Category: REVIEWS

By Ellisha Izumi von Grunewald.

Don’t Knock Twice comes from Welsh filmmaker Caradog W. James best known for The Machine (2013), a modest British scifi. This time James tackles horror, as he continues to make a decent stab at genre filmmaking in the UK.

The film follows Jess (Katee Sackhoff), an American sculptor trying to reconnect with Chloe (Lucy Boynton), her estranged daughter who has been living in a children’s home for most of her life. The young mother returns with an established career, a successful husband and a wealthy home. She invites Chloe to live with her and asks for a second chance this time with more preparation and stability. Chloe reluctantly agrees, seeking refuge when she accidentally awakens local demonic forces and but the horrors follow Chloe and by extension, Jess. Their new house is too large for the small tentative family. Instead of the luxury of space, it’s just empty space. Feeding distance between its inhabitants and providing opportunity for horror and attack.

The film throws a lot of familiar tropes and creepy imagery at you: a cursed old woman, an abandoned house, cocky teens that tease unknown forces, premonitions, the Baba Yaga folktale, unreasonable police, missing children from the past, the list goes on. It’s an attempt at misdirection but comes across as convoluted and plugs the pacing.

However, the film delivers all this in stylish packaging with great cinematography and haunting visuals.

Katee Sackhoff was unfamiliar to me but is well known for her role on cult series Battlestar Galactica. I took notice of her here, in a good performance without vanity in the tradition of the great horror heroine, vulnerable but resilient.

She’s a recovering addict, now teetotal, trying to reconnect with a daughter she had too young. When she returns she wears her hair in a sharp blonde bob, recalling Amy Dunne’s iconic haircut in Gone Girl (2014). It looks artificial and stiff, signifying an attempt at control that could easily slip. Her character is trying hard but pushed to the extreme. Jess wants to protect her daughter and redeem past failings, and the film heightens the pressure on her attempts.

Lucy Boynton has a good go at her role, suitably scared when necessary but she’s miscast playing younger than her age (recently turned 23 but playing a teenager). Whereas in last year’s lauded Sing Street (2016), Boynton shines as the glamourous ‘older girl’ selling the audience on the beautiful yet troubled girl archetype. In Don’t Knock Twice the costume department works hard to give her the wardrobe, hair and make-up of the average teenager but I don’t buy it.  Hoodys, leggings, a t-shirt with Kendrick Lamar lyrics and cornrows aren’t enough.

My suspicions were confirmed when I watched her in another low budget, atmospheric horror The Blackcoat’s Daughter (known as February in the UK). Set in a boarding school where two girls are left behind over winter break she plays the haughty older girl to Kiernan Shipka’s sensitive freshman. Maybe it’s the preciseness of her features and stare that age her. In Don’t Knock Twice she delivers the confused angst and vulnerability of a teen but I think her days playing an adolescent are numbered. It doesn’t help that the character seems like it would be more suited to a child, who would sincerely believe in the curse chasing her.

Not great, but not offensively bad. The convoluted story is driven by the strained mother-daughter relationship and masked by a strong performance from Katee Sackhoff and exquisitely shot UK location.

Don’t Knock Twice (2017) Directed by Caradog W. James. 1hr 33mins.

By Marti Dols Roca.

Percy Fawcett was one of the greatest explorers Britain has ever produced. Alongside his partner Mr. Costin and later on his own son Jack, Percival regained the credit his family name had lost due to his father’s liking for booze and gambling. Military honours and glory were amongst his ambitions, as it’s portrayed in the film, however those claims were set aside once he stepped on the Amazonian jungle for the first time: he was tasked with mapping a border between Peru and Bolivia as the “neutral British” referee in order to avoid an almost certain war between the two Latin-American countries.

From that moment on, Percy would not stop his expeditions through the Amazonian jungle and soon got obsessed with a lost city he would call “Z”. Some claim this was Fawcett’s own El Dorado, but taking into account the number of times he ended up being right despite his British fellowmen reluctance, seems fair to give the man some credit for his romantic dream. Moreover, infrastructures, pottery and other runes were found many years after his death right on the spot where he claimed “Z” would have stood. Be that as it may, Percy’s epic life met his ending in an equally epic way when he and his son Jack vanished into the most remote and unexplored part of the jungle for not to be seen again. Their last adventure was waiting for them…

Now, the humble opinion of the writer of this article is that such a magnificent story deserves an equally magnificent film. And in the humble opinion of the writer of this article, it’s not quite like that. To be fair, everything that’s been said until this point is shown in the movie; therefore, just to discover, get a better insight or hear this great story again, it’s worth going watch James Gray’s film. In addition, there is a range of very interesting and dramatically powerful topics the movie addresses such as: women’s role in that über-manly world; the laissez faire attitude towards the slavery and dodgy business that took place in those regions right in the beginning of the 20th century; or how the true nature of a man is unveiled in the most extreme situations. There are many positive things to take out of The Lost City of Z; especially, the bravery of the producers taking into account how few “adventure movies” we see lately. Actually, only for that reason the movie deserves some attention: we love adventure movies! Give us more!

The truth is on what Mr. Costin (Robert Pattinson) says to Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam): “We are too British for this jungle”; I would add: “You are too handsome for this movie”. There are two main issues that don’t allow this story be shown in all its glory and truth: the unfortunately unavoidable Hollywood touch, i.e. the good guys are handsome, brave and honourable whereas the bad guys are fat, coward and despicable; and the surprising lack of jungle, native tribes and dangers in a movie that is basically about jungle, native tribes and dangers. Assuming the risk of being too picky, the feeling is that we get a lot of overacted arguments in the Royal Geographical Society, war scenes (it’s just a long sequence but it’s screen time that could be spent in something more related to the actual thing the movie talks about) or Robert Pattinson playing the fun, drunk and witty sidekick (true story). When we could be learning much more about the relationship between Fawcett and the natives, the new animals he discovered and the tremendously dangerous task he was embarking in.

The result is an entertaining movie that is not as entertaining as it should considering its genre; an epic story that is not as epic as it should considering it’s based on a true epic story; and a good way of learning about a really interesting person through an OK movie.

In Ludo Vici’s No Goodbye, Sandra Steffl plays a cabaret star with the prickly attitude of a seasoned performer. Two parts bitterness to one part glamour. It is  aesthetically pleasing to watch, as light catches motes of dust while the lead performs onstage, adding to the stylish 60s vibe. Although beyond this it is not really tied to a particular decade as this story is meant to be timeless.

The action takes place for the most part backstage, where Steffl (who has made regular appearances in German TV and film since the mid 90s) is joined by the lesser known Thomas Peters, all moody and mysterious. The dialogue between them is thick with subtext, the main topic of conversation being first love, lost. The noir-ish soundtrack only adding to the intrigue.

No Goodbye examines the idea of performance and detachment: Concealing real emotions and putting on a mask for the sake of the show. Nifty camerawork and editing keep things interesting enough for the film to avoid collapsing under the weight of cliché. Take a look at David Bowie’s The Mask (A mime) for similar themes.

No Goodbye is a neat little number. It is good as a standalone film, but would certainly play well alongside other shorts – vignettes put together to create a bigger picture, along the lines of Paris je t’aime (2006).

Disillusioned, desperate and idealistic. Oliver Stone’s film brings us the dramatised biopic of U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden. About to be accused of treason, Snowden illustrates the making of a traitor as we map the moments that lead to Edward Snowden’s heroic betrayal  in this overly patriotic yet revelatory tale of freedom versus security.

The Social Network proved that tainted and biased biopics can be exciting, and can appear genuine in their nature. Combined with the  knowledge that hacking can be coo,l demonstrated by possibly the worlds greatest cinematic success, Hackers, you’d think Snowden was in for a success…well…you’d be half right. A lot of reviews call the film drab and dull, often forced, and with too much focus on the lover affair between Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and long time girlfiend Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). Yet I actually thought the film was exciting, interesting and brought the world of true  espionage to exciting new ends.

The only thing holding Snowden back is the last half an hour, and especially the last five minutes. An exciting tale and character development led by a brilliant portrayal of real life Snowden by Levitt as well as the constant and consistent personality of Woodley, soon develops into God like devotion for the real man that brings vomit to the mouth. The final scene  has real-life Snowden taking Levitts place whilst a heavenly glow emanates  from behind his head during a ‘heroic’  and chillingly sickly speech about freedom. Stone managed to take a film I expected to hate into likable territory only to destroy it in one scene.

Despite some good performances and a decent attempt to turn nothing events exciting, Stone cannot escape the overt political motivation behind this film to create an entertaining and standalone piece. Instead of creating an entertaining picture, Stone has created a pretty decent propaganda  piece. It’s good enough to watch, and I wouldn’t say no to a second viewing, but far too political for me to recommend as entertainment.

It’s now out on Blu-ray.