Category: REVIEWS

Life finds a way. Okay now that we have that obvious joke out of the way, let’s talk about Life. From the advertising, which seemingly came out of nowhere, I had a feeling that Life was going to be my kind of film; a claustrophobic deep-space horror. Ever since I saw Alien, I loved the story of being trapped in space with something that wants to kill people. Alien is of course the best of this story, but there have been numerous other great or just fun takes on it; Sunshine, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Alien sequels, Moon, these are all great films. Even Event Horizon, that film’s garbage but it’s also a very entertaining cult film. So, I was indeed looking forward to seeing Life. How does it fare against such classics of the past though?

The story of Life is a satellite picks up a pod that is carrying specimen samples from Mars. They discover a microscopic and constantly evolving lifeform among the specimens, which they name Calvin. However, as Calvin gets bigger and starts spooking members of the crew it promotes a certain crew member to attack him, which in term makes Calvin turn against us. As time goes on tensions rise as Calvin turns out to be the perfect killing machine and the crew must contemplate what this means for their lives and that of humanity.

When this film started, I was fully impressed. The ship has no gravity and that leads to the film’s most impressive feature. Throughout the whole film there is no gravity, at all. The cinematography and practical effects of the film constantly sell us on the fact that the characters are floating in space. Not to mention that the cinematography makes us feel like we are floating in space too, which does wonders for the claustrophobia of the film. And the effects on the satellite are top-notch. I have no problems believing that we are on the ship with them.

Of course, a good aid to this is the acting. There are only six characters in the whole film and all are perfectly played by great actors. Three of which are the poster boys (and girl), Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebeca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds. And I do mean to list them in that order, despite what the adverts may have you believe Reynold’s is not the main character of this film, that falls onto Gyllenhaal; which I have no problem with personally, with him being one of my favourite actors, but I can see it being at least surprising to others. The characters they play are sadly not that interesting, from the beginning you can more or less tell what’s going to happen to them and when, but they are still well played.

So, we have good performances, effects and a great atmosphere, so why is it my reaction to this film is actually pretty negative? Well that comes down to three sadly major issues I have with it. As I mentioned before the characters are not the most interesting. Three of them are clearly just going to be victims, one of them is clearly the one who’s going to go insane and the other two are just there to be our protagonists. Again, they are charming thanks to the actors, but they never really escape that issue. Another problem I have is the gore. Well, okay gore isn’t really the right word, cruelty is better fitting. The first victim of the film was just stomach churning; now Alien and other such films have the same formula, making the first death the most graphic so as to add tension throughout the film. But barring the fact that this is a horrible effect, the blood looks about as real as those seen in a Sy-Fy channel original, it’s not what I was expecting. Which I was willing to forgive, but then came the other deaths. Again, the effects on the gore, and even on Calvin itself, are not good and they also have this weird mean-spirited tone to them. I’m fine with “nasty” films and gore-fests, I don’t go looking for them but I have loved some that fall under that category (some like The Evil Dead, Dredd and the first two Hellraiser films are among my favourites), but when it’s nasty and cruel for the sake of nasty and cruel I have a problem. The thing is, I could have also taken that with a pitch of salt if it wasn’t for my biggest issue with it.

The story to Life is so muddled and so uninspired that I find it hard to give these past issues a pass. For the most part Life is just the story of Alien, with elements of Sunshine and some of the look and themes of Gravity mixed in there. And these films did it better, so why would I watch something that’s the same but worse? It also really is not as smart as it thinks it’s being. It acts like a commentary on life and evolution and are place within the law of nature, but it also wants to be a horror film with entertainingly gruesome deaths. This is evident with a somewhat Michael Crichton-esque start and a slasher finish. And that is what really hurts the story, its lack of focus.

Calvin is meant to be a strange innocent, made to attack because of how we treated it; yet it was only mistreated in one scene and then it starts killing everyone indiscriminately. It’s said to be the perfect killing machine, yet its final form is too large to hide and looks like a cross between a cobra, a squid and a plastic bag. And the film just makes it too over-the-top to be threatening. Calvin is only powerful because it can’t die. And I mean it can’t die; they burn it, freeze it, electrocute it, starve it, stab it, lock it outside the ship and it’s not even harmed. They even say that it could survive re-entry into a planet’s atmosphere; I’m sorry but that is way too far a stretch for me.

It’s a shame to say it but Life just wasn’t the film for me. It’s by no means a terrible film, it may not even be a bad one, but the negatives just kept me from enjoying it. I recommend seeing it if you’re really into these types of films or if you’re a big gore fan, I’d even say it’s worth a look for the space effects and performances if they interest you at all. But personally I would rather watch Event Horizon. It has its moments for sure, but Alien Life is not.

By Patrick King.

Written and directed by Danny Perez and starring Natasha Lyonne (American Pie, Orange is the New Black) and Chloë Sevigny (Kids, Boys Don’t Cry), Antibirth is a strange, more or less experimental, very gory horror flick. It’s as if a Cronenberg body horror film and one of David Lynch’s more subtly weird flicks had a baby and viola! Let the arthouse weirdness commence!

Party girls Lou (Lyonne) and Sadie (Sevigny) find themselves in the middle of a strange adventure when Lou, who hasn’t had sex in months, suddenly finds out she’s pregnant. But how? Yeah, something is definitely wrong here, especially when her stomach doubles and then triples in size over the course of a few days. Whatever’s inside her definitely isn’t human, but what the hell is it?

Lou and Sadie are in their late thirties to early forties. They’re getting a little long in the tooth for the drug scene they’re still involved in. Their conversations are empty and their lives are vacuous. The only things that matter to them are drugs and parties, something they probably should have moved on from by now. All this in a small middle-of-nowhere town in Michigan that’s as desolate as their souls. It’s a cold town for cold people, a boring place where there’s not a lot to do except party in abandoned warehouses and hang out at the bowling alley. No wonder these women pushing forty are stuck in arrested development. Oh yeah, and there’s an Army base nearby that might or might not be conducting secret experiments involving extraterrestrials.

Solid acting all around in this one. I’ve never seen Sevigny do anything less than a good job, so, yeah, she was awesome.  Lyonne really inhabits the role of a spaced-out and wholly ambivalent burnout with a (sort of) heart. Also, a tip of the hat to Meg Tilly, who plays a woman who might or might not have been experimented on. She plays a very cool wide-eyed paranoid type which perfectly pairs with her signature soft voice.

The effects are over the top and gory, but they’re almost all practical, and they’re quite convincing. We get a taste of things to come early in the movie, when we see a woman whose upper lip has rotted almost completely off. It looks as though it has been eaten away by acid. A lot of work went into that effect, and it’s pretty convincing. As Lou’s pregnancy progresses, her stomach protrudes unnaturally, and it becomes doughy and veiny. Six people are credited with the prosthetic work, so a lot of care went into giving the viewer a very visceral experience. The movie lulls us into a feeling of security and then smashes us in the face with some quick, graphic violent imagery. And, well, mission accomplished. A lot of work was put into making these things look as detailed and realistic as possible, providing maximum shock value. We see a sugary sort of puss flow from a foot, an almost too real-looking miscarried fetus in a toilet, and when we finally see Lou give birth to the creature she’s been impregnated with…well, save the best for last, I suppose.

The only point where the effects aren’t that great are when CGI is used. There’s a few scenes where things blow up and the computer-generated smoke that results is a bit too cartoonish and is apt to take a viewer out of the movie. However, there’s some demonic-looking red smoke that looks a bit better.

As interesting as the concept is, there’s something inherently reactionary about it, as if it’s either a comment on or throwback to the conservative morality of 80’s horror flicks. There’s a scene in the film where it’s explained that Lou’s constant drinking and drug use made her a perfect vessel for the creature she has inside her. There’s definitely a sense that Lou is being punished for her sinful lifestyle.

It’s hard to tell, though. The ending is a bit silly in a lot of ways, but that’s not a huge deal. Antibirth will satisfy gorehounds and fans of weird flicks alike.

Every year I watch many new films, and like the majority I mostly aim to see the new blockbusters. Sure, every now and then I’ll treat myself to something small or independent in nature, but it’s mostly the blockbuster. With the bombastic action, gut-punching laughs, quotable dialogue, big stars, three-act structures and the latest in special effects. I love blockbusters. But, like eating too much cake, they can become just a drone and so I do find it nice to break the monotony with something quite different. When something like Paterson comes along, it’s like a breath of fresh air; a pleasant break before I return to the adrenaline-fuel once again.

Paterson is about Adam Driver is a bus driver. He aspires to be a poet and writes down his poems in a secret note-book in his spare time. He is married to a beautiful woman who has an artistic eye, dreams of being a country singer and has plans to sell cupcakes for a living. And, that’s it. We follow these two people over a week and become familiar with their daily routine and mundane lives. Considering that the plot itself has been summed up that quickly then surly this must be a character drama, entirely focused on the people at hand. And that is exactly what Paterson is.

Paterson is a film that almost feels like it celebrates the mundane, just the day to day lives of ordinary people. And, it really succeeds at it. When the film started, I did wonder if I was going to be bored throughout this film, if there was going to be that one scene that just wouldn’t end or even a bunch of scenes that just padded the film out. But none of that happened. I was never bored and the film felt like the perfect length, without wasting a single moment. That is accomplished by the fact that Paterson and his wife are such interesting characters.

As a couple they feel perfect, even though they are both imperfect people. Paterson loves to write poems and idolizes other poets, clearly wanting to be one himself. Yet he constantly puts himself down and keeps his poems to himself. When he writes them we do hear what he’s writing and we even see it come up as text on the screen, but he never shares it with anyone else in the film. Even his wife is kept in the dark with his writing, although he is more open to her than anyone else. As a writer myself I can completely sympathise with his feelings on the matter, like anything in life it can be hard to find courage in your skills and the drive to push forward with them. He tends to mumble a lot and is quick to agree with others, but he never feels weak or pitiful for it. He’s just a normal guy like any you would see on a sunny day. And his wife clearly aims a little higher than what she can achieve. Although it is made very obvious that, despite her dreams and creativity, she is very bored at home. Again, a very relatable feature for a person to have.

This is helped out greatly by the performances. Adam Driver, who was very impressive as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, really impressed me here. In many respects this is a polar opposite to Kylo Ren; that being a slightly over-the-top villain in a big blockbuster franchise, while Paterson is a subdued and charming character in a small independent film. He and his wife have excellent chemistry, they feel like any couple out there today. And it really is the realism that sells this film. Director Jim Jarmusch really knows how to capture the mundane without making it feel pretentious. It is very easy to make such a film as Paterson just another art-for-the-sake-of-art film, but I never felt manipulated by it. I only felt like I was seeing a week of a couples life. There is a lot to say when direction is so good that you hardly notice it at work. The cinematography and editing are on point and never fail to sell the emotion of the film. I will say that the music was an odd choice however. I don’t know, it sounded like something from a horror film or thriller at times, it was just really out of place.

I can see a number of people not liking Paterson for the simple fact that it is very simple. Nothing really happens in it and there is no three-act structure. But what I found was a very charming and very nice feel-good movie. If I could sum it up in one word it would be: pleasant. I definitely recommend it, whether for the change or just because it is so nice. It’s got lovable characters and some good laughs, and more than enough to keep you entertained throughout it. Proving that life and poetry definitely come hand-in-hand.

Did you ever wonder if your aulersonal faults were manufactured? I hope not, as faults are far more complex than that, but it does make for a good story. There are a lot of good ideas living within such a concept, and I’m somewhat surprised that it hasn’t been explored in film before. I say that, yet I hadn’t thought of such a concept until I saw Gary Roberts’ short film, The Problemless Anonymous.

The story that comes with this concept is a man has been summoned to a clinic, under the threat of prison time. Why has he been summoned to the clinic? Because according to an all-encompassing yet mysterious test, he’s a perfect person. So he is kept within the clinic until the doctors can “prescribe” him with a personal fault, an imperfection to make him a “normal” person. Most of the film is spent within the waiting room, where our lead nervously discusses his worries and opens up to a strange young woman called Bonny.

One thing that really jumped out to me about this film was how bizarre it is. I know, big surprise that it’s a strange one with that plot; but while I liked that too, I meant the atmosphere the film gives. Oddly enough the film manages to be both light-hearted and upbeat, and dark and surreal at the same time. The tone and filming style feels like a mix of Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick. We have an oddly upbeat, good humoured and eccentric tone to the film, but all the while there is something unsettling about the whole thing, leading to a darkly comical finish. It’s haunting, yet funny. It’s unpleasant, yet completely delightful. It feels almost corporate, despite the fact that this is very clearly a labour of love from Gary Roberts.

Roberts shot this film in only two days; that is a fact that does not show in the finish product. This is, despite its quirks, a very professional looking film. It looks like everyone knew what they were doing and how to achieve it. The film deals with many in-depth themes and messages; including self-acceptance, manipulation and insecurity. And all of it is told in an Orwellian style. I paused the film at one point in the film to see what was displayed in the background, which gave me more of this Orwellian sense. There are numerous posters and advertisements on a board and they told me all I needed to know about the society outside of the clinic walls. We see that this is a society that appears to be run by the corporation, but this corporation doesn’t do what, say Minority Report does in keeping everyone to a strict and uniform image. This is a society that plans on making money out of any fault a person may have, to the point where people’s life’s will be ruined…but at least they have the excuse of “well, we’re not perfect”. It’s a nice and subtle parody of what we have today, with ads and fliers for such things as self-help, quitting smoking, marriage counsellors, plastic surgery; I have often found my Facebook bombarded with adverts and “advice” for environmentalism and weight loss. To me, it was just hilarious seeing the opposite, where there is literally an advert saying go out and smoke and get drunk, just so they have a problem. The whole film is like this, with every little thing in every shot feels important somehow. Which is the perfect, and possibly even only, way to get this story and this world across to us.

But to make all of this work we needed good characters with good performances. Which is ultimately what was delivered. From the get go our lead strikes instant sympathy and relatability with us. Why? Because he doesn’t feel perfect, something that more people than who would like to admit can get behind. The film is also very clever in making you wonder if the test machine made a mistake with him; which is exactly how you should feel. He feels like an outsider, who finally comes to grips with where he stands in this world. This mirrors what we feel as an audience as we begin to understand the film. It’s easy to see him as just the tool for the audience to view this world, but then the ending comes along, giving him a strange sense of identity. But the better character is Bonny. Along with the previously stated themes, Bonny brings one more far deeper depth to the story. The theme of the fear of change, and some of the extremes that we will go to in order to avoid change. She is quirky and very funny to watch, as well as somewhat tragic. Her actions hide and reveal her all the way through. It’s amazing what a simple detail like an eyepatch can do for a character if used correctly. Her arc was endearing and heart-warming, until the shockingly hilarious ending. Speaking of, I can see the ending throwing a few people off. I was definitely thrown by it; not because it’s bad but because I didn’t see it coming and it went completely against my predictions. It’s the same reason films like Fight Club and A Clockwork Orange can throw you, because that was the intention; therefore, to blame them for doing so is actually a form of compliment.

It’s hard not to applaud a film like The Problemless Anonymous. A film that has such a grip on its tone that it can feel like The Office one moment and then A Clockwork Orange the next and you wouldn’t notice the difference shows a sign of talent. It’s a short film that does require numerous viewings, but it also makes you want to re-watch it. It’s hard to pick a fault with it without nit-picking. There was clear love for this project and it does clearly show in every second. For a film about the faults of people, here’s a film with very few. Almost ironic really.