Category: REVIEWS

If you have ever been to a student showcase or short film festival, you’ll know there is no shortage of fifteen-minute films of people living in seclusion on an island. Such films almost always revel in their simplicity and can hide any shortcomings on story or character with long location shots. At least then it can be assessed on a technical level, if nothing else.

It seems that examples of this sub-genre of sorts can be found outside undergraduate showreels or exhibits at the Encounters Film Festival. One of the busiest film industries around are also making them. With his second outing as writer and director (After Dinner with Stranger from 2018), Hong Konger Linhan Zhang explores a slice of small island life with The Last Ferry from Grass Island.

The name comes from one of the many islands that make up Hong Kong and the boat which brings a young woman, Xiaoma (Yang Wang) from Grass Island to an unnamed, remote one. Her reason for going there? She is there to help the only visible resident of this new location, Ah Hoi (Tai-Bo), care for his elderly Ma (Yee-Yee Yeung), who is unable to do anything for herself other than watch TV.

One thing that is undeniable about this film from the outset is how well it is photographed. Cinematographer Girogos Valsamis’ every shot is beautiful, but almost to a fault. Even though the film is short, it could have been even shorter. There are plenty of establishing shots, panoramas and close-ups which go on a bit too long. While they are all pristinely photographed, that they linger for so long is , most evident in the myriad of scenes of Ah Hoi caring for Ma.

Last Ferry starts off so basic, but it’s not long before something is amiss. The first time Xiaoma is seen entering Ah Hoi and Ma’s house, she produces, from a laundry basket, a silenced pistol. When Ah Hoi sees her pointing the gun at him, his reaction is just a sigh. He convinces her to put it away with the promise of dinner and she sits down to eat instead.

With everything else sticking to formula, there are questions that still hang in the air: Why did Xiaoma turn a gun on Ah Hoi? Why did he not seem bothered seeing her with the weapon? It’s this element which holds Last Ferry together and it is handled in a very sophisticated way.

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Linan keeps the subtext the subtext, never spelling it out for the audience, and the film is better for that. This also prevents any further interruption to the film. Early on it feels non sequential, but at the end Linhan is able to bring everything together, without interrupting the rhythm and pacing of the story, and make it all feel like a complete film.

There are problems with The Last Ferry from Grass Island, but in the end it works. It has a simple story but it does have some ambition, it’s not just out to impress with pretty photography but leave the audience with more than just an aesthetic appreciation. It’s in its credit that it wants to more and, crucially, succeeds in doing more, which merits a viewing.

The footage of three filmmakers shooting a web series has been recovered. Intending to debunk famous Internet urban legends and rituals, they perform a blood ritual that summons an ancient primordial entity in the process. As the spirit’s unstoppable evil seeps into their daily lives the trio is left with a single choice: Submit to its will – or die.

No, Dustin Mills’ Ouija: Blood Ritual is not the next chapter in the commercially successful series of Ouija films, although it definitely feels like it could be one. But that’s not a good thing. The original film, which was released in 2014, was extremely profitable but it was panned almost universally by critics. Even a lot of the audience members that did go out to see it thought it was awful and wished they could have gotten their money back.

With that being said though, they did release a follow-up film two years later with the subtitle Origin of Evil which was ten times better. It’s a throwback to classic horror and actually has a hint of The Conjuring in there. Nevertheless, though, the Ouija series is one that not a lot of people are too fond of. I wasn’t a fan of the first at all, but somehow, this unrelated film with the subtitle Blood Ritual just so happens to be the worst film I have seen where the main plot revolves around a Ouija board.

Within the opening scene alone, the filmmakers use the tried-and-true, usually stale technique of putting text on the screen that says something along the lines of “The following video was recovered from *blank’s* cellphone. It has not been altered. The footage you are about to see is directly from their phone”. It’s a tactic that was popularized heavily with 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, but in recent years, it has worn off and now whenever I see something like that happen in a movie, oftentimes I just roll my eyes. Director Dustin Mills probably included this in his movie because he wanted it to come across as creepy and mysterious, but it fell flat.

But easily the biggest problem with Ouija: Blood Ritual is its story and acting. In this film, we follow three filmmakers who are creating their own web series where they discuss and try to debunk popular urban legends and creepypastas on the internet. Familiar? Sure. But if done right, it actually could be a fun and interesting twist on the subject matter. Instead though, the script is chalked full of needlessly long scenes that lead absolutely nowhere. It’s a movie that’s only seventy-seven minutes in length, yet for whatever reason, more than half of that running time is eaten up by just watching these filmmakers goof around with one another.

For a film that mentions a Ouija board in the title, you’d probably expect it to be quite eventful and scary, but that’s not the case at all here. It’s obvious that the film has an extremely low-budget and that’s respectable. Most filmmakers simply do not have the massive budgets that many Hollywood horror movies have these days, and so you have to use whatever money you have to create your film. However, this causes a lot of problems when it comes to the actual “scary” scenes. They look incredibly cheap and unconvincing which is unfortunate because it’s something that Mills more than likely couldn’t have fixed. I’m sure he did the best with what he had.

Sadly though, this is still not a good movie by any means. It’s hard not to watch this film and constantly notice how, if they changed certain elements, it could have been ten times better. It’s ultimately a painfully boring, often unintentionally funny mess of a horror film.

Ouija: Blood Ritual is an uneventful and massively unscary found-footage style horror film with a recycled story and weak acting.

Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron co-star as an odd couple in “Long Shot.” The film follows an awkward, foul-mouthed drug loving journalist Fred Flarsky (Rogen) and United States Secretary of State Charlotte Field (Theron.)

When Theron’s Field recognizes Fred from her childhood through a chance encounter at a media conglomerate party where Fred takes a violent fall down the stairs in front of Boyz II Men they, oddly enough, reconnect. Field, who has a secret killer sense of humor, subsequently reads some of Fred’s articles. Admiring his witty, yet edgy journalistic style she unilaterally hires him as a speechwriter, much to the chagrin of her campaign manager who is steering her image in a bid to become the first female President.

As unique of a premise as this is, and as much as I individually enjoy both Theron and Rogen as actors, the pairing was awkward for me. When they were simply co-workers it was an uncomfortable watch, but when a romantic comedy element was added about halfway in it really made me cringe and seemed grossly out of place. It wasn’t about looks either, so much as it was their contrasting demeanors. Although Theron executed a nice performance, maybe it was her icy look that didn’t add that fun element comedies so desperately need in the lead female character in order to make the romance believable between them and an awkward, less attractive guy.

Though a beautiful blonde, Katherine Heigl, worked so well for Rogen in the classic 2007 comedy “Knocked Up” he simply did not have the same chemistry with Theron and her looks aren’t as friendly. Not to mention Rogen’s character easily influencing her to take molly, after which a wasted and high Theron secured the release of a hostage. I don’t know, that part was just not funny to me. When I think of political hostages I think of innocent Americans like the late Otto Warmbier and poking fun at, or making light of a Secretary of State trying to secure a release for people who are basically tortured was weird and pretty gross to the point where I’m surprised that scene made it past the cutting room floor.

The rest of the plot was confused throughout, it’s almost like this film didn’t know what it wanted to be and was trying to say too many things. It tried to make a political statement, show men and women as equals, show successful women and random, idiotic men as pop-in characters; including Bob Odenkirk playing the President of the United States and Andy Serkis as media billionaire Parker Wembley.

I can’t really put a finger on what exactly went wrong here, but it was almost like someone wrote a bunch of skits and separate scenes and then tried to stitch them together and make it into a feature. 

Putting every negative aside, sorry, there are a lot; one element of this piece I enjoyed was the power structure between Charlotte and Fred. It was nice to see Fred willingly take a back seat to Charlotte’s success. Seeing a man support a woman in a film and not mind stepping behind her was a breath of fresh air, it’s just too bad the movie wasn’t. If it were it could have been a groundbreaking step for women in comedy, and romantic comedy in particular.

In Dickinson, her new comedy series on Apple TV+, creator Alena Smith presents great American poet Emily Dickinson as a young woman notably out-of-time, living in the 1800s with the core values of a modern-day millennial. 

Dickinson, whose work was mostly published after she died, was an anti-social girl who spent her life cooped up in the bedroom of her family home. Her work was written in private, with her father refusing her permission to publish, adamant that it would only harm their family name. Few people in Emily’s life support her poetry, aside from Sue, her oldest friend and future sister-in-law, with whom she shares a secret romance. 

At its core, Dickinson is a black comedy; a teen drama with an inevitably tragic end. Emily’s future is made clear to the viewer in the opening moments of the very first episode, and the series doesn’t shy away from the darker themes necessary to tell her story well, neither dismissing them nor making light of them. 

The balance between the opposing themes, tones and languages may be peculiar for some, but it’s precisely what makes the show so engaging. While the periodic setting is always made abundantly clear, Emily can frequently be heard saying various words that have only become popular in the past twenty years or so. Audiences will hear phrases like ‘so pimp’, ‘pretty psyched’ and ‘nailed it’ mentioned throughout the series, and there’s even an episode in which she holds a house party and gets her friends high on opium while they all dance and twerk to modern pop music (even Billie Eilish and Lizzo feature on the soundtrack). This might all sound very strange (it is), but it’s precisely what makes the show work. Emily is shown to be a woman born in the wrong era and vastly ahead of her own time, and this comes across superbly, weakened only by the fact that she isn’t the only character to speak in the way she does.

When it comes to historical accuracy, there really is nothing wrong with meddling with it if there is at least a reason for doing so, and the modern references in Dickinson serve a clear purpose for its protagonist, with many other important elements going unchanged, including Emily’s poetry, not a word of which is altered. 

The series really excels when showing Emily’s relationship with Sue, which is portrayed both tastefully and intimately. Sue played a big role in Emily’s life, but their story has largely been omitted over the years, most notably in the 2016 film A Quiet Passion, which essentially pretended it never happened. Here, the characters are actually given the time to breathe; Emily and Sue are both very mature about what they have and fully understand the impossibility of it, and Steinfeld shares truly excellent chemistry with Ella Hunt. 

A surprisingly excellent piece of casting comes in the form of Wiz Khalifa as ‘Death’, who Emily regularly visits in her dreams. The rapper makes very few appearances, but his scenes with Steinfeld are at once magnetic, romantic and disturbing; it’s in these moments that the darkness behind Emily Dickinson best comes to the forefront. 

The series isn’t short of its flaws, including often clunky and obvious dialogue, the odd casting of Jane Krakowski as Emily’s mother, and the rather shallow portrayals of the male characters, but the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses. Dickinson is a show that works even when it doesn’t, thanks mostly to the outstanding Hailee Steinfeld, an actress with such natural charisma and charm that she simply cannot be faulted. She is the shining light of the series and the reason it rises above so many of its many problems. 

It’s also a show that rewards patience, developing into a stronger story with each passing episode. It’s in the last few that we get our first glimpse into the tragic and sad Emily Dickinson that we are all familiar with, as a result of her relationship with Ben and the incidents surrounding her brother Austin’s marriage to Sue. It’s a series with the potential to grow into something far stronger than it is.

Dickinson is a supremely fun show with a likeable and watchable lead; a re-imagining that feels both fresh and interesting. With a second season already on the horizon, it’s clear that Alena Smith has a vision for its future that will become more prevalent as it continues. It has the feel of a show that could gradually find an audience and become better appreciated over time, so it’s worth the effort now to be among the very first to discover it. 

Written and directed by Jon Stewart, Irresistible is a comedy about what happens when a small Wisconsin town becomes the main attraction of our political circus. After the Democrat’s top strategist Gary (Steve Carell) sees a video of a retired Marine Colonel (Chris Cooper) standing up for the rights of his town’s undocumented workers, Gary believes he has found the key to winning back the Heartland. However, when the Republicans counter him by sending in his brilliant nemesis Faith (Rose Byrne), what started out as a local race quickly becomes an out-of-control fight for the soul of America.

Politics are a touchy subject, now more than ever. We live in a crazy and scary world, and ever so often, you may feel the urge to watch a somewhat goofy, over-the-top political satire, and if that’s the case, Irresistible should do the trick.

This is an extremely breezy and highly enjoyable movie. It presents its topics and arguments in a way that is easily digestible, almost to a fault though. It’s definitely the biggest issue with the film as a whole – it doesn’t really leave you feeling anything major. For a film with a synopsis like the one I mentioned above, you would think it would be a decently engaging story, but instead, its a rather linear story that is full of enough jokes and good acting along the way to make it enjoyable.

There are moments of greatness here, especially in the first act. It seemed like for a while it would actually tell a compelling story of a close race between two political parties with a satirical edge to it, but ultimately loses its grip a little while into the second act.

But that doesn’t mean this is a bad film, however. It may not have the most enjoyable plot, but it is quite hilarious. It’s an expertly-paced film with barely any time for a breather, and that’s a good thing. There are plenty of jokes around each corner here, and nearly all of them put a big smile on my face, and some even caused me to laugh out loud.

What makes these jokes even funnier is the way Steve Carell delivers them. He is without a doubt, in my opinion, one of the greatest comedic actors of all-time. There is just something so oddly enjoyable at watching him say anything, really. At times, his performance here does feel what would happen if Michael Scott from The Office dabbled into politics, but it’s amusing and comforting to watch nevertheless.

Carell has terrific chemistry with all of his co-stars too, namely Chris Cooper and Mackenzie Davis, who also deliver great performances. There truthfully isn’t a weak link amongst the entire cast. They all come together to deliver remarkable comedic performances that are infectious to watch unfold.

On a technical level, Irresistible is also quite the treat. It’s one of the best looking comedies I have seen in at least a year. Director of photography Bobby Bukowski managed to bring to life the fictitious town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin beautifully. The town feels so alive and bustling with happy, passionate citizens during virtually every scene. The clear blue skies and the impressive architecture of the buildings will surely put a smile on your face.

Could this movie have done a better job of telling the satirical story of a small Wisconsin town caught in the middle of a close election? Yes, absolutely. But it’s still a deeply funny, beautifully-shot, and well-acted comedy that should put a smile on your face as it did me.

Irresistible‘s satirical storyline often feels a bit underdeveloped, but it’s saved by the wonderfully funny jokes and comedic timing of Steve Carell.