film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Category: REVIEWS

Here is where you would find our film reviews on BRWC.  We look at on trailers, shorts, indies and mainstream.  We love movies!

  • Jiu Jitsu: The BRWC Review

    Jiu Jitsu: The BRWC Review

    Nic Cage, aliens, and jiu-jitsu. It’s a holy trinity of genre campiness that seems almost too good to be true. Thankfully, that’s what director Dimitri Logothetis delivers with his latest effort Jiu Jitsu. Logothetis’ film boasts a plethora of shamelessly over-the-top genre setpieces, more than enough to counter the film’s myriad of technical issues.

    Jiu Jitsu follows Jake (Alain Moussi), a jiu-jitsu warrior who’s suffering from amnesia. This couldn’t come at a worse time, as every six years, an ancient order of jiu-jitsu fighters joins forces to battle a vicious race of alien invaders. When a celebrated war hero goes down in defeat, the fate of the planet and mankind hangs in the balance of Jake and his elite tribe.

    Combining the cat-and-mouse thrills of Predator with a bombastic, midnight movie-sensibility, Logothetis’ direction operates with an infectious reckless abandon. His film takes the kitchen sink of B-movie staples and infuses them into one gleefully silly popcorn movie. This approach works due to Logothetis’ ability to marry a self-aware tonality with a straight-faced delivery, allowing the cheeky elements to operate without being too obvious. It’s also a joy to see Nic Cage, Frank Grillo, and Tony Ja leaning into the dopey genre-sensibility, with Cage being a joy as an unhinged jiu-jitsu master.

    What often goes unappreciated with films of this ilk is the craftsmanship behind them, with Logothetis matching the material’s gonzo style with some creative techniques. Whether it’s implausible POV action scenes (the camera follows the perspective of a character until it’s set down to then watch that character fight) or a heaping of low-rent special effects (comic book pannel transitions are used throughout), Logothetis consistently finds new wrinkles to throw at his audience. While shrouded in imperfections, these sequences display a sincere effort from all involved, as they push their budgetary restrictions to their creative limit.

    I had a blast throughout Jiu Jitsu, but the film can’t quite reach cult-level status. While the supporting cast leans into their campy roles (Eddie Steeples has fun as a timid soldier), star Alain Moussi struggles mightily. His stiff presence makes the archetype role feel like a mere-cliche, with his straight-man role being the least interesting aspect of the busy narrative. I also felt the film’s first half lag in comparison to the chaos that follows it, with some of the script’s exposition dumps failing to engage the audience.

    Jiu Jitsu will likely be dismissed at first glance, but those who can tune into its dopy wavelength will have a blast with this low-brow genre adventure.

  • Softie: Review

    Softie: Review


    Softie: Review. By Trent Neely.

    This new documentary from PBS follows Boniface “Softi” Mwangi, a Kenyan photojournalist turned political activist. Who, after years of watching everyday Kenyans suffer injustices on nearly every level, due to economic instability, civil unrest, and political corruption, decides to run for a seat in the Kenyan parliament. But for Mwangi, it is not enough to simply want to do the right thing in order to be elected. He faces economic barriers. While his opponent in the race has the support of other Kenyan officials, Mwangi relies mostly on small individual donations.

    There is distrust among a large portion of the citizenry of Mwangi. They seem doubtful that someone with a lack of political and economic capital like himself can even be elected, and even if he can, that he can avoid being corrupted by the dirty politics so prominent in the country. In addition, Mwangi and eventually even his family face intimidation and death threats. The film takes a look at how the current political climate of Kenya was created, what motivated Mwangi to run, the effect the campaign has on himself and his family, and asks the question of whether a political system can ever truly be changed.   

    Perhaps the film’s greatest strength is how it educates people who may not know the complexities and origins of the Kenyan political system and the corruption that is prominent in it. During the film, we see firsthand and also hear testimony on how the police force in Kenya is used as a tool to maintain control over and suppress the citizenry, harassing, beating and even murdering political dissenters. One of the most potent forces in Kenya is tribalism. The film demonstrates through testimony and archival footage that when Kenya was under English imperial rule, the English crafted biases and a pecking order of sorts for the tribes that continues to be embedded in modern Kenya, and has allowed wealthy, power-broking political dynasties to form.

    One side effect of this is that a lot of political candidates we see in the film are generational candidates who are descendants of tribes exalted by the British forces years ago. These candidates sometimes “buy” votes by giving small amounts of money to the impoverished citizenry while riding in luxury vehicles during campaign events. According to the testimony of Mwangi and others, there is a strong sentiment among a lot of the people that once elected,  these candidates do little to stop the violence and suffering of the average citizen.

    Instead, they seek to maintain power, money and control. Even when corrupt politicians are threatened with exposure or conviction, evidence seems to vanish and the cases fall apart.  It is these injustices among others that motivated  Mwangi to run despite his limited resources. As a result. We see that Mwangi is forced to take a grassroots approach, walking the streets and having conversations with people who are willing to engage with him. Mwangi for his part is largely undeterred by his status as an underdog, believing that what is important is that he fights for positive change in his country and to stand up for the average citizen.

    With regards to the filmmaking, director Sam Soko and his crew for the most part allow the subject matter to speak for itself. For instance, there are not long protracted voice-overs about clashes with police, instead we see a cameraman in the streets with Mwangi and other protestors as they try to avoid tear gas and physical confrontation with the police. Instead of an interview with Mwangi where he is asked how the people are reacting to his campaign, the crew follows him as he campaigns and talks with citizens and hears feedback from them himself, whether it is support, skepticism, or flat-out rejection.

    We even see the moment that Mwangi tells his wife Njeri that he plans to run for office, her shock plain to see.  Occasionally we do hear a probing question from the crew delivered to one of the subjects but it is always in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the subjects. One such time is when they ask Njeri how the campaign has affected her and the children, especially the death threats. This relatively observational and unobtrusive style allows the audience to not only be fully engrossed in the subject and at times forget they are watching a film,  but the relative lack of directorial intervention allows the subject matter to make the impact rather than the filmmaking, which gives the film a sense of authenticity.

    If you are looking for a documentary that offers some insight into another nation, a story of optimism and idealism in the face of corruption and cynicism, and an honest telling of a strive for change, watch this film if possible.     

  • Hillbilly Elegy: The BRWC Review

    Hillbilly Elegy: The BRWC Review

    Hillbilly Elegy: The BRWC Review – J. D. Vance (Gabriel Vasso) is a Yale graduate who had a poor upbringing wrought with troubles. His mother, Bev (Amy Adams) was a nurse, but her addiction to drugs led her down a bad road with psychological problems and it eventually fell on J. D.’s grandmother, lovingly known as Mawmaw (Glenn Close) to look after him. Unfortunately, Mawmaw was just as tough even without the drug abuse and family issues.

    However, J. D. still grew up well adjusted and found, Usha (Freida Pinto), a woman he loves very much. He just became afraid of what people would think of him if they found out about his family’s problems.

    Hillbilly Elegy is a film directed by Ron Howard and based on J. D. Vance’s best-selling book. Tipped for Oscar glory with Close and Adams leading the charge with their incredible careers showing just how good they could be, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. The problem is that Hillbilly Elegy is so dull.

    Without having read the book, it’s hard to say what made it so great that it was deemed worthy of so much attention from the film industry. However, after seeing the film it seems that all the best bits of what made the book so worthy must have been left out.

    Vance’s own pride of having come from nothing to make something of himself through going to college is admirable, even if some critics claim that he is not as well equipped to talk about working class America. The problem is that it seems like the film is aiming at an Oscar audience and saying that its subject went through much harder times than anybody else to get where he is today.

    It’s not to say that there should have been some heightened melodrama in the telling of Vance’s story. It’s just that there have surely been some people who have had it so much worse and done so much more.

    There’s no doubt that J. D. Vance has a bright future ahead of him with a family that he loves, but the story of his young life on the big screen just doesn’t do justice to how he may feel about what he’s gone through to get the life he always wanted.

  • Fatman: The BRWC Review

    Fatman: The BRWC Review

    By Alif Majeed.

    Mel Gibson’s introductory scene in Fatman has him listening to the radio with a nervous twitch while driving to work. He looks like he will come unhinged and have a meltdown any second now. It’s like filmmakers still doesn’t see him come out of his “Crazy Mel” phase. 

    Almost all his movies after his infamous rant have been under the shadow of the same. But to cast him as a modern-day roly-poly Santa Claus is pretty inspired. (“You think I got this job because I was fat and jolly?” he says at one point). He does way better here than Russell Crowe did in Unhinged that came out earlier this year, where a senior A-lister headlined a genre movie.

    The movie answers one of the nagging questions I always had about Santa Claus, which was, ‘How does Santa afford all the gifts that all the kids wish for?’ The answer as per Fatman is he can’t. This is not a Santa Claus who has an unlimited bottomless pool of resources for creating the gifts. He is one whose resources are pretty depleted and stretched to the brink. A guy who has to deal with bureaucracy and red-tape to make ends meet, while lamenting the fact that he has to send some children coal for Christmas because of budget cuts. Even if he doesn’t mind doing that as he agrees some mongrels out there deserve it. 

    One such mongrel is Billy Wenan (Chance Hurstfield), a brat who wouldn’t hesitate to torture a schoolmate for making a better school project than him or try to kill his granny for annoying him. When he receives coal as a gift for Christmas, he takes it as a personal insult and hires an assassin (Walter Goggins sleepwalking through his own parody) to well… Kill Santa Claus. 

    One of the major pluses of the movie is that the directors, the Helm brothers, sustain the mystery of whether this is the actual Santa Claus or a guy who runs a toy company in the North Pole throughout much of the movie. There are moments where even though Santa shows various displays of powers, you still end up thinking maybe he could be a powerful guy with a great immune system or is plain lucky to survive a bullet. If there is anything we got from Logan, it is that to show an immortal guy nursing his mortality; show him nurse an injury. 

    Mel Gibson and Walter Goggins might try to out-unhinge each other here, but Chance Hurstfield brings the right balance of crazy and sanity as the spoilt brat from hell you don’t want to tick off. This was what Artemis Fowl should have gunned for in its portrayal of the titular rich criminal mastermind kid.

    Genre movies, as one line concepts, offers a lot of promise for its action. It becomes a major bummer when the action doesn’t match up to your expectations. One of the major disappointments of Rambo: Last Blood, bad as it was, was the complete lack of action, right till the climax.

    Rolling Thunder, a genre classic from the 70s, did it well where the pitch-perfect last 10 minutes of violent outburst tied up everything that came before. Even the boring introspective parts. That sadly doesn’t happen here. 

    It might have looked like a good idea on paper. One not created by studio executives sitting around the round table, but what a bunch of friends who got high on a lazy afternoon would cook up. That is not much of a problem, but it gives rise to movies like Assassination Nation or American Ultra (where Walton Goggins played a very similar role). Couple of similar bonkers movies which don’t live up to the promise of its premise, which got it green-lighted in the first place.

    I did enjoy much of the movie, and I was eager and curious about the direction the movie was going to take. The lack of action was not bothersome, as I was imagining the dollops of action coming up with Santa Claus in action mode. All that build-up just lines up for the final showdown that looks like a western set in a snow-clad mountain, which fizzles out after it barely begins. 

    “There are limits to what I can do,” The Fatman says at one point. As a movie, you get a feeling that the makers spent up all the budget by the time they got to the climax. But we should give props for the concept and the inspired casting that makes much of the movie engaging. Only to limp its way to its underwhelming climax that short circuits the lights out of the rest of the movie.

  • Sweet Parents: Review

    Sweet Parents: Review

    Will (David Bly) and Gabby (Leah Rudick) are a young couple that have finally managed to afford a place of their own. Unfortunately, they can only afford something very small and with their professions on the line, money is tight. Will is a chef who feels he’s unappreciated at work and Gabby is a sculptor whose work is being overlooked.

    Then one day when talking with one of their friends, they find out that he’s been forming relationships with older people and feels perfectly comfortable with them buying him things and giving him money, he calls them his sweet parents.

    Shocked by their friend’s behaviour, Will is appalled that anybody could ever think about taking advantage of somebody like that in return for sex and companionship. Then Gabby meets Oscar (Casey Biggs), an artist who was revered by her tutors when she was at art school. They get to know each other and Gabby starts to realise that Oscar is exactly the right person to give her career a boost.

    Will is instantly jealous and incensed that Gabby could even consider such a thing, but over time Will and Gabby’s relationship gets tested to breaking point. Especially when Will decides to court, Guylaine (Barbara Weetman) who takes an interest in his work.

    Sweet Parents is a bittersweet drama directed by David Bly and co-written with Leah Rudick. A realistic drama that talks about the things that go unsaid in relationships.

    A drama which may be compared to Marriage Story as it tells a realistic and grounded portrayal of a relationship on the point of breaking. As the film slowly sets out its story, it never feels contrived and forced. Instead Sweet Parents is helped along by naturalistic dialogue and a script that gives the audience an organic story which never tells them how to feel.

    Rudick and Bly’s chemistry is strong and the relationship between them feels natural with the film never making the audience pick a side or to judge either one. Sweet Parents may be hard to watch at times, but it may make you question where you are in your own lives no matter what your relationship status may be.