Category: REVIEWS

The ways human beings continue to exist even when they’re gone generally make for sentimental tear-jerking films when used as subject matter. However, when thrown into a darker genre, like horror or thriller, that sentimentality becomes something a whole lot more sinister. What Death Leaves Behind is Scott A. Hamilton’s non-linear debut feature that does just that but to mixed results. 

What Death Leaves Behind is about Jake Warren, a family man who finds himself struggling through dialysis while awaiting a kidney transplant and has been for 7 years. Once he finally gets that transplant, he never gets the chance to soak in the joy that should come with such an occasion because instantly nightmares begin to haunt his dreams depicting a man assaulting a woman. As his behaviour drastically changes, Jake forges his insane path leading to the realisation that what he’s seeing are the memories of the individual whose kidney he now has inside him. 

There’s a lot to like about the themes of the first twenty minutes of this film. The non-linear style doesn’t reveal much of where this film is heading in this period, so it plays more like a deeply sympathetic look at those unfortunate enough to find themselves on the transplant list. The film vividly captures the tragedy that is the nature of kidney failure; it is both harsh in its reality and heartfelt in its depiction. This opening is the perfect example of everything What Death Leaves Behind does right; when it dares to depict raw emotion, it has all the power to make audiences feel something. When it gets lost in pseudoscience, it becomes an unfollowable mess. 

Unfortunately, the latter is what dominates the story. The middle of this film loses base with the tragic reality the opening embedded us in. Jake becomes obsessed with the frankly ludicrous idea that the cells of a human can carry memories and, well, that’s precisely what is happening to him. The script never overcomes the ridiculousness of this concept, with the main culprit being choosing to tell this story in a non-linear fashion. It was a decision that added nothing to the experience of the film, and by the end, there is a real sense that utilising more straightforward storytelling would have made much more of an impact. 

There is only one asset to the core portion of the film, the performance of Khalil McMillan as Jake. It is an excellent acting debut. 

From behind the camera What Death Leaves Behind isn’t as successful as the actors were on their side. As mentioned before the edit is difficult to justify and takes away from the film far more than it adds this makes it difficult to praise the direction. However, it was Hamilton that led his actors to the great work they produced, and on that front, he has nailed his job in his debut. 

What Death Leaves Behind is more than it had any right to be considering that the middle portion is sluggish and difficult to take anything of substance from. It is thanks only to a couple of engrossing performances and the surprisingly deep beginning and end that this film becomes something worth spending some time with.

The nature of existence is almost impossible to comprehend or appreciate fully, we can never know what it’s like to not exist, so how can we realise what it truly means? Despite this, we can still analyse certain indisputable truths about existence, and we can philosophise on the topic to expand on these truths. Films, particularly Sci-Fi, embrace narratives that do just that. Andrew de Burgh debut feature “The Bestowal” is one such film. 

The Bestowal is a philosophical exploration and critique of the world. It sees Businessman Steven (Sam Brittan) on the brink of taking his own life when he is visited by an inter-dimensional being that is an incarnation of and known as, Death (Sharmita Bhattacharya) who appears to him as a young woman. However, Death is not there to take Steven’s soul. She is there to persuade him to keep on living by directing him to a higher purpose and reaffirming the role of good in the world, something he had lost sight of along the way. 

The film plays out throughout time and depicts Steven and Death meeting during four distinct phases of his life. Each is labelled as such, The Emancipation, The Enlightenment, Transcendence and Another Paradise. Each act only depicts the two characters talking and no one else. Electing to do this was surely a decision primarily effected by cost, but I do have to note that it severely limits the scope of what The Bestowal is trying to say. 

Above all else, The Bestowal is a societal critique that primarily targets technology and capitalism as the cause of humanities downfall. Unfortunately, de Burgh is somewhat on the nose and brazen with his approach to these topics. The characters speak with odd mannerisms as if they must mention every sci-fi buzzword over and over and it very quickly dissolves into something entirely unrelatable to what it is trying to talk about. With an agnostic take on religion that falls short of the wonder it seems to think it is generating, and an oddly stern anti-technology stance, this script reeks of being written entirely within an echo chamber. The biggest failing of the script is that it drags and in a 90-minute film that shouldn’t be happening. The entire middle section ‘The Enlightenment’ is the most criminal of this with the majority of it being more and more babble about the spirituality that exists in this world, none of which spoke to me in any fashion. There is nothing else to say other than that as a science fiction film The Bestowal doesn’t work on any level.

With that said, as a love story about two people connecting against the odds and changing each other’s lives, The Bestowal is surprisingly poignant. The concept of someone, or in this case, something, being sent to save you in your darkest hour, is a heartfelt one. The script fails to hit all the right notes to realise the otherworldly proportions of this convincingly, but it is still a potent depiction of one being connecting with another. The final two acts are the strongest in the entire film because of this relationship that blossoms. 

The ‘Another Paradise’ act is quite brilliant. It generates a rawness to the impossible absurdity the rest of the movie is centred around. That being its religious mythos that brought Death to meet Steven as he attempted to take his life. In this section, the film finally manages to express something to the audience; bonds between people are transcendent. In this respect, it is reminiscent of Interstellar though de Burgh doesn’t capitalise on the point so much as Christopher Nolan does. Regardless it is a cinematic theme worth investigating, and de Burgh manages to shine a glimmer of new light upon it which is worth commending.

The two performers are admirable with their turns with Bhattacharya stealing the show. She certainly had the better character of the two, but there is something about her eyes that scream of the emotional absence that her character is forced to exist with, she was perfect for the role. Brittan had a harder character to bring to life. Despite Steven being human, he has more of the unrealised science fiction to deal with, and at times he can’t grasp it. In saying that he holds his humanity close to his chest, and that is precisely what Steven is supposed to be, this films representative for humanity and the power that we possess to change the world. Neither manages to pull off the anti-technology agnostic deity angle, but with this deluded script I don’t think anyone could have.

The Bestowal thinks it’s a whole lot smarter than it really is. de Burgh’s characters preach his message to little effect, but still manage to form a genuine emotional bond as a duo which is something to be proud of. All in all, with a more refined script this really could have spoken to people, it just can’t help but get lost within itself along the way.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged – The BRWC Review.

Four teenage divers discover that the sunken ruins of a Mayan city are also a hunting ground for deadly great white sharks. With their air supply steadily dwindling, the frightened girls must navigate the underwater labyrinth of claustrophobic caves and eerie tunnels in search of a way out of their watery hell.

If you were to tell me two years ago that there was going to be a sequel to the abismally awful 47 Meters Down directed by Johannes Roberts, I would not believe you. Not only was the film a failure with the vast majority of critics, but the film seemingly disappointed audiences as well.

Here we are in the year 2019 and we already have its sequel, subtitled Uncaged with the same director and screenwriter attached to it. Some part of me was optimistic about this follow-up, as I was willing to give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt. After seeing that the original did not resonate with critics and audiences alike, I thought that they would most certainly try to shake things up a bit this time around; try to come up with a more investing, gritty story and make the characters more likeable and flesh them out.

Sadly, Uncaged follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, with another batch of frustrating characters that make ridiculously dumb decisions, an extremely familiar and trope-ridden story, and moments that make absolutely no sense whatsoever and instead come off as funny.

All of the characters here feel so disposable. The film has zero interest in fleshing them out and making them compelling. In fact, if all of the lead protagonists were to die half an hour into the film or something like that, it would not be maddening at all. This is drastically disappointing, though. I legitamately wanted to go and see this movie and walk out of it saying that it was surprisingly good and better than expected, but it sadly is not.

As aforementioned, this movie is completely littered with things that make no sense at all and come across as unintentionally hilarious. By far one of the biggest examples of this here, is the way in which our main characters interact with one another throughout the course of the film. As practically the whole picture takes place underwater, you would think that communication would be impossible between the characters. However, we constantly see our leads having conversations with each other while they are underwater. If this were real, and you tried to talk to somebody while submerged in water, everything would sound muffled and inaudible. It would have been at least something had the film explained that the characters are wearing ear pieces or some sort of device in their ears that allows them to communicate, but they never once show anything like that or mention it.

There is one sequence in particular however, that is insanely awful yet so hilarious at the same time that it was honestly hard to stifle laughter once I viewed it for the first time. This moment in question involves a shark that literally makes a screaming sound from its mouth. The last time I checked, sharks did not have vocal cords, and even if they did, there is no way real life sharks would be able to make the sound that the one in this movie does.

To finish, it is quite a boring movie to look at too. Besides from the obvious plot and storyline being a drag to sit through, the cinematography is just plain bad here, shot by Mark Silk. It is nearly impossible to see what is going on in certain scenes due to the lighting being incredibly dark and therefore it is hard to be invested on what is transpiring on screen.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged follows the same trope-ridden cliches of the first, with yet another batch of annoying characters, nonsensical moments, and weak cinematography.

By Naseem Ally. ‘Such A Funny Life’ directed by Oliver Mann centres on a stand up comic, David Gutierrez, from New York who brings the laughs on stage, but offstage his life is no laughing matter. David is in dire straits.

He suffers from the loss of his sister and has to take care of his autistic mother Mariah, who is living in constant fear of his father, Ralph. With David having to deal with all this, comedy ends up becoming his escape. 

Rob, a childhood friend that David confides in offers support along the way. However, Rob has the tendency to take things to the extreme. He offers David a hand in making his father ‘disappear’ if need be. Will their friendship get tested?

Initial Thoughts

There are some great shots in Such A Funny Life, particularly the sequences for the opening credits.  A beautiful timelapse of the Los Angeles skyline at night really set the tone.  The city where every budding comic and actor flocks to, looking to get their big break in the city of Angels. 

There seemed to be some references to ‘8 mile’ but I don’t know if it was the director’s intention. It was reminiscent to the opening scenes of Eminem in the bathroom pumping himself up before going on stage. This is David’s one shot. His one opportunity.  But thankfully, for him at least, there is no ‘mom’s spaghetti’. 

Highlights

David played by Gonzalo Trigueros gave a solid display and captured the essence of someone down on their luck, looking for a glimmer of hope. In the film, David says ‘I’m really trying to find the things that make me smile’. In response to this, his mother replies ‘Do something funny. Do a show for me, you and Gabby’.  Unfortunately, in Mariah’s state, she is unable to comprehend that her daughter is sadly no longer around. 

In the supporting cast, a stand-up comic named Dale offers a word of advice. ‘Your perspective doesn’t count, these are people you don’t know…laughter is like all the cool kids wanting to hang out with you’. Even with the seed of doubt planted in his mind, David still has the desire to make it out of his situation and prove that he can make something of himself.

Visuals

The lighting used adds depth to the film’s overall look.  The hue from the mirror lights that reflect on David as he’s pumping up is a nice touch.  There’s also an amber tinge on the stage he’s performing on which is also visually appealing.

The contrast of New York and L.A is reflected in the mood of the film which is noticeable throughout.  From the looks of it, some thought has been put into the portrayal of David’s dark, gritty and traumatic past. It really does capture his life in inner-city New York.

Film Score

Supplemented with a fitting musical score, it paints the picture of having a positive outlook in the face of adversity.  The score feels like it could fit on a playlist alongside the likes of MGMT and Empire Of The Sun.  During the transitions, the electronic and spacey sounds work well and add a sense of eeriness at certain points in the film.

Closing Thoughts

A hiccup for this film is in the editing. In particular, when David has a flashback to his time in school and the words ‘Queens, New York – PAST’ appear.  To me, it felt a bit, well, ‘cheap’. ‘Queens, New York – 1989’ for instance, would have been better.

With a running time of just over eighty-three minutes, this is a digestible film. It manages to draw you into David’s life within the first fifteen minutes and doesn’t feel like a drag. 

Underneath all this lies a level headed, relatable character who is somewhat of a social outcast, looking for acceptance through bringing people together to laugh. Even if it’s at his own expense. 

Little do they know, behind closed doors, David’s life is a very sad tale. 

After all, in the words of Dale, ‘laughter is like all the cool kids wanting to hang out with you’.