(Release Info London schedule; June 14th, 2919, Cineworld Greenwich, The O2, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX, United Kingdom, 21:10pm) "The Hummingbird Project" From director Kim Nguyen comes a modern-day 'David & Goliath' story that is equal parts financial thriller and human drama, excavating the pitfalls and perils of two men who risk everything in order to have it all. Cousins from New York, Vincent Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg) and Anton Zaleski (Alexander Skarsgård) are players in the high-stakes game of 'High Frequency Trading', where winning is measured in milliseconds. Their dream? To build a fiber-optic cable straight line between Kansas and New Jersey, making them millions. But nothing is straightforward for this flawed pair. Anton is the brains, Vincent is the hustler, and together they push each other and everyone around them to breaking point on their quixotic adventure. Constantly breathing down their necks is their old boss Eva Torres (Salma Hayek) a powerful, intoxicating and manipulative trader who will stop at nothing to come between them and beat them at their own game. No matter what the cost, Vincent and Anton are determined to cut through America, only to find redemption at the end of their line, not through money, but through family and reconnecting to the land. Cousins from New York, Vincent and Anton are players in the high-stakes game of high frequency trading, where winning is measured in milliseconds. Vincent is the hustler and Anton is the brains; together they push each other and everyone around them in their quixotic quest to attain 'The Ultimate American Dream'. Embarking on 'The Herculean' task of installing a fiber-optic cable in a straight line between Kansas and New Jersey, so they can yield faster trades and greater riches, the cousins clash with their rapacious former boss, Eva Torres, a hedge-fund manager who tries to beat them at their own game using a rival technology. Racing against time, navigating heavy machinery, stubborn landowners, and the elements, Vincent and Anton move mountains to cut through America and get rich faster, only to find redemption and renewal at the end of the line. The film exposes the ruthless edge of our increasingly digital world.   "The Hummingbird Project" speaks to the ridiculousness of our monetary pursuits; and the humanity behind getting rich quick. The film takes this massive, real-world concept of high frequency trading and placed two unique and unusual people in the middle of it. The story centers on high-frequency trader cousins Vincent and Anton, second-generation 'Eastern European New Yorkers' who leave their 'Wall Street' trading-floor jobs to construct a fiber-optic line stretching from 'The Midwest' to 'The East Coast', guaranteeing faster trades. The film's title suggests an inconceivable task, laying a cable in the earth that can transfer data from Kansas to New York in the time it takes a hummingbird to flap it's wings. Much of "​The Hummingbird Project​'s" story plays out on the open road, with Vincent and his hired crew of diggers and drillers troubleshooting the line as it stretches across the American heartland. With Vincent in the field wheeling and dealing over land rights, boring through granite mountains to keep the project heading in a straight line, his cousin Anton barricades himself in hotel rooms around the country, writing algorithmic code to outpace Eva Torres microwave-tower technology. It's also an immigrant's tale set in the digital age, telling the story of second-generation cousins of 'Eastern European' descent who are trying to attain 'The American Dream' after successful careers on 'Wall Street'. After burning it all down on the trading floor, Vincent and Anton strive for an event greater net worth. Vincent and Anton Zaleski have risen through the ranks of the financial sector as trader and quant, respectively. At the story's outset, they find themselves frustrated not only with their jobs but also their positions in life. Fast-talking and entrepreneurial, Vincent wants to get rich quick and take down his competition, including his former boss Eva Torres, who will stop at nothing in her own right to implement and patent the technology for faster trades. Vincent is a salesman who wins arguments by talking around his opponent, if he pauses to think, he could be vulnerable to counter-argument. He spends most of the movie living in the delusion that his project will be flawless, as he tries to convince people to invest in his vision. He literally can't afford to take a breath. Anton, in contrast, is an introverted quant more comfortable crunching numbers at a computer terminal, quietly longing for a simple country life far from the madness of the financial sector. In an early scene, after finding an investor to fund their fiber-optic scheme, Vincent and Anton quit their jobs in Eva's firm and brazenly embark on the adventure of a lifetime; trying to beat the very system that shaped them. Vincent rents drilling machinery and negotiates land rights while Anton perfects the algorithm that will hopefully yield them untold riches. Vincent is the salesman of the operation who's more ambitious than he's thoughtful. He doesn't just want to succeed in the financial system, he wants to beat it by going around the establishment. He's interested in winning regardless of the consequences to him or the world around him, and while he's a smart guy, he doesn't always think before he speaks. Without his cousin Anton, he would probably be selling fake 'Gucci' handbags on the streets of New York City. Skittish and reserved in the face of Vincent's brash, live-wire determination, Anton is a balding husband and father who happens to be a math genius, capable of seeing order in the chaotic flow of numbers and data that course across his computer terminal in a given second. He's socially awkward and probably on 'The Spectrum'. His goal in life is to be around the people he can tolerate, and there's not that many, basically his wife and kids, and Vincent, who's his best friend and cousin, as well as Anton's connection to the outside world. He can shelter Anton in a way that allows him to focus strictly on writing code and coming up with new algorithms. At it's heart a 'David & Goliath' story, Vincent and Anton are the underdogs who come up against a much stronger adversary in the form of their one-time employer Eva Torres. Symbolizing rapacious capitalism at it's most extreme, the flashy, foul-mouthed Eva will stop at nothing to gain the competitive edge over her former underlings. 'The Hummingbird Project' reaches it's apotheosis when Vincent, suffering from a serious illness, finds himself negotiating drilling rights with an obstinate Amish farmer who won't yield his land, giving Eva the advantage in their race for speedier trades. By pushing himself to the extreme, and finding himself pitted against a 'Luddite', Vincent discovers that his relentless pursuit of financial gain is an untenable and even unhealthy pursuit. Vincent begins the story with what he believes is his purpose in life but his journey of discovery switches course at a certain point and becomes more about realigning his priorities. The stakes of the journey are resolved but they're completely different than when his journey started. At ​'The Hummingbird Projec​t's' conclusion, Vincent and Anton discover that the object of their pursuit, whether money in specific or 'The American Dream' in general, isn't exactly what they thought it was when they set out on their epic journey. As Vincent and Anton come to learn, sometimes we're blown off course from what we're truly meant to achieve in life. The cousins also realize they're inconspicuous in the face of rapid-fire change, this week's hot technology will be irrelevant before the next big thing comes along, whether neutrino messaging, microwave drones, or something as yet undiscovered. But does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? By 2010.financial companies were spending $2.2 billion on trading infrastructure, the high-speed servers that process trades and the fiber-optic cables that link them in a globe spanning network. One company specializing in trading infrastructure is 'Spread Networks', founded in 2010 with the mission of providing Internet connectivity between Chicago and New York City at close to the speed of light, using so-called dark fiber, or optical fibers, to make faster trades. The first fiber-optic line planted by 'Spread Networks' ran 827 miles, from 'The Chicago Mercantile Exchange', where futures and options are traded, to 'The Nasdaq Data Center' in Carteret, New Jersey, costing $300 million to construct. By October 2012, 'Spread' announced improvements to their line, decreasing the round-trip time from 13.1 milliseconds to 12.98 milliseconds, giving Spread traders a slight advantage over the average round-trip of 14.5 milliseconds. Because glass has a higher refractive index than air, the round-trip time for fiber-optic transmission is 50 percent faster than microwave towers, the technology used by 'The Hummingbird Project​'s' Eva Torres in her battle to outwit and out-earn 'The Zaleskis'. The result became 'IEX', or 'Investors Exchange', a transparent stock exchange that has gone on to trade 229.2 million shares at a collective value of nearly $11 billion. It's a story about the ​people behind trading algorithms and fiber-optic lines, the speed demons who take an unethical approach to high frequency trading, discovering in their pursuit of vast wealth that their lives are not made richer in the process. A cautionary tale for our cutting-edge times, the project positions two scheming underdogs up against the behemoth of global capitalism, symbolized by the ruthless and merciless hedge fund manager Eva Torres. She's the most unique person in the business. She wants to get to places before anyone else and break new ground in technology so she can stay ahead of the game. It's not just about the money for her, this is a movie about obsessions, and Eva's obsession is devouring and co-opting genius. Playing out like a high-stakes thriller that substitutes the trading floor for 'The American Terrain', ​'The Hummingbird Project' becomes a glorified arms race across the country, over hills, rivers, highways, and private farmland, to implement the new technology before Eva can erect her own. She's a woman who's very content in her life, not some robot. You can see the passion in what she does. When things get dangerous, there are tantrums. But she's also heavily focused on strategy, she doesn't take a lot of time to indulge in drama. Eva wants to be intimidating toward people but she dresses simply, in a way that's not distracting. So many women her age are afraid of getting old, but Eva embraces it and even owns it, making a statement of her power through her hair. She's smart, she's fearless, she's a woman, and she's Latina, so she has to be tougher than everyone else. The film includes a voice of sanity and reason in the form of chief engineer Mark Vega (Michael Mando), the project manager of Vincent's vision, who maneuvers and operates the heavy equipment in the field. If Vincent is the mouth of the operation and Anton is the brains, Mark is the heart of the project in that he has to make sure as chief engineer that everything is steady and stable; including Vincent. They're digging this elaborate straight line across the country and someone has to stay level-headed, that responsibility falls on Mark. He joins Vincent's team because he sees this as an opportunity to create something bigger than himself. A kind of bromance develops along the way between Mark and Vincent; at the end of the movie Mark discovers his true purpose, more than finishing the fiber-optic line, is to save Vincent's life. A good portion of ​'The Hummingbird Project' involves heavy machinery, in particular the directional-drilling equipment Vincent must track down and place in the hands of Mark Vega in order to facilitate his dream of laying a 1,000-mile cable between Kansas and New Jersey. Mark Vega has a profound bond with Vincent Zaleski; even when the wheeling and dealing character is at his lowest ebb, Vega sees a human being, working tirelessly to get the job done while at the same time helping to keep his cousin going. Mark is drawn to the humanity in Vincent, he understands his desire to want to leave his mark on the earth, but there's also an underdog quality that Mark relates to, and wants to see through. This film is based on the 2012 ​'Wired' article 'Raging Bulls: How Wall Street Got Addicted To Light-Speed Trading'. One such consultants help make the project more comprehensible to a general audience, including a high-frequency trading expert accustomed to dealing with billion-dollar money flows on a daily basis in his former career as a 'Wall Street' options trader, is ​Haim Bodek, a former 'Goldman Sachs' trader. After working at 'Goldman Sachs' in the late '90s, where he was a successful options trader, and 'UBS', where he was the global head of volatility trading, Bodek formed his own high frequency company called 'Trading Machines', which at the height of it's success in the early 2000s accounted for half a percentage of all 'U.S.' options trading, a huge number for such a small firm. When 'Trading Machines' began losing money, Bodek set about reverse-engineering his own algorithms in an effort to find out why he was hemorrhaging cash. What he discovered alarmed him: traders were rigging the game by manipulating the order in which trades were placed electronically, an especially shrewd trader could effectively jump the line and profit in the millions without anyone knowing. Bodek tipped off 'The Securities And Exchange Commission' on the practice, outfoxing his corrupt rivals by exposing what became known as the largest heist in 'Wall Street History'. Nicknamed 'The Edward Snowden Of Finance' by 'The Russians', Bodek was quickly blackballed by the industry for blowing the whistle on high frequency trading. Bodek is instrumental in helping shape the characters of Vincent and Anton Zaleski, having known and worked with traders and quants for much of his 'Wall Street' career. Vincent and Anton are two individuals who think they can beat the system. What's so interesting about this movie is through it's characters you realize this way of living is not designed for human beings, who are plugged into lunar and sun cycles. Those cycles are slow; 29 days, 24 hours. Like Vincent Zaleski discovers, our obsession with milliseconds is bound to make people sick. Sometimes it's better to slow down; you'll get more mileage out of life when you do. While ambitious in scope and a powerful commentary on the absurdity of our financial institutions, at it's core ​"The Hummingbird Project" is character-driven. This is the rare story about something timely and important in which the characters propel the plot. 'Wall Street' is a zero-sum game. There are winners and losers, and if you're a loser, you've no one to blame but yourself, you simply aren't good enough. Someone else is smarter, faster. At once a high-stakes financial thriller with a gripping cautionary tale on the perils of rapacious greed, and thoughtful human drama about reclaiming life's essentials, "The Hummingbird Project" is a story for our up-to-the-minute times; where a millisecond can determine fortune or failure, and the next big technological advancement could wipe out today's way of doing things almost instantly. This film is about the amazing premise of people digging thousand-mile long tunnels to try and shave a couple of milliseconds off of the time it took to make their stock market trades. We've this haunting image in our head of stock market hustlers struggling to walk through swamps and muddy forests in their expensive suits, putting their sanity on the line all for the good old dollar. It's about quantum physics experts, fiber optic physicists, highly specialized tunnel digging experts who dig hundred-mile-long, four-inch-wide tunnels for a living. High frequency trading experts dealing with billion dollar  money flows on a daily basis. Boy, what a ride. In retrospect, there's something about bringing forward what seems to be a metaphoric world, when in fact most of what's in the script is, in some way, true to life. "The Hummingbird Project" builds on a growing body of work that's global in scope and scale yet intimate in its examination of ordinary people living in extraordinary times, often at the mercy of nature, who connect and conspire amid hurdles ranging from technology, time and distance to warfare and climate. The film is fascinated by the idea of finance professionals digging thousand-mile-long tunnels to try and eliminate milliseconds from their stock-market trades. This is a relatable and very human struggle; one that's rooted as much in the natural world as the digital realm. It's about speed-obsessed quants, the physicists, engineers and mathematicians-turned-financiers who generate more than half of all 'U.S.' stock trading. In the pursuit of market-beating returns, sending a signal at faster than light speed provides the ultimate edge; a way to make trades in the past, the financial equivalent of betting on a horse after it has been run. One of the underlying themes of the film is the elasticity of time, similar to the way Einstein explains 'Relativity'. There's something about our experience of time that's so different depending on our emotional status. Things are becoming so fast-paced that we're losing our sense of reality, and we feel it.

Any Marvel movie that has to follow Infinity War is unfairly going to be compared to the grandeur of that film and while Ant-Man and the Wasp was never meant to be as grand in scale or serious as that film, it just about manages to succeed in being a light-hearted, low stakes affair much like the 2015 original. Not everything here works though and I’d say that it’s the weakest MCU film this year and probably in Phase 3 so far. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just a little lacking to me. For those confused about the film’s place in the timeline, it takes place before Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and syncs up with those events come the end. The story revolves around two major plot lines, the first being that of Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank’s (Michael Douglas) mission to rescue her mother/his wife from the Quantum Realm, while the second involves the threat posed by The Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) to them and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). While I found neither of these plot lines all that investing, it’s the chemistry between the three main leads that holds everything together. Rudd, Lilly and Douglas continue to shine as these characters. Giving Lilly the chance to suit up and become The Wasp for this film was an exciting prospect and she does great in all her action scenes, but there are times where Hope should clearly have been given more input in a scene, but sometimes Scott and Hank will steal the moment from her. Despite this, I felt the character really came more into her own here. Scott Lang continues to be the earnest and underdog hero of the MCU. For me the moments that he has with his daughter are the moments where he’s the real hero and Rudd really sells these scenes. The supporting cast of Michael Peña, Tip Harris and David Dastmalchian are usually the comedic highlights of the film, just as they were in the original, although I was disappointed we didn’t get more of Luis’ (Peña) signature stories. The weakest characters of the film though really fall of the villain side of things. John-Kamen as Ava/The Ghost doesn’t get much to do in the role and the actress doesn’t give a particularly memorable performance either. Her motivations are clear, but understandable meaning she isn’t really much of a villain in the end. This means the only straight-up villain of the film is Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), a black market dealer and he’s too one dimensional and not very threatening either. Overall, the villains of the picture were easily the weakest of Phase 3 which is a shame because Phase 3 has had some pretty strong villains. What’s unique about Ant-Man’s world is the shrinking and growing perspective that adds an often comical and surreal experience to many scenes. The action scenes in particular inventively use the shrinking/growing aspects to create some fun set-pieces. The climax is where a lot of this used; unfortunately a lot of it is shown in the trailer. Actually a lot of this movie was shown in the trailer, including the post-credit scene. However, the technical filmmaking is an all-around improvement over the original with the direction feeling more confident and the actors more settled into their characters. It’s just the story seems to go in circles sometimes throwing off the pace. Director Peyton Reed delivered on everything audiences came to like about the original Ant-Man, but this sequel fails to always be interesting or exciting. It’s many moments of comedy don’t always work and the villains are too bland to feel menacing. It’s certainly a fun distraction while we wait for the next Avengers, but it won’t go down as one of the MCU’s best.

Boy meets girl, they fall in love. A concept older than any medium of storytelling, with hundreds and thousands of books and films that rely on this premise. The Quebecois filmmaker Pascal Plante is one of many who told this story in his feature film debut that has already been shown at several film festivals between Buenos Aires and Edinburgh. Les faux tatouages tells the story of the hardcore punk fans Théo and Mag who live in Montréal and meet after a punk rock show on Théo's 18th birthday. After discussing some music they go to her place and have sex which is only the beginning of a love story whose ending seems already predestined. The premise is one that we've seen a good number of times before, so it's the delivery that counts. And this film delivers on many different levels. This starts in the first scene which has stunning visuals and sound design, and it sets the standard for the rest of the film. It is not only a love story but at the same time a film about music, and the music in the film, mostly by Canadian musicians, works in every scene, sometimes aggressive, sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. The film is a special treat for all fans of punk rock because they will not only know what Théo and Mag are talking about when they first meet, they will also recognise the band shirts Théo is wearing and the vinyl covers on Mag's wall, from Patti Smith over The Clash to The Pixies. The love story itself is very simple. The way glances and touches say more than thousand words, just like opposed to that, the silly talk that only people can understand who have been helplessly in love before. Both elements are there and in its authenticity the film reminds of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, one scene in particular when Mag is playing a song on her guitar for him and all the emotions are in the way he looks at her during the song. The characters in Fake Tattoos have a past, and they have a future too, together or not, but this film takes place in the NOW. While it's obvious that there's darkness in Théo's character and in his past it is never really revealed, even though the film gives some hints about what might have happened. It's not relevant, what matters is the brief relationship that the film focuses on, a relationship that isn't called by its name and gets an expiry date in the beginning. The film is deeply melancholic and optimistic at the same time. It feels very personal and Pascal Plante shows a lot of love - not only for his characters but also for music, punk rock in particular. Both Anthony Therrien and Rose-Marie Perreault give great performances and the beautiful script, the camera work and the sound design contribute their part to form one the most genuinely lovely films of this decade. Every punk rock fan, or every fan of little indie love stories should watch this if they get the chance (hopefully this film will get a decent release). The only thing that could be criticised is that the film might sometimes be a bit too self-indulgent in portraying the romance of Théo and Mag but everybody with feelings should be at least slightly moved by that anyway.

Jesus Christ. It’s Rob Zombie’s house. They came up with the following slogans for “Hereditary“: “The scariest film ever” and “A highlight in horror in the last 50 years“. Well, I wonder what they would say about “Incident in a Ghostland“? I won’t say this is the most masterful horror of all time. And no, it’s not as frightening as “The Exorcist“. That one scared me to death in those days. “Incident in a Ghostland” uses the same concept as in “The seasoning house” and “I spit on your grave“. The sexual abuse of innocent girls and the psychological damage these desperate victims suffer from. It’s not trembling and shaking all the time, but the whole movie you’ll have that uncomfortable feeling. An eye for an eye. Now, the concept of such movies is actually quite simple. In the first instance, they try to shock you with confrontational images so you’ll feel sick with disgust and anger. In such a way that the second part feels like a relief. Just like Jean-Claude Van Damme in his old movies where he fights back and wins, after being beaten up real bad. Or when an almost defeated underdog in a football match can turn the tide. That’s how the second part feels. You are a member of a fan club for the victims who fight back and avenge the injustice done to them. As in “I spit on your grave” where I couldn’t suppress a heartfelt, loud “Yes” with every execution of one of the perpetrators. And the way the victims take revenge should be ruthless and merciless. The more pain, the better. In short, a film that contrasts two opposing feelings frontally. The feeling of destruction, despair and physical pain, versus relief, liberation and a victory. The twist was a surprise. In a way, “Incident in a Ghostland” tries to break this pattern. Yes, there’s that moment of extreme violence and that moment the situation looks desperate. And just when you think it’s going smooth, the film takes a completely new path and the struggle for survival begins again. Further revealing only leads to spoiling the fun for those who haven’t seen the film yet. But the twist in the story also surprised me. To be honest, it’s not often that a film does this to me. Usually, I see it coming a mile away. But not now. Is it something like “Martyrs”? The film was directed by Pascal Laugier who’s best known for his controversial film “Martyrs“. A film that was proclaimed as the mother of all “torture-porn” and apparently rolls over you like a steamroller. An extremely brutal film many found disgusting. I never watched it myself. Deep inside I would like to see this movie but something tells me that the extreme violence will hit me too deeply. That’s why I avoid it. Had I known that Laugier directed this movie as well, I might have ignored it too. And now I’m on the horns of a dilemma. Is this a film where Laugier went soft? Or should I try to watch “Martyrs” anyway? Thumbs-up for the make-up department. Is it worth to watch this movie? Actually yes. And that because it’s beyond simply a brutal “home-invasion movie” with the torture, abuse, and humiliation of young girls. Here Laugier also brings the psychological impact of such a traumatic experience in the picture. He shows how the human psyche works from an individual who experiences something such as this barbaric invasion by two murderous maniacs. It’s not a film for sensitive souls even though the violence isn’t explicitly shown. However, the consequences of these brutal assaults are clearly visible. That’s why I give a thumbs-up for the make-up department. Dark and oppressive. The set-up as a whole is very successful. The house where Pauline (Mylène Farmer) and her two daughters Beth (Emilia Jones \ Crystal Reed) and Vera (Taylor Hickson \ Anastasia Phillips) move in, is a real junk house full of rarities and old dolls. Not that it plays a prominent role in the film, but it contributes to the entire oppressive and dark atmosphere. The acting of the two girls is mainly limited to screaming and anxiously waiting for the two halfwits to show up again. Except for Beth who became a successful writer of horror stories. Until she returns to the hell-house and is being confronted with the suffering. Mother Pauline behaves as a soothing and encouraging character. And then finally you have the two assailants. One crazier than the other, in terms of appearance. One is a goth-like person who you’ll only get to see briefly most of the time. The second a colossal, moronic monster who’s inhumanly strong. A drooling and groaning primate who prefers to play with dolls. And he likes it even better when those dolls are alive. More frightening because of the realism. All in all, “Incident in a Ghostland” is fascinating in a way. Even though the level of sadism is quite high and you can’t shake off the feeling of fear and panic during the whole movie. The entire film is an avalanche of hysteria with that constant sense of helplessness. It’s not a horror movie about possessed houses or paranormal phenomena with the familiar jump scares and creepy moments. This is a frightening film about something that can happen in reality and that we see on the news on a regular basis. The story itself seems rather simple, but Beth’s condition creates an extra dimension. In any case, it’s a lot more frightening than “Hereditary“, THE horror from 2018 (sarcastic tone). My rating 7/10 Links: IMDB

Relapse is a part of recovery. 8 Years ago I found myself in a similar hopeless situation. With my back against the wall. Desperately searching for a way out. Knowing that I had to change my way of life drastically. Or else I would be admiring the roots of green grass till eternity real soon. The will to change was there. The courage too. Only I couldn’t do it. And now, after all those years, I’m happy I made the right decision back then. For me, “Beautiful Baby” was a bitter pill to swallow. I didn’t think I would have a hard time watching it. It wasn’t crystal meth or something similar I had problems with. But there were so many similarities with my situation in this impressive film that it seemed like the story was about me. You’ll see an avalanche of feelings in “Beautifull Boy”. Pride, trust, distrust, despair, upheaval, hope, happiness, grief and discouragement. A hopeless battle that demands inhuman efforts from both camps, leading to an unavoidable outcome. Either the person succeeds or those who surround him must passively watch as he drinks, injects, blows or swallows himself to death. Well, the movie shook me up. Aggression, begging and promises. The nice thing about this movie was that it didn’t only focus on the addict Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet), but also on the people surrounding him (his father David Sheff played by Steve Carell and stepmother Karen by Maura Tierney). As an addict, you don’t have any clue what grief you are causing to relatives during your heydays. Everything revolves around getting what your body yearns for. It’s not like in “Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” and “Animals” where you witness the gradual decline of the addict himself. Both physically and psychologically. It’s not that Nic looks spic and span the whole movie. Towards the end, you can see the terrible consequences of the daily use of methamphetamine. That hazy look and a gray, unkempt appearance. But mainly his changing moods and aggressive behavior towards others are terrible to look at. His begging and making promises are nothing more than an excuse to get some extra cash to buy the drug he needs. I pray this will never happen to one of my kids. The only thing I could say to my wife afterward was: “I hope we’ll never have to deal with this with one of our two kids. Because this is a real nightmare“. As a parent of two children growing up, the thought this could happen to us scares the hell out of me. No matter how much you try to protect them from the evil outside world and you overload them with love and attention, the moment they give in to the things that seem to make their life rosier, you know that you are going to have an unequal battle. A fight where, against all your parents’ feelings, you might have to throw the towel in the ring at some point and have to confess to yourself that you’ve lost the battle. Losing a child is terrible. But breaking the bond with one of your children, pretending that they no longer exist and hoping that they get out of that period unscathed, is dozens of times worse I think. The acting was impressive. “Beautiful Boy” is impressive. And not only because of the theme. The acting of Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet is also unparalleled. You simply feel the desperation of Steve Carell who tries to help his son and always realizes that this isn’t possible. A father who tackles the problem and like an investigative journalist tries to understand what the notorious drugs do to his son Nic. As a comedian, Steve Carell never convinced me. With this role, however, my respect for the actor has only increased. Timothée Chalamet’s performance is certainly Oscar-worthy. You don’t get the feeling that he’s the acting rising star in the Hollywood firmament. It feels authentic, sincere and unforced. These two protagonists may already prepare their tuxedo for the Academy Awards. Proud to be a Belgian. And director Felix van Groeningen (Yes, he’s from Belgium) can also join these gentlemen on the red carpet. Thematically, the film lends itself perfectly to make an exaggerated Hollywood spectacle. But he manages to keep it serene and realistic. Artistic images are processed in an idiosyncratic montage with a lot of back and forth jumping in time. Flashbacks follow each other and the memories of both Nic and Davis flow into each other. I sometimes didn’t know where the story was situated on the timeline. But that’s the only flaw that I can think of in this otherwise impressive film. And all this with a tasteful soundtrack. I never expected to hear “Territorial pissings” from Nirvana in a movie. I was speechless. Some film viewers will probably just say it’s a family drama about addiction. Maybe they also find it monotonous because of the endless cycle of reviving and relapsing. On me, however, it made an overwhelming impression that unleashed a lot of emotions. I hope that every person who falls into the trap of any drug also can fall back on a loving, supportive family full of understanding and support, so they can escape from it eventually somewhere in their lives. My rating 10/10 Links: IMDB More reviews here

If you’re unusually fascinated with the psychological and characteristic fundamentals of serial killers as much as me, you’ll be able to recognize Jeffrey Dahmer without hesitation. Born on May 21st, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. Dahmer committed various malicious crimes such as rape, murder and mutilation of 17 men and boys. Frequently indulging in necrophilia, cannibalism and preserving the body parts of his victims as a declaration of accomplishment. I’ve observed countless articles, books, movies and interviews surrounding Jeffrey Dahmer. So, why on earth was I sympathizing with Dahmer in Marc Meyers latest film, My Friend Dahmer? My Friend Dahmer directed by Marc Meyers is a biographical drama movie that surrounds the childhood of perhaps America’s most notorious serial killer. The film successfully encapsulates the essence and fundamental core of John “Derf” Backderf’s graphic novel of the same name. Derf went to Revere High School, Ohio, the same high school as Dahmer. He and his friends would observe Dahmer’s eccentric behavior as he would fake epileptic fits and impersonate the characteristics of someone enduring cerebral palsy. With this newly found fascination, Derf and his friends would invite Dahmer to socialise and the inaugural meeting of the “Dahmer Fan Club” initiated. Within this “fan club”, Derf and his friends would request Dahmer to use his unique impersonation skills in various environments such as the library or the local mall. Often paying him for his performances. Perhaps this was Dahmer trying to fit in socially or was he just impersonating the interior decorator who visited his mother the previous day as it made him laugh? Ross Lynch portrays Jeffrey Dahmer realistically, resembling an eerie comparison. Lynch even stated that he took extended showers to escape and evacuate the Jeffrey Dahmer character from his consciousness. Jeffrey Dahmer inhabited numerous issues throughout his childhood. His morbid obsession with dismembering dead animals and dissolving their remains in acid. Overcoming the harsh realities of high school. Battling his frustration and understanding his sexual orientation by stalking the jogger consistently. Comprehending the inevitable disintegration of his family. Combating his inescapable alcoholism to subdue his mentality. Ross Lynch encapsulates Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood with his performance. Incubating his suppressed resentments, his introvert characteristic, his zombie-esque movement and the way he struggles to convey his emotions. Lynch studied Dahmer’s stature and his mentality effectively. Marc Meyers took the initiative to shoot My Friend Dahmer in the Dahmer childhood household in Ohio to enrich the realism. The film follows Derf’s graphic novel religiously, however, it heightens specific scenes to incorporate a feeling of tension. One scene in particular which is so bizarre to comprehend was when they had a field trip to Washington, D.C. Dahmer’s friends were conversing, joking about meeting President Carter when Dahmer takes the initiative to phone his office from a nearby payphone. He successfully got through to Vince President Walter Mondale’s office and arranged a private tour. Let me explain myself. My Friend Dahmer is a fascinating character driven story that provokes a sympathetic sentiment towards Dahmer. However, the movie does not justify Dahmer but rather illuminate his serial killer tendencies. Obviously, I’m not a serial killer fanatic that worships and praises these people. I just find the whole psychological and mentality extremely fascinating. It’s funny that I’m justifying myself here. My Friend Dahmer is an exceptional insight into the mind and upbringing of Jeffrey Dahmer. It’s not a gore fest whatsoever, it’s an unnerving study. There is a feeling of sympathy as you watch him trying to fit into high school and the only way he can do is by being a “performance act”. However, Dahmer has recalled his high school days fondly, stating that he did have a good time. Then there’s the problematic family issues surrounding Dahmer too. Drifting away each day as his mother and father undergo a divorce, ultimately leaving Dahmer alone to finally embrace his concealed thoughts.

(Release Info London schedule; July 20th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-arkansas-online "Arkansas" We enter the world of 'The Dixie Mafia', from the 1980s to the present. Two parallel narratives telling one larger story; the three decade rise of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin known only as 'Frog' (Vince Vaughn); and the ground-floor criminal careers of two young guys at the bottom of 'Frog’s' present-day operation, Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) and Swin (Clark Duke). Posing as junior park rangers by day, they operate as low-level drug couriers by night under the watchful eye of 'Frog’s' proxies Bright (John Malkovich) and Her (Vivica A. Fox). Swin then settles into his day job by taking up a relationship with Johnna (Eden Brolin) against orders to blend in while Kyle continues to question his night job by trying to figure out who 'Frog' really is. Their world is then upended after one too many inept decisions, and Kyle, Swin, and Johnna find themselves directly in 'Frog’s' crosshairs, who mistakenly sees them as a threat to his empire. Kyle and Swin live by the orders of 'Frog' , whom they’ve never met, but a series of mistakes leads them into a deadly collision course where the only way out is to eliminate 'Frog' and take over or be killed trying to do so. The 'Dixie Mafia' has long history of criminal cases. A plan to murder a 'Florida' prosecutor in November 1968 was discovered literally by accident, but the thwarted plol served-as a catalyst for police departments throughout 'The South' and 'Southwest' to organize a massive regional intelligence network. Police linked the foiled assassination to a loose association of traveling criminals, and by the next April had organized a regional conference in Atlanta to coordinate informatlon on the group, according to a 1971 'Intelligence' report that was one result of that conference. The report claims the news media picked up the story of the criminal 'Intelligence' meeting and came up with the name 'Dixie Mafia' for this gang, although others have credited the name to a police officer who was instrumental in developing the intelllgence network. The incident which precipitated the intelligence network was a plan to murder 'Escambia County', Fl., prosecutor Carl Harper, who's now a retired circuit court judge. Gary Elbert McDaniel, identified in the report as a burglar and hit man, was involved in a traffic accident near Pensacola. McDaniel had a handgun, a hand-drawn map and notes describing Harper, his personal habits, his car and the location of his garage in relation to his home. McDaniel was charged with conspiracy to commit murder alter interrogation revealed he had been hired by three friends to kill Harper. He was released on bond, and roughly two months later was found in 'The Sabine River' in 'Wood County', Texas, dead from three 38 caliber slugs. A number of gun battles between the thugs and law enforcement officers are reported, including one in January 1969 in which 'Deputy Sheriff' E.R. Walthers was killed and his partner wounded in a gunfight with fugitive James Walter Cherry. Cherry was also wounded and quickly caught. Cherry was convicted of murdering Walthers, but not before three other men kidnapped a woman in 'Little Rock', Ark., in May 1970 as part of a plot to locate a prosecution witness in the murder. One of the abductors was arrested; and less than three weeks later 'Little Rock' police arrested four more men who were burglarizing an auto, parts store to raise bond money for the accused kidnapper. Although elaborately planned burglaries and thefts were a mainstay of the criminals monitored in the report, confidence swindles, scams, were frequently employed and olten netted large sums. A 'Vidalia' man was sold smuggled diamonds for $70,000 in a scam operated by three men, one of whom was supposed to be an independent gem expert. A bank president in 'Guthrie', Okl.; lost $10,000 when he thought he was buying a stolen coin collection. An attorney and a bank president from Jacksonville, Fl.; lost $140,000 in 'Corpus Christi', Texas, believing they're buying old currency and gold coins being hidden from 'The Internal Revenue Service' by a wealthy ranch executive. 'The Florida' victims sued and were awarded a $139,000 judgment against one of the criminals. The 'Vidalia' case was dropped after the victim's money was returned. Surveillance and raids on motels and residences turned up connections between the criminals and public officials. A former sheriff from Georgia and an unidentified state senator, the state was not designated, were among the people noted in the report. Stanley Lee Cook was hospitalized for several weeks alter he was shot during a struggle over his own gun Feb. 1st, 1970. The shooting occurred over the burglary of a house belonging to a former 'FBI' agent who had become friendly with Cook. Seven months later, Cook's wife was shot and wounded. She refused to press charges or tell police what happened. A handgun confiscated during an arrest of suspected 'Dixie Mafia' associates was traced to a police 'Sergeant' in 'Kentucky'; the officer lost his job. The extent to which crimes were planned came to Ught in August 1970 when police in Dallas opened a trailer on which the storage fees had expired at the airport in Dallas. The trailer contained a complete set of safe burglary tools, 83 burning bars, two gas masks, an asbestos suit, two-way radtos, a hydraulic jack, porta-power jack, weapons and diagrams of two proposed bank burglaries. Based on the novel of the same name by John Brandon, "Arkansas" is a gritty, darkly comedic thriller about drug trafficking by the 'Dixie Mafia' in 'The Deep South' from the 1980’s to the present. "Arkansas" weaves together three decades of 'Deep South' drug trafficking to explore the cycle of violence that turns young men into criminals, and old men into legends. 'Frog' is, to use 'Fhe FBI’s' terms, a 'known associate' of 'The Dixie Mafia'. He's a true southern character, wrecked, blown up, arrested; like a Hank Jr. song come to life. This film is about crime and 'The South' and fathers and sons and cycles of violence and how a place with so few economic options can turn young men into criminals. The book 'Arkansas' by John Brandon, it's a gut punch. It's everything we want to write about, all the themes we want to explore, in this eloquent structure with dialog that left us dizzy. 'Arkansas' was his first book and his personal version of the real South. There are no banjos on the soundtrack. The real 'South' is heartbreaking and hilarious, poetic without being sentimental, mannered but brutally honest.

Unlike previous Cartoon Saloon films – which have mixed the fantastical folk-tales with the modern, more grounded elements – The Breadwinner, very purposefully keeps them separate. That's what I'd like to talk about in this post: How the movie uses these vastly contrasting narratives that dance between reality and fiction to explore grief and courage; creating one of the most heart-breaking, uplifting, and powerful film endings I've seen for years. Be warned, this post will contain spoilers; I'd advise you not to read before you've seen the film. The Breadwinner is a movie of two parts: The visually lavish sequences of digitally recreated cutout animation; reserved for Parvana's tale of the "brave boy" and his struggle against the elephant king. In contrast, we have the grittier, dirtier, more grounded style of Parvana's existence. Intercut with Parvana's, the story of the boy is, at first, a form of escapism; for the audience as well as Parvana: A simple plot device to take the edge off some of the more uncomfortable subject matters. In fact, it's far more meaningful, and, as the film progresses, the story becomes an avenue for Parvana to overcome her fears and address grief. During the second act, Shauzia – another girl in disguise, a childhood friend of Parvana's – asks Parvana about her older brother: "But you have an older brother don't you? He used to bring you to school on his shoulders, what's his name?" "Sulayman" - Comes the reply. Parvana is reluctant to talk about him; saying merely he died some years ago, and that her mother won't talk about it. Sulayman's death is clearly still affecting the family deeply, and Fattima – Parvana's mother – has clearly not dealt with it well and seemed to me, to be suffering from depression; explaining Parvana's disinclination to address it directly. When Parvana leaves her house to earn money and buy food for her family, it's Sulayman's clothes she wears; reinvigorating her brother's spirit and memory. Fattima regularly, and unknowingly refers to Parvana by her brother's name; providing us more evidence to suggest she's not fully come to terms with his death. However, after this awkward exchange, Parvana does begin to open up more; bestowing the "brave boy" the name, Sulayman. This seemingly fantastical tale becomes a medium Parvana uses to express herself, conquer her fears, and acts as an insight into the state of her mind. During the more joyous times, Parvana spends with Shauzia; the tale of Sulayman is jovial and humorous. As she recites the story to her younger brother or mother, it's calmer, safer, but also more melancholic. And, as she faces down the horrors of her situation, the story is dark and menacing but full of the strength of courage. As the film reaches the final act, and amidst a bombing raid, Parvana races to the prison in a last, desperate attempt to save her father. Running in parallel, is the "brave boy" (Sulayman), who is struggling up the elephant king's mountain in what appears to be, a vicious and loud storm; perfectly echoing the bombing raid. Parvana begins shouting the story aloud to herself as a means of finding her courage. After arriving at the prison, Parvana witnesses the Taliban lining up prisoners and executing them. Placing her hands over her ears, she calls out for her brother and the movie cuts to Sulayman; fending off several of the elephant king's jaguar minions, and finally coming face-to-face with the elephant king himself. "I have not come to kill you!" - Shouts Sulayman: The elephant king rears up and bellows in provocation. "Sulayman! Soothe him with your story, the one that Mama-jan can't speak of. Tell him!" - Insists Parvana, who has now summoned the strength to confront the truth of her brother's story. "Tell him what happened. Tell him your story!" "My name is Sulayman!" - He begins. "My mother is a writer. My father is a teacher. And my sisters always fight each other." Then, comes the truth of it all: "One day I found a toy on the street. I picked it up. It exploded. I don't remember what happened after that because it was the end." The elephant king roars again and charges down the mountain towards Sulayman who repeats his words. "My name is Sulayman. My mother is a writer. My father is a teacher. And my sisters always fight each other. One day I found a toy on the street. I picked it up. It exploded. I don't remember what happened after that because it was the end." Stopping dead in his tracks, the elephant king stands in front of Sulayman: Reciting his words once again, this time, in a noticeably more melancholic manner. Sulayman has conquered the elephant king, and Parvana has conquered her fears, and rescued her father. The Breadwinner left me awestruck; almost breathless. I've seen it several times now, but the effect from those last few scenes has never abated. To me, everything about this film is as close to perfection as is possible to come. Jeff and Mychael Danna's soundtrack is superb and melancholic. The casting is flawless, as are the direction and screenplay. The stunningly hand drawn and lovingly recreated, digital cutout animation works perfectly together; particularly within the narrative of this movie. In my eyes, The Breadwinner is a must-see film; a testament to the power of animated film, and is arguably one of the best films of the year so far.

It’s intense. The infinite horizon. After a few days, I feel reborn. You know, just you, the wind and the sound of the boat cutting through the ocean. When you compare “Adrift” with the movie “All is lost“, where Robert Redford sailed across the ocean on board of a huge sailboat, you’ll notice some similarities. First of all, you can expect some idyllic footage once again. The words horizon, the setting sun, and sails that blow in the wind can be used to compose a corresponding sentence. In both films, it’s an upcoming storm that ensures that the spotless sailboat is reduced to floating wreckage. And then you see an admirable struggle for survival. These being the similarities, isn’t surprising. What else did you expect in a film about a shipwreck? Similarities and differences. However, there are also some significant differences. Differences which make “Adrift” a more interesting film. First, let’s talk about the conversations. In “All is lost” there are as many dialogue lines as you encounter traffic lights on the ocean. None! But then again, Robert Redford was drifting all alone while Tami (Shailene Woodley) and Richard (Sam Claflin) had each other. If there would be no conversation at all, you could say those two Globetrotters weren’t really meant for each other. And the trip across the Pacific would have been boring as hell for both of them in that case. The most obvious difference is the gender of the person who does everything to survive. And finally, there’s the psychological aspect that reminds you immediately of “47 Meters down“. Before you know it, the storm is over. The film can be divided into two chapters. One part before and one after the storm of course. Don’t expect an apocalyptic drawn-out part with a ferocious ocean that throws the boat around like a walnut after which it finally crushes it like a coconut by a heavy stone. Otherwise, you’ll be disappointed. The devastating storm itself is extremely short. The part that was given a lot of attention, is about Tami and Richard meeting each other. And on the other hand, the terrible period on a destroyed boat with a limited supply of food and something to drink. And as a vegetarian, it’s even more difficult For Tami. Because catching a fish causes her to gag instead of being happy. If I’d be in a similar situation, I would throw away my morals instantly. Lots of flashbacks. In terms of content, both parts were interesting enough. Only the romantic stuff was a bit too much of a good thing. I understand they tried to show the contrast between the pleasant and the difficult moments. And then there’s the least successful part for me. The alternation of fragments from the two different time lines with the help of recurring flashbacks. Just when you are empathizing with the dramatic part of the story, in which Tami tries to cope with the situation and does the impossible to cheer up the badly wounded Richard, they jump back to a romantic scene with those two lovebirds watching a beautiful sunset while drinking a Cuba Libre. Even though these are sometimes scenes with beautiful images, I thought it slowed down the pace and decreased the tension. After every flashback, I thought to myself “Show up, you damn storm. Where are you?“. But once this terrible event is over, it’s still a fascinating film with a well-thought-out twist. Don’t watch when you’re about to go on a boat trip. “Adrift” isn’t a bad movie. Or you hate romantic issues. Or you instantly get seasick when you look at a sailboat. What impressed me the most was the interaction between Shailene Woodley (who effortlessly transcends her acting level from “Divergent“) and Sam Claflin. Their love relationship felt convincing and realistic. No fake moments. They were two wandering souls who met each other by chance and together undertook this adventurous trip. They aren’t married yet and already they experience what it means to be together for better or for worse. The film is based on true facts. Mostly the result is a mocking chuckle when I read this. But for me the result was an enormous respect for that young girl who experienced this disaster. Tami Oldham is living proof that one should not talk about the weakness of women. She proves that women can stand their ground in certain circumstances. “Adrift” shows that the term “Girlpower” is not an empty concept. Only one advise. Best not watch this movie when you’re planning to take a boat trip in the near future. I’m sure you’ll start that well-deserved holiday with trembling knees. My rating 7/10 Links: IMDB More reviews here

Having worked beside KSI covering media for all his Misfits & DAZN Boxing events and having had several closed door conversations with the human rotating door of professions, I was always intrigued the origin of his mindset and how he maintains it indefinitely in the public eye. When I heard a documentary detailing exactly this was debuting this month, it went straight to the top of my watchlist. As the documentary opens, it very quickly reminds you how long it has been in development – since June of 2021, over two and a half years. The timeline is somewhat chronological. While it follows JJ through 2021 and 2022, the documentary retains the freedom to jump forward and back in time to provide context to the current storyline; one such example is the representation of the genesis of the KSI character. I say character, as the film makes sure to depict JJ Olatunji and KSI as two distinct entities: JJ Olatunji is the real, aspirational KSI is the fictional alter ego created by JJ to portray a confident, funny character to win over the internet. As the life of KSI becomes more appealing, the lines between the two individuals get blurred. These benchmarks in JJ’s life allow the documentary to split into three key moments that are spliced together: the origin of KSI, the merging of KSI and JJ Olatunji, and the separation of the two identities. All the important relationships of JJ’s life are put on display. While some are kept private out of personal choice (such as that with his girlfriend), they are still featured in some regard, and their significance in JJ’s journey are still reflected. One that shines in the one-and-a-half-hour feature is JJ’s elastic relationship with his brother, Deji. As most prospective viewers will know, the Olatunji brothers have had a bumpy relationship - they were very close at the start of their YouTube journeys but fell out heavily as their YouTube personas overshadowed the real people behind them. The film has the pair explain in their own words how and why their relationship fell apart and the slow process they embarked on to rebuild it. This is a topic that I was highly anticipating an examination into and is one I think many will be satisfied with. The documentary features deep moments with the Olatunji family, and doesn’t shy away from challenging topics, informing viewers of the many struggles their family went through. Even his parents openly discuss the severe mistakes they made in raising their sons, including their use of physical abuse, and their reasons for doing so, and current regret. The portrayed upbringing of JJ is one I anticipate a lot of viewers will relate to – something I was surprised was so similar to my own. The lives of other people important to JJ’s life and the effect he had on them, good and bad are front and centre. Each of these figures provide their insights into JJ and has them explain why they believe he’s been so successful and what they believe he lacks in his life. What is perhaps the strongest positive I can surmise for the feature, is that despite being a documentary about KSI, the film doesn’t shy away from painting JJ in a bad light at times. It provides a strikingly honest portrait of JJ and how other perceive him and the KSI alter ego. This documentary doesn’t have the typical production value of a TV documentary. The Prime Video budget and care from Mindhouse Productions really shines through the cinematography of the feature, as it’s shot more like a traditional film than a documentary; this extends to the aspect ratio, which adopts the theatrical “letterbox” approach rather than the adapted-for-TV “widescreen” format most documentaries have – this awards the film a larger than life feeling that is fitting to the ambitious and ever-expanding persona of KSI. Even the structure of the documentary deviates from other documentaries in true Louis Theroux fashion. If you’re a fan or are merely interested in the pop-culture personality of KSI, I strongly encourage you to spare an hour and a half to traverse the mind of JJ Olatunji. KSI: In Real Life is an exploratory journey in time that explores sensitive and private topics with full force and uses emotional fragility to its strength. It is an honest and intelligent biographical tour that forces all doors open in the mind of the man behind the internet persona KSI. KSI: In Real Life debuts Thursday 26th on Prime Video. Watch the trailer below:

(London Film Festival, October 8th, 2019, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XT, United Kingdom, 18:10 pm) https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=guestofhonour&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id= "Guest Of Honour" Jim Davis (David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a young high-school music teacher, attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in "Guest Of Honour", a film that weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness. A hoax instigated by an aggressive school bus driver Mike (Rossif Sutherland) goes very wrong. Accused of abusing her position of authority with 17-year-old Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois) and another student, Veronica is imprisoned. Convinced that she deserves to be punished for crimes she committed at an earlier age, Veronica rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure her early release. Confused and frustrated by Veronica’s intransigence, Jim’s anguish begins to impinge on his job. As a food inspector, he wields great power over small, family-owned restaurants. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to use. While preparing Jim’s funeral, Veronica confides the secrets of her past to Father Greg (Luke Wilson) who may hold the final piece of this father-daughter puzzle. "Guest Of Honour" is a twisting morality tale exploring the complicated relationship between Jim, and his daughter Veronica, a young high-school music teacher, and the past that haunts them both. As the film weaves through time, scenes from the past catch up to the present, illuminating dark secrets. Jim is a food inspector working in a multicultural city. For him, each establishment is a potential hazard. He has the power to shut down restaurants not observing health codes. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to wield. Part of Jim’s weekly ritual is visiting his daughter in prison. Having confessed to abusing her position of authority as a music teacher during a high school band trip, Veronica rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure an early release. Confused and frustrated by his daughter’s intransigence, Jim’s anguish begins to impinge on his work. Scenes from the band trip gradually reveal that Veronica and Clive, one of her senior students, turned the tables on Mike, their aggressive bus driver. Their prank spirals out of control and becomes the basis for the charges brought against Veronica. Over Jim’s visits with Veronica, it becomes clear that there's another history at play. Veronica is using the prison sentence to punish herself for earlier transgressions. When she was a young girl, Veronica believed that her father was having an affair with her music teacher. Tragedy unfolds, in which Veronica is implicated, but was never held responsible. As a teenager, she confessed to the teacher’s son, with devastating consequences. Having lived with these secrets for years, Veronica has found a unique way of serving her penance. Jim doesn’t seem at all aware of his daughter’s true history even though he finds himself increasingly implicated in the compelling revelations of Veronica’s personal narrative. Father and daughter move towards a resolution, which is brought to a brutal halt when Jim dies. As she prepares for Jim’s funeral, Veronica confides in Father Greg (Luke Wilson) who may hold the final piece to the puzzle of the past. "Guest Of Honour" is a disturbing and compelling study of perception, memory and forgiveness. As a food inspector, Jim has the power to close a restaurant down, and while he uses this authority to determine other people’s destinies, he desperately tries to understand his own place in the world. Jim’s relationship with his daughter is obviously highly complex, that’s what the film is about. Realizing that the story really begins there, with the death of the mother. Jim is left on his own from then onwards, the fifteen intervening years between Veronica as young girl and Veronica as a woman. We've to understand what Jim so much loved about Veronica as a woman, a woman who’s gone off the rails, a woman who now baffles him, a woman who seems absolutely so incomprehensible in terms of her motives. And seeing that little girl playing the piano, the whole story becomes clear. Of course, there are sub-plots and various metaphorical issues and symbolism and storytelling, but it’s about a man trying to communicate with his daughter, trying to communicate the love he has for his daughter. That's utterly relatable in terms of how so many young people can get lost somewhere between adolescence and early adulthood, in all kinds of things that maybe one wouldn’t anticipate in their earlier years and can be catastrophic. It’s a terrible thing that’s happened really. One of the Jim’s characteristics is this sense of power he wields as a food inspector which may sound a rather banal job description. It doesn’t evoke wonderful images of this is a fascinating character we want to get to know until you really go down that hole and see what the issues are with food inspectors, and what a power-complex this man has. Simply, he can wreak havoc on people’s lives, close down family businesses with the flick of a pen-based on opinion or perfidy. He starts to abuse his power and manipulate his occupation to his own ends. But he’s rather delusional. He sees himself as some saviour, as some campaigner for health and safety, health and cleanliness, the health code is his bible and it takes him over. We've a backstory where he started a restaurant and that seems to have been scuppered by what happened to Veronica. He has to walk away from that business because of the vicissitudes of Veronica’s life and whether he holds some resentment there's another thing to be discussed. Maybe he’s doing this job as some kind of revenge. Now he enters a restaurant with the power to destroy the business, the lives of the owners. His vocation is taken away from him, and now he can visit the same fate on others. There are many levels to this film, you keep discovering. His daughter Veronica is a young music teacher who's passionate about her craft. But, she also carries trauma that bleeds into her relationship with her father. The film explores the complexities of family life. How family can absolutely make you or absolutely break you or both at the same time. The vast breadth of feelings, the turmoil those feelings cause! Music is very important to Veronica, it’s her source of joy and we’ll see in "Guest Of Honour" that she’s not always happy all the time so it will be nice to see the moments where she's lost in her music. She believes that she has found a way to a strange sort of peace in her life, until that is challenged by revelations of a past she never fully understood. She’s a character who’s broken, who makes impulsive, self-destructive decisions. We see her joy in music and we see her dark pain as well. With incarceration, she’s found a way of medicating herself. But it’s not sustainable and then something unexpected happens, which transforms her life. The character who holds the key to this past seems to be a priest. Father Greg is a Texan who's transplanted to Canada, The biggest mystery in the film is whether the food inspector Jim, in asking for his eulogy to be performed by this particular priest, has somehow planned an emotional reconciliation he could never have achieved with his daughter in life. Father Greg is an unusual priest. He knows about Veronica who’s come to see him to arrange a funeral for Jim. As he talks with Veronica to learn details for the eulogy, Father Greg comes to understand that he knows a great deal about her narrative. But he’s bound by oath not to share his knowledge. He breaks his word because, he decides, it's critical for Veronica to understand her father. Rather than see her continue to suffer, living with false assumptions, Father Greg renounces his pledge. As viewers, we can locate ourselves in this very complex narrative in terms of how he sets himself within it. Father Greg has an unexpected front row seat to Veronica’s story. Father Greg is one of those characters that’s woven throughout the story, Not quite a narrator, and not the protagonist, but a figure that intersects with the different characters. In that way, he knows all of the people that the audience meets, at different times and in different situations. And often times, as we find out, he knows these very personal parts of some of the characters’ histories. Father Greg’s character is a way for the audience to keep up with the storyline and these characters whose lives interrelate. You've these imperfect, interwoven characters and then there’s the priest who’s something of a psychiatrist, or a psychologist, or a doctor, somebody that people go to and share their personal stories. “Guest Of Honour" is an emotional investigation of the bond between a father and a daughter. Their history has been rocked by events that neither fully understands. They’re both in a suspended state for much of the film, trying to understand the nature of their connection to one another. There’s a very clear sense of time passing in this film. While we understand from the beginning that their physical relationship has ended with the father’s death, the details of their past are evealed in a form of psychological autopsy. The film finds a cinematic way of allowing the viewer to inhabit they particular world the characters are trying to navigate. The film explores what might be called the emotional chronology of Jim and his daughter, Veronica, a way of measuring their complex feelings. While the structure of the film is non-linear, it's actually based on a simple recounting of the scenes as they flow into the characters’ minds. While the situations specific to Jim and Veronica are extreme, the parent/child bond will be very familiar to audiences. The film creates a sense that for Jim and Veronica the scenes all play in a continuous and sometimes shocking sense of the ‘eternal present’. The film itself becomes a sort of machine through which the characters come to an understanding of what they mean to each other. "Guest Of Honour" is a story told through glass. Apart from the actual glass of the camera lens, which displays the way in which images of the past can be refracted and refigured, there's a literal use of a glass musical instrument woven through the film. The use of glass as a distorting lens, as well as a material which allows the process of creative expression, is an important motif in "Guest Of Honour". The soundtrack wows in unexpected ways, as the characters come to terms with the complexity of their lives and the exoticism of their relationship to their own pasts. Every child feels their parents made mistakes, certain ways in which the parent did not express love, or pay the right sort of attention. Those moments reverberate through our lives in sometimes painful ways. "Guest Of Honour" covers such a wide range of time, you get to see the evolution of specific characters, which is very exciting. Our family has been around us for our entire lives, they’re everything we know. Sometimes we project our feelings onto them, sometimes we feel their words are hurtful, but that’s what having a family is all about. The film ends with an unexpected reconciliation.

(Release Info UK schedule; Leeds International Film Festival, November 10th, 2019, Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Rd, Leeds LS6 1JD, UK, 3:45 pm) https://hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk/film/greener-grass?screeningID=1924 "Greener Grass" Jill (Jocelyn DeBoer) and Lisa (Dawn Luebbe) live in their perfect homes in their idyllic suburban community with their happy families. Their days are spent in the grocery store exchanging fashion tips and at birthday parties complimenting their neighbor's potluck dips. In this dark comedy of manners, soccer moms Jill and Lisa seek the approval of their friends; at all costs. This surreal world is just on the edge of consciousness; suburbia through the looking glass. Every adult wears painful braces on their straight teeth, couples coordinate meticulously pressed outfits, and coveted family members become pawns in this competition for acceptance. In a day-glo-colored, bizarro version of suburbia where adults wear braces on their already-straight teeth, everyone drives golf carts, and children magically turn into golden retrievers, Jill and Lisa are locked in a passive aggressive battle-of-the-wills that takes a turn into the sinister when Lisa systematically taking over every aspect of Jill’s life. As the women desperately vie for validation, they struggle to maintain pleasantry and normalcy, even when things get weird. And they do get weird. When Jill gifts Lisa her newborn baby in an altruistic gesture, paranoia overwhelms Jill while her fears and anxieties quickly unravel. Meanwhile, The Ref (Londale Theus Jr.), a psycho yoga teacher killer, is on the loose and Jill’s husband Nick (Beck Bennett) has developed a curious taste for pool water. That’s just the tip of the gloriously weird iceberg, a hilariously demented, 'Stepford Wives'-on-acid satire destined to be an instant cult classic. These girls are idiots! They might not have seemed like your typical baseball-cap-wearing, video-village-lurking characters. Jill, in head-to-toe pink with her son Dan (Sutton Johnston) by her side, a golden-retriever wearing khakis and a 'Purple Heart' pinned to his polo. Lisa, with a soccer ball pregnancy tucked up under lavender tulle, both of them wearing braces on their teeth. Years ago, they're put on a house team together at 'The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre' in New York. They bonded one chilly night when all 'The East' coasters had left early and the two girls are putting the chairs away. There was one piece of a black-and-white cookie left and, like an overplayed 'My Fair Lady' CD skipping, they entered a loop of 'No, please, you've it' and so on. Neither of them ate that piece of cookie that night. And after only a few short half-hours, they threw it away together. And it was at that moment the girls would be incredibly productive working together. Now, Earth to Little Helen (Dot Marie Jones). Would a couple of idiots choose to triple-threat their future? A movie that stars children, a baby, and a seven-month-old puppy. A movie where we chose not to show any vehicles other than golf carts. A movie that co-stars a soccer ball with half a dozen costume changes. And most importantly, a movie featuring so many of our aging friends that we've to make a 'Hail Mary' decision to give every adult in the damn thing braces to look younger. But, alas. Dot Jones can say whatever she wants because she’s a 15-time world arm wrestling champion and we've delicate elbows. But just like non-idiots George R.R. Martin, JK Rowling, and Rand McNally before, they've created a world with it's own logic, hand-drawn maps, and board games based off it. This world is a demented version of suburbia. And who better to satirize oh-so idyllic, polite America than these two Midwestern middle girls? Suburbia has never been so hilariously absurd as it's in "Greener Grass", where two eccentric housewifes are driven by her eagerness to please. In a residential suburb with a killer on the loose, the two housewives compete to have the best children, the best husband and, above all, the most beautiful teeth. In this stinging satire on 'The WASP Community', a baby is given away like a piece of clothing and a child morphs into a dog without anyone being shocked. Politeness is taken to extremes and the realm of appearances reaches the point of lunacy. An overly colorful, deliciously warped version of suburban America that feels like 'The Stepford Wives' at a lawn party and then snuck off to do acid, the film plays soccer-mom frenemies in deranged competition with one another. Golf carts, braces, golden retrievers, soccer balls, and yoga teachers all play way bigger roles than you’d expect. This 'Desperate Housewives' on acid throws a nasty blow at the clichéd image of American suburbia. "Greener Grass" fully commits to a demented version of suburbia as the film scrutinizes the willingness to endure extreme discomfort in exchange for conformity. A deliciously twisted comedy set in a demented, timeless suburbia where every adult wears braces on their straight teeth, couples coordinate meticulously pressed outfits, and coveted family members are swapped in more ways than one in this competition for acceptance. "Greener Grass" explores one’s willingness to endure present pain in exchange for future validation; or at least a perfect smile. The film confirms a gift for outrageous absurdity in this impressive dark comedy full of unsettling behavior.