Category: REVIEWS

A Perfect Host: The BRWC Review – A group of friends rent an isolated lake house owned by a fitness-obsessed man with mysterious intentions.

One of the biggest tell-tale signs that A Perfect Host was going to end up being an amazingly bad movie is shown to us right in the opening scene as a deep-voiced narrator spouts endless expository dialogue and talks down to the audience while we witness a slew of shots of the outdoors and various different neighborhoods.

For some, this opening might set the tone for the rest of the film – a chilling, dark, cold opening that doesn’t give you any breathing room, and throws you in with the pack of wolves right from the start. But for others, it will come across as extremely lazy, incredibly rushed, and a poor form of storytelling. That’s how I viewed the opening, and really, the entire movie after it.

The instant it starts off, it is upsettingly obvious that the entire movie is going to be rushed. With a running time of only one hour and sixteen minutes, including credits, there really isn’t a lot of room for any kind of character growth whatsoever. In fact, the characters here are some of the most one-note characters I have seen in a horror movie in a long time.

They don’t have any sort of backstory solely because writer/director Chad Werner was too focused on keeping the film quite compact and tight that it created a problem. The movie feels relatively short and has some sequences that I’m sure people will enjoy if they are willing to turn their brains completely off, but for those that are looking for a genuinely fun and interesting horror flick are going to have to resist the urge to turn it off in the first ten minutes.

But all of the poor character elements aside, it just simply tells a boring and uninteresting story. It is painfully familiar and borrows off of so many other, and better mind you, horror films from the past. The premise of a group of people going to an isolated lake house is nothing new, that’s for sure. It would’ve been a little bit better had they taken that concept and injected some new life into it (such as the excellent Cabin in the Woods), but they never do that.

Instead, it goes the predictable and formulaic route at every possible turn. The “horror” scenes are completely unscary and rely far too much on jump scares. To make matters worse, the acting, line delivery, and the dialogue, in general, are all terrible are always come across as cringe-worthy.

Online, I have seen some people say the film is self-aware and admittedly over-the-top, and while that might be the case, it doesn’t benefit the film whatsoever. I’ve seen lots of great films that were silly and self-aware, but this wasn’t one of those movies. The only good thing it has going for it is its running time, which comes as both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it means you won’t have to put up with the film for long, but it is also a curse because it means that the film has absolutely no room for growth.

A Perfect Host suffers greatly from its short running time and boasts an incredibly silly, over-the-top script and features painfully boring horror sequences.

Gatsby (Timothēe Chalamet) is a rich, pseudo intellectual actor who’s spending the weekend with his girlfriend, Ashleigh (Elle Fanning). Ashleigh is an opportunistic journalist who gets the chance to interview one of her idols, director Roaland Pollard (Liev Schrieber).

Whilst Gatsby is out filming a scene with his co-star, Chan (Selena Gomez) Ashleigh is invited to watch Pollard’s latest masterpiece and so starts the troubles in Gatsby and Ashleigh’s relationship.

A Rainy Day in New York is Woody Allen’s latest movie, postponed from 2017’s release due to allegations about his misconduct. So, fans of Allen’s work have been tentatively waiting to see if the wait was worth it, while the rest of the world (including the movie’s cast) have sensibly distanced themselves from Allen and his work. Frankly, even for those fans still hanging on Allen’s every word, it wasn’t worth the wait.

There are several problems with A Rainy Day in New York and not just because of the allegations now surrounding Woody Allen. The problem seems to be that the once renowned director has run out of ideas. A Rainy Day in New York riffs off of Allen’s more successful work in his heyday and what’s left is a pale imitation.

Add to that the incredibly dated characters and scenarios that they find themselves in, and it all feels like a filmmaker desperately trying to remind an audience why they loved him in the first place. Only for the fans that are still left to wonder where it was that he lost his touch.

If any members of the audience can separate the artist from the movie and try to enjoy the film, it’s clear that Allen cannot. Having been known to write characters that are closely based on his public persona, Gatsby is just another Allen clone and despite Chalamet’s talent as an actor, the audience won’t be able to stop feeling like this is the filmmaker talking through his characters rather than creating someone they can connect with.

Unfortunately, there’s not even a single well written female character in the cast. From Ashleigh, the flighty journalist willing to do anything debasing to get a story, to the sex workers that appear more than once. There’s even the cheating wife thrown in for good measure. Although this cannot take away from the talent of Elle Fanning, Rebecca Hall, Selena Gomez and Cherry Jones as they have so little to work with.

For those wishing to watch something that takes their minds off how troubling the world is these days, A Rainy Day in New York is only going to make your blood boil over.

Claire (Kate Miccuci) has landed a great new job at a PR company. She lives with her boyfriend, Paul (Sam Huntington) in their new apartment in L.A., but unfortunately Paul is unemployed so they can’t take their relationship to the next level. They’re amazed at the location and the cheap rent at their new place, that is until they find out why.

It turns out that the apartment complex houses a suicide cult whose members randomly break in so that they can kill themselves in their bath tub. Their leader, Storsh (Taika Waititi) committed suicide several years before the couple moved in, yet his faithful followers keep on coming and as Claire and Paul decide to embrace their new living arrangements, their grip on reality goes right along with it.

Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss by Passing Through the Gateway Chosen by The Holy Storsh, (to give the movie its full title) is a dark comedy directed by Vivieno Caldinelli. Unfortunately, this surreal black comedy comes across more like an experimental movie where the writers were given a few topics (suicide cults, unemployment and soulless PR companies) and made a bet to try and make them funny. If this indeed the case then they probably lost because the movie is not funny.

The premise for the movie may seem amusing because it may seem so subversive and it could have been the modern day Natural Born Killers, commenting on the empty lives of suburban living. However, the script doesn’t have that depth. Instead what the audience gets is a series of sketches thrown together which start to make less and less sense as it the movie continues.

Fans of Rick and Morty and Community may love that creator Dan Harmon is a supporting character as the detective investigating every murder/suicide that happen in the couple’s apartment. However, his cliched character just comes across as mean spirited as his sub plot doesn’t go anywhere.

Considering the comedic talents of Micucci, Waititi and Harmon, it’s baffling as to why they were involved in Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss and why they didn’t have anything better to do.

Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) has just moved into a new apartment in L.A., having career aspirations and finally setting out on her own. She’s estranged from her father (Alan Blumenfeld) who calls, belittling her choices and suggests she just gives up on her pipe dream.

Undeterred by her father’s passive aggression, Sarah settles into her new apartment block and even makes a new friend, Lisa (Celeste Sully) at her temp job. Sarah’s also delighted when she meets her new neighbours who are all charming and friendly, especially Miss Stanhope (Susan Davis) and her handsome neighbour, Brian (Giles Matthey). However, it soon turns out that Sarah’s neighbours may not be all that they seem.

1BR is a psychological horror movie written and directed by David Marmor. Setting up what seems to be a straightforward psychological horror, 1BR soon turns into a deep and realistic look at how people are unwillingly pushed into cults. Everything Sarah’s neighbours do to her are not all that out of the ordinary, using techniques that the audience could easily see happening to anyone at any time.

As Sarah’s torture continues, her conditioning takes effect and the bulk of the movie shows what Sarah has truly gotten herself into, whilst continuing its level of realism so that the audience can feel fully immersed in Sarah’s new world.

Bloom does a fantastic job as Sarah is put through the psychological and sometimes physical torture, managing to convey a realistic change when she finally submits to the cult. The rest of the cast are also particularly good at putting the audience into a false sense of confidence as they’re all introduced during the movie’s slow burning first half hour.

However, after everything that Sarah endures and even learning about their beloved leader, the final act is disappointing. It unfortunately throws all of that out the window in favour of a dramatic, climactic ending which relies on horror tropes that it could have done much earlier.

The final twist in the movie’s final moments also seems a little unnecessary as prior to this, the audience may have been taken in and put under the spell of Sarah’s experiences with the cult.

By Alex Purnell. An intriguing who-done-it crime story with grizzly twists and turns, Innocence tells the daring story of care home patient Dylan (Tommy Jessop), a young man who has Down syndrome, as he is relentlessly questioned over the mysterious death of worker Micheal (Richard Glover).

The film profoundly questions the role of disabled actors and characters within the film, and the notion that they are predominantly typecasted as victims. Director Ben Reid wrote upon the film website that the intention of Innocence was to portray a strong character who has Down syndrome for his younger brother Tom, who also has Down syndrome. Reid states:

“This drove me to make INNOCENCE, giving Tom the character he’s always been denied and shining a light on the fact people with Down syndrome are more capable and intelligent than most people believe.”

The most compelling component of Innocence is the constant hurricane of a story the film brings you on. A rollercoaster of half-truths, Innocence feels superbly thought through, with a well-written script which is remarkably fleshed out. What the script did well was to provide a wonderfully paced short, feeding the audience with a constant drip-feed of information whilst hiding the reveal successfully until the final moments.

The character of Dylan (Tommy Jessop) feels three dimensional and fluid as the lead, with Jessop playing the part beautifully, the character is most definitely the highlight of the short, bringing a wealth of confidence to the role.

Despite this, though, the other characters do feel somewhat flavourless in comparison, feeling underwhelming, and as if they are reading directly off the script. This frustrating pot-hole turns the other-wise brilliantly professional short into more of an amateur feeling student film, although in general, it is somewhat forgivable, as the plot manages to uphold the majority of the short.

Innocence is a pocket-sized crime drama you should definitely consider watching. Not only does it fit an incredible plot filled into its 20 minute margin, but it also questions the role of disabled actors within the industry, not only that but it acts upon the issue, telling a suspensefully unforgettable story in the process.