Tag Archives: Drama

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Lowlife Love (2015) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

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lowlifeloveA lowlife, 39 year old film, director uses his position to sleep with young actresses under promise of making them stars.  While doing this, he’s trying to get his next film produced and cast.  Around him: His best friend makes porn films to gather money for a filming budget; a young film writer wants to get his script produced; a young actress falls in love with the film writer, et al. Everyone seems to be out for their own careers and selves, not caring about others.

Lowlife Love is written and directed by Eiji Uchida and is a study of people doing everything they need to get to their ends, to get fame for themselves, no matter the cost to others and themselves.  Uchida crafts a study of what drives people, some people, to go to ends some never would to get what they want.  His style is a bit in your face, showing events and how they affect everyone involved but never truly getting to the bottom of the reasons and the feelings behind it all.

To bring this to the screen, Uchida has a cast of 30 or so, most of them giving decent performances.  Unfortunately, most of the characters feel a bit thin and one dimensional at times, with a very few standouts.  Thankfully, one actress shows nuance and layers in her performance, Maya Okano as Minami shows the best arc, the best performance.  She shows great talent and becomes the best part of the film.  Her performance shows naïveté at first and then a form of regret as she has lost her innocence throughout the events of the film.

The cinematography by Kenji Noguchi follows the tone of the film, framing the scenes in ways to enhance their feeling of despair and of need for fame.  The film feels almost dirty some times, claustrophobic at others times, all through the look the images’ framing give it.  He adapts his style to what the scene needs, showing versatility.  However, the film’s story not being exactly great, this is a bit lost in the shuffle.

Lowlife Love is an attempt at making a dark dramedy about what goes on behind the scenes of some films but it makes it sound like it’s what goes on behind all films.  The story could have been great but its execution, starting with the story’s writing, is not on point.  A lot of it feels as though the filmmaker is trying hard but not hitting his mark, the characters feel exaggerated, and this all leads to a less than fascinating film.  Unless one is really into director Eiji Uchida’s films, it may not be worth watching.

Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016.

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Slash (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

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slashA teen discovers slash fan fic and writes some about characters from his favorite series Vanguard.  After an older girl reads some of it and he gets in trouble in school for its graphic nature, she pushes him to post it online for all to see and to get feedback.  This gets him noticed by one of the moderators of the forum and he’s encouraged to go read an excerpt at a Comic-Con type convention. Writer/director Clay Liford adapts from his own 2012 short of the same name, changing the lead’s obsession from Harry Potter to a fake series called Vanguard.

Here he builds a coming of age story where the two leads, Neil and Julia, are at different points in their teenage evolution and in their sexual awakening.  Both characters feel real and have natural interactions with each other and with the adults and teens around them. The characters and situations are believable, especially for someone (like this reviewer) who has encountered many a fan fic writer and read a few horrendous and other decent bits of it.  Setting the film partially at a comic-con works here as it puts the two nerds in what feels like their natural environment, where they fit in better than in their school or home settings.

Both leads here are talented and natural at their parts.  Michael Johnston plays up Neil’s awkwardness, creating a very human 15 year old nerd with dreams, aspirations, worries.  His character is never a caricature of emerging teen writers and never a send up of nerds as is often seen in these types of movies.

Playing opposite Michael Johnston is Hannah Marks as Julia, the less sheltered and more experienced fan fic writing 16 year old who shows him the ropes in terms of getting out there and finding himself.  Marks plays her character full force, never skimping on any emotions, yet never exaggerating or hamming it up.  The viewers feel with her, go through her emotional roller coaster with her.  The supporting cast, including a great Michael Ian Black leaving his sarcastic persona behind, does a great job and let Michael Johnston and Hannah Marks shine, not over shadowing them while also turning in good performance.

The film’s cinematography by Ellie Ann Fenton makes it look a bit like it belongs on current MTV or on a big screen at a convention, which is not a bad thing as this style lends itself to the subject matter at hand.  The way the scenes are shot, their settings also add to this.  The film looks good and is well framed, making it easy to concentrate on the two leads.

Slash is a well-crafted film about teen experiences and sexual awakening for the teen nerd, mainly viewed through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy.  His experiences and feelings are relatable, making even the uncomfortable moments work.  The film is touching in parts and a bit cringe-worthy in others, which are both good things here.  The film is entertaining and a glimpse into two slash fan fic writers’ lives.

Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

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invasion-blurayPhilip Kaufman’s 1978 remake and adaptation of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” remains one of the most resounding arguments for the purpose of remaking films. Often times like the case of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” directors can rework certain ideas and add something to the mythology, allowing for a starker and very bleak vision that helps a film stand on its own. John Carpenter achieved that with “The Thing,” and Philip Kaufman succeeds in adding his own layer of dread and futility with “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” A lot of horror movies are filled with some tinge of hope that perhaps humanity or our heroes will prevail over the unusual menace threatening to consume a portion of Earth.

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The Best Thing I’ve Seen in 2016

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strangerthings1Netflix’s “Stranger Things” is the best thing I’ve seen all year. TV show, Movie, Web show, et al. The Duffer Brothers “Stranger Things” season one is eight episodes long at fifty five minutes each and it’s the easiest eight hours I’ve ever spent watching a series. There’s no filler, no flab, no pointless segues in to a sub-plot that wanders aimlessly. Every element of every episode is crucial and important and The Duffer Brothers have no time to fuck around.

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Seoul Station (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

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seoul“If I had a place to go… I wouldn’t have stayed at Seoul Station.”

Yeon Sang-ho’s animated prequel to the excellent zombie action film “Train to Busan” is every bit as terrifying as its successor, and occasionally much more intelligent and biting in its social commentary. While “Train to Busan” is a very emotional look at class warfare and how the society divides in the time of crisis, “Seoul Station” is a very evocative commentary on the poverty crisis in the world. This horrific zombie virus is able to thrive thanks to the massive homeless population in South Korea, and it’s confronted more than once in how the government views its homeless as animals and sub-human even before the flesh eating ghouls appear.

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Mother’s Day (2016) [Blu-Ray/Digital]

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Sadly, ever since “Love Actually” became a standard of the holiday, Hollywood has enlisted hokey melodrama director Garry Marshall to give us a new holiday based ensemble piece of garbage almost every year. “Mother’s Day” is the latest insidious melodrama about a group of very rich, very healthy Caucasian people bickering about how hard their lives are. One character played by Jennifer Aniston, even decides to throw a humongous party for her sons, just because. Man, can you imagine what would happen if these people ever stepped out of their bubbles? “Mother’s Day” is about mother’s day, the mother of all holidays, everyone seems to be obsessed with mother’s day, and they talk about mother’s day because, mothers!

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The Alchemist Cookbook (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]

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alchemistA man trying to survive in a shack in the woods plays with alchemy to discover an ancient secret to a better life.  Inadvertently, he summons a dangerous being who doesn’t take too kindly to his dealings. The Alchemist cookbook is written and directed by Joel Potrykus who is known for independent horror films shot in Michigan and who considers his style in the vein of Jim Jarmusch which is something each viewer can judge for themselves, but this reviewer did not really see that.

Here he crafts a fairly slow boil of a film.  It starts with an alchemy cooking sequence set to a great track, giving the impression that it might be an upbeat, fast moving film, but it soon becomes clear that the lead, Sean, is a paranoid man playing with forces he doesn’t fully understand.  Unfortunately, past that opening scene, the film feels slow and like it might need some extra oomph or perhaps to be edited differently.  It’s not boring but it’s not enthralling either.

The cast for this small budget is, well, small.  The lead of Sean is played by Ty Hickson who does great as the paranoid, perhaps desperate, man trying his hand at alchemy.  His performance here is good and worth seeing and he proves he can carry a complete movie on his own as the only other actor has only a few scenes and those scenes are always with him.  In the only other human role in the film is Amari Cheaton as Cortez a typical gangbanger who tries to help his friend Sean while also getting himself into trouble.  His performance feels more exaggerated and caricatured while less on point than Ty Hickson’s.  The last cast member listed is Fiji as Kaspar (the cat), as is usually the case with cats, he does a fabulous job while remaining rather nonchalant about the whole thing.

The film has some nice bits of science alchemy and some good effects.  The last third does amp up the horror factor and what can be seen is well done and executed.  These special effects are by Jeffery Husselman with visual effects by Scott Baisden and Daniel Falicki.

Also worth noting are the cinematography and the soundtrack.  The cinematography by Adam J. Minnick does a great job at making all outdoors images feel desolate in their settings while the indoors shots feel cramped to go with small shack the lead lives in.  This adds to the atmosphere here and is very well done.

The soundtrack for this film is mostly provided by way of an old tape deck that the lead character uses.  The song choices and what is fast forwarded tell a lot about the character, which makes him feel real, more like the crazy, paranoid version of someone every viewer knows.  His musical choices also reflect his internal turmoil, by letting him “choose” those songs, something so few films do.

The Alchemist cookbook is not a bad film but it has issues with pacing and with sections of the story feeling like filler.  The acting by the lead is good and he carries the film well.  The music is his best supporting character, but it’s not enough to make this reviewer want to see it again or be able to fully recommend it.

Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016.