★★★★ Directed by: #PaulAntonSmith Film Review by: #MattWeiner If the phrase “a love-letter to cinema” wasn’t clichéd by now, Paul Anton Smith’s new meta-film Have You Seen My Movie? at least sets the bar impossibly high for future directors. Have You Seen My Movie? consists entirely of found footage from other movies. From the early silents to the latest blockbusters, Smith pieces together nearly a century of cinematic history to create a distinct and visually stunning movie about movies and moviegoing, all told through these re-cut clips. Smith served as assistant editor for Christian Marclay’s The Clock, a 24-hour art installation that used film and TV clips featuring the corresponding time of day in their scenes. Marclay’s piece ebbs and flows throughout the day, resulting in a delirious in-person experience that questioned what film, narrative and time itself could be. All of which is to say that Smith’s own spin on the found footage clip show builds on Marclay’s approach. While it lacks the monumental sweep of The Clock’s 24-hour marathon, Smith’s tight commitment to a feature-length film with all the attendant emotional beats makes for a similarly impressive feature experience. Without continuity or context to rely on, Smith pieces together a cohesive — and thoroughly engaging — narrative centered on emotion instead of plot (with a big assist from the flashes of recognition that come from picking out iconic scenes and characters). Over the course of the movie, Smith weaves in every imaginable genre and hundreds of classic films. The technical prowess stands on its own as worth a watch, but it’s clear by the end that all Smith’s clever work is in the service of something grander: yes, there are plenty of hidden delights for cinephiles with a sharp eye. (The Criterion Collection could have a field day with bonus features.) But there’s also no denying the transformative power of film and the dominant role it enjoyed for so long in shaping the culture. It’s a convincing case from Smith, in all its sentimental and spectacular glory. And in the middle of corporate consolidation, streaming silos and our current blockbuster era, it’s also one that might be less victory lap and more requiem for a dream.

★★★ Directed by: Mads Brugger Written by: Mads Brugger Starring: #MadsBrugger Film Review by: #ChristieRobb Initially an exploration of the suspicious death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961, Mads Brügger’s documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld takes a sharp turn down a rabbit hole into the lengths taken to maintain white supremacy in Africa. In a meta move, Brügger makes himself and the process of creating the documentary as much of a focus as Hammarskjöld and the film’s elderly interview subjects. Brügger’s a bit of a fop—dressing in the same clothes affected by the “villain” of the film and occasionally sporting a pith helmet. In much of it, Brügger looms over a black female secretary explaining the twists and turns of his years-long investigation. You are never unaware that the narrative is being shaped by a white male European. Which, of course, is much of what the film is about—who gets to shape the story. And the story is both about what really happened to Hammarskjöld (pilot error or multinational assassination conspiracy) and the story of who gets to script the future of Africa. The looming is an interesting move, but tends to slow down the pace of the film. Much of the information is presented twice—in the style of a more conventional documentary and via Brügger’s pontification to the secretary. With such a breadth of information to cover, the film would have benefited from a bit less artifice and a bit more contextual information. Still, it’ll stay with you, prompting some serious thinking about the intersections of political and corporate interests and what people will do to maintain power.

★★ Directed by: #JacobEstes Written by: #JacobEstes #DrewDaywalt Starring: #DavidOyelowo #StormReid Film Review by: #HopeMadden Twenty years ago Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid sleuthed across time via a ham radio to solve a serial killer case. But who remembers Frequency? Jacob Estes might. The writer/director revisits the time loop murder mystery concept with a leaner film in Don’t Let Go. Estes (Mean Creek – if you haven’t seen it, do so) assembles a shockingly strong ensemble beginning with David Oyelowo (Selma) and Storm Reid (A Wrinkle in Time) and extending through support players Brian Tyree Henry, Alfred Molina and Mykelti Williamson. Together they do what they can to elevate a supernatural thriller too mired in cop movie clichés to take advantage of its unusual premise. Oyelowo is Detective Radcliff, or Uncle Jack as he’s known to Ashley (Reid), the niece he loves like his own daughter. So when he finds her and both her parents dead, he’s devastated. It isn’t long before he’s receiving phone calls from his dead niece. Together, they try to solve the riddle of her death so they might be able to turn back time. That’s a tough premise to deliver on without stooping to sentimentality, but Estes rarely makes that misstep. In fact, the film devotes frustratingly little time to the emotional weight of its premise, taking the easy way out repeatedly with cop show shoot outs, ambiguous motives and obvious twists. Oyelowo (a magnificent actor who needs to choose better projects) commands the screen with a quiet torment that hints at what the film refuses to address: loneliness, guilt, sorrow. Likewise Reid, saddled with far less believable dialog, infuses her character with a believable spunk and charm. Henry and Molina are criminally underused in a film that’s far too safe and much too rote for its supernatural notes to work. Maybe Estes’s goal was to ground the tale with enough realism to offset the fantasy but he managed to do neither justice. The result is a blandly forgettable waste of a truly impressive group of actors.

★★ Directed by: #AlexRanarivelo Written by: Alex Ranarivelo Starring: #MichaelRoark #AllisonPaige #TraceAdkins Film Review by: #GeorgeWolf After nearly an hour of valiantly struggling to find depth in a character written mainly in cleavage, actress Allison Paige does get to deliver the most truthful moment in Bennett’s War. “The sponsors are all men and I have boobs!" Writer/director Alex Ranarivelo may have just been trying for funny, but in this drawerful of ten thousand shallow spoons, the line is a self-aware knife. Sophie (Paige) needs sponsors for her husband Bennett’s (Michael Roark) motocross team to finally go pro. Bennett had been a promising young racer before he joined the Army Rangers, but the bum leg he came home with carried a warning Ranarivelo thinks we don’t quite get the first three times we hear it. “No unnecessary risks, or you’ll never walk again!” Oh, and Bennett’s dad (country singer Trace Adkins) is going to lose the family farm. So Bennett has to race again, dammit, it’s who he is! Ranarivelo has made a career out of what are essentially middle school sports dramas for the big screen. The heroes and villains are drawn in the most easily identifiable colors, with the stakes repeated as often as the dumbed down exposition. There are issues here (the struggles of veterans and/or family farmers) that have merit, but exploring them is not Ranarivelo’s M.O. The only real surprise is that no one yells “Put him in a body bag!” before our injured hero takes the bad guy down with a surprise move at the big competition. Wax off.

★★★★ Directed by: #JuiusOnah Witten by: #JCLee Starring: #KelvinHarrisonJr #OctaviaSpencer #NaomiWatts Film Review by; #HopeMadden It’s appropriate that so much of the film Luce follows the titular character’s preparation for a debate. The film itself seems to beg for audience argument. Luce is a bit of an American miracle. A boy soldier rescued from Eritrea at 7 by a wealthy white couple, he’s reinvented himself by the beginning of his senior year in high school, becoming the golden child: debate team captain, cross country captain, speech team captain and eventual valedictorian. A sternly supportive history teacher (Octavia Spencer) raises questions, her goal to help ensure Luce understands that he “cannot fuck up.” It becomes the catalyst for a tense, borderline terrifying exploration of identity, preconceptions, race, refined society and who gets to take credit for what. Kelvin Harrison Jr., so wounded and wonderful in It Comes at Night, holds all these puzzle pieces together as the enigma at the center of a mystery. His turn as the charismatic central figure in this highly polite and scholarly debate is fascinating, haunting and, in rare flashes, painfully vulnerable. His manufactured persona, his carefully studied sincerity, emphasize an image that’s too good to be true. But Harrison Jr. brings so many additional layers—manifestations of survival techniques, an ability to read his environment and predict everyone’s behavior—that give his character needed complexity. Luce is not just a black student everyone can be proud of, or some wonderful example of how our system can work. And that’s what makes him scary. So when he executes a history assignment too well—writing from the perspective of a historical figure who suggested violence as a moral response to colonialism—he freaks out a teacher (Spencer, wonderfully righteousness) who’d rather he embrace his favored status so she can bask in the glow. Naomi Watts and Tim Roth play Luce’s socially conscious parents, and the pairing makes it tough to keep your mind from recalling Funny Games, Michael Haneke’s grim picture of affluent familial catastrophe. Whether intentional or not, the casting adds an underlying sense of urgent dread—as does Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury’s discordant score. Watts is particularly strong, and the who-knows-what dance she does with Roth as their son plays one off the other adds a queasying rhythm to the mystery. Julius Onah’s direction sometimes betrays the stagebound nature of the source material. (J.C. Lee adapts his own much lauded play.) Too much is revealed through lengthy monologues and there’s little smooth flow from scene to scene. But his film teems with provocation and his cast more than meets that challenge. Harrison Jr. in particular is a revelation, an image of a thing that doesn’t exist but is so true you’ll never know if anything else is really there.

Filmmaker Interview by: Chris Olson. Who are you and what do you do? I'm Fionn Watts, an independent film producer who set up a film production company Far North Film in 2011 with my Co-Producer brother Toby. What can you tell us about your upcoming feature film Playhouse? Playhouse is our debut feature film as the Watts brother's writing, directing and producing duo. It's a supernatural Thriller/Horror movie set at a castle in the far north of Scotland where we grew up. The film is inspired by things we experienced as children growing up with artistic and eccentric parents and the remoteness of the far north which fed our imaginations. We worked for a long time trying to carve out a script that could be achieved on a low budget with limited crew and actors. We needed a story that could all be set in one place but something that kept the tension as well. We decided on the supernatural Thriller/Horror genre as it gave us useful parameters to work with and a large audience to potentially reach. Short Synopsis Playhouse is about an irreverent writer who moves to a Scottish castle with a dark past to begin developing a new horror theatre show, only to find the real nightmare is already waiting for him... Long Synopsis Jack Travis is an irreverent playwright notorious for scaring audiences. But as he obsesses over creating a new show set in a remote Scottish castle with a dark history, disturbances from deep within the walls begin to prey on his troubled daughter. Jack is soon forced to reckon with the unsettling consequences unfolding around him, but will he realise the danger of unearthing an historic curse before he damns himself and those he loves forever? You are crowdfunding in order to complete post-production. What would the funds go towards? The funds would go towards paying for the recording of orchestral music, colour grading, final editing deliverables and of course crowdfunding fees and pledge fulfilment. How and where can people get involved? Our crowdfunding campaign is live now on #Kickstarter so please share and pledge to help us bring this exciting project to completion! Also, follow us on social media and spread the word about Playhouse. Kickstarter Link - bit.ly/2ZnWoie www.facebook.com/farnorthfilm www.twitter.com/farnorthfilm www.instagram.com/farnorthfilm What have been the major challenges getting this movie as far as you have? Money and time! Trying to figure out how to find the money to make it and carve out enough time to work on it whilst still surviving financially without doing any other jobs. Also handling the producer's workload which for Far North Film is essentially a two-man band company with help from freelancers when possible. The shoot was incredibly grueling as we had so little shooting time and due to some bizarre events happening let's just say the production was on thin ice a few times and things got a little horrifying! Where will people be able to see it once it's made? We're in discussion with a mainstream cinema chain for a limited theatrical release and want to try and find distribution both UK and Internationally so it will be available on VOD. We've also submitted a screener of the film to Screamfest in LA and will submit to other film festivals soon. What's next for you? Straight down to writing another feature film as we love that part of the process! We're so inspired by the landscape in the far north of Scotland so we would love to produce more films set there. What would you say if you were a dolphin? Stop destroying the ocean Man! I've got five kids to feed...

★★★★ Directed by: #HarryEdwards Starring: #ThomasEvans, #AdamBywaterFlorance, #ShaniahTorres Short Film Review by: #JJDonoghue The Muse provides a brief but intelligent cinematic commentary on loneliness and mental health. The short film, running at only 2 minutes and 47 seconds, depicts the mental struggles of a young man in a wheelchair as he drifts through the corridors of what appears to be a hospital, and is composed of a series of tracking shots stitched together in a compellingly unconventional fashion. The director, Harry Edwards, demonstrates a laudable aptitude for visual storytelling with The Muse. He chooses not to allow the central character any dialogue, meaning that the message of the film is interpreted solely through the actors’ performances, the sonic and visual atmosphere, and suggestive dialogue from others. Thomas Evans, playing the main, nameless character, delivers some solid acting, presenting the mental pain of the young man with clarity. Even without the use of dialogue, he makes the character’s tribulations known through his expressive eyes. Much credit must go to the direction from Edwards, however, who ensures that this performance compliments The Muse’s tone and message. One shining example of Edwards’ excellent direction is a segment of the movie in which Evans drifts through the corridors, his expression one of internal disaffection and exhaustion. Meanwhile, a man stands near him, oblivious to the central character’s struggles, giving a speech to absolutely no one on the importance of mental health awareness. This brilliantly suggests the sometimes insincere, performative ways that people can preach the importance of positive mental health for the benefit of their own image while those who are genuinely suffering go unnoticed. Additionally, an interaction between Evans’ young man and a female friend further encapsulates The Muse’s ability to portray mental health issues through excellent technical #filmmaking. While the conversation between these characters again draws attention to the isolation that people with mental health issues can experience, as the woman fails to notice the young man’s inner troubles, the editing and structure of this sequence conveys this same message more tellingly. The first that we see of this interaction is the woman clapping the young man on the shoulder before walking away, and it is only later that we see the dialogue which precedes this. This non-linearity portrays the main character’s sense of helplessness, as though he is drifting monotonously through life with no one truly noticing him, merely experiencing the same meaningless, joyless interactions each day. These are uncomfortable sequences, as the main character is evidently suffering, but Edwards clearly revels in trying to make this as uncomfortable as possible for the audience so that his message will hit home. For instance, the way that the multiple tracking shots which form the content of The Muse are stitched together is intentionally jarring, as the film lurches haphazardly from one moment to the next, giving it a surreal, unsettling quality. Furthermore, one particularly evocative moment of the film is the segment in which the main character is shown in noticeable discomfort, his face twisted in pain, as a scratching sound builds slowly but frantically until it reaches its truly unsettling crescendo. This sound is intensely difficult to endure, sublimely evoking the main character’s state of mental discomfort, as if he cannot escape from the pain which is clawing away at him from inside his own head. The film concludes succinctly, as Evans looks directly into the camera, his face shrouded in darkness, his eyes hauntingly imploring you to notice his character’s pain. It’s a sensible, thought provoking end to The Muse, a #shortfilm whose brevity plays to its advantage, sending a simple but effective message through the power of intelligent cinematic storytelling.

★★ Directed by: #CharleneJeter Written by: Charlene Jeter Starring: Charlene Jeter, #MunishManjunath, #MattHudson, #RayMorgis, #JovanyTorres Indie Film Review by: Chris Olson Raw and packing a decent punch, filmmaker Charlene Jeter's action-packed spy thriller Love Espionage: Spy Revenge is as clumsy as the title suggest, yet contains some impressive sequences and bold ambition. Jeter plays Penny, a CIA agent who hopes for a nice bit of career advancement when taking on a new assignment that is supposed to be low-key. However, her husband Raymond (Munish Manjunath) who is a retired agent, gets called back into the field when Jenny gets kidnapped by someone he put away a long time ago - the formidable Boris (Matt Hudson). Now it's a race against time as Raymond attempts to find and rescue his wife before Boris exacts his revenge plot. Clunkily plotted and completely contrived the narrative of Love Espionage: Spy Revenge stitches together a plethora of scenes and sequences that barely form a coherent story. The action takes precedence over depth, and the result is a feature film badly borrowing from Bond, Bourne, and anything with Steven Seagal in. The performances range from unnecessarily intense and melodramatic, to fairly decent. At the former end of the spectrum are the three leads, who feel like they are acting for their lives, creating a way too serious atmosphere for the barmy plot to unravel in. At the latter end was Jovany Torres, who plays Boris's henchman and was the most believable and compelling on screen. All of the actors seemed too reliant on the clunky dialogue and Hudson's delivery of the cartoonish lines of his super villain were eye-wincingly dramatic. Love Espionage: Spy Revenge was at least ambitious in its agenda, tackling themes of crime, abduction, trafficking and indeed revenge with its outlandish plot. The chemistry between Jeter and Manjunath was solid and ensured the film was at least rooted in something profound. Their love is unquestionable and some of the best scenes in the indie movie are where they enjoy each other's company, such as Raymond planning on learning to mow the lawn. As a film originally planned as four mini shorts, the fractures are too obvious to ignore. This is not a fluid piece of #filmmaking and audiences are unlikely to forgive the technical shortcomings such as the terrible sound quality or the bad acting. However, Jeter shows herself to be a fearless filmmaker and her daring attitude toward storytelling has at least resulted in a feature length movie packed with fantastic action and gripping violence. Watch the indie film trailer below.

★★★★★ Directed by: #SatoshiKon Written by: #SadayukiMurai, #YoshikazuTakeuchi Starring: #JunkoIwao, #RicaMatsumoto Film Review by: #DarrenTilby Satoshi Kon’s hand-drawn masterpiece may have been made over 20-years ago, but Perfect Blue remains as relevant today as it undoubtedly was then. In fact, maybe even more so. Perfect Blue was prophetic in its vision of the role (indeed, the threat) the internet – which as bizarre as it may seem now, was still a relatively new and scary idea to many people – would impose upon the lives of celebrities. For in this age of information and entitlement, where everybody feels like they are owed access to their idols, nothing stays private for long. With Perfect Blue being a Japanese-language animated movie, there are (for English speaking viewers, at least) two chief audio tracks to choose from: the original, spoken Japanese with English subtitles (subbed), or the English language version (dubbed). My review will relate chiefly to the subbed version, as this is the version I watched recently. Although I have seen both before and would like to add that the English dubbed version is also excellent, it’s just not my preference. Mima Kirigoe (voiced by Junko Iwao) is a J-pop star; a member of the all-girl group CHAM. Mima decides, at the height of CHAM’s success, to pursue her dream of being an actress. But making it big doesn’t come easy, and Mima soon finds herself, reluctantly, agreeing to film a horrific rape scene for a TV series and posing naked for a photoshoot; stripping away the squeaky-clean, virginal facade of her past. Even then, this new-found fame comes at a cost: a letter bomb sent in the post, a fax (yes, that’s right, a fax) with the word “traitor” written all over it, an unsavoury fansite called “Mima’s Room” which seems to detail every aspect of her life and, ultimately, the brutal murder of several people close to her. And when the spirit of her past begins to haunt her every turn and mock her every decision, Mima’s sanity begins to unravel, until she can no longer tell the difference between reality and fiction. Exploding onto the scene in 1997, Perfect Blue’s hyper-violent and hyper-sexualised themes and imagery shocked audiences around the world and introduced me (and I’m sure many others) to the idea that animated films weren’t just for children. That’s not to say it was the first animated film to feature sex or violence––far from it. Mamoru Oshii’s sci-fi classic, Ghost in the Shell, released 2-years prior and contained plenty of violent scenes. And let’s not forget Hideki Takayama’s deeply disturbing and highly polarising film, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend, which features scenes of demonic rape and violence. But I think what makes Perfect Blue so much more chilling, and so much more scary is its realistic grounding and its creepily accurate predictions on the more disturbing possibilities of the internet. The film was made as a critique of consumerism, and to reflect the growing concern amongst Japanese parents of the time that their children would grow up into a world of computer screens; controlled by technology. And now, in our age of almost complete internet reliance and of having information and the power to create and spread misinformation, at one’s fingertips, Perfect Blue has never seemed more relevant. There are moments, visually, where Perfect Blue reveals its age. But neither the occasional flicker of animation jitter nor the sometimes rigid facial animation does anything to detract from the sheer beauty of the imagery, colours and detail found throughout the film’s many hand-drawn scenes. Hisao Shirai (Director of Photography) starts by bathing Mima's popstar beginning in light and bright colours. The implication is clear: this is what Mima is familiar with, this is where Mima is comfortable and this is where Mima is safe. But, as she leaves her past behind, it's not long before the blue skies dissipate and give way to dark rain clouds and the artificial neon lights of the big city. Again, the implication is clear: the gloomy and rainy weather reflects Mima’s inner loneliness and misery, while the overly bright artificial lighting and blue hue herald the beginning of her descent into madness. In fact, so crucial and prevalent, is the film’s use of colour, that it’s possible to follow the story with this concept alone. But what is a film without an atmospheric and memorable soundtrack? The answer is...not much. Believe me, I’ve seen a few. Fortunately, Masahiro Ikumi has us covered with his indispensable work here; creating music which not only compliments the look and feel of the film but also stands out as rich and layered listening in its own right. So much thought, love, and attention to detail have gone into making Perfect Blue, from every possible aspect of it, that it's easy to see why it often makes the number one spot in a lot of 'best anime films of all time' lists. And while I’m not sure I fully agree with that – there’s a lot of competition to consider after all – this is damn fine film-making, and well-deserving of at least a top-five spot on anyone’s list. Perfect Blue is moody, dark, genuinely terrifying, and disturbingly pertinent for a 22-year old film. And for a film of its age to not only still be relevant, but actually more so than when it was made, is no small feat.

★★★★ Directed by: #NathanRussellRaby Starring: #DaveMolyneux, #TimReeves, #DanSayle, #PatrickFarrance, #KlausKlaffenböck Documentary Film Review by: #NathanialEker Almost typifying the stereotypical racing #documentary, 3 Wheeling boasts an endearing blend of drama, excitement, and unapologetic testosterone. Following the plight of two contenders at the 2016 Isle of Man Sidecar TT, what follows is an hour and a half of pure adrenaline. Even those with zero interest in sport, will find it hard to be anything less than utterly invested. Despite a niche subject matter, 3 Wheeling keeps the focus entirely in the right place; with the riders. What is crafted is a genuine story that explores the chaotic and sometimes fatal sport, inviting us to experience not only the highs, but the consequential lows. The use of hidden cameras quite literally places the audience in the driver's seat, allowing us to see and feel the intensity from all angles. Seeing the sidecar passenger hang on with nothing more than a handheld grip, at insanely high-speed shows that this isn’t for the faint hearted. The decision to pit comparative underdogs Molyneux and Reeves as the film’s protagonists is a clever one in terms of building tension. That said, the finale is ultimately underwhelming and after a suspenseful build, the ending falls flat. Additionally, the lack of interviews with Molyneux and his apparent apathy towards anyone or anything that isn’t his bike, makes him a questionable avatar. Perhaps he would’ve served better as the villain of the piece. Much like the bikes themselves, the film moves at breakneck speed. The latter half introduces us to the players during the weeks leading up to the big race, whilst the former thrusts us into it headfirst. The footage used is mostly well picked, immersing us into a world of engines, tinned beers, and plenty of f-bombs. That said, a few segments do serve to do little more than act as window dressing for the dialogue underneath. Regardless, the #cinematography and editing are equally frantic, making the races all the more invigorating. Sharp cuts, combined with multiple camera angles, and a masterful use of slow motion make them as aesthetically pleasing as they are enthralling. The roar of the engines is matched by a rocky soundtrack that gets the heart pumping. Electric guitars and drums match the fast pace of the on-screen action perfectly. Equally, the absence of sound is sometimes just as effective. Perhaps the film’s greatest scene comes at the start of the first race, where the muffled sound of engines forebodes an eerie atmosphere that reflects the words of Reeves; ‘the wait is like being in hell.’ The cue to muffle the sound just as he dons his helmet is just as ingenious. Overall, the passion behind 3 Wheeling shines through, delivering an exciting and engaging documentary. Motor sport isn’t for everyone, so this could’ve easily been one exclusively for the petrol heads. Thankfully, director Nathan Russell-Raby clearly knows his art well, and successfully crafts a compelling film that works to deliver a full throttle experience. The disappointingly anticlimactic ending is the only point of contention, besides minor grievances such as a few too many interviewees to keep track of. However, these niggles don’t dink the bodywork of what is ultimately a nothing less than a thrill ride. 3 Wheeling earns a place on the winner’s podium, even if it’s protagonists aren’t so lucky.

★★ Directed by: #SwanandKottewar Starring: #SawanKoul, #GitanjaliPillai, #JinalParekh, #NivedaVigraham, #HindolHazra, #NoelGeorge Short Film Review by: #BrunaFolettoLucas Short film The Guy was written and directed by Swanand Kottewar and it tells the story of the guy as he dreams his life away stuck between paths he must choose to follow. Right at the beginning the viewer is asked to have patience during the film. Viewers may be very glad this sign has been put there otherwise they may stop watching it early on. It’s not that the film becomes more interesting or better, it’s just that the #filmmakers were aware of how the film could be perceived and they preferred to warn us – this is a nice touch. But onto the film...The short is a nightmarish trip through the protagonist’s (Sawan Koul) unconscious. As we see the first scene when he is speaking with a friend, who later turns out to be his kind of spiritual guide, he complains about his job and his lack of motivation. He’s changed jobs constantly and his friend advises him to stop this pattern and concentrate on his future. The advice is not followed by the “guy” as he goes to a party and smokes and drinks too much. From this scene the short cuts to a long dream sequence where the character has a conversation with his double. Albeit I did not understand what the characters were saying (due to lack of subtitles) I was able to identify that one character was his more contained self and the other one was a representation of his freer self. These two personifications of his unconscious seem to be arguing about his future – but one could only speculate. This film was very hard to watch – audiences may struggle to understand what is going on. It was difficult to keep concentrated on the parts I couldn’t understand and when the characters were speaking English I had to concentrate because the voices weren’t clear. The idea behind The Guy – a young artist trapped between two directions of his life – is interesting, especially treating a large amount of the film itself as dream sequences, leaving the audience to create his future, but, unfortunately, the execution didn’t meet the expectations.

★★★ Directed by: #JackBLevy Written by: #JackGeorge Starring: #EmmaKenny, #JimmyMcCarthy, #ClementineBoggHargroves Short Film Review by: #ChrisOlson A lot of clowning around in this short comedy film directed by Jack B. Levy. Stop IT! (pun intended) stars Emma Kenny and Jimmy McCarthy as two infuriated clowns looking to take matters into their own hands when the release of another IT film is imminent. The reason for their fury? The IT movies and original novel have caused insurmountable damage to their profession. A bungling pair of inept robbers, our two clowns spend a good portion of the short film tripping over each other. Whether it is struggling to get the door open or miscommunication over how to deal with security when they arrive (Clementine Bogg-Hargroves), our two children's entertainers seem to have egg on their faces...or at least silly face paint. Funny at times but in a hard-coded kind of way, Stop IT! seems to be heavily reliant on the script. The jokes are set up too carefully and whilst the plot is interesting, it is also puerile. The buffoonery of Jimmy McCarthy's character being the most obvious example, who edges too close to the "difficult to believe he's so thick" category. There were some compelling moments in the #filmmaking and Levy shows boldness in keeping the whole piece filmed in the dark. At times this was a nuisance as the viewer is likely to want to see more of what's going on but overall it added tension to the atmosphere and brought some much needed groundedness to the otherwise immature antics. The performances are underwhelming. There was little chemistry between the two main performers and each seemed to be going through a rehearsed set of instructions rather than any genuine narrative. Boggs-Hargroves gives probably the strongest turn, with a cackling kind of chaos that was compelling to watch. As a warcry against remakes and reboots this could have been an appropriate way to approach it. The tomfoolery of the movie industry being likened to a circus is certainly something audiences would connect with given the current climate of baffling box office brainstorming. However, the story takes a different path and instead focuses on the seemingly tragic situation that can arise for a category of workers due to the effectiveness of a #horror film, causing viewers to fear them. It sadly renders the piece smaller and sillier. Fairly innocuous fun that shows some decent filmmaking and at times some depth (the final sequence was particularly affecting). However, the laboured dialogue would seem a lot funnier on paper and without a palpable chemistry between the two central clowns this is one rodeo you can skip.