film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Allie Loukas

  • Vinegar Baths: Final Girls Berlin Review

    Vinegar Baths: Final Girls Berlin Review

    “Vinegar Baths” is a Chinese short film by Amanda Nell Eu, it explores the complicated relationship a woman has with her own body. In the film, an overworked nurse in a maternity ward consistently eats throughout the day and into the night, trying to find a balance between mind and body.

    Thematically the film holds cultural significance, enrobed in the body positivity movement and the general stifling pressure females feel to be thin.

    Interwoven into the plot are symbolic images and characterization including a severed head signifying a woman in a desperate attempt to free herself from her own physique. In its own unique and bizarre way, this film is relatable and I even saw myself in the character. I, like many women, have consistently struggled with body image issues my whole life.

    No matter how thin I am, either my own brain or society tells me there’s always something I can improve upon. The film even made me think of plastic surgery, a field largely dominated by men, with most of the elective offerings geared towards reforming women’s bodies in an attempt to squeeze us into perfection.

    One poignant image was of the nurse is watching and mimicking the “ideal” woman dancing on her Instagram feed, the scene felt similar to the daily struggles many women face. In the airbrushed Instagram model culture we live in, women tend to compare themselves to a non-existent ideal, always finding someone else’s body more perfect than our own.

    There is gorgeous production design, sound mixing, and color work throughout the piece. Fine attention to details and a luminous, glossy color grade really added to the artistry and gave it a feminine airbrush. The camera work was incredibly significant and took on its own character. The film had a fish eye lens effect in the sense that it was disconnected from the subject, it reminded of “Being John Malkovich” (1999) where we see the character’s world through a practical viewfinder. 

    One thing I had hoped to see more of was the backstory of the nurse and how she became so involved in loathing her own body, I suppose the maternity ward was meant to signify her issues stemming from birth, but I think understanding more of where she was coming from would have made it a bit more well rounded story wise.

    All in all, “Vinegar Baths” was a joy to watch and a delight to see a talented female director explore important cultural issues.

    Rating 4/5

  • No Fathers In Kashmir: Review

    No Fathers In Kashmir: Review

    “No Fathers in Kashmir” tells the story of a 16-year-old girl Noor, a British national and a foreigner in Kashmir who arrived there via her mother and almost step-father. Noor’s tie to western society is apparent from the beginning of the film. Her love for selfies and her smartphone connects the film and lead character to modern plugged-in society, though her bloodline and ancestral roots lay in Kashmir.

    Even myself, as the daughter of a first-generation immigrant who was raised in a small village in Greece, could relate to Noor and I imagined myself acting quite a bit like her if I were plucked from my comfortable American life and dropped into an entirely different culture as a teenager.

    Although some may interpret her obsession with her smartphone as annoying and a direct commentary on the first world problems of the western world, the device becomes delicately interlaced into the story, connecting Noor to a very harsh reality, the conflict between India and Pakistan and the disappearance of her biological father who never returned home after he was “picked up” by the Indian army years prior to Noor’s arrival.

    I couldn’t help but wonder, since the Kashmiri conflicts are very real, the profound emotional and psychological effects the disappearance of these men had on the women and children they left behind. The unresolved grief, survivor’s guilt, and turmoil associated with missing persons.

    In the film, Noor meets and connects with Majid, a 16 year old boy, and the son of her father’s best friend. They instantly bond despite their obvious differences, and a teen love story becomes interestingly intertwined. Though the main topic of the film is heavy, it was sweet and heart-warming to watch an innocent and pure love develop between Noor and Majid.

    I found this to be clever and very real, as people really do connect with one another in mysterious ways, and can sometimes experience love and heartbreak at the most inconvenient times.

    Majid, smitten with Noor, eventually helps her seek out answers to the questions she had about her father’s disappearance at the dangerous Indo-Pak border in Kashmir, and Noor inexplicably uncovers more than she could have imagined whilst investigating. Eventually Noor and Majid are captured, but, due to Noor’s british nationality, she is immediately released, leaving Majid imprisoned and pleading with Noor not to leave him. It was difficult to watch Majid’s heartbreak as a frightened Noor left, I could see the helplessness in his eyes.

    The rate at which Majid developed a foolish love for Noor was relatable. Watching how far, against his better judgement, he was willing to go to keep it, even if it meant risking his own life showed the characters’ selflessness and innocence. Seeing this rough conflict through the pure eyes of teenagers was really an interesting path to chart.

    Not having been bogged and worn down yet by the harsh reality that is life, kids and teens sometimes show us best how to cling to hope like a fool, they see life more simply, that it has more than one meaning for all of us, and that we can always re-invent ourselves even under overwhelming and unfair circumstances.

    The film’s landscape and cinematography, by DP Jean-Marc Selva, is equally visually pleasing and arresting, the direction is fluid, Ashvin Kumar, who directed, wrote, produced, edited and starred in a very pivotal role in the film as Arshid, is without a doubt multi-talented.

    While the monotonous pacing of the film leaves something to be desired, the bright eyes and innocence of a perfectly cast Noor (Zara Webb) and Majid (Shivam Raina) helped keep me engaged. Some of the sub-plots, including the one surrounding Noor’s grandparents, just didn’t seem to propel the story forward. Although the actors were excellent, I think it would have behooved the film to stick mostly with the teen love story angle as to not confuse the plot with multiple points that came across disjointed.

    I would have also preferred to see more of a historical backstory on the conflicts associated with the Kashmiri area in order to fully grasp the atrocities, and although I, personally, could have done with some more scenes on that, I think and understand that the director deliberately kept that out in order to show the story through the eyes of love. 

    All in all, this film is worth a viewing and is an interesting take on other films that explore tragedy and war torn areas, we see Kashmir through the eyes of hope, forgiveness, and innocence rather than barbarianism, destroyed lives, and murder.

    3.5/5

  • Feature: When Did We All Stop Laughing?

    Feature: When Did We All Stop Laughing?

    Feature: When Did We All Stop Laughing?

    When high quality digital recording cameras were introduced heavily into the consumer market around 2009 filmmakers were excited, it would be easier than ever to make our films! We wouldn’t have to convince a Hollywood power broker to option our scripts and let us direct them, we could take matters into our own hands, reinvent the indie market, and live off our art. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, not so much.

    While digital cameras made it much easier to make a film, the dilemma all filmmakers face today is much more challenging than any other time in history. The reality is that we live in a world of over saturated content.

    So, what to do? What do independent filmmakers do? How do we get seen? Well, the traditional route is the film festival one. Submit your movie to the festivals, such as TIFF, Sundance, Tribeca, or Venice, see if anyone wants it, then go from there, but what if you’re like me? What if you have a movie that doesn’t fall into that art house festival niche? Well, I don’t exactly know the answer to that, but I’m trying to crack the code by essentially marketing my own film. That film, “Kathryn Upside Down,” was made in a John Hughes revival format, but for a more modern audience.

    I think it’s no secret that Hughes films are unfairly not celebrated as art. Hughes used the studio system to market his comedies, which, were by and large much easier to produce and distribute back then. Now they’re not, and the genre is on the downswing, even commercially; and we basically have the festival programmers and media to thank for not allowing new comedic voices to showcase this type of art. The fact that it is just so tossed aside is worrisome, why are we judging artists who have more commercial sensibilities unfairly? We are supposed to be the more open and accepting generation, aren’t we?

    Generally speaking, people have a tendency to think comedies are dumb without understanding that they’re actually supposed to be somewhat dumb, laughing doesn’t make people dumb, people are supposed to laugh, they like to laugh, comedic films bring people joy and happiness and laughing. This doesn’t make them any less arty or smart than a dramatic film, but somehow someone back in the day decided to jump on the faux scholar-intellectual bandwagon and decide commercial grade comedies were beneath them.

    Most comedians these days are starving artists, the old saying “funny is money” has faded away, and we are somehow now branded idiots for wanting to watch something light hearted because we just don’t “get” how to be smart. When the famous comedy discovery festival, the US Comedy Arts Festival, shuddered in 2008 it did incredible damage to comedians who want to produce feature films. There’s literally nowhere left to find this kind of talent, we’re all floating around undiscovered because a platform for our work doesn’t exist due to other people branding us dumb.

    My theory is that this lack of showcasing comedy in festivals, where we have traditionally found new talent, has caused Gen Z and millennials to entertain themselves with funny apps and YouTube videos, so much so that funny YouTubers have replaced the traditional comedic film. YouTube in and of itself has made enormous gains in popularity over the last decade, it is almost mind boggling how the platform took off and entered into that crazy successful start-up stratosphere that only few reach; and it is only getting bigger, with new YouTubers amassing millions of followers popping up everyday.

    Feature Kathryn Upside Down
    Kathryn Upside Down

    YouTubers such as Shane Dawson, Logan and Jake Paul, Tana Mongeau, David Dobrik, and Pew Die Pie have millions of laughing followers amounting to millions of views, and all of their channels have a comedic slant. This takes up watch time that used to go to traditionally produced comedic film and TV content. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like watching their videos, I have to say. It’s hard not to laugh at David Dobrik’s vlogs or Tana Mongeau’s storytimes and I don’t think these types of video creators should go away, but there needs to be some media focus and responsibility to feature filmmakers, and platforms that allow these types of filmmakers to be funny in the way these apps and YouTube have allowed their creators to feature.

    I haven’t cracked the code yet of how to make commercially viable indie comedy spread, I try new videos, uploads and apps everyday, and I have gained some traction. I’ll let you know, or better yet, I hope you find out when I get there, because we all really do deserve a break. People deserve to see more comedies, it’s time for them to be reborn, and it’s time for us to laugh again.