Pitch Perfect 2 is about a group of female college students who form the The Bellas, the national acappella champions from Barden University.

Their sterling reputation is tarnished when a revealing incident featuring ‘Fat Amy’ (Rebel Wilson) occurs during a major performance. The goal is to regroup, maintain their dominance and win the world championship. On the road to this are sing-offs, parties, internships, a pushy parent and a bump in the road: an earnest and intimidating German group, Das Sound Machine.

Loosely inspired by Mickey Rapkin’s book, Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory, this type of event does actually take place, attracting hundreds of groups each year. Sequel to the successful 2012 film, Pitch Perfect, Elizabeth Banks directorial debut, Pitch Perfect 2 is at heart a mash-up, and has good odds at Peoples choice awards.

A musical mash-up as well as a strange mix of misogynist commentator, racial stereotypes and sexual innuendos. This teen musical comedy has occasional funny moments usually led by Fat Amy, but a lot of the drily delivered one-liners, fall flat.

The mixed bag of eclectic characters works, in an awkwardly endearing adolescent way, with a refreshing sense of inclusiveness.

If you like a cappella singing and dancing to 90s R&B, or you’re 9 years old, or if you were wondering what had happened to the The Bellas, you’ll probably love this.

Go see Pitch Perfect 2.

By Last Caress.

A Girl at My Door, the debut picture from writer/director July Jung, is nominally a familiar and oft-told tale (kid needs to escape abusive domestic situation) attached to an equally familiar premise (cop winds up in sleepy suburb having fallen from grace in The Big City, seeks redemption).

Young-nam (Doona Bae) is a South Korean police Captain, freshly arrived at her new station amongst a small, close-knit fishing community on the southern shores of Yeosu and in total contrast to her previous post in Seoul. She didn’t apply to be stationed out in the sticks; in the wake of an internal investigation (about what exactly, we are not informed, although clues to what might have happened present themselves along the way); Young-nam has found herself removed to this place. She is introduced to bragadocious local kingpin Yong-ha (Sae-byeok Song). He’s ignorant and misogynistic from the off and, as it transpires, he’s also an alcoholic like his cantankerous mother Jum-soon (Jin-gu Kim), but the locals and indeed the constabulary pay little more than lipservice to his transgressions because of his family lobster fishing company, upon which the town depends.

Later, Young-nam happens upon a gaggle of adolescents bullying a girl (Sae-ron Kim) who reveals herself as Do-hee, stepdaughter to Yong-ha. She’s reticent and uncommunicative but she soon opens up to Young-nam; her stepfather is prone to frequent outbursts of violent drunken abuse, aimed at Do-hee ever since her mother fled the relationship.

This allegation places Young-nam in a quandary. She wants to exercise her authority as a police officer to throw the book at Yong-ha – there’s certainly plenty of substantiating evidence of abuse all over Do-hee’s battered body –  but she also has to be mindful of his standing amongst the locals and of her own unfamiliarity to them, as well as her need to present a low profile to her superiors for the sake of her precarious ongoing career prospects. Still, Do-hee asks Young-nam if she can stay with her, at least over the school holiday period whilst her stepfather gets his head straight following a recent family tragedy and, whilst initially reluctant, Young-nam eventually sees this as the compromise that might just keep Do-hee safe whilst maintaining the status quo. But Young-nam has private issues of her own too which could destroy her entire life as well as put her traumatised young ward in further jeopardy…

Do-hee, portrayed superbly by youngster Sae-ron Kim, is a study in the consequences of systematic familial abuse. But it’s really as much about the things which aren’t being said as about the things which are. The fantastic Doona Bae, back for her first Korean feature since her Hollywood turn in Cloud Atlas (Wachowskis, 2012), presents Young-nam frequently and silently exercising incredible emotional restraint, and she has to do so because of the issues with which her character Young-nam is struggling, one of which is an important character twist revealed mid-movie but another of which is her own deepening alcoholism, which she disguises by way of pouring all of her booze into mineral water bottles. It’s also about the nature of societal tolerance and intolerance in Korea, given both the reprehensible behaviour the townsfolk are prepared to ignore for their own material benefit and the character traits in Young-nam which appear to inspire a collective and barely-disguised seething contempt.

A Girl at My Door is shot and cut with an assured and confident hand which belies writer/director July Jung’s relative inexperience, photographed in deliberate and measured fashion typical of quality Asian cinema and demonstrating as much restraint behind the camera as Doona Bae demonstrates in front of it. And despite the slow pace of the picture, the heavy nature of its subject matter and its ever more disquieting tone, A Girl at My Door never feels ponderous. It’s not a hap-hap-happy family feelgood movie but it’s a good ‘un for sure, and comes highly recommended.

A Girl at My Door is out on DVD.

Detailing the personal and professional struggles of Hengdian World Studio’s movie extras; I Am Somebody focus on aspiring migrant actor Peng (Wan Guopeng) as he pursues his dream, armed with only hard work and a yearning to learn. As he attempts to learn his new profession we follow him in life and love as he meets those who occupy his new world and their hardships become his reality.

A moving and beautiful, but horribly bittersweet drama, I Am Somebody is the perfect depiction of the life of a movie extra. Starring genuine members of Hengdian World Studios ‘s army of extras I Am Somebody is ripe with insider knowledge and is a triumph in realism mixed with fiction and provides its hard working cast members with a real opportunity to show off their talents. A smattering of A list Hong Kong industry members makes this film flow more easily, but it is the story of those who occupy the credit reel with tales of their hopes and dreams that are the real stars of this film.

The beauty of the love between Peng and Ting (Wang Ting) is simple and pure. It’s difficult not to rout for Peng as he tries to win her over and as he and others try desperately to break the movie industry. The endless list of Hengdianers are remarkably unique, each with their own important and inspiring story, some heart-warming and some heartbreaking. Whether inspired by the extras themselves or simply inspired by life in Hengdian, Tung-Shing Yee (Writer and Director) has created beautiful characters that populate a beautiful setting.

Though it’s individuality may be it’s downfall, with limited appeal to a mainstream audience both in China and worldwide, I Am Somebody is undoubtedly an undiscovered gem. This film will be loved by drama, lovers, comedy lovers and is fantastic for any curious about the life of an actor in ANY part of the world. I Am Somebody i sure to be on my must-watch list of 2015, if not of all time.

You can see the trailer for I Am Somebody below.

Chasing The Muse. When a film begins with a quote by Agnes Varda (bless her), you can sense it’s doomed.

Jean-François Davy does not disappoint. His goal is to create a video diary of the women he meets, for purely artistic reasons of course. If you can bear to listen to Davy’s 1h40 minute monologue on women and his sexual prowess in the 70s, then more power to you.

First stop Prague.

It’s easy to imagine the ad: French director looking for young women for a photo shoot. Watching these young, lithe, surgery-enhanced women made me cringe, imagining the hope they had placed on this meeting before laying eyes, hands and mouths on Davy. He asks for a lot and seems to get it, his gut overhang is not hard to miss. Next stop, Budapest and Kitty. A young woman, unable to communicate with Davy, dropped at the door by a man who looks like her brother or an inoffensive pimp, g-string inside out, ready (or not) to be gently molested by Davy, who is probably older than her grandfather. His post-production voice-over suggests he is probably the man she is looking for. I just hoped Kitty’s payment at the end was enough to at least buy a house.

Jean-François Davy’s cinema experience consists of erotic films in the 60s and 70s. Apparently his claim to fame is having a woman named Claudine Beccarie as his star and an audience of three million people. Beccarie however took early retirement from the porn scene to go and peacefully raise geese in the country. After seeing this film, it’s not hard to understand why. Davy left filmmaking for the next twenty years before giving himself this gift, like a 70^th birthday present to himself – a tour of nubile, desperate, aspiring actresses, spread out on click-clack couches, being given wads of cash, and looking like they need a good wash at the end of it all. Convinced that this is sexual liberty, Davy appears oblivious to the women’s paid performance, and this is where the film collapses. The film is a misdirected, badly filmed (by his underwear-clad wingman Pierre) and badly edited personal musing. His fantasy monologue confuses eroticism with the women he is paying. Davy attempts to disguise this documentary with the question of who decides what is eroticism and what is not. Could the only difference be the lighting? A pretty flimsy premise and a poor excuse for a film basically about manipulation.

If you pay to see this, then consider yourself robbed. I’m hoping for Kitty’s sake, this never makes it to a Budapest multiplex…