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!

  • Ghosts In The Graveyard: Review

    Ghosts In The Graveyard: Review

    Ghosts In The Graveyard: Review. Sally Sullivan (Kelli Berglund) is a shy, insecure teenager whose life has never been the same since the death of a childhood friend while they were playing a game. Now Sally is a teenager and is starting to get the feeling that she is being watched, or even worse haunted by not only the traumatic memories from her childhood, but by the ghost of her friend.

    Sally just wants to fit in, but unfortunately the past won’t let her go and as much as she tries to fight her demons, she starts too realise that her connection to the supernatural may be stronger than she first thought.

    Ghosts in the Graveyard is the feature debut of writer/director Charlie Comparetto. The film sets the scene with a knowing wink to audiences who may think they know what to expect, with its high school setting and cast of sexy teens it puts all the players in place for a high school slasher. However, what follows has more in common has more in common with Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen.

    As the film progresses, the audience is let in on the secret that certain members of the small, sleepy town in which the Sullivans live may know more about what Sally is experiencing than they’re willing to admit. In particular Sally’s father, Charlie (Jake Busey) who is doing the best he can to protect his daughter from the dangers of teenage life, may know more than anyone the full extent of what lies ahead and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Sally safe.

    Ghosts in the Graveyard is a horror movie that knows exactly what it is and knows exactly what its audience wants. The ghost that plagues Sally is rarely seen which is always welcome in a horror movie. A little too much and the audience will start to see the villain for what it really is and too little and it may just turn into an actor fighting with themselves and trying to look scared.

    However, the tone for the movie is perfectly set with its misty graveyard scenes, sinister nun, Sister Brigit (Mary Anisi) and scenes that set up all the scares in just the right way. The film’s climax is also fun, scary and over the top which leaves the audience wanting more of Sally’s adventures, with the film tempting a possible sequel (or prequel?) to explore more of the background of Sally’s connection to things that go bump in the night.

    A fun night in with a good old fashioned ghost story, Ghosts in the Graveyard may be just what you’re looking for.

  • The Gallows Act II: Review

    The Gallows Act II: Review

    When Auna Rue (Ema Horvath) transfers to a prestigious new acting school, she encounters a malevolent spirit after participating in a viral challenge.

    Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff’s 2015 feature The Gallows was one that was met with a wave of negative reviews from the critics and audiences were not too keen on it either. I was among one of the many people that thought it was a cheap cash-grab with an extremely messy story, and riddled with jump scares.

    However, I thought that the concept was genuinely amazing and I was so disappointed that they really did not do anything with it. The whole idea of the movie was brilliant, and with a much better script, The Gallows could have been a horrifying and disturbing motion picture that lingered with viewers long after their initial watch.

    It is strange that this 2019 follow-up, The Gallows Act II, has practically no marketing campaign whatsoever. It is not like the original film did not make money, because it did. With a budget of $100,000, the movie managed to earn an incredibly impressive $43 million at the box office.

    The marketing campaign this time around was practically nonexistent, with only one poster being released and the first official trailer was only released one month ago, which is surprising considering the fact this sequel is being released this Friday. It is interesting to note though that this film is being released in theatres as well as on demand on the same day.

    Sadly, it is extremely easy to see why this film is going straight to demand on that day, becausethat is exactly what The Gallows Act II feels like – a straight to demand movie that you watch once with your friends and never want to watch again.

    Just like the predecessor, this movie has jumpscares that happen way too much, and they are never scary. The concept of a jumpscare itself is not something scary, but rather startling. When you get startled, it is usually because of something happening sudden, in front of your face, or maybe you hear something really loud all of a sudden.

    Getting genuinely scared is a completely different feeling. Truly scary horror movies earn their scares by building tension and all of the horrifying scenes we watch unfold are scary because, a lot of the time, they feel like they could actually happen. For example, in 2018’s Hereditary, we quite literally watch the entire family fall apart due to the film’s horrific events that happen around them, and it is terrifiying to watch.

    This movie’s idea of scaring its audience is having a character suddenly appear in frame numerous times, and a whole plethora of “false” jumpscares. These jumpscares would not be as bad, if the jump scare was something that could actually threaten the protagonist. But they are never anything to be afraid of. Something falling off of a countertop or something along those lines is a really annoying false jumpscare.

    In addition, The Gallows Act II‘s biggest issue is without a doubt its script. Not too much happens in this picture surprisingly, considering it is nearly an hour and forty minutes in length. A large portion of the movie is characters talking to one another, and this would be a good thing if the film was building up to its scares, but it never does. Its scares are few and far between and its storyline is extremely messy and jumbled, not to mention cliché. Whereas the first movie had a massively unique concept, this movie feels like something we have seen numerous times in the past, and better.

    Plus, the ending of this movie is one that will most definitely anger many of its viewers, even the ones that did not enjoy the ride, like myself. Let me just say this – if you were a fan of the movie leading up to the last act, you will no longer be a fan of it come the final scene.

    Gratefully, there is one thing to praise here, and it is Ema Horvath’s performance as the main protagonist Auna Rue. For the duration of the film, I actually did feel some sympathy for her character in some crucial sequences and she delivers a raw performance. In some moments, her acting is truly great and it makes you wonder how she has only ever acted in one feature film before this one. Horvath is a terrific actress but I just wish she was in a better movie.

    The Gallows Act II is a disaster on almost all levels. Its script is jumbled and clichéd, has an abundance of jumpscares, and has a maddening ending that makes the rest of the film seem pointless.

  • Bloody Marie: Review

    Bloody Marie: Review

    Bloody Marie is a Dutch film about an alcoholic struggling comic artist riding the long drawn out and fading high of her most significant career success that occurred six years prior to the setting. Her name is Marie Wankelmut (Susanne Wolff), and she, for almost the entire first half of the film, chases alcohol spending every last cent of her earnings along the way.

    She even trades her shoes for what appears to be a half-empty bottle of wine. She lives in the middle of Amsterdam’s red-light district right next to a brothel which she drunkenly wanders past to get home each night. 

    Despite it only taking up the second half of the runtime, the main story is that of a criminal act Marie commits whilst on a drunken tirade and the drastic consequences that ripple from it. She does something completely unjustified and illogical, and her primary justification is that she was ‘drunk as a skunk’. This sums up Marie as a character. She is the direct cause of all her own distress, she is foolish, consistently deplorable and aloof, yet we are supposed to cheer when as she stumbles her way through avoiding the consequences of her actions. Now, this isn’t to say the individuals dishing out those consequences aren’t bad; they most certainly are. 

    Dragomir (Dragos Bucur) is the films primary antagonist; he evolves into a wretched character, but everything he does is as a direct reaction to what Marie did to him. This leaves us with an extremely detestable villain but no hero worth rooting for, since the reality is, it’s all her fault. No matter how hard I tried I could not bring myself to care about Marie, I wanted her to escape her situation, but only because the cruel pimp would otherwise win, not because I cared at all about Marie.

    As a result, the film is void of emotion; there is no one to root for and almost no reason to watch. The script, written by the two directors of the project Lennert Hillege and Guido van Driel, is at fault for all of the issues here, more needed to be done to flesh out the characters, Marie in particular. There is no insight to be found here, no entertainment either, just unlikeable characters being unlikeable until the climax comes around and they can leave our screen.

    I specify the lack of insight to note the fact that Bloody Marie is, above all else, a character study. However, Marie is not a character worth studying. Her main trait is that she’s a drunk, the film attempts to build her as some kind of tortured artist drowning in a city where anything goes, but in reality, Marie is just a drunk getting herself into trouble like she seemingly has for six years straight.

    I say this as harshly as I do because that is all the insight the film grants into her persona, in the few dream/flashback sequences she remains an alcoholic. The only semblance of a life she led without her vice is the existence of her graphic novel “Porn For The Blind” and the fans whom we see congratulate her for making it. 

    The performances are all respectable Wolff does her best to bring a whimsicality to Marie that, had the character been at all endearing, would have come off as brilliant. And to Burcur’s credit, the one or two moments of genuine tension in Bloody Marie come from him and his sinister look. The production design enhances their efforts to no end; it is the only genuinely good aspect of the experience.

    Everything is greasy and reeks of dodgy interactions and underbelly crime that floods the red-light district of this film but is rarely explicitly seen. Floris Vos did a spectacular job creating this feeling and if anything comes across in this film it’s to stay away from Amsterdam’s red-light district.

    Bloody Marie falls short on almost every front. Marie herself is an unlikeable mess of a character who only amounts to be the centrepiece of a film that was never fully realised as the thrill-ride it was supposed to be.

  • Earthquake Bird: BRWC LFF Review

    Earthquake Bird: BRWC LFF Review

    Earthquake Bird

    Wash Westmoreland’s Tokyo-based thriller, Earthquake Bird, has all the right ingredients, but lacks the elements required to make for anything other than a bland, forgettable and by-the-numbers thriller that offers little surprises. 

    Set in 1989, Alicia Vikander plays Lucy, a young female expat living in Tokyo, arrested for murder, and caught up in a love triangle with her friend Lily and boyfriend Teiji.

    Vikander is an extremely talented performer who does her very best to bring some life into the material she’s given. The film is relatively nicely shot, and the score from Atticus Ross and Leopold Ross is quite memorable, but none of these positives can hide what is a highly formulaic plot, told in an uninspired fashion.

    The film’s themes offer the potential for an interesting study into the mindset of a self-centred character who thinks the whole world revolves around them; instead, we are offered a seen-it-before mystery tale, told with no real ambition or gusto. 

    Westmoreland has wasted his themes and a very talented cast (which also includes a top-notch Riley Keough and Naoki Kobayashi) on a story with absolutely no narrative drive; a story that lacks any of the necessary elements to make a film such as this work, such as any real tension, concern, surprise or energy. 

    Earthquake Bird feels almost like a factory-made thriller, that feels every bit as uninspired and dull as Westmoreland’s last picture, Colette. It’s a film that relies on its slight sense of style to reel you in, while offering none of the ingredients to make it worth it. It’s far from the worst film of the year, but it’s one you’ll forget the next day.

    Earthquake Bird: A young female expat is suspected of murder after her friend goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with a handsome local photographer.

  • Cordillera Of Dreams: BRWC LFF Review

    Cordillera Of Dreams: BRWC LFF Review

    Cordillera of Dreams Artful Dive into Chilean Identity. By Brandon Topp.

    Cordillera of Dreams is the first Patricio Guzman film I’ve ever seen, which is a backwards introduction to the Chilean documentarian’s rich list of films. 

    On the one hand, he made his mark with the expansive and groundbreaking film series The Battle of Chile, which The Hollywood Reporter says, “Made him synonymous with political filmmaking in Latin America.” Additionally, this film I just watched is the cap on a trilogy, which began with Nostalgia for the Light, and The Pearl Button. 

    While my lack of context is doubtfully recommended, the positive thing that comes from it, is that I can say with fresh eyes that Cordillera of Dreams is a striking work, and it gave me as an outsider what feels like a wholesome sense of Chile’s complicated, yet interconnected identity. The most interesting and creative move by Guzmen throughout the documentary is his use of parallels. 

    From the outset, we spend time drifting through the sky overlooking the cordillera—a term that carries a broad definition in the film, and is even explicitly said to transcend definition. Most simply described as the mountainous regions of the Andes, the cordillera represents both Chile’s most breathtaking beauty, and its most enduring struggles. 

    Guzman not only shows is these epic visual portrayals of the mountainous snowy wilderness, he also educates the viewer on how many of these magical natural locations are inaccessible to the people due to privatization. That conversation leads into the country’s wealth gap, which the filmmaker explores by looking back to the 1973 coup, and Pinochet’s lasting influence in the decades since. 

    The approach comes full circle drawing numerous parallels. For example, the film mirrors the bubbling discontent of the Chilean people over decades with mesmerizing and powerful volcanic eruptions in the cordillera. It also makes note of a 20,000 year history of native Chileans, and how their history and culture is embedded into the rocks of the mountains. The intertwining themes of culture and nature play off one another with systematic poetry. 

    The most impressive instance of this cinematic use of metaphor and physical relationship inside the country draws a map from the stones of the Andes mountains to the value of recording of Chilean history. Including footage from The Battle of Chile, alongside interviews and clips with documentarian Pablo Salas—a collaborator of Guzman’s when they were filming the Chilean revolution—it becomes clear that capturing these moments, and recording the country’s history is a vital part of its evolution from tyranny. 

    Guzman also makes note of how he believes the mountains overlooking the country remember its history. He tracks how stone from the mountains has been used to create walkways and streets in Santiago, and throughout the country. He talks about how the stones will always remember the blood that was spilled on them during the country’s most tumultuous times. 

    The film is showing at as intense a time as any, as Chile has been rife with protests and frightening government crackdowns lately. The citizens are fighting the wealth inequality, and demanding large-scale systematic changes, which are major themes of Cordillera of Dreams. Recently, Santaigo saw the country’s largest protest in history with around 1.2 million people participating. There have been reports of human rights violations and homicides by law enforcement. It’s very real, and emblematic of similar struggles of political power taking place around the world today. 

    I’m not an expert on the situation, but Guzman’s film, though a late addition to a series of many that seem to have done so, seems to give a wholesome perspective on how this vibrant country has been fighting to preserve itself for generations. It’s visually magnificent, educational, and a worthy watch for all those capturing the real-time unfolding of the next chapter in Chile’s history.