★★ Directed by Seth Gordon Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Priyanka Chopra, Jon Bass, Kelly Rohrbach, Ilfenesh Hadera Film Review by Kieran Freemantle Baywatch was one of the quintessential TV shows of the 90s, lasting 11 seasons, two spin-off shows and helped make actresses like Pamela Anderson and Yasmine Bleeth into stars. And like many shows from the '80s and '90s, Hollywood has turned it into a big budget film. Lt. Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is the adored head lifeguard on Emerald Bay, saving lives on a daily basis. When it comes to tryouts for three new members of the Baywatch team, Mitch is told he has to recruit Matt Brody (Zac Efron), a disgraced Olympic swimming star and a man that Mitch takes an instant dislike to. Along with their macho squabbling, Mitch also suspects that a club owner Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra) is smuggling drugs into the bay and the lifeguard sets out to investigate despite this being an issue for the police. The Baywatch film is a case of filmmaking by accountancy. Executives at Paramount were clearly influenced by the success of the 21 Jump Street film series - which turned a silly police procedural show that took itself too seriously - and satirised its own premise. The Baywatch producers wanted to do the same with their film adaptation. The film has two bankable stars and the villain was played by a big star in Bollywood/former Miss World. The movie was even produced by two Chinese companies. Johnson and his amazing pecs are red hot right now and his ego was stroked heavily in the introduction as the public thank and praise him for his service. Johnson is an ever likeable presence and he has an air of Dr. Cox from Scrubs about him: Mitch is basically made out to be an Adonis of a man and like Dr. Cox who called J.D. a variety of girls’ names, Mitch calls Brody names ranging from ‘One Direction’ to ‘Bieber’. Efron earned a lot of praise a few years ago when he starred as the antagonist role in Bad Neighbours and ever since he has starred in a number of comedies with ever diminishing returns. Since his role in Bad Neighbours, Efron has been playing the same type; a party boy who has to learn to be more selfless and grow up. It's getting tiresome and he needs to try other roles especially since his comedy films are making less and less money. The film relied on Brody's level of intelligence changing depending on the comedic circumstance: sometimes he's the smartest guy in the room saying the lifeguards should call the police, other times he is thick as a brick. The greatest strength of Baywatch is the banter between characters, particularly Johnson and Efron and Johnson and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - playing a beat cop who clashes with the Baywatch team. These were witty exchanges that raise a chuckle and allow for some self-referential humour about the ridiculousness of the premise. The film needed more of this because the cast having chemistry, and the self-referential humour, are the parts that Baywatch stole from 21 Jump Street that worked the best. Watch the official Movie Trailer for the film above. Baywatch does fall into the trap of many Hollywood R-rated comedies - relying too much on swearing and sex jokes. There are two major jokes involving male bits - because as we all know the penis is the funniest part of the human anatomy. There are also a few boob and vomit jokes thrown into the mix as well as a fair amount of cringe humour which the new nerdy member of the team, Ronnie (Jon Bass) provides. The real issue with Baywatch is its pacing or lack of it. It is basically a 90-minute story stretched to two hours. This needed to be a fast joke and a plot but it struggles to get going story wise. The first part of the film was more focused on Mitch and Brody trying to one-up each other in the Baywatch equivalent of the World’s Strongest Man competition and when the Baywatch finally decide to investigate Leeds and her club it is treated as a fun jaunt instead of having any urgency. At least with 21 Jump Street, there was some peril and mystery in the story. Chopra looked great but she was a bland villain mainly due to the fact she played her role straight and fairly low key. In recent years there has been a glut of R-rated comedies and many are indistinguishable from each other - it has been the staple of some comedians' careers. Whilst Baywatch has been bashed by critics it is far from the worst the sub-genre has to offer thanks to the power of its leading man. The audience was much more receptive than the film critics were. #FilmReviews #TheatricalReleases #KieranFreemantle #DwayneJohnson #ZacEfron #SethGordon #AlexandraDaddario #PriyankaChopra #JonBass #KellyRohrbach #IlfeneshHadera #Reboot #TVShow

★★★ Directed by Alexandre Gay Starring Theodore Bouloukos and Reginald P. Louis Indie Film Review by Chris Olson Ambitious yet largely repetitive, indie film Sacrifice from filmmaker Alexandre Gay (who co-writes with Charlène Serein) has an enjoyable aesthetic and captivating premise that gets bogged down with genre cliches and narrative constructions. A single shot approach greets the viewer as we embark on a tortuous journey with Matthew Summers (Reginald P. Louis) who is being sadistically interrogated by James Campbell (Theodore Bouloukos). After establishing some kind of foul play by the former on the latter's criminal empire, a smorgasbord of power plays ensue as the captive is subjected to an enduring array of psychological abuse and physical torture. As the plot thickens as much as a Soprano's pasta sauce, we discover that the two characters are connected in many ways. Pretty derivative of so many gangster movies, Sacrifice feels like an lighthearted throwback. The main premise of being how far someone will go for their family feels inertly mundane considering this is a 2017 indie film. The plot feels too thinly stretched against the running time, as the characters repeat their crime genre footwork again and again. The filmmaking is pretty daring and intelligent. Using the single shot approach with one location felt immensely intense, allowing the emotions of the scene to be greatly enhanced by their surroundings, whilst the characters were able to enjoy a repartee that benefited from the atmospheric isolation. The profile framing and roving maneuvers of the camera meant that the cinematography had an intriguing effect on the viewer, keeping them immersed in the frame without giving them the whole picture at one time, building the suspense. A somber score accompanied the proceedings with deft attention to tone and emotion, letting the themes of family, love, loyalty and indeed sacrifice, coalesce into a fervent cinematic experience. When banking on the performances for your movie's success it is important to ensure the main players have undoubtable chemistry. Whilst both P. Louis and Bouloukos are solid in their portrayal of these two intriguing characters, their turns rarely fuse to create something magnificent. Instead, many of the scenes feel like line rehearsals that suggested promise without any real sense of dedicated delivery. As a stage play this would be relatively impressive, but as a cinematic experience there was a huge amount left underdeveloped. Fans of intense psychological thrillers will enjoy the barbaric intensity of Gay's direction, but will remain unsatisfied by Sacrifice's reluctance to venture outside of the genre restraints. Watch the official movie trailer for indie film Sacrifice below... #IndieFilmReviews #IndieFilms #ChrisOlson #CrimeThriller #SingleShot #AlexandreGay #TheodoreBouloukos #ReginaldPLouis

Directed by Markisha Fernando and Meosha Bean Starring Kenneth Dean Tran, Markisha Fernando Short Film Review by Rachel Pullen Do you ever meet a person who says ‘’I don’t really like cake’’ or ‘’Theme parks are kinda boring’’, and in that moment you realise that you will never relate, let alone be able to form any kind of relationship with that person, be it social or even on a business level?...Well that’s how I feel when people tell me they don’t like horror films. So it’s easy to tell that I really like horror, and in my many years of film viewing I have seen a lot and I mean a lot of horror films, but because it takes a lot to really make me scared, there exists, like most genres of films, a formula and once you get to know its pattern most movies can become predictable. Halloween Shorts: Tales of your Childhood Nightmare Stories is already like other horror films out there, like Trick 'r Treat or The ABC’s of Death, Halloween Shorts is broken into several short stories, but they all have one common factor...a mysterious black figure. Like some kind of pervert Peeping Tom, this shadowy figure finds its way into people’s lives, causing trouble wherever it goes, but like all good horror screenwriters should know, it’s the fear of what we don’t see that is truly terrifying and that is something that this short piece certainly uses to its advantage. Most of the stories are focused around one character and each of the actors prove that they are able to hold the audience's attention through scenes which have little to no dialogue, and although this speaks for the abilities of the actors, it also makes for a rather confusing story. As an audience we are treated to very little in the way of explanation, there does not seem to be one particular reason why the shadowy figure appears in people's live, there is no running connection in that regard between the stories and so it can become a little confusing, but on the other end of the spectrum does the fear aspect come from the fact that there is no reason for our peeping Tom to show up on the doorstep for a little spooky fun? Halloween Shorts are aesthetically interesting with a great soundtrack, and for all that it lacks in regards to an explanation of the storyline, it makes up for with some great jump scares and building tension. Directors Markisha Fernando and Meosha Bean have the foundations in place to create a great horror, let’s just hope next time they can erect the whole house. #ShortFilmReviews #RachelPullen #Horror #Anthology #Collection #MeoshaBean #MarkishaFernando #KennethDeanTran

Filmmaker Interview by Chris Olson Director of some cult classics, as well as having an eclectic career in the movie industry, we interview filmmaker William Sachs. During which we discuss armed police turning up during filming, fixing movies, and nearly walking naked for Yoko Ono. For people who don't know, can you tell us a little bit about your previous films? I started making films in the London Film School, which was called The London School of Film Technique at the time. I was there one year and made three short films. The first was Dear Mrs. Smith, a 3-minute film about an injured soldier. He is picked up on a stretcher, carried for a short distance and lowered into a pine box. The soldiers bring a lid. When the lid is lowered everything goes black: The entire film was one shot from the POV of the dead soldier. We shot it on the roof of the film school in Covent Garden. While we were shooting, people saw the men with rifles on the roof and called the police who came to the school heavily armed. My second film was a documentary about a girlfriend I had at the time and her life during “swinging London” of the sixties. The third film, Breakfast, was about a US space capsule that lands on another planet. A giant pregnant woman picks it up, cracks it over a frying pan, and a double yolked egg falls out and cooks while “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays. This film won a lot of prizes at film festivals. After returning to the US, I went to San Francisco where I got a job as a janitor—my first paid film job, cleaning toilets at a film company! I was then promoted to production assistant, and then they started training me as an assistant editor (but I still had to clean the toilets). I also remade Dear Mrs. Smith as a 17-minute short on Infra-Red Ektachrome, which changes the colors depending on the time of day, amount of light, cloud cover, temperature, etc. I later used this film stock in Galaxina. About that time, I heard that Breakfast was winning a lot of prizes around the world at film festivals, so I decided to return to London. Since I had no money, it took me a long time to get there. Actually, I only got as far as New York (after a strange trip through Mexico), but that’s another story. In New York, I got off the subway and walked into the building next to the subway exit. The directory had a film company listed on two floors. I thought that would be a large company. It turned out it had one office on one floor, and an editing room on another. That was it. I went to the office and plunked a film can that had Breakfast in it on one of the two desks and said that this was a film I made and it was winning a lot of prizes in festivals, or something like that. I might have said, “I’m getting famous in England.” I’m not sure what I said, but it worked. I began working for Cannon Films as a production assistant and assistant editor. On the first film I was working on, they fired the director and didn’t know what to do with the movie. I suggested a solution, so they promoted me from assistant editor to director on the same film. The film was saved, so Cannon began buying films for me to fix. One of these was their own production about the generation gap “cleverly” called The Gap. When it was first screened, a lot of people walked out as it was really boring. They fired the director and gave it to me to fix. When it was finished they asked me if I wanted to share director’s credit. The director was angry because he was fired, so he said he didn’t want a credit. I didn’t feel it was my film, so I just took Post Production Supervisor credit. When the director saw the new version, he decided to put his name on it. I had changed the title to Joe. It made a lot of money and made Peter Boyle, Susan Sarandon, and the fired director, John Avildsen, famous. Even though Joe was making a lot of money, Cannon didn’t pay me the piddly bonus they promised me, so I quit. A distributor immediately hired me to go to Italy and buy twenty Italian films and change them so that people wouldn’t know they were Italian. He wanted to sell them to US TV, which was saturated with Italian movies and had stopped buying them. I had a great time re-editing, re-dubbing, creating new title sequences, bringing actors back to Italy (including James Coburn), and even adding camera noise occasionally so you couldn’t tell the film was dubbed. I wanted it to appear that the film wasn’t shot in Italy, but hopefully in America or some exotic location other than Italy. There was one Western that was shot in Spain. I put “The producers wish to thank the people of Sedona, Arizona for their cooperation in making this movie” on the end titles. I loved working in Rome. Two great things came from it. I met my wife, and it led to me making my first feature film, There is no 13. There is no 13 was shot on 35mm in New York with hardly any money and a lot of favors. When it was finished, we entered it in the Berlin Film Festival where it was nominated for the Golden Bear. During its screening, there were a lot of protests because it was an American film and the Vietnam War was going on. It didn’t win the Golden Bear. One of the judges confessed to me that the jury wanted it to win for many reasons, including that it was the best non-standard, or “art” film in the competition, but the festival organisers were afraid of a riot so they chose another film. The judge, who was a film critic, gave me a gift (an Escher Book, in which he wrote some nice comments) and the below review. It should give you some idea about the film. There Is No 13 "Unforgettable masterpieces of film that are written in golden letters in the records are rare. There Is No 13, a debut by the young American, William Sachs, is one such masterpiece. Undoubtedly, Sachs, whose remarkable fantasy film gives indications of a new direction in film storytelling, is influenced in his structure by the synthesis of reality and imagination of Fellini, Resnais and Bunuel. Yet this style has been further developed… It is a deeply touching film, because this auteur's film, which is at first seen to be about a young man who is pushed by a film producer into fully distorted fantasies that follow one another in turbulent succession along with self-ridicule, is then surprisingly experienced as a striking and stirring anti-war film. The distantiation of Brecht is applied in an excellently masterful manner. We will be hearing again from William Sachs. He has it in his hands." (Piet Ruivenkamp, Haags-che Courant, at the Berlin Film Festival). For some reason, after that film, a producer read my script of The Incredible Melting Man, which at the time was called Night of the Ghoul, and hired me to direct the film, again with hardly any money. We had, I think, fourteen shooting days. As with There is no 13, the original script was not a “normal” film. However, during shooting, the producers began to notice that it wasn’t becoming a standard horror movie. The wars began, which are documented in multiple interviews. The films I have made since have been a mixture of genres. After working on one kind of movie I want to do something completely different. I also didn’t want to make a film that anybody can make and that would look pretty much the same. I have been offered TV directing jobs and turned them down for this reason. I also decided that I didn’t want to work for anybody else anymore. I learned the hard way that if I can’t go with my gut and try to do what other people want, I can’t do a good job and the movie suffers. I have done a lot of fixing jobs since Joe. I like doing that because it’s always a challenge, and because the producers are usually desperate they let me do what I want. Other than There is No. 13, there are two films I have made that I had that freedom, The Last Hour (Concrete War in some territories), which I enjoyed making, and Spooky House, which is a family film. Even though I had final cut on Spooky House, I really didn’t. I wanted to cut one scene with some bullies. After a screening for kids I asked them if they thought I should cut the scene. A 7-year-old girl in a pink dress stood up and told me I had to leave it in or kids wouldn’t appreciate it when the good kids get the bullies. I left it in. After all, that’s who the film was for—the audience. Spooky House went on to win all the top prizes at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Several of the films you have made, like The Incredible Melting Man and Galaxina, you wrote and directed. Does the filmmaking process differ largely for you, than when you only direct? Like on The Last Hour? When I write a script I see and hear everything in my head, from the color of the walls to the dialogue. I’m essentially watching the finished movie in my head. My job as a writer/director is to get that movie from my brain to the screen through people. That’s why I like writing and directing. I have a problem with writing too much description and have had to learn to cut it down, so when I’m working on it I have to explain what I want to the crew and others verbally and through pictures. I have only directed one film I didn’t write. That’s The Last Hour. What I liked about the script is that it was a blank canvas and I had a chance to do some visual experimentation. I needed to make some changes to make the film mine. Of course, the writer was a little bit pissed when he saw the finished film. Who were your filmmaking heroes growing up? And who still inspires you now? I love the surrealists, especially the ones mentioned in the review for There is No 13. I also enjoy Grindhouse films and movies that are like visual comics. I like old black and white WW2 era American and British films, Capra and Capra-style films. I like Japanese directors like Kaneto Shindô, whose Onibaba took place in a swampland or somewhere where there were tall reeds in just about every shot. You really felt as though you were in there with the characters. And Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, Terry Gilliam, Michelangelo Antonioni, Sidney Lumet, Sergio Leone, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. I loved the shots in the Raging Bull fight scenes, but then I saw an old black and white boxing movie from the forties or fifties (I don’t remember the title) that had a lot of the same shots and techniques Scorsese later used in Raging Bull. I was taken aback. Raging Bull is still an excellent movie but not as original as I had thought. I also admired the avant-garde filmmakers from the 60’s and 70’s, especially Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas. I enjoyed Scott Bartlett's’ OffOn and Pas de deux, which is a 1968 short by Norman McLaren. One of my favorite films of all time is La Jetée by Chris Marker, which was made from still photos. But you have to watch the original one with the French narration (with subtitles if you don’t understand French) because the narrator is almost hypnotic. I have seen it in English and the mood is lost by a flat narration, or actually, the lack of a mesmerizing narration. La Jetée was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys. Sometimes I like some of a certain director’s movies, but not all of them. For example, Sam Raimi for the Evil Dead movies (mostly Evil Dead 2) and George Romero for Night of the Living Dead which was part of the inspiration for The Incredible Melting Man. I like Alejandro Jodorowsky, and ironically had to do a little fixing, mostly editing, of one of his films (secretly) because it was required by the distributors and it was part of the contract. I hated to do it because it was his “art.” Actually, a lot of my fixing jobs have to remain secret. Producers don’t want people to know their film was ever in trouble. I am trying to think of who inspires me now as a director and nobody jumps out at me. I like some films for the films themselves, but I can’t think of anyone whose film I’d rush out to see. I think the spirit I felt in the sixties and seventies is gone. If I had to name some, I’d say David Lynch, Terrence Malick, David Cronenberg, Quentin Tarantino, Jonathan Demme (who acted in The Incredible Melting Man, but that’s not why), both of the Scott brothers (Tony Scott’s death was a great tragedy), and Paul Greengrass. If you had any advice for filmmakers in 2017, what would it be? Make films. It’s easier now that you don’t have the cost of film and processing. Do whatever you need to do. When I was living in London and hadn’t started film school yet, somebody gave me a roll of 16mm film. I didn’t have a camera. I was living in the basement of a residence hotel just off Queensway. I had traded my 8mm movie camera for three months’ rent (which included meals) and my watch for more months. There were two adjoining rooms, which had been for storage, and the owner let me do what I wanted with them. So I had two rooms and painted one room completely black and one completely white―everything, even the furniture, which I found in the basement. Anyway, I boiled the film and then unrolled it out across the entire hotel basement. Then I took a paint scraper and scraped off the emulsion. I went to a stationary store and bought some plastic arrows, circles, boxes, etc., which were for presentations, and stuck them on the film. Then I spray painted the film with different colored paint and moved it about so the paint would run. Then I removed the plastic things during different layers of paint, so the colors would change. I did a sort of animation thing so that the arrows would shoot at the dots and squares or something, and when it was finished I showed it to someone who showed it to the Pink Floyd. The group arranged for me to meet them at the UFO club, which was in the basement of the Blarney Club on Tottenham Court Road. They first showed it there. You can probably see some of it online. While I was talking to them, Yoko Ono (pre John Lennon) came over and asked me if I wanted to be in her celebrity naked butt film, called No. 4. All I had to do was walk naked on a treadmill. I thanked her and declined. The group used my film there and in some concerts. Somebody told me it was in one of their music videos. There was one copy, and I never saw it again. I guess it wore out after a while. Your back catalogue has a lot of science fiction in, a genre which often struggled to break into the mainstream. Do you think that has changed with the arrival of streaming platforms? Streaming has changed the entire world of film, for both the good and bad. While it allows for more films to be shown, it loses the aura of sitting in a theater (or cinema in the UK), with a lot of other people sharing the experience. This is especially apparent with so called cult films. What would you pick as the most important aspects of storytelling? Everything is important. You need to create a world and keep the audience in it. When I fix a film, I have a checklist in my head, and as I watch I sort of unconsciously check off good and bad things. When the film is finished my brain lets me know if there were more likes or dislikes. If there are more dislikes, which there usually are, I work to change the score around. What are you up to at the moment? After Spooky House, which I co-wrote with my wife, raised the funding for, produced, directed and distributed myself, I felt burned out and didn’t want to make movies for a while, so I have been doing some commercials, PSA’s (Public Service Announcements), and a lot of writing, as well as consulting on scripts. Right now, I have a couple of projects in consideration, have optioned two properties. One is a great script my wife found by a Canadian writer. The other is the life story of Dean Gunnarson, one of the top ten escape artists in the world. I first met him when he was one of our magician technical advisors on Spooky House. I also have a long running project about the assassination of Martin Luther King called MLK. I have a production company interested in it, as well as a few of my other projects. I am also writing a horror/thriller script, and am attempting to write a book, which is very different from writing scripts, so I have to get my head around approaching the writing in a different way. What would you say if you were a dolphin? I once touched a dolphin and it felt nice, like the top of a Sara Lee pound cake. I don’t know how it felt to the Dolphin, so I’d say: "BILL THE DOLPHIN. Pet me!" #FilmmakerInterviews #Interviews #ChrisOlson #WilliamSachs #Scifi #Filmmaking #FilmFestivals

Written & Directed by Jermaine Yeun Starring Mathias Olofsson, Eleanore Knox, Kazuyo Kitada Short Film Review by Taryll Baker Jermaine Yeun’s Old World should instead be titled ‘Odd World’ due to its strange yet imaginative storytelling style. Technically, it’s an incredibly satisfying film. It’s shot with cool and unique skill, utilising various colour grades suited to each scene. The acting is fairly decent, too. But it’s the screenplay that fails to entrap me as I watch, questioning when something of interest may happen. It’s certainly not a ‘bad’ film, it’s just lacking the ingredients to be a great one. Let’s start with the production. There’s no denying it’s a beautifully crafted film - from the cinematography by Guillermo Peña Sanchez and editing by Sarah Schmidt, to the make-up by Shannon O’Riley, Xanthe Jeffrey & Elizabeth Lewis and music by Connor McEwen - it’s evident from back to front. It is known that short films may lack in quality, especially in sound, grading, prosthetics. Not here. In Old World it’s very well handled. A lot of talent is present in every nook and cranny and it’s truly wonderful to see. The story is simple; Jack Rigby (Mathias Oloffson) meets a mysterious woman known as The Wolf (Eleanore Knox). After their exchanges, Jack finds himself conflicted with his agenda: to kill her. It’s an interesting plot with lacklustre writing. Not once did I find myself feeling invested or engaged by this dampened tale. It had potential, given the amazing production, but it unfortunately falls short of the mark. Each actor performs fairly well, managing to salvage the sinking ship before it’s completely at a loss. Mathias Oloffson is a ‘moody’ detective, playing the role with subtlety in mind. Eleanore Knox provides a dark portrayal as The Wolf, but the chemistry between the two never feels true. This is mainly due to the writing of the characters, and with the 14-minute duration I’d have expected some more depth. Original music by Connor McEwen is the traditional horror-esque soundscape, supplying the picture with an eerie yet beautiful score which feels reminiscent of Fernando Velázquez’s Crimson Peak soundtrack. Yet, it suddenly jumps to a soft Jazz approach, only adding to the films evolving mood. “Here I was hoping you were going to be interesting, Mr Rigby.” - A line spoken by The Wolf, which seems to resonate with me when discussing this film. If the script and characters were built upon, we’d have a significantly improved and superior film. I must reiterate; Old World isn’t at all bad. It’s just shy of being great. #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilms #TaryllBaker #MathiasOlofsson #EleanoreKnox #KazuyoKitada

Directed by Mansu Edwards Starring Shaun Malik, Sabine Simon, Oscar Lewis, Esan Skeete, Audie T Rhodes Short Film Review by Andrew Galvin Technological fears have long been a major mainstay of science fiction cinema. From Metropolis through 2001 to AI, scores of genius filmmakers have explored how our reliance on technology will ultimately be our downfall. Although Mansu Edwards' film Texting In New York City could in no way be mistaken for a journey into sci-fi, it’s wariness of our umbilical connection to our mobile phones remains its dominant theme. By focusing on the social element of a very modern fear, the filmmaker’s ideas are more relevant than ever. In essence, Texting In New York City is a silent film, with dialogue communicated through subtitles. Following a mobile phone that causes chaos after being left on the subway one evening, this choice could represent how young, inner-city people today communicate over text. Whether or not this is true, the decision to tell the story in this experimental way is both a huge advantage and its ultimate downfall. Removing spoken dialogue takes the pressure off inexperienced actors, and their performances as a result are uniformly excellent. However, in just ten minutes, it makes it far more difficult for the viewer to get to know the ensemble cast, their characters and motivations get lost in the mix very quickly as a result. This also applies to the storytelling, which is often muddled and unclear. Viewers will be able to tell that characters are meant to be linked together, but it isn’t exactly clear how. For example, the anonymity that a stolen phone brings is taken full advantage of by Fredo (Oscar Lewis, whose charisma leaps off the screen), but when he meets his female target, it’s never clear who she thinks she is meeting, and if she knows them or not. This lack of clarity runs through to the finale when another connection isn’t fully explained, and it’s left to an awkward final frame of text to wrap up the story. Despite all of this, Texting In New York City in a film to be praised. Despite using electronic music that sounds like three seconds of Aphex Twin looped into infinity, Edwards’ new and experimental spin on a well-worn theme is both down-to-earth and heralding of an exciting and fresh voice in American cinema. It’s worthy of your time, just make sure you don’t watch it on your phone… #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilms #AndrewGalvin #silentfilm #MansuEdwards #ShaunMalik #SabineSimon #OscarLewis #EsanSkeete #AudieTRhodes

Written and Directed by Vangelis Papadiochos Cinematography by Tasos Poziadis Sound Design by Alex Geranis Starring Ioanna Vogiatzi Short Film Review by Euan Franklin Force Majeure. Nope, not the acclaimed Swedish drama from 2014. I suppose there’s no copyright issue, since ‘force majeure’ is a Latin term used in law to describe a ‘superior force’. In 2014, Robert Östlund focused his force majeure on a devastating avalanche in the French Alps. The writer-director Vangelis Papadiochos, on the other hand, uses aliens. Within an unnamed Greek city, a woman known only as “the girl” (Ioanna Vogiatzi) completes various chores in and around her apartment. She hangs her washing, watches X-Files, and calls her boyfriend. But there is a looming extra-terrestrial presence wobbling in the skies. When “the girl” attempts to investigate the strange happenings around her, she finds more than she intended. The film is a tedious experience. It feels like someone telling a joke with a bloated set-up and an underwhelming punchline. There are six minutes of a boring protagonist meandering around her flat, doing nothing of note, which all builds up to a moronic payoff in the final scene. This would be somewhat forgivable if the character was unique, or even vaguely interesting. But aside from her mother and her boyfriend, who works at the observatory, we don’t learn anything about our hero. It’s not Vogiatzi’s fault – she appears to be doing her best. But Papadiochos gives her nothing to react to. It’s like he’s moved the camera and focused on a hopeful extra who has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Even though it’s clear he wants to preserve an admirable air of mystery, it only regurgitates as laziness. The occasional noise from a flying saucer is offered as medicine, but it’s a wasted effort. The seventh minute offers a shadow of curiosity, but quickly dissolves once the film cuts to the credits. Papadiochos creates a weird and ominous tone, which unsettles us from the start. The monochrome cinematography from Tasos Poziadis is bleak with strong contrast, which reminds you of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, particularly with its flickering lights and overcast skies. Alex Geranis’s nightmarish sound design is also, for the most part, decent and innovative in its purgatorial atmosphere. Unfortunately, this is where desperate comparisons have to stop. Most of the visuals are respectable, but some of the interiors look as underprepared as a GCSE Media project. And even if this can be ignored, the cinematography is constantly undermined by cheap and clumsy subtitles. Since Greek viewers don’t need a translation, they’re probably watching a slightly better movie. English-language viewers, however, are subjected to horrifying punctuation as well as a mixture of white and black lettering for overexposed spots, which is an amateur solution to a mediocre problem. Overall, the film is an unremarkable disaster. Vogiatzi gives a decent performance and the cinematography is (mostly) competent, but Papadiochos commits the sin of every first-time filmmaker: creating mystery and ambiguity to mask a lack of budget and imagination. It’s clear he wanted more to happen in the story, but couldn’t pull it off. I wouldn’t hasten to call the film a waste of time, but you are wasting your energy if you’re expecting something, anything, to happen. If this is a force majeure, it’s hardly a powerful one. #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilm #EuanFranklin #WorldCinema #VangelisPapadiochos #IoannaVogiatzi

Directed by Jake Olive Starring Adam Coveney, Lizzy Owen Smith, Zak Stratton-Taylor, Jake Olive & Benjamin Gee Short Film Review by Daniel Reason Transition is a unique film by Jake Olive that explores time travel and multiple dimensions in a very ambitious way, especially for a short film. By having some clear influences from other movies - for example Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010) and Rian Johnson’s Looper (2012) - it feels familiar, while still feeling fresh and creative, which leads to a new experience. Adam Coveney’s performance as Rick Bridgers is a clear highlight, as he carries us through the film perfectly. We are always on his side and we want him to succeed, this is to be applauded as our connection begins within the first few lines of dialogue. The dialogue doesn’t feel forced, but rather necessary. We are not constantly bombarded by exposition, as it is left to us to try to answer the many questions that are asked – the film doesn’t hold our hands and give us the answers directly, but rather it respects the audience and allows for more of a conversation about it’s meaning. However, the dialogue is a bit too fast at times and so this can lead to some minor confusion – this is primarily due to the film being quite fast paced, despite its roughly 12-minute run time. The screenplay is written magnificently, by Jake Olive. It is easy to understand and does make a great first impression. Its consistency is to be admired, as it would be easy for a film, such as this, to become ridiculous and too unbelievable, due to themes that are being explored, but it is easy to grasp and will not leave you in a state of confusion. The music is used incredibly well and matches the fast pace perfectly. The Hans Zimmer score that was used throughout suits the tone of the film brilliantly. Jake Olive once again demonstrates his talents through his editing – it’s fantastic, especially in the final act. It seems to run parallel within the music and adds to the film’s energy. The cinematography, by Abbie Humphries and Zak Stratton-Taylor, is very well done as well. The use of environmental lighting is used effectively, which leads to some breath-taking shots – in particular, when the characters appear as silhouettes within a sunset background, an image that will be implanted in your brain even after the credits have stopped rolling. Transition provides us with an alternative twist on time travel, the possibility of multiple dimensions and asks whether it is possible to travel between them. It grabs your attention from the first moment and takes you on a mind-bending journey. While some things are, unfortunately, left unexplained, it will have a lasting impact and will encourage multiple viewings to understand it more – and you will want to watch again. #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilms #DanielReason #JakeOlive #AdamCoveney #LizzyOwenSmith #ZakStrattonTaylor #BenjaminGee

★ Directed by Segun Williams Starring Cuppy Otedola, Martin O’Whyte, Tope Adeloye Animated Film Review by Andrew Galvin This is not an easy review to write. The creators of animation The Secret Princess have posted copious behind the scenes footage on YouTube, to show just how much work has gone into its production. Director Segun Williams is on a quest to tell an African love story with very little money. It’s a shame then that there is nothing to recommend the film, and hard work behind the scenes does not change that. And it’s not just because of the low budget: yes the animation is abysmal, looking like a dreadful cut-scene from a cheap 90s video game. Yes, the voice acting and sound effects sound like they were recorded down the world’s longest well. Yet all of this is forgivable. What isn’t however, is that The Secret Princess is a dreary film that is utterly broken from the foundations up. Telling the story of a king’s child swapped with that of a villager at birth, very little of the storytelling adds up or makes any sense. From the start, the film’s narration is muddled, jumping from character to character to, for some reason, a talking parrot. This means the film’s central voice is lost. The Secret Princess is clearly aiming at a very young audience, but the narrative lines are so smudged—characters appear and disappear across huge chunks of the film—that it’s hard to keep track of who everyone is in a very basic story. Far from budget, the blame here lies with poor screenwriting and wrong-headed directorial focus. Then we get to the voice cast, who are, to put it kindly, rather inconsistent. A few, such as Sade’s mother, do a decent job and sound at least halfway professional. Other voice actors never seem to have read words before: half mumble their way through; others use emphasis strangely, meaning the wrong words are stressed in the wrong places. It doesn’t help that several audio guffs—fluffed lines, microphones being knocked, varying levels of echo when characters are standing next to each other—have made it through the edit. It all adds up to a feeling that the film is unfinished and needs another six months in post-production to sort out these problems and develop an editing style that doesn’t feel like a 94 minute movie trailer. It’s worth bearing in mind that many stellar directors have made dreadful first steps into the industry (James Cameron’s Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, anyone?), but it’s hard to see a bright future from a film this slapdash, dull and badly directed. However, if Williams does make it, this is one Princess he may wish to keep a Secret for as long as possible. #AnimatedFilmReviews #Animation #AndrewGalvin #SegunWilliams #CuppyOtedola #MartinO39Whyte #TopeAdeloye

★★★ Directed by Nacho Vigalondo Starring Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens Film Review by Brian Degning (@brian_degning) Colossal is not easy to put into a genre; part ‘giant monster movie’, part ‘feel good’ film and part ‘relationship drama’, it contains the hallmarks of all three and this is in many ways the film's strongest asset and biggest failing. Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a struggling writer with a drinking problem who parties too hard causing boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) to kick her out. Alone and frustrated she returns to her hometown where she reunites with childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) who, as fate would have it, happens to run a bar. As the film steers in one direction suddenly we find a strange connection between Gloria and a huge, rampaging monster who is terrorising Korea. As Gloria begins to find out more about the ‘Monster’ she starts a journey of self-discovery and…well to say any more would spoil things and this is certainly a film best viewed without knowing much about it, suffice to say the story is as strange as you may expect. The biggest surprise out of everything is the performance of Jason Sudeikis, beginning as the usual ‘funny friend’, he thrives in a role that has many more layers than expected. His delivery and screen presence take a character that could be pantomime and make him real. Dan Stevens is solid enough, although an actor of his talent has every right to expect to be given more to do. Of course, the central performance of Anne Hathaway is the most important and she is, well, fine. Never seeming desperate enough, or distressed enough, to be an alcoholic she does hit the right emotional notes necessary to be a strong lead. Visually everything looks great, the contrast between the small-town drama and the fantastical city destroying action is executed well, edited tightly and scored appropriately. The rest of the film, however, struggles badly to mesh the different ideas and tones quite as effectively. At the midway point of the film there is a particularly jarring shift in story that felt like a different film. Suddenly the original, funny, sweet film goes very dark and a character changes so quickly it feels like a few important scenes had been cut from the middle. For a film that varies so much from big action to small comedy it really didn’t need psychological drama thrown into the mix. While Colossal is filled with original ideas and is comfortable with the story it wants to tell, the result seems like three different ingredients mixed together to produce and interesting but not very tasty cake. Good performances, some nice character moments and a star turn from Sudeikis, along with big ideas are enough to enjoy this film. And while it should be applauded for having the bravery to try something different, it does suffer from a lack of commitment to a central tone. #FilmReviews #TheatricalReleases #BrianDegning #SciFi #Scifi #ScienceFiction #AnneHathaway #JasonSudeikis #DanStevens #NachoVigalondo #Monsters

★★★ Directed by Patty Jenkins Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston Film Review by Kirsty Asher As I sat down to watch this film, I received a news notification that Donald Trump had decided to pull out of the Paris Agreement. It’s hard to settle down to a film where you can trust that a superhuman will swoop in to save the day when, in reality, any current evidence of real truth and justice in this world seems hard to find. The post-9/11 production line of superhero films from the past decade or so have been undoubtedly much-needed: in the aftermath of a bewildering disaster the Hollywood industry gave its audience respite in the heroic, as beloved American comic book icons sprung to life and into action against some dark foe or other. And this latest turn by DC (goddess, help them) pits Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) against the darkness of the German army in World War I. The film begins with the almost obscenely idyllic setting of Themyscira, a vibrant matriarchy where Diana is raised by her mother Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) from whom she receives wisdom and temperance while learning the craft of combat from the fierce, battle-hardened General Antiope (Robin Wright, on brilliant form). The Spartan scenes of female warriors training together is such a welcoming sight for a female action film lover; women supporting each other as they work to improve themselves, their bodies coiled ropes of skilled muscles. This film follows fluidly on the heels of Mad Max in steering the discourse of action films towards a dynamic, progressive portrayal of feminine athleticism, and the Grecian mythology backdrop complements this perfectly. Gadot in the eponymous role gives a fantastic blend of wide-eyed innocence and sassy common sense. She is able to storm through the patriarchal world of 1910s England to complete her quest because no man has ever been present to hold her back and her frankness brilliantly alarms and disarms the American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). Interestingly, Pine’s first major feature debut was as the male love interest to a female protagonist in the forgettable 2006 Lindsay Lohan rom-com Just My Luck. Here, just as in that film, he creates a witty and interesting supporting character who doesn’t dominate the screen, toning down his Kirk swagger to give us a humbled character who yearns for a better world and who, importantly, knows the limits of this power. All this is well and good enough, but as with the rest of the DCEU, the overall production just misses the mark for me. The common thread seems to be the screenplay, which consistently lacks the zinging wit and self-awareness found in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Wonder Woman et al are arguably the most earnest examples of American comic book morality, and yet when translated into screen media it comes across as two-dimensional and ultimately falls flat. The plot- twist and its showdown devolves into a campy wham! kapow! catastrophe worthy of a Transformers film, erasing everything the film worked hard to construct in the first 80 minutes. In the end, the average script with its attempts at ideology and philosophy betrays the promising set-up and sadly abandons Wonder Woman to become just another superhero film: another bad guy to kill, another problem fixed. The vital message that love will ultimately win just doesn’t sit well when coming from an all-powerful goddess, a fictional creation who we only wish could actually exist. In the Post-Truth era, I find it hard to drink up this milkshake of sincere optimism. Has Gadot’s Wonder Woman furthered the positive representation of women onscreen? Without a doubt. Has the rest of the film offered anything new to the superhero genre? Not really. Watch the official Movie Trailer for Wonder Woman below... #FilmReviews #TheatricalReleases #MovieTrailers #KirstyAsher #Superheroes #DC #PattyJenkins #GalGadot #ChrisPine #ConnieNielsen #DannyHuston

Directed by Aaron Weinstein Starring Aaron Weinstein, Charles Bush Animated Film Review by Brian Degning (@brian_degning) Say What! is a short film which follows a young jazz musician, also our narrator, attempting to ward off the advances of various members of the public, mostly elderly ladies, who either constantly remind him how young he looks or tell him they have the ‘right girl’ for him. Told via voiceover, with animation by Bob Zeiring, the film has a strong script and like all great short films keeps the story tight and builds to a nice conclusion. Almost like a joke told by a stand-up comedian, the script has a fantastic way of circling back to the beginning to maximize the punchline while giving the viewer larger than life caricatures of the people around him. Visually Say What! looks gorgeous too, editing together various wonderfully rendered stills in such a seamless way that it never feels cheap or boring. With a series of penciled sketches cast against a white background it shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does and helps identify with the artistic creativity of the narrator. The images are underpinned by an equally effective light jazz score, creating a sense of being right in the room as the poor musician is being hounded by the rich, carnivorous grannies who are determined to marry him off to some relative or another. The film looks great, sounds fantastic, is edited together well and has a good script. So, what’s not to like? The whole film rest on the delivery and voice work of the narrator and sadly it is easily the most disappointing aspect of the film. Coming across very one note, borderline smug, the narrator’s voice simply did not capture the interest and as a result the jokes, while well written, fell flat. In a film like this there must be complete engagement and sympathy with our main character but that connection isn’t there. Instead there was a distance and a feeling that the material deserved better delivery. One other curious decision was in the casting of a male actor to voice the other characters, who are mostly elderly females. This may have been the intent, to make it appear like the narrator was recounting the events to us but, sadly, there isn’t enough difference in tone to really separate the characters from one another and feels like an opportunity to add some much-needed variety was wasted.