FILM REVIEWS:
ALIEN ON STAGE (UK 2020) ***
Directed by Lucy Harvey and Danielle Kummer
A very amateur dramatics group led by Dorset Bus Drivers spent a year creating a serious stage adaptation of the sci-fi, horror film Alien. ALIEN ON STAGE is a low-budget British documentary on the behind-the-scenes of the amateurish play.
In case, one is not familiar with Dorset. Dorset is a county in southwest England. It is known for the Jurassic Coast, a long stretch on the English Channel where the cliffs contain many fossils, and rock formations show millions of years of geological history. The Allendale Centre, Wimborne is the place in Dorset, population 6400 where the play is planned for Opening Night. The aim is to maximize ticket sales to raise money for charity.
The doc involves :
the bus drivers and other bus staff (like the supervisors) taking on various roles in the production from acting to stage manager to props maker; the rehearsals; the making of he props that include the alien; and of course the performance.
There are clips of the actual Ridley Scott ALIEN so that the audience can get a feel of what is actually done by the bus driver crew. “This is what Ridley Scott would have wanted to do…. but in a more basic format,” says the prop manager as he shows his green-painted alien eggs.
They were hoping that everyone would come and they would sell out because ALIEN was such a huge cult movie. But that did not happen. There were only 20 people. The main complaint from the troupe? No one gave any feedback. The directors of the doc then interviews one of those who attended and what she thought.
Their village-hall show is a crushing flop; it seems their hard work was for nothing, but fate gives them a second chance to perform their homemade, homage in a London West End theatre, for one night only. With wobbly sets, awkward acting, and special effects, requiring
'more luck than judgment'. Will they be alright on the night?
ALIEN ON STAGE plays like a home movie made with sincerity without any claim to be any best picture of the year. The film is entertaining enough, on a small scale, very basic with more pleasure derived by observation of ordinary English folk like the bus drivers of Dorset than from the success of the staging of the play. At its best, the doc shows the camaraderie of the Dorset players, always laughing and never uttering a bad word to one another as well as parts of the humorous performance at the West end. The doc should attract more than the 20 people they got on the play’s opening night, again a surprise for the Dorset players.
After a successful World Premiere at SXSW, Alien On Stage screened at over 60 film festivals worldwide, winning seven international awards, four of them In the U.S. and Canada.
including the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature Calgary Underground Film Festival, Silver Audience Award, Best Documentary, Fantasia International Film Festival and Audience Award, and Best Documentary Leeds International Film Festival.
Indiecan Entertainment will release ALIEN ON STAGE in Canada and the U.S. on October 8th.
Trailer:
THE PLATFORM 2 (Le Hoyo 2) (Spain 2024) ***
Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
THE PLATFORM 2 (Spanish: El Hoyo 2) is a 2024 Spanish satirical science fiction film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.
THE PLATFORM begins with several people talking about food, or rather what they like to eat from pizza to coquettes to cooking with cumin. It turns out that convicts have over two hundred levels. The lower the level, the lower the quality of food. The food is laid out on a platform that goes through all the levels. Every convict must not take food belonging to those of another higher level.
The film returns to the world of "The Platform," a large, tower-style "Vertical Self-Management Center" prison that houses various criminals. The dozens of floors house two occupants per floor and a free-floating platform delivers food to them on a daily schedule.
The film is set in a large, tower-style "Vertical Self-Management Center." Its residents, who are transferred in through for various crimes or wants must every month switch between its many floors, are fed via a platform which, initially filled with food at the top floor, gradually descends through the tower's levels, stopping for a fixed amount of time on each. The system inevitably leads to conflict, as the residents at the top levels get to eat as much as they can, with each level only getting the leftovers from the previous ones.
For those who remember the first movie, number 2 provides more of the same. It's still amazing in terms of concept and delivery despite its incredible premise.
It is no surprise the sequel was made. The original film was released on Netflix in March 2020. Subsequently, the film received a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and the company revealed the film had been watched by 56 million households over its first four weeks of release, among the most ever for one of their original films
THE PLATFORM 2 opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday, October 3rd this week. From Spain and in Spanish.
Trailer:
REZ COMEDY (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by (CSA winners) Quentin Lee, Keith Nahanee
The word Rex means a North American Indian reservation or reserve. The title for the new Canadian film REZ COMEDY refers to comedy involving Indigenous (as the word Indian is not so much used these days) reservations or Indigenous matters for that matter.
REZ COMEDY is the first all-Indigenous and all-Canadian stand-up comedy feature film.
Eight diverse Indigenous comics from all over Canada come together for a set connected by the Squamish Nation and host comic Keith Nahanee, star of Comedy Invasion, Canadian Screen Awards 2024 winner for Best Comedy Special.
As far as the film goes, credit is also given for Indigenous and comedy content. The film plays like an anthology with 8 segments of standup comedy routines. The funniest of the stands is Keith Nahanee, the first one featured and thankfully also, the host of the Comedy Special Show. The film devotes some time at the film’s start to have him introduce the film while the other comics have only a one-minute introduction before the routine starts.
The comics as well as the description goes:
Host: KEITH NAHANEE - Squamish Nation (BC) - He is clearly one of the funniest of the lot, his delivery being the smoothest and his jokes relevant and insightful. Unfortunately, placing him first and him, being the best sort of, lets the film go somewhat downhill. He pokes fun at himself, the best joke being his 7-size girly foot that he reveals in the midst of his routine as well as poking fun at the audience. His swearing is minimal.
Others featured (in alphabetical order) include::
WAYNE ALEXIS - Sto’lo Nation from Cheam Band (BC)
CHUCK CEASE - Mistawasis Nahiyawak Cree Nation (SK)
DENISE B. MCLEOD - Urban IndigiQueer Anishinaabe Kwe, home territory is Sagamok Anishnawbek F.N (ON)
JANELLE NILES - Black - Mi’kmaq woman from Sipekne'katik (NS)
DREA OMER - Saskatchewan-based
HELENA PAUL - Tk’emlups te Secwempemc and Skowkale (BC)
BRENDA PRINCE - Anishinabe (MB)
KEVIN SHAWANDA - Birch Island (ON)
(CSA stands for Canadian Screen Awards)
REZ COMEDY opens October 4, 2024 (Imagine Cinemas Carlton - Toronto, ON) with an invite-only screening hosted by two-time CSA winner Indigenous actor Tamara Podemski on October 3, 2024
Trailer:
TROUBLE (Sweden 2024) ***
Directed by Jon Holmberg
From Sweden comes a comedy, directed and co-written by Jon Holmberg, a quite silly one of a lovable loser that just keeps getting more and more into trouble for two reasons - bad coincidences with fate never on his side, and his tom-foolishness.
Conny is divorced and works as a salesman at a major electronics chain and looks forward to every other week when he gets to spend time with his daughter Julia. Suddenly life is turned upside down. Conny is in the wrong place at the wrong time, becomes innocently convicted of murder, and ends up in prison. There he meets criminals Norinder and Musse who mistake Conny for being a pilot, the profession of his wife's new successful boyfriend Tomas. Conny becomes a part of the criminals' escape plan - but he also needs to find his daughter a horse for her birthday.
The film is as silly as the main character, Conny but at least it is amusing funny getting quite a few laugh-out-loud humour in the process. Entertaining enough as a forgettable guilty Netflix movie.
Trailer:
