Category: REVIEWS

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark: The BRWC Review.

It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time-stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.

There is something so oddly endearing about reading scary stories to your friends when you are a kid, or having a scary story read to you. Even though you’re aware that you’re going to end up scared, you still have a tinge of excitement within you. What will the story be about? Does it feel real? And perhaps most importantly, will it be genuinely horrifying? This is what made Alvin Schwartz’s 1981 book so beloved amongst millions ever since. All of those elements were present in his book, and were chalked full of extremely terrifying stories and pictures to accompany it that not only have frightened children, but even adults.

André Øvredal’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has been on my radar ever since those creepy teasers were released during this year’s Super Bowl game, and I was hoping that it would do Schwartz’s original book justice. Gratefully, I can say that this film most certainly does in a number of ways.

One of the reasons why the movie works so well is because of the performances from all of the child actors, namely Zoe Colletti. Whenever a film features an almost entirely child cast, there can be a big danger present, as sometimes child actors just aren’t nearly as good as adults. That is most definitely not the case here. Much like Andy Muschietti’s 2017 interpretation of It, the young actors are featured almost primarily, and they do a great job. Colletti portrays Stella Nicholls, an aspiring horror writer who lives with her dad and is usually lonely. The journey her character goes on throughout Scary Stories is always one that is interesting, mainly because her backstory is interesting. Throughout the film, I always felt sympathy for her, and I was always rooting for her to succeed in every single scene.

The dynamic chemistry between all four main actors – Colletti, Michael Garza, and Gabriel Rush is truly wonderous. There was not a single scene in which their friendship felt faked. It felt as if I was watching a group of real life friends being caught up in a horrific situation.

But let’s talk about by far, the best aspect of Scary Stories – the horror elements. When I was younger, and I looked at Stephen Gammell’s illustrations in the aforementioned book of the same name, I was horrified by them. There was something so offputting and quite simply creepy about them that has given millions of kids nightmares for decades, mainly because of the ghastly monsters depicted. Those same monsters are just as gnarly here, with them being extremely faithfully adaptated to the big screen here.

While impressively crafted and handled well, the creatures and the horror scenes, were not necessarily scary, instead they were just somewhat creepy. I am confident that it is because I am older than this film’s target demographic, but I found the monsters to just be really fun to watch on screen. However, for younger viewers, they will haunt their dreams. The movie is certainly aimed towards those approximately ages twelve or thirteen, and if I was that age when watching this picture, I would most likely be genuinely scared.

When it comes to issues here, the screenplay can suffer a bit from rather slow pacing. The entire first act was honestly a bit of a drag to sit through. It features quite a bit of heavy character setup with not a whole lot going on to spark the interest of the viewer until later on. Even though there are some moments in the first act with some good humor, and really the entire movie has pretty good humor when it needs to, there could have been something exciting happening in the first portion of the film. It is not until about fourty or so minutes into the movie until our first real taste of horror is seen, and this is a picture with a running time of one hundred and eight minutes. It just felt as if the filmmakers did not quite use every second of time to their advantage.

Also, there are some times in which the overall plot can feel quite formulaic and something that we have seen done numerous times before. There are some moments in which it can be a bit predictable as to what will happen to a certain character, or an action that a character will make.

Finally, the characters for the most part were ones that I didn’t really care that much about at the end of the day. There was only really one character in the film that I cared about, at that was Colletti’s Stella Nicholls. Everybody else seemed rather disposable and they seemed inconsequential to the rest of the story unfortunately.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a fun and creepy horror flick, especially for younger viewers, even if it does suffer from pacing and familiarity issues.

Tomorrow, Maybe. By Fergus Henderson.

Independent films are usually tightly budgeted affairs, often a new director’s first real stab at long form cinema. Sometimes this means that they can look so amateurish as to break your cinematic immersion and remind you that you’re watching a group of adults in front of a camera pretending to be other people.

Despite this, the basics of camera, sound, lighting, blocking etc can help smooth over the rough edges. Sometimes a film is good enough to bring you back. Sometimes. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. With Tomorrow, Maybe, unfortunately, it doesn’t. Even more unfortunately, however, is that a few of the film’s performances are acted with a strength and conviction that demands a better film than they are given.

One such is lead actor Robert Blanche, an experienced old hand who lends his character Lloyd. Lloyd, as played by Blanche, is an absent father and ex-junkie fresh out of prison imbued with a reliable, husky humanism. The other is Bethany Jacobs, as his estranged daughter Iris, victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, boozing cop Bobby (a wide eyed psycho played by Grant Davis). Jacobs adds gravity to a script done by rote that displays little interest in her character.

To the film, a domestic drama/tale of redemption. Blanche, as bad dad Lloyd, pops out of prison a clean, cheerful man, slowly reconnecting with daughter Iris. Iris, tyrannised by her irredeemably awful husband, reluctantly asks her dad for help. When Lloyd’s interventions prove ineffective, the story ups the ante with a series of previously foregrounded twists that deliver nothing in the way of drama.

Tomorrow, Maybe (2017, teaser trailer) from Bridgetown Entertainment on Vimeo.

Writer/director Jace Daniel has given himself several weighty, inherently dramatic subjects to get into. Almost immediately, though, the film is let down, not just by its camera work and lighting, both poor and at times distractingly bad, but by pacing which fumbles at so many points. 

It is hard to pin point, but with a plot as meaty as this, scenes shouldn’t feel so weightless. Certainly nothing here should drag as much as it does. Many scenes seem to be missing either a good locus point, or a compelling structure. They just keep the plot moving, leaving it to the assorted actors to create the drama. At other times the film’s cheesier, insensitive instincts are at loggerheads with the seriousness of the material altogether.

An interesting, insightful version of this film no doubt exists, somewhere in an unseen edit. The actual film leaves much to be desired.

Between The Darkness: Review

Sprout Grady (Nicole Moorea Sherman) lives with her dad, Roy (Lew Temple) and her little brother Percy (Tate Birchmore) and they lead a rather unconventional family life. It’s been a year since Sprout’s sister, Magda (Daniela Leon) died and Sprout’s father is commemorating the day of her death as they worship the Greek gods of ancient times. The Gradys live in relative isolation, Sprout is taught everything she needs to know by her father and is learning to face her fears.

Sprout is also thirteen and as she enters her teenage years and is faced by new challenges, she starts to realise that her isolation from the outside world has perhaps made her more unprepared for what lies ahead. Then one night, Sprout is awoken by visions of what she believes is a Gorgon and in the day light she starts to question everything around her. The biggest question of all being how she can balance the challenges of her impending womanhood and being a warrior.

Between the Darkness is the feature film debut from writer/director Andreas Rovira. The coming of age horror story tells its audience of a teenager born into an unusual family unit who still faces the complications of growing up. However, amongst the sweet, gentle story of a young girl finding her place in the world is a horror story that goes into some unexpectedly dark places.

Rovira manages to balance the two sides of the story quite skilfully, never really giving the audience too much of one or the other side until it’s necessary. The teenage story is bound to be relateable to many who remember the awkwardness of childhood and also Sprout’s visions of the Gorgon are carefully played to give the horror crowd what they want as the true nature of the Gorgon remains a mystery.

All the cast do exceptionally well, especially Sherman who is compelling to watch, managing to carry the bulk of the film. No mean feat for somebody so young. Temple also plays the Grady father with the right amount of eccentricity, making his character something between Viggo Mortensen in Captain Fantastic and Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski – but with something in the dialogue that is a little unnerving. However, let’s not forget Birchmore who I found myself rooting for into the final act, despite not having as much dialogue as the rest of the cast.

Between the Darkness is not the kind of horror movie you may be expecting from its initial premise and I found myself caught up in the story and the distractions from what was really going on, making its final reveal all the more rewarding. Not to worry though traditional horror fans, the movie truly delivers what it sets out to do but also manages to give the audience a little bit more to think about than they were expecting.

Dora And The Lost City Of Gold: The BRWC Review.

Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle, nothing could prepare Dora (Isabela Moner) for her most dangerous adventure yet — high school. Accompanied by a ragtag group of teens and Boots the Monkey (voice of Danny Trejo), Dora embarks on a quest to save her parents while trying to solve the seemingly impossible mystery behind a lost Incan civilization.

Well, this is most certainly going to come as a complete and utter surprise isn’t it? Here goes: Dora and the Lost City of Gold is actually exceptionally great in a plethora of ways. Who would have thought that a live-action film adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated Dora the Explorer television series could be so good? I certainly was on the fence. The trailers accompanying the film did not hit the mark for me. It seemed like it was going to be a bland and forgettable children’s film, but boy was I wrong.

One of the main reasons why James Bobin’s latest feature works so well is because of Isabela Moner, who portrays the titular character. Ever since her work in 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight, I have become a fan of her, as she is genuinely a terrific actress, and she has not delivered a weak performance yet. In fact, her role as Dora is her best to date.

She perfectly encapsulates the feel-good and optimistic spirit that the character has been known for ever since the animated series here. While watching the film, it is tough to not feel the charm that exudes from Moner and her performance. She delivers some really great laughs when it is needed as well, with a couple in particular being truly hilarious. Whether she is singing one of her classic songs, swinging around the jungle, or simply engaging in conversation, Dora is such a likeable and interesting character here.

In cinema, there has been quite a few heroines that young children have looked up to as role models – Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman – and now, Isabela Moner as Dora. She is going to be a new fan favorite for a very long time, and I am genuinely excited for younger audiences in particular to see this movie.

This is also an extremely fun picture to watch with not a dull scene to be found. Every single second has something to laugh at or have fun with. Bobin and the rest of the filmmakers made sure to utilize all one hundred and two minutes to their advantage, and they did an excellent job at it.

Something that I can say deeply took me off guard was the amount of heart and emotion Dora had within it. As aforementioned, the trailers made the film look like a fun and forgettable family film that would only be enjoyable for the youngest of children, but that is most certainly not the case. The film does not shy away from having some actually emotional moments, particularly with Dora and Jeff Wahlberg’s Diego, who is her cousin in the movie.

When it comes to flaws, even though practically every moment is a ton of fun to watch, for the most part, the stakes present are relatively low. A large portion of the big action scenes feel unfortunately weightless, and it can feel very blatant that the characters involved will come out of the particular situation unscathed. However, two scenes in the film, one in the second act and one in the third, did have some real stakes involved which was a nice thing to see.

While the humor for the most part is quite hilarious with Moner delivering the best bits of comedy gold, there are a couple of times in which the jokes just did not land. Unfortunately, there are two poop jokes in the film which are brought up and it would have been nice to see better humor in these scenes.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is an incredibly fun adventure with a ton of heart and humor, and a truly moving and charming performance from Isabela Moner.