Category: 2015

Movie Review – Bone Tomahawk

Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Written & Directed by S. Craig Zahler

Bone-Tomahawk-2015-after-credits-hq_converted

A strange drifter finds his way into the small town of Bright Hope. He arrival is followed by the murder of a stable boy and the abduction of two citizens. All that is left behind is an arrow with a head made from bone. A local native explains this belongs to a tribe of men who are not “Indians” but from some other breed of man. Sheriff Hunt takes off with a trio of men, each with their own reason to follow the trail, to rescue their fellow townspeople. They encounter the hazards of the wilderness along the way not knowing that an ancient horror awaits them in the Valley of the Starving Man.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Bone Tomahawk”

Movie Review – The Forbidden Room

The Forbidden Room (2015)
Written by Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk, & Guy Maddin
Directed by Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson

forbidden room

A bespectacled man hosts an aged and worn instructional film on how to take a bath. After explaining the opening procedures, the camera dives beneath the murky water, and we see a submarine float by. We cut to inside the submarine where the crew is in dire circumstances. They carry onboard an incredibly volatile substance that, if they were to surface, would combust due to air pressure killing them all. They find a portal in one of the dank, humid chambers that should lead them out into the waters, allowing them to abandon ship and swim to the surface. Instead, when they open a door, a lumberjack soaked to the bone tumbles forward. He begins to tell the tale of his quest to save a maiden from a band of cave-dwelling barbarians only to find the maiden is their den mother. In her sleep, the den mother dreams of another life, as a noir nightclub singer…and so on and so on. The Forbidden Room is a Matryoshka doll of short films, one nested within the other, moving up and down the ladder of stories until they become intertwined and lost within each other.

Continue reading “Movie Review – The Forbidden Room”

Movie Review – Furious 7

fastfuriouslogo

Furious 7 (2015)
Written by Chris Morgan
Directed by James Wan

rockfast

In the wake of the events of Fast & Furious 6, the crew is being hunted by Deckard Shaw, the brother of the previous villain. Deckard starts his reign of terror in Tokyo, taking responsibility for the death of Han back in Tokyo Drift. Hobbs is next on the list, and he survives, warning Dominic Toretto to protect his people. A covert ops team with the U.S. government offers to help Dom track down Shaw if he aids them in obtaining a computer program called God’s Eye. Created by a hacker Ramsey, the program will use all digital devices on the planet to find whomever you want. Ramsey has been abducted by a mercenary named Moses Jakande who wants to know where she has stashed the God’s Eye. So pretty much your standard simple action movie.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Furious 7”

Movie Review – Trash Fire

Trash Fire (2015, dir. Richard Bates, Jr.)

TrashFire_Trailer

Owen and Isabel have an extremely unhealthy relationship. He has a laundry list of neurosis and treats Isabel like a doormat. She openly despises him. For some reason, they seem unable to break this relationship off, kept in each other’s toxic orbits. Everything changes when Isabel despondently reveals she is pregnant. Owen appears to change his tune, but she explains she wants him to get back in touch with his estranged family. When Owen was a child, his parents were killed in a house fire he blames himself for. His sister lived, but suffered third-degree burns over her entire body and now lives with the acidic grandmother. The couple makes a trip to visit these two strange family members, and the secret behind that house fire slowly comes to light.

Like many horror films these days, Trash Fire has a lot of interesting pieces but fails to come together as any enjoyable experience. It’s the greatest flaw is the inability to settle on the tone. The first third of the film presents itself as a pitch dark comedy and arrival at the grandmother’s home has enough quirky strangeness that it feels like this is what the film will be. However, the last third of the movie goes completely off the rails and bounces back and forth between comedy and horror, before finally settling on pure nihilistic horror for the finale. At some moments it seems to want to comment on relationships, in others, it seeks to be a satire of fundamentalist religion. And for all it’s plot spasms it ends up equaling nothing at all.

I had previously seen Bates’ Excision, a horror film with similar problems. There is no arguing that he has a distinct style. His scenes are framed in the static medium and wide shots, with subjects dead center in the camera. A line of symmetry splits the subject down the middle, and they are typically flanked by set details on either side. This type of framing is so associated with Wes Anderson at this point that we are subconsciously pushed towards expecting dry comedy, and that appears to be the case…at first. Bates continues to use this framing even in scenes that he intends to evoke great horror. It just falls so flat, so hard.

I don’t have a problem with a film featuring unlikable protagonists, as long as it knows how to handle them just right. Bates does not, so when the tragedy of the finale occurs, I didn’t care because he’d done nothing to frame his protagonists in legitimate conflict with the antagonists. I guess the protagonists weren’t murderous, but they didn’t even exhibit charisma or charm to make me root for them. Unlikable doesn’t mean they have to completely unrelatable. Bates also features his star from Excision, Annalynne McCord as Owen’s scarred sister. She does fine with the material she is given, but I can’t help but imagine how a more nuanced actress could have made the character more interesting.

The worst thing about Trash Fire is that it is a dumb film that thinks it is very clever (the same problem Excision had, hm). Mr. Bates is not a bad filmmaker; he is just aiming to make a kind of film he isn’t necessarily suited for. There is a sense that he is somehow elevating the material when at its heart it is pure horror shlock. If he could embrace it for the particular horror subgenre it is and have fun with the material, he might have a decent flick.

Movie Review – Entertainment

Entertainment (2015, dir. Rick Alverson)

entertainment-rick-alverson-gregg-turkington-1

Entertainment is an anti-film. It is the opposite of life affirming, life refuting. It is a road trip to nowhere, about a man who fails to find himself and instead lost forever. Entertainment is purgatory. This is the intent of director Rick Alverson, who helmed the abrasive 2012 independent film The Comedy. In the same way that Tim & Eric deconstruct comedy, Alverson is breaking down the aimless dreamer in search of their dream.

The focus of Entertainment is an unnamed Comedian (played by Gregg Turkington). While the protagonist may be nameless, fans familiar with Turkington’s stage persona of Neil Hamburger will know that this is a fictionalized version of the performer. The Hamburger persona is an assault on the audience of his comedy shows. His material is exaggeratedly homophobic, misogynistic, grossly sexual, and crude. The concept behind this is a comedian who thinks so little of his audience he believes this is the best they deserve. Contrasted with this is Turkington endlessly waiting between shows. He goes on local tours of industry in the Southwestern United States: an airplane graveyard, an oil field, a ghost town built as part of a mineral boom. The landscapes he walks through are husks.

The Comedian himself is a husk. He’s in his forties, performing at low-end dive bars or worse. The first location we see him at is a prison. His last location is at the birthday party of a spoiled rich, aggressive man (played by Tim Heidecker). That final performance concludes with The Comedian bursting out of a cake and bursting into tears. He ends up spending time with a financially successful cousin (John C. Reilly) who tries to advise him on his comedy act, continually saying it’s great but then talking about making it appeal to “all four quadrants.” As we get to know the cousin we see his misery come to the surface as well.

Two constants refrain throughout the film. The first is Eddie the Opener (Tye Sheridan) a clown/mime who opens The Comedian’s sets. Eddie hasn’t been worn down by the road yet. He shares the cynicism of The Comedian towards the audience but takes joy in the performance. The other refrain is The Comedian’s nightly voicemails to an unseen estranged daughter. He expresses frustration eventually at his inability to get a hold of her, the messages growing more and more desperate.

Both Turkington and Alverson have a keen interest in discomfort and provocation. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Alverson explains his personal view on “positive” cinema:

There’s a common insistence that representations of the positive lift us up and buoy us. I’ve never experienced that. At least not in a prolonged way. The idea of resolution has always seemed weird to me. I think if a movie has any naturalistic pretensions or elements in it at all, it needs to respect and represent the disjointed and difficult nature of the world. You can’t solely promote a fantasy version of the formal experience of living. There’s a necessity for a kind of balance in the field—90 percent of the fare for American audiences operates by those conventions and leaves the viewer satisfied in a very tidy, efficient way. They are unaltered in a way that is so disconnected with our daily experiences. Both The Comedy and Entertainment are in a long tradition of cinema flirting and pushing back against that impulse.

Entertainment is not a film that will appeal to everyone. Because some moviegoers have that expectation of films making them feel good, they are going to react angrily at movies like this. I suspect Alverson would welcome that reaction. The majority of movie studio fare is emotionless, just a series of dramatic formula plot points, but never anything that evokes honest emotion. It’s important that we have films like Entertainment and The Comedy because they remind us that the emotions that rise out of dissonance are some of the most real movies can make us feel.

Movie Review – Into the Forest

a24 visions

Into the Forest (2015, dir. Patricia Rozema)

into-the-forest

It’s hard to pinpoint just where Into the Forest goes wrong, but at some point, I found myself completely disengaged with the film. It tells the story of two sisters, Nell and Eva, stranded at their family home in Northern California, about 32 miles from the closest town after an unexplained global event destroys the power grid and sends society into chaos. The two sisters struggle to survive when they end up without anyone but each other. Through a series of trials and challenges, they learn to let go of their reliance on technology and reconnect with the natural aspects of the forest around them.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Into the Forest”

Movie Review – Krisha

Krisha (2015, dir. Trey Edward Shults)

krisha

Krisha is a story that could have easily fallen into cliche and melodrama, but the deft hand of first-time feature film director Trey Edward Shults elevates this story and these characters into something transcendent and horrifically beautiful. Krisha is a woman in her early 60s, reunited with her estranged family after an undetermined number of years. It’s Thanksgiving, so her sister Robyn has the house full of siblings, spouses, and children. A niece has just become a new mother, and the baby is a the center of everyone’s attention. Later in the day, even the matriarch is brought over from her nursing home. As most people can relate, there is a tension underlying the joyful reunions happening, particularly on the part of Krisha. She has suffered from substance abuse, and individual family members are not sure of what condition she is in at the moment.

Krisha’s arrival sets the stage for the tone of the film. The camera hovers above and floats down, following her as she goes to the wrong house and then drags her suitcase across the lawn to the right one. In both the aesthetics and details of the performance we are being informed about who this person is. Krisha is overly cheerful but a mess in her action, disorganized and overwhelmed. It’s explained she lives by herself, but it’s more than that. Her sister Robyn raised her son, Trey and the circumstances are never brought to light. It is apparently tied to Krisha’s substance abuse, though.

We’ve all likely met Krisha, either as a member of our family or a passing acquaintance. She just can’t seem to get her life in order, was probably labeled a “free spirit” when she was younger but now it’s worn on the people around her. Some small gestures and details develop her character without the film ever becoming expository. When she is finally reunited with her mother, the elder woman has a strange aside about her mother. She states that the great-grandmother was a gorgeous woman who always seemed ashamed of where she was from. This causes Krisha to step back in shock, and the implication is that this story may be very similar to Krisha’s experience and what led her away from her family.

Shults is powerfully skilled for such a young filmmaker, and it is evident he has influences from the American canon. The tension built with a wandering camera and taught percussion feels at home next to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. The naturalistic exchanges between family members and the overlapping family conversations is very much a stroke of Robert Altman across the screen. Star Krisha Fairchild is undoubtedly making reference to the great Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria) in her performance. This film is a beautiful homage to the great directors of the American independent cinema.

One aspect of the film that may not be readily apparent while watching it is the personal connection it has to the director and actors. This is Shults’ real family. Krisha is his aunt, Robyn is his mom, the home is his mother’s house. In interviews, he’s explained that the central character is not based on any one person but a combination of troubled family members. His father was estranged from the family and died as a result of substance abuse a few years ago. The explosive incidents in the film are drawn from a cousin’s outburst at a family gathering, a cousin who ended their life months later.

Krisha is a tragic and powerful film. It is one of those works of film that embeds itself under your skin. Shults’ next work It Comes At Night looks to be a powerful exploration of human relationships in the face of horror. I am excited to see Shults expand his craft and continue developing this talent of building tension and atmosphere.

Tabletop Actual Play – tremulus

realityblurs-tremulus1-1440x564_c

In 2015, I ran a magnificent series of games using the tremulus system, a Lovecraftian Powered by the Apocalypse game that focuses on investigation and creeping horror. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to run it again with the same set up: just me and two players. The intimacy of that setting created a great atmosphere and it has gone down as one of the best things I’ve run/participated in. Here is the actual play I wrote up and originally posted on the tremulus G+ community.

The Protagonists

Malachi Arkton, the Sorcerer, played by Dan Luxenberg –Malachi is a traveling mage who was brought to Ebon Eaves through his own sense of the mystic and the town’s troubled Mayor who seems to be cursed.

Annabelle Leighton, the Philanthropist, played by Ariana Ramos – Annabelle was brought to Ebon Eaves due to her family’s connection to the town. Her great-grandfather was a free man, escaped from the South. Her family later established themselves in Philadelphia and have amassed a fortune which she has brought to Ebon Eaves to build a school for the poor, rural farm population there. She brings Byron, a streetwise ex-con bodyguard and Pennyworth, an erudite driver

Continue reading “Tabletop Actual Play – tremulus”

Movie Review – The Fits

The Fits (2015, dir. Anna Rose Holmer)

the-fits-0-0

Toni, an eleven-year-old girl, is very focused and determined when it comes to working out with her brother at the local community center’s boxing gym. She even stays after to help him wash towels, replace water cooler jugs, and get a little extra training. However, she’s recently been intrigued with a competitive girls’ dance team that trains in the larger gym at the community center. Slowly, Toni begins to be torn between these two worlds and witnesses girls on the team seemingly falling ill to strange trance-like seizures.

Continue reading “Movie Review – The Fits”

Movie Review – Krampus

Krampus (2015, dir. Michael Dougherty)

krampus

In the last few years, the Krampus has become quite a popular internet meme. The Germanic creature pre-dates Christianity but was adopted into Christmas traditions as a shadow to Santa Claus. Where Santa brings good girls and boys presents, Krampus would bring a rod to beat the bad kiddies. The character has popped up in The Venture Brothers, Scooby-Doo and even been the focus of some holiday themed films, the best of which is Rare Exports. It was only a matter of time until Hollywood decided to give the monster an American feature, this one at the hands of Michael Dougherty, best known for Trick R Treat.

Max is a kid nearer the end of that period of childhood where a belief in Santa is socially acceptable. He’s penned a letter with his numerous Christmas wishes for his family and visiting relatives, but his twin cousins decide to snatch the letter and openly mock him at the dinner table. Max responds by shredding the letter and silently wishing horrible things upon them all while tossing the letter to the snowy winds. Overnight a dark storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the neighborhood freezes over. One by one the family members are taken out by deadly gingerbread men, malevolent toys, and other assorted holiday-themed horrors before Krampus himself shows up.

Krampus is a hell of a lot of fun. It hearkens back to 1980s dark classics, Gremlins chief among them. The killer gingerbread men have a laugh reminiscent of those title villains. There is also a lot of heart in this film, about family and the holidays, but never overly sentimental. People die and get wounded. There is some blood but not an overabundance of gore. I would never say the film was scary, but it was exciting, and the design of the monsters was excellent. There is a jack in the box that is one of the best holiday horrors I’ve ever seen.

The adult cast is composed of some solid actors with strong resumes: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Allison Tolman, and David Koechner. They play the parents perfectly, digging their heels in at the start focused only on rational explanation and finally cracking with the chaos breaches the walls of their home and cannot be ignored any longer. Tolman especially plays a character with a lot of underlying complexity. She and Koechner work as almost a counterpoint to Cousin Eddie and Catherine from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. In that film the conservative, rural ideology of the characters is played for some incredibly strong laughs. Here we see the characters are not simpletons but working from a different paradigm. One of that works well and other times results in impulsive failure. Tolman has a number of scenes where her character proves her mettle and shows up her husband, who spends more of the film talking up his macho superiority than fulfilling those words.

Dougherty’s work in film has been a mixed bag. He was a co-writer on multiple Bryan Singer projects and some studio films. Trick R Treat was a breakthrough and Krampus is an awesome follow-up. He was ten years old when Gremlins was released so the perfect age to remember the feelings evoked by that film and others of its kind. Dougherty manages to do what Abrams accomplished so beautifully with The Force Awakens, the evocation of the sense of nostalgia without pandering. Krampus feels like the sort of film that would be in the cineplex alongside The Goonies and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. But it also tells a fleshed out story that completes the arc of Max’s character and ends just the way a good horror film should.