film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: BRWC

  • Dazedly: Review

    Dazedly: Review

    Dazedly: Review. By Ray Lobo.

    Director Anona Langa’s debut short film Dazedly plunges the viewer into the inner thoughts of its lead, Holly (Tesni Kujore).  Langa tells Holly’s story in a non-linear fashion.  This non-linearity is disorienting, but that disorientation pushes the viewer to actively piece together the source of Holly’s anguish. 

    Holly’s head is swimming with voices.  We isolate one voice saying, “She just left me.”  This sense of abandonment sets Holly off on a journey to find her birthmother.  Holly encounters a trio of sex workers that treat her disdainfully.  We can guess that her birthmother is somehow involved in sex work.  We catch glimpses of Holly’s lover, Mel (Craig Abbott).  We begin piecing together a twisted interrelationship between Holly’s mind, her mother, and Mel. 

    Kujore does a solid job conveying Holly’s disjointedness.  Kujore can conjure empathy in the viewer as she seeks to close the narrative loop of her birth.  Kujore can also convey a fragmented psyche.  We are not sure if Holly is suffering the effects of a troubled childhood or if a slow creeping psychosis is creating connections out of disparate life episodes.  If there is anything that makes Dazedly suffer, it is some of Langa’s directorial choices. 

    Langa’s use of music sometimes overpowers the narrative and makes parts of Dazedly feel like a music video—this is certainly the case in a sequence involving Holly performing sword dance moves with a Samurai sword.  It also feels as if Langa is packing too much story into a short film.  A story involving someone attempting to track down their birthmother, betrayal, and a disintegrating psyche, certainly seems like too much to explore in twenty minutes. 

    The good news for Langa is that there is quite an interesting story behind the intrusive music and Dazedly’s inadequate length.  Langa has an eye for setting, light, and character development.  One feels her best work is yet to come.

  • Promising Young Woman: Another Review

    Promising Young Woman: Another Review

    Promising Young Woman: Another Review. By Nick Boyd.

    “Promising Young Woman,” a provocative and uncompromising dark drama, stars Carey Mulligan in a fearless and haunting performance as Cassie, a 30-year-old medical school dropout, who works at a coffee shop and lives with her parents.  At night, though, Cassie goes to bars pretending to be really drunk, so she can turn the tables on less than scrupulous men who think they can take advantage of her at their place.  As the multilayered narrative unravels, we learn Cassie’s motivation for doing this, which stems from an incident in her past.  

    One day, a former classmate of Cassie’s named Ryan (played by Bo Burnham) stops by her coffee shop with the intention of trying to go on a casual date with her.  A sweet romance develops between the two of them as Ryan’s awkward, likeable personality is able to win Cassie over, a refreshing change of pace from the shallow guys she encounters at the bar.  Ryan is a pediatric doctor and remarks that Cassie (had she not dropped out of medical school) would have made a great doctor.

    Cassie’s ultimate ruthless mission throughout the film is to try to right the wrong from her past and that involves meeting with people she feels played a part in the incident that took place.  She puts forth a no-nonsense attitude in these meetings expecting some kind of remorse or accountability.

    The editing and cinematography effectively conveys the mood of the film and Cassie’s state of mind.  The writing, with its insights and cleverness, really shines for the most part.

    Some elements in the picture I found did not work.  When Ryan is singing in the pharmacy, I thought it came across as overly cheesy and somewhat takes you out of the movie the way it was done.  When Cassie takes a crowbar to a random guy’s truck on the road, it did not make sense why she would have done that.  

    The last part of the film, which will not be revealed, is about as harrowing as they come, and is sure to be a conversation starter about female revenge.  

    The twists and turns will keep you guessing in a movie with a lot on its mind, particularly ethics and gender.  By no means an easy watch, the film nonetheless takes you on a wild, exhilarating ride that leaves a lasting impression. 

  • The Suicide Squad Trailer Hits

    The Suicide Squad Trailer Hits

    The Suicide Squad Trailer Hits. By Andres Guzman.

    It’s safe to say that the DCEU is moderately complicated, to say the least. Not only timeline and continuity-wise but also in terms of quality. Some are hits, some are not, and a few are full misses. One of the biggest misses has to be Suicide Squad. A star-studded cast, led by Will Smith and Margot Robbie. What could have gone wrong? Watching the film, a lot. 

    To be fair, a lot of what went wrong has more to say about Warners Bros, and less to say about David Ayer. With Ayer at the helm of these characters, we were expecting something gritty, mean and violent. Instead, we got “We some kind of… Suicide Squad?” The film was taken over after principal photography, and was re-cut and asked for reshoots to take Ayer’s film feel more comedic. Instead of getting Ayer’s interpretation of these characters, they were looking for one that was more akin to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. So much so, that when James Gunn was a free agent, they snatched him up to make The Suicide Squad, which seems to be more of an accurate representation of the comics and their characters. 

    At DC Fandome, we were given a behind-the-scenes look at the filmmaking process, showing us the massive scale that we’re excited to see. We were also given a look at the massive cast list – with bigger stars than its predecessor. Fans of comic books and these characters have been waiting for some time now for this film, and it’s coming out on August 6th, but now, we finally have a proper trailer for the film.

    “From the horribly beautiful weird mind of James Gunn” feels more appropriate than “visionary” director. The cast again is massive, filled with stars, character actors, people that we’re going to root for and probably hate to root for as well. The comedy feels way more genuine and nowhere as nearly forced. From the trailer, it seems clear that Gunn is going to truly understand these characters and dynamics. Also, the metal collar that reminded me (and probably others) too much of Battle Royale is gone as well too, which is a great change. 

    Most importantly, it doesn’t feel like Gunn is making this film into a Guardians rip-off, it feels like a sweet spot right in the middle. Which is more accurate and apt for this group of characters, which are some kind of suicide squad. Plus there’s a freaking kaiju in this.

  • Godzilla vs. Kong: The BRWC Review

    Godzilla vs. Kong: The BRWC Review

    Godzilla vs. Kong: The BRWC Review. By Alif Majeed.

    As I went in to watch Godzilla vs. Kong, the excitement level was obvious for the “big screen” movie that has come out after a while. It was amazing hearing people all around arguing about who will win in the epic showdown they are about to witness. It is strangely something I rarely witnessed before in a theatre, even for the big superheroes mash-ups. Must be something about giant iconic monsters having a go at it that rubs into the atmosphere.

    Godzilla vs. Kong was going to be a culmination the Monsterverse was building up to over the last three movies, or at least phase one of it. No matter how many monsters it introduced in Godzilla: King of Monsters, this is the movie that everyone was eagerly awaiting with bated excitement. For most parts, it assuages the anticipation you had for it. Even though the story that binds the movie almost comes off like a convoluted window dressing to get the two alphas together with a completely new villain in the form of Apex, the company that takes over as the big bad from Monarch.

    The movie begins with Godzilla emerging to destroy Apex’s headquarters, causing a tremendous amount of damage. The CEO of Apex, Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir), hires Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) to find the hidden portal from where the monsters emerge to harness the power from its source (for scientific purposes, as they always say). They recruit Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her war Jia (an adorable Kaylee Hottle) into the mission as they are the present guardians of Kong whom they need to find the pathway to the portal. In their way stands the king of monsters, Godzilla, as they somehow get attracted to each other to eliminate the other and become the King of Alphas (the movie only offers a vague explanation for that).

    Having already proved his mettle in the action genre with movies like You’re Next and The Guest, Adam Wingard has brought that sense of timing and action here, getting to play with a much bigger canvas. When the movie goes into action mode, you can feel and see each punch and blow. He also does not hide the titular monsters in shadows and dim lights for the sake of mystery. Right from the outset, you get to see not just Kong and Godzilla but also the other monsters in all their full glory. And when an unexpected character makes its appearance, quite a few jaws dropped in the audience, including mine.

    The problem arises when the movie focuses on the story and the human characters. Skarsgård and Hall are pretty charismatic actors, but here they are mostly following Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pine’s character dynamics in Jurassic World if both of them had the former’s personality in that movie.

    The secondary track involving the characters of Brian Tyree Henry, Millie Bobby Brown, and Julian Dennison infiltrating Apex’s headquarters to find out what they are really up to is also not that convincing. (Though I enjoyed the gag involving Julian trying to access the Apex system, an in-joke gently mocking the kids hacking into Jurassic Park’s computers out of nowhere).

    Before the movie started, I had a rough idea of how many times Kong and Godzilla would fight each other, and I got the count bang on target. It might come as a slight disappointment, but all that washes away because when the action happens, the movie roars and how.

    As the movie ended, the argument continued about who would win the epic showdown between the two characters and why. That doesn’t matter in the end. If a movie where giant monsters and giant apes beat the socks out of each other is what you want to watch, Godzilla vs. Kong is bang on the buck.

  • Sin La Habana: Review

    Sin La Habana: Review

    Sin La Habana: Review. By Sarah Buddery.

    Directed by Kaveh Nabatian, Sin La Habana (Without Havana) tells the story of Leonardo, an ambitious classical dancer. Along with his girlfriend Sara, the pair find themselves frustrated by Cuba’s closed borders, and their desire for a better future for themselves leaves Leo to pursue Nasim, a tourist whose taste for the exotic may just provide Leo with his ticket to freedom. 

    It is evident that Nabatian has a background in music, as particularly the early Cuba-set scenes of this film have the stylistic qualities of music videos, and that is absolutely intended as a compliment. He is a director that clearly knows and understands light, movement and choreography, and there is a visual flair to Sin La Habana that makes it almost hard to believe the fact that this is his feature film directorial debut.

    It is a construct of the narrative itself, but where perhaps this film suffers is the fact that the characters of Leo and Sara are distinctly unlikeable. Whilst we understand their frustration and their desire to leave in search of a better life, it doesn’t necessarily excuse their selfish actions, which come at the expense of Nasim, the innocent party caught in the middle of the love triangle.

    It’s not completely absent, but something that could have given the characters more depth, would have been to explore the prejudices and mistreatment they received both at home and abroad. As Black Cubans, Leo and Sara are frequently sidelined and treated differently because of their heritage, and aside from a few run-ins with the classical dance elite, this theme isn’t explored as thoroughly as it could’ve been. Their story is not one that is often told on screen so it is slightly frustrating that when given the opportunity, these themes are a little thin. 

    One of the best things about the film is how it is able to capture it’s two very distinct settings. Beginning in Cuba, there is a palpable sense of heat, and a warm vibrant energy, however when the setting switches to Canada, you can almost feel the chill, and the warmth is replaced with a darker colour palette. It is interesting that this shift occurs where it does, as the whole notion of the film is that leaving Cuba is supposed to offer hope and opportunity, and yet the reality is very different.

    A strong first feature from a director who clearly has a lot of promise, Sin La Habana is a visually arresting film which uses interesting angels and filming techniques to it’s great advantage, and what it may lack in thematic exploration, it more than makes up for in style.