Author: Alex Cole

Remake giants Tim Burton and Disney come together as we re-imagine arguably one of the most unique Disney tales, Dumbo. Expanding on the 1941 story, we’re introduced to a rabble of new characters as Dumbo’s skills rescue a circus from the brink until they’re acquired by an entrepreneur as cruel as his is persuasive.

The introduction of a greater backstory with the chance to eliminate some of the more tasteless parts of it original should have combined to create a brilliant opportunity for Disney. Unfortunately, unlike Dumbo, Tim Burton’s creation probably shouldn’t be saved from the fire.

Despite correctly taking the decision to produce a more emotive animation for Dumbo, and rejecting the chance for a realistic portrayal, Dumbo does not take flight. Dumbo himself gets lost amongst the chaos of Michael Keaton’s dreamland. Whilst the original focuses almost entirely on the plight of an abused performing elephant, the new Dumbo dedicates too much screen time to secondary characters that quite frankly, no one came to see.

Dumbo is a beautiful baby elephant, circled with gorgeous floppy ears and a clumsiness that made the whole cinema coo. Yet, rather than guiding the story his development seems forced, and stunted. Even when learning to fly the revelation isn’t his.

I found it hard to become overly attached to Colin Farrell’s character and Eva Green’s journey had so little build up that I never truly understood her affections towards our blue eyed friend. This is not even to mention the sickeningly sweet ending, a script filled with plot holes as deep as hard to fill as this film works at being ‘woke’.

Everything was watered down to the point where it had no substance. Dumbo didn’t even fulfill the usual Burton criteria or being creepy, weird and dark, it just ending up looking like someone hadn’t turned on all the lights in the room.  To say I didn’t like it though would be extreme. I enjoyed this film enough to not be bored, but I wasn’t overwhelmed.

Overall, despite their best efforts Disney have not created anything with enough vigour, joy or fun ti supplant their originals. Maybe, these are new films for a new audience, and maybe they will in twenty years still be standing, but I don’t think so. I enjoyed my time watching Dumbo in many ways, but next time I switch on Dumbo, it’ll probably still be a culturally problematic feature from 1941.

Shed belongs to a unique and individual genre, only rivaled by perhaps slapstick comedy, where the most ridiculous, and often poorly put together parts often equal a classic. Nazi surfers, a vicious and hungry vagina, even a murderous tyre are all classics of the indie horror world, and excellent in their own right. 

Whilst Shed isn’t quite as ludicrous as a murderous circle of rubber, a skin changing monster flick filmed on a low budget during a hurricane is definitely in the same vain. Yet despite that, Shed falls horribly short. The dialogue is stilted, the sound quality awful and the style ever changing. Sometimes its filmed in first person, sometimes in the style of Paranormal Activity, sometimes it’s just a normal film, and occasionally it’s basically a porno. None of these are bad in themselves, but they just don’t quite…fit.

Credit where credit is due, I loved the idea behind Shed. I like the monsters, I like the moral struggle and the religious twang to the story had me impressed, but none of this makes up for awful dialogue and delivery. The writers and directors of Shed should keep making films, but Shed lacked a style, it lacked an image and it lacked consistent, apart from a odd obsession with sex saving the world. In that, it was definitely consistent.

David Axe’s Shed is a miss for me, but if you do love to give Indie Horror a go and you’re having a cheesy night then…maybe chuck it in for a bit of fun.

Inspired by a text, Clément Oberto delivers his newest thought provoking short with Unacceptable Behaviour. Unacceptable Behaviour delves into the balance between childhood and adulthood, the broken promises of youth as well as the loss of innocence and freedom brought on by age and responsibility.

As is becoming trend with Oberto, Unacceptable Behaviour opposes beautiful and immense backdrops with John Tajada’s scores. This team have worked together many times and the balance is nigh on perfect. Yet Unacceptable Behaviour’s beauty and grace truly comes from the combination of star Destiny Nolen and voiceover Georgia Foroce whose beautiful voice oozes childhood dreams and makes the words written by Destiny come to life. I’m hoping I get to see more of Destiny Nolen in the future, whose only feature film so far is The Silk Road as I think she has a uniquely beautiful and resonant feel to her performance.

I’m a lover for short film. 4 minutes is all you need to make an impact, and Oberto certainly makes you think. My only reservation is that I needed a second, or even third viewing to get some of the symbolism which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I wished Unacceptable Behaviour could have made more of an impact first time round. I still remain confused by the nude scenes with a bear’s head, and the meaning of the horns, but I think maybe I’ll just have to watch it a few more times to find out. I love the message of the film, and I love the detail in the script (lookout for a change in pronoun *wink wink*) As someone who wishes many his adult responsibilities didn’t exist the idea of communicating with my childhood self is a wonderful thought and I love the way it was portrayed in Unacceptable Behaviour.

Unacceptable Behaviour is worth a definite look and can be found below

Based on real life memoirs from both father and son, Beautiful Boy chronicles the inspiring yet crushing experience of abuse, recovery and relapse. Beautiful Boy is as chilling as it is powerful as we watch a family torn apart by addiction.

Beautiful Boy treats us to a magnificent performance by Timothée Chalamet as Nick Sheff from start to finish.  His performance is a constant reminder that the route to sober is never a straight path, and his painfully realistic portrayal of struggle, anger, fear and addiction is second to none. Steve Carrell is equally as adept as father David Sheff, whilst Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan give equally brilliant, albeit secondary, performances.

Beautiful Boy is a far cry from your usual Hollywood portrayal of addiction which poses ‘giving it up’ as the most difficult part. Instead Beautiful Boy is a tale of trying to ‘stay clean’, and doesn’t shy away from the difficulty of living life sober. Its haunting end gives us a portal into real life by describing real life Nic Sheff as 8 years sober, but never free from addiction.

Being based on memoirs means that Beautiful Boy is a very personal story and focuses heavily on father and son played by Carrell and Chalamet; Ryan and Tierney bleed into the background, as their own heartbreak is only viewed through one or two key scenes. Yet, that’s what Beautiful Boy is, it’s a personal story from two points of view. It’s about a father’s vision of his son versus the reality.

Director, Felix van Groeningen tries to supplement this truth versus reality idea by zipping through time between the father’s picture of past joy and the pain of the present. However, van Groeningen continues this in unnecessary places, allowing Beautiful Boy to become confusing and convoluted. Beautiful Boy also end up about 20/30 minutes too long, trying to fit too much detail with too many jumps, undoubtedly a product of a chaotic editing period for the director, forced to bring in others to help him finish his vision. Nonetheless Beautiful Boy is as incredible as it is depressing. It’s a great film, and a must watch for me, and if I were choosing the Oscars I’d give it an award for tackling a subject in a way that I’ve never seen in Hollywood before.

Your father’s dying; you don’t like your sister very much; your father wants to die; but your sister can’t bear to see him go…what do you do? Nothing To Do answers these questions and more in what is an incredibly personal tale based on the real-life experiences of director Mike Kravinksy.

Nothing To Do is beautiful in that it is personal. Its deliberately low budget production recreates a real life situation, as emotional and painful as it is mundane and boring. I both loved and hated Nothing To Do. Most critics love Nothing To Do for its realism, its simplicity and its hard-hitting truth; but yet I felt so much of it was wooden and unbelievable. My reaction is in largely a result of to the characters and the performances, not the story. Paul Fahrenkopf does an excellent job with his portrayal of Kenny, whose father is lying in a hospice bed slowly dying.

I just didn’t like the character and I didn’t understand why secondary characters all took to him so quickly, or in Patti’s case (Patricia Talmadge) fell for him. Now I know what you’re all thinking. You didn’t like the character, doesn’t mean you can’t like the film right? Well, no, it shouldn’t, but I felt like I was supposed to feel for this character, but I couldn’t. It didn’t help that he kept constantly bringing and eating ONE slice of pizza on a plate when he clearly had a whole pizza! I need pizzaplanations please because that makes no sense to me!

Carrie Bowman who has a second career full of commercials shows her commercial talent with a loud and smiling performance, that for me at times felt forced. Bowman rocked the emotional scenes, she made me almost cry with her tears of sadness and pain at seeing her father pass; but when she spoke I couldn’t help but feel she was selling me something. Phillip Lawton may have been chosen to depict the character Erv based on Kravinsky’s dying father because of the way he told an incredibly personal story and the inspiration for the film’s title Nothing To Do, but I felt his performance, and many of the other performances including Patricia Talmadge all contributed to this feeling like a play on film rather than a feature film.

Kravinsky’s choice for an ultra-low budget production filmed on location in Washington using an all local crew and his choice to use a cast largely from his earlier feature film Geographically Desirable all contributes to this. I feel it was an intended outcome, but for me it took from the performance and I think it’s a shame he didn’t take the time to gain a budget.

Nonetheless, and despite all my complaining I would recommend Nothing To Do on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Its beauty is in its realism and its lack of shine or exaggeration, and I do love that about it. It’s a good watch, but not a great.