Monthly Archives: October 2015

Emelie (2015)

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Emelie
Director: Michael Thelin
Writer: Richard Raymond Harry Herbeck
Cast: Sarah Bolger, Joshua Rush, Carly Adams, Thomas Bair, Dante Hoagland, Susan Pourfar, Chris Beetem, Robert Bozek
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 21.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
The Thompson family’s regular babysitter can’t make it, so they get a replacement on short notice. The girl who introduces herself as Anna (Sarah Bolger) seems well-suited, but only as long as the parents are there. As soon as they’re gone, Jacob (Joshua Rush), the oldest kid, becomes suspicious. Something is going on with that babysitter. Her name isn’t even Anna, it’s Emelie. But what’s the game?

Emelie works well building up the suspense, but as soon as we get to the part were her motivations are being revealed, it completely falls apart.

Emelie

[SPOILERS]

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The Hallow (2015)

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The Hallow aka The Woods
Director: Corin Hardy
Writer: Felipe Marino, Corin Hardy
Cast: Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton, Gary Lydon, Stuart Graham
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 21.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
Adam Hitchens (Joseph Mawle) is a woodsman tasked with assessing the forest in Ireland before it is being privatized. For that he, his wife Clare (Bojana Novakovic) and their baby son moved to a remote cottage in the middle of nowhere. Their only neighbor (Michael McElhatton) keeps telling them to leave and that they should stay away from the forest. What Adam takes as antagonism due to the sale, actually turns out to be an honest warning: there is something living in those woods and it has its own agenda.

The Hallow tells a classic story in a very good way. Especially the creature design was really awesome.

thehallow[Slight SPOILERS]

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Dédalo (2013)

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Dédalo
Director: Jerónimo Rocha
Writer: Jerónimo Rocha
Cast: Sofia Helena, Frederico Amaral
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 21.9.2015

Plot:
A spaceship with a lone surviving astronaut (Sofia Helena), desperately trying to survive against weird creatures who have entered the ship.

Dédalo is a moody short film that noticeably didn’t have a lot of budget (especially for the CGI), but tries to make the most of it anyway, above all with a great creature design.There’s no real story to it (at least if you don’t consider the title’s mythical meaning, and even then it’s questionable), but for a few minutes of atmosphere it was more than enough.

dedalo

Nasty Baby (2015)

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Nasty Baby
Director: Sebastián Silva
Writer: Sebastián Silva
Cast: Sebastián Silva, Kristen Wiig, Tunde Adebimpe, Alia Shawkat, Mark Margolis, Reg E. Cathey
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 21.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
Polly (Kristen Wiig) really wants to have a baby. Her best friend Freddy (Sebastián Silva), too, and since he’s gay, they decided to try and have one together. But Freddy’s sperm count is low, so they try to convince his partner Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) to step up, despite Mo being less into the idea of having a child. As they wait for the go ahead and the positive pregnancy test, Freddy not only works on an art project where he behaves like a baby, he also starts a little war with a mentally ill man, the Bishop (Reg E. Cathey), in the neighborhood.

Nasty Baby wasn’t a bad film, but it wasn’t completely well-rounded either. It changed its pace quite a few times, and not all of those changes would have been necessary or were actually advisable.

Nasty-Baby

[SPOILERS] Continue reading →

Me quedo contigo [I Stay With You] (2014)

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Me quedo contigo
Director: Artemio Narro
Writer: Artemio Narro
Cast: Anajosé Aldrete Echevarria, Beatriz Arjona, Ximena Gonzalez-Rubio, Flor Eduarda Gurrola, Iván Arana, Diego Luna
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
Natalia (Beatriz Arjona) comes from Spain to Mexico because her boyfriend Esteban (Diego Luna) lives there. But Esteband got held up by work, so Natalia spends a weekend with the girls – Ana (Anajosé Aldrete Echevarria), Valeria (Ximena Gonzalez-Rubio) and Sofia (Flor Eduarda Gurrola). Natalia doesn’t immediately connect with them and vice versa but after they start partying, they warm to each other. Spurred on by the others, Natalia starts flirting with a cowboy (Iván Arana). But their evening takes an unexpected turn when the women decide to kidnap and torture the cowboy.

Me quedo contigo was not only yet another rape-y /slash film, it also took what could have been an inversion of the “guys abuse women” setting and somehow made it even more misogynistic.

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Excess Flesh (2015)

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Excess Flesh 
Director: Patrick Kennelly
Writer: Patrick Kennelly, Sigrid Gilmer
Cast: Bethany Orr, Mary Loveless, Wes McGee, Kristin Minter, Jill Jacobson, Sheresade Poblet
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
Jill (Bethany Orr) and Jennifer (Mary Loveless) share an apartment, but not much else, although they are old friends: Jennifer is a model, outgoing, popular and she has no problems with getting guys. Jill on the other hand is shy, anxious and has an eating disorder. Tensions between the two start rising because of Rob (Wes McGee). He seems to like Jill, and Jill definitely likes him, but Jennifer keeps sleeping with him regardless. It’s only a question of time until Jill breaks completely.

Excess Flesh was announced as a completely disgusting, hard-hitting, excessive film. So much so that even among us /slash regulars we had bets going how long it would take until the movie completely derails. Well. It appears that we fell prey to false advertising. There is an emotionally hard-hitting core to the film but it never gets that out of hand. Not that I’m complaining about that – I actually quite liked the film as is.

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Body (2015)

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Body
Director: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Writer: Robert Olsen, Dan Berk
Cast: Helen Rogers, Alexandra Turshen, Lauren Molina, Larry Fessenden, Adam Cornelius
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
Holly (Helen Rogers), Cali (Alexandra Turshen) and Mel (Lauren Molina) have been friends forever and are spending Christmas together. Cali is not satisfies with hanging out at Mel’s house though and suggests they go to her uncle’s home, who is out for the Christmas holidays. Reluctantly both Holly and Mel agree. The girls have a good time until Holly realizes that they don’t actually have permission to be in the house, just as somebody is coming to check on it.

Body starts strong and then falls apart once the plot actually gets going. What a waste of nice characters.

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Zhì qu weihu shan [The Taking of Tiger Mountain] (2014)

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Zhì qu weihu shan
Director: Hark Tsui
Writer: Jianxin Huang, Hark Tsui, Yang Li, Chi-An Lin, Zhe Dong, Bing Wu
Based on: Bo Qu‘s novel Tracks in the Snowy Forest
Cast: Hanyu Zhang, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Kenny Lin, Nan Yu, Liya Tong, Geng Han, Xiao Chen
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2015
[Review by cornholio.]

Plot:
After the end of World War 2, there still remains a lot of work to be done in China. Apart from destruction, poverty and hunger, there are also bandits who have taken over the Japanese weapons. A particular group led by Hawk (Tony Ka Fai Leung) has withdrawn into the bunker on Tiger Mountain. It’s Captain 203’s (Kenny Lin) mission to take them down. One of his men who recently arrived with reinforcements, Yang Zirong (Hanyu Zhang) proposes a plan where infiltrates the bandits, 203 – who doesn’t trust Zirong agrees only hesitantly to the plan. Will they be able to succeed?

The Taking of Tiger Mountain was too long, too propagandistic and too predictable for my taste. But at least it was pretty.

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Bloody Knuckles (2014)

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Bloody Knuckles
Director: Matt O’Mahoney
Writer: Matt O’Mahoney
Cast: Adam Boys, Kasey Ryne Mazak, Ken Tsui, Gabrielle Giraud, Dwayne Bryshun, Steve Thackray
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2015
[Reviews by cornholio and Maynard.]

Plot:
Travis (Adam Boys) draws moderately successful cartoons that have mainly one goal: offend everyone who comes into contact with them. When he makes one cartoon about mob boss Leonard Fong (Kasey Ryne Mazak), he might have pissed off the wrong person: Fong kidnaps Travis and removes his drawing hand as punishment. But surprisingly that is not the last time his hand gets Travis into trouble. When shortly afterwards the hand turns up on his doorstep with a mind of its own and a will for revenge, things really spiral out of control.

Bloody Knuckles wants to argue about freedom of speech, but unfortunately does so from the worst possible perspective: that of an entitled white guy who is saddened that he can’t insult everybody at the same time.

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Bunny the Killer Thing (2015)

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Bunny the Killer Thing
Director: Joonas Makkonen
Writer: Joonas Makkonen
Cast: Hiski Hämäläinen, Enni Ojutkangas, Veera W. Vilo, Jari Manninen, Katja Jaskari, Roope Olenius, Olli Saarenpää, Vincent Tsang, Orwi Manny Ameh, Marcus Massey, Gareth Lawrence
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2015
[Review by cornholio.]

Plot:
Author McRain (Gareth Lawrence) comes to Finland to finish his next novel in peace. But he never gets a chance as he’s kidnapped and experimented on. As a result, he is turned into a human-sized bunny with a huge dick and an even bigger thirst for pussy. Relentlessly searching for people he can rape and kill, he stumbles upon a group of friends who are partying at a remote cabin.

For the past few years I have bought the All You Can See pass for the /slash Filmfestival, which gives you a ticket for every screening they have. For me that meant seeing all the films that I can possibly squeeze in and not worry about contents at all. Since I don’t even like to watch trailers and I like being surprised by films, that is a system I’m usually very happy with.
But every once in a while it backfires. Case in point: Bunny the Killer Thing. What I heard about the film in advance was that it’s about a bunny who wants to eat pussy. That, to me, doesn’t immediately scream rape (which might have been naive). But if I had known that the film was 90 minutes of a rape joke (and the bunny isn’t the only rapist in it), I probably wouldn’t have watched it, especially since this year’s /slash was kinda heavy on the rape anyway.

Bunny-the-Killer-Thing

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