A family survives through love and support as they all come from one form of abuse or another. From the grandmother’s childhood physical and sexual abuse, to her kids’ drug abuse, the film demonstrates how people survive and love through the hardest of events.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Cut Shoot Kill (2017)
An actress hoping for her big break takes a part in a horror film being shot in the backwoods by a team of filmmakers who have worked together all their lives. Soon after they begin shooting, cast members begin disappearing. Wanting her chance at stardom, the young actress must make some hard choices.
Justice Served (2017)
In the modern social and political climate, Patrick Rea’s “Justice Served” is going to play well and perhaps stir up some much needed controversy. While director Rea delivers his usual slick special effects and morbid tone, “Justice Served” is a brilliant commentary on society and how far we’ve come. Society is nothing but people exploiting people, exploiting people, we’re devils and devil’s advocates. Director Rea creates a backward world where the society we witness is shockingly not that different than what we’re seeing today.
Blood Honey (2017)
A woman returns home after an extended absence to find that things have not changed much, yet they are not what it seems.
Written by Doug Taylor and director Jeff Kopas, the film works with themes of family, grieving, mental illness, trauma, and related ones. As it delves into the family dynamics and relationships between daughter and father, sister and brother, and others, the film develops characters that all have a connection one way or another and whose relationships are strained to say the least. The characters created seem a bit limited as they pretty much only exist in relation to each other, except for the lead who is a somewhat more fully fleshed character. Her trauma and evolution are central to the story here, so she makes a decent lead. Her story is interesting and the twists keep the attention, however, the story feels like something is missing. But, by the end, things feel more complete in a way.
Every Ghost Has an Orchestra (2017) [Oceanside International Film Festival 2017]
A paranormal researcher and music composer goes to a barn to find the Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) in the old wood as he believes objects have memories of sounds from their past.
The film about researcher and compositor Michael Esposito is directed by Shayna Connelly, the film shows Esposito as the star at the center of the subject. He is shown as a prominent figure in the field while no others are interviewed. This renders the exploration of the subject a bit thin and one dimensional. Having no other experts corroborate his information or his research makes it less credible as it’s all from one point of view with no supporting evidence or opinions. This doesn’t mean the film is not interesting, but as a documentary short, using other experts would have helped it be more powerful and feel like the makers did more research.
A Boy and His Beast (Un Garcon et Sa bête) (2017) [Oceanside International Film Festival 2017]
A young aristocratic boy adopts a dog on his birthday. As he teaches his dog tricks and learns to love his pet, something happens and he meets a surprise in the family’s yard.
Written by Crystal Perea and directed by Calley MacDonald, this short stop-motion animation film is adorably cute and funny. The story shows a lot of heart and love in a family that is rather strict and not accepting of new things. The boy at the center of it all is the black sheep of his family and is shown as a sweet, loving boy. The way the story is built, the surprise near the end is not evident or easily guessed. While there is indeed more to this story than first meets the eye, it all makes sense in a way. This story is loving and filled with just the right amount of humor to make it a comedy but without going overboard silly. The film has very little dialog, almost none really, and it shares its story and emotions through well done animation and through its music.
Slapface (2017)
Director and writer Jeremiah Kipp creates a very stark and somewhat creepy tale of loss, grief, and child abuse with “Slapface,” a short that is destined to grab a lot of people’s attention. At only eight minutes, “Slapface” tells the story of a young boy still coming to terms with the loss of his mother. One day he ventures out deep in to the woods and calls to something in the shadows, goading it to come out of hiding and before long is greeted by a vicious, ugly ogre in tattered clothing and long hair that zealously grasps him to the point of making him lose consciousness.