Cuckoo (2024) Fantasia 2024

Stop reading this review and buy a ticket.

Better yet don’t read any reviews, just buy a ticket?

Why?

Because this a batshit crazy ass film that is wild and wooly mash up of genres that is going to put a big smile on your face as it makes you laugh and chills you to the bone.

For those wanting to know more this is the story of a 7 year old girl who moves to Europe with her father, his new wife and her younger mute half-sister. Dad is supposed to have been contracted by the town to build a new hotel for the area.  As plans are set in motion weird things begin to happen.

I won’t say more because I don’t want to clue you into anything. It’s not because what is happening is obvious, but because it is not. CUCKOO is a film that moves in its own universe, in its own way and goes to its own conclusion. It is a film that is fresh and alive with its own way of telling a story. To be certain the film kind of sort of feels like some familiar things, say some Euro-horror from the 1970’s and 80’s but the truth is it’s only kind of like that. It’s kind of like things we know and its aware of it and it uses those similarities against us.

What an absolute joy.

After I saw the film I emailed Liz Whittemore to see if she has seen the film yet because it was such a delight that I had to compare notes with someone.

Destined to become a favorite and revisited film for many, myself and Liz included, CUCKOO is a must see.

CUCKOO opens August 9

Brief thoughts on The Dead Thing (2024) Fantasia 2024

Woman is having a series of hook ups through dating apps. After hooking up with one guy she meets the man of her dreams but he leaves her without saying a word. She decides to track him down. She should have left him alone.

This film really did not work for me. It was much too dull a film for me to connect.

There are lots of scenes of people staring at their phones, there are silences and there is lots of really dull stuff. Any number of of the scenes are shot so that people are supposed to be looking at other people but they clearly are not.  So little interesting happens that your mind wanders.

The performances are low key as to be un-emotive. No one seems to have any emotion. I know so many people are disappearing into themselves these days but putting it on the screen is like putting drying paint on screen.

And it kills me because there is a good story here, the problem there is only enough material here for about 20 minutes of screen time. It would be a great 20 minutes but not when spread out over 100 minutes.

A miss

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

 

In the 1980’s Lok,a refugee from elsewhere in Asia, arrives in Hong Kong looking to make enough money to buy an identity card. Fighting in an underground match he is propositioned for a job by Mr Big (Sammo Hung) . He declines and Big said that he will use his winning to get him a card. When Big scams him he steals a bag of drugs and flees ending up in Kowloon the walled city.  Finding a home in the dark corridors and watched ober by Cyclone (Louis Koo)  he plans on staying. However Hong Kong wants to tear Kowloon down, Lok's hidden past comes to light and bad guys want to use both to their advantage to take over the walled city.

There is way more to the story but that’s enough to get you going. The only other thing you need to know is that the film is filled with bone crushing action. From start to finish heads are being broken in some of the most amazing ways. Sure it’s all classic Hong Kong wire work, but it’s spectacular and makes you sit up and take notice.

The reason that the film works so well is that the film largely focuses on the characters. We have real people fighting to stay alive and forming  friendships based on mutual respect. As Nate Hood said to me after the film the character relationships are such that you want to see the them and life in the walled city more than the fights. (Could someone make a compelling film like this one minus the fights?)

I had a blast going along with Lok however I wish there was one thing I wish they could have done away with and that Mr Big's second in command, King (Philip Ng) is literally unkillable. King has an out of left field spiritual shield that makes him invincible. While it kind of fits with the fact that everyone gets the snot beaten out of them and still survives, the whole thing that King can’t be hurt is brought in so late into the film that it feels out of place. It feels like a cheat brought in so King could stand up to the heroes.  While I’m guessing it made more sense in the source comic, in the film it feels out of place and over the top, which is not something you want to hear in a film already over the top with it’s violence.

Quibble aside TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS is a spectacular action film and very highly recommended.

TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS plays Fantasia August 1 and opens August 9 in the US

Dirty Bad Wrong (2024) Fantasia 2024

A sex worker needing money for her son’s birthday books a client with a dark fetish in order to get money.

Disturbing suspense film is hard to write in because the film isn’t about the plot but mood, and the mood is as deeply disturbing as they come because you don’t where the hell this is going or how this is going to play out.

That’s a rave folks.

Its so bothersome I don’t want to write on the film because it makes me feel off.

Highly recommended.

BABY ASSASSINS: NICE DAYS (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

The third in the Baby Assassins series world premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival.  For a while it didn't look like it was going to happen because the digital file had issues. After an hour they substituted a screener copy and held the event. They also managed to give the Daniel A Craft Award for Action to director Yugo Sakamoto, hold off the next screening long enough so that people who had tickets could go, and a 15 minute Q&A.

Bravo to the staff.

The plot of the film has Chisato and Mahiro sent to the city of Miyazaki on a hit. The pair are using the trip to site see and to celebrate Mahiro's birthday. The plan is to kill a nebish because he embellished a large sum of money. When they find their target they also find another hit man there about to kill him. A battle ensues... and when all is done the girls are in trouble because they didn't make the kill and because there is freelancer on the loose. Hooking up with another team, they now have to take out the freelancer and their target.

While this film isn't as good as the first film, it is light years ahead of the second. This is a film that's worth seeing, despite the fact that it is also a mess because the bits that work are great.

I'm not going to lie; the narrative is a wildly uneven. After an unfunny silly opening the film shifts into action mode when they go on the hit. This introduces the villain, a lone wolf killer who is looking for his 150th kill. He's a psychotic nutjob with near superhuman ability. He is a chilling foe... who quickly disappears for large chunks of the film. This would be fine if director Sakamoto managed to make him have a presence in the scenes he's not in, but it never happens. Even when he is spoken about, and even when the girls are going through his house, there is so sense of him hanging over the proceedings.  He is either a danger on screen when he is battling with the girls or gone from the film's memory. It's a disastrous move that leaves us with no one to fear. The film is so bad at making the villains menacing (there are other assassins) there is no sense of danger. Well, okay, in the fights there is a sense of danger because the girls get their asses kicked but when there is no action there is no suspense. Frankly there is a great villainous performance here looking for a script up to that level.

The plot also doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Plot threads jump. We often don't know how we get from one part to another. For example at the end everyone is fighting outside when suddenly the girls are in a building and battle their nemesis. How did they know he was there? More to the point how did the bad guy get from the cars to the building?  We don't know. The film looks like Sakamoto and his crew cut out all the connecting material.

You can't think about you just have to go with the action.

Speaking of action, I don't know why Sakamoto got the Daniel Craft Award for Action.  I say that in part because Sakamoto hasn't done enough careerwise to warrant it. Yea the fights in the first film are great but the rest of the films aren't that great. Here the fights are serviceable but not great. Part of the problem is that they are wickedly uneven. In some moments there is copious amounts of blood, and in other moments there is none. In some moments things have effects on the combatants there is none.  Worse a lot of the fights feel a half step slow. Yea there are some great moments, but mostly it's a lot of good. (Compare the action in this film with the action in TWILIGHTS OF THE HEROES: WALLED IN which closed the fest or WOLF HIDING which played earlier in the fest and you will be scratching your head about the award.)

What works and what makes the film worth seeing is the development of Chisato and Mahiro. The girls are arcing, as are the characters around them, with the result that this film sings despite its flaws and the Baby Assassin series is something you want to see. We are watching how the girls grow up. their relationship deepens. The characters around them are growing too. Even the assassins the girls work with in this film arc. It's fantastic- I mean truly fantastic to the point that you want them to lose the stupid humor and some of the action nonsense and instead give us more time with the characters caring for each other and being real people. It's this growth that makes this third film worth seeing not the okay action. 

While not as bad as the last film, and not the equal to the first, it's still worthy follow up to the first film.

Recommended for the fans of the series.

DEAD DEAD FULL DEAD (2024) Fantasia 2024

 

World premiering at Fantasia DEAD DEAD FULL DEAD is crazy film. It's an incredibly broad comedy that sends up murder mysteries, romance and supernatural thrillers.

The film focuses on pair of police detectives who are also a couple. Sent to investigate the murder of an astrologer things go side ways as the suspects pile up and things go in unexpected directions.

A love it or loath it film, you are either going to click with it's deadpan silliness or you won't. At times this is a very great film and at other times it's painful. It's incredibly clever but the jokes don't always land, with the result it's a tough film to truly love.

I liked it, but at the same time I wish I was in a sillier mood when I saw it so more of the jokes landed.

PÁRVULOS (2024) Fantasia 2024

I want to just say "Don't read any reviews-Just buy a ticket and go see PARVULOS". I say that because the film changes and changes and changes and while you will know where a bit of this is going- you won't know it all and it will punch you in your face like a boxing glove filled with cement.

The plot, or as much as I am going to say, concerns three brothers after a plague has ravaged the world. Lots of people are dead and the brothers are living in the wilderness trying very hard not to have any contact with anyone.

That's all I will say about the plot....

...about everything else I will say that director Isaac Ezban's film is a wicked little gem. It's a film that is very much about family. It is a family drama disguised as a horror film. The horror stuff is merely the window dressing for a film about the love of three brothers. It's a film that soars because Ezban stays focused on the characters and lets us watch how they are forced to fight for each other as things happen. 

I know, I know many of you want to know how it is as a horror film. It's really good, but it's more a thriller than a straight on horror film. Yes, there are horror elements but as I said the film is more interested in other things.

Shot with a deliberate use of lens and muted color palate that beautifully put us in a time and place. It's a film where the images set the mood almost as much as the story. I wasn't sure about some of the way Izban used certain lens, but it grew on me, more so when I realized how off the images were making me feel- they were dragging me down the rabbit hole.

I'm sorry if this a bit rambling and disjointed but this is a film you need to see and not read about. The power of this film comes from taking the journey from first fframe to the last. It's a film where how the revelations are made affect how you feel. It's a film where you have to go with where it wants to take you because the film is not what you think it is. Nothing is as you suspect, and I don't want to give you any clues about what happens beyond what Ezban has allowed us to know.

Trust me on this, PARVULOS is a stunner... more to the point it's destined to be consider a classic.

Army of Shadows (1969) returns to the film Forum August 2 in a new restored version

This piece was originally published in 2010

A while back Roger Ebert put this on his great movie list.

At the time of the article a restored version of the film was making it's visit to theaters around the country. Instead of going I checked for a DVD release. I picked up a region 2 disc for less than it would cost for me to go into the city to see it. I couldn't wait for the DVD since most reviews were about equal to Ebert's take. I opted for DVD since the city screenings were inconvenient- owing in part to a two and a half hour running time.

This is a lost "classic" from Jean-Pierre Melville a film maker of great regard. An iconoclast who made movies his way (and with his own money) and who died before he could be recognized so his films fell out of favor. His films are legends in the film community however until Army of Shadows I'd only seen the Red Circle, which has a first hour I adore and a last 80 minutes I'm disappointed in.

Army of Shadows tells the story of several members of the French Resistance during the Second World War. Its a movie about people and not about battles. This is war on the small scale as people just try to help fight the enemy and stay alive-even though they know that their days are numbered.

Brilliantly made this is a movie of people. Its all the actors, who say more in a glance than most other movies say in hours of dialog. Its a movie that begins heading in one direction and then goes in another. It defies expectations as it takes you from one moment in time and brings you to another. Its a slice of life during wartime.

I'm not sure what I think of the film. Is it a great movie? I don't know but it haunts me- years after I first saw it I still can't not think about it at least once or twice a week
Certainly it is a dense movie. A great deal happens. I was twenty minutes in and realized that I still had two hours left to go. How can it be that they've covered enough material for three movies in so short a time?

Its a long slow movie. Its almost two and a half hours long and at times I felt it. Part of this is due to the long quiet stretches that are like real life if the characters existed. This is a movie about hiding in the dark and in the silence. Of trying not to be over heard so there are silent passages. Its at times unfocused, but then so is life.

Its clearly cinematic. The opening rain storm is clearly make believe, a plane is a model. There is rear screen projection and an odd occasional cinematic touch that signals that this is make believe and yet the world is a real place. We feel the terror and the emotion.

And as I said there is the amazing acting, which is across the board touching and as real as it gets. Only perhaps Simone Signore as Mathilde seems out of place, but then again maybe no...we feel her strength, her pain and her mother's love.

It's a well researched film based on a novel by a member of the resistance. I heard an interview with the cinematographer who said that surviving resistance members helped to shape scenes and to explain how things really would have gone. Knowing that helps some of the odder bits go down (since they seem so odd - the firing range bit- that you can't be sure it could have happened.)

I really like this movie but I'm not sure if its just a very good one or a great one. My quandary is the result of final bit of text at the end of the movie. Its one of those things that changes whats gone before. Its not that its anything thats out of place, its just that I'm not sure we need it- then again its one of those things that while it moved me, I'm not sure if its a cheat of sorts. What it is is one of those what happened next sort of things. For me it colors whats gone before, its one of the times where I'm left wondering if we should see the events or if we know about them at all.(It actually has me pondering the use of such techniques in all movies)

That said its a movie to search out, On dvd if not in theaters.(Criterion has since put out an edition with extras that I repurchased) I won't say absolutely its a great film, but I will concede that it could be since the film has been kicking around in my head since I saw it the first time.

I also want to warn those who need action every minute that this is not a movie for you. Stuff happens but as I said its more often quiet tension rather than overt action. If you can't sit still and let it play out stay away.

Berta (2024) Fantasia 2024

 

A woman gets revenge on the man who raped her.

This is an excellent little horror short. Perfectly done it works from start to finish and makes a perfect landing. I loved this from start to finish

I don't want to say any more lest I spoil it.

See this film

Salli (2023) NYAFF 2024

A woman who raises chickens wants to run off to meet her boyfriend who lives in Paris, except that she is uncertain if he is for real or not, a feeling that is made complicated because she hasn't been entirely honest with him.

Odd comedy is uniquely its own thing. Frequently charming thanks to some winning characters and solid performances, the film over comes it's problems.

The problem for me is that in a weird way the film feels like it's a couple of different films stuck together. It's not that what happens is wrong, it's that several sections feel like they are different movie. Yes I understand why that is, but at the same time it took me out of the film.

My problems aside, there is enough here to warrant a look.

THE UMBRELLA FAIRY (2024) Fantasia 2024

Qingdai a spirit of  an umbrella made from the same black stone as an infamous sword wants to reunite with Wanggui, her sister and the spirit of the black sword. Wanggui has gone off to get get revenge for the death of the sword's owner.

A mix of Japanese style imagery and Chinese ideas THE UMBRELLA FAIRY is film of visual overload. So few films are this jam packed with images that watching the film I wanted to stop the film every couple of minutes just to explore what was hiding in the backgrounds.  So much of what we are seeing is in motion that I can’t imagine what it was like to animate this. As a piece of art this film is a staggering achievement. I was blown away as my eyes melted in delight.

The dramatically I’m not certain the film works, or works according to Western sensibilities. There are lots of plot threads and little bits drifting through the film and I’m not certain it all comes together.  Yes there is an emotional pay off, but there are still some threads I would have like resolved. (One note my feelings may change on a second viewing may change. I say this because  while the film was subtitled nothing that was written was translated so things like the final image were not translated)

Slight reservations aside this is a stunning piece of animation that demands to be seen.

Nightcap 7/28/24 - Random Notes

Some random thoughts on festivals and stuff.

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I was trying to see what films the Port Jefferson Doc series was planning on screening in the fall and saw that they moved the screenings to Thursday and into a church across from Theater 3.

I’m not sure how it’s going to play for me. While I am spotty in attending, I tend to have seen most of the films so I don’t schlep out to see the films, I’m not sure how it’s going to work. Thursdays tends to be a night I schedule things for, so it will conflict with several things already scheduled. Additionally the church has pews, and while I’m told they are padded, I’ve never been a fan of pews. It’s been a while since I was by the church and I’m wondering how the projection of the early fall films will mix with large church windows.

We’ll see what happens.

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After all the weeks of festivals you're possibly wondering where is Unseen heading in the next few weeks...

Another week  of Fantasia films before we go semi-quiet until the fall. (Addendum-I jut got roped into Popcorn Frights - so horror films in early to mid August)

I have requests in for credentials for several fests (NYFF, FANTASTIC FEST, ect) and I’ve been promised films from various other fests. I’m also doing something that may eat a lot of my time in the next couple of weeks, which I’ll explain when it’s all done. 

I have no grand plans.

It should be interesting.

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Don't mind my grumpiness- As is typical I am in the middle of my annual “why am I bothering” mood. While its clear I am getting noticed I’m not sure why I’m doing this.

While not as bad as past years, I’m still wondering why I do this when there is no cash in this and the social aspect is changing. 

It doesn't help that the petty annoyances of some PR people and festivals are piling up.

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The New York Asian Film Festival ended tonight- as this posts I’m  heading to the closing night film with Nate so there are still more reports to come.

While the festival has evolved and changed, and seems to have found a new footing with a new audience it's clear the old NYAFF is dead. I say this because most of the screenings I went to did not have many familiar faces from years past at them at all.

After years of complaining about how it doesn’t know what it wants to be I think it knows now, so bravo.

Long live the new flesh.

Also BRAVO for their handling of the near debacle with BABY ASSASSINS: NICE DAYS World Premiere. The digital file went down, but they still managed to screen the film, hand out the Daniel J Kraft Award for Action, do the Q&A and get everyone who had tickets to the next screening. I may bitch and complain but what they did was masterful.

If I may be so bold I’d like to give a couple of quick notes to the programmers for the next edition.

My first note: is to program less films.  There were over 90 films, I saw over half of them. While there were some great films, there were also a large number of films that seemed to be there as filler. Too many left me wondering why the film was screening.

My second note: is rethink how you are programming films after 8, at least on week days. Since Sam took over running the festival they have been programming films at 6 and 9pm on weeknights with regularity. The 9pm isa problem because unless you are staying in Manhattan, and not living in New Jersey or on Long Island  you're getting home at 1 or 2 in the morning. Its a problem that was a discussion among several people who commuted on several lines I was on as people stated they wanted to see more but couldn't go late, so didn't come in because seeing one film wasn't cost effective.

When I said this was a problem for those not in NYC Sam's joking comment was we should be taking off from work for the festival.  While in past years I could squeeze in some late night screenings this year it was problem because many of the screenings I wanted to see had guests which pushed end times until after 11 which is when the trains stop running regularly.  This is one of the reasons Broadway shows try to end before 11. While I could see the 9PM films I would have to bail on the Q&A so I simply didn't go.  

My last note: is the festival needs to do something about it’s counter programming both to itself and to Japan Cuts.  Yes I know the festival wants to schedule more films than anyone can see but they repeatedly schedule films for the same audience against each other. KINGDOM played against WOLF HIDING. I mention that because I wanted to see them both on the big screen and had to choose. 

Having the second screen at LOOK on 57th was not the best move because unless you flew you usually ended up missing one if not two films at Lincoln Center just because the locations didn’t line up.Anyone I spoke with who went from one location to the next spoke of crazed dashes between theaters. Personally I would have gone to the Josie Ho film ONPAKU before CUSTOMS FRONTLINE (after the cancellation of the original film before CUSTOMS) but getting from 57th to Lincoln Center after a Ho Q&A in time to get a good seat at a big awards event was nigh impossible so I just went to CUSTOMS

The biggest problem is that the counter programmed to Japan Cuts. I know the the programmers really don’t care about Cuts (they seem to be in a quiet war with it), but almost everyone I spoke with who loves Asian cinema complained that they had to choose which festival they were spending the day at.  Sorry NYAFF but most people sided with Cuts not because they didn’t want to see the films at NYAFF but because more of the NYAFF films seemed to have some sort of distribution deal or screenings at other fests like Fantasia and they could catch those later.

Of course it’s none of my business, and it probably won't make a difference but I still feel a connection to the  festival that I want it to be the best possible fest.

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This week I received another email asking me to expand a review from the New York Jewish Film Festival for the theatrical release  and I now realize that I am probably no longer going to cover NYJFF It's not that there is anything wrong with the films or the festival, instead it is the festivals insistence the last few years of allowing only capsule reviews. It's a mandate the Jewish Museum has implemented not Lincoln Center. I asked why, and no one seems to know.

This is not workable for me (or most writers I know who have complained). I am running into issues with distributors, PR people and filmmakers who want longer reviews to use when the films are released to theaters.  I can't write longer reviews month or years after the fact, nor do I want to sit on banked reviews.

Additionally as much as I like the fest I am not going to spend two hours watching a film knowing I will have to condense my feelings in into four or five lines and possibly sit on a banked full review for months or years.

Very Brief thoughts on SHANGHAI BLUES (1984) NYAFF 2024

Tsui Hark's classic film is getting a special screening in a super restored edition.

The plot has a a couple falling in love under a bridge during the Japanese occupation. They never learn each other's name. A decade later their paths cross and a love triangle is formed.

One part romance, one mart melodrama, one part comedy and with a dash of musical delight added in this is a film that transcends time in a way that few films ever manage. There is a reason that we are talking about the film four decades on.

If you've never seen it- you want to make an effort to do so. If you have seen it you'll want to see this newly restored edition.

A world cinema classic.

(I can't believe I never wrote this up until now.)

SUFFOCATING LOVE (2023) NYAFF 2024

Story of a young man who meets and falls for a girl with whom he is exchanging books as part of book exchange club.  As he falls for her she begins to make more demanding requests. Should he leave her even though he loves her?

The festival material calls this a riff on the film 500 DAYS OF SUMMER and in many ways that's true. It shares a certain quirky style with that earlier film even if it ends differently.

For me this was a nice little romance. While I doubt I will be hard pressed to remember it at years end, I had a good time while it was on.

Infinite Summer (2024) Fantasia 2024

Miguel Llansó returns with another way out philosophical science fiction film.

This time out the story concerns a young woman named Mia who goes off to meet her friends. They end up using a virtual reality/meditative head set that has un planned for side effects.

If you know Llansó‘s film then you know you are not going to get anything approaching a typical science fiction film. Llansó is a singular voice in cinema (all cinema not just genre) and he freely mixed low tech and high tech with every genre under the sun and any idea that comes into his mind for films that don’t look like, or behave like anything you’ve ever seen. They are films that end up haunting your soul forever because they attach themselves to your very being.

I am a huge fan of Llasnso's films and his skill.

That said I’m still pondering INFINITE SUMMER. The film is completely different than his previous work. It seems to be trying to be “normal” even though it really isn’t.  I think the problem for me is the English dialog doesn’t ring true. It feels like it was written by someone who doesn’t speak the language for people who don’t speak the language. While the dialog in Llansó‘s films can be odd, this seems a bit too odd. I am going to have to see the film again.

My problem with the dialog aside this film is still very good  As with all of Llansó's films it’s a heady mix of ideas and images. It’s a mix that gets under your skin and the final galactic images wow and the broken look of one character as he stands behind police tape is absolutely crushing.

This film is often a stunner and worth a look, especially since you are reading Unseen Films and a lover of films that are great and off the beaten path.

Steppenwolf (2024) Fantasia 2024

This is one of the absolute best films I've seen in 2024. Sure the ending isn't perfect, but my god the affect it has on anyone who watches it will buckle your knees.

In a country in total chaos, a woman devastated by the kidnapping of her son, goes to the police to see if they will help her find him. She is catatonic much like Barbara in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Hooking up with a psycho investigator who has his own agenda, and who isn't afraid to physically abuse the woman, the pair make a trek across the barren landscape leaving bodies as they go.

This film will leave you sitting in stunned silence. Any laughs will catch in your throat. It is a trip into the dark side of humanity, and it will leave you broken.

It is brutal and ugly in ways that actually shock you. It's so good a destroying you mind that it never shows you any of the truly terrible things that happen. (The typical terrible stuff is shown) It doesn't have to show us because we are capable of filling in the blanks because we are capable of doing these bad things.

I was left mumbling "what the f----" repeatedly.

You think you know what a chaotic hellscape is-guess again.  This vision of humanity's darkness is troubling because it's just two steps from here and right now.

This is a road movie to hell.

While normally the minor misstep at the end, more unclear reasoning, might have lessened my feeling for the film, this film is simply so affecting that pretty much nothing could change my opinion, largely because this film kicked my butt so badly. I love it but I'm not sure I ever want to revisit (that's a rave.)

One of the best films of 2024- you absolutely must see this, just be ready to go into a dark sad place.

KIZUMONOGATARI -KOYOMI VAMP-(2024) Fantasia 2024

KIZUMONOGATARI -KOYOMI VAMP is a prequel to the series MONOGATARI containing three early stories for the characters that were cut together from three unavailable in North America feature films.

This is more a pointer than a review. The problem is that while very often prequel stories are good starting places for a film or series, this one doesn’t function all that well. There is an assumption that you know the characters and their world and if you don’t you are going to feel lost. I did.

While I liked the visuals, not connecting to the characters and the world made this a very long two and half hours.

Recommended for fans only.

A pointer toward HEAVENS: THE BOY AND HIS ROBOT (2024) Fantasia 2024

A young boy bonds with a robot and ends up being a mecha pilot fighting against the martian aggression.

A largely CGI film with some humans in the mix, HEAVENS is more for kids than adults. If I had seen this as a kid I would have been hopelessly lost in its world and the notion of fighting space robots. 

While not bad, the film is heavily geared to being family friendly with the result that I lost patience early. Clearly I'm the wrong audience.

If you have a kid who likes fighting robots, this film is going to keep them entertained.

Women from Rote Island (2024) NYAFF 2024

WARNING: This film contains scenes, both graphic and implied, of violence, sexual and other kinds, against women

I say that up front because I know several women who would have had to leave the theater had they watched the film unaware of what it's about.

This is a look at the treatment of women in Indonesia focused on the life of a recently widowed woman and her family.

One part art house film, one part domestic, several parts a long scream for people to understand what is happening and do something. WOMEN FROM ROTE ISLAND is a very difficult film to watch. It is a film that from the first frame to the last wants to make a statement and get women to stand up and make a stand.

As powerful as the sequences are I'm not certain the film works as more that agit prop.  The problem is that the film is so intent on making it's point that the film only fleetingly feels real and more often than not feel like something where the director is moving the pieces around. To me the hopeful ending felt more like manipulation than anything.

Is it a good film? I have no clue because it's screaming in pain much too loudly.

Brief thoughts on Trouble Girl (2024) NYAFF 2024

Xiao xiao is a young woman with ADHD (Attention deficit hyper activity disorder).  She is struggling to deal with what life is throwing at her including the cruelty of her schoolmates, the absence of her father, and the fact that her mother is having an affair with her teacher.

This is a good look at how ADHD effects a young kid and the people around her. It's a film that doesn't sugar coat the situation or give us easy answers. It's a film that affects us.

As good as I know the film is, I'm not sure I like it. I know the the film has won awards, in particular for  Audrey Lin as Xiao xiao, but there is something contrived about it. I can feel the hand of writer director Chia-Hua Chin moving things so that there would be some drama. I never fully connected.

Is the film worth seeing? If you are interested give it a shot.

The Escaping Man (2023) NYAFF 2023

Wang Yichun returns to NYAFF with a film where pretty much everyone is morally compromised.

The film has Sheng Li getting out of prison after serving two decades on trumped up charges. Seeing out the person who accused him he ends up getting talked into kidnapping the woman's boss' son. Complications arise.

This is a good, if a bit rambling, comedy. Everyone in it has a wonky sense of morality to the point that the kid who gets kidnapped is taken to a doctor because he has a good heart. 

As with Yinchun's earlier film WHAT'S IN THE DARK the film is trying to juggle too many balls. Yinchun is trying to do a bit too much there seem to be all sorts of thematic threads involving class, morals, father son relationships and other things running through it that seem to be highlighted as if they mean something, but a bunch are never dealt with. As with the earlier film I find I had a good time taking the journey, but the ending left me wondering if that was all.

Worth a look but I'm not sure it'll hang with you. 

Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded (2024) Fantasia 2024

A young woman goes for a walk and realizes that she is being recorded.

This is a paranoid little film that reveals how you are being recorded everywhere you go. If you think that this isn’t the case consider that the police now will piece together what happened during a crime by getting the recordings from various closed circuit, security and doorbell cameras. Almost ever place you go is now now being recorded.

It’s a disturbing gut punch of a film

Recommended.

Frankenstein Father (2023) NYAFF 2024

A successful and very OCD doctor is confronted by a young boy claiming to be his son from an illegal sperm donation years before. He wants compensation for the genetic defects he has. The doctor agrees to spend time with the boy to see if it could be true.

This is a cold and some what distant film, much like the character it its center. It is mannered  and calculated and it kept me at arms distance. I could never warm to either of the main characters because their largely unchanging expressions made them seem less than human.

I never cared.

 

A brief take on Ichiko (2023) NYAFF 2024

A woman hears a news story concerning an accident and decides to bolt from the apartment he lives in with he fiance. He is left to sort out what happened and why ala ROSHOMON or CITIZEN KANE.

I'm not sure if this films work. A good romantic drama is made convoluted by the addition of the elements of a mystery. Why the mystery is there is kind of a head scratcher to me since any themes related to that, such as we can never know anyone, kind of is obvious and doesn't need this sort of telling. I was with the film until almost the end when I suddenly realized no matter how it ended I wasn't going to be happy.

I think it's a miss.

GETTING IT BACK: THE STORY OF CYMANDE opens tomorrow at the Quad in NYC. Opening in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Santa Monica on August 7, 2024 & the Laemmle NoHo on August 8, 2024

This is the review from when the film world premiered at SXSW in 2022 

Finding films like GETTING IT BACK: THE STORY OF CYMANDE are why I go to festivals. It's the reason I shy away from the big films and root around in the films that are not the ones that everyone instantly gravitates toward. It's the sort of film that I love to find and push at people who don't want to see it until they are broken and they give in and watch it. I then like to watch their reaction as their eyes go wide and they go "oh crap, that was great! Why aren't more people talking about it?"

In the case of GETTING IT BACK the film is just World Premiering so there has been no chance to spread the word becase of embargoes and such. That said as soon as I finished watching the film in the SXSW press library I started emailing friends and aquaintances to have them put it on their radar. I then spent four hours talking about it to my family members and the odd store clerk. I know we are supposed to be under embargo with our reactions but to hell with that some films are just too good not to say a word.

There is a good chance you probably don't know the band Cymande.I had no idea who they were going in. They were funk band formed in England in the 1970s that stayed together for a few years before breaking apart and coming back together. While the band drifted apart, their music astayed around as the beats and riffs were sampled by ther artists and DJs who knew what was good continued to play their songs.

GETTING IT BACK is nominally the story of the band. In reality it is the story of the last five decades of music since the film smartly focuses on how the band influenced everything that came after them. The result is a film that is always alive, and strangely never nostalgic.  The bend toward nostalgia is something that curses many music documentaries since they become a greatest hits package and not the tale os a still living and breathing group.

I have no words for this film beyond "WOW" and this is going to be on my best of the year list. This film came out of nowhere and just floored me. I had no plans to watch the film but somhow it fell in my lap. Honest to god I had zero intention of watching the film, I just pulled it out of the SXSW press library simply to watch while I had breakfast. I quickly fell in love with the film to the point where I stopped eating and just stared at the screen, mving my bdy to the music as it drifted out of the speakers. (I am sooo jealous of everyone seeing this on a big screen with a great sound system) 

While this review may not be the best there is, I assure you that GETTING IT BACK: THE STORY OF CYMANDE is on of 2022's. It is a magnificent film that will haunt you and have going on line to get the music played in the film, and everything else Cymande recorded.

See this film 

Silent Planet (2024) World premeiered at Fantasia 2024

In the far flung future some prisoners are sent to spend their days on lonely planets mining for minerals. On one planet Elias Koteas is living out his days mining and waiting to die. One day Brianna Middleton is sent to the planet. She was arrested and charged with terroristic behavior because she was raised on an alien planet by species the humans are trying to destroy.  As the two try to find a common ground tension grows as a secret from the past emerges and the pair discover there may be an unpleasant connection.

I’m going to  be honest and say this probably shouldn’t be playing at Fantasia.  I say this not because the film is bad, oh lord, it’s not, rather because aside from the other worldly setting this is a film that is very much about the here and now. It is a film which is doing what all the best genre films do which is filter todays world through the prism that makes the topics discussing.  While the genre setting, in theory, make this perfect for Fantasia the fact that this is really more a mediation on immigration, fear of the other and the dark things we do and have to live with make this film something else entirely.

Watching the film I was kind of lost in that I was expecting something more action packed. What I got was essentially a chamber drama involving two people taking (There is more to it than that). It was a film much more heady than I expected. It was a film that felt like it really belonged at some of the big prestigious festivals like Toronto, Venice or New York. I was thrown and it wasn’t until the morning after I saw the film that I was ready to accept the film for what it was instead of being annoyed for what I thought it should be.

THE SILENT PLANET is a kick ass film. It is a film that anyone, especially those who “don’t like science fiction” need to see because it isn’t that. It is a deeply moving film that reflects todays world and acts as an examination of our shared humanity.

Highly recommended.

The Soul Eater (2024) Fantasia 2024

In a small town in the middle of nowhere, two cops are brought in to investigate separate cases. One is  looking into the brutal murder of a couple. The other is looking for some missing children. What they initially think is a joke, that the cases are tied to the local boogeyman named the Soul Eater, slowly becomes a reality.

Police procedural mixes with supernatural tale in an off beat thriller that works best if you just go with it. I say that because even though the film largely plays it straight, the overlap with the boogey man elements isn't always as neat as they should be. There's a little too much reality here.

On the other hand once I stopped over thinking things and went with it I had a blast. Say what you will this is a creepy thriller, set in a town where you believe the Soul Eater or some monster lurks. It's a place that seems to be lost from the world.

I had a grand time going to a place where things really do go bump in the night.

Recommended.

THE BEAST WITHIN (2024) opens Friday having played Fantasia 2024

A young girl decides that she wants to sort out why her family lives in the middle of the forest, and why her parents go out each night and refuse to let her go along.

Fairy Tale like horror film is a beautifully composed film, full of great images and performances and probably enough story for half it's running time.

As good as the ingredients are, the recipe for this film needs some tweaking. There are several problems with the script. The first is that  the promotional material kind of lets it out of the bag about what is going on. I knew what the deal was going in, having only seen the trailer and the poster. It might have worked if this was  a story that was expansive, but it is largely confined to the family so there isn't much they can do. There are lots of silences and meaningful looks.

I'm guessing part of the problem is that this tale of a young girl on the cusp of adulthood is supposed to be a meaningful examination of growing up, but it should have given us a bit more meat to chew on. The lack of meat means that you could have trimmed this down and made a great long short.

I like this but there is so much good here that I wish it were better...that said if you like your horror meditative you'll probably like it too.

Round Up Punishment (2024) plays NYAFF 2024 Saturday also Fantasia 2024

Detective Ma Seok-do (Don Lee) returns for the fourth time  in a bruising action film that takes us back to the darker edge of the first two films. It's an awesome film that will have you reacting to the  film out loud.

This time out Seok-do and his team end up chasing after the mad man behind a gambling syndicate. An expert with a knife  he cuts up anyone who stands in the way of  his making a buck. While the deep dive into the world of computers is not Seok-do's strong point, he manages to assemble a team to break heads and get him close to his target.

This film is an absolute blast. It's a film that has some of the best action sequences in the series. The final fight had me wincing. Full of the expected witty lines and great characters the film just delights us from start to finish. What raises it up from ROUND UP: NO WAY OUT is that there is a weight to the proceedings. Seok-do's promise to a mother to avenge the death of her son gives the film a weight the last film doesn't have. Additionally the bad guy here is so brutal in his attacks that he over comes the cartoony final boss  video game nature of his creation.

I know I could say more, but the truth is this film does what it is suppose so well that it doesn't need me to say anything other than "Go See This."

The Killers (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

THE KILLERS is a very good multipart film that suffers the fate of any portmanteau or anthology film in that the parts are uneven with the best ones making the others seem less thrilling.  This is especially true of this film where two parts are among the best films you’ll see all year.

METAMORPHOSIS concerns a man who runs in to trouble with the mob. He stumbles into a bar with a knife in his back and that’s where things get interesting. It’s a fantastic film that sets the bar impossibly high. It’s so good and the set up makes me want to see a feature sequel- particularly with the bartender.

CONTRACTORS is the story of a woman who pays for a hit and how the contract gets farmed out and the payment to the actual killer ends up getting less and less, It’s a wicked tale with a great deal of social commentary going on. It suffers following the previous story, but is still good.

EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR THE MAN is the second stunner. It maybe better than the first story. It’s the story of a bunch of hit men looking for a psycho killer and what happens when they run into a restaurant. It’s an ever twisting perfectly written tale that will make you lean in and anxious to see where it goes. It’s magnificent

THE KILLERS is the weakest of the bunch. Coming after two classics and a good  story the film ends up seeming like a form over content exercise. While it isn’t bad, it really either should have started the film or been released as a stand alone.

Reservations aside, I still love this film with the great parts making it worth the price of admission

Let's Go Karaoke! (2024) NYAFF 2024

Manga based tale concerns a yakuza soldier who forms a friendship with high school boy whom he wants to teach him to sing.

Off kilter story never really worked for me. I shouldn't be asking questions  from the opening minutes when the yakuza essentially kidnaps the kid and takes him to sing karaoke. The kid was with a school group and no one says boo?  I was wondering why no one noticed the differences between the real world and the manga source.

It didn't help that the kid was rather uninteresting to be around and seems to mostly just be the excuse that we are seeing things happen.

I was disappointed

BRUSH OF THE GOD (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

 

BRUSH OF THE GOD was written when director and special effects legend Keizo Murase​ was working on MIGHTY MIGHTY PEKING MAN back in the 70’s. The film  was worked on but never went anywhere until Muase published his memoirs and people started to say that he should make the film. Managing to pull together a willing team of people  the film went into production. It is billed as Muase's first and last directorial effort.

The film is the story of a young girl whose grandfather was a special effects wizard. After he passes she wants nothing really to do with him or his work. However a mysterious person appears and tells her and a friend that she must complete the quest and save the world from disappearing. The girl and her friend are then transported into the world of her grandfather’s passion project “Brush of the God”. While there they make friends with a rabbit like creature that uses it’s ears to fly and can make what we desire real, weird insects, a couple of outlaws and some giant monsters.

The film is a sweet little delight. Very much geared toward being family friendly the film is an unscary but smile producing romp where giant monsters of the practical effects variety battle and tear up some buildings.  It’s far from high art but it is damn entertaining especially if you like giant monster movies.

My brother Joe and I went to the NYAFF screening just to see the film on a big screen and we, along with the rest of the crowd, had a wonderful time.

The NYAFF Q&A was very good. Daisuke Sato, the producer spoke at length about his career, he is a director and special effects master in his own right, and how he became a producer when no one else was able to do it.

With BRUSH OF THE GOD done at NYAFF you should look to try to get to Fantasia to see it where it plays soon, it’s a lot of fun.

Director and Producer

I Know What You Need (2024) plays San Diego Comic Con Friday

 Stephen King based short feature (it's 45 minutes long and technically a feature film) is the last of the dollar baby films where king would allow filmmakers to use his short stories for only a dollar.

The plot of the film has a young woman meeting a man who gives her everything she wants, before she knows she wants or needs it. Of course they fall in love...and since this is a Stephen King tale you know this isn't happy.

Put together as if it was an after school special from the 1970's the film is a nifty little tale of love gone wrong. It's a film that perfectly matches the 1970's time frame when it was written. It feels of the time.

The problem with the film is that at 45 minutes the film feel a bit padded.  While the run time would  match an episode of an old anthology series, as a film unto itself it feel a tad long. Several scenes feel as if they could have been trimmed.  It's not fatal, however it diminishes the suspense because it gives us too much time to think about what we are seeing.

I like the film a great deal, I don't love it.

Bushido(2024) NYAFF 2024

Don't go into BUSHIDO expecting clashing swords and a high body count, this is another sort of film.  Yea, swords are drawn but this is a film more about characters, and the game of Go, than it is about sword fights.

The basic plot has a samurai turned engraver getting into trouble again when some gold goes missing. He had been framed and sent off years earlier for theft and now everyone thinks he did it again.

This is a mannered tale focused on the characters and not an action film. I'm sure if you've seen films like AFTER THE RAIN, SWORD OF DESPERATION (2011), LAST RONIN, TATAR SAMURAI and others, you'll know what you are getting into.

I liked this film a great deal. I think I would have liked it away from the festival mix, where I could see the film on it's own terms and not as part of an endless line of films. 

It's a solid film that is worth a look.

Latin & Spanish Film Roadshow Opens Exclusively at Cinema Village in New York on July 19 and the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on July 26

Festival coverage has me behind on the things I should be also covering such as the Latin and Spanish Film Roadshow which has a couple more days at Cinema Village before moving on to Los Angeles on Friday.

Consisting of five films which are playing in rotation each day the roadshow is highlighting  films that are not going to get a big splashy release but should be on your radar.  All of them are good and worth your time.

How good?

I paused my coverage of NYAFF and Fantasia to watch four of the five films instead of what I sold my soul to cover. (The fifth film, CREATURA I covered previously and the review can be found below)

THE PUNISHMENT is a real time thriller about a couple trying to find their son. They left him for a moment for teach him a lesson and then he disappeared. What follows is a microscopic look at a couple in crisis. It will keep you riveted to your seat.

LULLABY is the story of a new mother dealing with her life and family and especially the baby.  It’s a film that doesn’t take the typical path and as such becomes a compelling look at one  woman’s life.

SICA is a good look at a young woman trying to figure out if her fisherman father was lost in a storm or lost because he was up to no good. It’s a nice little drama/thriller that score point because it isn’t the sort of film that Hollywood or most American filmmakers would choose to tell. The result is film that feels fresh.

YOU HAVE TO COME AND SEE IT is the story of the meeting of two couple for dinner and what follows. I’m not going to lie, this was my least favorite of the bunch, largely because it’s the most conventional. It’s a good look at the interaction of two couples, that wasn’t my cup of tea.

Ultimately all of the films are worth your time and money and I recommend you make time for some or all of them.

For more information on the whole series go here  5 FILMS – Outsider Pictures

For tickets at CINEMA VILLAGE GO HERE. 

For tickets at the LAEMMLE ROYAL GO HERE 

CREATURA (2023)
A young woman moves in into a house with her boyfriend and suddenly has to deal with a sudden lack of desire. She then begins o reexamine her life to see what brought her to this place.

I’m not going to lie, while I can admire CREATURA and I could tell you how good the parts of the film are I always felt like an outsider. I’m not sure if its because a number of things are left unsaid, the filmmakers not spelling certain things out specifically, or because the film is very much rooted in the female experience. I say this because through much of the film I kept feeling that had I been a woman it would have made more sense to me.

Very well done, but I think this is going to play better for women than men.