs. Congo takes center stage to both the Cold War and the scheme for control of the UN. The US State Department swings into action: Jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong is dispatched to win the hearts and minds of Africa. Unwittingly, Armstrong becomes a smokescreen to divert attention from Africa’s first post-colonial coup, leading to the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader

At best, the collage of archive footage and excellent soundtrack captures the horrors of the Cold War and their injustices done to the people of the DR of Congo.  At best too is the awesome jazz soundtrack performed by the jazz musicians that make the movie.

The extremely dense doc coves much in little time despite its 2-and-a-half-hour runny g time.  It won the André Cavens Award for Best Film from the Belgian Film Critics Association (though the doc is definitely ant-Belgium considering all the atrocities the doc reveals by the Belgium colonists, an example being a poet being jailed with a lifetime sentence by just writing a  few lines that decocts white and black people.

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT opens in theatres on January 17th.

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WOLF MAN (USA 2025) **
Directed by Leigh Whannell

WOLF MAN is a 2025 American horror film directed by Leigh Whannell (he did direct the excellent 2020 THE INVISIBLE MAN) and co-written with Corbett Tuck.  It is a reboot of The Wolf Man (1941).

The film begins in an Oregon setting.  Titles on the screen inform the audience that some animal had bitten a missing hiker and now possesses what natives call the ‘face of the wolf’.  The titles are supposed to explain the origin of the Wolf Man.  The film then moves to a boy and his father (Sam Jaeger) living in the Oregan woods.  The hiker/wolf lives in the woods and attacks only at night.  The father is as strict as hell, and the boy can only obey and obey though he is clearly totally afraid of the father.  This opening segment, an introduction to the film takes a full 20 minutes to complete,  Flash forward! Family man Blake Lowell (Christopher Abbott) relocates from San Francisco to Oregon with his workaholic wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) after inheriting his childhood home, left vacant following his estranged father's mysterious disappearance and presumed death.  At the farmhouse at night during a full moon, the family is attacked by a werewolf that claws Blake's arm. They barricade themselves inside the home, but soon Blake begins to transform into something horrifying, jeopardizing the safety of his wife and daughter.

The film totally dishes the age difference of the youngest actor.  One need not be a nitpicker to be aware of the problem.  Blake’s daughter is played by 10-year-old British actress Matilda Firth who looks like 10 years of age because of her build but the parents speak to her character as if she was four, not as 10.  She is also treated no more like a baby.

Despite an impressive and compelling first half, the film falls about right at the halfway mark once the car has the accident and the wolf attacks the family car.  The film fails for two reasons.  One is that the first half of the film is extremely well done with a character build-up complete with believable family dynamics which is totally thrown to the wind into the second half.  The idea of a human turning into a world caring for the family, such as Blake as the wolf still caring for his family is inconsistent with Blake’s father turning on him.   The ending also seems a cop-out with the mother and daughter running away towards the horizon.  The conflict between the female (mother and daughter) and the male (the father) could have been developed further.

WOLF MAN was made with a modest budget of $25 million.  In the season of dew blockbusters, its only competition appears to be Lionsgate’s DEN OF THIEVES 2 and another Lionsgate opener FLIGHT RISK next week. WOLF MAN would have no problem recuperating its production costs.  WOLDF MAN opens in theatres on January 17th, 2025

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 11 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

CURL POWER ( Canada 2024) ***
Directed by J, Anderson

CURL POWER follows a team of teenage girls as they pursue their unusual dream of becoming Canadian National Curling Champions, and seek out their own paths amid the legacies of their world champion mothers. Filmed over a three-year period, the documentary tells a story of angst and ecstasy, following the funny and tender evolution of five best friends as they reckon with their bodies, minds, and the great unknown.

The doc takes its time to establish its footing.  It is not stated in the beginning where the film is set or which province,  though it can be observed that it is about a team in Canada.  One has to observe the footage and join the dots to figure out that the film is about a team in British Columbia.

Curling is a popular sport in Canada, though many have never played it. It would be good if director Anderson explained the sport a little so that the audience knows the ins and outs of the game and the intricacies involved in winning a match.

The curlers experience everything that teen girls face while growing up in Grades 11 and 12. There is the going up, where boys come into play. They worry about their bodies, that they do not put on weight, their depression (one of them takes antidepressants, and she talks candidly and bravely about that in the film), and also separation when one of them leaves for the University of Alberta.

The film also includes a touching moment in which a player talks to her mother, one of the team’s coaches who had played in the Olympics in her heyday.  The mother wishes to keep the cancer a secret from others as she does not wish to keep receiving sympathy from others, something that makes perfect sense.  In a room, the mother gives her daughter all the Olympic ware like the bag, cap, and jersey while the daughter regrets that the mother will not always be there to see her at the end of the game.

CURL POWER which rhymes with girl power is essentially a female film.  It used to be a complaint in the past that females are underrepresented in film.  The opposite, thankfully appears to be true these days in the film industry,  CURL POWER is about a girl’s team in a sport dominated by males in a sports doc directed by a female director with an all-girl cast. Males are hardly seen in the film’s scenes.

Most sports documentaries end on a high note in which the team wins at the climax of the film.  In CURL POWER, the opposite happens with the team ending in a losing game.  But this is where director Anderson excels in her tale of her story of teen angst, ecstasy, and curling.  The coach's words are inspiring: “When a team member misses,  she has to be given an encouraging look and it is the next move that counts.”  The coach also insisted that the team, though losing, would need to walk out of the arena together as one.  Also, her important words are that one cannot win all the games.  In the end, it should be remembered that it is the game that they all love doing and one that has brought all of them together.

Despite a few minor flaws, CURL POWER is an earnest and endearing look at curling and growing up from the girl’s team point of view - a doc that comes from the heart.

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ETERNAL YOU (USA/Germany 2024) **
Directed by Hans Block & Moritz Riesewieck

ETERNAL YOU involves immortality in the form of A.I. and thanabots.  What if a person's death did not mean their end of life?  What if their loved ones could still talk to them long after their body had been cremated or buried? What sounds like the scenario of a science fiction movie is already offered by AI startups today and ETERNAL YOU examines the story of people who are immortalized as “digital doppelgangers” allowing them to interact with loved ones.

The film begins with thanabots, courtesy of A.I.  ChatGPT is making it possible to digitally resurrect the dead in the form of thanabots: chatbots trained on the data of the deceased. 
A program called Project December already allows users to input information about a person and have a custom chatbot created for them based on that person.  As Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft all store heaps of our digital communications, it’s conceivable that they all could create and sell thanabots in the coming years.

The doc then moves on to show a grieving mother saying goodbye to her deceased daughter.  This is followed by a young man, Joshua grieving over his dead girlfriends Jessica.

Joshua:  “Jessica, is that you?”

“Who else?” comes the answer.

The person in front of the computer communicates with the thanabot as if the loved one is still alive.  The big question is whether this is a healthy situation.  After all, thanabots will only be based on digital data — at least at first. We all know that people’s online lives can be very different from offline, so the thanabot may not accurately represent the person it was made to mimic. Moreover, thanabots may not provide the catharsis that users might hope for, and instead intensify feelings of grief and despair.

There are two fields of thought regarding a lengthy involved grieving over a loved one.  One is to come to terms with a closure with the loss like saying what one had wanted to say to him or her, but never had a chance and now being able to do so.  Thus, there is emotional satisfaction.  The other is to forget the past and to move on, rather than mourning in a depressed state.  In the 2022 drama film by Florian Zeller THE SON, Hugh Jackman seeks advice from his father played by Anthony Hopkins with regards to his suicidal son and how that is affecting his current life.  The advice from the Hopkins character which is uttered three times in the film: “Fucking get over it!”  These are two extremes and the documentary obviously favours the former as it deals with A.I. spelling with a grieving human being,

ETERNAL YOU is a well-shot documentary with some emotional segments in which a grieving person talks to his dead loved one as if still alive.  But the doc gets monotonous with repetitive material and for audiences who are about ‘getting on with life’ that includes a Korean mother undergoing V.R, with her deceased daughter.  The doc is also too biased towards favouring the topic,

A 2024 Sundance Grand Jury nominee and an Official Selection at numerous top-tier fests including Hot Docs, CPH: DOX and Sheffield, ETERNAL YOU invites audiences everywhere to ponder that thorny ethical question when it premieres on January 24 via VOD and all leading digital platforms including Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.

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FLIGHT RISK (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Mel Gibson

Is the film FLIGHT RISK directed by the same man who directed the multiple Oscar-winning BRAVEHEART?  The man is Mel Gibson and the answer is yes.  From what can be expected after viewing the trailer and looking at the poster, FLIGHT RISK  looks like a very cheesy stereotyped action suspense thriller.  Indeed it is.  This is surprising considering that it is based on the December 2020 Jared Rosenberg's screenplay Flight Risk which was voted onto the year's "Black List" of the most-liked unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.  The script though it contains a few solid surprises, falls into the trap of a standard storyline with stereotyped subplots, though these are necessary to keep the narrative moving.

FLIGHT RISK is an upcoming American suspense thriller film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, and Topher Grace.

A U.S. Marshal, Madelyn Harris escorts a government witness, Winston to trial after he is accused of getting involved with a mob boss, only to discover that the pilot who is transporting them is also a hitman who had been sent to assassinate the informant. After they subdue him, they’re forced to fly together after discovering that there are others attempting to eliminate them.  No prizes for guessing what happens in the end.

The main story is sidetracked by several subplots in order to stretch the story long enough to hold interest in a feature-length film.  These include a subplot involving a mole in the U.S. Marshall’s staff.  Someone is feeding information to the enemy, who follows all her movements and is the witness to be known.  Another involves Madeline’s past witness who was protecting who was killed under her watch.  She is thus intent on not letting the mistake happen again and so keeping Winston alive is her highest priority. Yet another is the smart-talking airport pilot giving instruction to Madeline as to how to land the plane while making remarks about dating her in the process.  There are a few nice shots by director Gibson, such as showing Daryl, the hitman getting his bindings loose as the camera focuses on the Marshall talking in the front seat of the plane.

The film holds interest primarily from the performances of its three main leads. mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace.

Wahlberg nails the role of a psychotic balding pilot and hit-man, Daryl Booth, dishing his good looks to look evil, disgusting, and yes, ugly.  The question is whether the actor is actually bald.  The answer is no.  Wahlberg partially shaved his head each day while filming for the role of a balding pilot instead of wearing a bald cap.

Michelle Dockery as the U.S. Marshall is also pretty good, despite what she is dished out by the cheesy script. n Topher Grace as the whimpering over talkative informative manages to be able to elicit sympathy from the audience despite having an annoying and over-talkative personality.  The three characters play off each other rather well.

Though hardly qualifying as the best action film of the year, FLIGHT RISK opens in theatres on January 17th. is entertaining enough, and not to be taken too seriously.

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GRAFTED (New Zealand 2024) ***

Directed by Sasha Rainbow

The first 5 minutes of GRAFTED are set in a Chinese slum with a father and daughter speaking Chinese.  Not to describe the first 5 minutes to spoil one's ‘pleasure’, (Hint: it has to do with the film’s title) but it would be a huge surprise if one does not winch due to the shock of what happens in that segment.  If one can survive that first ordeal, then GRAFTED will provide more horrific entertainment,  If not stay away!

Grafting is a plant growth process but in horror films, it refers to the process moved from plants to human beings.

Grafting a face has been a favourite hot subject in horror films.  Ever since Georges Franju scared audiences with his 1960 horror masterpiece  LES YEUX SANS VISAGE (EYES WITHOUT A FACE) and later with the tacky 1969 Peter Cushing horror CORRUPTION, the subject has always worked.  GRAFTED from New Zealand is the latest venture taking a turn at the subject.  It is always a disfigured face that has to be grafted with living tissue,

Chinese scholarship student Wei travels to New Zealand to study medical research at a prestigious university.  Shy, introverted, and hiding a genetic facial birthmark, Wei is shunned by her social butterfly cousin Angela and her glamorous friends.  Determined to change her fate, Wei immerses herself in her late father's research, working on a revolutionary skin grafting procedure that could cure her deformity.  As her experiments take a dark turn, she becomes more dangerous and unhinged, willing to eliminate anyone who threatens her secret.

The film has the audience rooting for Wei, an underdog facing prejudice as a minority Chinese student in a white country.  Cousin Angel is no help either and an all-out fight between the two girls does not help, especially when Wei stabs her in the eye during the struggle.  Her aunt who appears to be hospitable enough to Wei is also an interesting character.  The film also works with a comic g-of-age story of an awkward teen trying to cope with social acceptability and racial prejudice.  Angela screams:  “Take your weird Chinese shot and go home!”

GRAFTED shares a few common traits with last year’s horror hit THE SUBSTANCE.  Both films deal with the desire for beauty at all costs, and both are by women directors, this one by Sasha Rainbow. 

GRAFTED has a good build-up from the very start of the film.  However, the momentum dies by the end with the film’s cop-out ending, unfortunately.

Director Rainbow does not skimp on the gory skin grafting scenes.  In fact she seems to revel in them with extended almost too ghastly to watch skin grafting acts on screen.

Sasha Rainbow is an award-winning New Zealand-born director whose unique sensibility and vision are reflected in both her film and commercial work. Her documentary KAMALI, about a seven-year-old Indian girl skateboarder, was long-listed for an Oscar, nominated for a BAFTA, and was distributed through RYOT films.

GRAFTED will be streaming on Shudder on Friday, January 24th.

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HARD TRUTHS (UK/Spain 2024) ****

Directed by Mike Leigh

British writer/director Mike Leigh makes his best films about quirky characters.  One of his best is HAPPY-GO-LUCKY where an ever cheerful but flawed character played by AcademyAward Nominee Sally Hawkins finds her way in her distorted and flawed world.  HARD TRUTHS is a more likable Unhappy-Go-Unlucky with a flawed and constantly angry and arguing woman played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivering a hilarious tour-de-force performance that one can laugh at and still feel sorry for.  The audience first sees her waking up in the morning - not quietly but screaming in shock, as if from a nightmare but likely because a nightmare day is about to begin.  She begins to attack everyone in her way, starting from her family - her son, Moses then her husband.  “Where are you going?” she questions her son.  “Out!” He says. She warns him, for no apparent reason: “You are going to be picked up for loitering with intent!” she scolds him and reminds him that her family has always kept their heads up high and never got in the wrong way with the law.   Though toxic in personality, Pansy is just hilarious to watch.

Hypersensitive to the slightest possible offense and ever ready to fly off the handle, Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) does not ingratiate. She criticizes her husband Curtley (David Webber) and their adult son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) so relentlessly that neither bothers to argue with her. She picks fights with strangers and sales clerks and enumerates the world’s countless flaws to anyone who will listen, most especially her cheerful sister Chantal (Michele Austin), who might be the only person still capable of sympathizing with her.

The film is Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s career-best role.  She has worked with director Mike Leigh before in her breakthrough performance in SECRETS AND LIES.  In HARD TRUTHS, she carries the entire film on her shoulders.  It is a complicated character, one that exhibits toxicity at every turn but she still manages to create sympathy for her character.  She has given her entire character complete thought and she plays Pansy looking at the whole persona of her character.  As such, Pansy never smiles or laughs once, except for the one scene where she breaks down combining nervous tittering with tears when her son Moses brings her flowers on  Mother’s Day - the day she claims she has to get up early to make her family Mother’s Day Breakfast.  Then, says that she is a sick person suffering from numerous pains the audience sympathizes.  One feels for Pansy when she says: “I am so tired.  All I want to do is sleep.”  Everyone has felt this same way at one point or another.  Jean-Baptiste delivers a complex tour-de-force performance so good that she steals every scene she is in.  She keeps her character’s toxicity amusing to the point of hilarity without compromising the seriousness of her illness,

Director Leigh steers his film to a climax in which the family reaches a breaking point.  Mike Leigh’s minor masterpiece is just matched by performances so exact.  HARD TRUTHS is simply a pleasure to watch as it is always hilarious to observe the worst of oneself as a toxic human being!

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LOREN & ROSE (USA 2021) ***
Written and Directed by Russell Brown

The film is advertised as: Three Courses and the Conversation of a Lifetime. The three courses are shown not during a single meal but on separate occasions over the years.

The film is written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Russell Brown (SEARCH ENGINES, THE BLUE TOOTH VIRGIN) and was produced by Russell Brown & Valeria Lopez.  A small budget, neat little conversational piece, the film with its moderate aims succeeds at what it intends to do.

Loren (Kelly Blatz, looking like a cross between a younger Justin Long and Keanu Reeves) is a young filmmaker who hit it high when his short film is recognized internationally winning him many European awards.  He is given a big break in a feature film project and he is looking to cast an actress for the lead.  Loren comes with baggage.  He is still mourning the death of his mother, the date of the death coinciding with the day of his breakup with his boyfriend.

Rose (Jacqueline Bisset) is an actress, now older, who made it big in the past playing a difficult and controversial role as a nun who had sex with her black priest.  (Must the priest be black?  Need not having sex with a priest be enough?)  Her career has been going downhill ever since, not to mention her breakup with her husband, which was publicized widely by the tabloids.  She tried other films, but none ever got her the recognition she enjoyed before.

The two meet.  The film has the meeting in a quaint little restaurant run by the owner who seems to be familiar with Rose.  According to her, she has been frequenting the restaurant for 15 years.  The film is a two-handler Rose and Loren.  So, dialogue is therefore of prime importance to the success of the film.  The film also features a few characters moving in and out of the story.  They are played by Gia Carides (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING), Paul Sand (SWEET LAND, and Erin Cahill (SLEEPY HOLLOW).

A single meal frames this three-act story of the indelible bond between Loren, a promising filmmaker, and Rose, a storied actress looking to reinvigorate her career. From a lunch meeting to discuss a possible collaboration grows a years-long friendship between two people whose love of art, understanding of grief, and faith in life’s potential guide them through personal and creative hardships. Kelly Blatz and Jacqueline Bisset star with a chemistry that is at once authentic and intoxicating.

“Some say cinema is glamorous and superficial, but I say it is the mirror of the world!”  The quote is used and claimed to have been spoken by actress Jeanne Moreau.

The film has a whole slew of awards as shown:

**Santa Barbara International Film Festival (WORLD PREMIERE)**

**Studio City Film Festival — Winner Best Actress, Best Screenplay **

**Cinema Diverse: Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival — Director’s Choice Award & Audience Award**

**Santa Fe Film Festival — Lifetime Achievement Award — Jacqueline Bisset**

**Sarasota Film Festival — Lifetime Achievement Award — Jacqueline Bisset**

**Sedona International Film Festival — Lifetime Achievement Award — Jacqueline Bisset**

**Sonoma International Film Festival — Award for Cinematic Excellence — Jacqueline Bisset**

**Ojai Film Festival — Distinguished Artist Award — Jacqueline Bisset**

**Coronado Island Film Festival — Cultural Icon Award — Jacqueline Bisset**

**Loft Film Fest - Lofty Award — Jacqueline Bisset**

LOREN & ROSE is available exclusively on Amazon Prime on January 28th.

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PRESENCE (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Directed by Soderbergh and written by David Koepp (the big-budget movies like INDIANA JONES, JURASSIC PARK and THE MUMMY but also GHOST TOWN), the low-budget indie film is a haunted house ghost story with a PRESENCE as established by the gliding camera around the empty house at the film’s start.   A dysfunctional family moves in.  Though they appear to argue a lot with each other, the family bond is stronger than it seems.  Nothing is clear after that - who the presence of the house is; whether Ryan the sexy kid is good or bad; whether the psychic is for real; whether the daughter can really feel the presence and so on.  This distinguishes this ghost story from the run-of-the-mill, making the film intriguing and fresh from start to end. 

THE SAND CASTLE (Lebanon/United Arab Emirates/USA 2024)M***
Directed by Matty Brown

The film is basically a four-handler - of a family stranded on a deserted island.

The Robinson Crusoe family is stranded on a deserted island.  They fend for themselves hopeful that they can be rescued.  There is a man, his wife (assumed), and two children a son and a daughter.  All wish to leave the island.

The film leaves out the clear reason the family is stranded or how they got there.  The film’s narrative opts for the artistic - lyrical and poetic, instead of the straightforward manner.  Unfortunately, the result is a rather confusing and annoying narrative that is difficult to grasp.

The stress of the situation can be observed even more clearly when the band and wife begin to argue.  “I will try to fix it,” he says, to which her reply comes: “What if you can’t”.  The arguments make no sense and are infantile but each tries to blame the other for something that cannot be corrected or go right.

Nadine Labaki plays the wife.  Labaki is well known for the 2018 hit CAPERNAUM.  She delivers a powerful performance in this film,

The island is a beautiful natural place, as can be observed by the overhead shots.  There are rocky outcrops with waves crashing into them and beaches on the other side of the island.  But what is there to enjoy when one knows there is little chance to escape the little paradise?

A few cliched segments also spoil the film’s general originality,  The one with the mother putting on her son’s headphones to listen to music in re-order to reconnect with him is one example. 

THE SAND CASTLE is open for streaming on Netflix this week.

An over-ambitious, poetic, and beautifully shot family drama on a Robinson Crusoe setting does not fulfill its grand aims but is still a worthy watch.