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Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger’s Love, Victor focuses on a new student at Creekwood High School, Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino). The series follows his journey of self-discovery: facing challenges at home and struggling with his sexual orientation. He reaches out to Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) when it seems too difficult for him to navigate through high school.

One of the biggest surprise hits of the summer of 2018 was that of Greg Berlanti’s sweet LGBTQ coming-of-age tale, Love, Simon. It was a movie that swept me away and impressed me greatly. It’s a breezy watch but is packed full of tons of emotion and heart that will make even the most hardened of film watchers get teary-eyed during certain scenes.

That’s why I was a little bit curious when it was announced that there would be a spinoff television series in the future that would focus on a new student at Simon’s high school that goes through similar issues that he did. On one hand, I had high expectations since the original film was so good and had faith that the minds behind the show would do a good job. But on the other hand, I recognized that I should keep my expectations in check just in case something went wrong in the script or storytelling department.

Thankfully, I can say that Love, Victor is an exceptionally fun show, although it doesn’t come anywhere near the levels of greatness that the film it’s based on achieved. This series does play things a little bit too safe, and for a little while, the show feels like it loses its focus a little bit. There were some episodes that felt like they really didn’t need to even exist because they felt like filler. The story that they are telling doesn’t warrant a ten-episode series. Although I did have fun along the way for the most part, I have to admit that I think it would have worked better as an actual film.

By far the biggest praise that I can give this show is its character development and its performances. Victor Salazar was a kid that I genuinely felt like I knew by the time not even the fifth episode was over. He obviously gets the most development and it was nice to see how well the screenwriters did with making every single character come alive and feel real.

Something that the creators of this series did excellently though, was make Victor’s family feel grounded and have issues. In Love, Simon, many people pointed out that Simon’s family felt picture-perfect like they didn’t have even the slightest flaw. They heard you loud and clear. Victor’s family goes through quite the rocky relationship throughout the course of ten episodes, and they don’t shy away from getting a little bit dark and depressing at times.

But, to be truthful, this whole thing was not perfect. It has some excellent character development, especially for a show aimed towards teenagers, in particular, it can often be quite funny, but its story was just not as interesting as it could have been.

One last point I want to make is that our lead protagonist Victor goes to the exact same high school that Simon went to in the 2018 film, Creekwood High School. Despite the setting being the same, we practically see none of the same locations from the film in this show, prompting me to think that Love, Victor was shot in an entirely different studio/school. There were some moments where I was questioning how this was the same place that Simon attended. The layout doesn’t look similar at all. It’s a nitpick for sure, but it’s something that I couldn’t help but notice during my binge.

If you’re a fan of the movie, you should give this a shot. It probably won’t blow you away like you may have hoped it would, but it’s still a cute and fun adventure to go on, even if its story isn’t the most interesting.

Love, Victor makes up for its familiar and safe story with cute romantic beats and a fun cast of characters that feel alive and grounded.

Bittersweet and whimsical, a story in the same vein as those told by Ivor Cutler, or  Jean-Pierre Jeunet  (Amelie, 2001). This ten minute short is, as the title suggests, a tale about a Poet and a Plant.

The Poet and the Plant is narrated by Sarah Snook (Steve Jobs, 2015; Black Mirror, 2016). It is Written and directed by Tom Basis and Robert Summerlin, who also plays the eponymous Poet.

It plays as though Jonathan Richman is in one of Aesop’s Fables. He is a man struggling to breathe life into his writing and his house plants alike. Basis and Summerlin describe it as “A meditation on true love, loneliness, and listening.”

If you’d like to make it a struggling-artist-short double bill, try Victor in Paradise by Brendan McHugh

A poet loves his new houseplant so much he kills it. A meditation on true love, loneliness, and listening. And an allegory for modern man’s relationship with nature, and how it can heal.

ROBERT SUMMERLIN is a French-American poet, artist, and environmentalist. His hope is that his creative projects play a part in creating a more peaceful and happy planet. In 2017 he was accepted into The Aspen Institute’s Poetry Workshop.

TOM BASIS is an Israeli-American writer and director. He has put his name to several major campaigns in fashion, design, and technology, and has collaborated with top-tier companies at the forefront of their fields, such as Marchesa and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Tom’s most recent projects include a series of 360° films for IBM Watson.

Norman (Jordan Waller) is a butcher with Polish heritage living in the UK. He owns his own business and spends most of the working day preparing the meat just like his mother taught him. Annabelle (Kathryn Wilder) is a part time actress who seems to have found fame as the face of a stool softening product, it’s not her ideal acting role, but she keeps trying to find better work until she makes her big break.

Norman and Annabelle are twins and despite their differences, they have to get together for their mother’s funeral. However, after a slip of the tongue by a relative, Norman and Annabelle find out that they’re adopted and their mother lives in a place called Two Heads Creek – in Australia.

Two Heads Creek is a British/Australian horror comedy written by Jordan Waller and directed by Australian Jesse O’ Brian. As Norman and Annabelle venture to the other side of the world they’re unsure what to expect. Norman is ever hopeful with a rose-tinted view of his real mother, while Annabelle just wants to be anywhere where she’s not recognised.

Norman is also the quintessentially polite Englishman, whereas Annabelle’s point of view is a little less politically correct. Together they eventually find Two Heads Creek and it’s not exactly the idyllic Australian holiday destination they were expecting.

The cast of Two Heads Creek are all very good in their roles, in particular Norman and Annabelle who have chemistry and the script helps to give the audience the idea that they may really be related. However, the movie does take quite a while to get going and in the meantime the audience is greeted by the Two Heads Creek locals and the Australian stereotypes come thick and fast.

For horror fans, they may have to wait a while, but like the Antipodean clichés, the blood and gore comes thick and fast for those who have the patience to wait and it may all be worth it in the end.

However, for those who are interested in plot and characters, the reasoning behind the horror takes a little while to sink in, but when it does and the villains are revealed for their evil motives, the audience may realise all too late that the plot is rather thin.

By Alex Purnell. A slow-burning, medium-length film, Day Release (FREIGANG) is silently deafening, telling the story of a young single mother out on day release from prison, it reeks of melancholy as the world seemingly crumbles around our protagonist as we watch, unable to intervene. Kathi (Anna Suk) leaves the confounds of her cell only to find her 3-year old son Christopher (Christopher Legedza) being neglected by her mother, locked in a room to watch TV while his grandmother sleeps. Upon finding out, Kathi takes her son out for the day, with expectations to meet the toddler’s father.

The devastating reality of Day Release is Kathi’s inability to work any of her issues out, due to her limited time. A myriad of unsolvable problems piling upon the single mother keep manifesting, leading to a catastrophic, tear-jerking crescendo where nothing but a single obstacle is fixed, and all is still in turmoil.

This has a lot to do with actor Anna Suk’s award-winning performance as Kathi, seemingly always on the brink of breaking down, but staying resilient for the sake of her son.

Day Release is quiet. Only exploding in sound during key parts that flow throughout the film. This is true not only with sound but in regards to its visuals and camera, everything feels stationary, like a moment in time, and as the clock slowly ticks down on Kathi’s free day, we as the audience are constantly made aware that for Kathi the world will and has moved on while she is locked up. Even out of prison, we sympathise with Kathi’s social-economic crisis as she is a prisoner to her own poverty.

The grey-overtones of the film supplement the bleak theme of Day Release, the dulled colour palette seemingly representing a dreary winters day radiates the energy of the drama, purposely slow and saturated.

Though, Day Release does seemingly overstay its welcome. With a daring length of 34 minutes, its sluggish pace feels more appropriate for a feature-length film, though its plot fits perfectly within a short-film scale causing Day Release to feel like a somewhat cumbersome viewing. 

Despite this, this German indie-flick has a great amount of weight to it, a full-on assault of heartache, its a long, internal scream of a woman who has been left out in the cold.