Marcy (Siobhan Williams) has gone through some trauma in her life. She deals with it by drinking and although she would never admit that she’s an alcoholic, all the signs are there. Then one day after it’s her job to fire an employee, he comes back with a gun and unleashes his anger on the staff, killing many of Marcy’s co-workers, but leaving her alive with a colleague dying in her arms.
This unsurprisingly tips Marcy over the edge and she decides to go and stay with her sister in California so that she can get her head together. Along the way she decides to stay at a boarding house run by Mrs. Inman (Agam Darshi) and soon Marcy finds that as her guilt and trauma plays on her mind, it effects how she feels about the place she has chosen to stay.
Bright Hill Road is a psychological horror directed by Robert Cuffley and written by Susie Moloney. Probably taking inspiration from many stories and experiences of addiction, Bright Hill Road could be said to be more of a character study on the affects of alcohol on a person rather than an all-out horror. Although there are certain aspects that unnerve Marcy as she finds she is trapped at the boarding house.
All the cast play their parts well, especially Williams whose frequent torment from her troubled mind and the supernatural elements that surround her all help her to question where she is, why she can’t leave and what’s really going on.
Unfortunately, it won’t take audiences long before they realise what’s really going on at Bright Hill Road and the revelation of Marcy’s true fate may surprise very few.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ggqOPVDxY
There are also some supernatural elements that don’t really work as well as they should if the movie wants to keep the audience in suspense.
The question of whether Marcy is being punished for her addiction or whether the hotel is teaching her how to deal with her addiction becomes a little confused. Although that may keep the audience guessing, it also feels that the film doesn’t have a clear path. Also The Eagles may have wrote a similar thing about 40 years ago.
Gints Zilbalodis; director, writer, producer, animator and film score creator of mesmerising animation AWAY, will be releasing his critically acclaimed film to UK digital download platforms with Munro Films on January 18th.
AWAY was a labour of love spanning 3 1/2 years and a journey Gints embarked on alone, with no formal training and on a shoestring budget.
AWAY is a stunning, dialogue-free film about a boy travelling across an island on a motorcycle, trying to escape a dark spirit and get back home. Along the way, he makes a series of connections with different animals and reflects on the possible ways he ended up on the island. Part dream, part reality, AWAY explores our common, universal need to find a connection.
When asked about the relevance of the boy’s solo journey to the thousands of people in the UK isolated in lockdown at the moment, Gints says “I hope that AWAY shows how important it is for us as humans to find connections with others and that we need to keep going.” He praises the power of visual storytelling and symbolism, which encourages viewers to assign their own meanings to films.
The will to keep going through this seemingly impossible project was something that Gints struggled with personally. He says that AWAY is ultimately a reflection of his own creative journey, which he set out on alone as a “very inexperienced” 24 year old. After leaving arts high school, Gints went straight into independent animation, having several short films under his belt already. He knew nothing about making music or where to start with creating a feature film.
Gints started by sticking with what he knew and drew on his grounding in short film making. He says, “I decided to split the story in 4 parts and make them as 4 separate short films, which could eventually be put together again and shown as a feature. This made the transition from making shorts to features a bit easier for me, because I could focus on one chapter at a time and not be overwhelmed by the amount of work to do.”
The score, which has been hailed ‘wonderful’ and ‘entrancing’ by critics was inspired by minimalist musicians Max Richter, Philip Glass, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Gints maintains that his lack of composition knowledge was actually beneficial in hindsight. He says, “I wanted to avoid a traditional orchestral score and thought that a more atmospheric, minimalistic feel would be better suited to AWAY.” After being overwhelmed by the professional music creation software, Gints took to experimenting on different music apps for beginners on his phone. As he got more confident, he moved on to computer programs to manipulate sounds, which made the score wholly unique to the film and organic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgF5XAWNarw
Gints’ refreshing and simplistic take on animation was called was called ‘sublime’ (Total Film), ‘Wondrous’ (Guardian) and ‘simply extraordinary’ (Metro) by critics on its release in cinemas in August. AWAY also won the prestigious Contrechamp Award at Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2019, amongst others. A mind blowing achievement for a single handed creative.
You only have to look as far as the credits after a Disney or Pixar film to know that feature length animations like this usually take a village. To have only one name at the end of AWAY makes it a freak of nature (in a good way) and a testament to the filmmaker’s unwavering grit and determination. Gints is currently working on his second animated feature film Flow.
Gints Zilbalodis; director, writer, producer, animator and film score creator of mesmerising animation AWAY, will be releasing his critically acclaimed film to UK digital download platforms with Munro Films on January 18th.
AWAY was a labour of love spanning 3 1/2 years and a journey Gints embarked on alone, with no formal training and on a shoestring budget.
AWAY is a stunning, dialogue-free film about a boy travelling across an island on a motorcycle, trying to escape a dark spirit and get back home. Along the way, he makes a series of connections with different animals and reflects on the possible ways he ended up on the island. Part dream, part reality, AWAY explores our common, universal need to find a connection.
When asked about the relevance of the boy’s solo journey to the thousands of people in the UK isolated in lockdown at the moment, Gints says “I hope that AWAY shows how important it is for us as humans to find connections with others and that we need to keep going.” He praises the power of visual storytelling and symbolism, which encourages viewers to assign their own meanings to films.
The will to keep going through this seemingly impossible project was something that Gints struggled with personally. He says that AWAY is ultimately a reflection of his own creative journey, which he set out on alone as a “very inexperienced” 24 year old. After leaving arts high school, Gints went straight into independent animation, having several short films under his belt already. He knew nothing about making music or where to start with creating a feature film.
Gints started by sticking with what he knew and drew on his grounding in short film making. He says, “I decided to split the story in 4 parts and make them as 4 separate short films, which could eventually be put together again and shown as a feature. This made the transition from making shorts to features a bit easier for me, because I could focus on one chapter at a time and not be overwhelmed by the amount of work to do.”
The score, which has been hailed ‘wonderful’ and ‘entrancing’ by critics was inspired by minimalist musicians Max Richter, Philipp Glass, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Gints maintains that his lack of composition knowledge was actually beneficial in hindsight. He says, “I wanted to avoid a traditional orchestral score and thought that a more atmospheric, minimalistic feel would be better suited to AWAY.” After being overwhelmed by the professional music creation software, Gints took to experimenting on different music apps for beginners on his phone. As he got more confident, he moved on to computer programs to manipulate sounds, which made the score wholly unique to the film and organic.
Gints’ refreshing and simplistic take on animation was called was called ‘sublime’ (Total Film), ‘Wondrous’ (Guardian) and ‘simply extraordinary’ (Metro) by critics on its release in cinemas in August. AWAY also won the prestigious Contrechamp Award at Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2019, amongst others. A mind blowing achievement for a single handed creative.
You only have to look as far as the credits after a Disney or Pixar film to know that feature length animations like this usually take a village. To have only one name at the end of AWAY makes it a freak of nature (in a good way) and a testament to the filmmaker’s unwavering grit and determination. Gints is currently working on his second animated feature film Flow.
Prima Projectors: Small But Powerful – Having all your content in your pocket is nothing new now. We’ve been loading our games, movies, music and more onto our smartphones for years.
But, what if you could not only store your content in your pocket, but also have a huge HD screen, stereo speakers and Wi-Fi anywhere you wanted? Amazingly the folks at Prima has produced what has to be the most compact and powerful portable projector on out there.
The ultimate cinema experience now fits in your pocket projector. Check this out – a massive 200-inch HD projection from a projector the size of an iPhone.
Cinema-quality video on any surface. Movies are more engrossing, watching Premier League champions Liverpool becomes more thrilling, and gaming is unbelievable in life-size HD quality on the best portable projector.
Just check out these stats:
Easily pocket this video projector, wherever you go: portable slim and as light as an iPhone 8 Plus!
Powerful 1080p resolution and projection of up to 200 inches, so you can watch your movies in HD
This smart projector has support for 3D videos and 4K resolution decoding
Cutting edge DLP technology makes Prima ideal in all environments
Operate this mini movie projector from anywhere with the Bluetooth remote
Connect via USB, headphone jack, Airplay, screen mirroring, Bluetooth and HDMI/MHL
Built-in screen sharing for Android and iOS on this mini portable projector.
Keystone correction so your projector can be used anywhere
This mobile projector has up to 3 hours of internal battery
Prima’s goal is not to create just another home cinema projector. they’re dedicated to changing the way you think about entertainment.
Disney+ Talk With Megan Williams: Marvel Studios Legends
Out of all of Marvel’s Disney+ series that are coming, ‘Wandavision’ is the one that I am looking forward to the most. But, before the first episode comes out next week, the Disney streaming service has released a series called ‘Marvel Studios Legends’. These are 7-minute short recap episodes, focusing on a specific Marvel Studios character per episode.
Episode 1 revolves around Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlett Witch. It showcases her introduction in 2014’s ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, all the way to ‘Avengers: Endgame’. Played by Elizabeth Olsen, she was a mysterious and really interesting character with amazing supernatural powers. She was also one I wanted to see more of.
Unfortunately, the films never gave her a moment to shine fully and her story arc was poorly dealt with. Watching her story recapped, it made me realize how little of an appearance she had within each MCU film but makes me cautiously hopeful for the upcoming ‘Wandavision’ show. Hopefully, the show will place her centre stage and handle her character development better.
Episode 2 revolves around the cyborg Vision. Played by Paul Bettany, he was originally the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S in 2008’s ‘Iron Man’, before becoming Vision in 2015’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. Despite having an interesting development/transformation, this was another character that wasn’t given much thought when it came to writing.
Admittedly, he is a cyborg, so some robotic acting is to be expected. But the direction and acting are extremely bland, compared to other robotic/cyborg characters in other films; an example being the Iron Giant from the 1999 film of the same name. That character has more life in its voice acting and movements compared to Vision, and that character is an actual robot.
Overall, watching ‘Marvel Studios Legends’ has made me realize how badly Wanda and Vision were handled in terms of writing. It was nice to be reminded of their scenes per Marvel film, but there also aren’t many compared to the other characters in the MCU. This is why I’m looking forward to ‘Wandavision’: I want these characters to be given a second chance, and this will be that second chance.
Leo (George Johnson) is a drug addict who’s in need of a fix and is willing to do anything to get it. He’s been through the roughest parts of addiction and come out the other end of it looking so much worse for it and this is where the audience finds him now.
Desperate to find his next high and with only a vague recollection of where he can get it, Leo enlists his impressionable cousin, Louis (Samuel Wyatt) to help him to convince somebody to give him what he needs. However, the price may be too high for some people, but to Leo who only sees his own pleasure as the end goal – he’ll do anything.
Lemonheads is a comedy drama written and directed by Ryder and Dawson Doupé and Todd Tapper. In the same vein (pun intended) as such stoner comedies as The Big Lebowski and Trainspotting, Lemonheads has the feeling of the latter, but without the style of the former – but what does?
Instead, Johnson gives the audience his best performance as a likeable single-minded stoner and his determined influence over the people around him. The problem is that although this works for the majority of the movie and there are some funny lines with an interesting cast filled with unique and eccentric characters, by the movie’s final act the tone changes dramatically.
This leaves Johnson trying to do his best with the way he’s decided to portray the character, but makes him feel like he’s in another movie altogether.
Admittedly though, for the writer/directors to be so young and to come out the other end with something as tightly scripted, with an interesting cast of characters, it shows that they may have a future.
There are directors twice their age with more movies under their belt that still can’t seem to get it right, and yet the trio may have found a perfect team in their debut feature. As a first try, Lemonheads is far more accomplished than anyone may have expected, and although there are certainly lessons to be learned, the young filmmakers are sure to have a future.
