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The Last Victim – No light in the darkness

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The Last Victim, from director Naveen A. Chathapuram, is a story of bad people doing bad things and the way the evil keeps multiplying with each addition to the body count (which is pretty high). It’s styled as a neo-western, but it could easily have been an urban story of gangs.

The driving force of this evil is Jake (Ralph Ineson), who shows up at a roadside dinner in very rural New Mexico, to confront a former associate he’s tracked down to kill. Jake and his cohort will leave no witnesses (and from time to time, they need to kill off a few more).

The local sheriff (Ron Perlman) has to try to figure out just what’s happened in the diner that has lots of blood, but no bodies to be found. Along with a seemingly green young deputy, they start the investigation.

Susan (Ali Larter), a young professor is driving cross country with her husband on the way to her new teaching job in California They venture off the main road in search of a rustic picnic spot. But when they stumble upon Jake and his crew trying to bury the bodies, they too become witnesses to be eliminated. A good part of the film is Susan in the open country trying to avoid being found by Jake. All in all, of the various main characters, only two are alive at the end of the film.

For mood, Jake occasionally provides voice over that speaks to his pessimistic and misanthropic view of modern society. It’s not so much that he thinks he is noble as it is that he doesn’t fit into the world anymore and doesn’t even want to. So he takes his rage out on the world. In fact, we don’t really know what crimes have been committed prior to the film that leads up to that opening confrontation in the diner. We just know that Jake and those with him are bad guys.

The film wants to be way more philosophical than it is. The film opens with a title card of a quotation about revenge from an 17th century clergyman. But revenge isn’t what this is about. It is just about evil in a dark world. Showing the darkness of the world only can carry us so far. This is not a story of good versus evil, just evil corrupting everything it touches so that the darkness keeps spreading. There is only the faintest hint of hope at the end. And that hint is too tenuous for us to think there is any good to come out of this tale.

The Last Victim is in theaters and available of VOD.

Sexual Drive – Food, sex, and love

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Food and sex are among our greatest pleasures. At times, they are intimately linked, especially in films. Sexual Drive¸ from director Yoshida Kôta, is built around the connection of sensuality the two share. It is part thriller, part sex comedy, and culinary adventure.

The film is made up of three vignettes, each titled after a culinary dish. The vignettes are linked by one common character, Kurita, who visits people and tells them things (which may or may not be true) about intimate things in their lives. In “Nattu” (a fermented soy bean dish), Enatsu is worried about the absence of sex in his marriage. Kurita comes and tells Enatsu that he is having an affair with his wife, going into graphic detail about the pleasure he brings her. In “Mapo Tofu” (a spicy Chinese dish), Akane suffers from panic attacks while driving. After (maybe) hitting Kurita with the car, he tells her they were in the same class in 2nd grade where she bullied him, and that her true nature is a bit sadistic. In “Ramen with Extra Back Fat”, Ikeyama is thinking about breaking off an affair. Kurita calls him from his lover’s phone claiming to have kidnapped her, and making him follow her journey after being rejected.

In each section, food is either eaten or prepared with a certain amount of eroticism. The “Nattu” section gets a bit lewd, but over all the stories are not so much about either sex or food. They are about what it means to find pleasure in another person. That is, what it means to love.

Food has often carried a sensual power in film. Some examples that come quickly to mind are Chocolat, Tom Jones, and When Harry Met Sally. Films often show hedonism in both the kitchen and the bedroom. And it becomes easy for us to make the not very long leap to connect the two.

So it is with Sexual Drive. As Kurita makes his visits with these people, he is a mixture of sex/relationship counselor, storyteller, and torturer. He brings hard truths to the people he meets, but in those hard truths are the way for them to find a happiness that is eluding them—and the people they love.

For viewers it is a reminder of the pleasures that fill our lives, but even more that the real pleasures of life are found in the people we love and share our lives with.

Sexual Drive is available through Virtual Cinema and VOD.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

See for Me – A Path in Darkness

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From director Randall Okita, See for Me tells the story of a blind young woman who must face off against a gang of intruders. But she isn’t quite alone. Her phone may be her salvation.

Sophie (Skyler Davenport) is heading off to a remote mansion to housesit. She has a very strong independent streak—to the point of rudeness. Her backstory, we learn, is that she was a very talented young skier until she lost her sight. Now, she takes housesitting jobs, where she augments her pay by theft. Yeah, she’s not the innocent young blind woman like we encountered in Wait until Dark. She has a friend who leads her through the house through her phone, as she searches out something to steal. Her friend says he doesn’t want to be involved in this anymore.

When she accidentally locks herself out of the house, she tries a new app, “See for Me”, that connects blind people with volunteers who will see through the phone to help them out. She connects with Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), a veteran who spends her day playing multi-player shooting video games.

That night, Sophie wakes up to voices in the house. A gang of thieves has broken into what they thought was an empty house to rob a hidden safe. After calling 911, she is discovered. When the sheriff shows up, things begin to go downhill. Soon, Sophie must reach out to Kelly again, whose video gaming now takes on an aspect of life-or-death.

The key part of this thriller is Sophie’s seeming helplessness. For all her desire for independence, much of which is driven by ego and anger at what she has lost, when the time comes, she discovers she cannot get out of this situation on her own. She must rely on other people—not so much to save her, as to empower her in different ways. It is in that reliance that she has the chance to grow. But we’re not sure if she has grown enough.

See for Me is in theaters and available on VOD.

The Retreat: Blood and Justice in the Woods

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Is there anything scarier than hatred and bigotry?

In new horror/thriller The Retreat, Renee (Tommie-Amber Pine) and Valerie (Sarah Allen) are a young couple who venture off into the wilderness for some secluded romance. With their relationship hitting a crossroads, the two women hope that this weekend in a remote cabin will provide the spark that they need to move forward together. However, as they attempt to navigate their issues, they are terrified to realize that their lives are in peril. Hunted by a group of para-military extremists, Renee and Valerie must put their relationship woes aside and fight in order to escape with their lives.

Directed by Pat Mills, The Retreat is solid horror fun that blends its terror with social commentary. Though only 81 minutes in length, Mills makes good use of her runtime. By keeping the exposition to a minimum, Mills keeps this story locked into the moment. In doing so, she manages to keep the film focused and energetic. At the same time, the film also benefits from some solid performances from its cast. With some enjoyable chemistry, Pine and Allen hold the film together. With energy and enthusiasm, the duo work well and their relationship serves as the film’s emotional core. 

As the film’s villains, Rossif Sutherland and Aaron Ashmore invest themselves into their characters, giving them an unyielding menace. Admittedly, it’s a little frustrating that talents like Sutherland and Ashmore are relegated to such one-dimensional characters. However, that’s also necessary in this case. These particular monsters are not meant to have any redeemable qualities in them and fleshing them out may have made them more sympathetic than they are supposed to be. 

Though light on ‘jump scares’, The Retreat‘s greatest asset is its social commentary. Following in the tradition of recent thrillers like Get Out and The Invisible Man, The Retreat uses its scares to highlight the pain caused by bigotry and hatred. However, instead of issues of racial discrimination or feminism, Mills chooses to focus on intolerance of the LGBTQ community. (In fact, it’s worth noting that The Retreat also serves as an opportunity to break free from the ‘bury your gays’ trope that often happens in genre movies such as this.) 

As Renee and Valerie venture out for a weekend of romance, this secluded retreat becomes a metaphor for the vulnerability that still take place when members of the LGBTQ community step out into the light. To their attackers, Renee and Valerie’s relationship is perceived as a threat to their more conservative way of life and that breeds into hatred. With this in mind, there’s a cry of hurt and anger that underscores the film and adds depth to its meaning. While they battle the evil around them, they show their resilience and strength in a place of oppression. As such, their journey becomes about much more than simply getting free from their captors. In essence, as Renee and Valerie fight for their lives, so too are they fighting for the right to be themselves. 

As the credits roll, The Retreat has accomplished its goal as pure horror fun. Filled with the required blood-thirsty villains and violence, the film makes for an evening of enjoyable entertainment. Nevertheless, the real value of the film lies in the statement that it makes. By giving voice to the LGBTQ community in the face of oppression, The Retreat feels as much of a claim to hope as it does a cry for help. By using Renee and Valerie’s struggle to survive as a metaphor for the resilience of the LGBTQ community, the film shows the damage incurred by the hatred of others and the strength needed to overcome it.

The Retreat is available on VOD on Friday, May 21st, 2021.

Sunday at AFIFest2020

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As AFIFest Presented by Audi continues to unfold, each day new films are being opened for viewing. During normal years, most films would play a couple times during the week. That challenge was to find the day and time that you could fit things. This year, I get to pick and choose the order I see films in each day. The lack of a rigid schedule is a plus for having a virtual festival. On the negative side, you don’t get to hear people saying how good something was so you can add it to your list to see.

Writen and directed by David Carbonier and Justin Powell, The Boy Behind the Door is a taut thriller. It is the kind of film that might, in normal years, be presented in a selections of Midnight films. Bobby and Kevin are best friends and dream of growing up to head off to someplace different from their home. They dream of California. But then the two boys are kidnapped. Bobby manages to escape, but he cannot leave Kevin behind. He is soon playing a cat-and-mouse game with the kidnappers as he tries to locate and free his friend. The film maintains a constant tension, with a few moments that make you jump. There is a fair bit of blood and violence, which for some people would be a plus, for others a turn-off. Bobby is the more resourceful of the boys, but he must also rely on Kevin for them to succeed. When one needs the other, these friends will do whatever is needed to save the other.

Japan’s Under the Open Sky, directed by Miwa Nishikawa, tells us of a man who, after spending the last 13 years in prison, is trying to adjust to the outside world. Masao Mikami has served his sentence for murder and returns to society. He vows that this time he will go straight. A lawyer serves as his sponsor and helps him get set up with welfare and a place to live. Mikami wants to make his own way, but there are challenges for an ex-con trying to find work. He is contacted by Tsunoda, a TV director, who is interested in helping him find his mother, who abandoned him as a child. The producer of the story wants something more interesting—using his gangster background to set him up to fail. Mikami was known as a brawler and has trouble keeping his temper in check. But he also manages to collect a group of people who care about him and help him find the chance of success in the outside world.

The dangers of recidivism as common for those who are released from prison. If they do not have access to jobs and help, the life of crime seems like an obvious choice. Tsunoda wants to write about Mikami as “an ordinary man” The world may not pay much attention to ordinary people, but for Mikami to fit into the role might actually be extraordinary.

(L-R) Paul Bettany as “Frank,” Sophia Lillis as “Beth,” and Peter Macdissi as “Wally” in UNCLE FRANK Photo: Brownie Harris/Amazon Studios

Family can be the source of pain or healing—and often both. In Allan Ball’s Uncle Frank, Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) has grown up in rural South Carolina, where she doesn’t really feel like she fits in. On the rare occasions that her Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) visits from New York City, she is drawn to how different he is from her family. He counsels her to be who she wants to be, not who others tell her she is. She heads to New York for college, and to get to know Frank better. Crashing a party at Frank’s home, she discovers that he is gay. His partner Walid (Peter Macdissi) is the embodiment of kindness.

When Frank’s father dies suddenly, Frank and Beth drive together to the funeral. Walid follows separately because Frank doesn’t want the family to know about him. The three of them will have to face many of the pains of Frank’s past, especially after he is involuntarily outed. Those demons include a sense of guilt about who he is, which has led him to live with his self-loathing all these years. The film is set in 1973 when such closeting was even more prevalent than it is now. Frank’s advice to Beth to be who she wants to be was much harder for him to live out himself.

Centigrade – Cold Days in Hell

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Brendan Walsh’s film Centigrade takes place almost entirely within the confines of an SUV. As a young couple battles for survival, they must deal as much with their personal dynamics as with the problems they face.

Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) and Matt (Vincent Piazza) are an American couple traveling in Norway. While on an isolated road, they pull over during a blizzard. When they wake up, the car is completely covered and surrounded by layers of snow and ice. What is the best plan? Should they try to dig themselves out? What will they find outside in a world where the temperature can get to be -30C? Should they wait inside the car, hoping they will be found? And to complicate things, Naomi is eight months pregnant.

The couple faces times of panic, of depression, of desperation, and even triumph. They often come into conflict when they disagree on how they should proceed. The time they spend so close together with no escape begins to wear on their relationship. Secrets and hidden feelings come out. But it is also very clear that they each have to rely on the other in order to survive.

They are not survivalists. They are people very much like us. And I have to admit that in their frustrations I sometimes heard my own voice. Although being somewhat isolated as we all have been during the pandemic is not as dire a situation as is shown in this film, the same kind of feelings probably are affecting our relationships with loved ones. Words that cause pain may come out and not be able to be taken back easily. But the bonds that hold us together can also be strengthened by our trials.

I find it interesting that this film is being released in drive-ins. Viewers will have an excellent sense of the confinement the characters must deal with. (Although, to truly appreciate it, you would have to not make any trips to the snack bar and restroom.)

Centigrade is playing at drive-in theaters and on VOD.

Photos courtesy of IFC Midnight.

Serenity: Murder and Justice in the Open Water

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Living on an isolated tropical island, Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a fishing boat captain who lives a peaceful life on Plymouth Island, an isolated island in the Carribbean. However, his world is soon shattered when his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) tracks him down and, desperate for help, begs Baker to rescue her and their young son from her abusive husband, Frank (Jason Clarke). Offering Dill $10M to feed her husband to the sharks in the open water, Karen pleads with him to take on the job. Thrust back into a life that he wanted to forget, Baker now finds himself struggling to choose between right and wrong.

Although the film is fairly uneven—not to mention the wildest twist you can imagine—there are enough things to like about Serenity for those who are game. Directed by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, Eastern Promises), Serenity is a neo-noir film laced with sci-fi sensibilities. (No spoilers.) Set on the isolated island in the Caribbean, Knight drops the audience into a steamy world of sex and betrayal. Using bleached colours and shadowy frames, the world is lush in vegetation yet colours bleed together, resulting in a bleak and lifeless atmosphere. Working together for the first time since Intersteller, McConaughey and Hathaway work well with one another, even at times when the material is lacking.

As with many examples of noir, one of the most interesting aspects of the film is its conflicted moral compass. Lost in his own pain and alone, Dill lives in poverty in a repurposed metal shack. His boat is owned by the bank and he can barely pay his first mate. He spends his days chasing his own ‘white whale’, a mysterious giant tuna that constantly escapes him. Named ‘Justice’, the tune is symbolic of the very justice that seems to elude him as he moves from day to day looking for hope to no avail. Though the island is beautiful, what begins as an Edenic paradise soon reveals itself to be anything but. (Case and point: The local tavern bar even changed its name from the ‘Hope and Anchor’ to the ‘Rope and Anchor’, citing that there isn’t much hope on the island.)

Still, in the midst of this dry moral time, Dill refuses to bend to Karen’s request. Despite the lawlessness of the area, Dill believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with the idea of killing anyone, no matter how hateful her husband may be. To him , there remains a dichotomy to life – light and dark, right and wrong – that continues to stand, even in the midst of a world of compromise. Inspired by the chance to be a father to his son, Dill fights hard against the pressures of the culture, even asking his first mate to ‘keep him from temptation’.

Even so, there is a sense of inevitability in Serenity that evil is constantly creeping in the background, waiting to strike. Can a man continue to try to be the man he wants to be, even when there is constant pressure to fall? Or does succumbing to our base impulses bring the justice that we’re looking for? These are ambitious questions for a film like Serenity and, without spoiling anything, the film’s twist reveals that this is also an ambitious film (perhaps tooambitious in that regard). Still, for those who are willing to take the ride and interested in the questions, Serenityis potentially intriguing enough to take the trip, despite its flaws.

Serenity is in theatres now.

Everybody Knows – Disclosing Open Secrets

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In Everybody Knows, director Asghar Farhadi leaves Iranian stresses behind (cf., A Separation, The Past, and The Salesman) for a more Eurocentric story. His previous films focus on people dealing with the tensions between two cultures. This film is a more conventional story, which although it is adequately done, doesn’t have the same thought-provoking quality of his earlier work.

Laura (Penélope Cruz) has returned to her hometown in Spain from Argentina with her two children for a family wedding. It is a time of joyous reunions. She and her children reacquaint themselves with family and friends. Perhaps her teenage daughter Irene is attracted to one of the local boys, but it’s all seems fairly innocent. It also seems fairly innocent that her former lover Paco (Javier Bardem) is a close family friend and part of the wedding preparations. Both Paco and Laura are both happily married, but their past will never go away.

Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS, a Focus Features release.Credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features

The film takes its time setting this joyous and celebrative mood. The possibilities of romance hang in the air, but suddenly it all changes. During the wedding reception, Irene doesn’t feel good and goes to her room. When Laura goes to look in on her, the door is locked, and when they finally get it open, she is gone. Soon there is a message from kidnappers warning them not to tell the police. Is this a professional job or has it been done by someone close?

The family struggles to come up with the ransom. It is assumed that Laura’s husband has the money, but they have fallen on hard times. Paco starts rumors that he might sell his wine business, to make it seem that he might pay the ransom. But that brings up old wounds between him and Laura’s family over how he came to own the land. In time more secrets and old grievances will come to light. And often, as the title suggests, these are rather open secrets.

Although it fits into the thriller genre, it’s not the kind of film that gives viewers a bump in adrenaline. Rather the tensions are more personal. It is more about how each person faces the situation. Laura frets and has a hard time coping or making decisions. Paco takes action, but seems to be a bit more invested than one might expect from an old flame. Laura’s husband Alejandro (Ricardo Darín) continues to believe that God will help. That stance of faith seems to be escapist, but it reflects his experience of God’s help in his life. But it may also block him from accepting help that may come from others. (Can’t God help through other people?)

The film never quite fully explores the tensions between characters. That has been Farhadi’s strength in previous films. So what we get may work at a basic level, but doesn’t deliver the kind of experience those who know his work will expect.

Widows: When Lionesses Roar

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What happens when those that are left behind are forced to clean up the mess of those that have left us?

Directed by Steve McQueen, Widows tells the story of a police shootout that leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows — Veronica (Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) — have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses’ criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, Veronica joins forces with the other three women to pull off a heist that her husband was planning.

Though Oscar-winner McQueen is best known for slower paced dramatic fare such as 12 Years A Slave or Shame, he brings a surprising depth to a film which could otherwise dwell in the sub-basement of pulp action films. Co-writing the script with acclaimed author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), McQueen’s thriller proves to be both gripping and engaging from the outset. Though on paper some may liken the film to this year’s ‘other female heist film’, Ocean’s 8, thankfully the comparisons end there. Widows is a smart, energetic thriller that makes use of an extremely talented cast led with ferocity by Oscar-winner, Viola Davis.

A tight, well-written thrill ride, what is most interesting about a film such as Widows is where it falls in the cultural spectrum. As female-led films have finally begun to be recognized for their success, there seems to have been a theme building momentum where women are encouraged to ‘find their voice’. Recent films such as A Star is Born, The Hate U Give to, yes, Ocean’s 8 have all provided opportunity for women to offer their stories in a male-driven culture. However, if these films serve as cries from the desert, Widows roars like a proud lioness. There is a beautiful but wild energy permeating Widows that reveals the strength, courage and power that women can wield when caught in a world dominated by male-oppression. When we first meet our leads, their identities are tied closely to the men that they love (especially Veronica). However, when threatened by mob boss Jamal Manning to recover the money that their husbands stole from him, they are forced to learn who they are apart from their spouses.

As a result, there is a complexity to these women as they both grieve the loss of their loved ones yet also begin to step out into the light and discover who they are.

From Davis to Debicki (in what may be her breakout role), each female character finds different ways to stand-up against the emotional and physical barriers that have been placed on them by men misusing their power and authority. (With this in mind, it’s no accident that Davis’ Veronica growls that ‘no one thinks [they] have the balls to pull this off.’) Although they find themselves trapped in a ‘man’s game’, these widows prove that their identity and inner strength aren’t decided by a man’s world.

Armed with a whip-smart script and excellent cast, Widows is a film that will surprise you with its depth and emotional punch. Though more popcorn flick than Oscar-fare, the film shows the power of discovering who you are when you’re forced to start over.

Widows is in theatres now.

Searching: Life and Death Online

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Think of how much time we spend looking at screens. I’m looking at one (with various windows open) as I write this review. You’re reading it on a screen. We work and play and often socialize through the many screens of our lives. Searching tells us its story through these screens. To use such a gimmick can be a distraction or even a way of covering up shortcomings. But in Searching it becomes a vital part of the story and of the social commentary the film is making.

The film opens with the setting up of a new computer and adding photos that outline the life of the Kim family. It brings us up to the current day where David Kim (John Cho) and his daughter Margot (Michelle La) live in Silicon Valley. We catch their texting pack and forth, typical parent/teen conversations. But when Margot doesn’t come home one night and doesn’t answer texts or calls, David becomes worried. At first there are possible simple explanations, but eventually he must call in the police. While Detective Vick (Debra Messing) oversees the police investigation, David begins hacking into Margot’s laptop, searching for clues and leads. Everything that we see on the movie screen are things that are taking place on computer, phone, or TV screens.

As the story plays out we get a minor guided tour of the internet, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, Facetime, and a range of other apps. To some extent this plays up the gimmicky side of the film. But it also serves as an effective way to organize this thriller with increasing tension. And the use of social media is an essential part of the thriller. And it is a rollercoaster ride of a thriller with the ups and downs, twists and turn in the last half hour especially enjoyable.

Where this becomes more than just a gimmick is how the film serves to reflect our culture and the way we live so much of our lives—whether actively or passively—online. Our screens are our archives. The screens hold our secrets. The screens give us access to a broad world. The screens also make us vulnerable. There are ways in which the screens that fill our lives make us voyeurs—looking at the world from the outside. But the screens also give us a way to discover and connect people and place in ways both positive and negative. The potential of our screens, however, really rely not in what we watch, but in how we choose to engage them. That is the lesson that underlies the thriller aspect of Searching.

Photo Credits: Sebastian Baron, Elizabeth Kitchens. ©2018 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.