★★★★ Directed by: #JonWatts Written by: #ChrisMcKenna #ErikSommers Starring: #TomHolland #JakeGyllenhaal #SamuelLJackson Film Review by #HopeMadden #GeorgeWolf Spider-Man: Far From Home has more than a webshooter up its sleeve. One part reflection on the state of MCU, one part statement on our cartoonishly ridiculous world today, one part charming coming-of-age tale, the latest Spidey episode almost takes on more than it can carry. But return writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers embrace franchise strengths while betting director Jon Watts, also back from Homecoming, can maneuver slick surprises. The wager pays off, and Far From Home winds up being a film that feels a bit campy for a while, but in retrospect succeeds precisely because of those early over-the-top moments. Peter Parker (the immeasurably charming Tom Holland), having returned from oblivion (Infinity War), then universal salvation and personal loss (Endgame), would like a vacation. The poor kid just wants to take a trip abroad with his class and get a little closer to his crush MJ (Zendaya). But that is not to be, is it? Not with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) following him across the globe, or the surprise appearance of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), a new monster-slayer from another Earthly dimension. "You mean there really is a multi-verse?" That's a nice nod to the stellar animated Spidey adventure from last year, and a big clue about how self-aware this chapter is determined to be. The front and center ponderings about what Peter (and by extension, Marvel) is going to do now threaten to collapse the film from self-absorption. To the rescue: a jarring and unexpected pivot, and that wonderfully youthful vibe that now has one eye on growing up. Interestingly, Tony Stark fills in for the guilt-inducing father figure that’s always been missing from this iteration of Peter Parker’s tale. Without Uncle Ben, Stark becomes that hallowed hero whose shadow threatens to obliterate the fledgling Avenger. Peter's still a teenager, after all, and Homecoming soared from embracing that fact, and from Holland's ability to sell it in all its wide-eyed and awkward glory. He still does, but now our hero's naiveté is shaken by some mighty timely lessons. Number one: "It's easy to fool people when they're already fooling themselves." Not exactly subtle, but fitting for the world of a distracted teen. And for kids of all ages, there's no denying how cathartic it is to see world leaders, their media lapdogs and widespread buffoonery on blast and blasted across the largest screens, where good will inevitably conquer. As fun and funny as this keep-you-guessing Eurotrip is, its core is driven by a simple search for truth. And don't leave early, because that search doesn't stop until Far From Home plays its second post-credits hand, and you walk out re-thinking everything you just saw. Tangled webs, indeed.

★★★ Directed by: Will Terran Written: #WillTerran Starring: #AmeliaNewbould, #StewartOReilly, #EllenMan Indie Film Review by: #ChrisOlson Bungling burglars in this indie comedy Homesitters, written and directed by Will Terran. Starring Amelia Newbould as an opportunistic house-sitter who turns her unsuspecting clientele's homes into settings of sordid debauchery with her eager BF (Stewart O'Reilly). Together, they drink themselves silly and fornicate in as many of the client's rooms as possible, before robbing the poor bastards. However, after a mishap during one house-sitting, the pair end up at a loose end and chasing the tail of another fellow miscreant (Ellen Man). Suitably foul-mouthed and soaking with childish knob gags, Homesitters gets comfortably into bed with fans of comedies like Superbad and Eurotrip but probably has a more in common in terms of consistent tone with something like The Inbetweeners. The calamitous criminal act of the two central characters also has a lot in common with the Wet Bandits from the Home Alone films - totally inept but somehow operating a fairly successful criminal career. That being said, Terran's indie film feels fairly fresh and full of vigour. Arguably the most difficult aspect of this movie to get past is the dialogue. The script is the type where it seems funny written down but when actors actually say the lines out loud, they drop like heavy sex toys. The pacing of the dialogue from Newbould is particularly problematic, coming out way too fast and ending seeming over rehearsed. O'Reilly hits the mark more often yet his gags to groans ratio will still have a lot of viewers rolling their eyes. I did very much enjoy the recurring Jehovah's Witness thread. Making indie movies is hard and writing good comedy is even harder, so a massive hats off to the filmmakers for trying. Homesitters is by no means unenjoyable. The #filmmaking is fairly impressive in parts, such as the Edgar Wright-esque quick editing of a milky coffee being made or the phenomenal explosions. There were also some decent moments of #cinematography, especially during a scene where the two main characters walk through a field. Thematic prowess could appear lacking at your first glance of this movie however Homesitters is a telling and bold coming-of-age parable that taps into the recklessness of youth and the search for direction. The shameless lack of care for their clients gets totally overshadowed by the pair's impressive love and dedication to each other. A universal riff of companionship can be heard throughout. Just don't let these dickheads near your kimono. Watch the indie film trailer below.

UK Film Festivals > #PressReleases > Grimmfest Film Festival The Blair Witch Project 20th Anniversary Screening Event Wednesday 24th July 2019 Tickets are just £6 for this fantastic event Grimmfest are delighted to host a special 20th Anniversary screening event to celebrate The Blair Witch Project (1999) at Stockport Plaza, Greater Manchester Twenty years ago, when the internet was in its infancy, the world was held captive by this ‘real-life’ documentary style film which projected the ‘found-footage’ sub-genre into the horror-sphere. Whilst the film was made for only $60,000, it made $1.5m in its US opening weekend and has gone on to gross nearly $250m world-wide. Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind. For this event, Grimmfest hope to create an immersive experience for our fans who will be invited to participate in recreating the spectacle of the original release and unnerving terror of experiencing this much-loved hand-held horror. Event activities will involve missing flyers, the iconic wooden charms, hand-printing and actors role playing the lead characters from the film. #Grimmfest are delighted that Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, a specialist in horror cinema from Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies and Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University will be joining fans for a post-screening discussion of the film. Schedule: 7.00pm Doors open and activities begin 8.00pm Screening: The Blair Witch Project (1999) 35mm print - Certificate 15 9.30pm Q&A with Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn 10pm Event end. Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2352945378063666/ Website Link: http://grimmfest.com/grimmupnorth/2019/02/blair-witch/ Book tickets here: http://fatso.ma/GRCN

★★★★ Directed by: Ari Aster Written by: #AriAster Starring: #FlorencePugh #JackReynor #WillPoulter #WilliamJacksonHarper Film Review by: #HopeMadden and #GeorgeWolf Just two features into filmmaker Ari Aster’s genre takeover and already you can detect a pattern. First, he introduces a near-unfathomable amount of grief. Then, he drags you so far inside it you won't fully emerge for days. In Midsommar, we are as desperate to claw our way out of this soul-crushing grief as Dani (Florence Pugh). Mainly to avoid being alone, Dani insinuates herself into her anthropology student boyfriend Christian’s (Jack Reynor) trip to rural Sweden with his buds. Little does she know they are all headed straight for a modern riff on The Wicker Man. From the trip planning onward, Dani and the crew don’t make a lot of natural decisions. The abundance of drugs and the isolation of their Swedish destination make their choices more believable than they might otherwise be, but in the end, individual characters are not carved deeply or clearly enough to make their arcs resonate as terrifyingly as they might. There are definite strengths, though—chief among them, Florence Pugh. The way she articulates Dani’s neediness and strength creates a glue that holds the story in place, allowing Aster to add spectacular visual and mythological flourishes. Will Poulter, as Christian's friend Mark, is another standout. Equal parts funny and loathsome, Poulter (The Revenant, Detroit) breaks tensions with needed levity but never stoops to becoming the film’s outright comic relief. Like Hereditary, Midsommar will be polarizing among horror fans -perhaps even more so- for Aster's confidence in his own long game. Like a Bergman inspired homage to bad breakups, this terror is deeply-rooted in the psyche, always taking less care to scare you than to keep you unsettled and on edge. Slow, unbroken pans and gruesome detail add bleak depth to the film's tragic prologue, leaving you open for the constant barrage of unease and disorientation to come. Carefully placed pictures and artwork leave trails of foreshadowing while the casual nature of more overt nods ("there's a bear") only add to the mind-fuckery. And while Aster is hardly shy about this motives - multiple shots through open windows and doors reinforce that - it doesn't mean they're any less effective. The contrast of nurturing sunlight with the darkest of intentions recalls not only Wicker Man but Texas Chainsaw Massacrefor its subliminal takeover of the sacred by the profane. Pair this with the way Aster manipulates depth of field, both visual and aural, and scene after scene boasts hallucinatory masterstrokes. Midsommar is a bold vision and wholly unnerving experience (emphasis on experience)—the kind of filmmaking the genre is lucky to have in its arsenal.

★★ Directed by: #RGCreations Starring: #Srinidhi, #KavyaP, #ShreyasV Short Film Review by: #RachelPullen Things I like...films that I understand. Other things I like...films I understand, so guess what we are gonna be talking about this week, that’s right...got it in one, sandwiches. Chaavi, a short film that I think I don’t understand, maybe I’m not meant to, maybe there is some special club of people who understand it and they get together without me to talk about how dumb I am...how dare you. This movie really is a touch confusing, let’s get into what I think I understood. Our leading man is a lost soul, consumed by alcohol abuse and an ever frayed grasp on reality, he believes for all his wrong doings he will be punished by a higher being called Chaavi. And to make matters worse he bumped a lady he loves off her little moped and then drove off... idiot, if you leave her in the road people will find out, should have rolled her up in a rug and dropped her in a lake...body disposal 101. His friends become concerned about his insane antics, his manic episodes, and over a nice cup of tea served from some fancy bone china, they talk about how their friendship broke down, how he imagined the girl [is she real, is she not, you never can figure it out], and how his alcohol abuse drove them away. Wow they sound like such supportive friends. So this all goes on the news and such and people are like, ‘’oh ok, he is insane fah la lalalala’’, and then that’s it...he’s insane and it was in the news, also how funny would it be if the news channels and papers ran stories every time someone had a mental breakdown, I would be proper famous by now if that were the case, my dreams of fame and fortune would come to fruition thanks to my brain powers. As you can see my loyal fans it’s confusing, I mean the basic element of the story is there but it seems to go nowhere, there is no ending, no cliffhanger, nothing. The guy is insane, everyone finds out, the end...ok cool, that’s a story I guess but it all feels a little cut short. The acting, the directing style, they stand strong, but there are some clear audio issues, and I considered the fact that some of the storyline has been lost in translation as this short is subtitled, causing my confusion to the plot, maybe there is no secret club after all, just a room full of people who are bad at writing subtitles. Either way, the ideas are there, the potential for an interesting story is hidden in the undergrowth begging for a little sun in order for it to flourish.

★ Directed by: #HarryBoast & #CayleeCoote Starring: #MrDanJenkins & #RobynGriffiths Short Film Review by: #JasmineHollyBullock The Hungry Poltergeist focuses around an unnamed character, played by Dr Dan Jenkins, who shares his home with a sinister supernatural spirit. Jenkins’ character doesn’t seem to be too phased about the fact that he lives with a supernatural spirit. However, this poltergeist, as the name suggests, is a hungry one and that does cause some issues. The poltergeist also seems to be living, or hiding inside a statue of a Goose. Very menacing indeed. I am not sure as to whether or not this short film is intended to actually be scary, although it does self-claim to be a ‘scary horror short film’ on YouTube. If there was the intention to be scary, it wasn’t successful. Sure, there is the occasional generically screechy horror-movie instrumental that builds to a crescendo to tell you when a scary moment is apparently going to happen... but it just never happens. The creepiest thing about this The Hungry Poltergeist is probably the sound that the ‘poltergeist’ makes... which is basically the sound of a goose but distorted. Which, now that I think about it, isn’t that terrifying but it does catch you off guard. There are also interspersed moments of comedy or light humour, which pulls the audience in and out of the suspense of the situation. Although I wouldn’t say that there is much suspense anyway, because the plot is kind of predictable, even the title informs the audience that this film is going to be about a hungry poltergeist. There were no surprises in terms of the plot. Additionally, the acting is sort of hard to judge because there just wasn’t much opportunity to see any really stand-out acting taking place although, that is probably more to do with the actual script and time limitation of the film than poor talent from Jenkins or Robyn Griffiths, who also plays an unnamed character. There isn’t much meaningful dialogue that takes place, nothing that can give an idea of what the two characters are like, which is damaging for the portrayal of those characters and their place in the film. Some of the shots that were taken were nicely thought-out and executed shots, like the occasional POV (Point of View) shot or the shot from inside the attic looking down on one of the characters. Essentially, the cinematography in The Hungry Poltergeist was one of the things I rather liked because it was the one element that wasn’t always predictable or dull. So in that regard, directors Harry Boast and Cylee Coote did a good job of working out how they wanted their production to be orchestrated visually. Unfortunately, a nice choice of shots isn’t enough to redeem this film entirely. It’s not a bad production. But it wasn’t good either, it was very middle-of-the-road. The Hungry Poltergeist isn’t exactly breaking boxes when it comes to the horror genre, if it even is part of that genre. There is no memorable music, plot or characters. I understand that 5 minutes is an extremely short amount of time to establish any of those things, but given that there is such a short amount of time: SOMETHING needs to be MEMORABLE in order to be a triumphant short film.

★ Directed by: #AndreaMazzucca Starring: #WladimiroSist, #SilviaPennacchi, #AndreaMalkavian Indie Film Review by #NathanialEker From the minute Splatter Skunk begins, to the end of its unrelenting ninety-minute run time, one question permeates; ‘why Splatter Skunk?’ The only viable reason for the baffling title is that after watching, you indeed feel as though you’ve had a putrid smelling animal splattered over you. Or, at the very least, you’ll feel that you’ve wasted an hour and a half of your life. This bizarre, tonal rollercoaster is difficult to generically define. On the surface it seems to be a basic ‘monkey’s paw’ parable, of a satanic resurrection gone wrong (when do they go right?). However, the characters presented are so far removed from the realms of reasonable human behaviour that it becomes impossible to empathise or even understand the plight of a single player. Take for example, co-lead Alessio, portrayed by Andrea Malkavian. His character development includes smoking weed and hissing at people, before, with zero foreshadowing, he decides that thinning out the population via mass murder is a good shout. Not one character, nor their dialogue are properly formed or thought out, with the script favouring crude slurs and pointless fight scenes to pad that abhorrently long run time. A certain level of sympathy goes to the cast, who have little material to work with. In what must be a conscious directorial decision, every actor dials their performance up to eleven, pushing the film as far away from realism as possible, into the realms of absurdism. This isn’t an inherently bad choice, but the direction is so sloppy and unfocused, that even if a surreal, satirical tone was the intention, the execution is deeply misguided. This is a film compounded by silliness and a poor attention to detail that will regrettably cause audiences to laugh at it, not with it. That said, the tone and mission statement is so muddled that it’s not even clear if the film wants us to laugh with it. I still don’t know if this is a drama, a comedy, a horror, or some concoction of all three. Leading man Wladimiro Sist exhibits sparks of real emotional delivery; moments that hint at a competent actor underneath, but as his role quickly devolves into screaming his wife’s name a la Tommy Wiseau in The Room, it becomes difficult to like even him. The production also boasts unforgivable gaffs for a finished picture, including choppy editing mistakes and woefully misplaced, amateur looking effects. Effects are of course difficult to perfect, so concessions can usually be made, but the sloppy effects of Splatter Skunk are unforgivable as more often than not, they simply serve no purpose to the narrative. The only effect that really needs to exist is the zombie make up, which is one of the shoddiest looking. As Splatter Skunk is an Italian film, English speaking audiences will rely on the subtitles, which are as nonsensical as the action on screen. That said, I suspect that properly understanding the dialogue wouldn’t give a huge amount more context to an unfathomable plot. I haven’t personally lived in Italy, but I’d imagine that most fathers and sons don’t routinely break into poorly choreographed fights, before the son violently murders a girl called ‘Lady Vampire.’ It is not Alessio, but the script that ultimately delivers the killing blow to the film. It not only drags at a snail’s pace (there is no mention of satanic sacrifice until the forty-five-minute mark), but concurrently creates a disparate tone that at times attempts audience empathy, only to devolve completely inane or horrific plot points that we’re supposed to somehow be on board with. Compounded by a score that does nothing to support the tonally inconsistent narrative, it’s a mess. If there is some great artistic message behind Splatter Skunk, it’s incomprehensible and buried beneath a mountain of mediocrity. The script is nonsense, the performances over the top and the editing jarring. If there is a saving grace, it’s the #cinematography, which at times shows a competent demonstration of cinematic technique. If the intention was to create a cautionary tale, then the lack of focus and bizarre style pushes it too far into absurdist silliness that it becomes totally alienating. Perhaps the titular animal is in fact, an appropriate analogy; stay away from this stinker.

★★★ Directed by: Gary Dauberman Written by: #GaryDauberman Starring: #McKennaGrace #VeraFarmiga #PatrickWilson #MadisonIseman #KatieSarife Film Review by: #HopeMadden The first conflict, first specter of the Conjuring universe was a hideous, braid-wearing doll haunting hip Seventies roommates. Ever wonder what happened after Lorraine and Ed Warren (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, respectively) removed the cursed doll Annabelle from the girls’ apartment? It was a hell of a ride home, I will tell you that. Truth is, the Annabelle franchise within the larger Conjuring property hasn’t really impressed. John R. Leonetti’s lackluster 2014 “save the baby” horror that gave the doll its own series fell flat. Three years later, David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation offered an origin story that knew absolutely nothing at all about its own religious setting, yet offered considerably stronger action, scares and gore than its predecessor. Writer Gary Dauberman, who’s penned every installment (as well as It, which seriously amplifies his credibility), takes on directing duties for the first time with the third film, Annabelle Comes Home. Again, this one is a little better than the last one. Dauberman gives us a spooky fun glimpse into the reasons the Warrens kept the doll locked away back in their room of cursed objects. From that first road trip home—which is a blast straight out of Hammer or Michael Jackson's Thriller—the film is a spooky fun ode to old fashioned horror. Back at home—the very home where the Warrens illogically keep demonic objects—their daughter Judy (McKenna Grace, really good in this role) is going through some troubles with schoolmates who think her parents are creepy. Duh. So, creepy Ed and Lorraine leave town, likely to cast a demon into a Combat Carl they’ll be adding to the back room toybox, leaving little Judy with a cherubic babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) and her snoopy bestie, Daniela (Katie Sarife). What does Daniela touch in the off-limits, demon-filled back room? “Everything.” All hell breaks loose, naturally. Dauberman shows some fun instincts when it comes to isolating characters to make the most of his thrill ride setting. The logic comes and goes with ease, however—once the catalyst kicks in, each scene exists simply to trigger a scare, not to make any narrative sense. But it is fun, with generous writing that does not ask us to root against any of the kids, and performances that are far superior to the content. Plus a couple of real laughs, mostly thanks to a randomly hilarious pizza delivery guy. Annabelle Comes Home is no masterpiece and it is definitely a tonal shift from the previous installments, but it's a mindless PG-13 blast of haunted house summer fun.

★★★★ Directed by: #KirillSerebrennikov Written by: #MikhailIdov #LilliIdova #IvanKapitonov Starring: #TeoYoo #IrinaStarshenbaum Film Review by: #ChristieRobb Entrancing, Kirill Serebrennikov's Leto layers a variety of stylistic flourishes over the relatively simple plot—a love triangle between a rising rock star, his mentor, and the mentor’s wife. Set in 1980s Leningrad, I was thrown off-balance from the first. When it comes down to it, I don’t know all that much about rock and roll. I know even less about the Soviet Union. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see OG hipsters playing a show to a crowd of fans. But then I noticed that the fans were sitting politely in their seats and that men in suits patrolled the performance hall ready to put down any display of unruly behavior—piling on a sweet-faced girl who sedately held up a small poster with a hand-drawn heart on it. This is a country where, if you are going to play, you first have to have your lyrics analyzed for ideological appropriateness. The rising star Viktor Tsoi (Teo Yoo) and his mentor Mike Naumenko (Roma Zver) were both real people fronting the influential bands Kino and Zoopark, respectively. A statement contained within the credits informs that the plot was based on Naumenko’s wife Natalia’s (Irina Starshenbaum) memories. However, there is also a character credited as “sceptic” who often breaks the fourth wall to explain to the viewer that “Sadly, this did not happen.” Shot in moody black and white, with emotional pops of color, periodically animation creeps in to punctuate the more fraught moments. There’s also the occasional song and dance number in what is roughly a biopic—featuring covers of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer,” Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger”, and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” Weird, occasionally wandering, Leto, provided a glimpse into the experience of artists living in a gritty, austere world that I’ve not thought much about before, but probably will now.

★★★ Directed by: #ClaireMcCarthy Written by: #SemiChellas Starring: #DaisyRidley #NaomiWatts #TomFelton Film Review by: #CatMcAlpine You’ve probably seen the painting “Ophelia” by Sir John Everett Millais (1852). It’s one of the most iconic images born from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and one of the most well-known paintings of the 19th century. In it, fair Ophelia floats on her back in a river, surrounded by her red hair, elaborate gown, and a fistful of flowers. This painting seems to be the sole aesthetic for director Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia-centric Hamlet adaptation, as evidenced by a horrible red wig, and the film’s open on a recreation of the painting. Also Ophelia’s quirk is she likes to leave the castle in the middle of the day and just walk into the river? This iconic imagery is immediately interrupted with a “You may think you know my story…” voice over that immediately dashed all my hopes for Ophelia. The following film was a bizarre infantilizing of a classic heroine, already disadvantaged by her source material. Writers Semi Chellas (adaptation) and Lisa Klein (novel) navigate a series of bizarre Shakespearian fan-service plot twists that only make the story seem less grounded. You see, Hamlet (a very good George MacKay) fell for Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) because she was quirky. The other girls didn’t like her because she didn’t have money for jewels and didn’t care to learn to dance properly. This characterization of Ophelia is so cheap that the chemistry between MacKay and Ridley fizzles, further highlighting Hamlet’s unhinged impulses while Ophelia remains a canvas for him to project onto. Ridley surprisingly has more chemistry with charming Devon Terrel (Horatio). Because this re-telling gets the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead treatment, flourishes to the tale only happen in the margins when Ophelia would be off stage, and the story is still bound to all the events penned by Shakespeare. This means many key plot points seem to fly in from nowhere, even for those familiar with the original play. Out of nowhere Ophelia is awoken and told “Your father is dead. Hamlet accidentally killed him.” And while we’re experiencing events through Ophelia’s lens, we’re still left asking “Wait…what happened?” Time that could’ve been spent developing Ophelia’s character or deepening her connection to her family (familial relationships being the focus of Hamlet) is instead spent on weird through lines about witchcraft and a secret twin. And while Ophelia ends up somewhere we don’t expect with a final resilient message about valuing yourself, the ending feels almost tacky instead of triumphant. McCarthy’s film isn’t without merit. There’s some clever weaving of Shakespeare’s text into the dialogue. The costuming is beautifully done and the play-with-a-play performance makes for powerful imagery done in silhouette. The fight choreography is beautiful, fierce, and performed with a great fluidity. In all times, when the film is following the original plot, the fevered intensity of Hamlet shines through. I hope one day sweet Ophelia gets a good story, a method for her madness, and a resolution for her watery demise. But this isn’t it.

★★★★ Directed by: Tilman Singer Written by: #TilmanSinger Starring: #LuanaVelis #JanBluthardt #JuliaRiedler Film Review by: #HopeMadden Fast, brave and baffling, Tilman Singer’s experimental demon thriller Luz enters hot, exits quickly and leaves you puzzled. In a good way. The film begins with a nightmarish vision leeched of color, as battered young cabbie Luz (a letter-perfect Luana Velis) tumbles into a banal police station lobby shouting about how the receptionist wants to live his life. Soon she’s seated in an equally bland hallway, mumbling blasphemies to herself in Spanish as two German police officers—one who doesn’t understand and one who refuses to translate—look on. Meanwhile, in a dive bar across town… It makes little sense to summarize the plot because the fairly slight premise unfolds in front of you, offering as many questions as answers. To spoil that seems pointless. There is something fascinating happening in this film, though, and Singer has no real sense of urgency about clarifying what that is. Seedy, lifeless places become environments where those as baffled as we bear witness—or don’t—to a patient if tenacious courtship of sorts. It all begins in dehumanizing but fascinating wide angle shots. Slowly, clip by clip, Singer draws us in closer to the diabolical unfolding in our midst. It’s the deconstruction of a possession film, a bare-bones experimental feature that hangs together because of its clever turns, solid performances and Singer’s own technical savvy with sound design. Running about 70 minutes and boasting no more than 6 speaking roles, Luz is surrealism at its most basic, storytelling at its sparest.

★★★★ Directed by: #DannyBoyle Written by: #JackBarth and #RichardCurtis Starring: #HimeshPatel #LilyJames #KateMcKinnon #EdSheeran Film Review by #GeorgeWolf Hey, baby boomers (yes, my hand is up), thanks for still buying CDs! Now please enjoy the latest installment in your Musical Movie Memories Tour, Yesterday. We've already jammed to Queen and Elton, Bruce is set for August, so how about remembering how much we love the Fab Four by envisioning a world where they never existed? It's a conceit so instantly charming director Danny Boyle (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire) passed on the project, thinking it had already been done. He was convinced otherwise and jumped on board, bringing the script from Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) to life with a breezy, unabashed fandom. Jack Malik (Himesh Patel, easy to root for) is a struggling musician in Suffolk who's ready to give up on the dream. His longtime friend and manager Ellie (Lily James) protests, but Jack rides his bicycle off into the English night unsure of his future. Fate intervenes with a brief worldwide blackout, which brings an accident, a hospital stay, and Jack waking up in a world without his two front teeth. Or the Beatles. That second one is pretty advantageous for Jack's career, though the film is at its most likable early on, when Jack is trying to remember lyrics, getting nowhere on Google and chastising anyone who doesn't instantly realize how life-changing "his" new songs are. Of course, his protests only resonate because we're still in the old world with him. It's a credit to the simple genius of this premise that Yesterday can tell without showing and still pull us in. And surprise, it's also a wonderfully organic way to strip down these songs we've heard for decades and remind us how truly great they are. Jack's star rises with a move to L.A, getting tutelage from Ed Sheehan (nicely self-deprecating as himself) and an apologetically shameless record label rep (perfectly slimy Kate McKinnon). It's in America where Yesterday starts to drag a bit, wanting from the absence of spunky James and will-they-or-won't-they rom that balances this com. How that turns out, you can probably guess. As for the musical fantasy, credit Curtis and Boyle for avoiding the easy cop out. Buy in and you'll be rewarded with an entertaining take on life choices that's fun to sing along with, occasionally slight but often downright fab.