Author: Joel Fisher

Jess (Michelle Monaghan) is divorcing her husband after finding he had an affair with their nanny. Forced to move to a new home with her children, Tyler (Skylar Morgan Jones) and Owen (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong), the transition isn’t going all that well and Owen is acting out.

However, one day when the least expect it, Owen is bitten by the family dog and is rushed to hospital. Jess is told that her son will need a blood transfusion, but one night she finds Owen drinking directly from the blood bag which is attached to his intravenous drip.

So, realising that her son has developed a condition in which he needs blood to survive she does the thing any loving mother would do – and starts stealing blood bags from the hospital.

Blood is a horror movie directed by Brad Anderson and written by Will Honley which takes a not-so-subtle metaphor and manifests it in a gruesome way. Having to deal with such a massive change in life and to bring her children along with her, the audience may immediately sympathise with Jess’ situation as she’s forced to make some hard choices. The theme of a mother willing to do whatever it takes to keep her children alive and well is sure to resonate with others as well.

However, once things turn to the more supernatural, then the movie slowly loses its grip as Jess’ life gets out of control. Blood becomes a cross between The Little Shop of Horrors and Misery, constantly testing the audience’s levels to which they can still care about Jess. It’s just a matter of how well the audience can suspend their disbelief.

Because Blood is a horror movie, then there must be some reason for Owen’s change and where there could have been a metaphor about adolescence, Blood decides to go for something suitably more conventional. Although, it’s an explanation that feels half hearted as it’s barely explained, but at least it gives the movie an ending.

Monaghan puts in a good performance as the audience can see her changing emotions about her child and may feel for her until the very end. However, the mixture between heavy metaphor and the paranormal may leave some perplexed.

Balli (Áskell Einar Pálmason) is being bullied and an incident of violence lands him in hospital. Having to use a mask to aid his recovery, he feels more of an outcast than ever until he meets Addi (Birgir Dagur Bjarkason) who takes pity on him and brings him into his group.

There he meets Addi’s friends, some boys who are about as normal as any other with their own backgrounds and reasons for doing what they do. Just like teenage boys though, they tend to do things like destroying property, taking drugs and talking about sex because there’s just nothing else to do. Although some of them would rather do that rather than go home to their parents.

Beautiful Beings (or Berdreymi in Icelandic) is a coming of age drama which focuses on a group of teenage boys trying to cope with their emotions. Among the group are boys who are afraid that they might be gay and others who are so scared of going home that they wait until it gets dark.

Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has put together a cast of young men who all have their own backstories and feel like real teenagers living out this tale of friendship.

However, Addi’s thoughts are taking on a life of their own and could be something quite different from the others. Because he sees visions of things that aren’t there and his dreams take him to places nobody else has seen. It could be because his mother is psychic, but it could also be due to some underlying mental health issues that have gone undiscovered.

A film which feels partly inspired by Stand by Me and Trainspotting, a great cast of young actors is put together to give an authentic feeling to modern teenage life. However, as with the start of an ugly duckling type story, there must be an inevitable conclusion. This means that perhaps once Balli’s own story is revealed, then the audience may know what’s coming.

Something that’s left up to interpretation in a lot of ways, Beautiful Beings portrays the start of a beautiful friendship.

Samantha Walker (Bridgette Michelle Bentley) is a police officer with a no nonsense attitude who gets the job done. Willing to do almost anything to prove her worth, she’s assigned to go undercover at a local strip club where some dancers have gone missing. Reluctant at first, Samantha is a professional and wants to do what she can to see justice done.

However, her journey into the seedy underbelly of escorts and call girls may start to lead her out of her depth.

Keeping Secrets is a thriller written and directed by Omegia Keeys about a woman taken out of her comfort zone to uncover a killer. Unfortunately, despite being written and directed by a woman in a genre which may prompt the male gaze, the movie doesn’t really have a distinctive voice.

For a movie which is about a powerful woman in a position of authority, an audience may think that there may be some kind of spin on the plot or something that they could hold on to in order to keep their interest. However, it’s about as straightforward as it comes.

Keeping Secrets also seems to be far more interested in its plot than its characters, which for a film that’s just over two hours is quite impressive. However, just when the plot seems to be moving along, director Keeys slows things down to a halt so that a minor character can do a long monologue. For a movie about strippers, in terms of characters it may have been better to show and not tell.

This makes the pacing of Keeping Secrets painfully slow. Something which could have had at least a half hour cut from its runtime feels as long as Return of The King and has just as many endings.

There are also various plot points thrown around which are incredibly predictable and drag out the movie even longer.

Keeping Secrets has little characterisation, little to no chemistry between its lead characters and a simplistic plot which could have been an easy watch. However, it feels like wading through treacle, making the audience think that Keeping Secrets should have been kept that way – a secret.

In 2018, Preston Zeller got a phone call from his mother to tell him that his brother had died from a drug overdose. Preston had thought he was prepared because this wasn’t the first time that his brother had overdosed and so he had thought several times that his brother would die. However, the truth of his passing overcame Preston like a wave and he didn’t feel prepared for the emotions that were coming.

Preston is an artist though and he decided to channel his grief into his work and to explore his emotions through the medium that he knows best. Art therapy has also been proven to have extraordinary results in helping with the grieving process, so while Preston starts to create, he learns more about himself and his relationship with his brother.

The Art of Grieving is a documentary written and directed by Preston Zeller about the work which he produced after his brother’s death and about art therapy itself. Not only looking at Preston’s own art and the way in which he expresses himself, The Art of Grieving is also about how other artists have done the same throughout history.

What could have been an inadvertently self-aggrandised documentary which could have been all about Preston and his grief, instead turns into an exploration of art and its healing powers that come from personal expression.

In fact, Preston’s art practically plays as a background to a wider issue around grief and art therapy. Looking through history to the modern day, the documentary shows many artists have grieved in their own ways and helped others with theirs.

This is also what makes Zeller’s documentary stand out, because it feels like Preston understands that his grief is personal and unique to him and that he doesn’t want it to be the focus either. Everybody grieves differently and they all have their own experiences and that’s reflected in the documentary and Preston’s own work.

However, despite keeping his audience at arm’s length, somehow The Art of Grieving comes across as something that could help others as much as it helped Preston himself.

Will Spalding (Jacob Keohane) was a soldier in the U.S. Army during World War Two. Nearly ten years later, his dreams still haunt him when he thinks about the atrocities that were committed right in front of his very eyes. In particular an incident where his entire squad were killed right in front of him by Colonel Martin Bach (Arnold Vosloo) and Spalding has made it his personal duty to avenge those deaths.

Travelling to South America, Will meets a variety of people who may lead him in the right direction including Leyna Rahn (Corinne Britti) who is on a vengeful path of her own. However, along the way Will finds himself making difficult decisions and uneasy alliances to finally bring down his target.

Condor’s Nest is a World War Two drama written and directed by Phil Blattenberger. Taking inspiration from the war movies from the 60’s and 70’s, Condor’s Nest comes across as more of a fun adventure rather than a stark reminder of what happened during the world’s darkest hour. Setting up its villain and hero quite quickly, the action then takes Will around the world in order to find his man. Although it’s quite clear that the budget can’t stretch to those locations.

More Inglorious Basterds than Saving Private Ryan, Condor’s Nest wants to give its audience an experience where the good guys win single-handedly while the villains shrivel away like cowards. However, the problem is that Condor’s Nest takes itself a little more seriously than perhaps it should do.

Keohane in the lead is perfectly fine and whereas his costumes may evoke the best of Harrison Ford’s characters, it’s just a shame that his performance can not. Also, the movie could have done with a little humour amongst all the hard-bitten broodiness of its villains and a little variety in locations and scenes wouldn’t have gone amiss.

It turns out that there can be one too many scenes where somebody is tied to a chair and interrogated and it would have been nice if the filmmakers realised this.

Those interested in the genre may like a modern production of the type of movie they just don’t make anymore, but that’s where the novelty value stops. The finale may be satisfying and give everything they may want, but the build up could have been more impactful.