Set in Cold War America, after a retaliatory action, President Keates and the First Lady are secured deep below ground. Truths will be revealed, but whose truths are they?
Set within a single room, Dropkick’s entire runtime is focussed on a President’s explanation of his actions to the First Lady. While at times a little stilted, the dialogue between the three players ever-so-slightly shifts, turning a dreadful scenario into a more horrific one as the confession unfolds.
https://vimeo.com/156491830
The performances of Nigel Barber, Pippa Winslow and Max Cavenham are mostly understated and absorbing, with an intensity which brews in the execution of their dialogue. Tonally, the grey-walled setting of the Presidential bunker makes for a claustrophobic and imposing environment which is made even more-so by the way each shot is framed.
As a ten-minute tale, Dropkick revels in its bleak, Cold War intensity. There is an air of political intrigue that permeates the moral core of the narrative, which left me ponderous and wanting more. Feeling more like a scene within a larger construct, writer/director *Luke Shelley has fashioned an engrossing short film that is worth your time and attention.
*Luke Shelley is a London based Director and Writer, known for work on a variety of films and projects. Luke has recently graduated with a degree in Digital Film Production from Ravensbourne University. In 2015, Luke directed ‘Storey’ starring Nigel Barber & Michael Kennedy, which he co-wrote and ‘Inquest of Desire’, a film noir, which he co-wrote and co-directed. Luke has directed, 2016, a short Cold War drama called ‘Dropkick’ starring Nigel Barber and Pippa Winslow and also finished work on a western short ‘Fear The Unknown Men’. Luke has also begun development on a music based drama feature ‘Moroni: A Life in Full Swing’, which is set to direct.
The Happiest Place on Earth opens with a montage of childrens’ pencil drawings, all depicting a typical family idyll. My mommy, my daddy, my brother, my sister and me. A dog here, a cat there. A house behind them, or maybe “Old Glory” herself. A sunny sky above. The happiest place on Earth. The drawings are by the children in the daycare centre where Maggie (Jennifer Faith Ward) is a teacher. Maggie is hoping to create a happiest place of her own. She and her husband Jonah (Tom Kemnitz, Jr.) have just purchased a brand new property. It’s a little pricier than they wanted but it’s perfect for raising a family, which is the step they want to take next. They’re doing everything right, playing by the rules, and everything is going right for them.
And then, before they’ve even finished unboxing, Jonah is made redundant from his job.
The Happiest Place On Earth
A new job proves hard to come by, since Jonah works as a layout artist in print media and newspapers all over the country are making cuts in that area, trying to expand their web presences instead. Maggie’s parents – disapproving of Maggie’s choice of husband in the first place – are well-off but reluctant to help (“You’re supposed to be an adult,” opines her mother, helpfully. “What would it teach you to bail you out?”), and Maggie herself refuses to take a step back in their life trajectory to a small apartment which would be more fiscally manageable but inappropriate for the child she wants to bring into the world. She takes a second job, waitressing, and Jonah starts mowing lawns but, since the bank won’t restructure their mortgage payments, it’s not enough to make ends meet. Jonah even resorts to rigging the electricity meter to save some money, although Maggie interjects and, after an argument, succeeds in stopping him from committing that act. The situation is becoming desperate, and it’s getting to them.
The Happiest Place On Earth
Following a particularly demeaning job interview, Jonah decides to take a short camping break for a couple of days, at Maggie’s behest (“I think it’ll be good for you to get away, and clear your head. Re-group. I… think it’ll be good for both of us”). However, Jonah doesn’t return from his trip. What has happened? Has he been dragged out to sea and drowned in his kayak as it would appear? Has he killed himself in order to try to avail Maggie of the $500,000 life insurance policy he’s taken out? Maggie doesn’t want to claim the policy in the hope that Jonah might still be out there but the world keeps turning, and it keeps squeezing, and Maggie is having to sell their belongings in order to get by. The insurance company aren’t likely to pay out on a death for some years; they’ll probably only pay out half without the discovery of Jonah’s body and, with the cops pursuing the likelihood of Jonah’s act being a suicide committed in order for Maggie to collect on the policy, she may never see a dime. She’s drowning now, too. Will she survive?
The Happiest Place On Earth
The Happiest Place on Earth, written and directed by John Goshorn, is anything but. Made with an impressively slight $10,000, it’s a bleak and sobering look at The American Dream gone bad, and how precarious our lives are within the society we’ve created. It’s not perfect; Maggie’s intractability in the face of her husband’s struggles make her hard to warm to, particularly through the first half of the picture. But the movie commands one’s attention from start to finish, due in no small part to the strong performances from leads Tom Kemnitz, Jr. and particularly Jennifer Faith Ward. Shot in an unassuming, low-key but almost dreamlike style and augmented by a beautiful ambient score by Gavin Salkeld, The Happiest Place on Earth is not the happiest film on Earth, but when it becomes available to VOD in the Summer, it will prove to be well worth eighty minutes of anybody’s time. Recommended.
This review has been reposted for the DVD release.
A clashing orchestra of heartache, triumph and the absolute will to live and die on stage.
We are X is a fascinating documentary – encompassing classical music, rock n roll, the mixing of cultures and deep personal tragedy. So goes the story of Yoshiki X and his revolutionary band X Japan, and the trials of a man constantly struggling but also constantly overpowering his demons – told primarily though in depth interviews and archival footage.
We Are X is critically one of the most successful rock bands ever. And yet the West has barely heard of them. I certainly hadn’t. But 10 minutes in to this documentary I fell down this emotional landslide which showcases personal heartache within the band – including the harrowing story of Toshi, the vocalist, being brainwashed and then escaping a cult.
The reunion of these two childhood friends is something that grips you so hard in it’s bittersweet embrace, you’ll be remembering it for a while.
In terms of story, the band is preparing for their reunion show playing at Madison Square Garden, and the doco opens the curtain to what has led them (or nearly derailed them) from this point. Hard-hitting interviews, emotional confrontations and powerfully inspiring messages make this very tasty for the soul. Yoshiki has never given up on his music – his own physical health won’t even stop him. The band has had trials and triumphs – their fanbase is incredibly ardent and uncommonly fanatic, even for a rock band – but it’s Yoshiki and his iron will to play and give his music to the world that makes this film so gruelling, so sad yet so satisfying.
We Are X is available on exclusive Steelbook and DVD on 22nd May
A cutthroat lobbyist is implicated in political scandal by her past employer. The narrative plays over the months preceding a congressional hearing, her firm’s attempts to implement tighter gun control and the dubious acts she must answer for as her tactics become more questionable.
Although evoking the Robert Redford led political thrillers of the 1970s, Miss Sloane’s lobbyist feels very much like a product of the 21st Century. With a potent, female lead stuck firmly in the mire of America’s complicated stance on gun control, in the wake of escalated school shootings, there’s a not-so-subtle message here that while righteous, often feels as though it’s bludgeoning the viewer. Like Joan Allen in Rod Lurie’s The Contender, Chastain’s Sloane must traverse the minefield of an environment mostly run by men in an occupation seemingly orchestrated through deception, tactics and control of public opinion. There is a great deal of witty dialogue that rewards in the more meandering scenes and Chastain et al are masters at its delivery.
The dialogue is concise and cutting but there are occasional screenplay blips that fans of the genre may find a little “on the nose”. A character’s name gets mistaken for “Manchurian” at one point, the opening monologue sounds suspiciously as though it’ll come back into play later, and there are one or two character affectations that play out like plot contrivances later.
Jessica Chastain’s titular character is iron-willed, highly driven and orchestrates manoeuvres ten steps ahead of her opponents. There’s great delight to be had by watching a well written character boldly stride within the confines of the narrative and between her psychological prowess and emotional manipulation, Sloane is a force to be reckoned with. This could’ve easily been a two-dimensional character buried beneath the frost with a heavy dose of style-porn thrown in for good measure, but instead we’re witness to a multi-layered performance despite occasional plot clichés that make Sloane out to be a political superhuman.
The inclusion of Mark Strong evokes some of the posturing and furrowed-brow’ness we witnessed between he and Chastain in Katheryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty but at least his generic American accent has improved. Michael Stulhbarg and Sam Waterston make for engaging antagonists, just falling short of moustache twirling but the bulk of my attention was taken by the superb turn from Gugu Mbatha-Raw who captivates in every scene.
While Miss Sloane boasts some solid twists, and turns, a slick score from Max Richter and an impressive cadre of potent performers the overall execution comes off more like a John Grisham holiday read than a Sidney Lumet or Alan J. Pakula classic. If political intrigue is your thing then there’s an awful lot here to chew on.
Six Rounds is the follow-up to writer/director Marcus Flemmings’ 2016 quirky comedy The Conversations, trading in laughs and stand-up for pathos and tragedy. It follows the introspective journey of former hood and amateur boxer Stally (Adam J. Bernard) as he weighs up a decision to either rejoin his old life on the wrong side of the tracks or press on into an uncertain future in a world dogged to this day by racial tensions, a theme only exacerbated by the dark shadow of the 2011 London Riots which persists and pervades throughout.
Indeed, it feels that this film has all the potential to be a stand out British feature debut, which is why the decision for it to be only an hour in length baffles. Sadly this run time will indeed insure the film will only be available to those at festivals, the mainstream or even art house circuit being too unforgiving of non-standard form such as this.
However, for those lucky enough to see this, you’re in for a treat. Flemmings and DOP Haider Zafar produce arresting visuals in raw black and white, where everything from two sweating bodies in a boxing ring to a flaming car caught on the receiving end of a molotov mid-riot look ripped straight out of a Hollywood production. The editing is slick and non-intrusive, never drawing attention to itself except for when the film intends it. And when it does, you’ll know it.
Six Rounds is extremely self-referential and reflexive, deploying a variety of strange scene set ups, compositions and ideas in order to bring you into the psychology of its characters. In one memorable sequence, we see primary love interest Mermaid (Phoebe Torrance) appear in a quick interlude discussing stars as a form of unconscious vision/memory for our protagonist, her face superimposed over a black star field. This reads as completely silly, yet it somehow works brilliantly both in the context of the film and just as a scene unto itself. Furthermore there’s an interesting plot framing device of the film being made up of Six Rounds, or vignettes, giving the film a very post-modern and arty edge.
Having already mentioned Bernard and Torrance, the performances are outstanding from all, and I was genuinely left wondering when they’ll be discovered by an entity such as the BBC. It’ll soon become obvious that this film is completely carried by its characters, so to have actors of such a caliber on a reported budget of only £7000 is an enormous accomplishment.
If there was to be minor criticism of Six Rounds it would be found in the quality of the dialogue, in which there’s the occasional clunky line that sounds like a discordant note. Fortunately, the majority is perfectly acceptable and the minority ropey lines hardly takes one out of the film.
In conclusion, if you happen to find yourself with the opportunity to check out Six Rounds then I would implore you to do so. The energy and young talent behind it is crackling and I’m almost certain this picture will lead to big steps for all involved in the future.
