Author: BRWC

In 1953, an expedition funded by the British trekked through the Himalayas with one goal, to conquer the summit of Everest; the highest place on Earth.  Attempts had been made in the past, but had failed.  But this expedition, this last great huzzah! of the British Empire was about to make history.  Beyond The Edge tells us this story, and focuses on the men that planted their boots where no man had done so before; a Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand.  The story is told linearly, using original footage and photographs from the expedition, current and historic interview audio as well as dramatisations of the events.  We learn about the team, their backgrounds and motivations, their trials and tests, successes and failures, all in the name of history.

The film pulls you along with Hillary, seeing everything from his point of view.  The mix of media, and the 3D, really works well to put you in his shoes.  You see the mountains surrounding him and feel squeezed by the landscape, and as you follow their ascent you really understand the awesome nature of that harsh and unforgiving peak.  The only issue the film has is pacing.  Sometimes you want to rush them along as they’re climbing yet another glacier or ridge, but in the interest of historical accuracy this is forgiven.  Overall, this film has been made and curated with honesty and heart.  It is an intimate tale of epic actions and events, and if you don’t know the story already, it is a must see.

Before I begin proper, this is a particularly tricky film to review as it works so much better if one of the main elements that is worth writing about is a surprise. As such, this is far briefer a review than it deserves to be and I’m probably concealing information that’s public knowledge.

Blood Cousins, staring, written and directed by American sketch comedy group Comedia A Go-Go (Reagan Arevalos, Larry Garza & Jess Castro), revolves around 4 close cousins (Joel Settles, Arevalos, Garza & Castro) who decide to go on a road trip to visit their grandmother’s grave before one of them moves away. However, as with all families, there are secrets, and secrets only remain hidden for so long.

Seeing as how Blood Cousins revolves around 4 guys on a road trip for most of the run time, chemistry is a must and it was delivered. I was reminded of a film like Swingers, not so much in content but purely in how naturally the 4 (especially the 3 Comedia A Go-Gos) interacted. While some of the line deliveries were off, the tone of the conversations and rapport means that the nature of their relationship is never thrown into question.

While I’ll not say too much about the nature of the main 3 supporting cast (Roy Lopez Jr., Rodney Garza & Gloria Sanchez) or how they come into play, they are all scene stealing performances and it’s a great shame there was not more of them. Despite this, the final punch they pack is startling.

You can tell that these are seasoned comedians and not just some guys trying to make a comedy. It avoids anything goofy or silly in favour of a more natural and believable sense of humour. It is so easy to mix genres by doing a spoof or something tongue-in-cheek, but this maintains the integrity of all genres at play to benefit one another.

There is play with some very striking imagery and some real visual story telling. While in the first hour it is simply keeping such a limited film interesting to watch, by the last 20 minutes the camera work shows flashes of the meaningful, bordering on powerful.

Blood Cousins is a film of peaks and valleys, but the highs are so high that the lows, while not forgettable, are forgiveable. Slightly amateur in some aspects, but exquisitely weighted genre mixing and wonderfully surprising.

Done In starring Guy Henry (V for Vendetta, Harry Potter), written and directed by Adam Stephen Kelly is a short film of great standards. The film almost entirely shot as a monologue sees our main protagonist thinking over his life before saying his final farewell, this is all I will say about this beautifully scripted film’s story, apart from you must watch this.

The films cinematography is meticulously detailed, and appropriate for the story which is been portrayed, and really helps to create a subversive atmosphere. The original music by Imran Ahmad is the perfect accompaniment to this dark short film.

When watching short films, I often feel one can be left disappointed and underwhelmed, however this is not the case for this film and would love to see a follow up short. Again I implore you, watch this film.

4.5/5

Cain and Able. Romulus and Remus. Paul and Barry Chuckle. Brothers are the eternal narrative battlers. There is no stronger love nor hatred than that between siblings. That is until you watch Fratello.

Fratello is the story of brothers Jimmy (Gerard Garilli) and Todd (Steve Mason) who, after Todd accidentally runs over a young girl, go on the run. Will their relationship survive this as it has so many other things, or will this be the end of the road?

There is no consistency of styles in direction, swinging for some headache enducing, over edited static shots to handy cam and then flashbacks. Voice overs appears out of nowhere and while there is some decent imagery, it has absolutely no narrative purpose so it’s just thoughtlessly pretty and vacuous.

As far as dialogue, Fratello is filled with exposition that is utterly unnecessary, and there is nothing worse than being spoon fed irrelevant information, and wooden doesn’t cover the performances on display. There is no feeling at all behind any lines or reactions.

You are struck by the complete lack of tension or dramatic weight to anything that happens. The whole hour long run time was spent saying “they thought this was good enough?”. It’s all so half-hearted, they were obviously more focused on just making a film than actually making something that would be interesting or engaging, so much so the characters don’t even seem to care about what happens.

Just to clarify, when I say half-hearted, I don’t mean that they didn’t try. The effort is there to be seen. This is like the kinds of films that eager teenagers make trying to make it to Sundance, filled with all the obvious dramatic plot points with no thought, just guessing their way through, except these are adults stumbling through poor dialogue and story with no drive.

This is the outcome of a low budget aiming for something of production value and ending up more like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace without the comedy value. Short this review maybe, but there really isn’t much of a film to review.