★★★ Directed by: #IanSewell #StephenSewell #EricSewell Written by: #IanSewell Starring: #StephenSewell #StephenMcNaughton #AndrewNeilMcKenzie Film review by: William Hemingway Doyle has been a naughty boy. He’s been putting together his own deals and making a slice of extra cash on the side without paying his tribute to the local mob boss. Mr Mannericks, said mob boss, doesn’t like this at all and has tasked Doyle’s crew with bringing him in. So now he’s trussed up in the trunk of an SUV with a bag on his head and he’s on his way to Muskie Point, the drop-off meeting place that nobody wants to get to; the place that nobody comes back from. However, Doyle’s crew are having a crisis of conscience and some of them don’t agree with handing over one of their own. Inevitably they bandy about the ‘Honour Amongst Thieves’ conversation between themselves as they drive towards the inauspicious Muskie Point, and we listen as they reason with each other about duty, loyalty and the way of the gun. The alternate crew, too, who are taking receipt of the doomed traitor, are also busy waxing lyrical about life in the mob game. They’re trying out their Tarantino-esque dialogue on each other; discussing the merits of keeping your composure in difficult situations, the idiocy of using side-gun action, and the usual nonsense of how many birds they’ve shagged or first responders they’ve killed. Eventually, after much deliberation, everyone makes it to Muskie Point, and as predetermined plotting would have it, things quickly go South from there. What starts off as ten men, in two crews, sporting ill-fitting mobster garb, with names like Forrester (Sewell) and Abrams (McNaughton) and Edmonds (McKenzie), very quickly becomes a stand-off and a splintering into factions after some poor fool pulls a gun. From then on in, the plot becomes abandoned and the whole film descends into what is essentially little boys running around the woods playing at armies. What results is a series of smaller face-offs with pop guns where nobody really bothers to find any decent cover and where hundreds of rounds are fired without any consequence. Sometimes it seems as if they might as well have just made bang-bang noises with their mouths instead, for all the damage that they do. In amongst all of this we have to deal with the inescapable stand-off conversations between each set of antagonists as they face each other down, none of which reach the heady heights of the early, glib dialogue and which at times makes you wish that they would just shoot each other and get it over with. All of which leads us to the inevitable conclusion of just who makes it off Muskie Point. If you care at all. The farcical nature of the running about in the woods is a real disappointment, as the rest of the film is actually pretty well put together. Right from the off the cinematography looks great with some fantastic slow aerial shots setting the scene before bringing us right up-close with our cast of characters inside their respective vehicles. With all three of the Sewell Brothers taking directing credits you can tell that this is a collaboration which really works. There is a real difference between the closed-in conversations at the start of the movie to the wide outdoor scenes that follow later. The music, composed by brother Eric Sewell, offers a deep brooding that makes Muskie Point feel like a truly unsettling place with its 80’s synth style that mixes reminiscences of Commando and Twin Peaks. The characters themselves, despite all being basically the same prototype, each have their own distinct identity and are well played by the actors who inhabit them. The dialogue too, even has flashes of brilliance, though this tends to run out of steam as the film goes along. The only technical problem that really stands out is the over-dubbing of the sound, which makes everything feel muted and staged. The Sewell Brothers may well look to have a future in film-making, though probably only when working together as a team. The directing duties are definitely their strongest roles in the film, as compared to their acting, writing or any number of other posts that they fill. They obviously have strong influences from Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, but in this instance whilst trying to make something like Reservoir Dogs or Miller’s Crossing, they have instead made something that bears no real relation to either.

★★★ Directed by #JeffRoda Written by #JeffRoda Starring #TannerFlood #OliverGifford #TaylorRichardson #IvyMiller #JamesFreedsonJackson Film Review by Hope Madden Does every crappy small town in America have a dive called Polo’s where mangey kids—many of them well, well under age—line up to try to get in? Well, if not, writer/director Jeff Roda’s 18 to Party makes that and just about everything else seem universal. His Linklater-esque exploration of near-adolescence runs its course in a single evening, but that doesn’t make it any easier to forget. Sure, the high schoolers are all lined up out front waiting for the sun to go down and the bouncer to start letting people in. But Missy, Kira and James, Shel and Brad, Peter and Dean are stuck out behind the club, wasting time and hoping against hope that night manager Rizzo is cool enough to let them in. Eventually. Roda understands small town socializing and boredom enough to know that most of the evening’s intrigue, and most of its memories, will take place in those hours before Rizzo makes up his mind. It’s 1984 and Generation X is, as happened to usually be the case, unsupervised. Well, Shel (a standout Tanner Flood) is supposed to be at Brad’s (Oliver Gifford). Everyone else’s parents are at the town meeting about the UFO sighting. Thoughts of extra-terrestrials, worries about getting in, general social anxiety and inevitable personality clashes take a back seat to the realization that Lanky (James Freedson-Jackson, really excellent) is back. No one’s seen him since that thing with his brother. Roda’s approach is lackadaisical, although the energy that comes naturally off a gaggle of 14-year-olds is enough to deliver regular explosions. Why doesn’t Shel want to fool around with Amy? What is Brad so mad about? Why is Kira so weird? The film and the evening are loosely structured, allowing for plenty of riffs that occasionally provide a wink to the times (“U2 ripped off The Alarm,” Kira claims. “Check back with me in 5 years and we’ll see who’s still aroud.”) More often, though, Roda develops darker threads that suggest the kind of doom that can dog you even before you start high school, kiss a girl or get into your first party. Roda has a light, meandering touch, far more interested in a slice of mid-Eighties life than in the specificity of a John Hughes retread. Characters are familiar, the situation feels authentic, and the mixture of nostalgia, dread and optimism paint a fascinating if unfinished picture. #HopeMadden

★★★ Directed by #CanEvrenol Written by #CanEvrenol #KutayUcun Starring #ElifSevinc #DenizhanAkbaba Film Review by Hope Madden If you haven’t seen writer/director Can Evrenol’s 2015 feature debut Baskin, you really must. Watch it right now. Unless you’re squeamish. Then maybe don’t. But there is another film you might like, Evrenol’s surprisingly good natured post-apocalyptic kid adventure, Girl with No Mouth. A little bit Goonies, a little bit Mad Max (you know, the one with the kids with the mullets), a little bit Peter Pan, and a lot of deformed children. He is Can Evrenol, after all. His film is set ten years after The Corporation’s big disaster. Ten-year-old Peri (Elif Sevinc, an effective hero regardless of the fact that she has no dialog) bears the evidence of that disaster. When The Corporation sends goons around to finish cleaning up any remaining evidence, Peri is on the run in the woods, where she finds three friends with similar birth defects. They believe they’re pirates. You have to give it to Evrenol, who flavors the film with childlike innocence and fantasy without soft peddling the horror of their situation. It’s a wildly unusual tone the film hits, but it never misses. Girl has a sense of humor entirely lacking in Baskin, as well as a feeling of optimism. There is blood and death, maggots and burning flesh, but there’s real joy in this film, however weird that is to say. The four children—Denizhan Akbaba, Ozgur Civelek and Kaan Alpdayi, alongside Sevinc—utterly captivate. Their performances are not showy, but they are vibrant and sometimes giddy. It’s the liveliest post-apocalypse you’re likely to see. It may never live up to the sheer WTF nastiness of Baskin, nor is it likely to haunt your nightmares the way that descent into hell would. Girl with No Mouth is an adventure film more than a horror movie, and its hopeful resolution may seem out of place in a landscape devoid of such whimsy. It’s also the second excellent film I’ve seen this week (along with Adrian Panek’s Werewolf) that realizes adults ruin everything and there’s really only one way to fix it. #HopeMadden

★★★★ Written & Directed by: #BérangèreMcNeese Starring: #HéloïseVolle, #VictoireDuBois, #GuillaumeDuhesme Short Film Review by Taryll Baker Anna is 16, and lives with her young mother, Rebecca. It is the end of another summer defined by her mom's flings and conquests, but during which Anna begins to discover her own sensuality. As Anna learns she is pregnant, her mother sees herself in her daughter, at the same age, facing the same choices. And if Anna's decision implies a rupture in her relationship with Rebecca, she will find support where she least expects it. Bérangère Mc Neese’s new short Matriochkas tackles young pregnancy and the rift affect it has on teenagers, shown through the life of 16 year old Anna. The film opens with scenes of romantic flings and a young mother checking up on her teenage daughter as she skips homework to spend time with a boy who climbs through the window. The tone for the short is set pretty early on. The seamless, high quality of the frames shine a light on the less-fortunate, but just “scraping by” individuals. We see a mother who makes enough to keep a roof over her head, and feed both herself and her child. As the film ticks along, around mid-way through, we notice something different about Anna. This is when the focus flips to Rebecca, the mother of Anna, and how she reacts to the news of her child’s unexpected pregnancy. She sees herself in her, especially since she became pregnant at the very same age. Brief “discussions” of what will happen to the baby are had, and seemingly Rebecca has her own ideal path. Anna finds aid in someone, though. And from then on out, she feels oddly reborn. Mc Neese’s direction is utterly brilliant, ushering in the gritty feel of classic indie cinema, whilst enjoying exploring the difficult topic. The acting from Héloïse Volle is fantastic, a focused and respectfully written character, performed effortlessly to a fine degree. The mother, performed by Victoire Du Boi, is also handled with good care and the interactions between the two seem raw and true. The film is captured through the lens of cinematographer Olivier Boonjing, encapsulating the classic look aforementioned. Matriochkas isn’t perfect, though. It does document — though fictionally — an important aspect of life, especially that in young people, but it falters a little in terms of character attachment. Perhaps the time constraint pulls from the experience a little; and it’s usually the one issue I personally have with any short form media. Matriochkas does a good job with the characters, I just felt I needed some more time with them to gain a more emotional interest or investment. That said, Matriochkas is a solid outing for the Belgian filmmaker and actress, and I’m sure she’ll continue to capture more topics in her unique way. This is worth your time. #TaryllBaker

★ Directed by: #PhillipGCarrollJr Written by: #PhillipGCarrolJr Starring: #ChloeCarroll, #JimSchublin, #TaraWestwood Film Review by: Patrick Foley As we approach 2021, giant biotech corporations will soon be riding a vaccine-shaped wave of public approval in which even the most revolutionary of comrades will be giving them a thumbs up. But regardless of what good gets done in the real world - men in white coats who turn up in sci-fi movies working for the totally-non-threatening ‘Millenium Project’ will always draw suspicious glances, especially when they offer people $50,000 to take part in an experiment called The Honeymoon Phase. Young couple Tom (Jim Schubin) and Eve (Chloe Carroll) agree to join an experiment studying their budding marriage, to assess how long ‘The Honeymoon Phase’ lasts. After a rather suspicious induction process, they awake in a home isolated from the rest of the world where any and every desire they have can be supplied – with the one condition that they must be monitored at all times. Life is good at first, but gradually Eve begins to notice differences in Tom. As days go by, she begins to question her own sanity and uncovers that there is more to their experiment than meets the eye. The Honeymoon Phase is an ambitious sci-fi inspired by the likes of Ex-Machina and Black Mirror. However, it fails to come close to the dark brilliance of its influences. The message and themes of the film are completely muddled, and it is unclear just what it is really meant to be about. The likes of Ex-Machina do not disturb us because they feature endless white corridors or graphic, brutal violence (something that Honeymoon Phase revels in). They disturb us because they force us to confront our own flawed human nature – and remind us that we are ultimately small, stupid and vulnerable no matter what technology we have at our fingertips. Honeymoon Phase offers no such quandary to its audience. It doesn’t ask us to think. There is nothing in this dystopian world that relates to our own. If viewers want sinister holograms and conspiratorial paranoia, there may be enough here to entertain. But for a film so clearly influenced by great sci-fi, it is a shame that it forgot to include what makes them so special. Jim Schubin and Chloe Carroll are fine individually as Tom and Eve, each performance effectively portraying their respective journeys from elation to madness. Unfortunately, the chemistry between the pair is non-existent. What are meant to be endearing moments to convince us they are the perfect couple come across as cringeworthy. Their relationship then descends so unnaturally that it almost feels comical. The script is to blame here. Major developments and personality shifts happen solely because the story says it is time to – not because they feel earned or natural. It is a mystery what motivates the characters when their personalities turn so randomly – and it shows in the actor’s struggle to convincingly depict this. The film is sleek and production is impressive, feeling appropriately futuristic yet contemporary. Philip Carroll’s direction works on a superficial level, with some striking shots and cinematography. But the storytelling is weak, and the attempt to mix genres only confuses the tone. The interesting sci-fi themes are abandoned for a horror movie that simply isn’t scary enough. By the time the film wants to be a thriller, viewers will be lost. There is a good movie somewhere in The Honeymoon Phase. The concept is interesting if unoriginal and the film is not afraid to push boundaries and fully commit to its story, however confused it might be. But the lack of any developed theme means that it fails to engage the audience.

★★★ Directed by #JonDelgado Written by #LindsayJoy #GenePope Starring #GenePope #MelHarris Film Review by Brandon Thomas I think most modern movie-goers would agree that the last thing they want to see is another movie detailing the mid-life crisis of a rich New Yorker. It’s hard to muster even the most sarcastic crocodile tears while watching a sad advertising executive drive his sports car through Manhattan. Cynicism aside, King of Knives might appear to be the king of cliches at first glance, but this is a film that has a few tricks up its sleeve. Aforementioned Frank (Gene Pope) is our through-line into a family that, on the surface, looks to be typical, albeit with a few rough edges. The light banter that permeates through a celebratory anniversary dinner early on is quickly smothered as a hint of tragedy manifests itself. As the fractures in Frank and his wife Kathy’s (Mel Harris) marriage begin to show, their daughters (Roxi Pope and Emily Bennett) struggle with their own wants and relationships. King Of Knives toys with our expectations from the get-go. There’s a whimsical edge that engulfs the early scenes – a tone that doesn’t feel too far off from a winky Julia Roberts movie of the 90s. The tone begins an interesting transition when family tragedy, infidelity, and mental illness enter the fray. It’s in this transition that King of Knives shows its hand. Brutal honesty gives King of Knives its power. This isn’t a movie looking for an easy happy ending. Instead, the characters are going through the painful process of finding what truly makes them happy. For Frank, it’s finally owning up to what a terrible father and husband he’s been. It’s not about Frank searching for pity, or the film doing so on Frank’s behalf. Instead, it’s about seeing a character confront the choices that caused so much pain for the people he loves. It’s not all blue Mondays, though. King of Knives is genuinely funny. The cast has a natural chemistry that allows them to bounce off one another. The comedy isn’t about bits being paid off but instead comes through its characters. First-time feature director Jon Delgado might not have the sharpest visual eye, but he also knows that this material isn’t looking for a flashy approach. Delgado lets the story and performances shine without letting his more technically-focused experience get in the way. King of Knives isn’t going to change your mind about rich New Yorkers, but you might approach the fictional kind with a little more empathy next time. #BrandonThomas

★★★★★ Directed by: #JordanMcLaughlin Written by: #BridgetAnderson and #JordanMcLaughlin Starring: #AinsleySeiger, #PatrickMonaghan and #NavarreMegali Film Review by Lucy Clarke Joan (Ainsley Seiger) and Miles (Patrick Monaghan) are locked into a nothing town. A biting lack of opportunities and growth curse this place. There’s the lurking fear of never moving on and never leaving this cage of comfort. Joan and Miles face fears that many millennials do right now. Although this film could simply adopt the sunny disposition of a coming of age movie, director Jordan McLaughlin opts for a darker, weirder and altogether more refreshing tone. Joan works at the local junkyard, yet, she’s an artist with dreams of maybe moving away from it all. Together with Miles, they present a tactile, realistic and compassionate relationship. They speak in in-jokes and with warmth and familiarity. Writers Bridget Anderson and Jordan McLaughlin have created such an engaging couple to explore the theme of being lost in your twenties. Joan and Miles do flirt with the weird brilliantly. However, idiosyncratic their behaviour, it never seems to be just a crude add on. Miles’ obsession with midnight psychics is endearing and his habit of bathing with his beanie hat on shows a quirkiness that ventures to the dark side of Wes Anderson. It isn’t just the couple that is quirky, but the whole town stinks of the weird. A fantastic green-grey glow haunts the outside shots, while indoors is tinted with the light of red and blue bulbs. This cinematography perfectly captures the unsettling feeling of living in a half-abandoned town, while still being oddly comforting to the audience. It isn’t just the cinematography which reinforces the weird. There are Burton and Lynch vibes everywhere, from the old-timey circus music to the bizarre neighbour (Metal-Head Ed, Navarre Megali) who lives next door and visits Miles for a cup of butter. Yet this love of the weird isn’t a flamboyant parade designed to show off what the director can do. Instead, McLaughlin perfectly communicates a quarter-life crisis. The initial home videos seem to be inspired by 90s slacker movies, show that both Joan and Miles are nostalgic over their past but deeply uncertain about their present. Again, Anderson and McLaughlin’s script flourishes when Joan meets her friends at the junkyard. Everyone is stuck in this deadbeat town whether they like it or not, and everyone is struggling to stay afloat against the current of life. A friend Cliff (Cliff Owens) philosophises on how to succeed at life, but Joan is quickly informed that he’s only as lost as the rest of them. Of course, this unsettling weird semi-horror film is the perfect vehicle to communicate the anxieties of young adults. Relatable but deeply unnerving, American Waste’s innovation, humour and connection warm the script. At the same time, Robindeep Singh’s excellent cinematography gives the film a tremendous sense of unease. It might be a wasteland out there, but at least we’re in it together.

★★★★ Directed by: Raffaele Romano Written by: Raffaele Romano Starring: Dominic Chianese, Giovanni Arezzo Film Review by: Jason Knight A man is desperate. He is homeless and hungry and for him everyday is a struggle. Winner of the Best Indie Short Award at the Los Angeles Film Awards, this beautiful and poignant film focuses on the hard life of a homeless man (Arezzo). The film explores in detail his sad existence. He sleeps in a sleeping bag, in an alley. He looks for food inside rubbish bins and begs people for money on the busy pavements. He then takes a train, on which he carries on begging. He ends up in a park, where he sees an elderly man (Chianese), wearing expensive clothing and holding a cane. The old man sits on a bench and proceeds to feed bread to a group of pigeons. When the homeless man asks him for some bread, he refuses and beats him with his cane. Then something extraordinary happens. This short story explores themes of poverty, homelessness, social inequality, class conflict and cruelty. And it does so with great power. Arezzo delivers a touching performance as a poor man, who is living an awful life and needs to make a lot of effort to put food in his mouth. The sadness he feels is constantly written on his face and the audience will most likely sympathize with him. Chianese, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. He comes across as content with life and judging by his clothing, he seems to be well off. However, he shows no sympathy towards the beggar, showing more approval towards the pigeons. Romano does a wonderful job with the direction and uses slow motion to great effect. Special recognition goes to the opening scene with the pigeons, which makes very interesting use of slow motion and sound techniques. Giovanni Dall'O composed the music and did a fantastic job. The score becomes powerful and intense during the climactic scene and during the closing credits, the viewer will have the pleasure of hearing beautiful piano music. This short, emotional tale is quite an achievement. The acting is very strong and the scenes showing the man dealing with poverty are very realistic. It offers a thoughtful and shocking experience. #JasonKnight

★★★ Directed by #GabrielMascaro Written by #GabrielMascaro #RachelDaisyEllis Starring #DiraPaes Film Review by Cat McAlpine In the near future, Brazil is under Evangelical leadership. Middle-aged Joana, a devout believer in both Jesus and bureaucracy, is doing the lord’s work as a notary. This gives her plenty of opportunities to convince clients filing for divorce to instead join her couples-only cult and save their marriages. Writer/Director Gabriel Mascaro paints a visceral picture in Divine Love with long sex scenes, full frontal nudity, and even a graphic hospital scene. But all the flesh we see feels distant and unnatural, illuminated by neon lights, sometimes clouded by haze, and always caught in rituals of necessity. In 2027, the most important characteristics for women are their marital status and their pregnancy status, brightly displayed on the screens of “detectors” when they pass into buildings. And what Joana (Dira Paes) wants more than anything is to have a child. She and her husband Danilo (Julio Machado) are trying everything they can to conceive, and the process has Joana frequenting her local drive-thru pastor (Emílio de Mello). Mascaro and co-writer Rachel Daisy Ellis don’t tell you how to feel about religion, even the future’s sexy, club-going, drive-thru version. Instead, they focus on exploring Joana’s own journey of faith. At one point, her drive-thru pastor urges Joana that he can help her go through the motions of repentance, even if she doesn’t feel guilty. She assures him she regrets nothing, but women’s position seems worse in this new age. The same way that “Divorced” flashes over some heads, “Guilty” seems to flash over Joana’s, despite her protestations. Her faith remains constant. The biggest conflict of Divine Love is Joana’s interior faith versus the faith of those around her. Everything she does is in complete alignment with her belief system, but it doesn’t save her from being judged or from losing the things most precious to her. “Faith doesn’t need to be tested,” a voiceover muses, but Joana seems to be tested at every turn. Visually, the film is a marvel. I’m a sucker for lighting and Mascaro delivers from hazy pink rooms to natural light making gorgeous silhouettes. He paints good vignettes too, interspersing the narrative with pretty pictures, like the notary staff lazing on the lawn at lunch-time, tangled up in each other. Shocking and beautiful, Divine Love is worth the watch even if its conclusion leaves you with more questions than answers. #CatMcAlpine

If 2020 taught us anything, it's that as long as the internet stays up, we can endure a lot! (God help us if COVID becomes a computer virus). Whilst a battle of the titans endures between the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and the rest, there are still a lot of people out there looking to watch free films online without paying a subscription on a monthly basis. Well, we have two fantastic options to keep your appetite quenched and your wallet full...well, as full as it already was. We ain't giving you money too! Filmzie A relatively new platform on the block, this sensational app and website allows users access to a magnificent catalogue of free films, the likes of which are sure to satisfy the neediest of film fans. There are some absolute gems on there right now, free to watch with just a few clicks of a button. One of my firm favourites is the terrific 2012 thriller Maniac, starring Elijah Wood. Directed by Franck Khalfoun, this is a knockout movie and free to watch online via Filmzie. The pros to Filmzie are that their catalogue has some star-studded movies in, making their selection of free films to watch online fairly enviable. They have titles which star the likes of Robin Williams (RIP), Emelia Clarke, Dolph Lundgren, and Bruce Willis! The only downside is that you need to become a member to see the best films - but this really isn't much to ask and the process is so quick! Hopefully, they introduce a feature to be able to cast their films to smart TVs as that would be an incredible addition! Check out their website. UK Film Channel Okay, so this is our own sister channel, but it is worth another plug as it is one of the top results on Google when people search for free films. A small but feisty catalogue of indie films, UK Film Channel currently has 70+ free films to watch online, including award-winning short films such as The Critic and just recently Holt Boggs' comedy short Crazy. There are great categories to choose from, such as free horror films or comedy movies, and you can help support these indie filmmakers by sharing their work. The pros for UK Film Channel are that you don't need to subscribe to view the entire catalogue of free films, all the films can be Chromecasted to your smart tv (if you have that facility), and you can be sure to find something you have never watched. A lot of the films will also have been reviewed by our film critics, so you can check out the film review first! The downside to UK Film Channel is that there are not enough free films! Submissions to add movies to their catalogue are now open, so if you are a filmmaker with a movie currently sitting on YouTube, Vimeo or the like, you can add it to their channel free of charge. Watch Free Films.

By Chris Olson This year was hard and many will be eager to see it in the rearview. Whilst there have certainly been hardships and tragedy in 2020, it will also always have a special place in my heart as it was the year that two things were born: The UK Film Review Magazine and the UK Film Review Festival. Launching an Online Film Festival in the middle of a pandemic may have been controversial and a little foolhardy (especially when the magazine was barely a pup) but it has been an attempt to contribute something special into the film industry - in a year when release date delays and festival cancellations have been aplenty. So before we announce the winners of the 2020 UK Film Review Festival, let me just say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has joined us for this ride. If you submitted a film - thank you. If you were a judge - thank you. If you were a fellow film fan who helped me chat through the idea - thank you. We did this without asking sponsors for money and tried to give our filmmakers as much bang for their buck as possible - including free film reviews and promotion on our website. It was a pleasure to screen so many short films, indie features, and documentaries ove at UK Film Channel - the standard was incredibly high. Anyway, without further ado, here are the winners... Congratulations to all the winners of the UK Film Review Festival 2020! And to everyone who was an Official Selection. Stay tuned for more news about our 2021 edition.

★★★★ Directed by #LawrenceMichaelLevine Written by #LawrenceMichaelLevine Starring #AubreyPlaza #SarahGadon #ChristopherAbbott Film Review by George Wolf As slippery as it is inviting, Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear is an intoxicating trip through the inspirations and indulgences that take root in creative minds. It feels intensely personal, and yet – once Levine delivers his midstream shape shift – malleable enough to bend to myriad perspectives and interpretations. We first meet Allison (Aubrey Plaza) as an actress and director facing a crisis of inspiration. She’s hoping to ignite the creative spark at a remote lakeside property overseen by Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and his pregnant girlfriend, Blair (Sarah Gadon). As the three get to know each other, we learn that Gabe inherited the property from his family. Beyond that, there isn’t much Blair and Gabe seem to agree on. The couple’s little barbs become more intense, as does the attraction between Allison and Gabe, and we think we have a pretty good handle on what’s soon to be up. And then we don’t. The opening scene repeats, but Allison and Blair are co-stars on the set of the new film directed by Gabe, who is also married to Allison. The shoot is chaotic, Gabe’s motivational methods are questionable and now Allison is the one jealous of Gabe and Blair’s cozy relationship. Knowing that Levine’s own history includes films with his wife (actress/director Sophia Takal) adds a layer of intimate intrigue, and knowing even a little about the workings of a movie set will add relatable humor. But Black Bear isn’t a comedy – except when it’s funny. It’s also dramatic and slightly horrific, depending on your viewpoint. Most of all, it’s emotional, propelled by career high performances from Abbott, Gadon, and Plaza. The glee each performer takes in upending character expectations is evident, with Plaza seamlessly moving from a cool, casual customer to the emotionally frayed flashpoint of a volatile triangle. After such fireworks play out, Levine’s payoff may seem a bit underwhelming, but his film is more about the trail than where it ends. Black Bear‘s got plenty to say – about creativity, ego, insecurity, sexual politics and more – but its resonance comes from not demanding you take a side. #GeorgeWolf