film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • All Joking Aside: Review

    All Joking Aside: Review

    Charlene (Raylene Harewood) is an aspiring stand-up comic, after her father dies, she realises that she wants to make his dream a reality, so she goes to New York in order to stand up on the stage in front of a group of people who have had too much to drink and make them laugh, sounds easy doesn’t it?

    Bob (Brian Markinson) is a seasoned comedian whose best days are behind him. Bob retired from comedy years ago due to personal reasons and has never looked back. However, he still hangs around the comedy clubs, heckling the newcomers to see who can take it.

    One day Charlene is that newcomer that feels the whip of Bob’s cynical tongue and after a humiliating moment, Charlene decides that she wants to learn how to be one of the best, and Bob will be her teacher.

    All Joking Aside is the feature debut from director Shannon Kohli and writer, James Pickering. Setting the stage in New York shows the audience just how tough it can be in a city where so many comics made it big such as Jerry Seinfeld and Whoopi Goldberg. All Joking Aside is a slice of that life, showing that comedy isn’t just an art, but a science.

    Written by what seems to be from a person with experience, All Joking Aside knows all the beats, all the put downs and all the things that make the perfect routine. However, those expecting a laugh a minute comedy may be disappointed as the movie takes the form of a feel-good father/daughter movie. Bob says early on that he’s seen this movie before and to an extent he’s right.

    Saying that though, Harewood plays the part of the budding comedienne well, she sells the stand-up comic routines like they were her own and as her comedy gets better, the audience will understand what it takes to make it. Similarly, Markinson feels like a man who has been there and done that and there is a good chemistry between the pair. Not a particularly original routine, but the performances outshine the material.

  • Sasquatch Among The Wildmen: Review

    Sasquatch Among The Wildmen: Review

    There have been many myths and legends of creatures that have been sighted around the world. Creatures such as the Jersey Devil, the Loch Ness Monster and Even the Sasquatch otherwise known as Bigfoot or even Wildmen have been sighted and encounters have been talked about for years. However, out of all the supposed creatures which are reported to be roaming wooded areas or lakes, the Sasquatch seems to be one of the most documented creatures around.

    Sightings have come from North America, Russia and Tibet where they’re known as Yetis and so it’s theorised that these ‘wildmen’ are in fact hominids, a subspecies of homo-sapiens (the human race) and that their existence, albeit rare, is still very real.

    Sasquatch Among The Wildmen is a documentary that aims to explore the truth behind the supposed sightings that have been reported from around the world. With interviews from various people who all claim to have been close to a Sasquatch and some who even claim that they’ve made contact. Going into great detail to prove the existence of the creatures, some of the interviews and footage do drag a little bit, making it feel that Sasquatch Among Wildmen may only be for those who are interested in the stories on a forensic level.

    After all the first-person accounts and shaky camera footage that you may expect from a show on this subject, the documentary does indeed get forensic and with the help from experts and enthusiastic investigators the documentary does go over things with a fine tooth comb. However, as this may delight some and may even tip the balance for some of the sceptics, it may bore others as it feels at times that the mystery behind the existence of some beings is more fun than the reality.

    Sasquatch Among The Wildmen is a documentary that feels like it was a special episode of a television series rather than something that stands up by itself. So, as people may watch the show with varying degrees of interest, some may wonder if there were other such shows on different mythical topics that go into as much detail.

  • The Retreat: Review

    The Retreat: Review

    Adam (Dylan Grunn) and Gus (Grant Schumacher) have been best friends for a long time. However, in every friendship there comes a time where one must move on with his life while the other one feels gets left behind. Adam is soon to get married to Amy (Ariella Mastroianni) and for his bachelor party, Gus persuades Adam to venture out into the cold, snowy Adirondack High Peaks.

    Whilst there they learn about a local legend, one that originates from Native American folktale – the Wendigo. Born from the bodies of men who have consumed human flesh to survive, the hideous beasts stalk unwitting travellers in the snow. Partly laughing it off, but a little unsettled from the story, Adam and Gus head out into the wilderness and set up camp.

    Then later that night, something disturbs their sleep and before Gus can do anything about it a Wendigo has taken Adam. What follows explores Gus’ guilt at having left his best friend to die, whether he really saw something in the woods that he cannot explain and whether Gus imagined it all and is having a breakdown. Through a series of flashbacks, hallucinations and Gus’ fight for survival against the Wendigo, the audience is left to decide what’s real and what’s not.

    The Retreat is a horror movie from writer/director Bruce Wemple that has more depth than a full-on jump scare killing spree than a lot of audiences may expect. The legend of the Wendigo is ripe for cinematic horror and is sparingly used, but thankfully Wemple’s story may have come up with something original before the subgenre even begins to become oversaturated.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsHvzuCilO8

    The Retreat explores male friendships, guilt and masculinity and does so with a competent and evenly paced story which may put some off viewers who wanted a chilly frightfest. However, for those who are willing to go with it they may find something deeper than they had originally imagined.

    Unfortunately, despite an ambitious story with interesting themes, by the end The Retreat may have taken on too much as by the end the tone changes and disappointingly it goes with what audiences may want rather than what would have served the story better.

  • Sleeping In Plastic: Review

    Sleeping In Plastic: Review

    Brandon Bell (Alex MacNicoll) is a competitive wrestler in high school, and despite a troubled home life he has a good heart and sees the best in people. Then one day he meets Pearla, (Addison Timlin) and they start to get closer despite one of Brandon’s friends warning him to stay away because Pearla is trouble with a capital T.

    However, Brandon can’t help himself and when he finds out that Pearla has an abusive boyfriend who’s involved in organised crime and that he’s Pearla’s pimp, Brandon sets about to keep her safe no matter the cost.

    Sleeping in Plastic is a noir crime drama feature debut written and directed by Van Ditthavong which may tread some very familiar ground and goes down the roads that many noir crime dramas have gone down before.

    The story may evoke other movies such as Blue Velvet and True Romance and deliberately so, luckily though for those who may have seen it all before, Ditthavong’s artistic eye and the great performances that he gets out of his cast are what may keep the audience watching.

    MacNicoll and Timlin also have great chemistry and the audience will believe in their love story even if they may know where it goes, but there’s a sweetness and innocence between them that is brought out at just the right times.

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

    Similarly, the supporting gangster characters are exactly what you expect, but thanks to some menacing performances (not to the levels of Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper, mind you), then the sense of danger is felt. Brandon and Pearla feel like a couple that the audience want to see make it through.

    Beautifully shot, Sleeping in Plastic is a very stylish noir drama that is never too far from an atmospheric street light or a moodily lit bar and it makes the film all that more compelling as it feels so accomplished from a first-time feature director. Time will tell whether Ditthavong will be able to do movies in other genres just as well, but if he can evoke a cinematic look as much as he did to Sleeping in Plastic then he may be one to watch.

  • My Summer As A Goth: Review

    My Summer As A Goth: Review

    Joey Javitts (Natalie Shershow) has just lost her father and is grieving. Her mother, Carissa (Sarah Overman) is an author, so despite recent events and prior commitments, she has to drop Joey off at her grandparents for the summer while she goes on a book tour.

    Then one night as Joey is getting unpacked, she spies a boy in a house across the street about to do something dangerous. Running across the street and into his house, Joey realises that Victor (Jack Levis) was only being melodramatic and is reassured as he explains to her about his goth lifestyle and how his outward appearance is a reflection of his inner self.

    After a somewhat romantic encounter that night, Joey goes to see Victor and meets his friends; Pen (Jenny White) and Cob (Carter Allen) who are also goths and after being enticed by their lives, Joey is convinced to undergo a dramatic goth makeover. However, as Joey and Victor get closer, Victor’s intentions may not be all that they seem.

    My Summer as a Goth is a coming of age comedy drama and feature debut by writer/director Tara Johnson-Medinger. Clearly taking inspiration from teenage coming of age dramas such as The Lost Boys and Heathers, Johnson-Medinger’s movie seems like a loving throwback to those films of the 80’s where teenage girls were enamoured with boys only to learn an important lesson about themselves in the process.

    The trouble is that these influences make the film a little dated and so does the goth aesthetic which may have better suited a movie over 30 years ago, but wouldn’t quite wash with teenage audiences today.

    In fact, a lot of the jokes are even about goths dressing differently, doing unusual things and listening to different kinds of music which feels counterintuitive to today’s messages of inclusion and acceptance that teenagers would know.

    Also, the older members of the audience may recognise Victor’s behaviour much faster than the younger ones, which isn’t so bad as it’s the point of his character. However, the script hammers the message home so much during the final few scenes it feels like the audience is being lectured by somebody older and wiser. My Summer as a Goth may know what kind of movie it is and who the audience are, but it feels like a shade of the much better movies that it mimics.