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  • Happiest Season: The BRWC Review

    Happiest Season: The BRWC Review

    Like nestling in a cozy blanket on a winter’s day, Christmas films offer a comforting celebration of Yuletide traditions. The great offerings are remembered as iconic holiday staples (A Christmas Story and Elf), while even the cheesy, Lifetime-esque films hold their own guilty pleasure appeal. The latest in the subgenre Happiest Season imbues its traditional formula with a thoughtful lens, with writer/director Clea DuVall crafting an earnest celebration of the seasonal values

    Happiest Season follows Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis), a happy couple who looks forward to celebrating their first Christmas together. When the two travel to Harper’s family (parents played by Victor Garber and Mary Steenburgen), Abby learns that her partner has yet to reveal her sexuality to her parents. Their relationship is put to the test as they’re run through the gauntlet of Yuletide celebrations.

    Like all great romantic comedies, Happiest Season boasts a winning ensemble cast. Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis are an effervescent onscreen pair. Stewart’s subdued, yet deft comedic hand matches perfectly with Davis’ bright onscreen presence, allowing the two to morph their archetype characters into lived-in personas. The stacked supporting cast also has a blast throughout the production, with Dan Levy, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Steenburgen, and Mary Holland (who also co-wrote the script) delivering movie star charisma.

    The inclusive sensibility behind Happiest Season‘s LGBTQ identity is commendable, yet it would mean very little if the subject matter wasn’t handled with a genuine eye. DuVall proves she’s the right voice to tell this story, articulating intimate nuances behind Abby and Harper’s relationship dynamic. Both characters are written from an empathetic perspective, with Abby’s frustration for an open-book lifestyle clashing with Harper’s personal insecurities without judgment towards either side. This choice imbues the typically mawkish rom-com conflict with a refreshing dose of reality, allocating genuine steaks for audiences to invest in.

    That isn’t to discredit Happiest Season’s allures as a romantic comedy, with DuVall and company lovingly leaning into the genre’s well-known framework. DuVall’s sensible style handles the set-up’s innate zaniness without getting too cartoon-y, re-packaging the typically artificial business for a more self-assured comedic voice. The laughs here register without vying desperately for the audience’s attention. DuVall’s handling of the traditional rom-com plot beats is similarly well-tuned. There’s a self-awareness streak that never feels overly-sly, as everyone involved seems well-versed in what makes these genre moments sing.

    Happiest Season renders an infectiously warm glow, eliciting the kind of sweatpants-level comfort that turns films of this ilk into beloved staples.

  • Terracotta VOD Service Launches

    Terracotta VOD Service Launches

    Terracotta Distribution launches the UK’s first Video On Demand (VOD) platform dedicated to East Asian cinema. The new streaming service will showcase a range of new and classic genre, arthouse and indie films from across East and South East Asia. The launch is being marked with a time-limited retrospective of highlights from the celebrated Terracotta Far East Film Festival, which was set up alongside the label.

    Films are available on the platform to rent now, with plans to explore subscription and hybrid models in the near future. Terracotta Managing Director, Joey Leung, says: “We are so happy to have a streaming site purely for Asian film and really pleased with the mix of classics, emerging directors and new releases we’ve put together. We’re really excited to have the Festival Retrospective too, and we hope festival goers will love re-visiting some of their favourite films from past editions. There are so many amazing films coming out of Asia that really need to be seen but never make it over here due to inefficiencies in the system, and now we can help to match film to audience in a more direct way.”

    As an introductory launch offer, a selection of titles will be available to rent for just £1 during the Black Friday weekend.

    Content highlights include the ‘Japanese Evil Dead’ Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell, a collection of golden-age Jackie Chan films from the 80s and 90s and classics from the Korean New Wave never before released in the UK, including April Snow, Il Mare and Christmas in August.

    Also on the Terracotta platform is an exclusive collection of films by Lee Sang-woo, an auteur director very much in the style of Kim Ki-duk, whose films deal with topics of society’s marginalised underclass, the same types of characters explored in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. Starting with his debut Tropical Manila, Terracotta are showcasing an exclusive selection of seven of his films.

    With cinemas shut this is the perfect time to explore East Asian film from your own home– for less than the price of a coffee. 

    The new VOD platform compliments Terracotta’s existing online store for Asian cinema on physical DVD and Blu-ray.

  • Concrete Plans Trailer Hits

    Concrete Plans Trailer Hits

    Watch exclusive interactive trailer for bloody Brit thriller Concrete Plans 

    Check out this interactive trailer below for Concrete Plans, a thriller with 4 star reviews and 8.2 on iMDb.

    Some debts are paid in blood…

    A manor house in disrepair and a landowner with a fierce temper and cash flow problem meets his match when confronted with a bill he can’t pay. Time is running out and the builders living on his land want their pound of flesh. When it becomes clear there is no cash, a red mist descends, the class divide widens and a simple dispute turns into a shockingly horrific display of violence as events spiral out of control. 

    Starring James Lance (Ted Lasso), Amber Rose Revah (The Punisher) and Steve Speirs (Upstart Crow), Written and directed by Will Jewell. Concrete Plans original score by Paul Hartnoll of dance music legends Orbital.

    A visceral snapshot of the United Kingdom – tense, divided and balanced on a knife-edge. Topics such as migrant labour, class tension, tax evasion and toxic masculinity are woven into a taut Neo Western Thriller that grips and twists towards a devastating climax.

    High in the remote Welsh mountains five builders are housed in a mouldy portacabin; thrown together to renovate a sprawling old farmhouse.

    Tensions soon simmer between the men and the self- entitled aristocratic homeowner, as well as amongst the rag tag group of men themselves. Bob, the kindly foreman, attempts to keep the peace as the bigoted Jim becomes a malign influence, taking a dislike to Ukranian labourer Viktor and slowly poisoning Bob’s own nephew against him.

    As the weather closes in and payments are late, tempers fray. Blood is spilled. As the blue-collar men are confronted with an increasingly dark spiral of moral choices, Jim – now de-facto leader – makes an astonishing proposition…

    For more info and to buy the film www.concreteplans.co.uk/watch

  • Demitrius Omphroy: A Quick Chat

    Demitrius Omphroy: A Quick Chat

    By Eleanor Klein. Demitrius Omphroy: A Quick Chat – Today we had the opportunity to chat with Demitruis Omphroy. A Soccer Star turned Contemporary Artist.

    What is your favorite place on earth? 

    My favorite place on earth is where I am now, New York City! It’s the perfect blend of hustle and bustle, and constantly feeling creatively inspired wherever I go each day. I haven’t spent enough time in other cities that aren’t my hometown, to say they are my favorite places just yet. However, I do love Europe. The next step for me is to move to Paris, London, or Madrid.

    Plain or Pattern? 

    I’m more of a “plain” person – or I guess a “solid” person. I like simple and minimal. A simplified look to me has much more purpose and intent to the content, whereas pattern comes off to me more as being louder. I don’t
    always love being yelled at.

    Acrylic Paint or Watercolor? 

    I really love acrylic paint, it’s what I paint with currently. Because of the scale of the pieces that I paint, I enjoy using acrylic. It allows me to be a little messier. I enjoy the freedom that acrylic provides with my brushwork,
    whereas with watercolor, I feel like I need to be a lot more precise without much room for error.

    Soccer or Art?  

    Soccer or art, currently? I don’t play as much soccer as I’d like to, so I’d say art! Soccer was and still is, a huge part of my life, but I don’t feel the need to get out and kick the ball as much as I did when I was younger. Art for me
    allows me to express, all times of the day, anywhere I want to express in the world. Art was with me even before soccer, but if I’ve gotta choose NOW, I’m going with art! Soccer will always be in my heart though.

    What art equipment can you not live without? 

    My Sketchbook, a pencil, and brushes. I’ve also really become accustomed to using black and white acrylic paints. I’m okay doing without everything else. I can paint on anything, clothing, canvas, paper – so I just need my
    essentials to express! I like to think that at any point, I could put what I need in a backpack and travel somewhere– those are all the things I would need.

    What is on your music playlist right now?

    Oh wow, such a range of music. I have everything from Bon Iver, Mumford and Sons, to Sam Cooke, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong. Then swinging over to a completely different genre – I have Pop Smoke, Dominic Fike, to Frank Ocean and James Arthur. It all really just depends on how I’m feeling in the moment. I have a tendency to make a playlist though and just listen to it over and over for like a week – so this list is constantly changing. I’m currently going through an oldies phase.

    Favorite book?

    My favorite book is The Alchemist by Paulo Cuelho. My dad gave it to my back in 2008 and I finally read it for the first-time last year, 2019. It was such a moving story – I’m a big dreamer. I feel like the book really played into what I need to remind myself of: It’s about the journey not the destination. I have a tendency to always think about the end goal and move past the lessons learned along the way. For me it’s a reminder to value everything that is happening now. This is what is responsible for the me I am going to become – I just need to pay attention to it.

    Favorite Movie?

    This is such a tough one, how can I just choose one movie!? If you know me, then you know I love Midnight in Paris. I have watched it dozens of times. Again, a story about a dreamer that wants to give up everything and start
    somewhere new. I always think about how cool that would be to just drop everything and move to Paris. Obviously with the current state of the world with the pandemic, that isn’t the easiest to do right now. But that would be a
    dream and definitely hope to do that in my future! As far as an animated film though, Shrek! I can probably recitethe first half of that movie word for word.

    You can follow Demitrius on Instagram

    https://www.instagram.com/demit/?hl=en

  • Patrick: Review

    Patrick: Review

    By Hugues Porquier.

    “Patrick” is a film by Tim Mielants, mainly known for his work on Peaky Blinders season 3. Accustomed to the TV shows format, “Patrick” is Tim Mielants’ first feature film. It had its world premiere at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it competed for the Crystal Globe, winning the Best Director Award for Mielants.

    The film follows Patrick (played by Kevin Janssens), a 38 years old man who lives and works as a handyman in a nudist camp owned by his parents. His mother is blind and his father is getting too old to run the camp properly. Patrick looks like a child in the body of an adult. He looks completely innocent, naïve and he seems to be more gifted for practical work than for intellectual exercises.

    His work as a handyman has allowed him to develop a passion for his tools and a taste to create objects such as chairs, dressers and bookcases. But the sudden death of his father, patriarch and respected figure, will upset the balance of the nudist camp. However Patrick does not seem to be really affected by his father’s death.

    Something much more important has just happened to him, he lost one of his hammers. From that moment, we witness a story that goes from drama to comedy and vice versa. We follow Patrick in his quest to find his precious hammer. From now on, his whole life seems dedicated to this task.

    This quest allows us to discover several characters from the camp, each member of the camp quickly becomes a potential suspect for Patrick. These successive appearances give a good rhythm to the movie, which, in spite of some beautiful shots, seems quite slow in the first part. However, side stories around some characters does not seem really useful.

    We could take for example the character of Liliane. The film begins her presentation but never finishes it, so we can’t really understand her choices and her behaviour. During his investigation, Patrick will be victim of the sneakiness of the camp members who abuse his apparent naivety and his desire to find his hammer.

    Some want to take the lead of the camp like Herman and others just want to have free stays in exchange of information about his hammer. He will also meet a young and kind woman, Nathalie (played by Hannah Hoekstra). As Patrick, she is also victim of her innocence. She has been fooled by Dustin Apollo (played by Jemaine Clement), a music star.

    Nathalie sees in Patrick a sensitive man, who has a mad talent for the creation of furniture. She will try to make him realize that he can aspire to a much better life. The hammer will finally be found. It has been used to commit a murder in Brussels.

    Patrick will be logically accused of this crime before being quickly cleared. But the most important thing for Patrick is that he will never get his hammer back. At this moment, he seems to fully realize that his life will never be the same again due to his father’s death and the fact that his mother has decided to live somewhere else.

    He is facing an existential dilemma, between taking over his father’s work and going to live a new life with Nathalie. The use of nudity in this movie is questionable. It doesn’t bring anything special except for some scenes which feed the comic aspect of the movie.

    This film portrays a man endowed with a limitless innocence, who does not seem to have the weapons to live in a society such as ours, and who will have to go through a difficult transition, full of changes and unforeseen events. In spite of some script-writing weaknesses and a slight lack of rhythm « Patrick » is still a very convincing first feature film from Tim Mielants.