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!

  • Spiral: Review

    Spiral: Review

    In Spiral, Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) and Aaron (Ari Cohen) are taking their daughter, Kayla (Jennifer Laporte) to a new home where they can make a fresh start as a family. They’ve gone through a lot together and with Aaron coming out to his wife, they know all too well that people can be nice on the surface, only for their true colors to show.

    Sure enough, when they arrive there are microaggressions from people such as a neighbor who just stares at them from a distance when they leave the house and the surprise that they get from people when they tell them they’re a couple, but they’re used to that by now.

    However, the aggression in the neighborhood slowly starts to get stronger and Malik starts to think that there may be something more sinister underneath the suburban façade.

    Spiral is a horror movie and Shudder original directed by Kurtis David Hader and written by Colin Minihan and John Poliquin. It’s set up may seem familiar to fans of Get Out, but Spiral still has something unique to say.

    Using many familiar horror tropes to get its point across and scare its audience, Spiral is familiar and yet new as not many gay couples get to be the leads in horror – if any at all. Kayla also attracts the attention of local bad boy, Tyler (Ty Wood) although when Malik and Aaron meet his parents, Marshal (Lochlyn Munro) and Tiffany (Chandra West) they decide that she’s just going through what every girl her age experiences, but they’re still keeping eye on her.

    The problem is that Malik’s paranoia is getting the better of him and as he starts to doubt his validity as a parent, he starts to lose his grip on reality.

    A unique and yet familiar premise, Spiral’s focus on a parent rather than an out of her depth teen helps to explore what it means for a gay couple to be raising a child when it feels like the world is against them. In a horror setting, Spiral manages to excite, scare and even show its audience a perspective they may not have been considering, right down to the grisly end.

  • Blackbird: Review

    Blackbird: Review

    By Alex Purnell. Set against clinically white backdrops of a contemporary house out in the sticks, Blackbird’s topic of death is tragic yet beautiful. A remake of Billie August’s Silent Heart (2014), Blackbird tells the story of an emotional reunion centred around a splintered family and a terminally ill grandmother who is preparing her last Christmas with her loved ones before ending her life.

    It’s a powerful premise, bringing up the moral and ethical issues of planned suicide and the right to die. This is at the forefront of Blackbird, unfinished relationships, saying goodbye and leaving on a high note, not a hospital bed. 

    Blackbird manages to produce a calm yet melancholic edge, an emotional wave that keeps pulling the viewer deep into its depths. The thought of losing a loved one is a difficult pill to swallow, yet the impending threat of death resonating throughout this film feels inevitable, it’s less about Lilly but more so about how her family comes to terms with this earth-shattering event. It’s this attitude towards loss which makes for a memorable viewing experience.

    As grandmother Lilly’s (Susan Sarandon) health seemingly deteriorates throughout the film, you see her struggle to tackle day-to-day activities while keeping up a witty and sarcastic demeanour.  Sarandon’s portrayal of Lilly is sorrowful yet brilliant, the pain behind her sarcasm is poignant, yet the silence of the situation is deafening. 

    Sarandon’s subtle yet powerful performance is backed up by the brilliant Kate Winslet and Mia Wasikowska, respectively playing Lilly’s daughters Jennifer and Anna. 

    The character of Anna, beautifully played by Mia Wasikowska, shows the struggle of a daughter who just isn’t yet ready for the death of her mother. Estranged from her family and overshadowed by her sister, Anna plays the part of the black sheep of the family, her relationship with sister Jennifer creates a number of clashes creating a toxic family dynamic they have to try and repair before the death of their mother.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx6D0zvBr7Q

    Blackbird is a tragic yet curiously positive feature, it manages to balance its depressing subject with a some-what uplifting view of an a-typical family dynamic. It’s manic highs give-way to its crushing lows, so its recommended to keep a box of tissues within arm’s length.

  • Red, White & Wasted: Review

    Red, White & Wasted: Review

    In Orlando there lives a man known as Video Pat who lives in what could be called a Redneck community. He’s a family man, divorced but still taking care of his two daughters and even has a grandchild on the way.

    However, Pat’s passion is for Mudding, a motorsport that he’s obsessed with, as he not only loves the sport, but he loves the lifestyle too. It seems though that the documentary may really have a different focus and if you really want to know more about Mudding, then Red, White & Wasted may not be the documentary for you.

    Red, White & Wasted is really about the people, the truth behind the stereotypes and how they really feel. The thing is though that a lot of the stereotypes may actually be true.

    Pat starts talking about the Redneck life, but as with him and many other subjects of the documentary, they don’t think that it applies to them. There’s talk about stereotypes and how they even talk about other people as being Rednecks when they think they aren’t. However, what the documentary shows is that whether they like it or not, they are the stereotypes we all think of when we think of Rednecks.

    There’s teenage drug taking, passionate arguments about the American gun laws and rampant racism that runs through the veins of the Redneck community. However, these kinds of things could be said about a lot of people and although Red, White & Wasted shines a light on those people who it’s believed help Trump come to office, this may be just a part of what made him so popular.

    When you hear about people saying that Trump is just like one of them, then it seems that they really believe it, they don’t see the money and power that he has (although Pat rails against the corporate direction that Mudding is going). They just see a man who tells them he has the same values as them and that’s what speaks to them.

    Red, White & Wasted is an unbiased, honest look at that certain type of Trump voter that people always suspected really existed and even if you disagree with them on certain views – like it or not, they may be a lot like you.

  • Stars And Strife: Review

    Stars And Strife: Review

    By Jack Hawkins.

    Of the five incendiary years since Donald Trump announced his run for president, 2020 may well be the most bilious and divisive of them all. Indeed, it could be the nadir of 21st century American political discourse. Attempts to see the big picture, to understand the fractures among class, creed and race, will often drag one through what historian Niall Ferguson dubs the ‘political hate machine’, better known as social networks and the mainstream media. 

    Happily, Stars and Strife transcends the noise of your Twitter feed, examining America’s hate and division, what’s caused it and how the nation can move forward. Written and directed by economist David Smick, it is a film that favours even-handed optimism rather than cynical doomsaying; it manages to showcase America’s issues while suggesting that its best years might just be ahead of it. 

    The documentary opens with rapid-fire imagery and talking heads, including former secretary of state James Baker, businessman Ken Langone, economist Alice Rivkin, and former secretary of defence Leon Panetta, who observes a concerning shift in congress, “It has never been so divided. Everybody felt part of a process. That’s missing now. No one wants to go into no man’s land and get shot in the back.” 

    However, Smick notes how the creases of bipartisanship are ironed when congress works on bills that benefit large multinationals. This is symptomatic of corporate capitalism – or corporatism – which is briefly explained in an animation that compares how different ideologies – communism, socialism, fascism, corporatism and ‘main street capitalism’ – approach milking two cows. It’s layman stuff, no doubt, but the takeaway is that corporate capitalism is turgid with esoteric bureaucracy, or perhaps even ‘rigged’. 

    This contention, which has spurred populist movements such as Occupy Wall Street, segues into discussions of the media and communication, especially the algorithms of social media. On Twitter, for example, using emotive words – fight, destroy, attack, violence, murder – will increase the probability of it being retweeted by 20%, creating rabbit holes of knee-jerk hot takes. Media executive Shelby Coffey notes how, “The village crank can now connect with 30,000 around the country or around the world.”

    This is division by design. There is no room for nuance, no room for the centre. And this is what Stars and Strife is about – the centre. It is a plea for compromise and collaboration, to find the common ground and effect change as opposed to a constant state of polarization. Few quotes articulate this ambition clearer than a speech from Senator John F. Kennedy in 1958, “Let us not seek the Republican answer, or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.” 

    Smick cites the First Step Act of 2018 as a rare example of congress finding that right answer, but his films has a mixed outlook on the future. Some echo Warren Buffet’s belief that America’s best days are ahead, while others note the old fallen empires as an ominous precedent. Either way, Stars and Strife is a compelling 97 minutes with a message that’s as cautionary as it is optimistic. 

  • Tenet: Another Review

    Tenet: Another Review

    Christopher Nolan continues to achieve an exceedingly rare feat in Hollywood: directing big-budget films while possessing creative carte blanche. His cerebral auteurist vision has generated several critical and financial darlings, with efforts like Inception, The Dark Knight, and Dunkirk reaching a rare level of success. Nolan’s prosperous run hasn’t been without some passionate detractors, with many leveling fair critiques about his lack of emotionality and aggravating style choices (his booming use of ADR often masks essential dialogue). His latest project Tenet showcases the director pushing his trademarks to their limits, crafting a bombastic blockbuster that thrills, yet leaves something to be desired.

    Describing Tenet through a simple plot synopsis is not an easy feat, but I shall try my best. The film follows the protagonist (John David Washington), a special forces operative who has been recruited to join a mysterious spy operation. Working alongside Neil (Robert Pattinson), the two look to take down Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), a Russian arms dealer harboring a world-threatening device and holding his wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) captive. All isn’t quite as it seems though, with the protagonist delving into a mysterious realm of time inversion to save the world outside of real-time.

    Tenet is a fascinating beast, as it complicates itself with an endless loop of mind-bending physics while grounding itself in the familiar trappings of espionage thrillers (the numerous James Bond comparisons are spot-on). The plotting’s mechanical nature will frustrate many, but I found the complexities to be endearing in their over-baked nature. For Nolan, this is his means of enhancing the spy formula, conveying the intrigue and deceit baked into every narrative beat through the ephemeral lens of time inversion. Like a great showman, he keeps the audience on their toes while slowly piecing together the narrative puzzle.

    His showmanship is also on full display with the film’s visceral craftsmanship. Nolan always directs with a certain grandiosity, a presentation choice that feels tailor-made for the film’s globe-trotting narrative (Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematographer is opulence to the extreme). Every detail is impeccably constructed, with the slick suits, wide-ranging locals, and hard-hitting setpieces all delivered with the director’s typical panache. The time inversion elements add an inventive wrinkle to the action, showcasing a whirlwind of movement that leaves audiences in awe (several scenes had me in disbelief as to how Nolan pulled them off, especially due to the lack of CGI). I’d be remised to forget Ludwig Goransson’s pulsating techno score, which accents these frames with a liveliness that’s rarely seen in tentpole blockbusters. It’s all a true feat in craftsmanship, with Nolan conducting a masterful concoction of technical elements for audiences to embrace.

    Tenet is as striking as a big-screen spectacle can get, but the issues arise once audiences dig under the surface exterior. John David Washington and Robert Pattinson certainly enhance their roles with a daft charm and suave confidence, yet none of the character work here feels very inspired. Nolan’s screenplay places the crux of the emotional core on Elizabeth Debicki’s character Kat, who works to regain her strength and independence after enduring an abusive relationship. While noble in its intent, Kat ends up being far too inert and simplistic to render an intimate connection with audiences, continuing Nolan’s struggles to write nuanced female characters. It also feels contradictory to the film’s largely cold and procedural nature. I wish the script went all-in with its steely delivery, which could have served as an apt reflection of spy work’s deceitful nature (Michael Mann’s cold delivery and verbose style in Miami Vice and Heat represent their distinct lines of work perfectly).

    I also think Tenet missed the boat on having deeper thematic ruminations. There’s a vague depiction of our Post-911 landscape, as impending threats linger under the surface while governments work vehemently to prevent the unpredictable. Certainly an interesting concept on paper, yet it’s an idea that’s rarely conveyed with depth onscreen, lacking the deft substance of Nolan’s previous endeavors. For a movie that packs several mind-blowing frames and an engaging premise, it’s a shame that Tenet lands with a certain emptiness that restricts it from joining his iconic pantheon.

    Tenet is more of a base single for Christopher Nolan, although even his weakest efforts still provide an exhilarating jolt of blockbuster craftmanship.