Author: BRWC

The Fanatic: The BRWC Review. By Fergus Henderson. – When it was announced last year that Fred Durst, of Limp Bizkit infamy, was about to release a psychological thriller starring John Travolta, it would be an understatement to call the reaction dubious. Not only was it written and directed by Fred Durst, a name that despite his prior forays into filmmaking remains synonymous with the eternally mystifying nu-metal moment – its star is an actor whose career since Battlefield Earth has been in steady, notorious decline. Where the hell would this fit into his body of work?

Then there was the plot, which focuses on an unstable autograph hound who begins stalking his favourite movie star. So, a pulpy thriller addressing celebrity and fandom, guided by a pair who have flailed messily through the flashing lights of fame for decades. It must, at the very least, be something to behold.

Unfortunately, those expecting (perhaps hoping) for the crass and ludicrous genre fare everything about it would suggest will find The Fanatic a disappointment. Durst appears to be re-mounting his bid for a second act as a serious director, his film more King of Comedy than Rob Zombie. Travolta, similarly, has gone full immersion with his character Moose.

Of course, suggesting that the film is trying to make a legitimate point is not the same as saying that it succeeds. Watching this film, one doubts that the film itself has any kind of clear idea about what it’s saying. 

The plot is relatively simple and follows in the vein of the aforementioned King of Comedy wherein an unhinged fantasist becomes dangerously embroiled in the life of their celebrity obsession (who turns out to be an asshole). Eventually someone gets captured and things come to a head.

The similarities end there. The King of Comedy’s leadis delusional, hungry for fame and attention. It is Western culture at large that creates and rewards this kind of behaviour, the film says. The Fanatic’s lead Moose, as portrayed by Travolta, is broadly autistic and ultimately just looking for connection in Hollywood’s world of cold artifice. 

As it turns out, Hollywood was the real bad guy all along. 

This is the grand thesis hitched to the film’s backend, its bid for artistic legitimacy, and it rings hollow. All of the film’s supposed messages are floated half-heartedly over the last ten or so minutes. Everything that comes before scans as a straightforward thriller, a few tonally consistent but poorly done touches of black comedy thrown in for good measure. 

The very fact that Travolta’s character is autistic is supremely problematic, and not just for the obvious reasons. It is first used as a plot device, in place of characterisation, to explain his obsession. It is then deployed patronisingly to keep us on his side as his behaviour escalates and things go from bad to criminal. 

Ultimately the big problem is that the film is hamstrung by its inability to decide whether or not he’s a bad guy or a sacrificial lamb- although of course if they didn’t want to be known as the people that made the insensitive film with an autistic guy as the villain, they should have stopped a whole lot earlier in the writing stage. Travolta’s portrayal is committed, sure, but sensitive (or advisable at all) it is not.

After flip-flopping around for an hour or so, the film finally ripcords the conflict altogether by making his celebrity idol Hunter Dunbar (easily the film’s best character, played with well observed arrogance and subtlety by Devon Sawa) the true bad guy. 

So now we know what a film directed by Fred Durst and starring John Travolta looks like. For the better: it is competently put together, and features a sturdy supporting cast. For the worse: it features an all-time misstep for Travolta. It is po-faced when it should be camp, it is ridiculous when it should be serious, and most disappointingly it is middle of the road when it should have been insane.

By Alex Purnell. Abe is a heart-warming coming of age film about twelve-year-old Brooklynite Abraham who is born to Palestinian and Israeli parents and attempts to bring his torn family together through the magic of food, though Abraham finds himself struggling with his identity because of his differing religious heritages.

When Abe’s duo-religious parents bring him to a cooking summer camp, he instead ditches the kiddy club and goes to learn from Brazillian fusion chef Chico, who Abe meets at a street food stand. Chico almost becomes a father-figure for Abe during this turbulent time in his life, allowing him to indulge in his love of food and come up with creative solutions to solve his problems at home. 

Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Grostein Andrade and starring Stranger Things‘ Noah Schnapp as the lead, Abe tickles your tastebuds with a loveable cast, but unfortunately turns out undercooked and leaves you with a some-what undesirable taste in your mouth due to its lacklustre plot, caused by awkward pacing and muddy, overzealous editing.

Despite this, though, the underlying message is that of understanding and healing within feuding religious groups, and what Abe does beautifully displays this through the art of cooking.

It was intriguing to see the different food from the two cultures and how Abe used the cuisine to be in touch with his heritage. Though, it was also interesting to see the dilemmas caused by these differences, such as the fact that Jewish Israeli’s use chickpeas to create their Falafel, whilst the Palestinian’s use fava beans, and how this is such a hot button debate based entirely on identity. This helped create an intensity within the family arguments, and how these quarrels cemented the identity of Abe’s split family, but did nothing but distance him from his relatives.

Though one could argue that the theme of Abe trivialises the complex and longstanding conflict between Palestine and Israel, the underlying message is heartfelt and is vital to the story. 

Abraham’s character conflict is the strongest source of emotion throughout the film, being born to Palestinian and Israeli families causes him to struggle to keep either side content. 

An example of this would be his mother’s Jewish side coercing Abe into having a Bar Mitzvah, whilst he feels obliged to participate in Ramadan to keep his father’s side proud. This culminates with Abe attending a friends Bar Mitzvah, only to be bullied for being half Muslim by some of his Jewish peers, though the altercation is brief, Abe’s social life is something I wish the film went into more depth with.

The use of editing is novel, to say the least. Abe utilizes modern internet culture through the use of social media to make the character of Abraham more relatable. This is done by overlaying Abrahams Tumblr and Instagram account to show his online presence and how he is perceived by his peers. Although this is a matter of taste, for me the use of this technique provokes an out-of-touch feeling and doesn’t add to the film, rather it makes the film seem amateurish in its attempt to seem stylish.

Nevertheless, Abe is an enjoyable and endearing film only made more so by the mouth-watering food and the charming acting of Noah Schnapp, who really seems to come into his own. If you’re interested in watching a refreshing, light film, I would consider giving Abe a go, though if you’re looking for something with more depth I would consider looking elsewhere.

By Alex Purnell. Drug money, murder and cornfields, director Christian Sparkes takes us on a foreboding action ride, unfortunately, the track is plagued with a questionable plot and poorly written characters.

When a drug deal goes awry after one side of the party attempts to rob the other of their money, shots are fired, and as young Chris (Mark O’Brien) flees the scene with the money and accomplice Lori (Dayle McLeod) in tow, they find out that Lori has a fatal gunshot wound. After hiding the money and Lori bleeding out in a cornfield, Chris frantically drives off, only to be seen and followed by his father. Adams (Ben Cotton), the individual that Chris had ripped off, though, furiously attempts to get revenge on Chris, despite being wounded himself. Chris’s father, Stephen (Will Patton) agrees to help his son get out of the mess, but the two get embroiled in a bloody quest to evade Adams, grab the money and find Lori’s body, dead or alive.

Hammer is primarily about family and the traits you inherit from your parents, whether good or bad. After Chris’s family found out about his involvement within the drug trade, his mother and father distanced themselves from their son. Despite this, after Stephen agrees to help solve his son’s current affair, he himself starts to show his dark side, emanating aggressive characteristics, questioning his past, and theorising whether or not he had directly influenced his son to turn out the way he did. This consequently causes the audience to query his past and how he might have impacted his son’s upbringing.

The largest issue with Hammer is its dull characters, their flip-flop values and their horrifically questionable priorities. There’s a complete lack of consequence and little to no development of any character, apart from Stephens increasingly aggressive behaviour. Because of this, the characters aren’t particularly pleasant or agreeable, causing a rather frustrating viewing experience.

Despite this, Hammer has its moments. I did enjoy the few action sequences the film provides, and I particularly enjoyed the pawnshop scene, which felt real, raw and refreshing from the rest of the film. The scene also greatly improved the dynamic between the father and son, something that Hammer desperately needed more of. In addition to this, I am a sucker for cornfield scenes, a strange cliche I have found myself loving, from Interstellar to Children of the Corn, it adds a maze-like dimension, causing the characters to rely solely on their sense of hearing and luck to find what they are looking for. 

In short, Hammer is a relatively intriguing action film but doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Its inability to create any tension due to a lack of consequence is its biggest downfall, although it is somewhat gripping and has some well-executed action sequences that keep you watching throughout.