Author: BRWC

Immaculate: The BRWC Review. By Joe Muldoon

The ‘80s had Jamie Lee-Curtis, the ‘90s had Neve Campbell, and now the ‘20s have Sydney Sweeney, who is rapidly becoming a beloved scream queen and has proven herself to be one of Gen Z’s finest acting talents. With echoes of religious horror classics The Omen and Saint Maud, Immaculate is director Michael Mohan’s third collaboration with Sweeney, and it’s certainly his best.

Our leading lady plays Sister Cecilia, an unusually young novice who is invited by Father Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) to a remote Italian convent where she’s set to take her vows: poverty, obedience, and most notably, chastity. A palpable tension is present from the moment of Cecilia’s arrival; her mentor Sister Isabella (Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi) treats her with coldness –if not outright scorn–, she notices cross-shaped scars on an elderly nun’s feet, and mysterious red-masked figures seem to observe her from afar, unnoticed by the others.

Despite all this, she befriends Sister Gwen (Benedetta Porcaroli), a decidedly rebellious young nun in whom she grows to increasingly confide. Shortly following a terrifying nightmare and spontaneous vomiting, Cecilia is summoned by her Mother Superior (Dora Romano), the Cardinal Merola (Giorgio Colangeli), and Father Tedeschi, who force her to reiterate her vows. Despite being a virgin, Cecilia has miraculously fallen pregnant, and the convent’s residents laud her as the newest Virgin Mary. And so begins Cecilia’s descent into her personal hell.

Before Immaculate, we had the 2007 bloodfest Inside, and before that we had the 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby; few others have depicted and explored pregnancy in such a horrifying manner, and the fervent religiosity only adds an extra layer of terror. With footsteps reverberating around the stone-walled rooms and unlubricated hinges of heavy wooden doors creaking away, it needs to be mentioned just how incredible the sound design is, and how pivotal it is to the success of the tension. With most cinemas boasting surround sound speakers, the distant moans and groans make for a frankly bone-chilling viewing experience.

By all accounts, it’s frankly –excuse the pun– a miracle that the film came to be, and Sweeney’s efforts cannot be overstated. Ten years in the making, Sweeney initially auditioned for the film in 2014, but it never came to fruition. After a number of years, she actively canvassed for its creation by undertaking a producer role, acquiring and revising the original script, enlisting previous collaborator Mohan to direct (and what a fine job he does!), and finding a home with Neon, who are quickly establishing themselves as one of the greatest production-distribution companies around.

To have made such a concerted effort is nothing short of admirable, and Sweeney’s enthusiasm for the picture is evident throughout. Her performance –arguably a career best-so-far– is marvellous, with a real nuance brought to the role. We first meet Cecilia with a genuinely believable aura of innocence about her, and as the horrors reveal themselves, she metamorphoses into a hardened survivor, a final girl of sorts. If anything, this performance solidifies that Sweeney is a STAR, and that any future collaborations between her and Mohan would be more than welcomed.

Saint Cecilia was a third-century virgin martyr who’s now venerated as the patron saint of music and musicians. And as Immaculate crawls towards its sickening crescendo, Sister Cecilia conducts her own unmusical symphony of guttural screams, and we lay witness to possibly the most memorable ending in recent horror history. A subversion of the sacrosanct has never been so engrossing – or viscerally unnerving.

By Joe Muldoon.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – The BRWC Review. By Jake Peffer.

The latest entry in the Ghostbusters franchise is here. Frozen Empire takes the franchise back to the firehouse in New York City as we follow the Spengler clan taking part in their new roles as Ghostbusters. A mysterious artifact is brought out for the first time in almost 100 years, and it contains a new threat that could possibly cause a new ice age. With the help of some friends and the original Ghostbusters, our heroes will stop at nothing to take down this new evil.

First and foremost, it is great to have this cast back together. Ghostbusters: Afterlife set up a great family dynamic and it continues here in Frozen Empire. Adding in the character of Gary (Paul Rudd) as more of stepdad this time around adds even more to the dynamic. The biggest highlight of the movie is the cast of characters. Everyone from the OG cast to the newer crew, all put in great performances, and they play off of one another quite well. From start to finish, this is consistently one of the funniest movies in the franchise. There are plenty of genuine laugh out loud moments that work more than they don’t.

While there is plenty to enjoy here, there are some big issues that the movie, unfortunately, can’t escape. One of the biggest problems is that there are way too many characters that the movie must juggle around. Not only do you get everyone from the previous movie, which includes about 10 characters, they also add 4-5 new characters and that just makes everything feel a bit muddled.

Because you have so many characters this adds to a lot of subplots that feel like they are unnecessary or like they don’t go anywhere. The biggest problem overall is that it takes too long for the story to really get going. There is a lot of buildup and setups and exposition, and after more than an hour the story finally kicks into gear and introduces the villain. By that time there isn’t much left in the runtime, so the third act feels somewhat rushed because they took so long with the setup.

Despite the issues that are here the movie is still entertaining. Once the story finally gets to the action there are some fun moments here and there as well as some good-looking special effects. There are plenty of callbacks to the original movies and even a couple familiar characters who haven’t shown up since the 80’s.

McKenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd are the standouts in the cast. Everyone else here gives good performances as well. Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt are nice additions to the cast and even though he only has a couple of scenes it is always great to see Bill Murray having some fun.

All in all, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a bit of a mixed bag. While it does offer some fun and enjoyable moments there are issues that keep it from reaching its full potential. Despite its flaws there’s more here that works than doesn’t and it is worth checking out if you are a fan of the franchise.

Shift: Review. By Richard Schertzer.

If you would like to watch a slacker act like a voyeur around a beautiful woman, this might be the film for you. If not, you need not apply. The film certainly seems like an ordeal to sit through almost like we feel like the protagonist but without the thrills.

The film follows Tom who takes a lame job as a security job watching the cameras on the night shift. He notices a beautiful woman going in and out of warehouse facilities with strange men. This piques Tom’s interest and he begins to call nighttime radio to vent about what he previously saw.

Admittedly, this film wants to be Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window but it will never be Rear Window. It doesn’t have the same stakes and the characters are too paper-thin for anyone to care about them. 

The actors certainly try their best with the flimsy material that they were given but it doesn’t seem like anyone really wants to be there. It’s like the rest of the movie is phoning it in for the whole duration of the film. 

The cinematography is actually very impressive, cutting from long shots of Tom at his desk and panning over to the small screens of the security desk. It’s also nice to see some shots with a deep depth of field where it seems that everything is in focus. That doesn’t really make up for the film lacking in other areas.

Overall, the film is not very interesting in its execution and fails to embody anything différent with its derivative plot. 

Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox: Review. By Richard Schertzer.

In this bizarre time travel film, a young scientist named Tim Travers attempts to use a time machine to figure out the vast intricacies of time travel. However, this leads to some catastrophic events that only attempt to alter the fabric of time and threaten to ruin everything that he has worked for. 

The film certainly has an interesting premise gathered around the idea of time travel and the idea of God, but it feels like it talks too much without saying anything at all.

However, the visual effects do seem decent when realizing that it’s a low-budget feature film. The production design looks pretty good for this standard of filmmaking. It feels like a film noir movie with a sly demeanor. 

That doesn’t change the fact that the film is seriously underwhelming while trying to make a mad dash to explain everything and anything but flunks on almost all of the other fronts. 

The characterizations seem bizarre and don’t really break any new ground and it’s more confusing than anything else. Travers made a time machine to make clones of himself and do his bidding but when things got out of hand, he couldn’t control anything and almost, spoiler alert, destroyed the Earth? This is why people love “Back to the Future”. It’s because it was short, sweet and to the point. 

This movie, overall, has exciting visuals, but fails to make up any new ground and confuses more than it dazzles. 

Dune Part 2: Another Review. By Joe Muldoon.

Fritz Lang, George Lucas, Ridley Scott; the lineage of great sci-fi directors is extensive, but Dune: Part Two serves as an incredibly strong case to make the claim that Villeneuve is the greatest of all time. Maximalist in every conceivable way, the Canadian’s latest offering is an absolute masterclass not only in space operas, but also science fiction filmmaking itself. 2021’s Dune: Part One set a rather high bar for itself, but Part Two sent it into the stratosphere, far above Arrakis.

Immediately picking up from the events of its predecessor, Part Two has Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) joining the ranks of Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Chani (Zendaya), members of the Fremen, desert-dwelling Arrakis natives. Survivors of the devastating attack upon House Atreides by the brutish Harkonnens, Paul and Jessica are now exiles, largely believed to be dead.

Having overcome a Harkonnen attack en route to the Fremen settlement of Sietch Tabr, mother and son are met with a mixture of suspicion and welcoming; some believe them to be spies, and others believe they are the fulfilment of a prophecy to free Arrakis and to start a holy war. Their individual paths become clear: Paul is to embrace the Fremen ways and lead them, and Jessica is to succeed the Fremen’s dying Reverend Mother.

It’s here that the (particularly Islamic) influence of prophetic religion upon Herbert’s writing begins to take centre stage, though is still partially diluted from its source material. Stilgar, a native of the fundamentalist South, rapidly becomes staunch in his belief that Paul is the Lisan al Gaib, the messianic figure as prophesied to his people. Representing the more sceptical Fremen is Chani, a native of the North, who joins others in not believing the prophecy.

With Jessica having consumed the Water of Life, she has inherited not only the mantle of Reverend Mother, but also the memories of all her predecessors – as she points out to Paul, this traumatic ascension includes inheriting all of their tears, pain, and suffering. Undoubtedly anticipating the discourse that has since grown concerning cultural appropriation, Villeneuve delicately but directly tackles this through Paul and Jessica’s self-insertion into Fremen culture.

Jessica’s manipulation of the fundamentalists through the implanted prophecy of the Lisan al Gaib is as skilful as it is sinister, as is Paul’s militant ascent. The Bene Gesserit’s presentation as a more outwardly nefarious entity –“we don’t hope, we plan”– provides genuine chills, particularly helped along by Charlotte Rampling’s marvellous performance as the stony-faced Reverend Mother Mohiam. The display of religious fanaticism is critiqued in such a way that it isn’t parodied for the sake of belittlement, but rather approached as a product of external exploitation.

Totally unforgettable are the performances of Austin Butler and Stellan Skarsgård, their chemistry creating an utterly repulsive combination that is as sickening as it is menacing. Though he has relatively little screenplay, Butler elevates the movie to a new level, his presence as the psychotic Feyd-Rautha shockingly enchanting, dominating every scene in which he appears. It seems uncontroversial to say that Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is one of the greatest villains in recent memory.

With recent critical failures from the MCU having cost upwards of $250 million whilst feeling like they cost a fraction of that (a result not of untalented VFX artists, but of unsustainable and punishing working conditions and turnarounds), it makes Dune: Part Two’s budget of $190 million all the more remarkable. In every sense of the phrase, Dune: Part Two is a visual marvel and a testament to it being a true labour of love by all who worked on it.

Shot entirely in IMAX, the cinematography is nothing short of breathtaking. The seemingly endless Jordanian desert truly brings Arrakis to life, the sweeping sands looking positively vibrant and magically never appearing monochromatic. With Oscar-winning cinematographer powerhouse Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty, The Batman, The Creator) by his side, Villeneuve –a deeply visual filmmaker in all respects– has managed to create one of the most gorgeous films of the science fiction canon itself.

With few novels having gained such a devoted fanbase or having sold nearly as many copies as Herbert’s 1965 original, nitpicky comparisons to the source material have always been inevitable, as was the case with Part One. And as testament to the sheer quality of Part Two, few complaints have been voiced from even the most protective of fans. It’s quite fair to say that the Dune universe is one of the most difficult to adapt into any medium, as has been demonstrated with previous entertaining but ultimately unsuccessful attempts – and yet it’s been adapted, and adapted well – complexities, nuances, and all.

Though some minor changes were made, with the absence of Thufir Hawat being the most notable, they don’t detract from the quality as an adaptation or as a sequel in itself; at risk of incurring the wrath of my fellow book fans, I’d like to suggest that many of the minor changes improve upon the source material itself. Zendaya, for example, is refreshingly animated as Chani, a pleasant development from her stoic appearance at the climax of Part One, and of her literary counterpart.

As was the case with Part One, the pacing of Part Two is noticeably uneven, making it feel slightly top-heavy, though not to its overall detriment. For much of its 167-minute runtime, the action builds itself up slowly but surely, teasingly incremental in its climb – but in its final act, Paul’s story hurtles its way towards a thunderous, earth-shattering climax. And then, at its crescendo, we finish. A coital rhythm, as its original visionary intended, deliberately uneven, but always growing. And the payoff is worth it.

By Joe Muldoon.