film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Hugues Porquier

  • Drunk Bus: Review

    Drunk Bus: Review

    “Drunk Bus” is a comedy-drama, the first film of John Carlucci and Brandon LaGanke. After the cancellation of the SXSW Festival last March where it was supposed to make its debut, it finally made its worldwide premiere at the San Diego International Film Festival on October 15, 2020 where it won the awards for Best Feature Film and Best Narrative Feature. 

    The film was recently released in select theaters and on demand (Prime Video, Apple TV).

    Michael, played by Charlie Tahan, mostly known for the Netflix show Ozark, is the driver of the Drunk Bus, a late-night bus in which students from Kent Institute of Technology, Ohio, go home, drunk.

    Through this job, Michael seems stuck in the past. Despite his degree, he seems unable to move forward, as if caught in an endless loop. He keeps replaying the memories of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Amy (played by Sarah Mazzanotte), who moved to New York after graduation. 

    Written by Chris Molinaro, Drunk Bus is a comedy-drama that deals with issues that concern everyone, such as entering the world of work, self-confidence and fear of the unknown. Despite these rather thorny topics, the film remains relatively light and leans more towards comedy.

    After an altercation with a student, Pineapple (played by Pineappel Tangaroa) shows up to provide security for the bus. But Pineapple will mainly play a role of mentor for Michael, he will help him to overcome his limits and to leave this hellish loop in which he is stuck. 

    The relationship between the two characters will give a good rhythm to the film and will allow the scenario to take a comic as well as tragic aspect. The duo of actors Charlie Tahan, Pineapple Tangaroa, accompanied by Kat, played by Kara Hayward (Moonrise Kingdom) and Justin (played by Tonatiuh) works very well and is one of the strengths of the film.

    We can still criticize the lack of development of some characters who seemed interesting. 

    The film takes advantage of the cold nights and the lights of the city to make us appreciate a simple but effective photography, which participates in creating a realistic aspect despite the numerous jokes of the film.

    Through this idea of an endless loop, Drunk Bus approaches the subject of depression in an original and very interesting way. For their first feature film, John Carlucci and Brandon LaGanke sign a film that, despite some mistakes, works very well.

  • Slalom: Review

    Slalom: Review

    “Slalom” (2020) is Charlène Favier’s first film, nominated 8 times in various festivals, it won the Ornano-Valenti prize at the Deauville Film Festival, which rewards the first film of a French director and the Best Film award at the Tallin Black Nights Film Festival. It was also in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2020.

    With “Slalom”, Charlène Favier plunges us into the life of Lyz (Noée Abita), a 15 year old girl who has just joined a school in which she skis in parallel to her studies. She will train intensively and participate in many races during these years. She will have to prove herself in an environment where competition and jealousy reign, but she will also have to endure the pressure of her coach Fred (Jérémie Renier) if she wants to succeed in reaching her ultimate goal, the Olympic Games. But Fred’s behavior and control over Liz grows unhealthy and will go as far as the unthinkable.

    With this film, Charlène Favier addresses a part of her personal history, the sexual abuses in the world of sports. Lyz finds herself alone in a mountain resort, with an absent father and a mother far away geographically. Left to her own devices in a new and hostile environment, she will find as only comfort the confidence that her coach grants her, following her brilliant performances. As Noée Abita said in an interview, “For me, Lyz is a girl who is in need of love. She just needs to be looked at and told that she is good”. Fred appears as a confident adult who takes advantage of Lyz’s feverishness.

    Taking place entirely in a mountainous landscape, the film makes us enjoy a photography as beautiful as impressive. We face sumptuous panoramas, the shots at dawn are impressive of calm and silence. This contrasts greatly with the drama that occurs within these mountains. We watch helplessly the evolution of an adult’s behavior towards a young girl, using the pretext of sports excitement to justify his actions. But Fred makes us think more of an animal unable to resist to his darkest impulses.

    The duo of actors Noée Abita and Fred Renier works perfectly. The accuracy of their interpretation coupled with the realism of the characters drawn by Charlène Favier and Marie Talon perfectly depicts the complexity of these relationships, and shows us how the hold exercised by an adult on a child can be devious and malicious.

    By not falling into sentimentality and by drawing up portraits of complex characters, this film succeeds with accuracy in denouncing the various sexual abuses in the world of sports. 

    For her first feature film, Charlène Favier delivers a film of quality as much on the level of the scenario, the photography or the performance of the actors. On her side Noée Abita confirms her potential and lets us foresee the best for the future.

  • Captive: Review

    Captive: Review

    Written and directed by Savvas Christou, “Captive” or “Katherine’s Lullaby” is the first feature film of the young Cypriot director, who is a regular of short films. During its various presentations, the film received several awards, including Best Writing, Best Performance, Best Supporting Performance and Best Feature Film at the Horrorhound Film Festival, organized by Zoe Judd, it’s one of the bigger genre specific conventions and film festivals in the US.

    The film revolves around the meeting of Lily (played by Tori Kostic), a teenage girl who has run away from his home and his alcoholic father, with Evan (played by William Kircher, known for his role as Bifur in the Hobbit films), a father who has lost touch with reality after the disappearance of his daughter. 

    Lily will find herself trapped by Evan, and will have to play the role of his daughter Katherine to have a chance to survive and escape.

    Through the two characters, the film tackles several very interesting themes. We find in particular the themes of the point of view and the denial of reality with the character of Evan. Themes that can also be found in “Ghostland” (2018) by Pascal Laugier or “The Voices” (2014) by Marjane Satrapi. In order to face a reality that they cannot bear, we find characters who unconsciously decide to alter their vision of the world and the life that surrounds them.  

    We also find the well-known Stockholm syndrome through the character of Lily, quite common in the cinema, as for example in “V for Vendetta” (2006) by James McTeigue. Indeed, the relationship between Evan and Lily seems to become almost natural, Lily will gradually see in Evan, the first person who has any interest in her, who believes in her, in total opposition to her father whom she fled. 

    Evan’s behavior, angry and authoritarian, reminds us of Howard’s character, played by John Goodman in the movie “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016) by Dan Trachtenberg. Throughout the film, we fear that Evan fall into a crisis of violence that would lead to a drama, this fear of the unknown is a real strength of the film.

    Alternating between a lack of rhythm and sequences that follow each other too quickly, the first part of the film is not very convincing, but we finally let ourselves be carried away by this thriller which depicts in an interesting way a complex relationship. The performance of the actors is rather good, in particular William Karcher’s, who is really very convincing.

    The film enjoys a good writing and a scenario that leaves a constant and diffuse pressure on the spectator, between the attempts to escape and the different twists, “Captive” is therefore a very good thriller.

  • Adieu les Cons: Review

    Adieu les Cons: Review

    Released for the first time in 2020 before the closure of theaters in France, “Adieu les cons” (Bye Bye Morons in English), directed by Albert Dupontel, was a success with the critics but also with the public. The film received 7 Césars last March, including Best Film and Best Director, and is now one of the flagship film of the reopening of theaters in France. 

    Albert Dupontel, mainly known for his film Bernie (1996) or for his role in Gaspard Noé’s Irreversible (2002), also recently shined with his film Au revoir là-haut (2017), a historical film about the consequences of the war, which won 5 Césars including Best Director. We also talked about him in 2017 when he announced his refusal to go to ceremonies dedicated to the cinema. He said that he was “perplexed by this kind of intellectual judgment” and had therefore decided to step aside.

    In “Adieu les cons’” we follow two main characters, Suze Trappet (played by Virginie Efira) and Jean-Baptiste Cuchas (played by Albert Dupontel). One is suffering from an autoimmune disease that attacks her bronchial tubes and the other is planning to commit suicide after a burn-out. Suze Trappet has only one desire left, to find her daughter whom she was forced to abandon when she was fifteen. Her meeting with Jean-Baptiste Cuchas, allows her to get past the heaviness and slowness of the bureaucracy.

    The strength of this film is, as Virginie Efira says, that “it can have several readings” and that it will therefore suit a large majority of the public. The first reading is composed of an adventure intermingled with scenes ranging from the burlesque to the tragic.

    Then we have a second reading, which remains very accessible, which proposes a reflection on the society, on the shortcomings of technology but also on its potential benefits, on the social relationships at work and on the transformation and the loss of identity of our cities. However, the story of the adventure is not realistic in the strict sense of the word, there are scriptural facilities, but if you have managed to get into the film and into the world of Albert Dupontel, these facilities will not be a problem, we do not expect to attend a logical and realistic story but to a story who is more like a tale or a poetry.

    During this quest of Suze and Jean-Baptiste, Albert Dupontel will make us meet endearing characters, sometimes annoying but always very interesting and well-worked.

    We find Nicolas Marié who plays Sergeant Blin, a blind man who will also have a major role in this adventure, Jackie Berroyer who plays a former doctor, who is now suffering from alzheimer’s disease. Virginie Efira confirms that she is one of the most brilliant French actresses of her generation. She fits perfectly into the particular universe of Albert Dupontel. She will be the lead actress in Paul Verhoeven’s next film “Benedetta” which will be released in 2021, and this promises only good things.

    Thanks to its characters, its direction and its narrative, the film alternates between different emotions, from laughter to sadness. But we can feel a great wave of melancholy, which asks us about the passage of time, the choices we make and will make throughout our lives. It’s a reflection on our existence, our place in society and the role we want to play in it.

    Albert Dupontel confirms with “Adieu les cons” that he is a complete director and a very talented actor who masters his universe to perfection. 

  • Danny. Legend. God – Review

    Danny. Legend. God – Review

    “Danny. Legend. God” is a UK-Bulgarian production and the first film of Yavor Petkov, available on May 3 on platforms including Amazon Prime. The film won 2 awards, one for “best feature film” at the Cardiff International Film Festival and one for “Best Cinematographer” for Rumen Vasilev at the Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film.

    This film is a mockumentary (type of film showing depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary) in which we find an English film crew composed of Susan (played by Kate Nichols), Jaime (played by James Ryan Babson) the soundman and a cameraman. This team follows Danny (played by Dimo Alexiev), a Bulgarian businessman with a totally uncontrolled and unhealthy behavior. We will follow him in his professional and personal relationships, but the film crew will quickly face Danny’s deviances.

    The film presents Danny as having a behavior close to madness and psychopathy, not regretting any of his acts and having an almost divine self-esteem.

    Dimo Alexiev’s performance is very impressive, he interprets perfectly the role that was given to him, but this is not enough to give a real interest to the film, which suffers from a cruel lack of rhythm that makes the film very complicated to digest. Greatly inspired by Man Bites Dog (1992), with Benoît Poelvoorde, the mockumentary format is still very complicated to handle, which can quickly drift towards heaviness, lose its realistic side and thus lose its primary interest.

    Everything is done here to make Danny’s character seem as detestable as possible without really doing half measures. As the film progresses, Danny’s behavior becomes more and more oppressive, he takes total control of what is filmed. Susan decides to leave the shoot, leaving Jaime and the cameraman in the grip of the furious and uncontrollable Danny.

    Beyond his inappropriate and sometimes childish behavior, the film tries to draw the portrait of a Bulgarian elite, who bathes in corruption and for whom money allows them to reach the rank of god. This elite no longer respects the laws or any form of rule, and seems to think that their life is more valuable than others’.

    This film will certainly please the fans of Mockumentary but will surely have difficulty convincing the rest of the spectators, because of its slowness, and its lack of subtlety.