2019 - October

21-10-2019

"South by Southeast" introduces its themes of paranoia in a startling opening montage. A man is jogging through the woods. Suddenly a group of men in balaclavas jump him from behind and force him into a white van. Next, a sniper perched on top of a roof observes a man exiting his car. He trains his crosshairs on him. He fires. Finally, a woman is running through the ruins left over after the NATO bombing of Belgrade. She is being pursued by two men dressed in black and speaking English and a strange, professorially bespectacled man waving his hands like a conductor. The first two sequences are clearly meant to evoke the assassinations of Ivan Stambolic, the former president of Yugoslavia and Zoran Djindjic, the former prime minister of Serbia. They very succinctly and quickly set up both the major themes of the film and the time in which it is set, both incredibly important to the understanding of this unusual movie. The third sequence sets the film's plot in motion.

In the first of many postmodernist touches present in "South by Southeast", the woman running is Sonja Savic, a famous film actress played by Sonja Savic, a famous film actress. The people pursuing her are her brother Milos (Milos Lolic) whom she claims is not her brother and a kindly police inspector Despotovic (Nedeljko Despotovic). She has only just found out her daughter was kidnapped and the men are trying to help her but she is alternately claiming that the daughter doesn't exist and that she is in mortal danger. At first, Despotovic dismisses her claims as lunatic ravings of a crazy woman, but after she makes a spectacular escape from the third floor of a Belgrade hotel he starts taking her claims more seriously.

The basic idea of "South by Southeast" is to frame the problems inherent in 2006's Serbia in the format of a Hitchcockian thriller. As these problems are paranoia, deception, corruption, and identity crises, it is not hard to imagine how this could be done. In fact, it seems almost a surefire hit. However, "South by Southeast's" director Milutin Petrovic doesn't seem entirely content to leave his film at that. He introduces a series of postmodernist touches and a gamut of ideas, inferences, and metatextual references which very quickly muddle the waters so much so that one gets the idea that "South by Southeast" can only be understood by the people who made it. As more and more elements are added including Sonja's decrepit mother (also played by Sonja Savic) giving ominous speeches about Nostradamus, an old intelligence general who can't stop going on and on about film history (Purisa Djordjevic), and a confounding subplot about a history professor (Radivoje Andric) having an affair with Despotovic's daughter (Ana Kras), the basic idea of the film is left by the wayside and the director begins overindulging himself.

The result is a delightful miss. Why delightful? Well, simply put, the film is so odd and abstract and absurd that it had me laughing all the way through. All the sly in-jokes, the film references, and the oddball characters tickled me in an unusual David Lynchian manner. I was enjoying the sheer insanity of it all. Then why is it a miss? Because the basic idea of the film and (vulgarly put) its message over time becomes so utterly muddled and diffused by all the aforementioned insanity that I can't with absolute authority claim what that idea even is. Watching "South by Southeast" I was reminded of Vlatko Gilic's excellent film "Backbone" which likewise featured numerous absurdist episodes, but Gilic was smart enough to space these episodes with a lot of humour and a relatively sensible central plot, as well as to envelope the entire film into a thick, eery atmosphere which gave the structurally scattered movie a sense of unity. Likewise, Gilic presented his ideas in a clear, straightforward manner and delivered his metatextual references one at a time in such a way that they didn't seem unnatural in the context of a scene and yet were clearly noticeable even to the casual viewer. Petrovic, on the other hand, fails to give "South by Southeast" any kind of a structure, presenting his episodes seemingly at random and never giving them any kind of satisfactory conclusion. Subplots begin in medias res and end after only a few confounding minutes only to be overtaken by other, equally unfinished and equally confounding subplots. Ideas are presented in bulk, all at once, and in such a manner that you get the feeling that all the characters are speaking in code. And finally, because of the amount of indecipherable, abstract scenes, lines, and characters thrown at us in such a small timeframe, we simply give up in our attempt to understand what Petrovic is trying to tell us precisely at the moment when we should, in fact, be starting to understand it all.

As you may have noticed, most of the actors play characters with the same names as their own. In fact, they are playing fictionalised versions of themselves. Most of them are close friends of the director, Milutin Petrovic, and most of them are not actors at all. In fact, they're directors. This is not a new technique, but here it gives the film a certain home-video quality which I believe is well suited to a film so personal that only its author can understand it.

The feeling one gets when watching "South by Southeast" is of an interesting, unusual, unfinished film. Of a puzzle where each of the pieces is individually beautiful and eye-catching but is yet to form any kind of a picture. Perhaps a more sensible editor could have made something of this film or, more probably, some of the key scenes were never filmed. Either way, "South by Southeast" will frustrate you if you take it too seriously and try to actually understand what it is trying to tell you. On the other hand, if you just give in to its insanity, you'll get a chance to see a film like no other produced in Serbia since the 1980s. Sadly, I think its author did not count on such an approach to his film which I believe he created in utmost sincerity.

2/4

28-10-2019

"Trick", the latest film from Patrick Lussier, the hack who brought you "My Bloody Valentine" and "Drive Angry", is yet another in a 41-year long line of "Halloween" rip-offs which manages to be so bland and utterly inept that this could easily become one of my shortest reviews.

The basic premise is almost the same as the one set-up so brilliantly by John Carpenter back in 1978. Several years after a Halloween killing spree, a masked killer returns to town to finish what he started and stalk a group of teens while being hunted by an obsessed authority figure and a reluctant local sheriff.

The only twist to that, most basic of all slasher premises, is that the killer may or may not be a supernatural entity which is not particularly original in and of itself considering that Michael Myers turned out to be the same thing in "The Curse of Michael Myers". Which brings us to one of the many major problems with "Trick". Beyond being prodigious with a knife and skilled at disappearing, the killer in this slasher film has no personality whatsoever. For someone nicknamed Trick and killing at Halloween, you'd think they'd at least try to develop a Trick 'r Treat motive, but nope. He just goes around killing people at random. Why Halloween? Never explained. Why these people? Never explained. In fact, his lack of motivation is eventually handwaved with the line "True evil doesn't need a motive" as if the filmmakers themselves realised they had a major hole in the middle of their film. Well, they do, and yes, true evil needs a motive, at least in a good movie it does.

The obsessed cop is played in a monotone performance by Omar Epps of "House" fame, who manages to bring precisely none of his charm or command to this already flat and tired part. He's an FBI agent who is, for some reason, constantly referred to as 'detective' who's dedicated his life to catching Trick. Think Dr Sam Loomis in the sequels, just buffer. He even has a cane in the film's final scene. How more on the nose can you get? His reluctant partner is Sheriff Jayne (Ellen Adair), a character I wish I could write more about because Ms Adair obviously tries to make something of her, but unfortunately, there's nothing to tell. She snarks at Epps' remarks about "true evil" and "demons", and has a big gun. That's about it.

The teenagers, usually the focal point of a slasher film, are here entirely ignored. Despite showing up every so often throughout the film, I could never remember which one was which nor what their particular roles in the film were largely because they have absolutely no personalities or character traits. One of them wears a football jersey, so I suppose he's the jock. That's the best I can do.

But, hey, who watches slasher films for the story or for the characters? Well, sadly, "Trick" has no style either. Shot much like a cheap Hallmark Mystery movie, it has no humour, panache, or subversiveness to it to give it a watchable edge. It also has no memorable action scenes or gore and whenever Trick shows up the camera is shaken so much I thought Michael J. Fox was employed as the camera operator. I could never make out what was going on, but to be honest, I didn't really care.

I wish there was more I could say about "Trick" but there isn't. None of the other elements in the film were notable in any way. The cinematography is workaday, the soundtrack composed of your usual electronic cling and clangs that pass for film music in these post-Hans Zimmer days. With that in mind, the only conclusion one can reach is that "Trick" is absolutely worthless. About 45 minutes in, I was already bored, and 70 minutes in I stopped paying attention. Somewhere after that, a twist happened which seemed to me to be totally predictable and intelligence-insulting but my expectations were so low I wasn't even disappointed.

1/4

28-10-2019

David Bruckner's "The Ritual" is one of those infuriating movies which are so well made that it is a crying shame that they aren't better conceived. A down-to-basics, backwoods horror film which hits every story beat and cliche with such precision and competence that it would have been brilliant were it not so recognisable and threadbare.

The story kicks off with a murder. Robert (Paul Reid), a newly married successful businessman is killed in a 7-11 robbery gone wrong while his best friend Luke (Rafe Spall) cowers behind some shelves, frozen in fear, unable to act. Torn apart by guilt he accompanies his three best friends the natty Phil (Arsher Ali), sporty Hutch (Robert James-Collier), and whiny Dom (Sam Troughton) on a memorial hike through a Swedish-Norwegian forest. They lose their way and stumble upon a creepy cottage filled with headless effigies and are soon hunted down one by one by an unseen monster lurking in the woods.

If the premise sounds familiar, that's because it is. And it's not just the premise that's recycled straight out of earlier horror films. Take a look at the main cast. We have the no-nonsense physically capable one (think Burt Reynolds in "Deliverance"), the city slicker cynic (Jon Voight), the whiny fat guy (Ned Beatty), and the realist (Ronny Cox). This make-up is also present in a very slightly varying form in other similar films such as "The Descent", "Southern Comfort", and Peter Carter's awful 1977 film "The Creeper". However, the film I was most reminded of watching "The Ritual" was "The Blair Witch Project", mostly in the way Bruckner subtly and deftly builds atmosphere through insinuation and unseen threat rather than through physical obstacles and jump scares.

Indeed, "The Ritual" is one of the best-executed films of its kind. In fact, in that sense, I'd rank it right below "The Blair Witch Project" whose atmosphere still remains unrivalled. David Bruckner's direction is superb and is a true masterclass in what can be done with such basic utilities as zooms, sound design, and close-ups. Aiding him in this is the dark and claustrophobic cinematography by Andrew Shulkind and a creeping, pumping score by Ben Lovett beautifully evoking the folklore inherent in the locations. The acting too is top-notch with Rafe Spall giving a performance worthy of his brilliant father.

And yet, one can't shake the feeling of having seen it all before. Perhaps it hadn't been done quite as well, but it has definitely been done and all throughout "The Ritual" I was having a bad case of deja vu. I was able to predict every plot point well before it happened and often when it would happen I would groan with disappointment at having seen it coming. Taking on such familiar material also makes us spot such holes in the screenplay as thin characterisation, bad logic, and unclear motivations from the villains which although inherent in the genre are less noticeable in less predictable films.

"The Ritual" signals the arrival of some true talent but as it stands it is a real disappointment. A film made with obvious skill and talent but burdened by a predictable and flawed screenplay.


2.5/4

31-10-2019

Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is the first character to die in a horror film. She's a blonde sorority alpha bitch who's sleeping with her professor (Charles Aitken) for grades, rude towards her non-emaciated friends, and ignores her roommate's (Ruby Modine) attempts to become friendly. And today is not a good day for her. After a wild night out she wakes up in the dorm room of an unpopular nerd (Israel Broussard), it's her birthday and she's trying to avoid her father's (Jason Bayle) calls, and she ends up murdered on the street by a knife-wielding maniac in a baby mask. How fitting.

But what if Tree, your archetypal opening slasher movie kill got a second chance? That's the question "Happy Death Day" poses when Tree wakes up in the nerd's dorm room again after dying. Finding herself in a groundhog day loop, Tree has to figure out who's killing her and why in order to save her life. Along the way, of course, as is part and parcel of groundhog day loop films, she'll become a better person through repeated interactions with people she usually avoids. We'll also be treated to a series of running gags such as a girl repeatedly trying to get Tree to sign a stop-global-warming petition and a foreign exchange student trying to catch her attention.

As you can tell "Happy Death Day" pretty much rehashes the "Groundhog Day" formula down to a T. It doesn't do anything new with it, nor does it try to put a different spin on it. It also sadly underuses its slasher elements by making Tree the film's only target instead of, say, designing a largescale massacre set-piece which could play out differently every loop depending on Tree's actions. Simply put, "Happy Death Day" takes a very obvious and simplistic approach to its intriguing premise. That is a shame.

What is surprising about this film, though, is how well it actually works. Sure, it's not as interesting as it could have been nor as subversive, but it is a moderately fun ride and one I never regretted taking. I laughed at most of the jokes and was impressed at how deftly it avoided cheap shots or obvious gags. I enjoyed the performances, especially by the charming and genuinely funny lead Jessica Rothe. And I found Christopher Landon's direction to be sufficiently dynamic and skilful to keep my attention if never stylish or inventive enough to pique my interest. Rounding it all out is a fine dramatic score by Bear McCreary and a creepy killer's mask designed by Tony Gardner, the man behind Ghostface himself.

I did have a problem with the film's script, however, which I found to be abnormally full of holes such as how Tree seems to be able to get out of police custody within minutes of killing someone or how no matter how quickly or slowly she does things she always seems to encounter the same people at the same exact moments of the day.

What "Happy Death Day" needed was a smarter, sharper approach to its very good premise. Here is a film that could have introduced a new twist to the tired slasher genre in a similar way Wes Craven's brilliant "Scream" did. Instead, we got a fairly enjoyable slasher comedy which while it never overstays its welcome and reliably entertains throughout its 96-minute runtime, never seems to deliver anything besides a smirk on a rainy day.

2.5/4

31-10-2019

"Happy Death Day" was a fun comedy-slasher hybrid created by cross-breeding "Scream" with "Groundhog Day" which featured a strong central performance from Jessica Rothe, dynamic direction from Christopher Landon, and a great premise of a girl caught in a time loop in the middle of a slasher flick but it was sadly mired by a weak and strangely unambitious screenplay which failed to follow through on the genre-twisting, format breaking promise of its excellent concept.

I am happy to report, however, that "Happy Death Day 2U" has no such problems but displays all the old strengths. Jessica Rothe is back and is even better now that she's given something truly meaty to work with as is Christopher Landon who shows off here with a lot more directorial style and elan than before while managing to keep the film pacy and engaging. Most refreshingly, he also takes over the scriptwriting duties from original scribe Scott Lobdell and turns in a clever, hilarious, and emotional screenplay which finally delivers on the promises given by its predecessor.

The plot of "Happy Death Day 2U" is far too complex to recap succinctly but let's just say its protagonist Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself hunted by yet another killer in an alternate dimension while her gang of newfound nerd friends work overtime to send her back to her own timeline. While it is true that the skeleton of the plot is rehashed from the original (along with a lot of the footage), this ambitious sequel puts a different enough spin on them that I was never bored. It also adds a lot of meat on those old bones.

One of the most compelling aspects of the film is the dilemma Tree finds herself in when she discovers that her late mother (Missy Yager) is still alive in this alternate dimension she finds herself in. While the film expectedly never fully gets involved in the psychological implications of this complex situation (it is merely a fun slasher comedy not a Bergman movie after all), it delivers all the emotional beats with such precision and truthfulness that I was almost brought to tears. A lot of credit, of course, belongs to Jessica Rothe who proves that besides being a charming and entertaining screen presence she is also a very fine dramatic actress.

Another aspect of "Happy Death Day 2U" which I thoroughly enjoyed is its willingness to throw caution to the wind and go for every whacky idea they could think of. This film contains mad slashers, uptight deans, dimension-bending machines, secret agents, two time loopers, and almost double the body count. If the first film felt too cautious and formulaic, this film is its imaginative, over-the-top, cooky antithesis. It takes a lot of talent and thinking to make a film which juggles so many elements and plot points and yet never once feels jumbled or hard to follow. Landon pulls it off seamlessly. Now, it must be said that the film's plot contains just as much (if not more) plot holes as the original. But its saving grace is the fact that so much stuff is happening at any given time it's easy to overlook most of them.

Overall, "Happy Death Day 2U" delivers all the madcap nonsense I expected from the first film and a lot more. It too lacks subversiveness and a true satirical edge which its premise would suggest, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a tonne of fun watching it. While it is no great revelation, it is a comedy sequel which does that which all comedy sequels should do, it ups the ante and ups the laughs and as a nice bonus, it adds heart.

3/4