Author: Callum Forbes

Abduction 101 is the story about a trio of hot women at a cabin in the woods, isolated from everyone – you know, that old horror chestnut. They hear rumours of a strange cult in the building next to them, and curiosity gets the better of them. Once they investigate they find themselves in a fight for their life’s against horrors worse than they could have possibly imagined.

Abduction 101 admittedly hit me home. I love horror films. Whether it be high-concept creepy thrills (such as It and Scream), or art-house phycological thrillers (The Babadook and The Exorcist), or trashy fun (Suspiria and The Evil Dead), if it’s good I love it.

Because of this, when I was taking a film course in college, whenever I was assigned a film project it was always a horror film. They were always wacky, over-the-top and made to shock. Watching Abduction 101 reminded me of those days. This is both what I loved about it – and what I didn’t.

I’d say there was a huge chunk of this film, I’d say a good part of act one and act three, that made this film feel a lot like a student film. It was very pretentious, especially with scenes concerning the narrator of the film. I’ll be honest, while this character was essentially used to spell out what the point of the film – and the director’s theory on horror films and why we watch them – I don’t think she was necessary for the film.

I felt the film slow down whenever the focus was put on her. I don’t blame the actress, this felt more like an issue in writing. Her dialogue felt very disconnected from what was going on in the rest of the film and felt like philosophy that just isn’t deep or interesting. I feel that this disconnect was deliberate, which makes me beg the question, why?

The third act’s issue was how amateur it felt (for lack of a better word). It felt like the budget of the film was not able to achieve the vision intended, and the director just didn’t do a fantastic job of hiding it. This was the kind of film I would have made back in my college days. The editing was clearly hiding effect changes – distractingly so – and the music was repeated, in your face and very distracting. It just didn’t work for me and had me chuckling as it went along.

All that being said, the entirety of act two, and the later half of act one, was really good. It was trashy fun, full of shock and sleaze, it was also well paced with a good mystery to it and some likable characters. The budget is certainly low, a fact that isn’t too well hidden, but the sets, costumes and even the gore effects are excellent.

The atmosphere is what had me hooked. The mystery of what is happening is intoxicating – even if you guess what’s going on, you’re still hooked to see events unfold. Once the mystery is solved, the atmosphere changes to an unrelenting nightmare. Discomfort is the only word I can use to describe how I felt – but in a good way.

In the way of “God I hope they make it out alive”. For all the film’s issues I have to admit, not many horror films these days achieve such a feat. I hope to see more like this in future. At the end of the day, I will always wish to see something try, maybe not succeed but definitely had me connect with me over a shallow, corporate-made cash-grab like Captain Marvel. At least Abduction 101 has a soul and no small amount of charm.

The Song of Sway Lake. I can certainly say that I’ve not seen a film like this is a while. The story, or what I could make of the concept is that a lake in eastern USA was once owned by a man, Sway. A music collector, he once held a record, what he referred to as a perfect record. Now that he is dead, and the lake turned into a tourist attraction, his grandson returns with his Russian friend to the old house on the lake to find said record. However, the arrival of other family members and an attractive young woman, and with all the activity on the lake, complicate their plan.

Off the bat I will say that The Song of Sway Lake is a visually gorgeous film. The cinematography and editing are without flaw. It all makes for a realistic and yet surreal story set on a beautiful lake. The wilderness and cabin sets are used to exceptional effect. You do feel like this would be a lovely place to visit for a nice holiday away from the stresses of life. There is clearly passion to this story from director and co-writer Ari Gold, so there is an energy to the film as well, keeping a relatively slow story going at an even pace. It was also nice to hear the voice of First Blood actor Brian Dennehy in a narrating role as the dead relative who owned the record to begin with.

Unfortunately The Song of Sway Lake commits one of the biggest film sins of any film, but in particular a drama – it could not hold my interest. I don’t mind slow, deliberate dramas, granted they don’t normal find themselves amongst my favourites, but this was tough to focus on. An issue here being that the film lacked focus. I don’t just mean through the plot, which was a little hard to follow. The hunt for the record is claimed to be the main plot of the story, but it feels like a subplot. Sadly, as does the return of the family, the grandmothers hidden agenda, the problems they have with the Russian friend stealing from them and the blossoming love story also feel like subplots. I wasn’t getting a grip on the stakes.

Yet stylistically it’s unfocused too. For the most part it feels fairly realistic, and yet there is a moment where our lead, Ollie, pretends to shoot a cupid arrow at a young woman and she gets an actual wound in her shoulder. These surreal moments unfortunately stood out as a distraction. The opening of the film is a couple swimming naked in the lake, graphic full-frontal nudity on screen and a sombre piano number playing as the scene plays out. It’s bizarre and somewhat striking, but that does not set up the tone of the film to follow.

Other than that I wasn’t fond of the somewhat repetitive score that played out throughout the film at random intervals. The acting wasn’t good either. Ollie comes across as a whiner at times and a complete blank slate at others. The Russian friend, Nicholai, is clearly someone who isn’t Russian putting on a very silly accent. Everyone else just plays it deadpanned and without enough passion to really hold our attentions. I don’t know if this is a performance or a directorial or a script issue.

I didn’t take to The Song of Sway Lake. It is not without merit and I would recommend it to those with a keen eye for visuals or with an interest in cinematography or editing. Otherwise, I’m not sure who I’d recommend this to. It’s to basic and slow for it to appeal to those who like their films surreal, and it’s a little to dream like to appeal to those looking for a romantic drama. It’s not a film I hate, not at all, but it’s also not one I will remember.

I’ll admit it right off the bat – I did not know what to make of Newly Single. The story follows an aspiring, and seemingly newly successful indie-filmmaker called Astor. He is, as the title suggests, single after his girlfriend leaves him. What follows is a series of romantic and sexual adventures – and misadventures – between Astor and a number of different women. So, as you can tell, the plot is very simple. It’s barely there and focuses solely on its characters. Far from a bad thing, there are plenty of films I love that do the same thing.

Newly Single as a film is also very well crafted. I cannot fault the actors, all of who do an excellent job at capturing their characters. They feel as close to being a real person as the people you went to school or go to work with. You don’t know more about them that what you are given, but it is enough for you to know them well enough. Astor is the primary character, and I didn’t like him. That is not me calling him a bad character – he is exceptionally well realised and the writing for him could not have been better, not to mention the pitch perfect performance of actor Adam Christian Clark. I simply didn’t like him because I don’t like people like him – self-absorbed, pretentious and carrying that unintentional holier-than-thou-art attitude.

Newly Single’s writer/director, also Adam Christian Clark, does have a keen eye for how to film his vision. This is clearly a passion project and it’s very well presented. The cinematography, especially the use of colour and lighting, was very striking – your eyes will be drawn to the screen with little resistance. While any music I found to be forgettable, even while watching it, but the dialogue is interesting and not entirely hard to listen to. Not liking the character for who he is, is certainly a problem when it comes to hearing the dialogue, but it was never a deal breaker for me.

My issue with the film was simply that I had no idea what it was meant to be. I just couldn’t grasp what it was that was bothering me and what the very core of the film was. That was until I found out that Newly Single is a comedy – then things started to fall back into place. Yes, it’s obvious now – and it certainly accounts for scenes like a woman being horrified when Astor comes out to show her his literal gun, when she thought he meant his crotch, not to mention the scene when Astor gets vomited on during oral sex. But that’s where my issue lays. Newly Single, for all it does simply isn’t funny. I get the feeling that something like The Big Lebowski or any number of Woody Allen films contributed to the film’s influences. But for me, those films worked because I either liked the main characters or because they had a strange quirk that helped them hit the right spots. Newly Single is well constructed but it isn’t quirky.

Comedy is of course one of the most subjective of all genres. Whatever I don’t find funny, there will be somebody out there who does. The same goes for when I laugh but someone else is silent. I just can’t recommend a comedy that didn’t make me laugh. I can recommend a good character study and drama though, and on that Newly Single succeeds. It’s not devoid of joy or entertainment, and I’d say it’s worth a look. Maybe you will see something that I couldn’t, and I am willing to accept that somethings I missed in this one. I just won’t be revisiting it any time soon.

Wobble Palace will definitely stand out as one of the more unique films I’ve seen this year. The story is a simple one, but it does open itself up to a lot of stylistic potential. Eugene and Jane are a couple struggling to keep their relationship intact. They’re bored of each other but both believe that moving on would be worse for each of them. They’ve both come to the decision of being in an open relationship. What follows is the different stories of the two of them meeting others, and the issues that come with bringing them all to the house that they both share. It can would as an art piece, a provocative drama or an off-beat comedy.

The film was directed and written by and stars Eugene Kotlyarenko, as Eugene. Wobble Palace is definitely his passion project. That comes through with the style and, of course, the passion displayed on screen. There is energy to the film, particularly in the editing. There are a number of strange scenes and tones displayed in the film, and yet neither feels out of place with others. It’s all very coherent and goes at a quick pace. 

The cinematography was not too dissimilar to that of a sit-com, with occasional movements to what feel like imitations of a small theatre. It’s not unwelcoming and does work well for the film at hand. In particular I liked any scene that involved the use of a mobile phone. We get that now familiar use of having the phone screen or text messages appearing on-screen. But with the ways it’s handled, with speed-scrolling, well placed photos and highlighting of plot important messages. It’s not new, but it feels new. That at the least has to be commended – they are the scenes that I’ll remember the most.

Unfortunately, what the film has in passion, it loses with its script and acting. The story was written well enough – again, the tone is balanced well and it’s all well-paced. The main issue is in character and dialogue. There is a problem when I get confused as to what’s happening because three of the characters are so similar that I was mixing them up. While Eugene and Jane are fairly distinct, the characteristics of the other characters were not only one-note, they all seem to share the same note to me. Not so much in what they do, but how they act and speak. Three of the male characters have dialogue that relies heavily on the phrases like “you know”, and they often take part in philosophical debates, usually on the same subjects. This wouldn’t have been so noticeable if the acting wasn’t fairly mediocre throughout. Kotlyarenko does the best job, successfully coming off as a socially awkward and desperate loser – the character’s voice, accompanied by way too many monologues did start to grate on me after a while, but otherwise he did well enough. Jane on the other hand, felt eerily similar to Kristen Stewart’s performance in the first Twilight film. She was monotoned, had too little expressions and, again, monologued way too much.

The major loss of the film is that I can’t tell really what it’s trying to be. There is a good argument for it being an arthouse film – some of the imagery and most of the dialogue back that up. But it does feel like it’s trying to be a compelling drama, with scenes like when Eugene shaves his head. It also feels like an off-beat comedy with scenes like a sex montage that reminded me a little too much of the one from Team America: World Police. Despite being coherent, well-paced and having a balanced tone in terms of its story, the overall film just felt awkward to me. That is how I would describe it – a passionate, yet awkward film. It wasn’t for me in the end, which is a shame as it started out strong. I do hold out hope for the creator’s next project, but I won’t revisit this one.