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- Vlog film review - IT GIRL short filmIn Vlog Film Reviews·March 13, 2018Our newest film critic gives his verdict on IT GIRL in this Vlog film review. Check it out and SHARE with the world. If you are interested in doing a Vlog film review, feel free to use the community forum to post your own. It can be of any film you like, simply upload to your YouTube channel and use the video link option in the post to enter. UK Film Review.0149
- "In The Fade" (2017) written by Gregory MannIn Film Reviews·June 18, 2018(Release Info London schedule; June 22nd, 2018, Curzon Victoria, 13:30) "In The Fade" Out of nowhere, Katja's (Diane Kruger) life falls apart when her husband Nuri (Numan Acar) and little son Rocco (Rafael Santana) are killed in a bomb attack. Her friends and family try to give her the support she needs, and Katja somehow manages to make it through the funeral. But the mind numbing search for the perpetrators and reasons behind the senseless killing complicate Katja's painful mourning, opening wounds and doubts. Danilo Fava (Denis Moschitto), a lawyer and Nuri's best friend, represents Katja in the eventual trial against the two suspects; a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge, but there's simply no alternative for her, she wants justice. This film is inspired by the 'NSU' murders in 2011. 'The German Neo-Nazi' group 'National Socialist Underground' perpetrated a series of xenophobe murders between 2000 and 2007 throughout Germany. The big scandal was that the police focused their investigation on people within the community of the victims, blaming drug or gambling connections. Police pressure was so intense that even the press and the community themselves began to have similar suspicions. The film is broken into three parts. The first establishes Katja’s relationship with her family and takes us through the bombing. The second us into the courtroom where the perpetrators of the bombing stand trial for their crimes. The third follows Katja as she decides what to do in the wake of the trial. The courtroom scenes are some of the best in recent memory. Danilo Fava puts in a rock solid turn Katja’s lawyer. The scenes in which he's debating the defense are exciting, and it’s just as interesting to watch him work the system on both strategic and methodical levels as it's to study the differences between a German trial and an American one. The slight alterations of format allow room for all the high energy courtroom bickering that procedural fans know and love, but with a decidedly unique flavor afforded to it by it's foreignness. For example, the way that the lawyers punctuate their ranting knowledge-drops with a loaded thank you evokes things like "Philadelphia" and "A Time Fo Kill", but in a way never before seen, much like your honor which is dramatized by litigants to great effect. The third act brings us into what should be a typical revenge tale, and in a lot of ways it's, but "In the Fade" is less concerned with the catharsis of vengeance than it's the ethical questions that revenge naturally raises. Katja has her own morality, her own definition of justice. In that way, Katja embodies something dormant inside of us that should always remain dormant. This film is about that universal feeling of grief and it's many layers. Here’s hoping this gem gets a wide release.0120
- Bigger Dolls TrailerIn Movie Trailers·July 7, 20180157
- SkyscraperIn Film Reviews·July 20, 2018Here is my review of Towering Inferno…sorry. Let me start again. Here is my review of Die Hard…sorry. Let me start again. Here is my review of Skyscraper. I have no idea why I wrote those two other films that clearly have no relevance or similarity with the film I am reviewing. 📷Originally posted by justalittletumblweed Yes as Bruce rightly says, Skyscraper has joined the ‘there is a massive problem in a huge tower and a hunk of a man needs to fix it’ roll up roll up Dwayne Johnson. Move over Steve McQueen. Move over Bruce Willis. It’s time for The Rock to add his input. I mean, if Die Hard and Towering Inferno had a movie child it would be Skyscraper. Right, Dwayne is an ex army guy whose leg got amputated and he now works as an advisor on this new skyscraper, the tallest in the world. His family are in the tower whilst he is not in the tower. Terrorists come into the skyscraper and start a TOWERING INFERNO. Dwayne runs off a crane about 100ft in the air into the skyscraper, finds the terrorists and makes sure that they DIE HARD. The film is a blockbuster dumb summer flick, there’s a few chuckles, there’s good action scenes. Is it gonna grip you? No. Is it a bit of fun? Yeah sure. It’s nothing new, it doesn’t add anything to the genre. It won’t stand the test of time like the other two films have when it comes to disaster/action films. It’s largely forgettable. Apart from the one scene where Dwayne jumps off the crane, there are no hilariously stupid scenes, you know, like in Fast and Furious eg the plane, the tank, the bank in brazil, the tower in Dubai. For me, that was the biggest disappointment. I went in knowing it was going to be dreadful, but was expecting big set pieces to rival F&F, alas, there was none. The cast were lacklustre which was a bit of a let down considering some of the actors in the film. The villain was useless, I didn’t feel threatened or scared of him. He was everything a villain shouldn’t be. The only good thing was the representation of disabled people in the film. Seeing a guy who has a physical impairment on screen battling bad guys and saving the day is something very positive to see. Obviously there were a few criticisms of Dwayne being cast as he does not have an amputated leg, but the fact that there is that representation can only be a good thing if that continues. 2/5 Predictable, boring, pointless. Not much good about this. It’s a good summer flick, but you won’t come away wanting to see it again, or remembering it 30 minutes later.0150
- THE CRITIC | Official Trailer (a Stella Velon film)In Movie Trailers·August 3, 2018The Punk Floyd Company presents Actress/Writer Stella Velon’s directorial debut: THE CRITIC, a psychological drama/thriller, Produced/Executive-Produced by Jean Gabriel Kauss. Starring: Stella Velon (Baskets, Shutterbug, Men in Black 3) and Alan Smyth (Persons Unknown, The Outfield, Castle). Cinematography by Akis Konstantakopoulos Edited by Ivan Andrijanic Music by Asaf Sagiv Watch more clips on Youtube: http://bit.ly/the-critic Follow The Critic on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecritic.shortfilm IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8314192/ 2018 | USA | 15 MIN CONTACT: info@punkfloydco.com0174
- "The Spy Who Dumped Me" written by Gregory MannIn Film Reviews·August 6, 2018(Release Info London schedule; August 6th, 2018, Landmark) "The Spy Who Dumped Me" "The Spy Who Dumped Me" tells the story of Audrey (Mila Kunis) and Morgan (Kate McKinnon), two best friends who unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one of the women discovers the boyfriend who dumped her was actually a spy. Audrey and Morgan, two thirty-year-old best friends in Los Angeles, are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail. Surprising even themselves, the duo jump into action, on the run throughout Europe from assassins and a suspicious-but-charming British agent, as they hatch a plan to save the world. They embark on an action-packed international adventure after they discover that Drew (Justin Theroux), who recently dumped Audrey via text, is actually a spy. Armed only with their wits, Audrey and Morgan race through several European capitals, hunted by a host of top-secret operatives who want to help them or kill them, or both. These include taciturn British agent Sebastian Henshaw (Sam Heughan), pretentious jerk Topher Duffer (Hasan Minhaj), calculating spy boss Wendy (Gillian Anderson), and cold- blooded teenage assassin Nadedja (Ivanna Sakhno). As they learn to navigate the high-octane world of gun battles, car chases and daring escapes, the two best buds quickly learn that they can trust no one, except each other. Audrey and Morgan are the best of friends, and stronger than they know. Audrey is a person who thinks a lot, she’s very clever and smart, but she’s also her own worst enemy because she thinks enough to doubt herself, and if she doesn’t think something’s going to go well, she’ll play it safe. Morgan is pure heart, emotion, impulsiveness, she’s always putting herself out there, she’s a born performer, she’s been to every acting camp, singing camp, acrobatics camp, she’s that person. It's the character's differences that make them a great team. They've complementary skill sets. Morgan’s always saying; we can do it, we got this; she’s really confident. Audrey’s the one who’s thinking five steps ahead. They end up having both the skills necessary to get them through by the skin of their teeth. It’s Audrey’s craftiness and Morgan’s complete fearlessness that leads to a lot of the comedy and makes them a good match as friends. They bring out the best in each other. Like many best friends, Audrey and Morgan have shared goals, but very different personalities. Audrey is very gun-shy, and doesn’t lie well, is nervous in life, is self-conscious at all times, and plays life very safe. Morgan is her counterpart who's a struggling actress, who views life as one giant audition, and is constantly doing voices and characters, takes risks and chances, and goes balls out. The two of them kind of collide and go on this adventure together. "The Spy Who Dumped Me" is built as a genre-bender, two women at the center of an action-packed spy caper. This is Bridesmaids meets Bond. Central to "The Spy Who Dumped Me" is the deep and true friendship between the two main characters, Audrey and Morgan. We've all these movies about male friends, and we don’t have as many movies about female friends. We've women in romantic comedies, but we don’t really see women with their friends and how ridiculous and relatable those relationships can be, and yet for many women that's the most important relationship in their life. Everyone has a best friend, and everyone loves and hates their best friend at different times in their life. As the story unspools, the two average girls start to build confidence, an important narrative arc. Two types of movies we like to see are movies that show people being funny, relatable and self-deprecating as they go through their very mundane problems, and then movies where you get the total transporting yourself to another world fulfillment. The idea is about two people who do not belong in an action movie. But they've to survive when they find themselves in this really, really aggressive testosterone-y Bourne Identity kind of world. The story is about discovering yourself, testing yourself and exceeding what other people’s expectations might be. The way female friendship is presented in the film is natural, smart, inspiring and exciting. It’s part road trip, part best-friend movie, part travel log, part spy movie, as the characters discover their inner bad-ass with their best friend. Sometimes some of the moments in a movie that feel the most authentic and the most improvised feel that way because they're the most authentic and the most improvised. The movie combines what draws people to see an action movie and what draws people to see a female friendship movie. And the wish fulfillment of just leaving your comfort zone and going into a crazy vacation with your best friend. You know, neck cracking and ball-kicking and snapping and shooting. That's always fun! It's a female driven action comedy that dispatches with the guys. You’re going to be smiling, laughing your ass off, and then you might shed a tear at one point. But it will be a good tear.0132
- Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer VacationIn Film Reviews·August 9, 2018Another outing for Drac and his pack! After years of running the hotel together, Mavis (Selena Gomez) decides her and her father, Dracula (Adam Sandler) need a well-deserved vacation to rest and relax and spend quality time together; booking the gang on the world's first monster cruise as a surprise. After a less than stress-free flight on 'Gremlin Air', the gang arrive, and once aboard, are met by the charismatic Captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), with whom Dracula immediately 'zings'. But unbeknownst to our monster holidaymakers, this seemingly innocent cruise will bring them into direct confrontation with Dracula's nemesis, Abraham Van Helsing. It says something when, after almost one hundred years since their big screen debut, and over one hundred and twenty years since the novels which inspired them, variations of these characters (or monsters) and their stories are still being written: and for children at least, the Hotel Transylvania franchise is one of the most endearing. The film's greatest strengths are the monsters who feature, the mythology surrounding them, and the filmmaker's ability to poke fun at the clichés that inhabit, whilst still being respectful to the pedigree. The cartoonish, colourful and surprisingly detailed – if slightly over-the-top – animation is extremely pleasant and accessible; complimenting the tenor of the movie nicely. The world in which it's set is vibrant and rich, and while I really enjoyed the setting of the first film (being primarily set in the hotel and its grounds), the franchise does benefit from occasionally getting away from that area and exploring different locales; something that's always a pleasure: in the second film it was the pack's "old haunts" and California: in this film, it's the cruise ship and the fabled lost (but now found.) city of Atlantis. Love him or loathe him; there's no denying that Adam Sandler is ideally suited to this genre of film: as is the rest of the cast which remains fundamentally unchanged from the first two films; with Steve Buscemi (Wayne-Wolfman), David Spade (Griffin-Invisible Man), Keegan-Michael Key (Murray-The Mummy), Kevin James (Frank-Frankenstein's monster), Andy Samberg (Johnny) and Selena Gomez (Mavis), amongst others, reprising their respective roles. Two notable additions include Jim Gaffigan as Abraham Van Helsing, Dracula's nemesis, and Kathryn Hahn as Captain Ericka, granddaughter of Van Helsing: both do a perfectly adequate job, but both are also wholly unremarkable: this isn't a criticism of Hahn and Gaffigan as actors; more of the movie's ability to extract more from its talent. The narrative and script are the movie's primary drawbacks; neither being able to produce anything innovative or intuitive; making these aspects of the film feel maladroit. Worst still is the character development, which is either non-existent or badly paced; resulting in characters that either haven't changed at all or experience a total metamorphosis seemingly out of the blue. The humour is a mixed bag of slapstick, fart jokes, and eccentric limb gesticulations; all the things kids (and, admittedly, many adults) like, unfortunately, this can make the movie feel a little in-your-face and irritating, even crass. Yes, you can argue it's a kids film, and, as such, it's just playing to its target audience, and you'd be right: however, the film does this even as it references things clearly intended for the adults in the audience; almost as though it can't quite decide who it's communicating to at any given time. And don't get me started on the ridiculous music and dance focused gags. Verdict There really isn't an awful lot more to say about Hotel Transylvania 3, it is what it is; a harmless, good-natured, sometimes irritating kids film. There's no deep, affecting poignancy here; no emotional resonance to be found. If you wanted to assign some deeper meaning to it, you could argue it speaks of the importance of tolerance. Most people will be content to take it at face value; as the entertaining and safe family film, it is. Hotel Transylvania 3 isn't likely to attract a significant number of adult viewers, but it will bring in families in their thousands, and that's great. If you have children wishing to see this, or even if you happen to have enjoyed the first two films, you'll likely not be disappointed: and if like me, you're just happy that these characters/monsters are still relevant and being introduced to a new generation of viewers, you'll be over the moon. 7/100145
- "My Spy" written by Gregory MannIn Film Reviews·February 28, 2020(Release Info London schedule; March 13th, 2020, Vue Cinéma, Finchley Road, O2, Centre, 255 Finchley Rd, London NW3 6LU, United Kingdom, 2:30 pm) https://www.myvue.com/cinema/finchley-road/film/my-spy/times "My Spy" Jason Jones (Dave Bautista) is a hardened covert operative who finds himself out-maneuvered by Sophie (Chloe Coleman), a precocious youngster. When 'CIA' field agent Jason Jones, 'JJ' to his friends, is demoted to a light surveillance detail, he finds himself at the mercy of a sweet but determined 9-year-old girl, Sophie, who uses her tech savviness and street smarts to find 'JJ’s' undercover hideout near the apartment she shares with her protective mother Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley). In exchange for not blowing 'JJ’s' cover, Sophie convinces him to spend time with her and teach her to be a spy. Despite his reluctance, 'JJ' finds he's no match for Sophie’s disarming charm, intelligence and aptitude for espionage. As the story begins, we see 'JJ' in his element, playing a mega-tough professional who dispatches the villains with ease. But now he’s going into a more nuanced world that demands a different, more subtle skillset, as opposed to a guy with a machine gun in the desert. Getting information, instead of breaking necks, doesn’t come so easily to 'JJ'. We meet 'JJ', he's piercing eyes and wearing a suit that barely contains his formidable physique, in a faraway desert, where he’s demonstrating his cowboy heroics and expertise in kicking butt, as he wipes out a band of bad guys carrying a plutonium pit. 'JJ' is an ex-'Special Forces', so action and heroics are what he’s good at. 'JJ’s' natural badassery is offset by his challenges with the covert spy stuff, which requires subtlety, finesse and emotional intelligence. None of which 'JJ' possesses. When he returns to 'CIA' headquarters, 'JJ’s' caustic and disapproving boss David Kim (Ken Jeong) dresses him down for botching the mission, the goal of which was to discover what the terrorists knew. But that’s going to be a little difficult, given that 'JJ' has killed them all. Kim gives 'JJ' one last shot to succeed as an agent, a seemingly lightweight surveillance assignment. Grunt work. Moreover, 'JJ’s' been saddled with a new partner, Roberta 'Bobbi' Ulf (Kristen Schaal), a tech specialist and aspiring field agent with messy hair, unkempt clothes, and an acerbic manner. This is all a punishment for 'JJ', so he’s not thrilled about it. Now, he and his pet fish, 'Blueberry', are stuck in this apartment with a partner who’s been forced on 'JJ'. Even worse, he’s running surveillance, to him, it’s really babysitting, and he thinks it’s a really embarrassing situation. As if 'JJ’s' mickey-mouse gig weren’t bad enough, things get even more uncomfortable for the beleaguered agent. He and Bobbi have planted high-tech cameras in a neighboring apartment occupied by a nine-year-old girl, Sophie, and her mother, Kate, whose deceased husband was connected to the terrorists 'JJ' had eliminated earlier. But the ingenious young lady, with the assistance of her dog, discovers one of the cameras and tracks down 'JJ' and Bobbi to their once covert lair. Lonely and friendless, Sophie blackmails 'JJ' to be her new best friend, and teach her everything he knows about being a spy. Desperate not to have his cover blown by a child, no less 'JJ' reluctantly promises that he’ll go ice skating with her, be her guest at her school’s 'Special Friends Day', humor the other kids with a ride on a teeter-totter and a game of dodgeball, and teach her the finer points of spycraft. Not only does Sophie have 'JJ' wrapped around her little finger, she quickly becomes adept at beating a lie detector test, outsmarts 'JJ' in a training move, and learns some of the fun spy stuff, like how to walk away from an explosion without looking back, or figuring out pithy statements to make before taking out a bad guy. As Bobbi fumes, she's supposed to be training with 'JJ' and her new pal grow closer, as the youngster attempts her biggest mission; set up her mom, Kate, with 'JJ'. Romance begins to blossom, but first, 'JJ' must deal with villains who are closing in on him and his new family, as Sophie puts her new skills to the test. The bad guys never have a chance. The favorite on-screen moment between Sophie and 'JJ' is when 'JJ' reluctantly teaches his young charge how to outsmart a lie detector. "JJ' is incredulous at how quickly she not only learns how to beat the machine, but how she turns her new skillset against him. Sophie is so deadpan and really carries it off. Ever mindful that a youngster, Sophie endeavors mightily to avoid using colorful language. Bad language is a fact of life. Everybody has to be on their toes because Sophie is always lurking in the shadows, just waiting for you to say a bad word. You just want to cheer and root for her. She's wonderful character. The heart and soul of "My Spy" is centered around the surprising bond between 'JJ' and Sophie. One is a nine-year-old girl, the other is a grizzled special ops veteran turned spy. As Sophie’s path to becoming a junior master spy blossoms under 'JJ’s' reluctant tutelage, his actual partner, Bobbi, feels like she’s been left behind. This is especially maddening for Bobbi because, she’s eager to leave the office and tech side of the operation and get out in the field and take down bad guys. Bobbi wants to be recognized as 'JJ’s' partner and equal. Bobbi’s frustration level escalates as Sophie becomes increasingly espionage-savvy. Sophie is not only getting closer to 'JJ', she pretty much starts running the mission So, Bobbi’s not thrilled with Sophie. Yes, she’s actually jealous of a nine-year-old. Bobbi confronts 'JJ', demanding to know why he’s teaching Sophie, and not Bobbi, everything he knows. And 'JJ' is clueless about handling her frustration, which drives her even more crazy. They’re like a bickering married couple. Sophie’s mother, Kate, an 'ER' nurse working long hours, is at first oblivious to her daughter’s friendship with 'JJ', not to mention her lessons in espionage. Then there’s Sophie’s’ other top-secret operation, to make a love connection between her mom and 'JJ'. But Sopies’s master plan goes sideways when Kate spots 'JJ' and Sophie holding hands as they’re enjoying ice cream cones. The protective 'Momma Bear springs into action, swatting away 'JJ’s' cone and kneeing him in his special ops. Obviously the scene is carefully mapped out in advance. There's an ice-skating sequence where 'JJ' reluctantly accompanies Sophie on a sojourn to a local rink. There's a dance scene featuring the culmination of 'JJ' and Kate’s first date. Both scenes bring out a side of 'JJ' that Kate didn’t expect to see. David Kim is 'JJ' and Bobbi’s exasperated and fed-up boss. Kim has pretty much had it with 'JJ’s' take-no-prisoners exploits and lack of field smarts, so he banishes him to monitor a woman and her young daughter in a nondescript Chicago apartment building. Kim is definitely a by-the-book, control-freakish 'CIA' boss. He’s at a tough place in his life and taking it out on everyone, especially 'JJ'. Blending action, humor and an unexpected friendship between a mega-tough superspy and a fatherless child. You've an emotional investment in these characters and their story. You can compare "My Spy's" surprising genre; blending to 'The Guardians Of The Galaxy' films. 'The Guardians' films are about family, but are disguised as superhero films, just as this one is a heartfelt relationship story, disguised as an action-comedy. "My Spy" gives audiences something unexpected; Dave Bautista being vulnerable and funny, as well as badass and tough., He compares his acting and on-screen presence to Clint Eastwood’s, it’s contained, grounded and subtle. This film has all the action you expect, as well as the romance and heart you don’t expect from a Dave Bautista movie. It has elements of a family comedy, that’s also relatable to adults, all wrapped up in a big action movie. Along with the action and comedy, there’s an inspiring message of two very, very different kinds of people coming together against all odds. That’s inspiring. And now, more than ever, audiences need a good laugh and to be entertained.0190
- BloodshotIn Film Reviews·March 13, 2020Killed after his part in a hostage rescue, marine Ray Garrison (Diesel) is brought back to life by scientist Emil Harting (Pearce). Yet he is not only back from the dead: he’s super-enhanced and ready for revenge. There should be something tons of fun about a mash up of Robocop and Universal Solider. Based on a 1992 Valiant comic book creation, Bloodshot delivers an origin story about a military man brought back from the dead to become a super-soldier, yet rarely finds the spark or any potential richness in the conceit. Directed by VFX supervisor Dave Wilson, it has moments of visual flare but feels hamstrung by dull writing and a leading man sleepwalking through the tech and the bullets. The project was originally set to go in 2012 with Jared Leto; that might have been more interesting. Diesel is Ray Garrison (he’s a one man army, see), a marine who, after a hostage rescue mission in Mombassa, spends some R’n’R with his wife Gina (Tallulah Riley) on the Amalfi Coast (cue gold filters). Garrison is captured by evil Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell), who, in the film’s most memorable moment, does a Mr. Blonde style dance to Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’ before executing Gina and then shooting Garrison dead. The action has learned nothing from John Wick.Garrison wakes up in the lab of Rising Spirit Technology, regenerated by Dr Emil Harting (Pearce, channeling _Iron Man 3'_s Aldritch Killian) through nanites injected into his blood (hence Bloodshot). The regeneration gives Garrison all sorts of superpowers — super strength displayed by punching concrete pillars, interfacing with technology at rapid speed, the ability to self-heal — but not his memory. Yet with the help of Harting and his assistant KT (Eiza González), Ray begins to piece his old life together and escapes the facility to go after Axe.It’s at this point that Jeff Wadlow and Eric Heisserer’s script delivers the film’s one decent idea, that niftily reframes and story but almost goes so far as to explain why it has been so poor up to this point. But the film never really capitatlises on the clever conceit, falling back on action, techno-talk and a throbbing bombastic score courtesy of Steve Jablonsky. Save for a Point Break-y foot and bike chase, the action has learned nothing from John Wick or__ Chad Staheski’s 87 Eleven aesthetic (ie. letting action take place in long takes). Instead a punch up in a toilet, a showdown in a tunnel riddled with flour after a truck crash (it allows Diesel to walk moodily out of the dust), cinema’s only action sequence set in East Sussex and a fight atop a lift all feel like by-the-numbers set-pieces, full of slo-mo injections and senseless cutting. After being shot in the face, Garrison’s visage rebuilding itself is an impressive effect but little else lodges itself in the memory. The film gets a spec of character colour from two techies played by Siddarth Dhananjay and Lamorne Morris but for the most part it’s a bland ensemble following Diesel’s lead. There’s something potentially moving in Garrison’s plight — a man who’s lost his past and can’t face his future: think Peter Weller in Robocop — but Diesel gets nowhere near it. It’s a somnolent, inexpressive performance (even by Diesel’s standards) that makes Stallone’s turn in Escape Plan 3 feel like Daniel Day-Lewis. Download: Run 3 online.01241
- "Guest Of Honour" (2019) written by Gregory MannIn Film Reviews·May 31, 2020(Release Info London schedule; June 5th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-guest-of-honour-film-online 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.0141
- "Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn" written by Gregory MannIn Film Festivals·September 23, 2021(Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, BFI London Film Festival, Friday 08 October 2021 18:00 Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 1) https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp "Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn" Emilia (Katia Pascariu), a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on 'The Internet'. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emilia refuses to surrender to their pressure. The first lockdown ended in Romania at the end of May. The second wave of 'Covid-19' comes at the beginning of July. The number of cases is rising. How to interact with people. When we were young, we really admired all the crazy shoots we read about; "Way Down East", "Aguirre", "Apocalypse Now". We still admire them, but we're too weak. We should not risk the life or health of anybody when it comes to shooting. No film in the world is worth someone contracting even a common cold. All characters wearing masks. Wearing a mask in severe heat for 12 hours a day can be horrible. So, it's quite disappointing to have a few people every day taking off the mask whenever they can. We see it as a lack of respect, a kind of 'Fuck You', We don’t care about anyone else, we want to feel good even if we can infect you. This sometimes make the atmosphere tense. The masks are part of our daily life and the film captures this moment, to find the anthropological aspect of the mask-wearing. If you go down on the street during this time, the signs that remained, posters for concerts, empty restaurants, and so on and so forth are already signs of a non-existent reality. Cinema has this possibility to capture things, to capture the signs of the time passing, to make a capsule of the moment in many ways. It's about real-life stories from Romania and other countries, of teachers being expelled from schools where they're teaching because of what they're doing in their private lives; live-cam sex chat or posting amateur porn recordings on 'The Internet'. The discussions is so heabted, it makes us think that although the topic seems trivial and shallow, there must be a lot more behind it if reactions to it are so powerful. The film has three parts which engage each other in poetic ways, understanding poetic according to Malraux’s definition. Without doubt all true poetry is irrational in that it substitutes, for the established relation of things, a new system of relations. While the film title is mostly self-explanatory, it's subtitle, a sketch for a popular film, can benefit from an explanation. Malraux once noted that Delacroix, though affirming the superiority of the finished painting over the sketch, kept many of his sketches, whose quality as works of art he considered equal to that of his best paintings. The film looks like if it's form is left open, unfinished, like a sketch. The film could be easy like a summer breeze and because of it's tabloid-like topic. But it's not a real popular film. Only a sketch of a possible. What's obscene and how do we define it? We're used to acts which are much more obscene, in a way, than small acts like the one that set off the uproar we see in the film. The film clashes these two types of obscenity, and to see that the one so-called obscenity in the porn video is nothing compared with what's around us, but that we don’t pay attention to. The film tells a contemporary story, a small one, a little story. If history and politics are part of the film, that's because the story itself has a deeper meaning if we see it in a historical, societal and political context. Obscenity is the theme of this film and the viewers are constantly invited to compare the so- called obscenity of a banal amateur porn video with the obscenity around us and the obscenity we can find in recent history, whose traces are all around. So, the viewers should make this montage operation. Montage will be precisely one of the fundamental responses to this problem of constructing historicity. Because it's not oriented towards simplicity, Montage escapes theologies, and has the power to make visible the legacies, anachronisms, contradictory intersections of temporalities that affect each object, each event, each person, each movement. Thus, the historian renounces telling a story, but in doing so, succeeds in showing that history cannot be, without all of the complexities of time, all the archaeological strata, all of the perforated fragments of destiny. "Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn" delivers an incendiary mix of unconventional form, irreverent humor and scathing commentary on hypocrisy and prejudice in our societies.0129
- The StarIn Film Reviews·January 3, 2018The Star, is a computer animated adventure and comedy film which has an amazing cast including Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) as the donkey Bo, Gina Rodriguez (Jane the virgin) as Mary and Zachary Levi (Chuck, Tangled and THOR) as Joseph. The Star also included a variety of stars as supporting characters including Oprah, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey and Keegan-Michael Key. The Star is a playful retelling of the Nativity story but instead of focusing on Mary and Joseph, it is told from the animals point of view, all while remaining loyal to the story. .The Star tells the story of a small brave donkey working in a mill with dreams of doing more when he finds Mary and Joseph. Bo is seen by Jospeh as being a disobedient donkey, however, all the mishaps caused by Bo are his way of protecting Mary from the soldier King Herod sent to kill the new unborn king. This lovable retelling is entertaining and amusing for the whole family and is excellent at teaching younger viewers about the nativity.0152
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