film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • The Knot: Review

    The Knot: Review

    Geeta (Saloni Batra) and Shirish Mathur (Vikas Kumar) have a wonderful life, they live a relatively privileged life with friends, family and a steady income. Geeta even tells Shirish that they’re expecting a baby, so life couldn’t be better.

    Then one night on their way home after celebrating Geeta’s birthday, they get involved in a car accident after hitting a rickshaw driver on the road. They take him in and tend to his wounds, sending him on his way, but a few days later a couple of his relatives turn up at their front door and tell them that his condition has got worse.

    A chance encounter which the Marthur’s thought they could easily brush off soon becomes tense as a rift starts to come between them.

    The Knot (or Uljhan) is an Indian drama written and directed by Ashish Pant in his feature directorial debut. What starts out as a seemingly happy story, soon turns fraught with drama as Geeta and Shirish’s lives change in the blink of an eye.

    Geeta takes pity on the family of the man they hit and soon takes in his relatives in order to make amends for their misdemeanour. However, Shirish takes a different approach and tries to carry on with his life as his focus is more on money and their future together.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPBgutPIfH8

    What The Knot does so well is to tell a story that highlights the differences in class and gender bias in Indian society, but never make it feel like it’s preaching to the audience. Pant’s script carefully weaves his story with small moments that make the characters question their own actions and as they do, it feels more like a natural progression than a plot contrivance.

    What could have easily been a thriller or a heavy-handed morality tale, The Knot simply shows life on both sides of the fence and reminds its audience about how fragile life can be. However, the final scene does feel blunter than the rest of the film, but it’s still worth seeing so that its audience can think about their own place in life.

  • Embryo: Review

    Embryo: Review

    Evelyn (Romina Perazzo) and Kevin (Domingo Guzmán) are on a romantic camping trip so they can get away from it all. They zip up their tent at the end of a day of hiking and go to sleep after a wonderful day. However, during the night Evelyn is abducted by aliens and the next morning Kevin finds her in the forest naked and covered in alien goo.

    He takes Evelyn to the doctor as Evelyn is also complaining about stomach cramps, but while the doctor is examining her, Evelyn realises what she’s starting to crave – human flesh. Also, there may be something growing inside her which needs to be fed.

    Embryo (or Embrión) is a Chilean science fiction horror which mixes found footage alongside its higher concept storyline. Reminiscent of Nineties sci-fi horror, Species, Embryo takes nearly the same plot. Except this time Evelyn’s loving boyfriend wants to get her help so she can overcome the alien host.

    There are also times during the movie where the audience is shown found footage of other women that have been abducted and the footage follows them right up until their abductions. The problem with this is that it unfortunately diverts the movie away from the main story, which unsuccessfully mixes together two subgenres of science fiction horror.

    On the one hand there’s a story of a seductive woman taken over by an alien force which will do anything to stay alive. Then on the other hand there are stories of different women being abducted at different times.

    Not only do these styles not gel so well, they seem like completely different movies with the latter sometimes coming across as unintentionally funny when trying to do alien special effects.

    For all its cheesiness and predictability, Embryo is nothing new really and the cast seem to know this. Both Perazzo and Guzmán give suitably over the top performances. Perhaps even when the director wanted them to take it more seriously. However, for those who want to watch a low budget sci fi horror that delivers more blood and guts than Species, Embryo may be just what you need.

  • Drought: Review

    Drought: Review

    Carl (Owen Scheid) and Sam (Hannah Black) are brother and sister. They both work at a local supermarket where Carl takes care of the shopping trolleys, making sure everything is in place. Carl is also obsessed with the weather, a passion that particularly comes in handy when during a drought he discovers that a storm is on the way. So, with Sam, their friend Lewis (Drew Scheid) and their designated babysitter, Lillian (Megan Petersen), they borrow their mum’s ice cream truck and set out to chase the storm while their parents are away.

    Drought is a charming comedy drama written and directed by Hannah Black and Megan Petersen in their feature directorial debut. Set in the early Nineties, Drought takes the audience back to a seemingly simpler time in a small town in America where nothing really important mattered.

    The cast are all great and the film goes along at a steady pace, making it just as light and breezy as their ice cream truck journey.

    Owen Scheid and Hannah Black also have great chemistry, making them really feel like brother and sister and the dialogue between them is funny and natural. Also, Owen Scheid’s performance as an autistic person is particularly good because – Owen Scheid is actually autistic himself.

    This brings a real authenticity to the role and of course never makes it feel like the audience is watching an actor doing a performance of someone so far removed from themselves.

    Carl’s character is also not a typical portrayal of an autistic person, although there are traits which audiences may recognise such as when he has a meltdown at work and his obsessive hobby. Although Carl is no savant, just an autistic boy with an interest and his character isn’t juvenilised either. Drought shows an autistic person in a loving family and with the same kind of sibling tensions that may fit any brother/sister relationship.

    Drought is a wonderful story, not just for one that shows an autistic actor in a major role, but just as a well told, directed and acted story which will appeal to a wide audience.

  • A Nightmare Wakes: Review

    A Nightmare Wakes: Review

    Almost every horror and literature fan has heard about the story of the night Mary Shelley (Alix Wilton Regan), Percy Shelley (Giullian Yao Gioiello) and Claire Claremont (Claire Glassford) were set a task by Lord Byron (Phillippe Bowgen) to write a horror story over the course of a night. Of course, that night inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning and the story of Frankenstein came alive.

    However, nobody really knows what went on in Mary Shelley’s mind when she conceived the idea, so A Nightmare Wakes attempts to marry the seed of that story with Shelley’s own life. Ambitiously, A Nightmare Wakes goes into Shelley’s personal life, as it mirrors aspects of The Modern Prometheus with Shelley’s own life when she was due to give birth.

    Written and directed by Nora Unkel in her directorial debut, A Nightmare Wakes is an impressive film in terms of its story, ambition and its gorgeous cinematography. However, seeing that the film is on Shudder it may lead its audience to think that it’s a pure period drama turned horror.

    Unfortunately, fans of supernatural horror may be disappointed, as may fans of Shelley and her work because A Nightmare Wakes tries to be both at once and ends up not feeling satisfying enough to either audience.

    Although it may frustrate horror fans looking for more of a scare and equally frustrate fans of Shelley looking to know more about her life, the story is original and well told. There are some historical inaccuracies in Unkels’ script though, which may move the story along, but for those who know then it may be a stretch too far for artistic license.

    Also, Mary Shelley herself may not be the protagonist that audiences may have been expecting because although the things she experiences are certainly arduous, her reactions to them are not as strong willed. However, Bowgen as Lord Byron certainly lives up to the personality and the legend with his brash personality and lively performance.

    A Nightmare Wakes is a great experiment in filmmaking, but one that perhaps got out of control when it was finally born.  

  • French Exit: Review

    French Exit: Review

    Malcolm Price (Lucas Hedges) is devoted to his mother. However, rich socialite Frances (Michelle Pfeiffer) is self-absorbed, grieving for her dead husband and is on the verge of bankruptcy. Realising that she’s going to have to downsize, Frances’ friend, Joan (Susan Coyne) tells her about her place in Paris that she’s not living in currently.

    So, without a moment’s notice, Frances drags Malcolm to Europe where she feels she can finally be at peace. The trouble is that although Frances may be happy in Paris, Malcolm is leaving behind his fiancé, Susan (Imogen Poots).

    French Exit is a quirky comedy which often verges on the bizarre as more characters are added to the cast. Whilst on the boat Lucas becomes acquainted with Madeleine (Danielle Macdonald) a woman who claims that she’s psychic. Then when they get to Paris, Frances is invited to tea with Mme. Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey), a widower who’s having trouble dealing with being alone and isn’t exactly a match what with Frances’ rather abrupt and rude behaviour.

    However, the issue with French Exit is really what it all means and why anybody does anything. For all its quirkiness, things happen and people say things that they may not normally say if it weren’t scripted in such a way.

    What seems to be a film that’s dealing with a woman’s grief turns into a romantic comedy where characters appear for no good reason and interact in ways that may be amusing, if the audience knew what it was all about.

    Michelle Pfeiffer is the lynch pin of the film though and she effortlessly slips into the role where her snippy and single-minded character takes over. In fact, there are many great performances from Mahaffey as the unusually haunted lonely widower to the disembodied voice of Frances’ long-lost husband (Tracy Letts), but the film lacks any clear direction.

    This may give the audience a challenge as they try to figure out the motivations of the characters, perhaps implanting theories of their own. However, to the rest of the audience they may feel that although the film is well acted with funny moments, it doesn’t really go anywhere.