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Review by Lauren Thomas.

Things I Don’t Understand has joined the ranks of thought provoking films that are proving very popular lately. It follows Violet Kubelick (Molly Ryman) an angry and emotionally troubled graduate who is writing her thesis on the topic of ‘life after death’.

This film has all the cliché moments we come to expect from these types of films. Violet sleeps around, drinks a lot and pushes all the people she loves away. This is all because her sister died when she was young and this has led to her having some serious father and intimacy issues. When her therapist recommends she spend time with terminal cancer patient Sara (Grace Folsom) to help her thesis research, we slowly but surely see Violet’s attitude change.

Kudos to Grace Folsom, she plays the only likeable character that we can relate to. In a touching scene we see Sara opening up about her fear of dying and the injustice of the situation. It is a genuinely moving scene and has the potential to move many people to tears. In it she asks ‘why her?’ and ‘why now?’ For a character that changes Violet’s perspective on life so irrevocably, Sara’s passing is not given nearly enough screen time. It was almost a case of one minute she’s there, one minute she isn’t.

In one of many subplots, we meet her two roommates, Remy (Hugo Dillon) and Gabby (Meissa Hampton) who often spend a lot of time downstairs in the bar drowning their sorrows. Leading us to Parker the bartender (Aaron Mathias) who, as one of the most emotionally unavailable men in New York, Violet naturally falls head over heels in love with. The sense of hopelessness is compounded when it is revealed that the building they live in is for sale and, surprise surprise, all three flatmates are skint.

Violet’s relationship with her therapist, Sara and Parker all help her to grow and ultimately come to accept that there are things she isn’t meant to know and that there are things greater than herself.

This film has at its core a heartfelt and poignant subject and I can’t help but feel that the main characters were just a little too irritating to be able to connect with the film completely. Violet doesn’t come across as troubled, she comes across as an insensitive, self-absorbed brat with daddy issues. If that was the effect the director was going for, Ryman plays it well. Combine this with the frustratingly unreadable and moody bartender and we have a film that focuses too much on whether these two will get together, rather than the whole point of the film, to make the audience ponder their own mortality and the fragility of life.

In the end I was left feeling the film could have been half an hour shorter and would have worked better from a completely different angle. The film would have been a lot more thought provoking and hard hitting from Sara’s point of view. The film takes a very emotional subject and manages to make it quite clinical, which I think is a real shame.

Review by Dom Gwyther.

Josh Trank’s Chronicle is a strange beast. To call it a sleeper hit seems almost too obvious at this point as the film currently stands atop both the UK and the US box office. For those who have missed the campaign the central premise of the film is to take two apposing cinema trends of the last few years and force them together. Here the superhero film is crossed with the ‘found footage’ idea made famous by Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity.

A superpower film might be a more accurate description however as, refreshingly the film’s teenage protagonists do not run straight for the spandex as soon as they discovered their powers. Instead they do what we know in our heart of hearts we’d all do at first; they play. The juvenile antics of Andrew (Dane DaHaan) Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordan) provide the much needed comedy and lightness of touch missing from the rest of the film.

From the shooting style to the dreary Seattle setting the tone remains dark even throughout the frivolity of a high school party (complete with the now customary red and blue plastic cups). The darker tone owes much to the central character of Andrew. It’s through Andrew’s camera that we view the majority of the action, and although this premise is sometimes stretched a little too thin it does allow a sense of realism which combined with the subtle special effects of the superpowers, provides a new take on the superpower film that has been done in almost every variation up till now.

As the film explores Andrews troubled life his slow decent (hinted at strongly in the trailer) is portrayed perfectly by DaHaan. It is this kind of subtle and layered character development that would have been perfect for the Star Wars prequels, to see Anakin turn to the ‘dark side’ in the same way as Andrew would have been far more satisfying.

By the time the film reaches its conclusion Trank has pulled out every possible technique in order to preserve the ‘found footage’ premise using every conceivable camera to provide a new angle on the complicated events. Although the majority of these work, the character of Casey (Ashley Hinshaw) a little too convenient. As a video blogger Casey conveniently films a number of conversations between her and Matt as well as a panicked drive into the city. At times this pushes the premise to breaking point as audiences are taken out of the action simply thinking – ‘why would you film that?’

Chronicle provides a bold, dark and realistic take on a well worn premise and through strong performances from the entire cast as well as a lingering unexplained mystery is sure to secure its place as a cult hit.

Review by Big Rich.

This is one of those films I remember from my childhood. I never watched it but the VHS cover in the video store will stay with me forever. A man in a biker helmet with a flamethrower, with carnage in montage all around him. This memory is cemented deeper by family holidays. In St Ives there is a newsagents on Fore Street. That newsagents used to rent videos and on the walls they had numerous one sheets. One of those was The Exterminator, the others were Robocop and Big Trouble in Little China. Well my young mind was ablaze, terror, excitement and the need to see such a film. “The dude has a goddamn flamethrower” I was 8 or 9 and that was the shit!

The film however does not meet up to expectation, but you knew I was gonna say that. 22 years have passed since that little boy saw the poster, and I’m a little bit more harder to please. The film is the usual story of guy returns from vietnam, sees all the bad things going on in his neighborhood, then decides to even the score. The film kicks off with a bang, literally, as we see our protagonist and his soldier buddies getting blown up, kicked, shot and in glorious technicolor beheaded. After the confusing start we are thrown to – then – present day New York to see how our new friends are re-adjusting. I’ll take a side note hear to comment on how awesome the film looks when we see a side of New York that we rarely see in the movies. New York at work, the docks, the broken down, ripped apart and burnt remains of the cities housing projects and abandoned buildings. I’ve always loved the fact that New York wasn’t all that until the mid to late 80’s, how it was a hell hole of a town and it was a dirty and broken as it looks in the movies. With The Exterminator, for all it’s downfalls, it shows a true New York.

Anyway, I digress. The film is slow, so bloody slow. Not much happens until The Exterminators best friend gets badly beaten by local gang, the street ghouls. This is where we enter, what I lovingly call, jump cut city. The director hates to fill in gaps. So we go from one seen in a hospital where The Exterminator says nothing about payback, to a scene involving a gang member being caught and tortured for info. Now I can happily put two and two together but for the love of God why not have the dots joined here then needlessly show the whole life story of street wise copper Dalton who is tasked with bringing The Exterminator to justice. Now I mean we see everything about this cat Dalton. If you add it u he has more screen time than The Exterminator. We see what and where he eats, sleeps, who he sleeps with, we watch him on dates, we watch him at work. All the while we should be watching the titular characters story unfold. But thats it. This film is a mess of ideas, for those of you who watched Lost and know what I mean by writers not having an ending so just making it up as they go along you’ll know what I mean. Thats the overall feeling of the film. I’m not asking much, just bloody know what you want to do with a film, at least choose a point of view.

The Exterminator will always be a video nasty, will always be a grainy tease that people will remember for the trailer and never the film. Will always be a mess, not terrible, not great just a mix of too many ideas. If this was put together as a story or concept now then it would be laughed at because it’s a cliche. And that many films have been and gone and some have been better. The Exterminator’s lack of budget, lack of focused story and definite lack of charm is it’s downfall. One of these wouldn’t be so bad but all of them destroys it. Don’t go showing me story line when in the first five minutes you promised me guts and gore and shit blowing up. I’ll always love this film, not for the actual movie, but for the memory of seeing that awesome poster on a video store wall.