A Long Way Down: An Anti-FeelGood Comedy

A Long Way Down is a comedy drama film directed by Pascal Chaumeil. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Nick Hornby. The plot follows four people who were all going to kill themselves on New Years Eve, but because of the arrival of the others didn’t. They then all agree to a life pact, an opposite suicide pact and agree to stay alive until Valentines Day. Through their shared pains and new-found friendships they learn to heal and find new reasons to live.

This is the sort of the film you would expect it to be, it is mushy and overly emotional, it ends with all of the characters happy and moved on from their respective issues and two of the character get together; incredibly predictably. That is my issue with this film, everything that you think will happen does. Anyone who has ever seen a similar film before could easily tell you exactly the twists and turns of this film before they even watch this. Formulaic is a word that easily describes this film.

Another thing that bothered me about this film is that considering it is a feel good, mushy film it is not all that happy. A lot of this film is the opposite of inspiring and uplifting, it is depressing. I get that the point is to show them as having nothing left to live for and then turn it around over the course of the film, but rather than do this the film feels bleak until the final 5 minutes and then you get a manic burst of happiness all at once.

Furthermore, Pierce Brosnan’s character is a peado, there is no way around it, the reason he wants to kill himself is because prior to the events of the film his character has an affair with a girl he thought was 25, but it turned out she was 15. We are told this from the off and are then expected to cheer for him and be glad he doesn’t kill himself, but you feel icky the whole time when you think about it. It feels like a needless inclusion for him to be a peado, he could have just had an affair that ruined his life, she didn’t need to be a child.

Overall, this is a feel-good film that isn’t particularly feel good, it wants you to cheer on a sex offender and it is incredibly predictable, so…….

Pros.

The cast is solid.

Cons.

It is depressing.

He is a peado.

It is predictable.

It is painfully average.

1/5

Pontypool: Ghosts Of The Radio

Pontypool is a Canadian horror film directed by Bruce McDonald. The plot follows a local radio crew in the midst of a language-based pandemic. Said virus effects English speakers making them slowly lose their minds and become transfixed on killing themselves and others, the pathogen seems to be triggered by repeat use of language and the perceived meaning of words.

I have to hand it to this film it is one of the most original zombie esque films I have ever seen, the premise which is based on the novel by Tony Burgess, Pontypool Changes Everything, is truly original and novel and for that I applaud them. I have never seen another film quite like this, the only other film that I can draw a slight if inaccurate comparison to is Arrival and that is souly because language is of huge importance in that film.

However, I think based on how the film executes its premise that it would be better suited to a short film: because though learning about what is going on and the virus is cool and interesting it just isn’t enough to sustain an hour and a half film. As such a lot of the other stuff such as the conflict between Grant (Stephen McHattie), and his producer in the beginning it all just feels like filler, it feels as though it has been written in to pad out the run time, because it adds nothing, the film doesn’t really get going until the virus stuff starts.

That I think is the key issue with this film, though it is novel and original, there just isn’t enough there to keep you entertained for an hour and a half. As the film was midway through, I was really starting to lose interest and yes, the break threw at the end and the bizarre post credits scene does something to pull me back, but it doesn’t really make you check back in.

Overall, though it is original and interesting it still falls down in the middle and becomes a slog that is hard to finish and honestly if I was reviewing it, I probably would have turned it off here, full of promise, but not fun to watch.

Pros.

The premise is cool.

It is truly unique.

Cons.

It is hard to get through.

There is not enough cool stuff to sustain the runtime.

After a point it becomes boring.

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

Don’t Knock Twice: Knock Knock Knocking On Hell’s Door

Don’t Knock Twice is a British horror film directed by Caradog W. James. The plot sees Chloe (Lucy Boynton), become the target of an evil demonic witch, who is intent on taking her away. She seeks out her biological mother Jess (Katee Sackoff), to help her defeat the witch and the two of them go on a journey to find out the truth and save Chloe’s soul.

Before we get into this review can I just say it makes no sense to have a British film set in Britain with a British cast, and then have the lead be an American. It is never explained why she is in England, which would be so easy to do, it would take one line of dialogue.

That said.

I enjoyed the twists and turns this film took, I enjoyed when the film was getting us to question whether the witch was even real or whether it was one of the two leading ladies, facing perhaps a mental break. I also enjoyed the twist ending, when the woman who had advised Jess on how to defeat the witch turned out to be working for the witch, I never saw it coming.

I also enjoyed the atmosphere and tone of this film; I thought the scares in this film were effective because a lot of the time they were achieved through a build up of tension. There were two jump scares in this film and both of them worked because of the harsh oppressive atmosphere. A lot of horror films today think all they need to be scary is jump scares, but they aren’t effective if you don’t have the right atmosphere for them. I thought the decision to really get into the back story of the witch was interesting as it gave us quite a nice meaty mythology to sink our teeth into.

Furthermore, I thought the witch herself was quite impressive, I liked the physicality of the performance and that it wasn’t CGI. I think the CGI effects/creatures that are in this film are far less impressive by comparison.

Overall, though this film gets a bad rap, I think it is a surprisingly strong horror film, both of the leads are great, it is scary and most important of all, it is well written.

Pros.

A non-CGI creature.

Good scares/ underusing jump scares.

Good twists and turns.

Solid lead performances.

Cons.

Some of the CGI effects weren’t good and more of it should have been done practically.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Northern Soul: Keep On Dancing

Northern Soul is a drama music film directed by Elaine Constantine. The plot focuses on the underground northern soul movement in Britain in the 1970’s. Two friends John (Elliot James Langridge) and Matt (Josh Whitehouse), try to make it in the scene and become the most successful DJs in the north. What follows is a journey that tests their minds, friendships and of course their souls.

This film is an interesting watch, it sheds light on a time period and a type of music that is often not looked upon, it teaches you a lot of things you most likely wouldn’t have known otherwise.

The film itself can be hard to watch at times because even when things are going well there is a underlying sense of dread that something is just about to go bad, I suppose this is reflective of life, this film seems to want to be as realistic as possible; no happy endings here.

The most life affirming thing about this film is the friendship the two men share, even when everything goes wrong and all looks lost, the two men carry on and become friends again and it reminds you of the power of friendship. The final scene of the film when the two men walk off to go, and hangout is almost impossible not to make you smile.

The performances for the most part are great, in a heart-breaking sense. This film is just that heart breaking, in many different ways, however, there are moments of comedy that underscore it stopping it from being totally upsetting. Great comedic actors like Steve Coogan and Ricky Thomlinson are in this film, but sadly they only have very small parts.

Overall, this is a heart-breaking look into the Northern Soul scene of the 1970’s, as well as a sad look into the lives of Northerners.

Pros.

It is interesting.

It covers a time period that is rarely done in films.

The performance are great and that includes the cameos.

Cons.

It is a bummer.

It is hard to watch at times.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Hunt For The Wilderpeople:Gangsters For Life

Hunt For The Wilderpeople is a comedy drama directed by Taika Waititi. The plot follows Ricky (Julian Dennison), a young troubled boy, who is taken in by an older couple; when his new aunt dies he is left alone with his new uncle Hec (Sam Neil), and the two of them are pursed into the New Zealand bush by the police and by child protective services. Together they go on a journey.

Waititi films are always very special, they’re unique and anyone who has ever seen one will know what I am talking about, they’re quirky and have a distinct voice. This film is proof of that. On it’s surface this film is a coming of age story about a troubled young boy looking for somewhere to belong and a broken-down old man looking for a reason to carry on. However, underneath this there is so much more, it is a story about misfits finding each other about optimism and hope, about the human spirit and never giving up. As such it is easily incredibly uplifting.

The main duo are good, particularly Neil, he plays the bushmaster Hec with a degree of hardened pessimism as well as a misunderstood good heart. The relationship the two share is beautiful, they are so different and yet they come together, and the results are beautiful. The ending of the film when Ricky has a new family, but still wants Hec in his life is so touching and sweet you can’t help but cheer.

The best thing about this film is the cameos, from Waititi himself as well as his regular collaborator Rhys Derby. Waititi plays the priest that carries out Ricky’s adoptive aunt’s funeral and who lays out the philosophy of the film in a simple and funny way and Derby’s incredible performance highlights the film’s central theme, love for the outsider.

Overall, this is a very beautiful, touching film and everyone involved did a great job.

Pros.

The relationship between Hec and Ricky.

The performances of Neil and Dennison.

The humour.

The cameos.

The film’s sensibilities.

Cons.

None at all.

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Cheap Thrills: What Would You Do For A Million?

Cheap Thrills is a crime, dark comedy film directed E.L Katz. The plot sees a rich couple pay two poor hard done by men an ever-increasing amount of money too do things for their amusement. They make the men compete through a series of wagers that become increasingly dark, including mutilation and eating a dead dog.

I think the premise of this film leaves a lot of food for thought, the question it left me with is how far are we willing to go to be rich? The two men in this film are in dire need of cash, Craig (Pat Healy), is one the verge of being evicted, which would result in him and his young family becoming homeless and Vince (Ethan Embry) risks going to prison every day through what he does to make money. Despite this I think the question can apply to us all, if someone offered you a million pounds/dollars whatever, what would you do for it?

I was glad that the bets that the men had to do to earn the money were all tasteful, yes, the dog eating scene was uncomfortable, but at least it was shot well so we didn’t see too much of it. My point is that this film could have been a lot sicker, a lot darker and I am glad it didn’t go in that direction.

The film has a lot of great twists and turns and you can never really tell where it is going to go, just when you think that you have figured out what is going on it takes another path, none of the characters or events are what you think they’re.

Embry is the only member of the cast that leave an impression, his Vince is deeply hateable, and you see over the course of the film that there is nothing he won’t do to get the money, including cheating. He is a great love to hate character.

A question I have for the film, or anyone who has seen it, is what was the point of Sara Paxton’s character? She does nothing, she says nothing, the only reason I can see they wrote her in was to have sex with Craig which if true would be icky and exploitative. Her character literally might have 3 lines in the whole film, a lot of the time she just stairs off into space.

Overall, the questions the film raises are more interesting than the film itself. However the film is worth watching for those questions alone.

Pros.

Ethan Embrey.

It is done tastefully.

It raises some neat questions.

Cons.

Other than Embrey that characters are forgettable.

Sara Paxton’s character.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

House Of The Devil: The 80’s Will Never Die

House Of The Devil is an 80’s themed possession horror film directed by Ti West. The plot sees struggling student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), take a babysitting job so she can pay to move into her own place. However, after she arrives at the house, she quickly begins to realise that something isn’t right and as the night progresses thing take a turn for the demonic.

My feelings on Ti West as a director are mixed, his style of directing is more miss than hit for me; I lovingly refer to him as a poor man’s Adam Wingard. I didn’t like The Babysitters, I thought it was disjointed and clumsy and I didn’t like his section in The ABC’s Of Death, I thought it was tasteless and cheap. So when I realised, he was the director of this I didn’t have high hopes.

That said, I actually enjoyed this film. Did it have it issues? Sure. A lot of it felt too drawn out with not a lot happening, and the use of spiking the audio after a scare started to become unpleasant to listen to after a while, but apart from that I thought it was enjoyable.

I enjoyed the 80’s aesthetic of the film, my favourite sequences of the film were the opening credits and the bit when Samantha was dancing around the house, I loved the goofy tone of the film in this regard. I thought the songs were great and I truly believe the 80’s will never die.

What’s more the performances are surprisingly good, the two I would draw attention to are Greta Gerwig as Megan and Tom Noonan as Mr Ulman. Gerwig is memorable as Sam’s best friend Megan, who guesses something is wrong right from the beginning. Gerwig has some great comedic moments and easily manages to impress; sadly she isn’t around for long. Noonan on the other hand, is creepy and imposing from the moment he appears on screen, he manages to do a lot with very little and gives a memorable performance.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good haunted house/possession horror film, with some strong performances.

Pros.

Noonan and Gerwig.

The 80’s feel of it.

Some good scares.

Cons.

Technical issues/ audio spiking.

It is overly drawn out.

Lena Dunham takes you out of the film.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Found Footage 3D: A Whole Other Dimension Of Average

Found Footage 3D is a horror film directed by Steven DeGennaro. The plot is about a budding group of filmmakers making a found footage film which becomes menacingly real, when they demonic monster of their film spills out into the real world the usual hijinks ensue.

This film had promise, the premise lent it the ability to be to found footage films what Scream was to slasher films. When I first started to watch this film, I thought it would be a smart film that would point out all the ridiculous things about this subgenre and be somewhat tongue in cheek and the beginning is suggestive towards this being the case.

However, as the film progress you realise something, this film is not mocking the genre, nor is it a homage or a tribute, it is just yet another found footage movie that is exactly the same as the rest. After the satirical start, events play out just like they would in any number of other found footage films and it all just feel very been there and done that. Yes, it is not the fault of the film that the genre is played out, but it is there fault that the filmmakers behind his film thought to add to the genre rather than change it.

The characters are the same collection you would expect from this sort of film and everything is incredibly formulaic. The leader of the group Derek (Carter Roy), is an intensely unlikable person, this must have surely been by design, though I don’t know why it would be as this leads you to want him to die for the entirety of the film, only to get a very disappointing death at the end of the film, leaving you feeling disappointed.

That would be a great way to sum up this film disappointing.

Overall, this film is a waste of time and is squanders its opportunity to be something different.

Pros.

The ending is good and tense.

The premise is unique.

Cons.

It wastes its potential.

It is painfully average.

Worst of all it is disappointing.

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

The ABC’s Of Death: Bring Back Moral Panics!

The ABCs Of Death is a 26-part horror anthology film with each segment being directed by a different person and being about a different letter of the alphabet. The film features such popular directors as Adam Wingard and Ben Wheatley.

Before I get into the review in depth, I just want to say don’t watch this film! I understand the need in cinema, especially in the horror genre, to be shocking and boundary pushing, but this film is just cheap shock value, it has no class, no taste, it is just edgy for the sake of being edgy. An example of my point, in Ti West’s segment M Is For Miscarriage the whole point of the story is a women looking for a plunger to push her stillborn kid down the toilet, there is nothing more to it than that, it is handled poorly and with questionable taste; also that is one of the more tame examples from this anthology.

There are plenty of other segments that feature, rape, paedophilia, illusions to bestiality, dog fighting and many other horrible things, not one of them is handled with any taste, it is all shock for shock value. Surprisingly one of the ones I just mentioned the dog fighting one directed by Marcel Sarmiento, is probably the one with the most taste; that is not something I expected to be writing this morning.

I can break down the shorts into 4 categories, good or at least well done, these are the segments by Wingard, Wheatly, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Lee Hardcastle and Banjong Pisanthanakun. The weird stuff this includes the furry segment, the farting segment and the final segment. The average/ boring stuff, this includes the surfing segment and the life cycle one and then the offensively bad/ done in poor taste, which includes most everything else. So as you can see it is truly a mixed bag, with very few well done segments.

Finally, unlike something like V/H/S where are all of the segments worked together, they were separate and individual, but they all had the same feel and tone, the tone in this film is wildly all over the place, you have really dark unpleasant segments, followed by light and fluffy stuff and it is jarring to say the least.

Overall, this has been one of the toughest films I have watched recently and not only do I not recommend it, I advise you to stay away from it, you could probably find more cultured nuanced horror on Youtube. A black mark on some of the biggest names in horror.

Pros.

There is about 5/26 good segments.

Cons.

Most of the segments are horrible.

It is incredibly hard to watch.

It is done in such poor taste I would call it offensive.

The tonal inconsistencies and also the lack of effort by some, looking at you Ti West.

1/5

Dead Shack: Zombies Gotta Eat

Dead Shack is a comedy horror film directed by Peter Ricq. The plot sees a family go to stay in the countryside, once they’re there the children of the family realise that there is something wrong with the woman next-door; she is feeding people to her zombie family, and their parents seem to be next on the menu.

The first 45 minutes of this film are a slog, boring, confusing, and poorly done. The opening cinematography choice of using a collection of bird’s eye shots, while we hear diegetic audio that we can’t see, is jarring and not nice to watch. This turned me off the film before it had even begun.

It is also confusing because as we are introduced to the characters, all of whom are incredibly bland barring the father of the family Roger (Donovan Stinson), we don’t understand how they are related. This is particularly true of Jason (Matthew Nelson-Mahood), even after watching it till the end, I still don’t understand why he was there or who he was to the family; it seems needless obtuse.

The only positive of this first half of the film is Roger, the dad, who is hilarious. Comedy in this film is a strange beast because whenever anyone other than Roger makes a joke it falls flat and is painfully unfunny, but when Roger does it he actually manages to make you laugh; reminding you that this film is supposed to be a comedy horror, rather than just bland. This a testament to Stinson’s comedic abilities.

The second half of the film is better as it focuses on the showdown between the kids and the neighbour, there is no weird cinematography or editing choices, it flows much better, it actually gives you some faith in the film. The showdown itself is well done and we get some nice gore and a few shocks, it is not enough to be remembered after you have finished it mind, but it is still far, far better than the first half.

Overall, this is an okay film, there are a few good jokes and the second half is watchable. However, the first half is a real drag to watch so I really can’t recommend it.

Pros.

Donovan Stinson.

The second half really turns it around.

Cons.

Bad filmmaking decisions.

Terrible characters.

One of the worst first halves I’ve seen in a long time.

1.5/5

Reviewed by Luke