As boldly original a work of socially-conscience science fiction as we’re likely to see this year, Noah Hutton’s Lapsis is a stunning vision of financial dystopia that pokes at corporate injustice and tech-driven everyman ennui. Plopping a poignant deconstruction of the myth of getting ahead vis-a-vis head down labor atop a tight-constructed, well-realized sandbox, Lapsis unravels like a mystery box with something actually worthwhile at its center. Stylistically and visually similar to Charlie Brooker’s tech-driven worlds of Black Mirror, Lapsis imagines an alternative present-day where a new technology called Quantum has altered the fabric of modern society. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Revenge Served Cold in Well-Acted ’ROSE PLAYS JULIE’
Writer-director team Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor put a new twist on the rape-revenge fantasy, pivoting away from the usual hot-bloodedness of the subgenre and the gory justice that often ensues. Instead, Rose Plays Julie follows in the Irish tradition of dreary realism; it’s a brooding, emotionally-charged, bluntly and quietly brutal affair. You probably will want a hot steamy shower once it’s all over. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: ‘DINNER IN AMERICA’ Is An Aggressive Outsider Love Story That’s Punk As F*ck
Before punk officially died, it traversed the Midwestern suburbs. Rebellious teenagers found solace in the head-banging misanthropy of the music, what with its promotion of anti-establishment ideals and the “fuck you mom and dad” messages raging through boomboxes nationwide. Patty (Emily Skeggs) isn’t what you would traditionally call “rebellious” but the punk lives within her. Gangly, geeky and clumsy, she moshes quietly in her room. Patty squirrels this part of herself away from her ultra-square conservative family but when convict punk-rocker Simon (Kyle Gallner) bursts into her life like the Kool-Aid Man, everything changes. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Surreal and Disappointing ‘LUCKY’ Bungles Its Message of Female Dread
Director Natasha Kermani is onto an intriguing germ of an idea with Lucky, a message movie masquerading as a thriller, but the execution is simply not there. The film stars Brea Grant as May, an author of a feminist-forward business series, who is assaulted nightly by a masked man. Her distant husband is bizarrely disinterested in the attacks and the police treat them as almost meaningless happenstance. Kermani obviously wants to explore the notion that women are confronted with a world constantly at odds with female safety, where public and private spaces alike are feeding grounds for male predators, and instances of assault are met with apathy and assigned a normalcy that’s both disturbing and omnipresent. Between unconvincing performances (from Grant down through the supporting cast list) and a repetitive cycling of events with fails to capitalize on the threat of invasion of space in creative and varied ways, Lucky ends up being an idea in search of a movie; the mere shadow of something potentially interesting. (C-) Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Bad Dad Exploits Power Dynamics In Discomforting Coming of Age Thriller ’DARKNESS’
The perfect Italian hybrid of Dogtooth and 10 Cloverfield Lane, Darkness (original title, Buio) creates an insular world where fiction rules over fact. Stella (Denise Tantucci) and her two younger sisters Luce (Gaia Bocci) and the mute Aria (Olimpia Tosatto) live under their father’s (Valerio Binasco) tyrannical rule. In their countryside home, he has them convinced that the apocalypse has arrived, the sun scalding people’s eyes out and causing their skin and limbs to burn away. The young girls must remain literally and metaphorically in the dark. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Geriatric Satanists Will Do ‘ANYTHING FOR JACKSON’
There’s little in the world of Hollywood and Holly-would-be more fascinating than a director breaking out of their wheelhouse to make something completely unexpected. Think Mike Nichols’ shift from directing critical darlings like The Graduate and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf to “slum it” with the campy horror outing Wolf; or Mad Max franchise director George Miller shifting gears to direct the talking pig sequel Babe: Pig in the City; or filmmaker royalty Francis Ford Coppola coming down from Godfather and Apocalypse Now acclaim to direct the family-friendly Robin Williams vehicle Jack. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: ’BLOODY HELL’ Crosses Australian Horror and ‘Iron Man’ to Excellent Effect
Australian horror movies have no qualms pushing buttons. Sean Byrne’s underrated classic The Loved Ones took teenage romantic obsession to new extremes. Wolf Creek toyed with audiences accustomed to a sense of justice within the slasher genre. Even The Babadook featured one of the most grating children in cinematic history. Buttons. Were. Pushed. Bloody Hell, the brainchild of writer Robert Benjamin and director Alister Grierson, follows proudly in the grand tradition of Australian horror, remarking upon the genre in irreverent fashion while adding a more-than-worthwhile entry to its growing legion. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Haunting ’32 MALASAÑA STREET’ Delivers Effective Spanish Frights
It’s 1976 and the Olmedo family has decided to uproot their lives, moving from the countryside to the hustle and bustle of Madrid. Little do they know that their new flat comes furnished not only with sofas and dusty photographs but a malevolent spirit set on making their transition harder than they could have ever imagined. This slick and spooky Spanish-language supernatural-thriller takes interest in the human element and horror alike, calling to mind movies like The Conjuring and Haunting of Hill House and delivering scares with an international appeal. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Atmospheric Horror Game Adaptation ’DETENTION’ Left Me Cold
John Hsu’s Detention gives a horror movie makeover to Taiwan’s darkest moment in history. Taking place during the country’s period known as the “White Terror”, a 38-year period of martial law where 140,000 alleged “political dissidents” were jailed and countless others executed by the state, Detention attempts to mix dark fantastical elements in with real-world political histories much like Guillermo del Toro did with the Spanish Civil War in Pan’s Labyrinth. The end result here is much, much less effective. Read More
NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Rancid ‘HUNTED’ A Sadistic Episode of Pointless Cruelty and Unchecked Misogyny
French writer-director Vincent Paronnaud’s (Persepolis) fetid attempt to pair art house with meat grinder results in one of the worst films of the year: Hunted. An impotent rape-revenge fairy tale, which borders on snuff with its malignant streak of cruelty and misogyny, Hunted takes form as a woman (Lucie Debay) is chased through the woods by two psychopathic men. Issuing threats to “f*ck her to death”, the sexually violent antagonist (played with deranged glee by Christian Bronchart) spends the feature screaming at our heroine that she’s a “f*cking whore” or “f*cking slut”. Charming.