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!

  • Stationary: Review

    Stationary: Review

    By Rowan Malyon.

    Shot in perhaps the most constrictive of settings, Stationary follows two old friends with a loaded history who have ended up on very different paths. 

    Written and directed by Louis Chan, the film manages to encompass the worlds of these young people in a way that is rarely seen. Over the course of one afternoon in a parked car, we see former drug dealer Jimmy (Aaron Thomas Ward) confront his childhood friend Che (Rebekah Murrell) about the life she leads, and the dangers of dragging her younger brother down the same road. 

    Their friendly reunion is prickly to begin with, but when Che sends her brother home to make a delivery for her, things soon turn violent, and an already fractured relationship is left in limbo. Optimism and bitter reality intertwine and we are not sure if they can ever recover, but there is hope. 

    Though these characters appear very different at first glances, it becomes clear that they are two sides of the same coin. While Jimmy is trying to get his life back on track after being arrested, and represents the future and opportunity, Che is still linked to the past, and the cycle that some people can find themselves stuck in.

    This film shows how a single, defining choice made when you are young can affect the rest of your life, even though you might have been a completely different person in a completely different set of circumstances. The scarring trauma that Jimmy went through still follows him and affects every decision he makes. 

    Onset Short Film “Stationary” • Fresh Look Films • Photo © Daniel D. Moses • www.danielmoses.com

    Chan highlights an important and rarely discussed issue, that lower-class kids are often expected to grow up too fast. The characters are in their very early twenties, barely past teenagers, and yet they are painted with the same brush as people much older, as if we hit the age of eighteen and are suddenly adults. 

    What is refreshing about this film is that there is no obvious right or wrong. Chan creates two totally opposing figures without there needing to be a protagonist and an antagonist. They actually appear more like the two battling halves of one person’s conscience. We are not told who to agree with, we are simply shown these characters and asked to decide for ourselves.

    Crisp and clear and to the point, Stationary depicts the lives of these young people so succinctly and clearly that we feel as if we know them inside out despite the brevity of the film. Their song is one we all know the words to, and yet it is made new and original by incredible actors who keep your attention and hold it tight for the duration of the film. This is a story and set of characters that you cannot help sympathising with even if their experiences differ drastically from your own. 

  • Echo In The Canyon: Review

    Echo In The Canyon: Review

    Echo In The Canyon: Review. By Betty Widdicombe.

    A nostalgic trip to an era, a movement, and a scene that still resounds on popular culture to this day. The credits open with the definition of the word ‘Echo’ – 1. A close parallel or repetition of an idea, feeling, style or event’ – an indication of the attempted documentary format in which we were about to jump into.

    An unabashed tribute to the mid-sixties Folk Rock Scene, including a lot of ‘talking heads’, with karaoke type performances from the likes of Jakob Dylan, Beck, Cat Power et al, juxtaposed with aerial and driving shots of LA’s Laurel Canyon – very much an homage to Jacques Demy’s 1969 film ‘Model Shop’ – which is cited by ‘Andrew Slater’ – documentary Director and President of Capitol Records, as the influence of conception and style.

    Personally, I wasn’t particularly fond of this documentary. I felt it lacked any real narrative, and if I had not spent so much time in LA in the last two years, I’m not sure I would have had a clue where this was set. The location isn’t even mentioned until at least an hour in.

    This documentary felt more as if it was a reminiscence project for music insiders, the celebrities themselves, (boy there were plenty…Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, Beck and Tom Petty to name but a few), and also hard-core fans of this particular genre of music. 

    Although it was entertaining to hear some of the juicy bits of gossip from the very candid ‘Michelle Phillips’ from the ‘Mama’s and Papas’, and also to see photographs of Brian Wilson’s home during the creation of ‘Pet Sounds’ sand filled front room, with only a Piano for furniture – one thinks a form of ‘Stanislavski’s method’ for writers perhaps?!! I feel like so much grittier information could have been included. Also, so many major artists from that period were missing…like, what about Joni Mitchell?

    Questions I am left with…Why was it such a melting pot? How did the city inspire and produce so much creativity? Yes, we hear that they were heavily influenced by ‘The Beatles’, and by each other, but that is nothing new to learn. A lack of any mention of the political climate at the time seems strange, and why were there no reference towards the Manson murders From my only internal geekery I know that Dennis Wilson was very much associated with that, and yet he is not even mentioned. 

    The studio shots, and boring performances made this documentary drag on for far too long. Dylan’s son could have just narrated it, Beck looked so uncomfortable throughout, I’m not quite sure why he was there at all. It would have been much more interesting if they added more archive footage. 

    One thing I will say for this pastiche of celebrity fodder, was that it made me instantly revisit ‘Model Shop’ – every cloud hey.

    If you want a depiction of life during that time, I would skip this documentary entirely and go watch ‘Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold’ 2017, ‘Model Shop’ 1969, or even ‘Forrest Gump’ 1994  (which makes great use of the iconic music produced from that era).

    Overall, a very dry documentary that is a supposed celebration of such a vibrant, psychedelic creative period in history.

  • The Outpost: The BRWC Review

    The Outpost: The BRWC Review

    The haunting perils of war are a common fixture in mainstream cinema, with efforts like Dunkirk and 1917 displaying the various technical approaches to the complex subject matter. While there are countless examples of period war titles, few have captured the zeitgeist of modern conflicts, often relying on blind jingoism to deliver an agreeable message for popcorn-munching audiences (12 Strong and Act of Valor are primary offenders). The latest boot-on-the-ground offering The Outpost focuses on the US’s ongoing strife in Afghanistan, delivering an accomplished effort that earnestly honors its real-life subjects.

    Set in 2009 (and based on Jake Tapper’s novel), The Outpost follows a unit of U.S. soldiers working in a vulnerable base of operations. Their day-to-day lives consist of attempts to make peace with the locals while fending off persistent Taliban forces. Mere days before the team is set to abandon the mission, an overwhelming army raids the base, leaving the soldiers in a desperate fight for survival. Remembered as “The Battle of Kamdesh”, the conflict would go on to be the bloodiest conflict of the Afghan War.

    The Outpost differs from its contemporaries by establishing a grounded viewpoint of its subjects’ daily lives. Eric Johnson’s screenplay keeps contrived melodrama and specified dialogue to a minimum, focusing more on bawdy banter and intimate disclosures to create a genuine rapport between the characters. Johnson also portrays the day-to-day doldrums of soldier life, following their work as well-intended ambassadors trying to find common ground with the nearby locals. It’s refreshing to see a war film focus on the difficult process of two sides working together in the midst of conflict, with both combating their innate suspicion of the other party in attempts to make progress.

    Moments of quiet normalcy are consistently interrupted by enemy attacks, with a series of skirmishes displaying the routine dangers facing the ragtag outpost. Director Rod Lurie wisely builds upon small-scale action beats until the hour mark, portraying a sense of danger that boils into the infamous conflict. Once Lurie’s depiction of the Kamdesh conflict begins, he unleashes a relentless onslaught of pulsating combat with a dizzying fury. Through this chaos, Lurie adeptly walks the finite line of depicting war’s carnage without ever glorifying it, applying frenetic tracking shots that place audiences in the shoes of its central heroes with harrowing results.

    Lurie promptly renders a substantive throughline with his action rather than letting it stand aimlessly as senseless violence. Through the soldier’s desperate sacrifice to one another (including the peers they aren’t particularly fond of), their remarkable heroism is displayed without having to utter a contrived message. The well-tuned cast also helps to develop a genuine bond, with Get Out star Caleb Landry Jones excelling with his emotionally-moving work.

    Despite these strengths, The Outpost still features its fair share of technical blemishes. The over-reliance on text to introduce new characters and chapters comes off as clunky, often leading to several transitions that lack grace. I admire Lurie’s meat and potatoes approach to his subject matter, but his presentation lacks the depth and artistry to convey one of the genre’s top tier iterations.

    Assembled with a heaping of passion and technical craft, The Outpost offers a sturdy portrait of wartime struggles that honors its central subjects.

  • Desperados: Review

    Desperados: Review

    A panicked young woman (Nasim Pedrad) and her two best friends (Anna Camp & Sarah Burns) fly to Mexico to delete a ranting email she sent to her new boyfriend. On arrival, they run into her former beau (Lamorne Morris), who soon gets caught up in their frantic scheme.

    Right from the raunchy opening scene of Desperados, I had a terrible feeling in my stomach that told me this was going to be a chore to sit through. Somehow, as each minute passed, the film as a whole got worse and worse, and I found myself counting down the time until the movie was over.

    Why is this film as bad as it is? It’s a simple answer, really – the script. Ellen Rapoport wrote this non-stop sex joke-filled “comedy” that had several opportunities throughout its running time to go in a clever direction and be a little bit diverting, but at every chance it has, it, unfortunately, takes the most formulaic and stale route possible.

    Practically every single joke in Desperados is in relation to sex toys, intercourse, or anything of the sort. There’s even one painfully awkward and cringe-inducing sequence in which Nasim Pedrad’s character Wesley enters a hotel room that she is trying to enter, only to discover a young boy is in there. From there, the child touches her and gets excited because he touched a girl. Scenes like that are what make this story so dreadful to watch.

    But let’s talk about Nasim Pedrad because she is without a doubt the best thing that Desperados has going for it. I wouldn’t necessarily say that she is great in the film or anything like that, but I could tell that she genuinely did have a blast making this movie and put a lot of energy and charisma into playing this character. If you are a fan of her work, you will more than likely like her here. Me personally, I didn’t necessarily think her performance was either good or bad. I appreciated her commitment to this role, but I didn’t think that her portrayal of this character was impressive or anything like that.

    Plus, the way the movie ends is extremely predictable, and I am willing to bet that nearly everybody that watches Desperados is going to see the ending coming from a mile away. If you are like me and have seen several hundred movies in your life, it’s quite obvious where the filmmakers are going to be taking the story fairly early on. Whenever I saw the ending with my own eyes, instead of being surprised, I was shaking my head because it went down the path I was hoping it would avoid.

    There’s truthfully nothing of praise that I can give to this movie. It’s a comedy that goes for shock value at every single turn, is filled with highly unlikable and annoying characters, and a storyline that is ridiculously predictable and disappointing.

    Desperados is filled with cringe-inducing raunchy jokes, annoying and unlikable characters, and a story that goes down a far too predictable route.

  • Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway: Review

    Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway: Review

    By Alex Purnell. In the current cultural climate, there’s been a growing resurgence of nostalgic-driven media, be it in music, film or television. With this being said, titles such as and Danger 5 (2012)and Kung Fury (2015) have become underground hits, revelling in their absurd, cheesy 60’s/70’s/80’s inspired low-budget hilarity.

    This is where Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway (2019) abruptly and rather obnoxiously stumbles onto the scene. A fever dream-like experience, it rather chaotically combines elements from retro sci-fi, classic Chinese kung-fu cinema (and the genre’s subsequent knock-offs), the Japanese ‘Tokusatsu’ subgenre and low-budget 70’s spy TV to make a jarring, yet mesmerising surreal comedy.

    What holds Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway apart from these other titles is its total descent into absolute madness. There’s no toe-dipping involved, only full-on belly flops, for better or worse, the full-length feature doesn’t hold back.

    Following director Miguel Llansós’ break-out cult hit Crumbs (2015), the filmmaker continues to build upon his surrealist brand of cinema, with Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway taking a more light-hearted and comedic approach compared to his first flick

    Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway follows two CIA Agents, Agent D.T. Gagano (Daniel Tadesse) and Agent Palmer Eldritch (Agustín Mateo) as the two attempts to bring down a computer virus called the Soviet Union by using a VR device called Psychobook, but after finding a mysterious substance, Gagano gets stuck in the system as his real body enters into a coma.

    Stalin, the obvious villain in this situation, sends Gagano to Ethiopia, where the president ‘Batfro’ (Solomon Tashe), a superhero wearing a costume resemblant to Batman, captures Gagano, revealing to him that Eldritch is having affair with his partner. What develops is confusingly complex and convoluted, an unusual melody of politically driven villainry, giant flies and portable television.

    The eccentric plot is only emphasised by the films intentional technical faults, horrendous dubbing and constantly changing camera formats riddle the film, but do nothing but improve and play upon the deliberate B-movie aesthetic of the piece. Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway also has some interesting and engaging techniques, the use of stop motion within some of the scenes set within the Psychobook perfectly matched the feeling and atmosphere of the film, jerky and unpredictable, and felt reminiscent of Tetsuo: The Ironman’s (1989) action sequences. One of the fight scenes’ starring three ninjas named after types of pasta was surprisingly well-choreographed and incredibly entertaining, and with some interesting characters, it felt fresh and new, despite being a spoof of sorts. 

    Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway is chaotically enjoyable, a banquet of surreal humour and originality. Although not everybody’s cup of tea, its rich with character and isn’t easily forgotten.