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!

  • Feedback: Grace’s FrightFest Take

    Feedback: Grace’s FrightFest Take

    Feedback: BRWC FrightFest Review. Pedro C. Alonso makes his English language and feature debut with the intense and moral questioning thriller Feedback. 

    The film has an amazing cast, including Eddie Marsan at the helm, a small part by Giles himself Antony Head and an all-grown up Ivana Baquero (who you might recognise from a little known film called Pan’s Labyrinth…). 

    The premise is a basic hijack movie, set at LBC like radio station. Eddie Marsan plays Jarvis, a controversial radio host who’s boss (Anthony Head) says he must team up with his old co-host, the party animal Andrew (Paul Anderson). However, when Eddie is on air, a mysterious group of masked people take over the studio. 

    The tension is built brilliantly and the plot keeps you guessing right up until the end. There is also something to be said about developing a plot almost entirely in one room. It’s an Indie film trick but not always pulled off well.

    The acting is (mostly) fantastic in this film. I especially enjoyed horror-film veteran Richard Brake, who plays one of the ‘baddies’ (as I like to call them…). The way he carries himself physically and emotionally heightens the drama. 

    There’s some generically British script weaved into this film which can occasionally be off putting, but certainly doesn’t take away from the overall impact. 

    Much like stand-up’s have no end of material to lift from the current socio-political climate, the film world, especially horror, is booming with horror plots that are very close to home. That said, I don’t want a horror film where a town in Surrey runs out of Prosecco in January… *shudder*. 

    Make sure you watch Feedback – you’ll never listen to LBC in the same way again! 

    Director: Pedro C. Alonso. With: Eddie Marsan, Paul Anderson, Ivana Baquero, Richard Brake. Spain/USA 2019. 97 mins.

    National Treasure Eddie Marsan gives a career defining performance in a startling horror thriller co-written by Alberto (SUMMER CAMP) Marini. Jarvis Dolan is the star host of ‘The Grim Reality’, a successful late night radio show. But his whole life turns upside down when two armed, masked men burst into the studio taking him and his entire show hostage. They want Jarvis to confess to a scandal that could destroy his life and decimate his career. However, he has no clue what they are talking about. And when the murder starts he finally discovers what his grim reality truly means.

  • Serial Killer’s Guide To Life: BRWC FrightFest Review

    Serial Killer’s Guide To Life: BRWC FrightFest Review

    Serial Killer’s Guide To Life: Review. If ever there was a genre that sums up the existential unease of 2019 then surely it is ‘Self-help Horror” right? Staten Cousins-Roe’s debut feature A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE fits that bill to a tee and whilst you will certainly see similarities to films we have seen before, it has a sense of humour all of its own that make it well worth a watch. 

    The premise is enough to raise a smile all on its own, as Lou (Katie Brayben), a thirty-something self-help addict, wants nothing more than to escape her overly controlling mother and the dead-end seaside town where she grew up. When strange and strikingly confident new life coach Val (Poppy Roe) invites her on a road trip of alternative therapies, culminating with a visit to American self-help idol Chuck Knoah’s (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) British country home, Lou finds the perfect opportunity to leave – and the perfect person to become. Unfortunately for Lou though, Val is a serial killer.

    The first thing that struck me about this jet-black comedy-horror was the heightened performances. There’s something comforting about settling into a film where the characters aren’t meant to be hyper-real but instead a recognisably caricatured set of attributes. Lou’s anxieties and insecurities are instantly relatable thanks to being magnified, as our her Mother’s overbearing and verbally abusive actions and Chuck Knoah’s smarmy con artist ways. It signposts perfectly how we are in for a dark but comedic ride. For me, once Poppy Roe’s Val entered the picture, things really started to pop!

    I have not seen Poppy Roe in anything before but she really impresses her as the deadpan and dangerous catalyst for all that follows. She really gets why this character is so fun and she nails the delivery perfectly. I remember seeing Katie Brayben in a couple of episodes of BBC’s LUTHER a few years ago but apart from that she is new to me and that helped seeing the character arc that timid Lou goes through on this road trip. I won’t spoil anything here but it is satisfying to say the least.

    I think the only real issue I had with this film was how close it all felt to Ben Wheatley’s SIGHTSEERS. Ordinarily noticing similarities between two features isn’t really much of a problem however I remember seeing SIGHTSEERS when it came out and finding it absolutely hilarious and genuinely shocking as these two characters got deeper and deeper into this accidentally murderous adventure that was all their own doing. This film here treads very similar ground only the comedy isn’t quite as dark, the tone isn’t quite as subversive and the horror isn’t quite as horrific. It’s almost feels like a more watered down version of that story which, in all fairness, could mean it works much better for a broader audience but for me I was hoping for a bit more bite. 

    A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life – our hugely successful Kickstarter video from ForwardMotionPictures on Vimeo.

    The setup is simple but effective, the characters are fun and relatable, the victims are well chosen and sufficiently annoying, and the conclusion is satisfying thanks to two really great central performances from Brayben and Roe, I just wanted a bit more blood and guts when push came to shove. 

  • Bliss: BRWC FrightFest Review

    Bliss: BRWC FrightFest Review

    Bliss: Joe Begos’ supernatural look of the artistic underbelly of Los Angeles is a visual and audible treat for all horror fans. 

    The film was shot on sumptuous 16mm, giving it a retro 90s vibe, enhancing the tremendous practical and artistic effects. 

    The film focuses on established artist Dezzy and she struggles to complete a piece of work for an upcoming exhibition. As she is dropped by her agency, Dezzy begins to spin out of control with sex & drugs &…blood lust? As she takes a new drug called Bliss, a dark powder substance, she starts to act bizarrely… and horrifically. 

    Dora Madison gives an outstanding performance as Dezzy and pushes the boundaries in every scene. She carries an acting maturity and a deep knowledge of the world that she’s in. Dezzy is a cross between Bukowski and Emmin with a bit of Melissa Auf Der Maur thrown in. The supporting cast tackle their roles with aplomb, and help to develop the realism amongst the horror of Bego’s world. 

    The final act of this film, for me, is one of the best horror finales of the last decade, and Begos does a fantastic job building the world and characters in preparation. 

    This film will not be to everyone’s taste – there were even a few walkouts during Fright Fest itself. However, if you are a fan of dive bars, expressionist art and vampiric action, then this is a film not to be missed! 

    During Begos’ Q&A at Fright Fest, he talks about how they had to wait for the 16mm edit of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood to be done before they could start theirs…

    I know which representation of LA I prefer. Thanks team Bliss! 

  • Stuck: Review

    Stuck: Review

    Day to day every person you see has a story you will likely never hear. It is one of the only facts that unites everyone in the world; we each have a past, a present and a future. Hearing those stories and forcing out the expression of an individual’s soul by placing them in an inescapable situation is a concept utilised by many filmmakers. The idea that connections can spark out of nothing is appealing in its absurdity and often its sincere and heartfelt emotional base. Michael Berry’s Stuck is one such film in this vein, but with a twist, it’s a musical. 

    Stuck sees 6 individuals each from a different walk of life aptly stuck on a train together. When the time comes, each of them expresses their own stories through musical numbers that flesh out and form bonds between each of them. Insight is the core of this film, they all lack it in every conversation they try to start up, but they quickly come to learn and gain new perspective. 

    Stuck is a flawed film, one that never gets over the boundary it sets itself by isolating the characters on a train. There is a sense of predictability throughout, and Berry never overcomes that. This set up always seems to end the same way when it is in the drama genre, all these characters, most of whom have nothing in common, somehow manage to come out of their situation as friends or acquaintances despite being at each other’s throats moments earlier. Stuck is guilty of this and much more, and yet, as the credits rolled, there was a small sense of emotional satisfaction from what I had just seen.

    A lot of what Stuck has to say is unsubstantial, particularly anytime it delves into political discourse. No resolutions come from their arguments because the only problem-solving in this movie comes in song form, and this becomes tedious after it happens repeatedly. The basic rundown of each scenario is that one person will say something needlessly offensive to another person, and not long after, that person will break into a song explaining their circumstances. Most of the songs fail to articulate any form of advanced thinking that justifies having the discussion, it is all very basic takes other films are have discussed in better ways. I can’t say I particularly enjoyed any of the songs either, none of them are bad, but it lacked a truly memorable song which leaves it far and away from the recent critically acclaimed musicals that will replay in your head for days. 

    However, there is one glimpse of brilliance in Stuck. The character Sue (Amy Madigan) is a mother who has recently lost her son to cancer. When this revelation occurs, it is impossible not to feel incredibly sad for this woman. The editing during the song she sings about losing him is tragically sad. What this film manages to say about loss outshines every other topic they attempted to discuss. This sequence is when Berry fully realises what Stuck is all about, you can never know someone’s circumstances just by looking at them, and sometimes those circumstances had nothing to do with your own decisions. If every other inter-character argument had garnered this level of poignancy Stuck could have been a truly memorable experience. Instead, it leaves us wanting by making its façade all too easy to see through. 

    The performances are all strong enough to get by. The flow hampers any of them from really getting going though. In reality, these people likely would have sat in silence on their phones while stuck on the train, and it is impossible not to cringe when the characters randomly strike up conversations no one would ever want to have. Giancarlo Esposito is a standout none the less, he certainly generates the most passion and drive for the film, and that is an asset that was desperately needed. Outside of that, there is a lack of chemistry between the performers because everything moves too fast. 

    Stuck is an admirable attempt to shine new light on ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ but it misses the mark. There are sparks of intrigue and even insight to be found but on the whole Stuck fails to forge convincing relationships and as such struggles to be convincing in what it is trying to say.

  • The Furies: BRWC FrightFest Review

    The Furies: BRWC FrightFest Review

    The Furies: BRWC FrightFest Review.

    Kayla (Airlie Dodds) is kidnapped and finds herself an unwilling participant in a deadly game of survival. She, along with seven other women, must fight for their lives as they are hunted by eight masked men. Stranded in a barren land, fending for herself, Kayla must decide what extremes she’s willing to go to in order to survive.

    The Furies is a female-led survival/ cabin-in-the-woods’esque horror with an interesting spin on a well-worn premise. Director Tony D’Aquino taps into a particularly specific flavour of The Most Dangerous Game.

    There are elements of Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes but retrofitted with sci-fi with shades of Running Man and refreshingly enough, Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 flick, Cube. Similarly, there’s at least one scene that flagrantly borrows from Neil Marshall’s The Descent but at 82 minutes, the movie zips along so expediently you hardly notice.

    Dodds is excellent as Kayla. Her arc is given a powerful resolution and there’s a very real sense of urgency in her performance. She suffers from a medical condition called ‘blatant plot contrivance’, but again, it works within the mechanics of the movie if you don’t think too hard on it.

    Linda Ngo portrays a more vulnerable character that incrementally notches up the women’s plight and adds a degree of unpredictability. Unfortunately, most of the actors don’t get much time to make an impact beyond the brutal manner in which they’re murdered.

    Oh, and they are most definitely murdered. The Furies makes great use of both digital and practical effects, which in most cases blend seamlessly together. The gruesomeness and grotesquery are inventive and well shot with sound design that matches the torturous deaths to a nauseating degree. There are some very specific injuries I don’t want to spoil that will make you squirm.

    While the not-so-subtle social subtext lays the breadcrumbs for a potential follow-up, this is a movie that can be enjoyed at face value. That being said, it would be remiss of me not mention the fact that if every member of your mostly female cast is an intended victim, diving behind the Sarah Connor protagonist arc isn’t as progressive as it was in 1991.

    The Furies sprints frantically for survival with a compelling story, a rock-solid performance from Airlie Dodds and captivating cinemaphotography by Garry Richards.

    The Furies is released next month.