In the very Northern part of Canada, where not much happens and people do as best they can to survive and entertain themselves, two damaged but passionate souls in love are trying to make it and better their lives. Written and directed by Kim Nguyen, based on an original idea by Louis Grenier, the film follows the lives of two young adults fighting inner demons and rough past and trying to love each other and do what is best for each other. Their struggles feel rather real and the way they push and pull at each other grabs the viewer and brings them in. The characters built feel like actual people, filled with issues and difficulties, self-loathing and worries.
Tag Archives: Romance
SiREN (2016)
Gregg Bishop adapts for the big screen one of arguably best segments from the “V/H/S” horror anthology entitled “Amateur Night.” The original segment was the most memorable of the bunch and was filled with tension, disturbing gore, and a very memorable final scene. Thankfully, “Siren” grabs on to most of the original short film’s aesthetic, including a lot of call backs to the original segment. Wisely, the director and studio re-cast Hannah Fierman who has a haunting beauty that most viewers really will have a hard time forgetting any time soon. What made “Amateur Night” so haunting was that Fierman could be oddly beautiful and shockingly horrifying at the drop of a dime. Here she invokes the same qualities, playing arguably the same character.
Leslie (2016)
It’s really striking how well director Alejandro Montoya Marin understands the experience of being an artist, most of all a starving artist. You feel something of a fire in your belly to express yourself and show the world how much you can give to them in the way of art, and sometimes it’s so difficult to get by. Alejandro Montoya Marin’s is a pretty remarkable short drama that focuses on the life of a singer and songwriter named Holly, who is struggling to get a solid gig at local clubs to perform for audiences. She’s barely scraping by and is now experiencing the end of a very intense relationship with the love of her life.
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
One thing you can always count on with aliens, that no matter how advanced or sentient they are, their primary form of security is always two huge closing doors that slide together and seal as gradually as possible. You assume in their world they’d have laser doors that seal up in a matter of milliseconds, but no. It’s always very slow closing doors that never quite close fast to stop our heroes. But of course they always murder the alien pilots because–they’re obviously not trained to zip through the doors I assume. “Independence Day: Resurgence” is a sequel with such an obvious mission to launch an “ID4” cinematic universe that it’s almost not really worth watching “Resurgence” at all, when you get down to it.
Birthday (2016)
With “Birthday,” writer and director Chris King tells the story of thousands of heroic veterans and their courageous wives. Many of whom have to endure hardships and years of struggles after their loved ones have come home disfigured or crippled after being injured in combat. Stars Mandy Moody and Chris Gouchoe are superb as a husband and wife separated by thousands of mile as her Marine husband, played by Gouchoe, fights in the war. After being injured in combat thanks to a land mine, he arrives home with both legs and one arm amputated.
American Ninja (1985) [Blu-Ray]
Golan-Globus’s “American Ninja” from 1985 is the perfect Regan Era action movie cum franchise starter that offers up the right amount of camp and action, along with the ninja glorification that dominated the eighties. Directed well by Sam Firstenberg, “American Ninja” is the introduction of action star Michael Dudikoff whose debut is rather memorable and dynamic. Despite the fact Dudikoff has about ten lines of dialogue in the entirety of “American Ninja,” he is pretty much the ideal American action hero. He looks like James Dean, he fights like Bruce Lee, and he’s a one man army from the military like John Rambo. The icing on the cake is that his name is Joe. Joe Armstrong. Get it? He’s an American Joe with the skills of the ancient Ninja.
The Short Films of Ithaca Fantastik 2016 [Ithaca Fantastik 2016]
As only a few short films were seen, here are mini-reviews for each of these titles.
Curve (Australia) (2016)
A young woman wakes up sitting on a curved surface, clinging to it for dear life. This short is very simple in concept, yet possibly one of the most grim and dark short seen this year. There is not clear, or unclear, way of the situation this young lady is in and signs are accumulating that others did not have any luck in her position. Written and directed by Tim Egan, the film has no dialogue and only one character, making the most of its location and the situation the character is in. The star, Laura Jane Turner, gives a very good performance and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat as she tries to get in a better situation. The film is grim and her performance suits it well, showing desperation and a need to survive.