film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • The Only One: Review

    The Only One: Review

    Tom (Caitlin Stasey) is feeling restless in her life. Her thirtieth birthday has got her thinking about where she is right now, where she’d like to be and where she is going. That’s when she realises that she should probably start making a commitment to a relationship so that she can feel that she belongs somewhere. So, knowing that her ex, David (Jon Beavers) lives in a vineyard in the south of France with his parents, Rob (Hugo Armstrong) and Em (Blake Lindsley), Tom decides to go back and see if there’s still a spark.

    Sooner or later Tom and David are picking up where they left off, but Tom still isn’t quite sure what she wants.

    The Only One is a romantic drama set and filmed in the south of France in a feature debut by director Noah Gilbert and writer Seth Gilbert. Having such a pleasant place to stay and the company that Tom has, it soon becomes clear to the audience that no matter what the outcome, being in the south of France is a very relaxing place to be.

    Everything is calm, people talk to each other with warmth, understanding and respect and Tom can feel free to be herself while exploring her place in the world.

    The film itself is also very calm and soothing and seems perfect for a relaxing night in as the audience watches the events unfold. There are also deeper discussions about love and life which could have felt forced and guided, but under the director of Gilbert, it feels naturalistic and suits the characters perfectly.

    There is little conflict in the film and it may not be for everybody watching a couple getting to know each other again. However, for those who are looking for a nice experience where characters learn something about themselves then The Only One may be the one that you want.

    There are times though when the film may start to get a little self-indulgent. Caitlin Stasey and Jon Beavers have good chemistry, but at times it may feel a little too much like the audience is watching them having fun rather than progressing the story. Saying that though, The Only One is light and breezy while a little self-discovery creeps into the plot.

  • The Scrapper: Review

    The Scrapper: Review

    Jake (Bari Kang) is a former criminal and now lives the simple life of a scrapper. He’s also Punjabi and feels conflicted by his heritage and the country in which he lives. However, what keeps him going are his girlfriend, Kitt (Ava Paloma) and the thought of becoming a father once their child is born.

    Jake is also the sole carer for his brother, JB (Gugan Deep Singh) who has a learning disability and has stayed close to him all his life.

    Then one day, Jake is brought back into the fold of his criminal past with the promise of one last job that will set him free from his past and look after his future. The trouble is when the robbery goes wrong, Jake finds himself caught between warring Mexican and Punjabi gangs as he once again must find a way out.

    The Scrapper is a violent crime drama directed, written by and starring Bari Kang. Taking a somewhat unseen part of American life, Kang creates a gritty world filled with gangsters, tense action and a heart at the centre. It’s just a pity that besides the unique setting and diverse cast of characters, it seems that audiences may have seen this before.

    There’s absolutely nothing wrong with giving the audience what they want and the satisfaction of knowing what you’re going to get can be fulfilling. However, it seems that The Scrapper doesn’t really have an identity of its own and borrows from many other familiar gangster movie tropes.

    There’s also the cliché of the protagonist who’s portrayed as a caring and noble man because he has a disabled sibling.

    Kang creates a world in a realistic setting with the use of real locations and mostly authentic casting. However, because the behaviour of such characters has been seen in many other movies, it doesn’t seem to have much to say on its own. Kang does a good job and has certainly written and directed a movie which takes characters that most audiences may not consider for this kind of film. Unfortunately, once the audience may start to realise what they’ve seen before, there are little surprises.

  • Twas The Night: Review

    Twas The Night: Review

    Twas The Night: Review – After a video goes viral showing Holly (Nicole Pringle) verbally abusing a Santa Claus collecting money for charity, the whole town thinks Holly hates Christmas. Holly is just doing her best to get through the holidays like anybody else though and feels pressure mounting on her as her in-laws are coming to stay for the holidays for the first time.

    Nick (David S. Perez) her fiancée is doing the best he can to reassure her that everything is going to be fine, but his in-laws are coming as well and he wants to make a good impression.

    Then one day as Holly is hanging up the decorations, she sees the Santa Claus in that video and feels bad so she invites him in for some hot chocolate to make amends. Although as he’s on the way out, the Santa whose real name is Jesús (Abel Rosario) notices Holly has been having trouble putting up the decorations, so being the kind man that he is he offers to help.

    Unfortunately, when Nick barges through the door it knocks the ladder that Jesús was standing on and knocks him out cold. With little time to think and the in-laws on their way, Holly and Nick do the best thing they could think of doing – they store Santa in the bathroom and hope nobody notices.

    Twas the Night is a dark comedy written and directed by Chris Rodriguez and Grant Rosado (known as the Ro Bros) and on the surface seems like the perfect antidote to sentimental Christmas movies. The problem is that although the premise may let the audience in on what they could be expecting, the execution is lacking.

    Firstly, there are certain things that people may expect from a holiday movie and whereas Pringle and Perez give good performances as a soon to be married couple, it just seems like they are trying to elevate the material that they’re given. Also, there seems to be very little thought put into the characters of the in-laws.

    So, whereas this may have been an ensemble comedy made better through eccentric and lively performances, besides the main couple everybody else seems very bland. Considering the lack of experience that the Ro Bros have in genre filmmaking, it’s a noble effort. However, a little more thought to pad out the movie may have been more satisfying.  

  • Masked Threshold: Review

    Masked Threshold: Review

    Masked Threshold: Review – Our protagonist (Ethan Haslam) is suffering from tinnitus and he doesn’t know what to do about it. He’s been to many specialists and although they can identify that it is there, the severity of his condition is called into question.

    However, our man doesn’t believe that the specialists and doctors know what they are talking about and he starts to find that the search for a cure is consuming his every waking thought. He says that it’s affected his life socially, professionally and even his studies suffered and now he spends most of his life alone, searching for a way to stop the continuous tone inside his head.

    Masking Threshold is a psychological horror written and directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner and may be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Starting out with a voiceover from the protagonist, the audience are taken into his world and throughout are given his every single thought.

    Although, it’s not so much that he feels that he needs to tell his audience what he’s thinking, but that he needs to rationalise it for himself.

    What starts out as rather annoying once the audience starts to realise that they are stuck with the protagonist throughout, this slowly and steadily turns into concern and terror as the protagonist’s thoughts are paired with increasingly disturbing images. Starting out as time with a man who most may not consider very interesting considering his constant stream of random trivia, soon becomes an experience where the audience won’t want to look away.

    Grenzfurthner’s script goes from simple and mundane to mind altering and harrowing over the course of ninety minutes and the audience is right inside the protagonist’s mind the whole time. Something so unconventional pays off as the film becomes a catalogue of the innermost thoughts of a man who’s not simply just lost some hearing, but is losing his mind.

    An experience that most of us could probably share in recent times because it has felt like all we had were our thoughts to distract us. Masking Threshold shows the audience what may a little too much time on our hands and a lot of obsession may do to our minds.

  • The Superdeep: Review

    The Superdeep: Review

    Anya (Milena Radulovic) is part of a team sent down into the world’s deepest borehole known as the Superdeep after some unusual behaviour has been reported. There, Anya and her team find people that have strange growths coming out of their bodies. Soon Anya finds that the infection is getting out of control and there’s a race against time to either find a cure or a way out.

    The Superdeep is a Russian science fiction movie exclusive to Shudder which takes a lot of inspiration from such classic sci-fi such as Alien and The Thing. Set deep in the Earth, The Superdeep has a familiar and yet original setting and perhaps has the kind of pacing which is most common in Russian cinema.

    Whereas a lot of these kinds of movies would immediately set up the story and the action would begin, The Superdeep takes its time to establish its setting and the characters. This is something which some may enjoy as it builds the world, but it may deter others.

    In fact, the action doesn’t really start until about half way through the movie, so those less impressed by the immersion that the filmmakers give their audience may be put off. However, even those who are interested in how the movie presents itself may find their patience being tested due to the decision to have an English dub on the film as opposed to subtitles.

    Unfortunately, this takes away any emotion from the performances as the dubbing is filled with disinterested, bored actors who have clearly not been given the right direction.

    However, this does give the movie a certain 50’s B-movie quality so there might just be something to enjoy from the dialogue even if it’s unintentionally funny.

    Although, taking away the characters, the dialogue, the pacing and the quality production value, there is still the matter of the plot. With all its nods to other movies in its genre which litter the plot, there is also something rather predictable that has a particular video game quality which makes the movie feel flat. By the end, despite how good it looks, audiences may have seen it all before.