film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • Up On The Glass: Review

    Up On The Glass: Review

    Jack DiMercurio (Chase Fein) has never really known what he wanted out of life. He’s always been jealous of one of his high school friends, Andy Shelton (Hunter Cross) as he always wishes he’d managed to get together with Liz (Chelsea Kurtz) who eventually became Andy’s wife. However, Jack tries to put the past behind him to reunite with Andy and their friend, Donald ‘Moze’ Mosely (Steve Holm), but after Moze leaves Jack and Andy alone, things get a little heated between the pair and old grievances rear their ugly heads.

    This leads to a heavy altercation between Jack and Andy and after something terrible happens, Jack sees an opportunity to get closer to Liz to see if life in Andy’s shoes would have fit any better.

    The problem is that as Jack’s conscience starts getting the better of him, he starts to wonder whether he’s doing the right thing as he gets closer to Liz. Also, Jack finds out that Andy and Liz’s life wasn’t as perfect as it looked on the surface.

    Up on The Glass is a slow burn thriller and feature debut from director and co-writer, Kevin Del Principe. What seems to take a while to get going, Up on The Glass is merely setting the scene for what happens later and with a premise that easily could have been a predictable thriller turns out to be far more interesting.

    The dialogue is well written with the cast all playing their parts well and despite the slightly outlandish occurrence about halfway through, Del Principe’s script and direction curiously maintains an air of realism as the audience is shown Jack’s inner turmoil between doing what he wants and what is right.

    Those in the audience expecting a predictable, cheesy thriller may be disappointed as although Up on The Glass plays with these conventions, it intentionally never follows through on the familiar set ups and tropes of lesser titles.

    In fact, the audience may even start siding with Jack as he starts to get everything he ever wanted, despite the fact that his methods are not so ethical. A film that may leave the audience a little frustrated as they don’t get every question answered, Up on The Glass dares to ask the audience whether Jack really deserves to get exactly what he wants.

  • Evil Under The Skin: Review

    Evil Under The Skin: Review

    Deciding to spend a weekend away together, Sophie (Helene Udy) and her daughter, Roselee (Angela Barajas) prepare themselves for what could either be a great bonding experience or a terrible time opening old wounds and discussing past trauma. Sophie is also having trouble psychologically as she’s not taking her medication and is having demonic visions and horrific nightmares involving her daughter.

    Matt (Tim O’Hearn) and Carla (Donna Hamblin) are ‘brother and sister’ and they seem to be up to no good and so when they see Sophie and realise that she’s not in her right mind, they see an opportunity for some fun.

    Meanwhile, Sheriff Roy Keeps (Carl Bailey) and Ranger Jenny Ross (Pamela Sutch) are investigating a disturbance at the secluded lake house where Sophie and her daughter are staying. However, after realising that Sophie may be in need of some professional help, they become can’t decide on the right course of action.

    Evil Under the Skin is the latest movie from director Jeffrey Schneider and is a masterclass in how to… make a bad movie. Usually a bad script, bad actors and a low budget can be excused if there’s a little fun to be had with the film, but unfortunately Evil Under the Skin doesn’t even manage that as there’s so much wrong with it.

    The movie is slow and barely touching the ninety-minute mark, the uses tricks such as having numerous tracking shots along the lake, extended shots of Sophie’s inner turmoil and a few moments of gratuitous nudity thrown in for good measure, hoping to wake up or distract the audience.

    Minor characters also have extended monologues about their traumatic pasts for no particular reason, and in one scene an unscripted car passes by in the secluded lakeside area which destroys any sense of isolated horror that the movie may have been trying to achieve. The ending could be said to be predictable, that’s if anybody’s still paying attention by that point, but for those who were still awake it would hardly be a surprise considering the poor quality of the rest of the movie.

  • Servant: AppleTV+ Review

    Servant: AppleTV+ Review

    Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean Turner (Toby Kebbell) are an upper middle class, ambitious couple who have just invited somebody new into their lives. Dorothy has given birth to a son, Jericho, but sadly after only a few months Jericho dies.

    Dorothy’s therapist suggests they use a support doll to help them through the grieving process, however as time goes on the Turners decide to hire a nanny, Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) to look after Jericho. Everything’s going well and Leanne even takes to their ‘baby’ as if he were real, but soon Sean starts to realise that Leanne is having a strong influence on not only their lives, but that of their son’s as well.

    Servant is a suspenseful drama with elements of horror created by Tony Basgallop and executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan. A slow burn drama, Servant takes its audience through the lives of the Turners with each episode asking more questions than it would like to answer. Something that has worked in other television dramas, but may divide audiences.

    Filmed in a style that has the trademark of Shyamalan’s work, Servant is a mostly quiet melodrama with elements of comedy which help to lighten the mood a just the right moments.

    A high note is Dorothy’s brother, Julian (Rupert Grint), rough around the edges and not always concerned with responsibility, Julian offers a lot of memorable scenes and audiences may never think of Grint in the same way again.

    The class divide between the Turners and Leanne (who Sean refers to as staff) is clear and the entitlement that they have due to their expensive lifestyle may lead the audience to believe that they may be getting what they deserve, but Servant never goes that way.

    Instead a constant feeling that something is wrong with everything about the Turners and indeed Leanne’s presence hangs in the air throughout the entire show. Patience is something that is needed by an audience that watches Servant, but if they hang in there they will be rewarded by great performances and a suspenseful and unexpectedly funny script that will leave the audience wanting more.

  • Amazing Stories: AppleTV+ Review

    Amazing Stories: AppleTV+ Review

    Amazing Stories is the reboot of the Steven Spielberg series from 1985, once again executive produced by Spielberg himself. An anthology series comprising of five episodes in its first season, each episode takes a very different story with different directors and writers and is now available on AppleTV+.

    Each episode takes a light hearted and yet dramatic science fiction and fantasy inspired story. However, if the first episode entitled The Cellar is anything to go by, then Amazing Stories is pleasant enough, but not exactly must-see TV.

    Sam (Dylan O’ Brian) and his brother Jake Taylor (Micah Stock) work in construction and spend their time exploring old houses in order to renovate them for new home owners. Sam isn’t really into the work though, preferring to go out on dates than do a hard day’s work.

    Then one day while the Taylors are going through one of their houses, Sam finds an old box which holds an old sepia photograph of a beautiful woman in a wedding dress. A storm’s brewing, so Sam and Jake board up the house, but when Sam goes into the basement and sees the barometer pressure going off the scale, he’s transported back in time to 1919 where he meets, Evelyn Porter (Victoria Pedretti) the beautiful woman in the photo.

    The Cellar is the pilot episode of Amazing Stories and perhaps a good indication of the style and tone of the series, giving the audience a taste of what to expect. Unfortunately, it feels like the story hasn’t been given enough time (no pun intended) to run its story isn’t given long enough to make much of an impact.

    It also feels like the audience may have seen this story before as it feels like a cross between an episode of Quantum Leap, Back to The Future and 80’s time travel romance Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Quite early on it’s evident as to where the story is going and the dramatic turns are done on the turn of a dime, but the ending does at least try to give it one more twist.

    However, when this ending comes the audience may wish they’d have watched something more exciting instead.

  • DTF: Review

    DTF: Review

    Love is hard to find. You can go on blind dates, go to bars to meet somebody who won’t regret meeting you in the morning, or you could try and find someone online who you can connect with and live happily ever after. So many people live busy lives though, so looking for love online may be their only option.

    When documentary maker Al Bailey finds out that his friend ‘Christian’, a long-haul flight pilot is looking for love on Tinder after his wife has died, he decides to follow him around the world to see if love online really is possible. Unfortunately, it takes him to places he wasn’t expecting.

    DTF is a term used by online users who are ‘down to f**k’, like somebody who has a GSOH and looking for an LTR, but much seedier and most often associated with Tinder. Following Christian around the world, Al is optimistic that love will find a way and that the dates his friend goes on will have a happy ending.

    However, Al’s optimism soon turns into regret as he starts to see a side of Christian that he’s never seen before. Desperate to cling on to his documentary and to try and find a way to tell a story, Al decides that he going to have to follow Christian. However, his romantic and optimistic side starts to wear thin as he learns just how low Christian is willing to sink.

    Not really knowing what to do next, DTF follows Al and Christian as Al tries to make the best out of what’s happening, trying to guide the documentary in a way that tries to explain Christian’s behaviour.

    Al blames the airline industry briefly, touches upon Christian’s grief and even looks into his addiction to try and help. The problem is that Christian is leading while Al follows meaning the documentary maker and his camera crew go down a darker path than they were willing to explore.

    Ultimately DTF is a raw, unfiltered and often uncomfortable documentary to watch that will strike a chord with anybody who’s ever known somebody with an addiction. Unfortunately, the finished product does seem rather confused as Al Bailey still tries to wrangle the focus of his documentary into something he originally wanted.