Review Category: Movie

THE FIVE RULES OF SUCCESS

“Everybody dies. Not everybody lives.” Just one of the things keeping X (Santiago Segura) on the straight and narrow as he’s on parole. He’s determined to make something of himself after being branded a thug, even though the act of violence that landed him in jail isn’t what we’d expect. His parole officer Emma (Isidora Goreshter) lays the law down with firm authority and makes it clear she doesn’t hold up much hope for him. Her attitude is he’ll either be back in prison or dead. X, however, has a five-step plan to prove her wrong. But with everything mounted against him, what chance does he have?

He’s given a chance to work as a delivery boy for a Greek restaurant, and soon earns the trust of the owner, Avakian (Jon Sklaroff). He’s invited into his home, and befriends his wayward son Danny (Jonathan Howard), who works in the restaurant’s kitchen and has a wild side that could lead X astray. X has a goal – as well as staying out of prison – to open his own restaurant. Money and time are not on his side, though, but there are shortcuts for the latter.

Written, directed, and photographed by Orson Oblowitz, The Five Rules of Success is a skewed look at the American dream, seen from the part of society that is perceived to only get somewhere by illicit means. The hard work and time that Avakian recommends to build a business aren’t required if you have the right skin colour and accent, can pull the right strings, and play the dirty game that opens the doors for the privileged. It’s a beautifully shot film, even if some of the visuals are ugly. We can’t help but get behind X; the odds are so stacked against him from the start that he can’t help but be brought off the path. Even the people meant to be in authority are inappropriate and lawless.

The Five Rules of Success presents a dazzlingly portrayal of how one moment in a life can have a lifetime of consequences, and sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the world won’t let you forget what you have been branded. Santiago Segura provides a powerhouse performance that in a bigger budgeted film would have been award-worthy. Oblowitz’s film is not an easy ride, but then neither is life.

The Five Rules of Success is out now in the US.

BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL

Six Mile Hill is a remote and unassuming Irish town whose only real claim to fame is that it was once visited by Bram Stoker who was inspired by the grave of legendary vampire Abhartach – basically a big piles of rocks in a field – to create his seminal tale of the monstrous Count Dracula. Young Eugene (Jack Rowan) is happy ambling around the village teasing naive tourists and avoiding pulling his weight for his father’s local construction business. Eugene is unsettled when his best friend and drinking buddy William (Fra Fee) decides to move to Australia in search of a better life but an accident on the way home from a last night of heavy drinking has dramatic and dreadful consequences both for Eugene and everyone living in Six Mile Hill.

Written by and directed by Colin Baugh, this likeable Irish horror comedy might not fully succeed in pumping new blood into the moribund vampire genre but its undead heart is clearly in the right place. The comedy is often a bit broad and laboured – Eugene’s man mountain friend SP (Michael Hough) gets the best one-liners – and the film’s strength is in its horror, with scenes of blood pouring from villagers’ orifices, drawn to the stone memorial in the field and the creature that lurks underneath. There are some other witty and inventive gore sequences, too, including the moment where a recently converted vampire is impaled on an iron pole, which emerges from the other side of his body with his beating heart quivering on the tip. When he finally appears, Abhartach is an impressively-unearthly creation – the work of Neill Gorton’s Millennium FX, who provided many of the monster designs and redesigns for the revitalised Doctor Who – although we could have done with seeing him a bit earlier in the film and imposing even more of a threat of the beleaguered Eugene and his friends. The resolution seems like a bit of an anti-climax too, even though it comes in the wake of a wince-inducing moment in which Eugene tears off someone’s leg to save their life.

Boys From County Hell maybe be only fitfully amusing and hampered a little by its low budget, but it’s still thoroughly enjoyable even if it’s ultimately more workmanlike and efficient than exceptional.

Release Date: August 6th (Cinema)

THE SUICIDE SQUAD

When it comes to opinions, they don’t get stronger than with David Ayer’s 2016 hit Suicide Squad. In fact, the DCEU in general always seems to draw particularly fierce debates from all sides (much like Star Wars and Doctor Who). So with these two things in mind, it seems curiously hopeful – and rather ironic – at just how much positivity has followed James Gunn’s baddie-filled sequel/essentially a reboot The Suicide Squad (that added determiner makes all the difference!).

We have had Snyder cuts this and studio interference that, but with this film, it all seems to have been a more friendly, passionate, and dare we even say inspiring production. The cynic (pesky blighter that he is) in us dictates that this can’t last, some cruel Mister J-esque punchline has to follow, right? Well, there are many punchlines here but none of which let you in any way down because The Suicide Squad is not just an excellent film… it’s a film and a half.

The movie sees the ruthless Amanda Waller (a terrifyingly excellent Viola Davis) assemble Task Force X for their deadliest assignment yet, as they are dropped off at the island of Corto Maltese to tackle a corrupt government, which has a gigantic threat they may at any time unleash.

Off the back of that silly Twitterstorm in a teacup with Disney, James Gunn here feels freer than he has been since his Troma days, and to that point, The Suicide Squad proudly brings with it the Troma Studios spirit, even featuring an eagle-eyed cameo (one of many) from a certain STARBURST Magazine Hall of Famer. This is a pure unfiltered, uncensored and unchained vision of a director who is relishing using everything at his disposal. “Do not get attached” he warned us, too bloody right! You sit on your seat’s edge throughout, because anyone is fair game here, this truly is a suicide squad film in every way imaginable.

Gunn’s story is a bloody, crazy, hilarious, and heartfelt ’70s war picture intertwined with a very hard R-Rated comic book flick. It’s bold, it’s ballsy and it’s as unpredictable a film to come along in quite some time. Gunn literally rakes around the DC toybox and fills the screen with glorious chaos but more than that an unexpectedly sweet heart.

His film is an ode to all outcasts, a tribute to the misrepresented, the abused and the neglected, and an Expendables-like story, which drops into the war zone and takes time to re-assess the classifications of monsters and men (animal abusers meet particularly nasty and pathetic ends – as they darn well should), becoming a simple but effective retro caper, which comes with a realistic political sting.

The script is razor-sharp and constantly laugh out loud, but does not shying away from ugliness or emotion either. And the film really flourishes on that end, as the characters are to die for (so to speak) and we care about their fates, backstories and connections. These unexpected waves of emotion hit you that much deeper, particularly as the film is so knife edge precarious in nature, meaning that all bets are truly off and you are deeply invested. When you are not laughing along with these wild bunch of nutters.

It’s hard to choose a standout because this ensemble cast are all so freaking good, but Sylvester Stallone’s King Shark, David Dastmalchian’s Polka Dot Man, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2, and John Cena’s Peacekeeper are all strong standouts (and there are many other scene stealers). Plus, there is a particularly comic-adoring villain (well, they’re all villains technically but y’know) that actually is a rather tragic figure in truth.

Visually experimental at times and shot with an equally fresh and unique eye, not to mention a thumpingly good soundtrack backing it, it is hard to ask for more. This is just a joyful, heartfelt, and blood-drenched comic book spectacle that does the Squad the utmost justice. At work here is a director with true carte blanche but more importantly a director and team who know full well what they are doing. See it, stay for the credits, don’t spoil anything (this is a very spoilable film) and for the love of God, don’t get too attached!

THE OFFERING

Obsession and passion are the key ingredients in this Spanish offering from Ventura Durall.

Psychiatrist Violetta (Anna Alarcón) is visited by Rita (Verónica Echegui) with an ulterior motive. Her boyfriend, Jan (Alex Brendemühl), is obsessed with another woman, and that person is Violetta. Jan is an old lover of Violetta, whose leaving devastated her. Reluctantly, she agrees to meet Jan, but in doing so puts both her and Rita’s relationships in jeopardy.

The Offering is an intriguing film. We’re shown Violetta and Jan’s passionate life together when they were younger, and it’s clear that despite her reputable career, she’s reliant on pills to keep her going, unbeknownst to her husband, Nico (Pablo Molinero). Jan has created a company that allows people to record thoughts and messages for their loved ones to read/see after they die, noting that people rarely have the courage to say and face such things when they are alive. It’s this interesting Black Mirror-esque plot device that leads us into a story that is in no rush to unwind for us. It’s not terribly hard to guess where things are leading in the final act, but it’s definitely an emotional ride getting there.

Alex García’s camerawork swings from intrusively voyeuristic to painfully complicit as we navigate the emotions (or lack of in Violetta’s case) and the thoughts of whether it’s right to unburden before or after one’s death. Is the bearing of the soul to be at peace just another trauma to add to the bereaved? The Offering will leave you with more questions than answers but is nevertheless an engaging reflection on love and obsession.

The Offering is in selected cinemas and on digital on July 30th

CRYPTOZOO [Sundance: London]

Despite a dreamy, intriguing opening sequence, setting an immediately ethereal air, cartoonist Dash Shaw’s visually captivating, but structurally scattershot second feature loses footing and slinks into a trippy yet tragically dithering schlep, albeit an aesthetically captivating one.

Cryptozoo’s key defects are its errant narrative and overabundance of characters which bamboozle in both design and multitude, dislodging themes about the clatter of government/industrial corporations with flowery idealism, augmented by pencil-drawn animation and a whimsical ambience.

A pre-credits set-up introduces us to stoner couple Matthew (Michael Cera) and Amber (Louisa Krause) making love while smoking weed in a forest before happening upon a cordoned off area, within which they encounter an otherworldly being. We then meet protagonist Lauren Gray (Lake Bell), an ‘army brat’ who grew up after WW2 and, as a child, suffered restless nights, until a Japanese dream-eating creature called Baku, devoured her nightmares.

Lauren dedicates her life to rescuing endangered mythical creatures (cryptids) and keeping them in her Cryptozoo. She then teams up with a Russian called Gustav and Phoebe, a gorgon, to track down the Baku and save it from crooked military officials who want to harness the creatures’ power for bio-weaponry. Meanwhile, at the Cryptozoo, a Jurassic Park-style perimeter breach sees cryptids escape from their confines.

Shaw’s film is an ambitious but cluttered flight of fancy that reverberates like meditating in a shattered kaleidoscope, instead of the vivacious, epic adventure it could have been. The slender story meanders amidst an influx of crank characters, jarring violence and profanities, which entomb its crux and anaesthetise viewers, despite all the wondrous creatures, visuals, and imagination on display.

Cryptozoo screens as part of Sundance: London at Picturehouse Central on July 30th and 31st.

SETTLERS

Life as a colonist on Mars somewhere in the future is hard. The land is largely barren, the environment bleak and hostile. It’s also pulverisingly boring if Wyatt Rockefeller’s debut feature is to be believed. This is a 100-odd minute film that feels likes a series of still images occasionally enlivened by a scene of someone running or raising their voice. Beautiful to look at – the cinematography really exploits the South African location and makes it look as if we’re really up on the red planet – but the drama is largely lifeless and generally spectacularly uninteresting.

Set roughly across a decade Setters focuses on a family living a minimalist lifestyle on a farmstead on Mars. We don’t really know anything about the history of Martian exploration or how the planet has been terraformed – everyone is able to breathe and move around quite easily so clearly work’s been done. The homeworld must be in a bit of a state: “Earth’s not what it was” says patriarch Reza (Jonny Lee Miller) to his nine-year-old daughter Remmy (Brooklynn Prince). Together with Remmy’s mum Ilsa (Sofia Boutella) the three are eking out an existence of sorts until their idyll is threatened – promisingly – when the word ‘LEAVE’ is scrawled on the window of their habitat. We briefly hope that the film might develop into some sort of space home invasion story with the family fighting off increasingly aggressive attacks from outsiders and indeed there is a quick contretemps before the family’s status quo is completely upended and the story, such as it is, grinds to a complete halt. Remmy finds herself growing up in a new and suspicious environment and she has to learn to trust and accept the arrival of outsider Jerry (Ismael Cruz Cordova) who claims the homestead in the name of his own family inheritance. Much sitting about and scowling ensue as the film inches inexorably, painfully, towards its laboured conclusion.

Settlers may well appeal to those who prefer their science fiction a bit more grounded and thoughtful but the film’s glacial pace and lack of momentum suck the life out of it and it only flares back into life briefly when we fast forward to Remmy as an adult (Nell Tiger Free) forced to confront the difficult and overbearing Jerry in the absence of her own mother. But it’s hard to care about any of this because there’s no compelling dramatic drive and the characters are too cold and uninteresting to give much of a damn about. Beautifully filmed and rather stately from a visual perspective, there’s very little here to latch onto and Settlers is likely to provide some express relief for an audience bored with sci-fi blockbuster bombast but we’re betting that anyone who stumbles across this one is likely to boot up the likes of The Tomorrow War for a rewatch just to remind themselves that they’re still alive after nearly two hours of this staggering inertia.

Settlers is released in the UK on July 30th

NIGHT BOOK

PLATFORM: PC, PS4 (REVIEWED), SWITCH, XBOX ONE, iOS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

With FMV making a return in recent years, Night Book is the latest Interactive film from Wales Interactive (The Complex, Five Dates, Maid of Sker). Directed by Alex Lightman, this horror-thriller follows the story of pregnant interpreter Loralyn (Julie Drays) who, on a seemingly normal night shift translating from French to English and back whilst caring for her mentally ill father, accidentally unleashes a demon into her house through an ancient book.

Shot entirely remotely during lockdown, Night Book is another achievement of creatives not letting a global pandemic from stopping them from telling an entertaining story. A few of the stronger points of this particular interactive film compared to its peers is the length, replayability (with 15 different endings) and strong performances especially from Drays in the lead role. A standard playthrough comes in at a respectable 60-75 minutes meaning that it never outstays its welcome, tells a tight and precise narrative and allows for a follow-up playthrough to feel like something you want to explore rather than a slog to just see another ending.

As with this medium of telling a story, choices need to matter – and they certainly do with each choice affecting a relationship between Loralyn and the other characters which allow the player to craft their choices either by putting themselves in the shoes of Loralyn based on her personal attachments or by playing the way they would morally if they were there instead.

An entertaining and creative way to tell a horror story that gives the audience a host of creepy moments and plenty of replayability, Night Book is a thrill from start to (multiple) finish.

BADASS BUNYIP

If you’re a less discerning viewer, or someone who likes things on the rough and ready and ultra-low-budget side, Australian comedy shocker Badass Bunyip could be up your proverbial alley.

It’s Christmas Day Down Under, and since it’s cracking the flags, typical drongos Shazza (Anastasia C. Kouloukas) and Dazza (David Black) go for a walkabout for a peaceful picnic. They don’t get to the furthest outback, just a patch of land in the middle of the city, which unfortunately for them is a sacred aboriginal site. Angering the spirits, they unwittingly unleash a Bunyip – a sasquatch-like mythological creature – that proceeds to mutilate and kill anyone it comes across.

Taking the DIY ethos of Troma to the extreme, Badass Bunyip manages to include enough schlocky gore, offensive and puerile humour, store-bought effects, and surreal visuals to keep indie film fans enjoying things. The filmmakers know they’re not making Citizen Kane so they can go to town, embracing the lameness of everything. It’s not shoddiness for the sake of it, though, as there is an animated sequence that is more adept than it has any right to be.

Writer David Black’s characters are the epitome of what the rest of the world imagines Aussies to be. Dazza sports a bad Vim Fuego wig and behaves in a way that would make ocker legends Alvin Purple and Barry McKenzie blush, but for all his crassness, is harmless. Shazza – played brilliantly by Anastasia C. Kouloukas – isn’t quite as immature, but is still likeably rough around the edges. She also has a fantastic last scene, which is a great payoff for getting through the previous 100 minutes or so.

Baddass Bunyip isn’t for everyone and it knows it. It’s the sort of film you’d make with your mates after a few beers. Massive kudos, though, for presenting the aboriginal ancestry angle with some respect, even when playing for laughs.

Badass Bunyip is available to watch for free on YouTube from July 29th.

ANTEBELLUM

There’s certainly a statement of intent for the feature directorial debut of Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz. Antebellum is a powerful and disturbing story set within the historical slave trade in Southern plantations. Don’t read on if you want to go into the film without any spoilers.

Headstrong slave Eden (Janelle Monáe) is among the plantation workers in a Louisiana ranch. After aiding an attempted escape, she is branded and savagely beaten. The escapees get worse treatment, as the wife of one is killed and incinerated in a makeshift crematorium. The workers are ruled over harshly by Confederate soldiers, with beatings given out if they speak without being allowed to. This oppressive regime reveals some unbearable acts until Eden is awoken by a mobile phone ringing while she’s being horrifically raped by the army general.

As alluded to in that brief synopsis, there’s more going on in the narrative than is fair to disclose. From the opening shot – a stunning, single tracking shot – to the twisted reveals that arrive later on, the film has style. The appalling nature of the situation is never presented lightly and it’s clear Bush and Renz have the current political climate on their minds when they preface the movie with a quote from celebrated Southern author William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past”. They don’t shy away from showing the brutality of the soldiers against the slaves, and it often descends worryingly into exploitation territory, which threatens to undermine the important message.

For all the cinematic splendour and neat twists, Antebellum is a difficult movie to actually enjoy. However, the points the filmmakers make and the emotions the scenario provokes are vital, particularly nowadays.

Antebellum is released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 2nd.

THE SPARKS BROTHERS

What do you get when Edgar Wright – the man behind some of the most iconic movies of the last decade or so – gets together with the cult band Sparks to document their career? The answer simply is a stunning, revelatory film that appeals to both the group’s fan base and acts as an introduction to the band you likely thought a one-hit-wonder. If you hear the hypnotising keyboard intro to This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us and wonder ‘who sung that?’, then now’s your chance to find out everything.

Told by the Mael brothers – Ron (the stolid-looking synth player) and Russell (the flamboyant, falsetto vocalist) – themselves, the film is both deeply personal and inviting. The band, as are all the talking head commentators, are shot in black in white, which contrasts wonderfully with the often colourful archive footage. The other interviewees range from those who worked with the band, were in the band at one point, and high profile fans. The artists giving kudos are as diverse as Beck, Patten Oswald, Neil Gaiman, and former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones (who is the first to remark that Ron looked like “Hitler playing the keyboard”). Anecdotes are accompanied by simple animations and the movie is bookended with cool stop-motion recreations of the brothers.

The Sparks story is as full of highs and lows as any band, with the exception that no matter how bad things got for them in the fickle pop world, they always came back fighting with new material and a fresher sound, even if that sound was several years too early to make any impact. With 25 albums, the band don’t rely on their heritage to keep their audience engaged. Even this year, they have another film to be released, Annette, directed by Leos Carax (Holy Motors) and written by Ron and Russell (who, naturally, also provide the soundtrack). It’s this constant forward momentum that makes the band such a rewarding listen, and this is clearly represented in Wright’s documentary. The director is undoubtedly a fan, but he makes sure the movie has more than enough visual flourishes to keep non-Sparks fans involved.

If you weren’t a Sparks fan before spending well over two hours with the Maels, their history, and musical output, then we guarantee you will be afterwards. Like 2018’s Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, The Sparks Brothers paints a portrait of cult performers and makes their story accessible and completely engaging.

The Sparks Brothers has its UK premiere at Sundance Film Festival: London on July 29th and is in cinemas everywhere on July 30th.