film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • The Man With All The Answers: Review

    The Man With All The Answers: Review

    The Man With All The Answers: Review – Victoras (Vasilis Magouliotis) is an ex-Olympic swimmer who has become something of a recluse these days and lives in Greece with his grandmother who’s very sick. He lives a quiet life and is seemingly content, but when his grandmother suddenly dies, Victoras decides he needs to get out of his town.

    His plans are to take him to Italy to see family, but along the way he meets Mathias (Anton Weil), an extroverted German student who offers to help Victoras along on his journey. Although determined to get straight to where he needs to be, Victoras finds that Mathias can be quite persuasive and as the two of them get to know each other, an attraction starts to emerge.

    The Man With All The Answers is a feelgood romantic drama and feature debut by writer/director Stelios Kammitsis. However, although most romantic dramas or even comedies may start out in a similar way such as this, The Man with All the Answers is not your typical romantic feature.

    There’s something that feels very real about the film and whereas most films like this would make the premise into a high concept drama where the audience knows exactly where it’s going from the start – The Man with All the Answers does not.

    Setting up its scenes and characters at a leisurely pace, the audience may not be entirely sure where this is all going, particularly as there is no immediate attraction between the lead characters. Instead, a more natural approach is taken and when something finally does happen, it feels like it was meant to happen rather than being a hotbed of sexual tension.

    There’s also a good chemistry between Magouliotis and Weil, the latter playing a more confident man, but not in an overly exaggerated way. His performance subtly tells the audience in many ways that he may be just what Victoras needs.

    Also, it’s rather refreshing to see a story told that doesn’t end in all encompassing love, instead it’s more of a ‘let’s see what happens’ rather than ‘you’re the only one for me’. The Man with All the Answers will make audiences smile as it turns out to be a far more realistic view on relationships than other films may offer.

  • F.E.A.R. – Review

    F.E.A.R. – Review

    When Ethan (Jason Tobias) and Josephine Allister (Marci Miller) met it was love at first sight. Soon they were married and started having children and everything was going really well. They had a son named Josh (Danny Ruiz) and although life is good for the Allisters, life does like to throw challenges at people when they least expect it. That’s when there was a zombie virus outbreak.

    Now, Ethan, Joe and Josh live their lives one day at a time and try to survive. Although when they meet Desiree Morrow (Susan Moore Harmon) and her son, Lincoln (Justin Dray) they realise that there are others out there willing to do horrible things to make their way in the new world.

    F.E.A.R. (Forget Everything and Run) is a zombie movie written by Jason Tobias and co-directed by Geoff Reisner. In the past ten years there has been a resurgence in the zombie genre, shows like The Walking Dead, iZombie and Santa Clarita Diet have all redefined what it means to be one of the unliving.

    Then there are games like The Last of Us, Days Gone and Dying Light and although there seems to be room for a lot in this genre, there are signs it may have run its course.

    This is particularly obvious in F.E.A.R.’s plot and characters as it plays like an extended episode of The Walking Dead or some DLC of The Last of Us which introduces new characters in a familiar setting.

    There really is nothing new or original to see in F.E.A.R. and if you are a fan of the genre then there’s no doubt that you’ve seen it all before. Although for those looking for a horror movie where you know what you’re going to get before you’ve seen it then F.E.A.R. will do everything you want.

    The production value and the cast all give the audience the feeling of a world where an outbreak has permanently changed the landscape. Although considering how 2020 went and how the world realised what a viral outbreak could do and how we all adapted, F.E.A.R. shows that a zombie outbreak may just be quite straightforward and lacking any excitement.

  • The Amusement Park: Review

    The Amusement Park: Review

    One of George A. Romero’s long-lost titles is finally coming to Shudder after being held from its initial release. After a Lutheran society decided that they wanted to make a movie about elderly abuse, for some reason they decided to contact George A. Romero to put their message across. What they got wasn’t what they were expecting, so The Amusement Park was held from release because it was considered too gruesome, however it certainly does get its message across.

    Introduced by actor Lincoln Maazel, an actor who could be considered to be elderly, he addresses the audience as many other public information would start. He tells the audience just what they may expect from the forthcoming events of the film and it certainly comes across as sincere.

    However, Romero’s interpretation of what he was asked to do is given his original spin and what follows is a cautionary tale about the dangers of old age, all set in an amusement park.

    A clever idea which enables Romero to tell his stories about the difficulties that elderly people face every day, Romero’s public information film shows things that happen to the elderly that are just as relevant now as they were in 1973.

    However, there’s no real linear story as Romero’s subject has to cover many issues and this is where the setting of an amusement park is used to its advantage. Maazel wanders from one scene to the next experiencing incidents of elderly abuse first hand and often witnessing it in others, although at times these incidents could often be attributed to anybody that faces abuse due to their race, gender or disability.

    Fans of Romero will be happy to see a film that’s been lovingly restored in 4K so that they can get a further insight into such a great and influential horror director. There may even be a curious fascination from those passing horror fans who want to know what happens when a horror director is asked to do something so out of his comfort zone.

    Whoever you are and whatever reason you may want to watch The Amusement Park, the film will please Romero completionists and serve as an oddity for those interested in film history.

  • Open Your Eyes: Review

    Open Your Eyes: Review

    Jason Miller (Ry Barrett) is a screenwriter on a deadline. He’s writing a screenplay for a low budget horror movie with no stars in it, yet he’s got writer’s block. He’s also noticed a rather large crack running down the wall in his living room that’s leaking water. He knows it’s coming from the neighbours upstairs, but he’s having no luck with contacting them.

    Then one day he meets Lisa, (Joanna Saul) and he finds that there’s an instant connection between them so he asks her to dinner so that they can get to know each other. However, during their date Jason starts to realise that everything is not as it seems. Particularly as the hallucinations he keeps having are getting stronger.

    Open Your Eyes is a psychological horror/thriller written and directed by Greg A. Sager, unfortunately though despite the small cast and crew and how well the film is shot, Open Your Eyes is nothing new. There are many films about writers such as Misery, Secret Window and The Shining, the fact that they’re all based on stories by Stephen King is surely a coincidence.

    However, it seems that Sager may have taken inspiration from King’s work and developed a concept along the same vein. The problem is that although the concept is solid, there’s very little else to it, so this slow burn thriller may feel very slow to most of the audience.

    Most of us in the past year or so have found ourselves at times feeling alone because of the way the world has developed recently, but watching somebody seemingly purposefully isolated doesn’t necessarily make for a good watch.

    Despite the occasional hallucination and jump scares, Open Your Eyes doesn’t have much originality and so when the big twist is revealed, the audience may feel like there could have been more.

    Open Your Eyes feels like a movie that had a good concept, but there really wasn’t any way to pad out the script. So whereas it may be billed as a slow burn mystery thriller, the pacing of the film may put off people looking for an interesting movie.

  • We All Think We’re Special: Review

    We All Think We’re Special: Review

    We All Think We’re Special: Review.

    Charlie (Jared Bankens) and Ed (William McGovern) are best friends and have known each other since they were children. They’re as close as friends can be and have been there for each other ever since Ed came out about his sexuality and when Charlie’s mother died. Charlie has been left his mother’s house in her will, so Charlie and Ed spend a lot of time together although most of that time is spent drinking and messing around.

    Then one day Charlie is told that the house has been put up for sale as he’s been letting his responsibilities go, however Charlie isn’t going without a fight and objects to this decision. The trouble is that Charlie is an alcoholic and so unless he sobers up then he’ll lose everything.

    So, seeing no other option, Ed decides that his best friend has to go through detox to get it out of his system – no matter how hard that will be.

    We All Think We’re Special is an intense and realistic drama directed by Kirby Voss and co-written by Felicity Stallard. Taking inspiration from real life accounts, We All Think We’re Special feels as real as it possibly could be, not only with the things that Charlie goes through, but also through the dialogue and performances from Bankens and McGovern.

    Both actors give great performances and their chemistry makes it really feel like they’ve been friends for over 20 years. There are light, funny moments that start out in the film, but as Charlie’s withdrawal symptoms get worse, the tension between Charlie and Ed get worse and both actors deliver on all levels.

    The look of the film is particularly striking as it’s beautifully lit and Voss’s direction accompanied by an orchestral score keep the intensity going throughout. As the film goes deeper, it not only explores the effects of alcoholism, but the causes as Charlie recounts his childhood and the flashes of images arrive like resurfacing memories.

    Although the ending may be different in tone from the rest of the film, We All Think We’re Special is a unique and rewarding character study that will keep audiences captivated.