film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: BRWC

  • The Sunlit Night: Review

    The Sunlit Night: Review

    By Alex Purnell. This easy on the eyes romantic tale set in idyllic Norway feels like an unfinished painting, directionless and skeletal.

    The Sunlit Night starts off on the right foot, painting a picture Frances (Jenny Slate), a young artist stuck in a messy home life when her sister gets engaged and her parents announce their divorce, Frances takes an opportunity to work as an assistant on a remote island in northern Norway. Here she meets her new mentor, acclaimed Norwegian artist Nils (Fridtjov Såheim) and is tasked with helping out on an art project in which the two paint a decrepit barn in multiple shades of yellow. Just next door, a model Viking town is preparing for a traditional Viking funeral for the father of the film’s love interest, Yasha (Alex Sharp).

    Directed by German-born David Wnendt, The Sunlit Night is somewhat of a letdown, from the politically humorous and eyeopening Look Who’s Back (2015)to the grotesquely beautiful coming of age story that is Wetlands (2013), Wnendt has overtly proven that he is capable in taking the helm. The amount of character his past work bleeds is in stark contrast to his newest piece, though I can see these issue arising more-so from the script than the direction.

    The glaring issue with The Sunlit Night is its failure to follow through with its various narratives and characters. The said characters are frustratingly two dimensional, making it challenging to care about them as they lack development. To top this all off, the use of actors such as Zach Galifianakis, who plays the out-of-touch American tour guide who takes his job as a Viking a bit too seriously, for comic relief felt unnatural and superfluous, a strange direction to take which does nothing but muddy the films already non-existent personality.

    The romantic plot between Frances and Yasha feels like it has been built upon perilous foundations, the curious Frances initially seems inquisitive of our glum, Russian born, Brooklyn raised love interest, though a romance does blossom between the two, there’s no real justification for it doing so. It’s an unlikely love story, and not like Romeo and Juliet, instead of its more the case that the two have no chemistry, and although there are a couple of engaging moments between the two, the relationship is far too shallow for any emotional investment on the side of the audience.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUHu1e0MI8Q

    Visually, however, is where the film manages to hold up. Set amongst the grey Scandanavian skies, a beautiful hue of earthy colours pop out throughout the film with the use of classic artwork complimenting the story. Frances describes her thoughts through the use of famous paintings and artworks, people and situations around her are compared to said artworks, seemingly pulling them out of the frame and projecting them onto the picture. 

    Despite this, though, The Sunlit Night comes across as weak, missing key elements, it attempts to be a quirky-comedy, coming of age drama but comes across as brittle and lightweight, unable to harness these qualities the feature doesn’t present much, but at least it’s pretty to look at.

  • A Portrait Of A Rocker: B Side – Review

    A Portrait Of A Rocker: B Side – Review

    A Portrait of a Rocker: B Side. By Alex Purnell.

    In a dimly lit bar at 2 am, an overzealous music executive gives an opportunity of a lifetime to a cover band, but only if they can create a totally original EP by the end of the week. A simple, 10-minute premise which boils down to a rather inane discussion, though it proves its worth as a proof-of-concept.

    The tough world of the Rock-n-Roll music business is brimming with hot-shot, charismatic yet tough as nails music producers like Eddie Chapman (John Baker Butler), keeping a duo of young cover-artists long after dark to probe them of potential. A Portrait of a Rocker: B Side, directed by Joe Anderson and Nadine Vincent, gives us an intimate look inside one of these dark alley executive meetings, as many famous rock-stars started hitting it big after bumping into some suited businessman ready to milk them of their hard-earned talent.

    Chapman holds the room in the palm of his hands, the power he channels entices the young musicians, Lloyd (John Rousseau) and Beck (Tate Dewy) as they drearily attempt to listen to his offer way past their bedtime. The larger-than-life executive harpers on about James Brown’s chaotic energy on stage, playing until he seemingly passes out, then reanimating himself back from the dead to continue to play for his legions of fans. – Why? It seems to inspire the boys, warming them up so the executive can offer them a deal they can’t refuse. 

    John Baker Butler does a stand-up performance, his obnoxious, booming voice seems to resonate through to the next room, Rousseau and Dewy also do a superb job as naive bandmates, especially as these low-budget shorts have a tendency to recruit peers and friends as actors.

    Despite this, as a stand-alone film, it does struggle with its somewhat choppy script, butchered by awkward comedic quips that don’t deliver well and feel somewhat unnatural and forced, giving that frustrating student-film tag that is hard to shake off.

    A Portrait of a Rocker: B Side has its issues, though as a proof-of-concept it works wonders definitely shows potential for a longer piece.

  • Stationary: Review

    Stationary: Review

    By Rowan Malyon.

    Shot in perhaps the most constrictive of settings, Stationary follows two old friends with a loaded history who have ended up on very different paths. 

    Written and directed by Louis Chan, the film manages to encompass the worlds of these young people in a way that is rarely seen. Over the course of one afternoon in a parked car, we see former drug dealer Jimmy (Aaron Thomas Ward) confront his childhood friend Che (Rebekah Murrell) about the life she leads, and the dangers of dragging her younger brother down the same road. 

    Their friendly reunion is prickly to begin with, but when Che sends her brother home to make a delivery for her, things soon turn violent, and an already fractured relationship is left in limbo. Optimism and bitter reality intertwine and we are not sure if they can ever recover, but there is hope. 

    Though these characters appear very different at first glances, it becomes clear that they are two sides of the same coin. While Jimmy is trying to get his life back on track after being arrested, and represents the future and opportunity, Che is still linked to the past, and the cycle that some people can find themselves stuck in.

    This film shows how a single, defining choice made when you are young can affect the rest of your life, even though you might have been a completely different person in a completely different set of circumstances. The scarring trauma that Jimmy went through still follows him and affects every decision he makes. 

    Onset Short Film “Stationary” • Fresh Look Films • Photo © Daniel D. Moses • www.danielmoses.com

    Chan highlights an important and rarely discussed issue, that lower-class kids are often expected to grow up too fast. The characters are in their very early twenties, barely past teenagers, and yet they are painted with the same brush as people much older, as if we hit the age of eighteen and are suddenly adults. 

    What is refreshing about this film is that there is no obvious right or wrong. Chan creates two totally opposing figures without there needing to be a protagonist and an antagonist. They actually appear more like the two battling halves of one person’s conscience. We are not told who to agree with, we are simply shown these characters and asked to decide for ourselves.

    Crisp and clear and to the point, Stationary depicts the lives of these young people so succinctly and clearly that we feel as if we know them inside out despite the brevity of the film. Their song is one we all know the words to, and yet it is made new and original by incredible actors who keep your attention and hold it tight for the duration of the film. This is a story and set of characters that you cannot help sympathising with even if their experiences differ drastically from your own. 

  • Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway: Review

    Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway: Review

    By Alex Purnell. In the current cultural climate, there’s been a growing resurgence of nostalgic-driven media, be it in music, film or television. With this being said, titles such as and Danger 5 (2012)and Kung Fury (2015) have become underground hits, revelling in their absurd, cheesy 60’s/70’s/80’s inspired low-budget hilarity.

    This is where Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway (2019) abruptly and rather obnoxiously stumbles onto the scene. A fever dream-like experience, it rather chaotically combines elements from retro sci-fi, classic Chinese kung-fu cinema (and the genre’s subsequent knock-offs), the Japanese ‘Tokusatsu’ subgenre and low-budget 70’s spy TV to make a jarring, yet mesmerising surreal comedy.

    What holds Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway apart from these other titles is its total descent into absolute madness. There’s no toe-dipping involved, only full-on belly flops, for better or worse, the full-length feature doesn’t hold back.

    Following director Miguel Llansós’ break-out cult hit Crumbs (2015), the filmmaker continues to build upon his surrealist brand of cinema, with Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway taking a more light-hearted and comedic approach compared to his first flick

    Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway follows two CIA Agents, Agent D.T. Gagano (Daniel Tadesse) and Agent Palmer Eldritch (Agustín Mateo) as the two attempts to bring down a computer virus called the Soviet Union by using a VR device called Psychobook, but after finding a mysterious substance, Gagano gets stuck in the system as his real body enters into a coma.

    Stalin, the obvious villain in this situation, sends Gagano to Ethiopia, where the president ‘Batfro’ (Solomon Tashe), a superhero wearing a costume resemblant to Batman, captures Gagano, revealing to him that Eldritch is having affair with his partner. What develops is confusingly complex and convoluted, an unusual melody of politically driven villainry, giant flies and portable television.

    The eccentric plot is only emphasised by the films intentional technical faults, horrendous dubbing and constantly changing camera formats riddle the film, but do nothing but improve and play upon the deliberate B-movie aesthetic of the piece. Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway also has some interesting and engaging techniques, the use of stop motion within some of the scenes set within the Psychobook perfectly matched the feeling and atmosphere of the film, jerky and unpredictable, and felt reminiscent of Tetsuo: The Ironman’s (1989) action sequences. One of the fight scenes’ starring three ninjas named after types of pasta was surprisingly well-choreographed and incredibly entertaining, and with some interesting characters, it felt fresh and new, despite being a spoof of sorts. 

    Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway is chaotically enjoyable, a banquet of surreal humour and originality. Although not everybody’s cup of tea, its rich with character and isn’t easily forgotten.

  • Bananas: Rewatch

    Bananas: Rewatch

    By Alif Majeed.

    The thing about Bananas is that, though the humor is very much a product of its time, it has managed to age fairly well. The political situation in the late ’60s might have served as a hook or starting point for it, but we did get a hilarious movie out of the bargain even though it can get REALLY silly at times. It is also clear that classic political comedies like Duck soup and The Great Dictator were a considerable influence on Bananas. You can also find its genes in later political spoofs that it subsequently inspired like Idiocracy. 

    Cut from the same cloth as Dr. Strangelove, where Stanley Kubrick turned a political thriller novel Red Alert into the movie that we now know and love. The way Woody Allen and co-writer Mickey Rose took Don Quixote, USA, a political novel with comic undertones and mangled into Bananas, is commendable. 

    The movie starts with an announcement of a would-be assassination of a democratic leader while the broadcast prepares the audience for it with its running commentary. Based on the broadcasting norms of the time, it is fascinating to watch the scene play out as the host and commentator takes it all the way down to the assassination and choosing of the new dictator.

    We then move to Woody Allen, as Fielding Mellish, who works as a product tester for a company that sells multi-tasking equipment for corporates. If that sounds like a chance that he would use to show off his sight gag comedy skills, that is pretty much what he does. The character is a quintessential stock Woody Allen character, which comes as an extension of his first movie and pretty much many of his classics since. Nervous and twitching, a guy who just wouldn’t get the message when his co-worker is spurning him, but still try to come up with a punchline out of the rejection.

    It was a pleasant surprise to see Sylvester Stallone in the movie, in a cameo as a thug who intimidates Woody Allen in the subway. The story of how Stallone lands that bit role says a lot about Woody Allen as a person in real life and pretty much explains a lot about his comedy.

    Under his misguided delusion of trying to impress a local social worker, Nancy (Louise Lasser), he decides to go to a banana republic country to sort their affairs and show them solidarity and support. He ends up coming across as comically patronizing which doesn’t go down well with the dictator who decides the best way to get US aid is to assassinate him and blame it on the revolutionaries.

    Narrowly escaping the attempt, he manages to join the rebellion, train with them for a coup and somehow find time to be the dictator of the country. The training scenes where he trains with the revolutionaries are some of the funniest scenes he has ever made. All this leads to a hilarious climax that takes great pains in explaining what a sham trial is (“I object, your honor! This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”)

    One thing about the movie is that, like many of his earlier films, he manages to fill it with as many gags as possible. And the jokes keep on coming right till the last frame of the movie. Though he uses a broad canvas and brush strokes to paint the picture here, there is something that would remind you or make you draw a parallel with the current state of affairs across the world in some form. All the while continuously making Bananas and its political commentary is as silly as possible.

    Louise Lasser, Woody Allen’s ex-wife, plays Nancy, a precursor for another charming and neurotic archetype he created in Annie Hall. Though she may be confused about her political views (“I may be bombing an office building, but I’ll soon find out”), Louise does manage to infuse enough charm into her character and you understand why this shy guy would go out of his way to impress her by joining the rebellion.

    It is safe to say that Bananas was one of the funniest movies among his earlier films and there is a lot in it that would get a laugh or at least a chuckle out of you. If you have to watch one movie from his earlier phase, you can’t go wrong with this one.