Captain Seafield (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) is an embittered sea captain on a mission to avenge his father’s death after a terrible sea monster dragged him down to the watery depths after being merely one fathom from the shore as they set off on their seafaring adventure on Lake Michigan. Assembling a ragtag crew, each with a different set of skills, Captain Seafield and Sean Shaugnessy (Erick West), Nedge Pepsi (Beulah Peters) and Dick Flynn (Daniel Long) set out to capture and kill the vile beast so that Seafield’s father can rest in peace.
However, after many failed attempts, Seafield’s crew starts to lose their faith in their captain, so Seafield sees no other option than to go after the monster himself.
Lake Michigan Monster is a surreal and hilarious film written, directed by and starring Ryland Brickson Cole Tews that shows what a specific visual style, a low budget and a great script can really do. Coming across at first like a pastiche of typical monster movies made in the Fifties or Sixties, the movie shows much more than just being a parody as Tews’ surreal comedy and eye for cinematic techniques that go as far back as cinema itself make the movie a unique viewing experience.
While the audience will be laughing at the often silly and sometimes juvenile humour (think somewhere between The Mighty Boosh and Spongebob Squarepants) they may find themselves caught of guard. That’s because despite the obviously low budget, there are times where what the audience sees on screen may remind more seasoned film lovers of the days of silent cinema and the pioneers such as George Méliès.
At times the movie certainly shows its lack of budget, but that only adds to the charm as it only emphasises the surreal nature and sometimes almost improvised moments that make the audience wonder how the script managed to get to that point.
Lake Michigan Monster is sharply directed, with a witty script which may make people either chuckle or groan at the confidence of putting such silly jokes into a movie.
However, audiences will certainly come away surprised and impressed by exactly what could be achieved.
Following on from the original 2011 BBC documentary You’ve Been Trumped, Anthony Baxter’s sequel carries on his narrative on the struggles faced by some Scottish residents whose life has been turned into misery by US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Back then, Trump, who was depicted as a ruthless businessman, looked set to do whatever it took to get his way over the people of Scotland by building his luxury golf course with no regard for environmental or ethical issues.
Fast forward to 2016 and, against all odds, Mr. Trump could become the leader of the most powerful country in the world in just a few days. Baxter’s timely film aims to be a cautionary tale drawing parallels between what happened to the residents in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire with what potentially could happen to the American people.
The documentary centres around a stern 92-year-old Molly Forbes and her farmer son Michael’s lives, whose property overlooks Trump’s International Golf Links. Back in 2006, Trump purchased land in the area and tried everything his team could to intimidate and get the pair off their land, intimidations that made them even more determined to stay where they’ve lived all their lives.
Several years on from its original dispute, life for the two has been far from easy, as Molly and Michael have had to endure an existence without running water, since Trump’s construction builders broke a pump and severed a pipe that delivered water to their property.
Despite promises from the Trump team to fix the problem, five years on, nothing has been done. And what comes across as rather worrying, is how police and politicians appear to facilitate Trump’s bullish behaviour, enchanted by his promises of investments in the region and the empty promise of the creation of 6,000 local jobs (only 95 where actually created).
As the documentary takes a Michael Moore-esque turn, we see Baxter talking to ordinary Americans trying to turn them against Trump by sharing the Scottish story, while Michael Forbes flies over to the States with his wife Sheila and attend the Republican National Convention.
However noble You’ve Been Trumped Too’s cause is, the film repeats some of his crucial points over and over and, regardless of how unfair or how spectacularly scary and bullish tactics are used by some of Mr. Trump and his entourage, it doesn’t seem to deliver a great deal. With repetitions of points and campaign footage we are already familiar with, the documentary doesn’t do that much investigating.
However, threats the film-maker has been subjected to, makes it all the more worthwhile to watch, as Baxter explained that Trump’s legal team “issued a statement that threatened to sue anyone who repeats the allegations made in the film. They threatened to sue the people in the film. They threatened to sue me” – explains the filmmaker – “It’s all a bunch of threats that are part of the Trump bullying machine. The important thing is to stand up for what’s right and to believe that telling the truth is part of our job as filmmakers”.
I wouldn’t call You’ve Been Trumped Too an eye opener as much of what is portrayed is already public knowledge, but if you’re sitting on the fence on Donald Trump, it may still be worth a watch.
You’ve Been Trumped Too is released on demand on iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Journeyman VOD and Vimeo from 18th August.
While their presence in Hollywood may be overly-pervasive, biopics offer filmmakers a paramount opportunity to explore relevant and often overlooked chapters in history. In the genre’s latest entry Radioactive, the life of scientist Marie Curie is viewed under a microscope, sadly straddling the vivacious pioneer with a standard-issue big-screen treatment.
Radioactive chronicles the history of Marie Curie (Rosamund Pike), who discovered radium alongside her husband Pierre (Sam Riley). Even after her remarkable triumph, Marie finds herself battling against the gender stereotypes of the era, while also coming to terms with the multifaceted nature of her world-changing discovery.
Star Rosamund Pike recommences her prosperous run of reviving real-life figures here (A Private Warand Beirut), imbuing energy and agency into Marie’s restless pursuit for progress. Pike thankfully balances the character’s sharp attitude with resonant humanity, with her brash persona acting as a shield from the harsh critiques the figure often faced. Sam Riley makes for a fitting on-screen counterpart as Pierre, developing lived-in chemistry with his co-star that effectively displays the couple’s complicated dynamic. Perhaps Radioactive’s greatest strength lies in Marjane Satrapi’s visceral direction choices (Danny Boyle’s frequent collaborator Anthony Dod Mantle shot the film), as her use of colors and subversive imagery extenuate the character’s emotive states while infusing much-needed vibrancy into its biopic framework.
Like several of its contemporaries, Radioactive ultimately struggles to reinvent the genre’s stale structure. Jack Thorne’s screenplay focuses more on covering bullet points of Marie’s timeline rather than deriving proper depth into each chapter, jumping recklessly in an attempt to convey her full life story. The best biopics often capture their subjects through a finite memoir (Steve Jobs and The Social Network), mainly because the over-ambitious nature of truncating someone’s life work in a two-hour movie rarely breeds a fulfilling experience. This rushed approach impacts the film’s second-half the most, with interesting factoids like Marie’s personal affairs and her involvement in World War I lacking proper attention.
This could be forgiven if Radioactive rendered a substantive throughline with its plethora of thematic concepts. Thorne’s script occasionally wrestles with the tricky nature of scientific discoveries (a battle between the desire to produce positive change versus the commercialization of progress into something potentially dangerous), as well as the still-lingering sexism present in the workplace. What could have been exceedingly relevant to our current ecosystem ends up being woefully underbaked, with Throne’s script offering a few moments of heavy-handed explanation rather than dealing with the complicated implications (a flashforward to nuclear bomb testing during a speech about radium’s danger feels clunky at best).
Radioactive fails to subvert its formulaic delivery, resting on Hollywood conventions to tell a pertinent and exceedingly relevant slice of history.
Waiting for the Barbarians, an adaptation of the novel by J. M. Coetzee, is the English language directorial debut by Ciro Guerra. The narrative focuses on the decline of an undisclosed Empire, beautifully shot in the desert. Starring Mark Rylance as the retiring Colonial Magistrate, Johnny Depp as the tyrannical Colonel Joll, and Robert Pattinson as the overly sadistic second in command Mendal.
The film is split into four chapters over the duration of a year, symbolizing the passing seasons, the yearly cycle of birth, maturation, decline and ending representative of the recurrent patterns in nature… also a mirroring of time in our world, never more omnipresent than the current period we live in now. Although the location and time remain anonymous throughout, we as the audience get a sense of era and location from the interior, and landscape shots. Many reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia 1962, and ‘The English Patient’ 1996.
Waiting for the Barbarians’ story starts with the Colonial Magistrate (Mark Rylance) cast as the sensitive, steady lead. He plays it softly spoken and his emotions are expressed via small gestures. Only someone with his talent and experience could deliver this delicate role. Located in a far-away outpost of the Empire, he combines managing the daily aspects of the town, with studying local antiquities and artifacts. His life is slow and measured, with little disruption, until the arrival of state security officers. His prior concerns are honoring and understanding the land and indigenous people, so the sudden change in dynamic with the new ominous stark regime is an unwelcome presence.
Colonel Joll, is the head of the police, a cold character with a penchant for torturing the enemy. Depp plays this down, compared to his other roles over the past years, which seems to have him playing mainly caricatures, rather than characters. He arrives with all the pomp and ceremony of the colonial times, the sinister, arrogance and vanity of the personage of that era. His attire does all the talking here, an indicator of his presence – dark Navy uniform with a rather unique pair of glasses. Their black lenses and cross-section symbolize this character’s blindness, his taste for torturous cross-examinations of the innocent people, prove these Colonial officials to be the Fascist barbaric ones.
They are focused on the apparent arrival of the Barbarians, a group of ‘uncivilized’ dangerous invaders. As Colonel Joll and his officers terrorize and imprison more of the locals, the Magistrate moves away from his duties and makes it his mission to question the motives of the officer’s treatment of wrongfully captured prisoners. Amongst these are a nameless indigenous Girl (played by Gana Bayarsaikhan), a tortured vagrant who he brings into his household, much to the concern of his cook, considerately played by Greta Scacchi. More eye symbolism comes into play here as we unfold the story of her blinding under questioning. He soon becomes infatuated with her, washing her feet in a Mary Magdalene/Jesus role reversal, in which, overcome with emotion he passes out in her presence.
Determined to join her people, the ‘Magistrate’ embarks on a journey through the desert to unite her with her people. On his return, he is arrested, his possessions and privileges seized by Mendal. Robert Pattinson seems awkward, aloof and not within the film. Usually, I rate his abilities, (his performance in the Lighthouse, is one of my favorites this year), but he wastes one of the best lines in the film with his withdrawn delivery. Maybe he intended it that way. He is a sadistic and cold officer, hellbent on forcing the new regime. Classed as a deserter and traitor to the Empire, the ‘Magistrate’ is left filthy and homeless, and used as a visual form of deterrent via a humiliating scene in which he is hung in female clothing by a tree.
As time passes, the officers grow bored, still awaiting the arrival…climaxing with a horrific token of symbolism from the Barbarians, that they will not be threatened by their presence.
With this, the officers depart, leaving the ‘Magistrate’ holding the bag, to what we can only assume as the impending arrival of the Barbarians…or not.
The slow unfolding of the story, the expansive wide shots, and Rylance’s sensitive character portrayal are the strongest element of this film. All enhance that we are small insignificant beings in this huge world… yet we cause so much destruction through fear and our obsessive need for ownership. Waiting for the Barbarians is a well thought out retelling of a not so distant past, and sadly current world we still occupy.
Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is an agent for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of high-paying clients. But something goes wrong on a routine job, and she soon finds herself trapped in the mind of a man whose appetite for violence rivals her own.
Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor is a movie that I had heard a lot about in my circle of film friends. Various people kept telling me how great the film truly is and said that it would be right up my alley. I don’t know why I put off watching the movie until now because now that I have seen it, I can confirm that this is very much up my alley. As a matter of fact, Possessor is one of the best films of the year so far and is an extremely impressive sci-fi horror, unlike anything we’ve seen before.
Right from the beginning, Cronenberg reels you in with the zaniness of the world that he created here. The first scene is filled to the brim with immense tension and makes you wonder what is going on and makes you want answers. Along the way, we definitely get some answers but we are also left with even more questions, but not in a bad way. Just when you think you may have figured something out, the film makes you think again and changes the way you saw the previous scenes. The script that Cronenberg wrote is marvelous and has plenty of twists and turns that will shock you.
But about that world that I mentioned earlier – it is grimy and extremely gross. One of the more intriguing aspects of Possessor is that there are essentially no characters that we are supposed to be rooting for. They are all bad people living in a money-hungry world run by crime and hopelessness. Seeing this world come to life was tragic and oftentimes gut-wrenchingly brutal.
Not only is the world that these characters inhabit brutal, but so is the movie as a whole. Possessor is a massively violent film with tons of blood to satisfy lots of horror fans, but it is thankfully never done in a distasteful way, nor is it the only thing the film has to offer. We get little bits and pieces of violence sprinkled throughout and instead of being impressed by the blood, I winced every time somebody got hurt on screen. It looked visceral and disgusting in all the best ways.
Aside from all of the stellar aspects to the film’s world and its handling of violence, it’s also just an incredible display of the actors’ talents. Andrea Riseborough is terrific in the scenes that she is physically seen in since she is the main character that possesses other’s bodies. But even better than Riseborough is Christopher Abbott. Every single second he is on screen was remarkably terrifying and thrilling. Here, Abbott delivers an extremely nuanced performance; one that is filled with a sense of raw intensity and quite simply one of the best performances of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQn7W_Qio0
As great as the movie is though, there are some moments where the story becomes a bit too confusing and I often found myself wondering what was going on during certain scenes, particularly in the third act. Gratefully though, the film isn’t too confusing or messy for the long run and is ultimately one of the most intense horror thrillers I’ve seen in a long time. Here’s hoping that Cronenberg makes a new film in the new future because if it’s anything like this, it’s sure to be yet another gem.
Possessor is an incredibly visceral and chilling horror-thriller with an eerie sense of dread looming throughout, further boosted by the excellent performances and haunting atmosphere.
