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!

The King: The BRWC Review

The lives of people that changed the course of human history so often find themselves subject to cinematic representation. In the case of Henry V, that representation has happened on nearly countless occasions, thanks to William Shakespeare. This year David Michôd has dusted off the tale of the storied King and has a new, not directly Shakespearean, take on it. I believe it is one of the finest films releasing this year.

When we first meet the young King, he is no king at all, nor is he named Henry, he is Hal (Timothée Chalamet), a riotous youth rebelling against his mad father, Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn), by living a life of debauchery. Accompanying him in his squalor is Sir John Falstaff (Joel Edgerton), an aging knight seemingly more than happy to live out his days with the English Prince vomiting into a bucket beside him. The film then tells the story of Hal’s transformation into the stern and revered Henry V who invades France and encounters them in the famed Battle of Agincourt.

The script, written by Edgerton and Michôd, is a strong one. They paint a picture of Hal with just enough detail and grandeur that the film never panders to extravagance but still gets across the massive scale of the events that take place. The politics are eloquently handled and explained without the film getting caught up and stuck discussing them for too long. The biggest strength, however, is how it captures Hal’s transformation.

Through the relationships he forms, and the courage he demonstrates, the script develops a convincing character arc from royal degenerate to King. Most of all, it inspires empathy for a young man who was both a fool and a genius, and when he rejects our empathy, he earns our respect. Because no matter how you look at him, he is a better man than his father, even if the similarities become too close for comfort. Overall this new take on the timeless tale is a good one.

When it comes to the heart of the Henry V story, I do find it hard to pinpoint what makes it so loveable. Perhaps it’s as simple as the legendary victory he achieved, or possibly just the fact that Shakespeare is involved. What I do know is that this version of his story encompasses the power of youth and its ferocity when challenged. And yet within the same tale, the young are chastised and made to face their own foolishness.

The eventual Queen Regent Catherine (Lily-Rose Depp) puts it best when she says to Henry “Before me now, all I see is a young and vain and foolish man, so easily riled”. This applies to every young man in the film, especially her brother, the youthful and antagonistic Dauphin of France (Robert Pattinson). This makes me think it just might be Hal’s complexity as a figure, possibly a complexity history granted him in retrospect, and the intricacies of those around him, that makes his story endure the way it does. As it makes for a clear warning that while youth may grant strength, it certainly lacks wisdom.

Chalamet is at his very best in this picture, come to think of it, when isn’t he at his best? He takes the strong basis the script grants him and elevates it even higher. He was robbed of an Oscar nomination last year, and looks set to miss out again, but have no doubt that he is deserving and will surely be recognised by The Academy in the years to come. Edgerton too is on a hot run of form. Boy Erased was one of last year’s most impactful films, he did a brilliant job with it. Now, in an entirely different realm of storytelling, he knocks it out of the park again. His take on Falstaff is heroic and wise, full of caution and genuine friendship. He is the jolly heart of this film and timelessly likeable.

When it comes to the work behind the camera, my praise only continues. Michôd directs with a steady hand and manages to capture some stunning shots with cinematographer Adam Arkapaw. The fight sequences and their inspiring build-ups are particularly well shot with how they display the mindlessness of violence and tension of an army. Henry’s landing on the French coast is one of my favourite scenes this year; it’s beautiful in its simplicity and contains a couple of particularly stunning shots. Altogether The King plays like a fully realised film, and it’s clear that everyone was on the same page during the entire filming process and are all deserving of recognition.

Nicholas Britell composed last year’s best musical score for If Beale Street Could Talk. This year he has hit all the right notes once again with my favourite score so far in 2019. It isn’t quite so good as his aforementioned work, but it’s still stirring and inspires emotion at all the right moments. There’s a certain hard to explain etherealness the music adds to the acts of war, for a few brief moments they morph into something from out of this world, potentially an allusion to God or maybe to the thousands of final breaths about to gasp out on the battlefield. Whatever the inspiration was, it sure manages to make an impact and cements Britell in my books as a great modern composer.

The King is epic and reserved in equal measure, finding the perfect balance along the way. Every aspect comes together in glorious unison that will make Netflix the belle of the ball when it releases on the platform in November. However, if you get the chance, be sure to catch it in cinemas during its October run, it’ll be well worth the trip.

26th September 2019
Everybody Flies: BRWC Raindance Review

Everybody Flies Kind of Made Me Want to Quit Flying. By Brandon Topp.

Doesn’t it feel like every industry fueled by major corporations hides mountains of scandal and moral corruption from its consumers? Everybody Flies is a crisp and thoroughly educational film on the toxicity of the air on commercial flights. Taking time to watch will definitely leave you feeling well informed on the injustice, and all sorts of frustrated with the world at large.

What Everybody Flies Is All About

Essentially, the film exposes how the air passengers breathe when flying is contaminated by chemicals from the jet’s oil. These substances have infected staggering numbers of pilots, flight attendants, and passengers with a variety of illnesses. According to the film, everybody who flies breathes in these toxins, but some of us react harsher, and some flights produce more toxic air than others.

Retired pilot, clean-air activist, and filmmaker Tristan Loraine directed and starred in the documentary alongside frequent collaborator Beth Moran. Through well-researched breakdowns and stories, the filmmakers paint a picture that scratches a familiar nerve, while also presenting information on a scandal most of us aren’t privy to.

Tales Of Contaminated Flyers

In an effective and sometimes exhausting approach, Loraine and Moran spend much of the documentary interviewing pilots, attendants, and passengers with stories of how toxic air on planes was detrimental to their lives.

There are numerous reports that reflect on startling experiences like overexposed pilots becoming paralyzed in the air, flight attendants blacking out mid-flight and coming to hours later in the airport, and passengers with a variety of lingering health problems from flights. Many of these accounts also feature decades-long legal battles, and a major, general lack of empathy or responsibility from major entities in the aviation industry including British Airways, and the FAA.

One of the subjects sharing their story was director Tristan Loraine, who retired from being a pilot in March 2006. When he stopped flying, TCP—tricresyl phosphate, a central toxin often found in the air of airliners—was present in his blood, and he was experiencing numbness in his hands, chronic chest infections, as well as chemical blisters.

Tristan Loraine is an Exceptional Activist

Loraine didn’t let this stop him from being a productive member of society, but instead used it to fuel the next chapter of his life. Since flying, Loraine has spearheaded a growing movement of activists who relentlessly challenge the aviation industry to address this issue.

In addition to making this film, Loraine has also produced another documentary named Welcome Aboard Toxic Airlines. He’s also performed secret sample tests on aircrafts to attain scientific proof otherwise suppressed by the aviation industry, and organized the first conference on the topic—The Aircraft Cabin Air Conference.

If You Haven’t Yet, It’s Time To Go Watch It

Okay, if this introduction is enough to pique your interest, the next step is to go watch Everybody Flies. While it can be at times a bit monotonous and dry, the straightforward journalistic style is appropriate for exposing the issue with clarity and precision. The viewing doesn’t really fly by, but more eats at you and widens your eyes to hopefully realize how massive an issue toxic air in the sky is.

How Should We Carry On?

In addition to the environmental impact of the aviation industry, we know have this toxic air issue as another impetus to swear off flying altogether. That being said, even though almost no airlines use the proper filters to help prevent toxic air, the convenience of flying will long maintain a hold on us.

So, it’s bad for us. Would I smoke a pack of cigarettes to get from New York to Los Angeles in five hours? Probably, yeah. And that’s a problem, and why we have trouble really doing anything about the scandals people make documentaries about. That complacency and addiction to the poisons of our aging civilization is why Greta Thunberg has to shame us about the environment. It’s why everybody says to put out a fire in the Amazon, but nobody puts out a fire in the Amazon.

However, Tristan Loraine is trying his darndest to do something. Largely because of his efforts by Loraine and like-minded activists, EasyJet has promised to implement filters into its jets a couple years ago, and it added electric planes to a list of company goals last year. Also, lawsuits are piling up against major airlines, pushing them to take action. Also, I’m considering either not flying, or pretending I didn’t watch this film. Either way, for my viewing, Loraine accomplished every filmmaker’s goal—he made me think.

26th September 2019
Pick It Up! Ska In The 90s: BRWC Raindance Review

Pick It Up! Ska In The 90s: BRWC Raindance Review: When I was a kid I was in what we used to call the “alternative” scene. Basically, that meant that meant that I liked music the more popular kids didn’t, and so I hung out with a group of people that enjoyed the same kind of music. Of course, music was never really my thing anyway, I was the weird kid that constantly watched and wanted to make movies, but I had some bands that I enjoyed, and for some reason secondary school social groups were organized by the kind of music you liked and not… well, whether or not you actually shared much else in common with those people.

Needless to say, I didn’t have a great time at school. A lot of people like to talk about it as some of the best years of their lives, but for me I’d go so far as to say they were some of the worst. When I left school, I made a pretty conscious effort to not bother continuing friendships and relationships. I didn’t like school, I didn’t like the person I was then, I never felt like I could be myself really, and truthfully, I don’t think many of my school “friends” liked me all that much either. Still, one thing I did carry over from my school days, and something that has remained at least partly a fond memory since, is the music I was introduced to.

And watching Pick It Up – Ska in the 90s for this review was sort of like stepping back in a time machine, with the amount of bands and music I had almost completely forgotten existed, but bring back the more positive memories of that time.

A well-made and in-depth documentary about the rise and fall of the ska genre in the 90s, what makes it so interesting, at least outside of the aforementioned “Hey! I remember that!” aspect of it all, is the way in which it is told not necessarily as a retrospective or as a historical look in on a period, but rather from those people who were there, who lived it, and who enjoyed it.

Reel Big Fish popping up to discuss their own influences, the origins of the genre, and the origins of their band was a weird one. I’d forgotten all about Reel Big Fish until they appeared on the screen, and their album Turn off the Radio is sitting with my other CDs on the CD shelf! And the involvement of other half remembered bands, with songs I recognize through a haze of not-quite remembering, meant that I’m probably biased in terms of the enjoyment I had with this movie but, hey, screw you! This was a lot of fun!

The story unfolds through a series of vignettes combined with interviews and talking heads, taking its time to cover the origins of the genre all the way through to the “ska in the 90s” of the title, and the way that certain cultural groups adapted and embraced the genre for their own enjoyment. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’d never given ska all that much thought before, at least not outside of the fact that I always quite liked Madness, put seeing it spoken about and presented with such enthusiasm and love is quite catching.

It’s hardly the most original or interesting way to present a documentary and a subject, but the directors do a good job of keeping the audience engaged and ensuring that there is a clear through-line with which we are able to follow the “plot” unfold. Utilizing tried and tested methods makes sense, considering the subject itself is where the real intrigue lay. Someone with a far more comprehensive and passionate interest in the genre may not find it quite as enjoyable and insightful as I did, but for me (and admittedly I’m a complete novice) it was a genuinely interesting and entertaining watch.

Above all else I think I’d be most included to call Pick it Up – Ska in the 90s a feel-good movie. I certainly came away feeling good. And if ska, as a genre of music, is all about cheering everyone up, getting us dancing around and singing, then the movie does a pretty damn good job of capturing that energy and projecting it onto the audience. Eventually it becomes almost impossible not to smile along with the enthusiasm for the genre that is present on screen. Now, I’m going to go find that Reel Big Fish album and blast it through the TV!

Pick It Up! Ska In The 90s played at Raindance.

25th September 2019
Rambo: Last Blood – The BRWC Review

Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) tries to find some semblance of peace by raising horses on a ranch in Arizona. He’s also developed a special familial bond with a woman named Maria (Adriana Barraza) and her teenage granddaughter Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal). But when a vicious Mexican cartel kidnaps Gabrielle, Rambo crosses the border on a bloody and personal quest to rescue her and punish those responsible.

When it comes to the Rambo film franchise, I think it is safe to say that the majority of audiences want to see one thing and one thing alone – John Rambo going around and causing a ton of mayhem and killing a lot of people. Although I personally enjoyed First Blood, the film that started the whole series, I wanted there to be just a little bit more action. The story was semi-interesting but it really lacked a sense of grit that I believe should have been there.

The later sequels managed to amp up the violence and carnage but while doing so, they practically threw the story out of the window and the Rambo films just ended up being nothing more than violence. There should be a balance of both in every movie. Tell an interesting and compelling story while also having fun along the way. This is something that the beloved John Wick series does – in the initial entry, John’s wife and dog pass away and he wants to get revenge on those responsible, and the script told a revenge story in a unique and fresh way.

Unfortunately, Adrian Grunberg’s Rambo: Last Blood is a disappoiningly bland and generic revenge story that is incredibly predicatable and has nothing new to offer, making it not only a forgettable movie in the series, but one of the most pointless entries in a film franchise that I have seen in quite some time.

One of the only good things about this new installment is Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo. Even in the weak Rambo films, he has always managed to be a genuinely great actor in every movie in the series thus far and his character is always one that you want to see more of. Sadly, in Last Blood, we surprisingly do not spend a whole lot of time with him at all. A large portion of the story focuses on his niece Gabrielle and her story rather than having John Rambo in the picture. It would have been okay if Gabrielle’s story was interesting, but it just wasn’t. As aforementioned, nearly every story beat is almost laughably predictable and it is clear rather quickly what will end up happening later on.

The film clocks in at a total of only eighty minutes, and we spend approximately thirty minutes setting up what will happen to a certain character in order for John Rambo to finally come into the picture. The first act was a drag to get through and before I knew it, the end of the movie was approaching.

Additionally, the main villains in the movie are some of the most cliché villains I have seen in a movie in years. Instead of having an understandable motive, their reason to be evil is simply that – they just want to be evil. They constantly talk about how they want to torture and kill people and it just becomes laughable after a while.

All this being said, the last twenty minutes are what I wanted the entire picture to be. The last twenty minutes are genuinely amazing and I had a blast watching it. It is essentially John Rambo being the Jigsaw killer from the Saw franchise and it is chalked full of blood, guts and gore, and while usually gore in films can be rather pointless, here it made sense and made for some truly exciting sequences.

Rambo: Last Blood is disappointly bland and lifeless, with an incredibly predictable story, cliché villains, and its action scenes are few and far between.

24th September 2019
Erica Review & The Line Between Film And Game

Despite appearances, Erica is not a film – it’s actually a game for the Playstation 4, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of controlling computer-generated characters in virtual environments, players interface with live-action scenes and their decisions will influence the direction of the game.

This is nothing new, of course. Similar techniques were used back in the eighties in Dragon’s Lair and Astron Belt. Home consoles saw a flood of FMV (Full Motion Video) games in the nineties. (The X-Files game actually featured the original cast in specially-shot scenes) At the same time I’m Your Man tried to launch the concept of audience-influenced film in cinemas (With little success).

More recently there was Bandersnatch, the Netflix film that let viewers choose how the story develops. The level of interactivity is far greater in Erica, though.

Actions like turning on a lamp, looking through holes and turning pages in a book all have to be done by the player. More importantly, they have to make choices for how Erica should respond to the situations that present themselves.

Her replies can be combative, passive or proactive way, giving players greater influence over who she is as a character. The most common choice, though, is whether to accept the situation or resist, a recurring theme in the story.

The character, played by Holly Earl, still suffers from the trauma of finding her father’s murdered and mutilated body as a child. This comes to a head when an anonymous package arrives at her door – a bloody severed hand, holding a pendant with the symbol she had seen carved into her father’s torsos all those years ago.

She later sees the same symbol tattooed on the arm of the night manager of Delphi House, the psychiatric hospital where her parents used to work, and her temporary home as her flat is now seen as unsafe for her to live.

Returning to Delphi House brings back plenty of bad memories for Erica. Her sense of unease is made worse when patients claim weird goings-on and start showing similar, unusual symptoms. When she starts seeing things that may not be real, Erica has to fight to keep her sanity and discover the truth.

It has a lot of promise but the ultimate truth about what’s going on isn’t anything new, in whichever of the game’s multiple endings she finds out.

At times, Erica has the sensibility of a student film and has a lot of plot contrivances. Other than that it has an effective atmosphere, is compelling and at times beautiful. It’s deserving of multiple play-throughs and, most crucially, feels effectively player-defined.

It’s use of dramatic scenes highlights a rising trend in the video game medium: the use of length cut scenes. They were once they were short, simple introductions to levels. Now, with storytelling now becoming more games are becoming more and more reliable on them. The Last of Us, for example, was a game noted more for its writing than its gameplay.

With cut scenes becoming more elaborate and traditional film being made interactive, it seems that the lines between film and video game are becoming more increasingly blurred. Does the use of live action mean it’s not a game? Does the fact that much of the time is spent watching rather than playing make it a film?

This is a long-standing question with no definitive answer just yet. One of Erica‘s best qualities, though, may point to what makes the difference between these two changing mediums. That the viewer/player is the one guiding the story may be the distinction. Whether they are playing a passive or assertive part may be what separates them.

Which ever way you think or feel, Erica is still a well-made, thought-provoking blend of film and game that is worth seeking out.

24th September 2019