After Love (2017)

Posted on August 6, 2017 by Emilie Black

A couple divorcing after 15 years together is navigating life and its changes while still living together and trying to find a way to make things work as best they can.

Written by Fanny Burdino, Joachim Lafosse, and Mazarine Pingeot, with collaboration by Thomas van Zuyken, After Love is directed by Joachim Lafosse who navigates through this divorce story with an unflinching look at how a couple that is no longer functioning as such try and make things work through their separation, divorce, and division of assets. The film created here is an honest look into the lives of two people who are a bit lost and definitely trying to have a better life. The way this is developed makes it into a realistic look into a divided family unit, a franc view of what it’s like to divorce with two kids in the situation, what it’s like to divorce with assets, and what it’s like to not want to give up on your principles while doing this.

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Prey (Prooi) (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Emilie Black

As a lion wreaks havoc on the city of Amsterdam, a zoo veterinarian gets involved in its chase along with her boyfriend and ex.

Written and directed by Dick Maas, Prey is a horror comedy film with its comedy very dark and its horror a bit light. The film takes the wild animal on the loose premise and moves it to the city of Amsterdam where the idea of a killer lion on the loose is particularly ludicrous. The way the film develops this and adds hunters, both experienced and not so much, who once paired with the local police becomes a bit of a mess in terms of lion-chasing but a fun watch in terms of horror-comedy. The film shows an ability to pit characters against each other in a way that is entertaining while they all face the lion threat. The comedy is often situational and takes advantage of the characters’ flaws in a way that works well here. The direction is rather on point for the comedy and fairly good on the horror. However, as a horror film, it has just about no scare factor.

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Blade of the Immortal (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Emilie Black

A talented samurai is cursed by a witch to live forever following a battle for the ages. Haunted by the past, he accepts to assist a young girl with her quest for revenge. As he goes through with his mission, he discovers a few things about the world and himself.

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Le Serpent aux mille coupures (Thousand Cuts) (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Emilie Black

A man on the run hides in a farm house, taking the family living there hostage. As the search for him intensifies, dead bodies start to pile up. Who is he and what has he done, who is killing these other people and why.

Based on the books by DOA and adapted for this film by DOA and director Eric Valette, Le Serpent aux mille coupures is a tense French polar, a sort of Thriller the French way. The film takes its premise, adds extra bad guys, and pushes the limits a bit while still keeping a fairly simple way of going at things. This creates a tension and suspense while the police and others are looking for a killer who tortures horribly his victims before killing them, while the man in hiding may or may not be this killer. All the tension comes from how the story unfolds even after the audience knows who is doing what, something that is a sign of strong writing and directing.

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Dead Man Tells His Own Tale (El Muerto Cuenta su Historia) (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Emilie Black

A man who can best be described as a misogynist cheating liar finds himself undead and bound to do the biddings a coven trying to raise their goddess to take over the world.

Written by Nicolás Britos and Fabián Forte with the latter directing as well, Dead Man Tells His Own Tale sets up its lead to be despicable and dislikable, doing so very successfully and keeping that up almost throughout the entirety of the film. Then it attempts to make the public care for him and his undead plight, something that works a lot less given that he’s still an unlikable being and still is trying to do what he always has and wanted to without much care about how it affects the people around him. The way they build him makes it very hard to care for him. Most of the characters built are hard to care for as most are written in a way and into situations where they do things that make them less than likable. This creates an atmosphere of negativity that evolves towards the ending here which makes sense, but does not make this viewer want to care.

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You Only Live Once (Sólo se vive una vez) (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]

Posted on July 30, 2017 by Emilie Black

After witnessing a crime, a con man goes on the run and hides as an orthodox Jew, bringing his problems to an unsuspecting community.

Based on a story by Sergio Esquenazi, written by Esquenazi and Axel Kuschevatzky, and directed by Federico Cueva, You Only Live Once is one of those completely insane action comedy films that should not work but does. The film is filled with a series of crazy ideas and turns into a partial comedy of error while also being a good thriller-ish comedy. The story takes odd turn after odd turn until the very last frame to say the least. Oddly enough, the entire insanity works, which shows good writing and talented directing. Of course, a few jokes or attempts at jokes do fall flat and a few are offensive, but the film has so much going on that it’s easy to be entertained by it.

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