Pat Mill's feature debut, Guidance, is a dark comedy centered around David Gold, a former child star who lives a life of debauchery, drowning his sorrows in a sea of booze. After getting fired from his current job, due to showing up to work drunk, David's financial situation becomes even more desperate, which leads him to fabricate his credentials in an effort to work as a High school guidance counselor. Very much in the vein of raunchy dark comedies like Bad Santa, Pat Mills' Guidance is a film that intentionally pushes the envelop, finding dark humor in the massive short comings of its main protagonist. The film features a comedic and sharp script with lots of outlandish comedic moments, but what makes Guidance work is it's nuanced examination of a character who is afraid to be himself. Helping various students through means that are certainly not ideal, Guidance slowly reveals in David a man who is in deep denial of his homosexual orientation and health issues. Due to faded success as an actor, David is a character who blames the world around him for his shortcomings, but through the relationship he develops with one of his students, a character who herself suffers from low self esteem, David slowly turns his life around. While i would definitely argue that the back half of the film loses some of its subtlety and nuance, being a little to obvious in its message for my liking, but it doesnt devaue the film's overall sucesses. Ehile not a particularly impressivr film from a direction or cinematography perspective, what Guidance may lack in artistry it makes up for in charisma, as Pat Mill's manages to make a deeply troubled character in David likeable on charisma alone. While I wouldn't say Guidance is a game changer or profound by any means, Pat Mill's has delivered a charming, funny film thats message of valuing oneself is certainly felt.
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Matteo Garrone's First Love is a dark, twisted love story that only the filmmaker could provide, a film where obsession, love, and desire create a volatile cocktail of destruction. The film is centered around Vittorio, a jewelry designer, who begins a relationship with Sonia, an attractive woman, whose full-figure isn't ideal in the eyes of Vittorio. Vittorio is an obsessive artist type who seeks perfection in everything he does, something that takes a toll on his relationships with others, both personally and professionally. Socially blunt, Vittorio even tells Sonia when they first meet that he imagined her thinner, something that leaves Sonia initially miffed, but as the two spend more time together Sonia becomes infatuated with Vittorio's one of a kind personality. As their relationship escalates, Sonia becomes increasingly dependent on Vittorio's perception of her, even accepting his strict regimen of diet and exercise in an effort to please him. Matteo Garrone's First Love is essentially a horror film masquerading as a love story, exploring a host of interesting ideas centered around personal freedom, dependency, and love. Obsessive in his work as a goldsmith, Vittorio is a man who takes the dominate role in the relationship he shares with Sonia, forcing her into a passive participant in their relationship, a woman who loses her own sense of identity and individuality in the process. To Vittorio the weight of Sonia is just another variable to control and perfect, with Garrone using juxtaposition to great use, drawing parallels between the precision Vittorio needs at work and how he brings that same mindset to his relationship. While the film clearly does have something to say about gender roles, saying it's a film about that alone feels too simplistic, as the film's intentions are much more grand than that, being more interested in roles that can develop in any relationship, regardless of gender, using this extreme tale of obsession to explore the relationship that exists between dependency and independence in all relationships. From an visual perspective the film has a very unique feel, with Garrone giving the film a yellow-tinged type aesthetic which provides visual symbolism as it relates to his main protagonists obsession with creating the perfect gold jewelry. Garrone's sweeping tracking shots are very much a part of First Love as well, but I was particularly startled by his use of focus in one particularly scene where he intentionally blurs the frame of both Sonia and Vittorio, a symbolic representation of their loss of identity and growing dependency on one and other. Matteo Garrone's First Love is fascinating exploration of love and obsession that raises lots of interesting questions as it relates to dependency and individuality. Based on the real-life research of Dr. Zimbardo, Kyle Patrick Alvarez's The Stanford Prison Experiment is an intense and fascinating film about the corruptive nature authority can have over the individual, exploring the shortcomings and raising interesting questions about the United States prison industrial complex. Dr. Zimbardo's research involves an experiment, where twenty-four male students are randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison. Chronicling the research study from the selection process through its conclusion, The Stanford Prison Experiment is a film that much like the study it's based on, raising interesting questions about the nature of the individual in prison system, providing a wealth of discussion topics and ideas associated with the shortfalls of such a system and how it effects human behavior. Well-crafted and extremely well acted, The Standford Prison Experiment is a film thats raw power is hard to deny, but the film lacks the nuance and subtlety necessary to become something truly special. Starting strong, this is a film that solely runs out purpose during its running time, beginning to wallow in the horrific conditions these characters are going through instead of having anything significant to say. The way Dr. Zimbardo is portrayed in The Stanford Prison Experiment is unfocused and odd, as if the filmmakers themselves couldn't decide how to handle this man, demonizing him for letting the experiment go to far but then simultaneously patting him on the back for bringing such valuable research to the table. The film is at its best when it captures the corruptive nature of power and authority, showing how even those conducting the experiment themselves, Dr. Zimbardo included, begin to be seduced by their new-found control over individuals well being. We see the dependency the system creates over its prisoners and how it slowly strips away individuality, but the whole film simply runs out of ideas over its two hour running time. Mario Bava's Bay of Blood begins with the murder of an elderly heiress, a woman who owns a beautiful plot of land directly on the bay. What ensues from there is Mario Bava's most unapologetically violent feature, a gore-fest type of film that takes glee in murdering off a host of characters, making the film very much a predecessor and most likely major influence on what we now define as a slasher film. The film's plot is too complex for its own good, becoming a convoluted mess at times, but all that really matters in enjoying Bay of the Blood is recognizing that this is essentially the story of a family's murderous battle over property, which could be worth a lot of money if developed. A host of characters with thinly veiled motivations make Bay of Blood an ordeal at times to comprehend, but it hardly matters thanks to Bava's visual aesthetic. Typical of Bava, the film's visual style is assured and striking, as the filmmaker uses a plethora of cinematic techniques to create his twisted tale of murder and mayhem. From giving the audience POV of the killer, to Bava's juxtaposition of extreme violence with the beautiful serenity of the bayfront, the filmmaker once again has created a transfixing stylistic experience, but the film's most interesting aspect lies in the framework it creates for the modern slasher film. From the young, promiscuous teenagers that find themselves caught in the middle of this murderous power-struggle, to the creepy, off-kilter neighbors who just scream "suspect", Bay of Blood feels very much like a precursor of the slasher genre. Like the slasher genre, Bay of Blood's violence is more pornographic in nature than any of Bava's other film, with a larger body count and creative murders - two of which are nearly identical to murders seen in later popular slasher films, most notably the Friday of the 13th series. While Bay of Blood may not be as thematically impressive as some of his earlier films, it's another enjoyable gore-fest from the filmmaker that is more than likely responsible for what we now know as the modern slasher genre. Arnold Schwartzman's Genocide is a devastating testament to the strength and suffering of the Jewish people which pays tribute to those who have suffered as well as the courage and heroism of those who attempted to come to their aid during this horrendous time in global history. The film begins by tracing the history of the Jewish people in Europe, demonstrating how a group of people have long been the scapegoats of others, whether it be the Romans, the Inquisition, or the Soviets. From there, Genocide exposes the agitation against the Jews in the aftermath of World War I due largely to Europe's economic collapse, eventually making its way to the darkest of times, the rise of Adolf Hitler, who essentially took advantage of a deeply impoverished and weak nation to push his agenda of purifying the Aryan race. Featuring a big, booming orchestral score, narration by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles, and a host of stylistic editing and filmmaking techniques, Arnold Schwartzman's Genocide goes for the jugular, making sure the power and importance of the subject matter resonates with the viewer. While detailed, harrowing, and intense, Genocide is a documentary that comes off feeling more like a well-constructed educational video than a feature film documentary, relying far too much on the subject matter to create a true work of art. While the film isn't impressive from a technical standpoint, Genocide manages to make up for it with its detailed approach, offering an in-depth look into the atrocities of World World II that feels simultaneously intimate and grand, using first-hand testimonials from victims as well as poems and other literature to paint its harrowing canvas of atrocity. Given the film's detailed look into arguably the most evil even in the history of humanity, Arnold Schwartzman's Genocide is a film that should be experienced by everyone, regardless of the film's inability to breakaway from feeling like a history lesson. Returning to Indonesia where the beautiful landscapes and tropical climate mask the darkness of the countries past, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence once again seeks to explore the Indonesian genocide, this time focusing on a family of survivors who discover the nature of their son's murder during the communist purge that left over one million people extinguished from this earth. The family's young son, born after the genocide, is the focus of The Look of Silence, a man who is desperately seeking answers, questioning how everyone can live in a society where the victims of this monstrosity remain silent while those who committed the crimes remain in power, being celebrated as heroes for cleansing the nation of the communist threat. Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence is a quasi-sequel to The Act of Killing, focusing on the same subject matter while changing the perspective. Told very much through the eyes of this man who is seeking answers, The Look of Silence is a poetic tale of man's attempt to find some form of emotional closure. Interviewing many of the men who helped carry out this genocide, the film captures a family who is in search of some type of empathy from the men responsible for these crimes, men who show very little regret or take any responsibility for their actions, often hiding behind the veil of their government and/or religion. Similar to The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence is startling in its ability to capture the darkness of man, as the film depicts in grave detail the horror man is capable through the crimes committed during the communist purge. Hiding behind the veil of politics and religion the film exposes what men are capable of when driven by misguided beliefs, which essentially gives them the ability to cleanse their souls of any wrongdoing, as they've effectively brainwashed themselves into believing all they did was follow orders. I particularly found it fascinating how so many individuals, both victim and prosecutor, verbosely shared the option of not looking at or living in the past, as if the Indonesian regime has created a culture predicated on this idea, as if to protect itself from citizens remembering the murders and mass killings committed by their own government. Being from the victims perspective, The Look of Silence has a quiet sense of danger throughout its running time, as the main subject of Oppenheimer's documentary interviews men responsible for the mass killings, even men who are still in a position of political power. Given the film's running time of 100 minutes and lack of surrealist sensibilities, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence is a more accessible film than its counterpart, The Act of Killing, doing enough different than its predecessor by focusing on one family, who are victims of the mass killings of Indonesia. The Look of Silence provides a rare, documented story of survivors of genocide confronting their relatives murderers, being a harrowing journey full of fascinating observations about man, politics, humanity, and our propensity for violence. Directing his first film in 15 years, John McNaughton who is responsible for such genre fare as Henry: The Portrait of A Serial Killer and Wild Things return with The Harvest, a horror film that maintains McNaughton's penchant for using unspeakable horror to explore cold human relationships. The Harvest is centered around Katherine and Richard, a married couple, who are desperately attempting to remain positive about the outlook of their deathly ill son, Any, who is bed-ridden, suffering from an undisclosed illness that is slowly taking his life. When Maryann, a young teenage girl, moves in with her grandparents after the loss of her parents, she befriends Andy, much to the chagrin of the over-protective Katherine. As Mary and Andy become closer, she begins to suspect something seriously sinister going on within the home. Any film whose two leads happen to be Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon has a lot going for it from the onset, and luckily John McNaughton's The Harvest doesn't disappoint, delivering a fun, horror/thriller about the importance of accepting death and letting go. The star of the film is Samantha Morton, whose performance as the over-protective and mentally disturbed mother is a great performance of villainy, being a woman who will stop at nothing to keep her young boy alive as long as possible. While Katherine's love and inability to accept her son's fate has driven her to madness, Richard is a character who has begun to grow tired of his wife's inability to accept the inevitable, with the film doing a good job at capturing the parental dynamic between these two characters, both of which love their son very much. Those expecting a Horror film are bound to be disappointed, as The Harvest isn't too interested in creating suspense or tension, instead focusing on telling a creepy and strange tale that speaks to its various themes. From a psychological horror perspective, The Harvest pales in comparison to another recent film, Hungry Hearts, which also explores the psychology as it pertains to maternal instinct in an interesting way, but the big difference is that The Harvest is more focused on its narrative storytelling than deep psychological exploration. Featuring two of the best working actors of today in Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton, John McNaughton's The Harvest is a compelling character drama that tells a fun, strange tale of a mother's love driving her to madness. Joao Cesar Monteiro's The Last Dive opens with Samuel, a young man, who is about to jump into the waters of the Tagus, presumably intent on ending his life. Before he can do so, Mr. Eloi, an old retired sailor approaches him. Mr. Eloi seems to share the same intentions as his younger counterpart, but after the two talk for a bit, he convinces Samuel to join him for a night or two on the town. Joao Cesar Monteiro's The Last Dive is strange tale of life and death that's true intentions remain a tad elusive. The story is straightforward enough, as we follow two men over the course of a series of two nights, as they frequent nightclubs and mingle with prostitutes, but the key interpreting the Last Dive is centered around Samuel's relationship with Esperanca, a simple, young prostitute who happens to be Eloi's daughter. While The Last Dive is a film that is rich and dense with ideas and discussions, the film's most powerful aspect is centered around love vs. lust and the power of the male gaze in society. Monteiro captures the destructive power of the male gaze and how it dictates much of society, showing in Mr. Eloi a man who has seen his life and livelihood effectively shattered by his lust for the female form. It is subtle, but Monteiro paints a portrait of a man who has let his lustful ways drive his life, which has led him to having a wife that despises. Conversely is Sam, a man who is headed down a similar path but by the end of the film he is able to transcend his male gaze driven lust and find love and companionship with Esperanca, who essentially saves the young man from his fate with the waters of the Tagus. There is a large dance sequence in the middle of the film that further hints at these themes, which finds Mr. Eloi and Samuel watching the play Salome, entranced by the female dancer in front of them. Shot entirely without dialogue or sound, for stretches, Monteiro uses this performance to punctuate his thematic intentions, with woman being the spectacle and man the spectator in this world we inhabit. Being my first film from the renowned filmmaker I was surprised by how simple but effective his direction is, with great use of long takes and composition that are technically and aesthetically pleasing. My favorite direction choice in the entire film is when Samuel and Esperanca first go to bed together, which finds Monteiro focusing solely on the two characters faces in a stoic composition that never is explicit in the slightest, as if he is visually expressing the love vs. lust aspect of intimacy. Joao Cesar Monteiro's The Last Dive is a poetic story of life and death, as Mr. Eloi is able to correct the mistakes he has made in the past, helping Samuel look past his primitive male gaze and find the importance in love. Lawrence Michael Levine's Wild Canaries is playful piece of filmaking that dances the line between screwball comedy, mystery/thriller, and indie drama, managing varying degrees of success with each. The film follows Barri and Noah, a couple who begins to suspect that the mysterious death of their elderly neighbor, Sylvia, may be more than meets the eye. While Noah is skeptical that foul play is involved, shunning his girlfriend as immature and having an overactive imagination, Barri wholeheartedly believes their neighbor Anthony is responsible for the murder, snooping around with her friend Jean in an effort to unearth the truth. Wild Canaries is an unpredictable narrative that is sometimes fun, but unfortunately the film is unable to capture the same magic as the old-school suspense comedies it seems to be drawing inspiration form. The script itself is sharp and whimiscal but it doesn't quite manage the balance between comedy and horror particularly well, relying far too heavily on music to create a sense of suspense and dread around its characters. The script itself just doesn't seem quite capable of matching the same enthusiasm and playfulness of its acting and directing, never pushing the envelop far enough to be truly engaging or memorable. The film's best attribute is the odd couple dynamic between its two leads, two individuals who the viewer finds themselves questioning how they ever got together in the first place. What becomes apparent as this story unfolds is that Wild Canaries uses the mysterious circumstances of a neighbors' death to explore the pitfalls and shortcomings of Barri and Noah's relationship, which becomes further strained when the couple can't agree on the cause of their neighbors' death. Flawed but made with vigor and enthusiasm, Wild Canaries captures how every relationship needs a little adventure and mystery to remain alive. Against the backdrop of two major American cities in New York and New Orleans, Garrett Bradley's Below Dreams is a meditative study of three unique characters, each struggling to support themselves and their families in post-recession America. After completing college, Elliott, a young 20-something, moves back in with his parents in Manhattan, growing increasingly frustrated with his inability to find purpose. Another story revolves around Leanne, an aspiring model/actress and single mother of four, who lives in New Orleans, struggling to find the balance between her career ambitions and her family. Lastly is Jermaine, a New Orleans native, who is marred by his past criminal record and struggling to find a form of legal employment. Garrett Bradley's Below Dreams is a film that is bound to frustrate some viewers, being very much a film that puts image and sound ahead of narrative, delivering a dream-like experience that viscerally captures the feeling of its characters, regardless of its meandering narrative. The narrative effortlessly drifts between its three protagonists, an approach that perfectly captures the character's state of unrest, individuals who are almost drifting through existence, trying to survive and reach their goals. Through these three characters, Below dreams touches on a host of issues like poverty, family vs. personal ambitions, race, and privilege, offering a host of interesting perspectives that don't gel into a cohesive narrative, but I'm not sure that is a problem. Below Dreams is essentially a fever dream, more intent on visually capturing the hopelessness felt in its characters. The film doesn't feel interested in providing answers or even questions, but instead capturing the environment and mood of its characters, individuals who feel trapped in their own lives. A tone poem to millennials, Below Dreams is an observant study of feeling and shattered dreams, being a film more interested in emotion than structure. |
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June 2023
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