Gunpodwer Milkshake (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): It could have more spunk and substance

Posted on July 19, 2021 by kaist455

Netflix film “Gunpowder Milkshake” is drenched in style and mood, but it seriously deficient in terms of spunk and substance to distinguish itself from other similar genre flicks such as “John Wick” (2014) and its recent sequels. While there are some entertaining moments mainly thanks to the game efforts from its main cast members, the movie will not surprise or impress you much as plodding from one expected moment to another, and you will soon forget it once it is over.

Karen Gillan, who has been mainly known for her notable supporting turn in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) and its subsequent 2017 sequel, plays Sam, a female professional assassin working for a criminal organization which is simply called “The Firm”. At the beginning, we see Sam handling her latest job with swift and ruthless proficiency, and the following flashback scene shows her painful separation from her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey), who was also a professional assassin working for the Firm. As settling her old score, Scarlet consequently caused a big problem for not only her daughter but also the Firm, and she had no choice but to go into hiding alone while her daughter was left to her former handler Nathan (Paul Giamatti).

So far, Sam has been a fairly good employee under Nathan’s guidance and protection, but, unfortunately, she happens to cause a big problem just like her mother did a long time ago. When her latest mission turns out to be messier than expected, she has to eliminate a bunch of guys besides her main targets, and one of them happens to be someone quite dear to the leader of a rival criminal organization in the city. Once Nathan comes to learn of this serious mishap, he and other senior members of the organization quickly gather for an emergency meeting, and it goes without saying that they eventually decide to give away Sam for avoiding any more trouble.

Meanwhile, Sam is assigned to another job to be handled as soon as possible. Some plain accountant indirectly associated with the Firm ran away with lots of money, and it does not take much time for her to track down this person in question, but, of course, the situation turns out to be more complicated than expected. The money was stolen because this person has to pay the ransom for this person’s little daughter within a short time, and Sam decides to help getting the daughter back for this person, though she happens to injure this person quite seriously before making that decision.

As you have probably expected in advance, things really get messier for Sam once she tries to rescue that young girl from her kidnappers, who turn out to be quite sloppy in many aspects. Thanks to these clumsy and ineffectual criminals, Sam eventually finds herself facing more troubles, and she also has to decide what she should do about Emily (Chloe Coleman), that young girl who is fortunately rescued by her in the end.

As Sam and her unexpected young partner move from one spot another spot, the screenplay by director Navot Papushado and his co-writer Ehud Lavski attempts to build up a heavily stylized world around Sam and Emily. There is a small diner which is a sort of neutral zone for all the criminal figures in the city, and there is also a neat exclusive hospital not so far from the main background of “Hotel Artemis” (2018), another recent movie which also tried to emulate what was so amusingly established in “John Wick” and its recent sequels.

The most entertaining part in the film comes from a very special library run by a trio of ladies, each of whom turns out to have each own particular set of skills behind their unflappable appearance. While their main job is providing or disposing various weapons, these ladies are also capable of quick and brutal actions just like Sam (Is this a spoiler?), and they and a certain other character in the story surely stick together for Sam and Emily later in the story, even though they could simply choose to do nothing at all.

During the second half, the movie throws lots of physical actions into the screen as required, but the overall result is not accompanied with much dramatic impact because of many deficient aspects of the film. Although Gillan tries really hard to sell her character in addition to throwing herself willingly into a number of intense action scenes, her character is mostly devoid of life and personality to engage us, and her character’s personal drama along the story is bland and predictable to the core. At least, she and her young co-star Chloe Coleman click well together in several key scenes of theirs, but the movie does not handle their characters’ developing relationship that well, and that is another disappointment in the film.

In case of the other main cast members in the film, some of them have juicier moments in comparison. While Michael Smiley, Ralph Ineson, and Paul Giamatti are regrettably under-utilized on the whole, Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, and Angela Bassett effortlessly steal the show right from their first appearance via their sheer charisma, and now I am seriously wondering whether the movie could be more interesting if it were mainly about their characters.

In conclusion, “Gunpowder Milkshake” is not as bad as I heard from other critics, but I observed its story, characters, and action scenes without much care while a bit amused from time to time, and I eventually became more frustrated with its evident paucity in case of personality and spirit. No, I do not mind the movie being another John Wick wannabe, but, folks, this disposable product only knows how to play notes, not music.

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The Medium (2021) ☆☆(2/4): A hollow and unpleasant geek show

Posted on July 16, 2021 by kaist455

Thai filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun’s new film “The Medium”, one of the most anticipated horror films of this year to me and many other South Korean audiences due to its South Korean co-producer Na Hong-jin (Remember “The Chaser” (2008) or “The Wailing” (2016)?), is a hollow and unpleasant geek show to say the least. The more I reflect on its many supposedly scary and intense moments, the more the movie feels vulgar, exploitative, and reprehensible in numerous aspects, and I am still regretting over wasting 2 hours of my life at last night. No, I do not mind being scared or challenged as watching those dark horror films willing to shock or repulse audiences by any means necessary, but, boy, this dreck gave me one of the most tedious and uninteresting experiences I have had during this year.

Like several recent horror films about exorcism such as “The Last Exorcism” (2010), the movie is a mix of found footage and mockumentary, and its first act begins as a standard local culture documentary on the shamanism in rural Thai areas. Mainly through a local female middled-aged shaman named Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), the movie shows and tells us a bit of what she and many other local have believed for years, and then we see how she earns her meager living via giving others some spiritual help. According to her, the women in her family have been destined to become shamans, or “mediums”, to represent a certain local god who is simply one of numerous supernatural entities out there, and we hear about how she eventually became a shaman instead of her older sister Noi (Sirani Yankittikan), who incidentally escaped to Christianity after refusing to carry their family obligation.

When Nim subsequently attends the funeral of Noi’s recently diseased husband, she and Noi remain estranged from each other, and they do not interact well much with each other as reflected by a brief moment when Noi’s only daughter Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech) delivers a note from Noi, but then Nim gradually comes to sense something wrong from Mink. While she looks mostly fine on the surface, Mink has been behaving rather weirdly, and Nim later witnesses a very odd and disturbing incident from Mink during the following night.

As her niece keeps behaving weirdly day by day, Nim is convinced that her niece is experiencing something not so far from what she had a long time ago, so she tries to handle this situation for herself, but that is not welcomed much by her older sister, who adamantly refuses to believe all those shamanism stuffs in her younger sister’s spiritual world. As Mink’s circumstance becomes worse and worse, Noi tries her best to keep things under control, but, of course, she eventually begins to wonder whether she made a big mistake when she refused to carry that family obligation.

While all these and other things are happening around Nim and her family, they are constantly followed by the cameras of several crew members of the documentary in the film, who are somehow allowed to get full access to almost everything without much ethical consideration. As Mink goes through more of her inexplicable predicament, the cameras in the film stick closer to her just for capturing more disturbing happenings from her, and we accordingly get a series of uncomfortable scenes where the cameras feel more like creepy unethical voyeurs instead of objective observers. In case of a certain scene presented via closed-circuit TV cameras, it is utterly vile and unpleasant in its sleazy objectification of female body, and this only comes to remind us that the movie regards Mink as nothing but a mere object to be tormented and humiliated throughout the story.

The movie becomes a little more interesting during the middle act as Nim tries to discern what is really going on around Mink, but this part goes nowhere while casually throwing a certain taboo into the story without no particularly dramatic purpose, and we get more confused and disoriented than before. Is Mink really possessed by the ghost of someone very close to her? Are her mind and body actually filled with more than one spiritual entity? And is there really the connection between her ongoing plight and that dark history of her father’s family?

As entering its last act, the movie prepares itself for a full-throttle exorcism mode along Nim and several other main characters including one of her fellow shamans. While we surely get several disconcerting moments of demonic possession including the one involved with a very unfortunate dog (Please brace yourself if you are an animal lover, by the way), we are served with lots of typical shaky camera movements as those documentary crew members in the film keep shooting stuffs as before.

However, do all these and other things in the film really add up to, well, something enough for us to endure them all? To be frank with you, I am scratching my head on that matter while discerning more of its superficial narrative and thin characterization, which are the main reason I did not care about whatever was going on the screen. The main cast members did try as much as with their bland cardboard roles, and there are some competent aspects in the film including its effectively moody cinematography, but I kept observing the film from the distance without much care or attention during my viewing, in addition to not being so scared or challenged at all.

In conclusion, “The Medium” is a wretched genre exercise which only attempts to distinguish itself via numerous unpleasant and repulsive moments, and I was quite disappointed and depressed as I walked out of the screening room. At present, my mind is already ready to move onto other horror films which may be better than this dud, and I am sure my mind will soon forget the bad aftertaste from watching it.

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Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): …And then it goes back to 1978

Posted on July 13, 2021 by kaist455

Netflix film “Fear Street Part Two: 1978”, which was released on last Friday, tries to bring some fresh air into its genre territory just like its predecessor. Again, we are served with a gruesome horror tale of serial killing coupled with some supernatural elements, but the movie still provides a fair share of fun and thrill before opening the door to the final chapter of its trilogy in the end, and I found myself more entertained than expected.

The story starts at the time point not long after the cliffhanger ending of “Fear Street Part One: 1994” (2021). Its two main characters, Deena (Kiana Madeira) and her nerdy younger brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), managed to survive another horrible night of murder in their cursed hometown Shadytown, Ohio in addition to saving Deena’s girlfriend Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) from a bunch of serial killers controlled by the malevolent spirit of a powerful witch in the 17th century, but, alas, Sam subsequently becomes possessed by the spirit of that witch, and Deena and Josh must find any possible way to solve this new trouble before it is too late for Sam.

It seems that the solution may come from the sole survivor of one of the previous serial killing incidents in the past, so Deena and Josh hurriedly go to the house where that sole survivor lives at present. That person in question is not so cooperative while quite resigned about what has been going on in Shadytown for many decades, but that person eventually agrees to tell Deena and Josh about what happened at a local summer camp in 1978.

The movie accordingly moves back to that summer camp in 1978, and we are introduced to Ziggy Berman (Sadie Sink) and her older sister Cindy (Emily Rudd), who are not so particularly close to each other due to their personality difference. As trying to be as exemplary as possible, Cindy hopes that her participation in the summer camp program as a camp counselor will be another stepping stone to a better life outside Shadytown, and she often regards her more laid-back Shadytown colleagues with disdain. In contrast, frequently bullied and ridiculed by the campers of the neighboring town which is better than Shadytown in many aspects, Ziggy, who is naturally included in the Shadytown camper group, does not think that is possible, and she is usually annoyed by her sister’s haughty and fastidious attitude.

At least, there comes a little consolation for Ziggy while she goes through another miserable day at the summer camp. There is one kind and compassionate male camp counselor from that neighboring town, and this lad not only saves Ziggy from her latest humiliation but also helps her a bit when she later plans a little sweet retaliation against one of her bullies.

However, of course, there soon comes a big trouble when Cindy and her several fellow Shadytown camp counselors go into the surrounding forest during the following evening. Using the records left by a camp nurse who suddenly tried to kill Cindy’s boyfriend for no apparent reason, they eventually locate a certain spot associated with the old dark history of their town, and, as many of you have already guessed, that eventually leads to the beginning of that infamous night to remember.

What follows next is not so far from “Friday the 13th” (1980) and its countless sequels, but the movie, which is based on the popular book series of the same name by R.L. Stine, often toys with our expectation as swinging back and forth between twisted humor and bloody horror as required. I particularly like how the sequence involved with a very smelly underground space is swiftly punctuated by one gory moment of shock later, and I was also tickled a bit by a little homage to the killer character in “Friday the 13th Part 2” (1981).

Although the ending is already predetermined from the very start, the movie keeps engaging us as never losing the focus on what is being developed among its main characters, who have more life and personality compared to those disposable human targets in many lesser slasher horror films out there. As some of these main characters try their best under their increasingly perilous situation, we come to care about them more than expected, and that is one of the main reasons why the expected climax works with considerable dramatic effect.

Under the competent direction of director/co-writer Leigh Janiak, who directed all three films of the trilogy, the main cast members in the film dutifully fill their respective spots. While Sadie Sink and Emily Rudd complement each other well as two contrasting sisters who come to depend on each other more than expected along the story, Ryan Simpkins and Ted Sutherland are fine as two substantial supporting characters in the story, and Gillian Jacobs, who has been mostly known for her supporting turn in TV sitcom series “Community”, shows the more serious side of her talent during her brief appearance in the film.

On the whole, “Fear Street Part Two: 1978” is a fun genre exercise as entertaining as its predecessor, and you will be more curious about how everything in the series will be resolved in the following last chapter of the trilogy. So far, the series has been fairly satisfying, and I guess I can have a little more expectation on whatever we are going to get on the upcoming Friday.

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Werewolves Within (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A nutty werewolf murder mystery

Posted on July 13, 2021 by kaist455

“Werewolves Within” is a nutty whodunnit flick which often delighted me with its cheerful mix of horror, mystery, and comedy. Within its familiar genre territory clearly influenced by “And Then There Were None” (1945) as well as “The Thing” (1982), the movie, which is incidentally based on the video game of the same name from Red Storm Entertainment, deftly swings around several different genre modes before reaching to its eventual finale, and the result is often uproarious while accompanied with enough intrigue and suspense.

The story of the movie is unfolded mainly via the viewpoint of Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson), a forest ranger who has recently been transferred to a very small remote rural mountain town. Although the number of its current residents are a little more than 10 without any particular attraction to draw outsiders, this town somehow has a big inn run by an ebullient middle-aged lady named Jeanine Sherman (Catherine Curtin), and that is where Finn is going to stay while doing whatever he is expected to do as a forest ranger.

Shortly after arriving in the inn, Finn encounters several persons who are as colorful as Jeanine, and one of them is Cecily Moore (Milana Vayntrub), a young plucky female mail carrier who also recently began to work in the town. She subsequently has Finn meet the other people in the town, and we get an absurdly tense scene where Finn happens to encounter a guy who can be regarded as the unfriendliest person in the whole town.

While the other residents of the town look nice and friendly to their new forest ranger compared to that hostile dude, it turns out that there has been a little conflict among them due to the matter involved with a wealthy businessman currently staying in Jeanine’s inn. This businessman is willing to give a considerable amount of financial compensation in exchange of getting a permission to build a massive gas pipeline across the town, and some of the residents have no problem with that while others including Jeanine have opposed to that.

During the following night accompanied with a heavy blizzard, a couple of disturbing things occur. Probably due to the blizzard, the whole town happens to be cut off from the electricity line from the outside, and there is also a terrible incident involved with a pet dog belonging to one of the residents. As almost everyone in the town comes to gather at Jeanine’s inn for discussing what the hell is going on and how they should respond to that, the tension among them is increased more than ever, and then there comes a shocking moment of discovery which was already announced to us via the prologue scene of the movie.

Fortunately, one of Jeanine’s current guests happens to be a scientist who also happens to be an environmentalist, but the scientist is soon thrown into panic and confusion after trying to analyze the biological samples obtained from that alarming discovery. While trying to calm down the scientist, Finn and others in the inn later come to learn of the scientist’s final conclusion; There is a murderous werewolf, and it is quite possible that this werewolf is hiding among others in the inn right now.

After another terrible incident, everyone in the inn comes to believe what the scientist told them, and Finn tries to handle the situation as much as he can, but, to his frustration (and our amusement), things keep getting out of control. He and other cannot possibly leave the town right now because the only road between the town and the outside world happens to be cut off due to the blizzard, so he sees that he and others must stick together for increasing the chance of their survival, but, alas, most of others turn out to be as untrustworthy and uncooperative as the main characters of “The Hateful Eight” (2015).

Now I will be more discreet for avoiding spoilers, so I will just say that I enjoyed how the screenplay by Mishna Wolff takes one hilarious plot turn after another while steadily maintaining its narrative momentum. There are several obligatory moments of false alarms along the story, but most of them are handled better than I expected, and you will certainly get a good laugh from a certain big phallic object in the town, which is as transparent as Chekhov’s gun but is utilized more effectively than you might think.

Above all, the movie depends a lot on the talent and presence of its cast members, who bring each own life and personality to their respective archetype roles as well as the main cast members of “Knives Out” (2019). Sam Richardson, who has been mostly known for his supporting turn in HBO comedy series “Veep”, ably balances his performance between humor and sincerity, and he and Milana Vayntrub click well together during several key scenes in the film thanks to their precise comic timing. In case of the other cast members including Catherine Curtin, Michael Chernus, Cheyenne Jackson, Harvey Guillén, and Glenn Fleshler, they all have each own juicy moment to play, and we come to observe their characters with more chuckles even though their characters are more or less then silly figures who may be eliminated along the story.

Overall, “Werewolves Within”, which is directed by Josh Ruben, is funny and compelling enough to hold our attention before its rather weak ending, and it is certainly better than “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” (2020), which I happened to watch right before watching it. While “The Wolf of the Snow Hollow” is a little too jumbled and incoherent as often spinning its wheels, “Werewolves Within” simply goes all the way for more laughs and thrills in contrast, and I assure you that you will have a more productive time with the latter.

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The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): He has other issues besides that….

Posted on July 13, 2021 by kaist455

Jim Cummings’ second feature film “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” attempts an offbeat mix of horror and comedy, but its two very different elements do not click as well as intended. On one hand, it wants to be your average scary werewolf horror film, but, despite some obligatory moments of shock and terror, it is not particularly compelling or interesting. On the other hand, it also wants to be a character comedy about one pathetic man-child hero with emotional issues, but, it only becomes a weak and tiresome one-joke comedy as being placed right next to the gory aspects of the horror part of the movie.

Cummings, who also wrote the screenplay, plays John Marshall, a police officer of a rural town named Snow Hollow. When he is introduced around the beginning of the film, he is attending an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting which happens to be held right below his workplace, and it is quite apparent to us that he is still struggling a lot with several emotional issues including his recent divorce. As anyone with drinking problem will attest, that is not a very good sign for any alcoholic trying to get back on the way to sobriety, and then he finds himself distracted by what is suddenly going on at his workplace right now.

As already shown to us during the prologue scene, a gruesome murder case happened at the previous night, and Marshall and other police officers are aghast at how savagely the victim was mutilated. On the surface, it seems that some very twisted dude committed this heinous deed, but there are some strange things at the crime scene. For example, there is a big footprint of some animal, and, not so surprisingly, one of Marshall’s colleagues later suggests that the victim was actually killed by a werewolf.

Marshall does not believe that preposterous possibility at all, but then his town is soon shaken by another horrible case of murder and body mutilation, which certainly attracts more attention from the world outside. While the media including a local newspaper have a field day on the possibility of a crazy serial killer lurking somewhere in the town, Marshall becomes more pressured than before as trying to get things under control, but the situation surrounding his case only gets worse as days go by.

Meanwhile, Marshall’s private matters keep troubling him as usual. Although he has been sick of his ex-wife since his divorce, he still cares about their adolescent daughter, but he and his daughter Jenna (Chloe East) have been quite estranged from each other without much interaction between them, and they will be drifted apart from each other more once she goes to a college far from their hometown. In case of his father, who is also the sheriff of the town, he also does not interact that well with his son, and he also stubbornly insists on keeping working as usual despite his current serious health problem.

The only consolation for Marshall comes from Julia Robson (Riki Lindhome), one of his fellow officers who really wants to solve the case just like her colleague. While trying to support her colleague as much as she can, she also attempts to gather useful clues which may lead them to any potential suspect, but, not so surprisingly, they keep going nowhere with that growing possibility on the existence of a werewolf in their town.

However, Cummings’ screenplay deliberately focuses more on Marshall’s increasingly troubled emotional state without paying much attention to the mystery in the story. Besides showing the entity responsible for those atrocious killings a bit too early, the movie also gives us a possible suspect in advance, and I was quite disappointed by the contrived solution clumsily thrown later in the story.

Furthermore, the movie also stumbles a lot as a character comedy. The main characters are more or less than broad caricatures, and, to make matters worse, the movie fails to flesh out them with enough sense of life or personality to draw our attention. While Cummings tries really hard to sell his character, Marshall is no more than an unpleasant and uninteresting alcoholic jerk in my humble opinion, and many neurotic moments of his are monotonously shrill without much character development. As a result, we come to observe Marshall’s emotional struggle from the distance without any care or attention, and that is one of the reasons why the finale, which is accompanied with a certain familiar seasonal song, does not work at all.

In case of the other main characters, they are also rather bland and superficial, but some of them leave some impression thanks to the performers playing them. While Riki Lindhome manages to acquit herself well despite her thankless role, Chloe East brings some common sense to her several scenes with Cummings, and Robert Forster, a great character actor who sadly passed away in 2019 before the movie was released in last year, ably fills his supporting role with his own presence.

Although it is not wholly without good elements to notice, “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” is one or two steps down from Cummings’ first feature film “Thunder Road” (2018). While that film amused me enough, “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” somehow annoyed and frustrated me at times, and now my mind keeps going back to “Werewolves Within” (2021), which did a better job of mixing horror and comedy within its own werewolf story. Maybe you can enjoy “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” more than me, but I would rather recommend you “Werewolves Within” instead if you really want some nice thrill and good laughs.

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Gaia (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A little spooky eco horror film from South Africa

Posted on July 12, 2021 by kaist455

South African horror film “Gaia” impressed me a lot with many disturbing moments to remember. Although the story, which is reminiscent of many other horror films ranging from “The Ruins” (2008) to “Annihilation” (2018), sometimes suffers from its rather thin narrative and broad characterization, these and other weak aspects in the film are mostly compensated by its undeniable visceral visual power coupled with simple but sharp environmental messages, and my mind is still haunted by what I witnessed from this curious piece of work early in this morning.

The movie, which was shot in the remote wild areas of the Tsitsikamma forest in South Africa, opens with two employees of South African forest service moving along a river in the forest. While Winston (Anthony Oseyemi) is casually rowing their boat, Gabi (Monique Rockman) handles a drone to check out the surrounding area, and we accordingly get an aerial shot which emphasizes how vast and remote the forest really is.

And then something unexpected happens. When the drone is looking around somewhere inside the forest, it comes across a mysterious figure, and then it is suddenly disconnected from Gabi’s remote-control panel. Although Winston suggests that they should let it go, Gabi is adamant about retrieving the drone, so she soon goes inside the forest for looking for the drone, while Winston is doing some routine stuffs in the meantime.

Of course, things do not go well for both Gabi and Winston. Not long after going inside the forest, Gabi comes to sense that she is not alone at all in the forest, and then she gets herself seriously injured by a booby trap. Hearing her scream from the distance, Winston instantly tries to find Gabi as soon as possible, but, no so surprisingly, he also finds himself lost in the forest, which comes to look more ominous than before as the day is being over with the darkening sky.

Meanwhile, Gabi manages to find an empty cabin where she can rest for a while and then take care of her injury, but then she encounters the two residents of the cabin: Barend (Carel Nel) and his adolescent son Stefan (Alex Van Dyk). It is apparent that Barend and Stefan have lived there for many years without any interference from the world outside, and Barend clearly does not welcome Gabi much, but he lets her stay in his cabin in addition to having her injury treated via a rather crude but effective way.

As Gabi comes to spend more time with Barend and his son, we get to know a bit more about him and his son. Before living the life of your average survivalist, Barend was a plant pathology expert, and the forest was a special place for him and his wife, who, according to him, died due to bone cancer shortly giving birth to their son. In case of Stefan, this young lad is mostly silent, but he soon becomes curious about Gabi, and she comes to take pity on him as discerning how much his world has been limited by his father, who is more like a zealous cult leader instead of a protective father.

However, as already shown to us, Barend and his son are not bound together via a mere belief. There is indeed something scary and mysterious within the forest, and we accordingly get a series of uncanny scenes including the recurring one involved with a big old tree glowing with ominous bloody light every night. While frequently having vividly disconcerting dreams, Gabi is also quite unnerved to behold what Barend and his son have to deal with everyday, but it looks like there is no way out for her.

Once its origin of terror is fully revealed during its second half, the screenplay by Tertius Kapp comes to lose some of its narrative momentum, but the movie keeps serving us striking moments of awe and terror under the competent direction of director Jaco Bouwer. Besides deftly establishing a subtle aura of menace around the screen, Bouwer and his crew members including cinematographer Jorrie van der Walt did a fantastic job of bringing considerable realism and verisimilitude to the film, and what the movie comes to unleash on that solid ground is often quite mesmerizing to say the least. According to the IMDB trivia, Bouwer and his production team had lots of difficulties besides the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when they shot their movie in the Tsitsikamma forest, but the overall result is still top-notch in technical aspects, and you will come to admire more of their efforts behind the screen.

The main performers in the film dutifully fill their respective roles. While Moonique Rockman functions as our surrogate heroine, Carel Nel and Alex Van Dyk are quite convincing in their shabby feral appearance, and they and Rockman generate enough dramatic tension to engage us despite their predictable character arcs along the story. Although his role is your average token supporting character, Anthony Oseyemi holds his own small spot well, and you may feel sorry for his character even though you can instantly discern his character’s end coming from the distance.

Overall, “Gaia” may require some patience from you in the beginning, but it will be a rewarding experience especially if you are looking for something different. Like any good horror films, it is packed with mood and details to be savored, and you may come to reflect a bit on the humanity’s problematic current relationship with the nature on the Earth.

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False Positive (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Something is wrong with her pregnancy…

Posted on July 12, 2021 by kaist455

“False Positive” is a psychological thriller movie which attempts to explore the female fear and anxiety on pregnancy. Clearly reminiscent of “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), the movie is creepy and interesting enough to hold our attention during its first two acts, but then it stumbles more than once during the rather jumbled third act, and that is a shame considering some good efforts from its cast and crew members.

The story is mainly told through the viewpoint of Lucia “Lucy” Martin (Ilana Glazer), a promising female copywriter living with her surgeon husband Adrian (Justin Theroux) in New York City. While their married life has been affluent and comfortable as reflected by their slick modern apartment, they have actually been struggling to have a baby during last two years, and there has not been any success yet to their disappointment.

And then there comes a good news for them. Dr. John Hindle (Pierce Brosnan), a renowned fertility expert who has been running a prestigious women’s clinic in the city, is willing to help them as Adrian’s old mentor, and, with the full support from her husband, Lucy gets herself examined at Hindle’s clinic and then inseminated via his state-of-the-art technique.

It does not take much for Lucy to find that she finally gets her wish, but it turns out to be quite more than she wanted. She is pregnant with no less than three fetuses, and Dr. Hindle suggests that she should made a certain choice for guaranteeing safe pregnancy and birth. Although she understandably hesitates at first, Lucy eventually comes to make the decision on that, and her husband respects her decision despite his initial reservation.

During next several months, everything seems to be going pretty well for Lucy and her husband, but Lucy cannot help but feel wrong about her pregnancy. Her husband and Dr. Hilton assure her that she is simply going through prenatal depression, and one of her new friends she encounters at a meeting of pregnant women also tells her that there is nothing to worry about, but she still frequently becomes nervous and agitated, while also suspecting something fishy from her husband as well as Dr. Hilton.

As its heroine is slowly mired in inexplicable fear and anxiety, the movie begins to toy with the insidious possibilities surrounding her pregnancy. There is a brief hallucinogenic moment which is definitely influenced by the infamous nightmare sequence in “Rosemary’s Baby”, and we also get several morbid moments which will make us have some reasonable doubt on the reliability of Lucy’s increasingly unstable viewpoint. Is she just going through a very serious case of prenatal depression? Or, are her husband and Dr. Hilton really planning something diabolical behind their back?

Meanwhile, the movie also tries to mix a number of different elements into the story, though many of them are disappointingly underdeveloped on the whole. The subplot involved with Lucy’s workplace could illuminate more of how difficult it is for women to balance herself between work and pregnancy, but this part is eventually put aside without much afterthought. In case of the part associated with a well-known midwife who may help Lucy more than Dr. Hilton, it is so superficially handled that a revelation around the end of the story does not feel like a surprise at all, though the movie makes a little sharp point on a certain stereotype.

Anyway, director/co-writer/co-producer John Lee and his crew members did a fairly good job of imbuing the screen with a considerable degree of uneasiness and insidiousness. The last act does not wholly work, and the predetermined ending is not as strong as intended, but several competent aspects of the movie including the cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski, who previously collaborated with Ari Aster in “Hereditary” (2018) and “Midsommar” (2019), still engage us even at that point.

Although I am not that familiar with her TV sitcom series “Broad City”, Ilana Glazer, who also co-produced and co-wrote the film along with Lee, is a good performer as far as I can see from the movie, and she ably conveys to us her character’s trembling state of mind along the story. Even as we come to question more of what is presented through her character’s viewpoint, Glazer’s solid performance still keeps us on the edge, and she steadily supports the film right up to its very last shot.

Several other performers surrounding Glazer are also well-cast in their respective roles. While Justin Theroux is suitable as a husband who may not be totally honest with his wife, Gretchen Mol is as cheerfully creepy as required by her character, and Zainab Jah and Sophia Bush bring some personality to their rather thankless supporting roles. In case of Pierce Brosnan, he wisely underplays his character as subtly suggesting what may lie beneath his character’s confident benevolence, and it is evident that he is clearly enjoying every juicy moment given to him.

Although it is not satisfying enough for recommendation, “False Positive” is not entirely without interesting stuffs at least. The overall result is merely disturbing and uncomfortable without enough dramatic impact to linger on me, and I wish it went further with its pulpy aspects, but I will not deny that I had a fair share of entertainment during my viewing.

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The Last Cruise (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A cruise ship under quarantine

Posted on July 11, 2021 by kaist455

HBO documentary film “The Last Cruise” indirectly reminds me of how much things have been changed a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic was started in Wuhan, China around the beginning of 2020. Around that time point, I and many others in South Korea were not that serious about that alarming COVID-19 outbreak in China, but then things got pretty worse here within next several weeks, and then the whole world was also shaken a lot by the resulting global pandemic which has not been totally stopped yet even at this point.

The main subject of the documentary is what can be regarded as the prelude to what would subsequently happen around the world. When a big cruise ship named Diamond Princess began its latest voyage from Yokohama, Japan on January 20th, 2020, many passengers and crew members were not that concerned about the COVID-19 outbreak in China, but the ship was quarantined by the Japanese government when it returned to Yokohama on February 4th, and that was the beginning of their nightmarish situation which lasted for several weeks before they were all allowed to disembark.

Mainly consisting of a series of raw video footage clips shot during that period, the documentary initially shows us how things looked fine and well to everyone on the ship during the first day of that disastrous voyage. We see many passengers eager to have a good time during next two weeks, and we also observe how the crew members busily worked for serving more than 2,000 passengers on the ship. In case of one Indonesian crew member, he was well aware of how hard he and many other colleagues would have to work during next two weeks, but he was pretty excited about what he would see and experience during the cruise, and he willingly recorded lots of stuffs with his smartphone.

Not long after the ship left Yokohama, more news about the COVID-19 outbreak in China came, but many people on the ship still did not worry about that much even when the ship dropped by Hong Kong. Some of them took some caution as wearing mask, but many of them did not do anything to protect them from the growing possibility of COVID-19 infection, and that was how the virus eventually sneaked into the ship.

Anyway, everything still looked normal as the ship was sailing back to Yokohama, and its passengers kept having more fun and excitement as before, but, of course, that did not last long. When the ship arrived in Yokohama, the passengers as well as the crew members were prevented from getting off the ship, and the circumstance became all the more serious when 10 people were tested positive later. As a result, the ship was immediately quarantined, and the situation only got worse with more and more positive test results coming from the passengers and crew members of the ship.

As days went by without much progress, the passengers on the ship became quite anxious and frustrated as being isolated inside their respective cabins. Many of them were Americans, and they certainly expected their government to do anything for making them get out of the ship as soon as possible, but they remained stuck in the ship without getting much support or help from the US government, which was not so serious about the growing COVID-19 pandemic due to its incompetent commander-in-chief at that time.

However, the passengers’ growing inconvenience was nothing compared to what the crew members of the ship had to endure everyday. As usually confined in much smaller spaces within the ship, they were the ones most vulnerable to the virus infection, but they did not get any help at all, and they were still constantly demanded to provide whatever the passengers needed everyday. In the end, many of the crew members became more active in showing more of their ongoing predicaments to the world outside, and that certainly drew lots of attention from the media.

Several weeks later, the passengers of Diamond Princess were allowed to leave the ship before its crew members left next, but that was not the end of their nightmare. In case of American passengers, they were promptly taken back to their home country via a military airplane, but they were aghast to see that they were not still totally safe from the virus. There was a barely sealed section reserved for the folks tested positive for COVID-19, and others certainly felt uncomfortable whenever they passed by this section.

Meanwhile, American scientists quickly embarked on the analysis of the outbreak process within the ship for knowing more about the virus, but, as many of us know, the situation had already been out of control around that time point. Within a few months, the American society was turned upside down by the virus, and many other countries around the world were also struck hard by the virus during that catastrophic period.

Overall, “The Last Cruise” could delve more into its relevant main subject, but director/co-producer Hannah Olson did a competent job of presenting an inside look into what was going on Diamond Princess during that gloomy time, and it surely deserves to be watched along with other notable recent COVID-19 documentary films such as “76 Days” (2020) and “Totally Under Control” (2020). These documentaries may come to us a bit too early, but they are still worthwhile to watch as the raw and vivid records of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and you will be reminded again of how fragile the normalcy of our world really is.

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76 Days (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): 76 days of lockdown in Wuhan, China

Posted on July 11, 2021 by kaist455

Documentary film “76 Days”, which was shortlisted for Best Documentary Oscar early in this year, gives us a close look into that urgent 76-day period of lockdown in Wuhan, China, which was the ground zero of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While simply observing a bunch of frontline medical workers busily working at several different hospitals in the city, the documentary vividly captures their constant struggles on the screen, and you will come to admire their considerable professional dedication.

On January 23, 2020, the Chinese government imposed a lockdown on not only Wuhan but also several other surrounding areas for stopping the further expansion of the COVID-19 infection, and the documentary, whose production was started in the following month, opens with a sad and devastating moment involved with one of the medical workers at a local hospital. That person’s father has just died due to COVID-19, and there is nothing that person can do except grieving over what will happen next. Because of that big possibility of infection, the body of that person’s father is thoroughly sealed before eventually taken out of the hospital, and that person is more devastated for not being able to say goodbye to him.

Nevertheless, that person and other medical workers at the hospital have to keep working as before because patients keep coming to the hospital. The capacity of their hospital is constantly limited, so they often have to decide which patient should be allowed into the hospital first, and that naturally leads to a series of conflicts between them and many patients desperately waiting for treatment.

While most of patients admitted into the hospital are fairly cooperative, there is an old dude who often causes headaches for the medical workers of the hospital. Although his symptom is rather mild compared to those very sick patients who may die at any point, he constantly complains and grumbles while frequently refusing to follow the instructions from several medical workers assigned to him, who understandably cannot help but lose a bit of their patience as trying to help him more.

Anyway, there are many other things to be handled in the hospital, and the documentary observes how the medical workers of the hospital often find themselves quite exhausted and frustrated. With their bodies always covered with protection clothes and goggles, they always have to pay attention to the safety of others as well as theirs, and their physical exhaustion is evident whenever we see their steamy goggles.

Despite many obstacles they have to face everyday, they keep trying to help many patients under their care. While some of their patients eventually die to their sadness and frustration, other patients come to be on the way toward recovery, and one of the most poignant moments in the documentary comes from an old, recovered patient showing sincere gratitude to a medical worker assigned to him. Feeling quite better than before, he is ready to be discharged from the hospital, and that is already a big reward for that medical worker in question.

In case of a young lady and her husband, they have been concerned a lot about the medical condition of their baby daughter, who happens to be born not long after she was tested positive. Although both she and her husband are all right for now as finishing their following quarantine period, they still cannot help but worry over their baby daughter, and they are certainly frustrated as their baby daughter’s hospital discharge keeps getting delayed.

Meanwhile, the situation in Wuhan gets improved as time goes by. While citizens are still careful as before, the mood becomes a little relaxed than before, and the same thing can be said about the hospitals in the city. At one point, the medical workers at one of these hospitals become a little playful and relaxed as writing slogans and drawing pictures on their protection clothes, and we sense that their worst time is almost over with spring coming into the city again. On April 8th, the lockdown was finally lifted from Wuhan and its surrounding areas, and we see the whole city mourning for those dead COVID-19 patients for a while.

Although it sometimes feels rather unfocused as merely moving from one episodic moment to another, the documentary still distinguishes itself as a raw and palpable presentation of the lockdown in Wuhan, and co-director/co-producer/writer/editor Hao Wu, who directed the documentary with Weixi Chen and an anonymous person who also served along with Chen as the co-cinematographer of the documentary, handles various human subjects with care and attention. I must point out that it is hard to distinguish one medical worker to another in the documentary due to their thick protection clothes, but their humanity is always felt from their diligence and integrity at least, and it is a bit shame that the documentary does not show more of their personal aspects.

In conclusion, “76 Days” is often powerful whenever it focuses on small but significant human efforts against COVID-19, and you will come to reflect more on millions of medical workers still battling against the virus out there even at this point. To be frank with you, the documentary could benefit from a wider perspective with more information for us, but it still works as a vivid record of the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I think it will often be mentioned along with many other similar documentaries in the future.

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Slalom (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): A chilly but harrowing observation of sexual abuse

Posted on July 11, 2021 by kaist455

French film “Slalom” is often disturbing and uncomfortable to watch as a chilly but harrowing observation of sexual abuse. As its young athlete heroine gets more confused, pressured, and exploited due to someone on whom she is supposed to depend a lot, we are chilled more while observing her increasingly helpless state, and we are relieved a bit when there comes a small sign of hope and resilience in the end.

At the beginning, the movie gradually establishes the ongoing situation of a female adolescent skier named Lyz Lopez (Noée Abita). She is excited to be at some prestigious ski training camp along with several other adolescent skiers including her best friend Justine (Maïra Schmitt), and she is not so bothered by being left alone there by her single mother Catherine (Muriel Combeau), who will not be around her daughter that often as she has to work in a city far from there.

Anyway, Lyz and other young trainees at the ski training camp are going to be supervised under their coach Fred (Jérémie Renier) and his wife Lilou (Marie Denarnaud) during next several months. As a guy who was once a promising ski champion before a couple of serious leg injuries, Fred is already quite determined to bring the best out of his young trainees, and Lilou is also ready to help their schoolwork in the meantime.

Unlike Justine, who just simply enjoys skiing without much ambition, Lyz is eager to be the best of the bunch someday, and that aspect of hers is soon noticed by Fred, who gives her more help and support once he discerns that she does have considerable potentials. After she wins the gold medal at a small local competition, he promptly gets a sponsor to help her financially, and Lyz is certainly excited even though being pressured more for more wins in addition to being a bit ostracized by her fellow trainees.

And she does not mind at all when Fred subsequently comes closer to her than before. As reflected by a brief scene where she happens to get a glimpse of her coach’s naked body, Lyz has been interested in sex and man a lot just like many other girls around her age, and she surely enjoys receiving much more attention from her coach than before. At one night, they have a little private time together on a cable car stopped in the middle of the track, and this rather nervous moment clearly implies to us how tricky their situation has become mainly due to Fred’s evidently unwholesome attention to Lyz.

And then there inevitably comes a very disturbing moment which will make you wince more than once for good reasons. While understandably shocked and confused by what happened between her and her coach, Lyz lets herself manipulated and exploited more by her coach, and that leads to more confusion and misery for her while she continues to be pressured more and more for the upcoming important competitions.

Steadily maintaining its calm and chilly tone, the movie subtly and sensitively delves more into its young heroine’s accumulating emotional conflict and how that considerably affects her relationships with several others around her. As her best friend, Justine soon comes to sense that something wrong is going on between Lyz and their coach, but there is nothing she can do about that except reminding Lyz that she does know, and the same thing can be said about Lilou, who has quietly suspected that her husband has been doing quite inappropriate things to Lyz – especially since her husband let Lyz staying at their residence for giving some help on her schoolwork.

While struggling with her emotional issues way over her head, Lyz continues to train as hard as demanded by her coach, who becomes more strict and abusive to her as a very important competition is approaching. When that important moment finally comes around the end of the story, the movie becomes more tense than before as cinematographer Yann Maritaud’s camera effortlessly glides along the ski track along with our heroine, and director Charlène Favier, who wrote the screenplay with Marie Talon and Antoine Lacomblez, keeps us on the edge even when our heroine finally reaches to what may be the end point of her troubled emotional journey.

Favier also draws solid performances from her main cast members. While Noée Abita is convincing in her character’s gradual loss of innocence, Jérémie Renier, a wonderful Belgian actor who has been mostly known for his frequent appearances in several acclaimed works of the Dardenne Brothers, is also believable as a loathsome person who does not mind at all committing more sexual abuse and exploitation upon his prized trainee as intoxicated more with lust and control. In case of several other supporting players, Marie Denarnaud, Muriel Combeau, and Maïra Schmitt are well-cast in their respective parts, and Combeau has a poignant moment with Abita when their characters finally come to have a little honest moment between them.

On the whole, “Slalom”, which is incidentally Favier’s first feature film, did a fairly thoughtful job of handling its very sensitive main subject, and you will certainly appreciate it more especially if you have watched recent Netflix documentary film “Athlete A” (2020), which gives a devastating account of countless sexual abuses committed upon young American gymnasts in real life. This is surely another relevant movie of the ongoing #MeToo era, and I think you should check it out someday.

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