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!

  • For Your Consideration: Review

    For Your Consideration: Review

    By Rowan Malyon.

    A much-needed film for our time, For Your Consideration builds a wonderfully pithy satirical narrative about the problems with the 21st century film industry.

    Poppy Gordon’s debut short follows a series of young, privileged women meeting up to discuss the development of a film that will surely get them into the Sundance Film Festival. In just thirteen short minutes, they jump between ill-conceived ideas, claiming they are trying to give a voice to the voiceless when really, they are just vying to out-woke each other and find a narrative that focuses on the most on-trend minority.

    Clearly inspired by frustration, For Your Consideration is as comical as it is blunt. These women have no idea what they’re talking about. Perhaps what is most frightening about this film is that despite its humor, it is a very accurate portrayal of people’s attitudes today, and how those with privilege get to define popular culture.

    You know exactly which direction this film is headed from the moment we meet Heather (Samantha Robinson), the ringleader. These rich LA women, who have everything but are still bored, decide to make a film just because they can, just because they have nothing better to do. So, they have bad intentions, but perhaps they will use their privilege for good? Unfortunately not, they sway between being genuinely socially aware and incredibly ignorant, and as their ideas develop, they only grow more offensive. Every time you think they’re going to hit the mark, they glance off at the last second and miss by a mile.

    The film manages to criticize these unfortunately ubiquitous voices who are filmmaking for all the wrong reasons without attacking the movements that inspired them. What Gordon does so well is that the villains in this film are not the ill-reputed rich, white men we are used to. It goes deeper than gender and age. It’s about privilege. These are young women exploiting important movements for their own gain, profiting from cultural appropriation and tokenism. For Your Consideration is even bold enough to reference films that have done just that, such as Green Book, the 2019 Oscar winner highly criticized for being just another white savior movie disguised as progress.

    I am 23 years old and deeply entrenched in most social media platforms, so this film resonated with me. The commercialization and co-opting of social justice movements is unfortunately commonplace, and you have to wade through a torrent of influencers riding on the coattails of any social change to find the real activists, who, unfortunately, usually get swallowed up in the cacophony.  

    Gordon’s film is pleasingly to-the-point and holds no punches. Even the title grabs you by the collar. It doesn’t just refer to the golden words of award season, For Your Consideration asks you to think, to reflect, and start your own conversations about these topics. An interesting piece that entertains as much as it educates, For Your Consideration is a film we sorely need.

  • What We Found: Review

    What We Found: Review

    A group of friends start their freshmen year at a tough public high school when their friend Cassie disappears in West Baltimore. With the police unable, or unwilling, to find her, the young friends take it upon themselves to find out what happened to her, undertaking a harrowing journey that will change them all.

    The concept of Ben Hickernell’s What We Found certainly isn’t the most original thing in the world. Throughout the years, we have seen several stories like this one told, many of them being quite good. I was hoping that this film was going to be a welcomed addition to that pile, but unfortunately, it falls rather short even if it isn’t the worst movie out there right now.

    At times, the film can play out like a somewhat grittier episode of the first season of Stranger Things with these kids looking for their missing friend. In Stranger Things, the world felt extremely dirty and grimy and you really got the sense that young Will Byers was in big trouble wherever he was. Here though, the world doesn’t give off that same atmosphere. Surprisingly enough, there were a few instances in which the tension doesn’t feel present which was massively disappointing.

    Don’t get me wrong though – the film definitely has its moments of tension and intrigue, and when those moments happen, they’re genuinely great. The first act is quite slow to get through. It’s essentially the set-up act where we get to learn a little bit more about our lead characters before going on a journey with them. Once this first act gets out of the way and we move into the second, What We Found becomes exceptionally more entertaining, even if the storytelling can get a little messy along the way.

    That’s probably the biggest issue that this movie has; it’s just all over the place. When we get small answers along the way, it is certainly rewarding and satisfying, but the way this story was told as a whole was somewhat jumbled and it could have been done a lot better.

    The best part about the picture as a whole was the performances from the entire cast. They were all genuinely terrific in their respective roles and each one of them brought a different level of emotion to their characters. Elizabeth Mitchell thankfully gets quite a bit to do with the role of Captain Hilman, who always feels intimidating and powerful. She will do whatever it takes to get the job done and get it done right.

    Also fantastic in the film are the child actors. Sometimes in movies, child actors stick out like sore thumbs because they simply don’t have as much experience as adults do. They can oftentimes feel unfortunately wooden, but here, that is not the case. Oona Laurence is one of the biggest emerging names in the industry right now, and with her performance here, it’s not hard to see why. She delivers an emotionally strong and captivating performance, and one that stands tall amongst the other cast members.

    At the end of the day though, What We Found has one too many problems for me to say it was an enjoyable experience in the grand scheme of things. Don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely things to appreciate about it. All of the performances are remarkably strong, there are some moments of genuine intrigue and mystery and it occasionally feels rewarding, but the storytelling was far too messy to get on board with and it sadly comes across stale and unoriginal with the concept. They could have shaken things up and created a brand new twist on the familiar storyline, but instead they went down the traditional route which sometimes isn’t a bad thing, but here, it was.

    What We Found tells a messy and familiar story that gets bogged down with its first act, even if its performances are great and has some moments of genuine intrigue.

  • Casting: Review

    Casting: Review

    It’s five days before shooting a made-for-TV remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant and script reader, Gerwin (Andreas Lust) is helping audition the lead. Vera, the director (Judith Engel) is under immense pressure as this is her first television film project but can’t agree on a female star for the role. Everybody else on set is trying desperately to be professional and hold everything together. But the clock is ticking.

    It all starts with a difficult, yet entirely capable actress arriving for her audition. She is fastidious and prickly in how she talks to the makeup artist. Her brief interactions and subsequent dismissal from the film set the tone for what follows. In the hands of a different filmmaker, Casting could have been a cringe-comedy in the style of Lars von Trier’s The Boss of It All. Instead, the audience is pulled through awkward interactions compounded by the nervousness and pressure of getting this adaptation just so.

    Writer/ Director Nicolas Wackerbarth does something rather extraordinary with Casting. Its metatextual approach to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play-turned-film is an exercise in discomfort and will have you writhing in your chair. Framing the scenario as pre-production for a TV Movie remake slathers on additional layers of tension and barbed dialogue as the power-play between character dynamics shifts between the filmmakers and crew.

    The claustrophobia, manipulation, loneliness and abuse of power ever-present in RWF’s 1972 film remain but they are recontextualised and framed with a cast of both female and male performers, while the original utilised an all-female ensemble. This is noted upon in the film, discussing how it would be handled in the television movie they will eventually shoot. It’s a moment that hangs a lantern on what we the audience is observing and is just one example of the many ways in which the filmmakers play with their cinematic re-articulation.

    With the key shift in including male and female actors, the LGBTQ focus is also re-aligned, with Lust’s Gerwin having to lie about aspects of his own sexuality to potentially land a role. Wackerbath (and co-writer Hannes Held) plays with the female gaze, using sexual attraction as yet another tool of control, subverted and weaponised against the audition reader. Gerwin manages to seed himself deep within the pre-production process, ingratiating himself with various departments in order to seize his opportunity. The cycle of flattery and misdirection playing out between he and Vera, the director is incredibly well balanced. Both actors imbue their characters with believable dimensionality that you want them both to succeed, regardless of their flaws.

    While there is nervous humour to be mined from the near-unbearable tension, there are scenes when the tone shifts to a passive-aggressive workplace horror. Casting isn’t as playful as some of RWF’s works but makes for an excellent companion to The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant. However, the deftly handled dialogue and relatable performances mean that you don’t have to be versed in the original to appreciate what Nicolas Wackerbath has created.

    It’s no small feat to have made a film that holds its own as both a pseudo-remake and an original piece in its own right. Squirming my way through Casting has me intrigued by Wackerbath’s previous film, Everyday Objects and getting back onto previously unseen films from Fassbinder’s filmography. Casting is available now on digital and it’s a huge recommend from me.

  • KOKO-DI KOKO-DA: Review

    KOKO-DI KOKO-DA: Review

    As a fan of psychological thrillers and loop films, think “Groundhog Day” (1993) and “Happy Death Day” (2017) I was curious, interested, and expecting horror thriller “Koko-di Koko-da,” a film from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, to follow a similar format. After Elin (Ylva Gallon) and Tobias (Leif Edlund) tragically discover their daughter Maja dead on her eighth birthday the loop would traditionally start there, with the parents becoming smarter in each loop in a bid to save Maja, but director Johannes Nyholm took the film on an unexpected route.

    We instead followed Elin and Tobias on a camping journey three years after the death of their daughter. Paralyzed by grief, the barely functioning couple takes a miserable vacation where they continually encounter a trio of murderous weirdos and a mean dog who looked straight out of a nightmarish nursery rhyme or an episode of “American Horror Story.” Each time the weirdos torture, kill, or humiliate Elin and Tobias in an unescapable loop.

    The film more resembled the works of Darren Aronofsky, “Mother!” (2017) and “The Wrestler” (2008) immediately came to mind, with the pacing of this piece most similarly resembling the latter than a traditional loop film, which surprised and intrigued me from the onset. When I turned on this film I did not expect to get a think piece, but this is exactly that.

    I have to say, I loved this film. It is strange. It is slowly terrifying, but not in an overwhelming way where I felt the need to turn it off in the sense that it is not akin to a film like “Funny Games” (2007,) it is more allegorical in an original way I have never seen before. The performances were excellent and the direction and editing equally stellar.

    The movie was less about the campy quality of the endless loop, and more about the couple having to face their fears and each other. It was really about how difficult it is to overcome trauma, and how we cannot do it alone, even though we may want to. Every time Tobias tried to control the outcome of the loop he was in by making singular decisions, it shot him right back to the beginning.

    This movie was unique in the sense that it really included the audience, and Nyholm was very successful in getting me to think about life. I began to reminisce about how it truly isn’t fair, and some of us get dealt worse cards than others. We are all essentially living inside our own loops, replaying missed opportunities, things we could have, should have or would have done. Unfair situations, and bad breaks, and, as long as we are stuck in these mental cycles we all face we will never move forward.

    Our minds are a powerful tool, and in Tobias’s case he had to keep replaying his anguish and hurt over and over again in an attempt to overcome, reconcile, and understand of how deeply his daughter’s death affected him and how, if ever, he could move forward under horrific circumstances.

    The only escape for the couple was clear, they had to confront their problems, anguish, fears, and grief head on and we follow them, and in many ways can all share, in that strange and nightmarish journey.

  • Beanpole: Review

    Beanpole: Review

    By Alif Majeed.

    It is easy to pigeon hole Beanpole as a modern-day queer classic. The trailer doesn’t help matter much as the initial reaction you get was Blue is the Warmest Color set during wartime or suggest that we might be watching a movie about unrequited love between two women during World War II. 

    But watching the movie was a truly gratifying experience. Sure, it is a painful movie to sit through, with some heartbreaking scenes that give a sense of utter despair. Finishing it though it opens a wide range of emotions that swirl around long after the movie is over. 

    Depending on who you ask, History and World War II could either be your favorite subjects growing up or the most boring ones to study. Thinking back, I now realize that though I was fascinated by much of what happened during the war, I rarely got interested in what happened after it. The period that many often tend to focus less on as it was often written as a small footnote in our school books: the aftermath. 

    Come and See might be the gold standard when it comes to Russian movies set during wartime, but Beanpole can easily claim a spot as one of the best Russian films that depict life after the war. It forces us to look at the impact and aftermath of the war and is spelled out from the first shot of the film. 

    As Beanpole opens, we see Iya, aka the titular Beanpole (Viktoria Mironshnichenko), frozen with PTSD related blackouts at the military hospital she works. We quickly realize that it happens quite often, and her fellow nurses and doctors are quite used to it despite the occasional snigger and pinch on the cheek to wake her up. 

    Though initially depicted with amusement, this crippling blackout acts as a catalyst that sets the movie in motion. In a terrifying and heartbreaking scene, Iya accidentally suffocates her child Pashka to death during one of her blackouts. 

    The scene that begins sweetly enough with the mother and child playfully imitating animals turns horrifying as it ends with a tight close up on the child’s hand as he helplessly tries to wrangle his way out of her hold. That haunting shot of his hand that first tries to fight and slowly and painfully gives up is the kind of searing moment that jolts you up completely unable to forget what happened for a while.

    The movie then takes a sharp turn when we realize that the birth mother of Pashka is not Beanpole, but Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina), a soldier scarred from the war, who comes back after the war to claim her child. 

    Viktoria Mironshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina are treasures who perfectly complement each other right from the very first scene they are together. Vasilisa might have the showier role, but Viktoria holds herself pretty well. You understand and find it hard to judge her harshly when out of sheer embarrassment and shame over the child’s death, she smudges the details of his death to Masha. Masha’s reaction to the news is equally strange as she reacts coldly and brushes it off, saying that she will have another child quickly to replace the one she lost. We get a glimpse of how the war has indeed affected both of them in that one scene. 

    Vasilisa, as Masha wins you over with her internalized reactions to what is happening to her. From her first scene with Iya, where she realizes her child is gone. To the moment, she realizes that she can’t have another and tells Beanpole needs to be a surrogate mother for her, because “she owes her a child.” Culminating in the climactic scene where she meets the parents of her gullible would-be suitor. She starts with acting like an innocent, virginal wife they expect her to be. Slowly letting go of the facade and confessing to the things that happen to her during the war and after. As if daring them to accept her after everything they just heard. 

    Special mention also has to be given to Andrey Bykov, who plays a sympathetic but rational doctor at the hospital the two ladies choose as a potential surrogate suiter. He knows when to give up and is not beneath taking the food rations of the patients he has given up on to serve others. 

    In the end, Masha and Iya are both doomed in their respective quests. The former, with her desire for a child or the need to have somebody inside her. And the latter with her need to be Masha’s master. Though they behave like star crossed lovers, they wouldn’t lose a second before ripping each other apart. Destined and doomed to be tied together even if they try to get away from each other. Like plants intertwined on a beanpole.