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!

  • Zombieland: Double Tap – The BRWC Review

    Zombieland: Double Tap – The BRWC Review

    Zombieland: Double Tap – The BRWC Review. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.

    It may be hard to believe it, but Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland was released ten whole years ago. That initial film impressed critics and audiences all across the world with its whip-smart humor, gory zombie fun, surprisingly heartfelt moments, and an excellent cast with terrific chemistry between them.

    Everything about that original film was considered to be a massive win, and upon the release of the film, many were expecting a sequel to follow suit relatively quickly. However, as you can probably tell, we only have a sequel now, and it has been an entire decade.

    I vividly remember after watching Zombieland for the first time ever when I was nine years of age, I thought that it was incredible, and it was one of my favorite movies at the time. Due to the ending of the film, and the world that it set up, I expected to see a sequel within the next few years hopefully. I never would have thought it would have taken so long. Its sequel was in development hell and for the longest time, it appeared as if the follow-up would never come out.

    Finally, though, its sequel Zombieland: Double Tap has been officially released with the same writer, director, and cast attached. To say that I was excited for this film would be a colossal understatement, and I was hoping that it would at least live up to most of my expectations. Gratefully, I can report that Double Tap is an extremely worthy follow-up.

    One of the reasons why is because of the incredible cast returning. Eisenberg, Harrelson, Breslin, and Stone are all back and better than ever, and their characters, while still hilarious and a ton of fun to watch interact with one another on screen, have gone through a ton of things throughout their lives. Wichita and Columbus are still dating and are happy with one another, which makes Columbus wonder what his next move should be in their relationship.

    Tallahassee is still the gun-toting macho man that we all know and love, and he unsurprisingly, delivers a large portion of the movie’s humor. Little Rock is now all grown up, but she still feels like she is missing something. She desparately wants to find herself a boyfriend, but it is not so easy considering that the world is infected with a highly dangerous zombie plague.

    Seeing these four band together once more was such a delight to see and put the biggest smile on my face. Their chemistry is still top of the line and every scene that they are in together is a blast to watch.

    Among the brand new characters introduced in Double Tap are Berkeley (Avan Jogia), a hitchhiker hippie that Little Rock picks up when driving one day, Albuquerque (Luke Wilson), who is similar to Tallahassee, Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch), who is similar to Columbus, and last but not least – Madison (Zoey Deutch), who is one of the film’s goofier characters.

    Almost all of those new characters provide a ton of great laughs and exceptionally exciting moments of zombie killing goodness which is loads of fun to watch. But, when it comes to Madison; I hated her character. In my opinion, she is the biggest issue with Double Tap. There are some sequences that could be genuinely funny if the character of Madison had just been removed from the whole picture. Instead of being comical, she just comes off as plain annoying. Every time she appeared on screen, it was boring to watch.

    Also, this movie does have quite a lot of continuity errors that I could not help but notice along the way. Some things happen that just do not make any sense and make some things from earlier on in the story way too confusing.

    In addition, Double Tap does suffer from some pacing issues unfortunately. The running time clocks in at ninety three minutes which is surprising, considering that it is a mere five minutes longer than its predecessor, yet feels considerably longer. This is because some scenes, while definitely funny and entertaining, did not necessarily need to be there and took away from the overall story for a few minutes.

    This next thing is just a minor nitpick and it is nothing major whatsoever, but I wish we had seen more of Little Rock in this movie. She is on the poster, shown in every trailer, behind the scenes stills and more. Abigail Breslin was even credited before Emma Stone on the official poster for the film. Sadly, she is barely in the film, which was a bit upsetting. Gratefully, the scenes that she is present in, are extremely entertaining and funny.

    But at the end of the day, this is an incredibly satisfying follow up to a beloved horror zombie comedy. The zombie kills are more brutal than ever which was exciting to see. There are even brand new types of zombies present in this film which makes the group have to question what they can do to bring them down and survive.

    While it does have its fair share of issues, Zombieland: Double Tap is still a worthy sequel with tons of bloody zombie fun, incredible humor, and boasts an excellent cast with great chemistry.

  • Talking About Trees: BRWC LFF Review

    Talking About Trees: BRWC LFF Review

    Talking About Trees: BRWC LFF Review: One of the greatest aspects of cinema is that it is a worldwide art form. Meaning there are countless minds and cultural perspectives contributing immeasurable insight to the medium, and that influence has grown and honed cinema into what it is today. The downsides are the stories that come from the individuals who have had their access to their passion cut off. Sudan is one place that must face this unfortunate reality because there, cinema has effectively been outlawed.

    Technically film screenings aren’t illegal but since the closure of the State Film Institute, obtaining films legally has been impossible for cinemas and all of them have closed their doors to the Sudanese people out of necessity.

    Suhaib Gasmelbari’s documentary Talking About Trees follows four aging Sudanese filmmakers who long to resurrect the days where watching a film in a theatre was possible in Sudan. Together they form the Sudanese Film Group and have the lofty goal of reviving an old theatre to begin screening films for the people of their district to remind them, and the people all across Sudan, how great cinema is when allowed to flourish.

    Talking About Trees is a slow burn. Few steps are taken to contextualise viewers with the world we are placed into, and what feels like almost half the runtime is made up of actionless shots displaying the rundown nature of Sudan. It’s very much a reality check experience, one that reminds you of how good we have it being able to see films in a myriad of different ways whenever we want. The pace is certainly not for all tastes, but for those with the patience to hear these brilliant men out, there is a humbling and powerful story being told.

    The amount of passion still in these older men is staggering; they have such a vivid vision that you can’t help but root for them against the odds as they strive for their dream. Their very existence has been put on the line by governmental oppression, and you can sense that every man is willing to fight to end it. Towards the end, the government intervention on their efforts begins to become too much to bear.

    And one statement by one of the men sums up everything “They always think it’s hiding something. Be it film or anything else.”, here in just two sentences, the entire sentiment of the Sudanese government towards art has been summed up. They don’t understand it, so they cannot trust it, and thus they seek to destroy it.

    This is not a documentary film in the traditional sense, more a harsh and tragic depiction of reality, one we are not led through by anyone as we usually would be. Rather we are placed into a situation of genuine crisis and can only witness a fleeting attempt to alleviate the problem. Gasmelbari has made something genuinely authentic in making Talking About Trees through constructing it like this.

    There are no interview segments, and there are no staged protests or grand stances taken against the government to drum up the entertainment value. There is only the truth, as it happened and as it continues to happen. Nothing goes differently in the lives of these men if the camera stops rolling, everything in their lives would have ended up the same way, and realising this is the most impactful fact of all.

    Slow and unassuming, Talking About Trees sneaks up on you and becomes incredibly moving. These men are true modern freedom fighters of Sudan, and their efforts to revive cinema in a place where it once blossomed do not only deserve celebrating, they deserve remembering in the years to come, and hopefully one day, a decisive victory.

  • The Addams Family: The BRWC Review

    The Addams Family: The BRWC Review

    Members of the mysterious and spooky Addams family — Gomez (voice of Oscar Isaac), Morticia (voice of Charlize Theron), Pugsley (voice of Finn Wolfhard), Wednesday (voice of Chloë Grace Moretz), Uncle Fester (voice of Nick Kroll) and Grandmama (voice of Bette Midler) — are readily preparing for a visit from their even creepier relatives. But trouble soon arises when shady TV personality Margaux Needler (voice of Allison Janney) realizes that the Addams’ eerie hilltop mansion is standing in the way of her dream to sell all the houses in the neighborhood.

    To say that The Addams Family are an interesting and highly comedical group of horror characters would be quite the understatement to say the least. They are essentially a band of horror characters that live together and get up to insanely zany antics, and since a ton of them are monsters, often do things much differently than people on Earth do things.

    This is one of the reasons why I personally enjoyed the 1998 sitcom The New Addams Family – it treated them like sitcom characters, and that is what they practically are. Yes, they are definitely a dark group of people and it is a ton of fun to watch them do darkly humorous things for a couple hours.

    Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan’s new film The Addams Family follows in a similar vein by taking the beloved family and making them much more humorous than some iterations have made them. Whereas the 1991 Barry Sonenfeld directed film aimed to make them a bit more dark, this film is not as interested in that, which some people are taking issue with. I can understand why if you are somebody who adores the darker side of The Addams Family, but I personally enjoy both takes on the family, and this movie offers us that.

    When it comes to the voice cast present in this movie, it is incredible. There are a ton of recognizable voices such as Isaac, Theron, Kroll and even Snoop Dogg as Cousin Itt. Each and every one of them delivers a really great voice performance and they genuinely do embody their characters perfectly. Plus, when the time comes to deliver the comedic goods, they do so almost effortlessly.

    It is also a blast to watch all of the mischief that the family gets up to while this movie progesses. Pugsley’s idea of fun is to run around the house firing explosives at his father, Wednesday’s idea of fun is to shoot crossbows, and Morticia occassionally enjoys eating a fancy meal up at their local cemetery. Watching all of this craziness unfold in front of us makes for quite the wild and entertaining treat.

    However, there are quite a few issues with The Addams Family, with the biggest flaw being with the character of Margaux Needler, voiced by Allison Janney. This is, quite literally, the definition of a clichéd movie villain. Throughout the course of the film, the writers Matt Lieberman and Pamela Pettler, never flesh out Margaux to make her an understandable character. Her motives are completely unclear. For me, the best villains of all time are all villains who you can understand. You do not necessarily agree with their actions they are taking in order to achieve their goals, but you do understand what they want and why they are doing whatever they are doing. Margaux is a villain that just wants to thwart the Addams Family’s plans because they are different than her.

    Although the message of the movie, that being that you should not treat people negatively just because they are different than you, is an amazing message for children to take home, it does not get introduced until much later on, and Margaux as a character just did not work.

    Also, the humor, while really great for the most part, does not work one hundred percent of the time. There were some moments in which I was genuinely laughing and smiling from ear to ear, but there were also a lot of times in which I found the humor to be a complete miss. Sometimes, the humor is aimed towards adults and sometimes it is aimed at the youngest of children, including a fart joke.

    Finally, some sequences just did not need to be in the movie at all, which made the movie drag during some parts. Gratefully, the majority of the film is always moving and fast paced, with a running time of only eighty seven minutes. It usually is a lot of fun to watch and will make for a fun watch for families.

    Even though The Addams Family suffers with its villain and gets bogged down with pointless scenes, it makes up for it with great humor, funny characters, and a great moral.

  • A Million Eyes: BRWC Raindance Review

    A Million Eyes: BRWC Raindance Review

    The world, damaged as it may be, is an inherently beautiful place. You can find that beauty in the most unexpected of places, including the very scars humanity paints across the natural wonders that surround us. In Richard Raymond’s short film, A Million Eyes, Leroy (Elijah M. Cooper) can see beyond the garishness of destruction and finds something worth capturing for eternity. It’s just a shame all he has is a broken 35mm camera to do that with.

    Leroy lives with his mother Amber (Katie Lowes), who suffers from alcoholism, in East Lake, Georgia. He explores his hometown with his broken camera, endearing himself to abandoned buildings overrun with graffiti and plant life. As he does his narration tells us “Sometimes it’s the busted-up things that have the best story” and Leroy desperately desires to tell those stories, or at least to experience them any way he can. So much so that he finds himself on the wrong side of the law for stealing from the public library.

    He then spends a brief period in juvenile detention during which he discovers the concept of a muse from a fellow inmate named Pyro (Shareef Salahuddin). Leroy knows for sure from this point; he knows he’s an artist. His mother greets him with a gift when he gets out, a working version of the camera he carries around. He can now immortalise the world around him the way he always pretended to. He returns to the buildings and the plant life and takes it all in before finally, Leroy begins to try and take a photo of the one thing he loves above all else, his mother.

    A Million Eyes is a gorgeous short. The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is a highlight of the experience with every shot furthering the constant theme of beauty in the bleak. From Pyro’s artwork, which he creates from inside the walls of his cell, to the saddening final image, Blaschke does brilliant work. Raymond also brings his A-game directing his young lead to a stirring short film debut. Most importantly the world he creates exists as a perfect snapshot, not needing to go further and not feeling too small.

    The script doesn’t provoke any new thoughts or inspiration; there’s not all that much dialogue. You see A Million Eyes far more than you hear it, the narration is the most prominent sound in the film, and almost all of it is about seeing and experiencing. The core of the narrator’s experience is that Leroy wishes he had a million eyes so he could see a million things. We never realise the scope that this notion promises despite the fact that delving further into this concept could have made for a wondrous story, but in the end, it’s more of a passing thought.

    I’m happy it didn’t go deeper though. The writing takes Leroy as far as he can go in this format and while that may leave the lives of these people stuck in stasis without a genuine conclusion, at least it all looks pretty.

    Everyone sees the world differently, and Leroy is someone who sees it more distinctly than most. His journey may not involve much of a story, but his eyes make for an incredibly vivid experience. The way he sees the world is a pretty damn great way of seeing it and as a short film, that makes A Million Eyes worth watching.

  • Martin Eden: BRWC LFF Review

    Martin Eden: BRWC LFF Review

    Martin Eden: BRWC LFF Review. By Patrick Coyle-Simmons.

    Martin Eden is a 2019 Italian-French historical romance drama film directed by Pietro Marcello, loosely based on the 1909 novel of the same name by Jack London. It follows an uneducated sailor, traveling through Europe who begins to yearn for more in life following a meeting with a young, upper-class girl. As he finds himself thrown into the world of high society, while still living in his sister’s apartment with her family, Martin Eden (Luca Marinelli) finds a passion for writing as he attempts to court the young woman, Elena (Jessica Cressy) while also trying to move his way up the social class structure.

    Set against a politically charged backdrop of divided social classes and political systems in the form of socialism and capitalism, Martin must discover who he is and where he fits into the world. 

    Truth be told, I am not the most avid or experienced foreign film fan, though I do try to take in as many as I can, so when given the opportunity to review this film, I jumped at the chance. Immediately one of the most striking aspects of the film is the cinematography. The first image the film exposes to the audience is a crisp shot of Martin as he records a message seemingly setting the tone of the film, before it cuts to archival footage, echoing the opening of Roman Polanski’s The Pianist.

    The strangest part about the use of archival footage is that while it does establish that the film is set within the 20th Century, it never actually states or addresses what time period it is set in, which makes the time jump later on in the film even more jarring. 

    The aforementioned cinematography is one of the two biggest positives Martin Eden has to offer, with a rich color palette, some gorgeous on-location filming, both adding a great sense of realism to the overall piece. The (only) other positive thing I have to say about the film is the performances. Both Luca Mmarienelli and Jessica Cressy give truly wonderful performances as Martin and Elena respectively. Despite the language barrier for myself, an American who only knows English and a sprinkle of Spanish, both performances felt entirely authentic through every scene. Director Pietro Marcello’s passion for this piece can be felt in the way it is staged, shot, and acted, but even with that, the film struggles to leave an impact of being anything above average. 

    The biggest issue with this film, and it is a big one, is its pacing. The first act starts so strong and then, only after about 20 minutes seems to fall off a cliff and never fully recovers. The most recent comparison to this would have to be another 2019 film, one of my least favorites of the year and another literature adaptation; The Goldfinch. Both feature solid enough starts before losing all steam and dragging for the rest of their runtimes, though The Goldfinch suffers significantly more than Martin Eden.

    This all feels like it was avoidable with this film as well had the semi-constant stream of archival footage being interspersed with the actual film been cut down or cut out altogether, save for the bits in the opening used to try and establish a time period. These sections of the film often time take away rather than add any sense of narrative purpose, even taking the viewer out of the film entirely.

    Earlier on in the film there is a sequence that shows pre-existing footage of a boat sailing before cutting to close-ups of sailors, however the color contrast is off and makes for some very otherworldly visuals, despite Martin being a sailor who is used to the life at sea with men like these. 

    While not the worst film of 2019, Martin Eden does not come close to reaching its full potential. Filled with two great performances from Luca Mmarienelli and Jessica Cressy, aesthetically-pleasing cinematography, and a few interesting ideas, the film is dragged down by a lack of focus, significant pacing issues, and some very strange editing choices.