Sight & Sound, Mary & Max and the Absence of Animation in the recent Top Tens

Check out my feature for Heyuguys.co.uk on the lack of animated films in the recent Sight and Sound poll and why a little-known Australian clay-animation deserves to break the Top 50.

Link: http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2012/08/09/sight-and-sound-mary-and-max-and-the-absence-of-animation/

Film4 Frightfest 2012: 5 Most Anticipated

This year’s lineup features something for gore-hounds, giallo geeks and fans of the classics with titles ranging from the rarely seen complete ‘Cabel Cut’ of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed to Dead Sushi – a film about killer sushi – to a Toby Jones-starring celebration of Italian horror cinema in Berberian Sound Studio.

This year also sees the introduction of a new, third ‘Re-Discovery’ screen showing Hammer restorations and two favourites from February’s Frightfest Glasgow and with more films than ever before, Frightfest the 13^th is already causing visitor’s headaches in terms of scheduling their blood-soaked five days.

While regular features The Horror Channel’s Short film Showcase, Andy Nyman’s Quiz from Hell and the Total Film Icon interview (This year with Italian maestro Dario Argento) will inevitably prove to be festival highlights, here I present my five predictions for the best films of Frightfest the 13^th.

5. Maniac

From the director of P2 and the producing duo behind Switchblade Romance, this remake of nasty 1980 film looks set to be a late night favourite. Starring Elijah Wood as LA nut job Frank, Maniac gets its art house label as a result of a risky stylistic choice that sees that entire film play out from his POV, with glimpses of Brutal Baggins arriving in photographs and reflections. An inspired decision or a drearily pretentious gimmick? Only time will tell but the omens look good enough for Wood to finally shake off the hairy feet of Frodo and be remembered for a slightly more gruesome outing. That is until The Hobbit arrives in December.

4. Stitches

As one of my favourite comedians, any film starring Ross Noble makes into my list of most anticipated. The fact he plays a killer clown seals the deal. Stitches follows Noble as a sleazy clown who dies in a prank at a kids birthday a party only to return to the group years later thanks to the actions of a black magic clown cult. Here’s hoping he turns up and delivers what could well be the funniest Q & A in the history of the festival.

3. Sleep Tight

While Paca Plaza may be receiving a lot of attention with Rec 3 in the line-up, it is the film by his Rec co-creator Jaume Balagueró I’m most looking forward to. Following Cesar, a lonely janitor who sports one of the more unfortunate hairstyles of the festival, and his obsession with a new tenant in his building, Sleep Tight arrives with positive buzz from Fantastic Fest and The Spanish Film Festival in Australia and could take a leaf from Cesar’s book by quietly creep up on Frightfesters as a festival highlight.

2. Chained

Each year, Alan, Paul and Ian seem to deliver a film that gets everyone talking. 2008 had Martyrs. 2009 had The Human Centipede. 2010 had A Serbian Film snatched away from them at the last minute by Westminster Council and last year had the brilliant The Woman. So as no stranger to controversial titles, this years talking-point could well be the new film by Jennifer Lynch (daughter of David), Chained. The film has already kicked up a stink in the US by achieving the rare feat of achieving an NC-17 certificate due to violence alone. She has since gone to the cutting room for an R rating and it remains what version we will see at the festival but regardless, Lynch’s tale of a serial killer who captures and keeps the son of one of his victims remains a must-see.

1. V/H/S

Ask anyone in this year’s Sleepy Q (the name for the queue formed by those who camp overnight for tickets to the festival) for their pick of the festival and one title came up time and time again, V/H/S. A hit at Sundance and SXSW, the film is made up of six ghoulish tales from six different directors including Adam Wingard (A Horrible Way to Die) and Ti West (The House of the Devil). I’m surprised how excited I am about this anthology considering my take on the two that premiered last year as I was one of about six people who didn’t fall in love with Chillerama and the less said about The Theatre Bizarre the better. However, with the great feedback feeding anticipation of the involvement of West, one of the genres brightest talents, it looks set to be the one that most, including me, are looking forward to.

Hell, it might even wield enough scares to convert the found-footage haters, a group that at last year’s Frightfest seemed incredibly strong in numbers.

Check back around the last week of August for my pick of the best from the festival. I may be proved right or left knee-deep in blood-soaked humble pie. We’ll see.

She Monkeys Review

Here is a link to my review for Gorilla Film Magazine of Lisa Aschan's She Monkeys. A quietly odd film about sexual awakenings, human behaviour and the power struggle between two equestrian vaulters.

Review:
http://gorillafilmmagazine.com/2012/05/13/she-monkeys/

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia Review

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a delicately paced, sprawling piece of work that provides plenty of food for thought and stunning scenery to chew on after a hunt for a corpse proves a catalyst for philosophical discussions on life, death, love and buffalo yoghurt.

Set mostly in the darkest hours of the night, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia follows a doctor, a prosecutor, a police chief and a whole host of other sweaty, tired men squashed like sardines into three cars as they roam the hills of Anatolia looking for a buried body. Given direction by the two self-confessed killers, the search soon proves troublesome as one mountainside blends into another and the hunt for a nearby ‘round’ tree slowly becomes as ridiculous as it sounds.

Temperamental vehicles, a weak bladder and the incompetence of the worst grave diggers in Turkey soon give the men ample opportunities to chat amongst themselves about issues ranging from the flippant, to the humorous to the spiritual and back again and it’s precisely these glimpses into the characters souls that really make Anatolia something special.

An age old battle between science and faith begins when the prosecutor tells the doctor the story of the most beautiful woman he’s ever laid eyes on, a wife of a friend who predicted the exact time of her own death. Not counting an arguably less weighty earlier discussion on buffalo yoghurt, this is the first of many enlightening conversations that the men find themselves dwelling on as the search for the rotting corpse provokes thoughts about their own existence and it’s really only in retrospect that you begin to realise how deep each characters stories run. By the end of the film, you begin to realise, without ever being told in words, just why the doctor can’t bring himself to believe a woman had the ability to predict her own death and similarly, why the prosecutor must.

It’s a mysterious film, and I’m certain to have missed something. The mere sight of the mayor’s daughter seem to leave each man in turn wrestling with some form of epiphany and lights flicker when she’s around. In an almost silent sequence, she is presented as almost mythical, an unashamedly beautiful image of everything that’s good. When one of them makes the observation that she’ll probably live and die in the tiny isolated pocket of the world without ever truly spreading her wings, it’s a deeply affecting and painful moment and you can’t help but feel a pang of surprise for feeling so caught up in a figure that remains so entirely enigmatic.

The film is slow but crucially so. Thanks to the first ninety minutes unfolding largely in real time, you really feel the strain of the investigation. You’re encouraged to think, make judgements, put back-stories together and dwell on the philosophical issues that, along with the corpse, are keeping these men up at night. But, in a film that’s two hours and thirty minutes long, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Anatolia is another example of the critic friendly slow cinema; the type that’s clearly impressive upon reflection but, and say it quietly, can be mind (and bum) numbingly dull to actually sit through (Despite his eye for beauty, Béla Tarr was something of a serial offender).

Despite characters wandering the hills claiming ‘this is dragging’, Once Upon A Time in Anatolia doesn’t, that is until you’ve seen far too much wonder to care. Yes, at one moment when the doors to an autopsy room swing open and you’re not greeted by the end credits, you can’t help but begin to feel the films running time, but thankfully, this is only twenty minutes before the end. Transformers: Dark of the Moon was four minutes longer, Jackson’s King Kong was thirty seven and both have far duller twenty minute stretches than anything seen in Anatolia; a film which has to make do without the acting clout of Shia LaBeouf or the timeless appeal of a massive gorilla.

Reading this back, I feel that maybe I’m selling Once Upon A Time in Anatolia as a little heavy, but the film balances its soul with a lot of dark humour. The police chief’s rotund driver, Arab Ali, can barely speak a word or move a step without raising a laugh and Turkey’s answer to the Chuckle Brothers can be found in the hapless gravediggers. Add to this a body bag that proves just as difficult to locate as the body and by the time the sun rises, Anatolia finds itself, albeit sporadically, a bruised funny bone.

It’s not for everyone, and like any film that takes its time, if you’re not ready to engage with Ceylan’s ideas on his own terms, you’ll find yourself struggling. But it’s a beautiful film and whilst its final stretch may test the patience of a saint, it’s rare to see a film so thoughtful pack so many laughs, visual treats and complex character depth into its long running time without getting tiresome. If only ‘slow’ cinema could always be this rewarding.  Seek it out.

A Tune For Two - Short Film Review

Here is a link to my review for Gorilla Film Magazine of the short film, A Tune For Two. It's a strange depiction of a hostage situation that very nearly proves the theory that the Muppets have the power to save lives.

Review:
http://gorillafilmmagazine.com/wordpress/2012/03/05/a-tune-for-two/

Watch the film here:
http://gorillafilmmagazine.com/wordpress/watchfilms/

The Woman in Black Review

For the first time in quite a while, not all the scares are given away in the trailer for The Woman in Black. But then again, that would be asking a lot of the film’s promoters because James Watkins’ The Woman in Black packs more jumps into its running time than any other horror film seen in a long time.

Set in an unspecified year in the Edwardian era, Daniel Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipp, a father (unconvincing as his son could easily pass for his brother) and widowed lawyer who attempts to prove his worth at his firm by travelling to the north of England to sort out the estate of the recently deceased Alice Drablow. Set on going through her belongings with a fine tooth comb, Kipp has to enter Eel Marsh House, a place the villagers don’t talk about, located in an isolated sandy patch that is locked away from the rest of the world when the tide comes in. Naturally, more than just financial documents are buried deep in the heart of the decaying mansion.

James Watkins is fast becoming a specialist in creating little pockets of Hell all around the country. In his first film, Eden Lake (2008), Watkins transformed an idyllic leafy patch of England into a stomping crowd for a group of demented chavs and in the process carved out one of the best British horror films of the decade. Now, he turns his hand to an old school haunted house horror film backed by iconic horror studio Hammer, a move that continues the studios return to backing British titles that began with Wakewood (2011) after backing the US titles Let Me In (2010) and The Resident (2011).

Echoing the chills of classics like Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), The Woman in Black’s Eel Marsh House has to be the best Horrible House seen on screen since the Ulman house in Ti West’s House of the Devil (2009). Just like all haunted house movies, the dusty corridors and misty windows of the structures are the real stars of the film and despite the focus on Radcliffe’s first lead role since leaving Hogwarts, Eel Marsh House and the title character are the clear stars of the show. Watkins knows how to treat the woman of the title, initially only showing her in shadows and blurs, but unlike most recent ghost stories, The Woman in Black doesn’t drop the ball when she does appear in plain sight.

Just like the constantly terrifying forty minutes section of the play, Watkins’ version similarly makes Kipps’ first full night at Eel Marsh House, taking viewers on a ghost train consisting of one bone chilling moment after another and whilst it’s nothing groundbreaking (Creepy Toys ✓ Creepy Kids ✓ Suspicious Villagers ✓), Watkins is talented enough to make these slightly tired haunting cornerstones actually scary again. And make no mistake The Woman in Black is a scary, sometimes terrifying film.

When Watkins says Boo! you will jump and this formed a slight issue for me after a while. The Woman in Black is the ‘jumpiest’ film I’ve seen in the cinema in a long time, but after about an hours worth of loud noises and jump scares, you can’t help but find yourself getting used to the formula. The element that made the first 40 minutes of last years Insidious (2011) so good was its insistence on scaring us through a slow build up of horrible set pieces and it wouldn’t have hurt to have a similarly restrained approach. But again, this is a slight issue and the film packs plenty of slower paced, tension building set pieces into its running time and for all the loud noises it’s these sweat-inducing set ups that come back to you as you climb into bed.

It is worth mentioning that for all the scares, The Woman in Black is a lot of fun. You can’t help but smile through the fear when those old toys that you only ever see in horror films appear and the introduction of the ‘twins’ raised a much needed laugh. There is a moment at the end of the where it looks like Watkins is about to undo all his good work with a heavy dose of unneeded schmaltz but by leaving audiences with a final chilling image, The Woman In Black cements itself as a properly scary chiller that juggles fun and fear perfectly.

I suppose the only downside for Watkins is that thanks to Paranormal Activity 4 (currently without a release date), Ti West’s very good The Innkeepers (arriving in early June) and the chilling Livid (the latest offering from the makers of Inside (2007) currently without a release date), Watkins’ latest is gonna have some stiff competition for ‘Haunted House Film of the Year’ when, in any other year, it would be top of the tree.

In a year when people just aren’t buying houses, this year’s haunted house horror output looks set to continue that trend with or without the help of the economic crisis.

Shame Review

Sex addiction hasn't had a great deal of coverage anywhere really, but in cinema, it’s had a particularly raw deal. The best thing that can be said for Black Snake Moan (2006) is that it’s the second best Samuel L. Jackson film to have Snake in the title whilst Choke (2008) was patchy at best. Thankfully, Steve McQueen’s Shame gives the subject the serious treatment that it deserves and the film is all the better for it.

Shame marks the second collaboration between director Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender after the superb Hunger (2008) and on this form; Fassbender might have his wish of finding his very own Scorsese/De Niro relationship. Whilst the duo still have some way to replicating the sort of hit rate that saw films like Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976) emerge from the seventies, Raging Bull (1980) and The King of Comedy from the eighties and Goodfellas (1990) and Cape Fear (1991) from the nineties, the McQueen/Fassbender collaboration is already looking like a special one.

Shame follows the life of Brandon (Michael Fassbender), a good looking, successful New Yorker whose existence and social interactions are marred by his compulsive, lust for sex. This addiction soon spirals out of control when his equally damaged sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) arrives on his doorstep looking for a place to stay.

Shooting in New York as a result of McQueen finding their addicts more open and helpful during the research stage of the development, the New York of Shame is both a paradise and a hell for Brandon, a city that allows him enough space to contemplate his addiction whilst simultaneously proving to be a feeding ground for his addiction as a simple commute into work establishes early on.

The early stages of the film establish Brandon’s daily routines which comprise on masturbation, work, visits from prostitutes, masturbation, perusing hardcore pornography and sexual encounters with women met at parties. These women find his honesty and attentive nature flattering when in reality his glare is exactly the same kind of stare of which predators look upon their prey with. Fassbender plays these social interactions with the same enigmatic distance that American Psycho’s (2000) Patrick Bateman displays when floating from party to board meeting.

Brandon’s pristine white walled, sterile living space functions as his own prison, a home where he can indulge his addiction free of any form of judgement. The arrival of Sissy both brings up anxious feelings from their childhood, but importantly, forces Brandon out of the apartment, into an office relationship which provides one of the best scenes in the movie; a brilliantly awkward dinner date.

Fassbender carries the film and it’s a fascinating, ballsy (excuse the pun) performance and Mulligan is equally intriguing as his sister. As you would imagine, the role of a nymphomaniac requires Fassbender to walk around starkers quite a lot of the time and to any of his growing female fan base, yes, you do see Magneto’s helmet (I’m not proud that the line made it into the review but its typed now).

Shame is a film that hints at the history of its characters without ever explicitly stating any events that carved the damaged souls of the two main characters. Without even saying a word, glances, stares and body language tell everything you’d ever need to know about the troubled relationship between the two. The fact that these ambiguities only add to the fascination rather than proving irritating is a testament to the performances (neither nominated for a thing at the Oscars).

 Shame is a raw, deliberately paced look at the still taboo subject of sex addiction with a shocker of an ending and a mesmerising performance by Fassbender. Treated realistically with sex scenes that are never eroticised, McQueen has created an addiction film to rival that of Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000).

Aside from a truly excruciatingly slow performance of ‘New York, New York’, Shame is a triumph; a difficult, memorable film that’s not easy to shake off. Fassbender’s performance almost rivals his work in Hunger and his Brandon almost makes it to the top of my ‘favourite big screen nymphomaniacs’ list.

For anyone keen to know, he falls into second place, just behind Woody Allen’s Harry in Deconstructing Harry (1997). I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sit through Shame hoping that Brandon would tell a hooker, 'They should put your lips in the Smithsonian.'