film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Lauren Turner

  • Love Sarah: The BRWC Review

    Love Sarah: The BRWC Review

    Love Sarah: The BRWC Review.

    For a movie that is measured in pace, it’s a surprisingly enchanting journey, like a slow float downstream. Love, Sarah (dir. Eliza Schroeder) is an uplifting tale about keeping memory alive through things that connect us to the past.

    The titular character is almost completely absent from the film, however the space she leaves is the central point from which the other characters rotate around, dancing and bumping in to each other as they try to make sense of her untimely loss.

    The three women closest to her – her daughter, mother and best friend, decide to open up a bakery in Sarah’s honour, as was always her plan. Complex intergenerational ties prove new pastures, and pastries, for all involved.

    Considering it’s a movie about delicious, colourful baked goods, it’s remarkably bleak on the palate. But it’s clearly a stylistic choice to show the overlay of grief hanging over everyone. As they mourn, move on and start to smile, the movie actually gets more colourful and more bright, which is a subtle choice reflective of the gentleness of the film.

    Admittedly, it can be a bit too slow. Sometimes grief can’t be rushed, but storylines can. However, I found myself surrendering to it and enjoying the slow burn of the character development – but a slightly faster story would have been an improvement.

    New players enter and shake things up, adding vibrancy and most importantly humour to the kitchen, café and lives of the three central characters. The slow smiles that eventually come over their faces is a satisfying pay off. 

    Overall this movie had everything you’d want in a delicious treat – comfort, joy, and care. A perfect watch on a rainy afternoon while tucking in to something tasty.

  • African Apocalypse: Review

    African Apocalypse: Review

    African Apocalypse (dir. Rob Lemkin) is a startling film – both in the sense of the recorded accounts of atrocities that occurred within the Niger, Africa, but also the unsettling feeling of the repetitiveness of the conditions that allowed these crimes to occur. 

    Femi Nylander is a British-Nigerian Oxford student who traverses West African country of Niger to record the repulsive crusade of Paul Voulet – a dark shadow across Africa that still lingers today. Voulet’s attempts to unite West Africa under French colonial rule descended in to such extreme war crimes that the emotions evident from the modern day Niger peoples are almost unbearable; but bear it they do.

    We start in London before heading to Niger – clever editing merging the past and the present to our eyes, a technique which it uses freely throughout the film and to great effect. The past atrocities didn’t just change the history of Niger – it’s still present to this day in everything the Niger people do, think and are taught in schools. One poignant scene with an ever-smiling teacher gives a glimmer of a sunny future while the students study solar power. A powerful interview with these children reveal the tragedies of murdered family members – it’s moments like these that drive home the message of the film: modern day colonialism is generational trauma, it is a wrong that must be righted (looking at you, France). 

    The dramatic irony of Black Englishman hearing feelings of anger, resistance and oppression against whites is not lost in the film. Femi struggles to interlock the present emotion he sees every day in Niger with the fact that Europe has largely forgotten the massacres that occurred in Niger and left the country broke.

    The presence of life becoming art, and vice versa, is thick within the film; the same day Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was published (excerpts follow the narrative of the film uncannily) Paul Voulet was reported on in the same magazine – a real life Mr. Kurtz if you can imagine such a terror. A terror that is a past, a reality and a future unless the effects of modern day colonialism can be dissected and diffused. 

    There is hope – the division in the film is supplanted with unity and culminates in some truly stunning scenes of Femi, transformed from a stoic bystander to an active participant in memorial and remembrance. Linking our modern protests at modern day atrocities (the events that sparked BLM protests worldwide this year), the undeniable link between then and now is clear to us. Perhaps there is a heart of darkness in all of us, or perhaps it’s about which side we shine a light on.

  • Wives Of The Skies: Review

    Wives Of The Skies: Review

    WIVES OF THE SKIES – Dir. Honey Lauren

    A journalist gets in over his head when he interviews two air stewardesses.
    This raunchy tale involves two very pretty stewardesses, and a gulping reporter who tries to uncover their mysterious allure. 

    It’s a sensual, sexual exploration that remains largely wholesome throughout, with an air of comfortability (apart from the reporter occasionally getting hot under the collar).

    You see, one of the stewardesses, Fran (wonderfully played by Rachel Alig) is in to Kinbaku rope bondage – beautiful, exquisitely tied knots. I’m sure the viewer will share in the reporter’s choked surprise when he discovers her in such a state when invited for dinner.

    The tale unravels further down the rabbit hole of these two women’s lives – and the reporter gets roped in headfirst.

    Wives Of The Skies – This sweet, sensual tale will leave your head spinning, but with a fresh original take it’s bound to impress.

    WOTS is a romantic dramedy, set in 1965, starring two stewardesses from Fine Air, a well-appointed airline, and the British writer who interviews them. At the same time, WOTS makes a contemporary socio-cultural statement regarding the meme of “the good girl, drawn bad”. WOTS is a romantic dramedy, set in 1965, starring two stewardesses from Fine Air, a well-appointed airline, and the British writer who interviews them. At the same time, WOTS makes a contemporary socio-cultural statement regarding the meme of “the good girl, drawn bad”. WOTS clarifies the impact of the overarching “men’s gaze” which objectifies women as carnal sex objects men seek, while they look for love. Along the way, addressing the primitive issue of Trust vs. Mistrust, WOTS displays the Japanese art of rope binding, Kinbaku.

  • Revival: Review

    Revival: Review

    Revival: A modern day retelling of Christ’s revival

    A predominantly black cast with a musical offers a fresh take on the temptations on triumphs of Jesus. A constant beat and thump of live music keeps the story moving between more serious scenes, punctuated by musical numbers and dance scenes. We’re not in Nazareth anymore. 

    There is a fun mix of stage and screen, with the story often going in between film scenes, being shot on stage and meta scenes within the dressing room. Clearly much thought has been put in to the story, and using such an old traditional story as a blank canvas for experimentation is always a treat. 

    There is a definite cringe involved with the singing. The original compositions are good, however the lack of production value mixed with the saccharine sincerity makes me think this would be better in a live setting rather than a movie. The theatrics are impressive, however and you can tell everyone is having fun.

    Overall, this movie dives deep into Jesus’ final days on this Earth, with the whole production coming together under this united goal. At times the sincerity and drama is a little too much – but it is in Jesus’s name, after all. Merry Christmas everyone. 

  • Treacle: Review

    Treacle: Review

    TREACLE: A short, sharp film with some sickly sweetness as the title suggests. Treacle (dir. Rosie Westhoff) shows us the meaning of too much of a good thing.

    The two sole cast members Jesse (Ariana Anderson) and Belle (April Kelley) have great chemistry and strong performances. Jesse is recently single, and has enlisted Belle to be her fill-in for a romantic getaway she’d ill-planned with her soon to be ex (male). The two girls jump in a car and drive up the SoCal coast, and we follow the breakdown of their relationship over 24 hours.

    Their best friendship is easily believable, backed up by the continual insults and silly banter. They while away their time drinking and swimming, which eventually leads to Jesse leaning in for a kiss. They hook up, and in the bright morning light their decisions from last night come back to haunt them.

    Belle is bisexual – a sticking point throughout for Jesse. She seems almost homophobic in her understanding of sexual orientation, which is probably why Belle feels so betrayed at her cold feet the next morning. A drunken hook up for a straight girl, a deep betrayal for a bisexual one. The car ride back shows them both in separate shots, compared to the warm, wide shots of the drive up at the beginning. The cracks have formed and are large between them. 

    TREACLE – TRAILER from Cat Dragged In Films on Vimeo.

    The film achieves it’s aim – to give a story to the ‘B’ in LGBTQ. The acting is strong, particularly from Kelley who also wrote the script and, if I may, is most likely drawing from her personal well. 

    A thoroughly modern story of romance, confusion and sexuality. Treacle is sweet, sickly and lets the message lingers in your mouth after the credits roll.