FILM REVIEWS:
THE ARRIVAL (USA 2024) **
Directed by Alyssa Rallo
Four strangers converge at a restaurant to investigate the son of the enigmatic DuPont family. Suddenly the arrival of a mysterious man disrupts their reality and reveals a shocking truth about the DuPont twins, intertwining the fates of nine unsuspecting restaurant guests. This gripping drama explores hidden identities and dark secrets, promising an intense journey of discovery and confrontation. With its intricate plot and deeply human characters, THE ARRIVAL offers a riveting and emotionally charged and uplifting experience, keeping viewers engaged until the very end.
THE ARRIVAL is a small indie movie with no known stars or actors. The film deals with several adults engaging a conversation in a bar/lounge space. There is nothing really exciting about any of the conversations, and thus the film fails to hold much interest, unfolding very much like a stage play. The actors go through their lines and cover their characters credibly though without much fanfare or entertaining value to the audience.
The conversation contains lots of small talk that is not as funny as the writer thinks it is. ‘I will get a double Heineken non-alcoholic beer.’ Listening to the dialogue often feels like eavesdropping air someone else’s conversation at a bar.
THE ARRIVAL, directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett, thus explaining the stronger female the male slant, and written by Gary O. Bennett made its World Premiere at Martha’s Vineyard Women in Film Festival and it opens on digital platforms on September 17.
Trailer:
MOUNTAINS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Monica Sorelle
The media’s representation of Haiti as a nation in ruins remains one of the most prevailing indignities leveled against the island by the Western world – part of a longstanding, unspoken cultural embargo on the world’s first Black Republic. Haitian Americans have seldom seen themselves reflected on screen. When they do appear, they are most often represented as gang members, domestic workers, or supernatural beings by African-American actors with questionable accents. Mountains is a salve for this paradigm, presenting an authentic portrayal of a Haitian family living respectably within their means, with divergent hopes and aspirations, at once unequivocally American and wholly Caribbean.
The worst of the worst has been heard in recent news about Haitians eating neighbourr’s pets, thanks to ex-PresidentDonald Trump.
Immigrant worker Xavier dreams of a more spacious home for his wife and son while earning a living demolishing houses, and dismantling his rapidly changing neighborhood of Little Haiti, Miami brick by brick. MOUNTAINS is a multigenerational drama that explores the relationships between immigrants and their children, the looming threat of gentrification, and the pursuit of the American dream.
‘Behind a mountain is a mountain’ is the Haitian quote seen on the screen at the beginning of the film. Indeed whether the mountain refers to problems, daily routines, or the humdrum of life, there is always another mountain around the corner. Monica Sorelle’s narrative feature debut is a slice-of-life portrait of an immigrant worker and family man gradually contending with his class aspirations and housing insecurities in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood. Though the main character is a male, she infuses the power of women, through his wife, quiet, foreboding and strong in keeping the family together. Based in the immigrant enclave of Little Haiti in Miami, Xavier (Atibon Nazaire) is a middle-aged, working-class Haitian demolition worker who hopes to one day buy his beloved seamstress wife, Esperance (Sheila Anozier), a new and spacious suburban home. Meanwhile, their doted-on college dropout son Junior (Chris Renois) struggles against his father's rigid expectations by day while quietly pursuing a career as a stand-up comic by night. There are long shots of demolition and the routines are captured realistically though they do slow down the narrative.
MOUNTAINS arrives on digitally on Tuesday, September 24.
Trailer:
SUCCUBUS (USA 2024) ***
Directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna
SUCCUBUS opens with Ron Pearlman begging Jimmy to publish his research, whether he paid or not. A succubus is a female demon or supernatural entity in folklores who appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. According to some folklore, a succubus needs semen to survive; repeated sexual activity with a succubus will result in a bond being formed between the succubus and the person; and a succubus will drain or harm the man with whom she is having intercourse. In modern representations, a succubus is often depicted as a beautiful seductress or enchantress, rather than as demonic or frightening.
The subject is ideal for a horror film with lots of sex and violence - for adults.
The film’s story has a few flaws. For one the main character is a loser with the result that audiences would less likely root for him. If he was at least funny or hilarious, then it would be forgiven. Unfortunately this is not the case, though the Chris character does get funnier as the film progresses. There is a part where he is caught jerking off on the baby monittor in the room, he not realizing that the monitor was on. It sounds more sick than funny. The film makes an awkward transition from Ron Pearlman to the main character. The film then spends about 15 minutes or so showing titillating photos of girls, scantily clad as the internet is searching in a dating app. The segment is boring an unless one has never searched the internet before for porn or a dating app.
At its best the script links science with Physics. It talks about dark Matter - the connection between science and matter.
SUCCUBUS follows a young father going through a marital separation, joins a dating app, and matches with a beautiful but mysterious young woman…whose powers of seduction and manipulation entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
Coached by his over-sexed friend Eddie, Chris (Brendan Bradley), a new father, joins the StarCrossed dating app “just to see what’s out there,” and eventually comes to the conclusion he should probably rekindle things with his estranged wife. But when he matches with Adra, a seductive young woman with a mysterious past, his curiosity gets the better of him, and he finds himself getting sucked into her world even as his own life falls apart. As Chris, Eddie, and Adra’s stalker, Dr. Zephyr circle her, Adra’s power grows, finally revealing her harrowing true nature. The horror does not begin till almost halfway through the running time.
The film contains typical male chauvinist dialogue, especially if Chris and his best friend talk about women. The female perspective is also strong, with much credit given to Chris’ wives with the argument pouts she brings across.
SUCCUBUS Premieres September 24, 2024 for Watch-At-Home. Also Available on Digital (Purchase/Rental) and DVD.
This occasionally tense thriller debuts on digital and VOD across major platforms in North America on September 24th.
Trailer:
