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  • Jolt – Review: Kinetic Ride Through Anger Management

    Jolt – Review: Kinetic Ride Through Anger Management

    Jolt – Review: Kinetic Ride through Anger Management. By Jan Kalina

    Lindy has anger issues. Not the kind which you can solve through anger management or subdue by some pills. No. Lindy’s anger issues are more neurological ( in the film explained as her cortisol levels are off the chart). In short, Lindy has a short fuse. A very short fuse. She gets very angry quickly and she has had this problem ever since she was a kid. Now over the years spent in a mental institution, a shady therapist has a solution that works. Through a device strapped to her body she gives herself electric shocks to her body.

    High voltage released at the push of a button. Nothing seems to keep her in check until she meets Justin. Justing, a boring ordinary accountant is just the calming presence Lindy needs. And then around the time the third date comes….. Justin is taken away. The only good thing in her life. The only person who made her feel normal. For a second she didn’t feel the need to snap some necks. But now she has to find who did this and snap some necks, and kick some other (mostly male) body parts we shall leave to the reader’s imaginations. And maybe work through some anger issues. Maybe.

    Now it would be too easy to dismiss this film as a female John Wick but that would not do it justice. (But then again John Wick is just another revenge flick plot wise but enhances the experience elsewhere) Because is John Wick this insanely funny? Jolt is filled with off-kilter humor and sardonic wit that keeps the film moving at a crazy pace. One of the highlights is the scene at the hospital where newborn babies are used as distractions. It’s a set piece straight out of the Naked Gun series.

    To explain how the film, the action scenes and the humor work perhaps the best example would be to ask a what if question: what if Atomic Blonde was an action comedy with a a bit of cartoon logic sprinkled here and there?

    Perhaps the only gripe with the film is the unnecessary twist towards the end which then renders almost every single character in the film as a villain. And the last scene of the film seems just odd. At first I thought it is setting up a sequel but it is too self contained so it just spells doom and gloom for the character. Which then again renders any progress Lindy has as useless, if she will become a government puppet. The film and the story deserves to be more self-contained. Maybe that final scene should have been a post-credits scene.

    But despite some flaws towards the end Jolt is another great film from Tanya Wexler, that is entertaining all the way through. It is filled with so much energy and dark humor that you won’t regret the time you spent with it. I hope to see Kate Beckinsale in more action films after Jolt.

  • Dear Hacker: Review – Fantasia Fest Selection

    Dear Hacker: Review – Fantasia Fest Selection

    A sight that has become all the more common is the video call screen. It’s not just the increased time using any such service over the pandemic, but the emergence of films like Unfriended and Searching, studio productions which were shot entirely over one of these services using computer webcams.

    Dear Hacker, the debut film of French artist and Paris 8 University researcher Alice Lenay, also utilises this format. While at times it feels so hyper-real that its easy to conclude that it must be fictional, it is in fact a documentary. The fledgling film maker proves a congenial host and, like her namesake of Lewis Carroll’s seminal novel, enters a rabbit hole much larger than it was expected to be, taking the audience along with her.

    Lenay begins by explaining her goal: to work out why the green light on her webcam keeps turning itself on and off. Is it just a glitch? Has she been hacked and someone is spying on her? Or is it something more? To try and find out the truth, she conducts a series of interviews with people who know more about such matters than she does, though Lenay seems to be after more than just tech advice.

    It is not made entirely clear what the aims of Dear Hacker are. Lenay raises more questions than her film answers, some of them far-removed from the technology itself. While to begin with she is asking whether or not someone has invaded her privacy and what to do to prevent it, she starts going into more existential territory, trying to determine if what each interviewee believes is wrong is in fact down to their personal beliefs.

    Her subjects are given no introduction with which to explain why they are there to talk about the subject, but they all give levels of insight and expertise in a number of areas to qualify themselves. Each do well to answer Lenay’s line of questioning, even though some are visibly dumbstruck by the depth of conversation they have suddenly found themselves in.

    Dear Hacker raises some interesting discussion points, namely how computers have changed our personal relationships. When video calling someone instead of communicating with other people, we are talking to cameras and screens, making this supposed personal exchange in fact very impersonal and inhuman. It also touches on how fragile our reliance on technology is when hardware can easily break and connections to the online space can be lost.

    In addition to the main topic points, there are also some amusing moments: Lenay striking provocative poses for her potential stalker, a technician calming a fussy client’s concerns over their supposedly malfunctioning computer by putting a cactus on their desk.

    The film is barely an hour long but there are some clear pieces of padding, such as background shots of Lenay’s empty apartment and a clip of Brian Cox talking about the universe. Moments like this make it an even more confusing experience, whether or not that is supposed to be the point. If it is exploring the subject of how easily our personal devices can be hacked then it, than it falls short. If in fact it is trying to play with the documentary format and provide a somewhat surrealistic mediation on technology, Dear Hacker succeeds for better and for worse.

  • Whelm: Review

    Whelm: Review

    August (Ronan Colfer) and Reed (Dylan Grunn) are brothers, estranged after the events of World War One, they try to reconnect, but it seems that they can only find something to work on together when they get involved in finding the true identity of a man called Alexander Aleksy.

    This leads to trouble though and soon the brothers find themselves caught up in a feud between a bank robber with a legendary reputation and a young, eccentric criminal determined to take him down.

    Whelm is the directorial debut of writer/director Skyler Lawson which feels like it should be the tentpole feature of a seasoned director rather than the first attempt at something so grandiose. Everything from Lawson’s intricate script, accomplished direction, cinematography and production value screams something that took millions to make.

    However, Lawson has managed to put together a cast and crew so accomplished that it’s hard to believe that they had so little to work with.

    A Louisiana story that takes place during the prohibition era, Whelm feels like anything but the kinds of films like The Untouchables and One Upon a Time in America. Instead, it has the feeling of a western alongside the likes of The Assassination of Jesse James and it’s this mixture of genres and styles that makes it so compelling. Told at a leisurely pace, Whelm wants to draw in its audience and force them to listen to the dialogue while they’re taking in the scenery and the beauty of what Lawson has crafted.

    Whelm feels like something an audience may have stumbled across, a hidden gem by somebody who went on to make a series of films which were much better known and surely Lawson will be able to do just that. Colfer and Grunn are the central focus of the film and so therefore their chemistry and believability are crucial, so thankfully they both play their parts well.

    However, Whelm may not be for those who are expecting a quick witted, gun totting action drama, although there are moments of immense tension, it pays off best for those willing to pay attention to the details. Lawson may have done the impossible and will surely be a director to watch.

  • Eye Without A Face: Review

    Eye Without A Face: Review

    Henry (Dakota Shapiro) is lonely and struggles with anxiety issues brought on by childhood trauma from an abusive father. His roommate, Eric (Luke Cook) couldn’t be more different though as he’s a minor social media star and everything is about people seeing him doing amazing things. Henry also has a secret – he hacks into people’s webcams and watches them go about their lives and enjoys the comfort of watching their stories unfold when he feels like he shouldn’t exist.

    Then one day while Henry is watching Laura (Vlada Verevko), one of his favourite people, he realises that she’s drugged and murdered her date. Shocked and having no idea what to do, Henry and Eric start to devise a plan to bring Laura to justice despite only have partially knowing where she lives. However, when Laura finds out, she vows to track down Henry and take her revenge.

    Eye Without a Face is a familiar story brought up to date for the modern age and does so surprisingly well, with a great script, likeable characters and a thrilling plot. The idea to update Rear Window and to put it on a computer screen is a great idea and is done so easily that it’s hard to believe that nobody had ever done it before.

    Shapiro and Cook also have a great chemistry and both play their parts well. The former displays a nervous, anxiety ridden character and the latter is so obnoxious and self-absorbed that it feels like it shouldn’t work. Yet the pair are good on screen and the audience will believe in their unlikely friendship.

    However, there are some issues that revolve around the plot and the ending. As with Rear Window, there has to be a certain suspension of disbelief and as with the original, the events of the film have to happen in front of the protagonist. This is where it falls down slightly because once Laura knows Henry is watching then she can easily make him stop.

    Also, unfortunately there’s a twist ending that while it fits with the rest of the film and is cleverly surprising, it does also fall back onto a lazy trope from one of Hitchcock’s other films.

    Eye Without a Face is well told, ambitious and daring to take on such a familiar story, it’s just a shame that by trying to doing something so different that it falls in its final moments.

  • The Boy Behind The Door: Review

    The Boy Behind The Door: Review

    Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are best friends. They spend a lot of time together and are practically inseparable, then one day while they are out playing, they get kidnapped. The boys find themselves in a house and somewhere they don’t recognise and the panic as anybody would, particularly when they are faced with their captors.

    However, Bobby manages to escape and makes a run for it, although hearing Kevin’s screams, he realises that he cannot leave his best friend behind – so he goes back inside the house. What happens next is a cat and mouse game and a fight for survival that men twice their age may not be able to escape from.

    The Boy Behind the Door is an intense psychological horror on Shudder about two young boys and the bond they share as they fight for their lives. Probably the last taboo of horror, putting children in danger is probably the last thing any horror director would think of doing, except perhaps for John Carpenter in the Seventies. Saying that though, the movie plays out just as any other horror movie would, except that the protagonists are children.

    Both Chavis and Dewey do well in their roles, making the audience believe in their friendship and their willingness to do anything for each other. Although it’s Lonnie Chavis’ performance that shines through as he has to hold the weight of the movie as he tries to free his best friend.

    The Boy Behind the Door is indeed tense, but unfortunately it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t fall into familiar cliches and once the cat and mouse game begins, then the cliches come thick and fast. As mentioned earlier, the lead characters could be anyone in this kind of situation and they’re usually lone women as is often the case. However, despite its unique set up it tends to rely too much on what the audience already knows about horror.

    The ways that the boys get around and manage to overcome their assailants on multiple occasions are often down to luck rather than intelligence. The ways that the movie is stretched out so that the boys have time to think and consider their next move does mean a certain suspension of disbelief as well.

    Even the way that the villain finally has their comeuppance is something that has been seen in horror movies many times before. The Boy Behind the Door is still a well-made horror, just don’t expect much innovation.