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Up On The Glass: Review

Jack DiMercurio (Chase Fein) has never really known what he wanted out of life. He’s always been jealous of one of his high school friends, Andy Shelton (Hunter Cross) as he always wishes he’d managed to get together with Liz (Chelsea Kurtz) who eventually became Andy’s wife. However, Jack tries to put the past behind him to reunite with Andy and their friend, Donald ‘Moze’ Mosely (Steve Holm), but after Moze leaves Jack and Andy alone, things get a little heated between the pair and old grievances rear their ugly heads.

This leads to a heavy altercation between Jack and Andy and after something terrible happens, Jack sees an opportunity to get closer to Liz to see if life in Andy’s shoes would have fit any better.

The problem is that as Jack’s conscience starts getting the better of him, he starts to wonder whether he’s doing the right thing as he gets closer to Liz. Also, Jack finds out that Andy and Liz’s life wasn’t as perfect as it looked on the surface.

Up on The Glass is a slow burn thriller and feature debut from director and co-writer, Kevin Del Principe. What seems to take a while to get going, Up on The Glass is merely setting the scene for what happens later and with a premise that easily could have been a predictable thriller turns out to be far more interesting.

The dialogue is well written with the cast all playing their parts well and despite the slightly outlandish occurrence about halfway through, Del Principe’s script and direction curiously maintains an air of realism as the audience is shown Jack’s inner turmoil between doing what he wants and what is right.

Those in the audience expecting a predictable, cheesy thriller may be disappointed as although Up on The Glass plays with these conventions, it intentionally never follows through on the familiar set ups and tropes of lesser titles.

In fact, the audience may even start siding with Jack as he starts to get everything he ever wanted, despite the fact that his methods are not so ethical. A film that may leave the audience a little frustrated as they don’t get every question answered, Up on The Glass dares to ask the audience whether Jack really deserves to get exactly what he wants.

7th September 2020
The Owners: Review

The Owners is a boilerplate thriller set amidst the wealthy British countryside. Three friends, Nathan (Ian Kenny), Terry (Andrew Ellis), and the wildcard Gaz (Jake Curran) attempt to rob an elderly home. When Nathan’s girlfriend Mary (Maisie Williams) interrupts their plans, the group decides to change course and confront the elders directly in order to get the safe password. When the Huggins return, a cat-and-mouse game ensues between the two sides as the old pair reveal some tricks up their sleeve.

While fairly straightforward in conception, The Owners tries to delicately twist its home invasion formula by playing against the audience’s expectations. Unfortunately for writers Julius Berg and Mathieu Gompel, their so-called twist can be seen coming from miles away, leaving audiences with a fairly commonplace genre diversion.

Under the banality, The Owners does establish a base level of competency. Julius Berg’s big-screen directorial debut displays some well-constructed chills, with the director injecting a stylistic flair to spice up familiar trappings. Not all the choices add to the narrative (an aspect ratio change in the third act lacks substance), but they do enhance the uneasy thrills while keeping audiences on their toes.

Berg’s assured cast also hold their own, with Maisie Williams continuing to display her natural ability as the film’s semi-lead. Veteran character actors Rita Tushingham and Sylvester McCoy make the biggest impression though, infusing the Higgins’ geriatric state with some sinister undertones.

There are glimmers of sweaty tension lingering throughout, yet The Owners sinks under the weight of its conceptual promise. The script becomes too self-satisfied with its simplistic approach, offering little depth to enhance the one-note character work and stale narrative.

There’s no thematic throughline to connect the underbaked elements, as the film simply offers nastiness without purpose and entertainment value. Considering films like Don’t Breathe have already taken this set-up and expanded upon its conventions, it isn’t enough for a film like this to simply go through the motions.

Closing on a gotcha ending that will leave most shrugging, The Owners rarely distinguishes itself from its genre counterparts.

6th September 2020
Herb Alpert Is… – Review

Who is Herb Alpert? Most commonly known as a trumpeter who led Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass in the 1960’s, Herb, now in his 80’s, has taken to visual arts. He is a painter and a sculptor as well as a philanthropist. “Herb Alpert Is…” from documentarian John Scheinfeld follows Alpert in the present day, showing his evolution from musician to artist and musician.

The most interesting part of this piece to me was showing how artists basically cannot escape art, and how one form of artistry can often mold into another. It is not uncommon for a musician or an entertainer to be interested in the visual arts and vice versa, it’s almost like artists have the creativity chip running through their veins and its unescapable.

I have to admit, being a millennial, I had heard some of Alpert’s music before but I wasn’t all that familiar with it. It was interesting to learn about him, and I really enjoyed seeing his daily life and learning his personality. Unlike many other famous musicians, Herb seems incredibly stable. It was refreshing to see a famous artist in their 80’s who has a sharp mind, and hadn’t passed away early due to drugs or some similar tragedy.

Herb seemed to have a nice home life, he has been married to Lani Hall since 1974. Maintaining a 46 year marriage in the entertainment business is admirable and rare, and Herb is truly an artist in every sense of the word. A man who cares deeply about his music and visual art, and someone who puts passion and commitment into everything he delves into, including his personal relationships. It was nice to see a man who didn’t allow fame to get to his head, he seems like a person I could sit down and have a coffee and a chit chat with and not feel like I wasn’t on his level.

That being said the documentary left something to be desired with the editing and pacing. We were able to learn who Herb was. His music, his artistry, his business career and other parts of his life that were important to him, but there wasn’t a linear storyline from his youth to the present day it was rather all mixed around; and I think the film could have held my attention better with a different approach.

I understand the filmmakers were trying to show all aspects of his life, but perhaps should have zeroed in better on one thing at a time to have a more cohesive storyline. The editing tended to jog from one part of his life around to another and simply didn’t feel fluid.

Aside from that, I do enjoy documentaries about musicians like Herb, and hope to see more of them. It was nice to travel back in time to an era where the music industry felt more pure. Where music was almost entirely based on talent and these extreme images that record labels and management teams create for musicians today weren’t necessary. The talent was raw, the artists were real, and the music not overproduced and auto tuned.

5th September 2020
Evil Under The Skin: Review

Deciding to spend a weekend away together, Sophie (Helene Udy) and her daughter, Roselee (Angela Barajas) prepare themselves for what could either be a great bonding experience or a terrible time opening old wounds and discussing past trauma. Sophie is also having trouble psychologically as she’s not taking her medication and is having demonic visions and horrific nightmares involving her daughter.

Matt (Tim O’Hearn) and Carla (Donna Hamblin) are ‘brother and sister’ and they seem to be up to no good and so when they see Sophie and realise that she’s not in her right mind, they see an opportunity for some fun.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Roy Keeps (Carl Bailey) and Ranger Jenny Ross (Pamela Sutch) are investigating a disturbance at the secluded lake house where Sophie and her daughter are staying. However, after realising that Sophie may be in need of some professional help, they become can’t decide on the right course of action.

Evil Under the Skin is the latest movie from director Jeffrey Schneider and is a masterclass in how to… make a bad movie. Usually a bad script, bad actors and a low budget can be excused if there’s a little fun to be had with the film, but unfortunately Evil Under the Skin doesn’t even manage that as there’s so much wrong with it.

The movie is slow and barely touching the ninety-minute mark, the uses tricks such as having numerous tracking shots along the lake, extended shots of Sophie’s inner turmoil and a few moments of gratuitous nudity thrown in for good measure, hoping to wake up or distract the audience.

Minor characters also have extended monologues about their traumatic pasts for no particular reason, and in one scene an unscripted car passes by in the secluded lakeside area which destroys any sense of isolated horror that the movie may have been trying to achieve. The ending could be said to be predictable, that’s if anybody’s still paying attention by that point, but for those who were still awake it would hardly be a surprise considering the poor quality of the rest of the movie.

5th September 2020
Valuable Tips For Student Filmmakers Starting Out

Valuable Tips for Student Filmmakers Starting Out

Being a complete beginner in filmmaking is always so great! During the first years of partaking in creating films: your head is full of ideas, your creativity is bursting with innovative concepts, and you are learning a lot about the process of making films on a daily basis.

Of course, as a student filmmaker, you are probably experiencing tons and tons of stress and anxiety due to not having a broad knowledge and experience base. To help you address your fears, we have created this list of valuable tips for student filmmakers that are only starting in this wonderful industry.

Make All of the Preparations

Take out all of the awkward mishaps and miscalculations from the filming process by planning out every aspect of the shoot. Yes, preparing like this will be a very tedious activity that will mostly consist of making lists, counting the gear, allocating crew and cast, etc. If you make your planner your best friend, then the shooting process will go smoothly on most occasions, and you will not be dealing with nonsensical problems that continue to pop up on the set.

Give Sound the Respect It Deserves

A lot of film students that are only starting love to geek out over various cameras. It is almost like a competition of who knows more about the top-tier cameras on the market. However, it is where these students go wrong because viewers (when judging a complete picture) implicitly value sound over video more.

If the picture is not the sharpest and shot in 720p at 24fps – many viewers will bear this fact pretty well. However, if the sound quality and production are plain bad, the viewers are immediately taken out of the experience and judge the movie for being badly produced.

Leading Is Also About Listening

As a leading person on the set, you physically will not be doing all of the things that surround the filming process – for this, you have a crew that does whatever you want them to. Still, it might be a good idea to come out of your artistic bubble once in a while and listen closely to what the members of the crew have to say. Obviously, the cameraman knows much more about cinematic shots, and the sound engineer knows much more about sound. So, instead of micromanaging everything and everyone on the set, try actually to collaborate with the crew.

Concentrate on Showing Character Stories

Sounds like an obvious thing, but many newbie filmmakers get too bogged down with filming as much as possible that they forget that movies need a consistent plot and a narrative. Do not make your movie become a jumbled mess of unconnected scenes. As a good practice, in the beginning, have some other people go through your script and scenes and give their opinions to you. You can even work with an essay writing service to have the amend and improve what you have.

Be Ready to Cut Some Great Shots

One of the eternal truths concerning creating a film is that plot-important scenes are more valuable than simply beautiful scenes. Of course, in the perfect world, there is no difference between the two, but in actuality, filmmakers always have to cut a lot of beautiful and amazing shots from the movie, because they do not add any real value to the footage.

Work with The Things You Have

Yes, every film student loves to obsess about amazing filming gear, which can create a bit of an illogical and almost delusional way of thinking for the student. Why so? – Students who obsess over gear too much develop the impression that they need extremely top-tier gear to film something truly great, so they end up not filming anything.

Of course, if you have at least some rationale, then you will see the fault with such thinking: if you do not practice your filmmaking skills (even with the budget gear), you will never be able to create great motion pictures. So, do not be afraid to work with what you have.

Do Not Work for “Exposure”

A lot of veterans in the film industry love to trick film students into performing work for absolutely free. It is done all under the gaze of “exposure” and “getting into the industry the easy way”. Nonetheless, after the film students are done, they are thanked and dismissed – that is usually the story. So, have some respect for the work you do and do not fall victim to this.

Do Not Be Afraid to Start

In the end, the best way to tackle your anxieties is to meet them head-on. So, get your camera out, gather a small crew, and get filming!

Valuable Tips for Student Filmmakers Starting Out

4th September 2020