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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 18 March 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

THE ALTO KNIGHTS (USA 2025) ****

Directed by Barry Levinson

THE ALTO KNIGHTS is a film by old people with old people as the protagonists.  Robert De Niro has dual roles in the film as two quarrelling gangsters and the film is directed by veteran Barry Levinson (DINER) and written by Nicholas Pileggi, author of GOODFELLAS, both of whom are in their senior years.   But the film is masterly done and a pleasure to watch from the starting frame.   De Niro is 81, Levinson is 82 and Pileggi is 92.

Why is the film called THE ALTO KNIGHTS?  It is not made clear but the name THE ALTO KNIGHTS is the name of the bar that the two gangsters and others meet.  In music ‘alto’ means the higher male pitched voice, often higher than the tenor.  The gangster could be singing a higher tune that needs to be heard.

A power struggle between Vito Genovese and Frank Costello (both played by De Niro), the top bosses of the Mafia, spills into open conflict when Vito orders a hit on Frank.  It all begins when Vito returns to the U.S. for Europe after handing everything in the business to Frank, his childhood and lifelong friend.  The business, crooked as most of it is, booms.  Now, returning, Vito wants to take over where he had left off.  But  Vito gets frustrated as to how things turn out, as orchestrated by Fransk.  Barely surviving, Frank maneuvers to protect himself and his family from Vito while also planning to retire from the Mafia.   Frank just wants to get out.  The other mob leaders do not want Vito to take over as they know he is a wild card.  They prefer to leave things as they are, with Frank in charge.   

The opening frame informs us that the year is 1957.   The first 15 minutes of the film illustrate the meticulous care and effort that goes into creating the period atmosphere of the story.  The vintage cars that are driven on the street, the shop windows and displays, the people’s wardrobe, props, and even the English spoken reflect the period of the piece.  Then the excitement begins.   Frank is shot in the elevator but survives.

The dialogue of the script from the writer of GOODFELLAS is spot on, and hilarious and makes the movie, aided by Robert De Niro who in his 70s can still deliver dialogue and motor-mouth like his younger counterparts like Jesse Eisenberg and Jim Carrey, while keeping appropriate accents.  The dialogue in which Frank talks about roses and horses is simply priceless.  Roses are better than horses and they don’t smell that much.  Also, I have won prizes for cultivating the best rose at a competition. Maybe my wife fixed the winner, but who cares?   The spill on a paranoia conspiracy theory that feeds on itself is also too good a dialogue to be forgotten.  The film thrives on its dialogue more than the action scenes, so more sophisticated audiences can enjoy it better.

De Niro hits the nail for best performance in the dual roles of the two gangsters.  He sports different accents and with the different hair, the audience can distinguish one gangster character from the other.  Debra Messing is all pretty good as Bobbie, the long-suffering wife who loves her husband regardless of what the circumstances are.

THE ALTO KNIGHTS a must-see opens Friday, March 21st.

Trailer: 

APPALACHIAN DOG (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Colin Henning

APPALACHIAN DOG, is a sultry, slow-burn Southern Gothic period drama set in post-war Appalachia, 1946. The story follows a tailor and his seamstress wife as they struggle to navigate a tense reunion after five years apart. Shot on location in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, the film leverages the stark winter landscape to evoke both cinematic beauty and a haunting desolation.

The Appalachian Mountain range in the United States is a bleak and deserted area.  The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are the mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range and its surrounding terrain.

It is this setting that sets the tone for a tense reunion between a husband, Teddy (Colin Henning) – turned unfruitfully idealistic after the war– and his wife, Marion (Georgia Morgan) –armed with courage and knowledge found in the years without him.   Teddy is a tailor and his wife is a seamstress.  But an injury during the war finds him with a shaky hand, one that is unable to sew less, thread a needle and thus unable to make the living he did.  He returns home with glasses, enabling him to read and see while being as blind as a bat before the war. Things have changed.  And very drastically.  Their former relationship lies lost somewhere in the five years that have passed, but they share one common, unspoken interest: to build a future.  Pardon the pun - but the couple is trying to stitch their lives back together,

The film begins with Marion, her hired help Peggy working as help in the sewing and her best friend gathered for dinner as a welcome party for Teddy.  But when Teddy appears, he acts all kind of weird, and things reach an emotional pitch, not to mention that the couple do not kiss or show tenderness when reunited.

In the heart of winter, their life and profession as tailors become complicated by newfound desires, talents, and a broken pair of glasses. Unable to sew, Teddy must pick up other work. Meanwhile, Marion moves back to the familiar feeling of working without her husband –and more than familiar, it may be preferable, too.

Director Colin Henning, who also wrote and stars as Teddy in the film, offers a really slow burn of a movie.  But slow burn does not necessarily translate to ‘boring’, for the film surely isn’t.  But the slow burn allows the film to unfold without any rush and allows the audience to get into the skin of the story’s characters.  One can also see what goes on the inside and read between the lines of dialogue.

The film’s sparse and isolated backdrop adds to the plight of the couple.

APPALACHIAN DOG is a film that is character-driven about how humans undergo and adapt to change.  As shown, some things can be changed, and some cannot.  The same goes for the personalities of Teddy and Marion.  Though written by Henning, the film offers a female point of view instead.

The film opens on demand on 3/21

Trailer: 

INVADER (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Mickey Keating

The film opens with jittery images as the film is shot hand-held camera style.  There is some dodgy person that is squatting in a house.  This person is destructive and damages the floors and walls of the house while sleeping thereafter.  The words inform the audience that in the United States , there is a break in i.e. an invasion every 30 seconds.  The film has the look of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and it is obvious that it is that look and authenticity INVADER is aiming for.

Ana (Vero Maynez) is a long way from home, but eager to visit her cousin Camila in the Chicago suburbs. After Ana’s bus gets delayed, she arrives very late and begins to fear the worst when she can’t get a hold of Camila. Accompanied by Carlo (Colin Huerta), one of Camila’s co-workers, Ana decides to venture on foot to search for her cousin, encountering ominous signs, hostile locals, and the punishingly empty expanse of suburban America. When they arrive at Camila’s house, the night spirals into chaos when Ana and Carlo realize the bizarre and jaw-dropping truth. A lean, mean jolt of unsettling home invasion horror from director Mickey Keating and producer Joe Swanberg, INVADER will keep your skin crawling long after the credits roll.

The trouble with hand-held camera used in films like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJET is that the jittery images often gives one a headache besides being terribly annoying,  Myself, I am not a fan.  What is the problem of not using a tripod once in a while?

The best home invasion film is FUNNY GAMES made by Michael Hanake who specializes in creating human individual angst amidst social issues.  HE made FUNNY GAMES in 1997 and a shot-to-shot American remake, the same title FUNNY GAMES in 2007.  Hanake’s films are the best of the sub-genre and are disturbing, scary and unforgettable.  INVADER is ok, given its limited budget and the fact that director Keaton is no match for world-renowned Austrian director Michael Hanake.

INVADER opens in select theatres in the United States February 21st and premieres in Canada on VOD March 25th.

Trailer: 

LITTLE SIBERIA (Finland 2025) ***
Directed by Dome Karukoski

Little Siberia is a Netflix original film based on the hit Finnish noir novel of the same name by Antti Tuomainen.  The film also marks the first Netflix original film from Finland and it is an impressive film.

The film works as a dark thriller, a genre that usually is loved by cineastes  The protagonist is a priest called Joel, who is far from the holy leader one would expect.  Things come to a boil when a meteorite hots the town.

The arrival of a meteorite in a small Finnish town causes chaos and crime in this poignant, chilling and hilarious new thriller from the King of Helsinki Noir A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland, when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns out to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.  But Joel has a lot more on his mind than simply protecting the riches that have apparently rained down from heaven.  His wife has just revealed that she is pregnant. 

The town of Hurmevaara is fictional but the fictional town does look stunning on screen.

Unfortunately, Joel has strong reason to think the baby isn’t his - the reason being that he cannot have a child, unbeknown to his wife.  As Joel tries to fend off repeated and bungled attempts to steal the meteorite, he must also come to terms with his own situation, and discover who the father of the baby really is.

The film is directed and co-written by Dome Karukoski who made a name for himself with his previous success THE GRUMP in 2014.

For Netflix viewers, the culture of Finland, the mores, customs and practices are all on display, all tied into a realistic story about what life is all about.

LITTLE SIBERIA opens for streaming on Netflix Friday, March 21st.

Trailer: 

REVELATIONS (South Korea 2025) ***
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

Director Yeon Sang-ho, who made his name with the immensely popular Korean film TRAIN TO BUSAN returns with a new entry, REVELATIONS, the title taken from revelations realized by human individuals though it could also come from the Bible’s Book of Revelations.

A pastor, Min-chan (Ryu Jun-yeol) believes that punishing criminals is a divine revelation, and a detective, Yeon-hee (Shih Hyun-been), is in charge of a missing persons case who is haunted by visions of her deceased sibling.  Shin Min-jae plays ex-convict Yang-rae.

The story shifts between the individuals pursuing their own beliefs as director Yeon tackles a more complicated film.  Not only that but the film shifts between the genres of obsession to the point of paranoia and thriller suspense.  Director Yeon builds a good balance, though the end result might disappoint some audiences due to the meticulous build-up of the story.

There are too many coincidences in the climax that director Yeom uses to tie the ends together though the happy ending is satisfactory enough to bring all the three subjects together - the villain, the pastor and the detective.

REVELATIONS is still a compulsive entertaining watch and is currently streaming on Netflix,

Trailer:  

THE TWISTER: CAUGHT IN THE STORM (UK 2025) ***
Directed by Alexandra Lacey

It is graduation day in Joplin, Missouri. As the Class of 2011 collect their diplomas, their hometown is hit by a rare EF-5 tornado. Believing it could be the end of the world, a group of teenagers find themselves in the eye of the storm.

At times, it is more exciting than the fiction TWISTER Hollywood film, CAUGHT IN THE STORM, which is about the Joplin, Missouri tornado.  In the hours of Sunday, May 22, 2011, a large, deadly and devastating EF5 tornado, known most commonly as the Joplin tornado, or Joplin EF5, struck the city of Joplin, Missouri, United States, causing catastrophic damage to it and the surrounding regions.  The tornado devastated a large portion of the city of Joplin, damaging nearly 8,000 buildings, and of those, destroying over 4,000. The damage—which included major facilities like one of Joplin's two hospitals as well as much of its basic infrastructure—amounted to a total of $2.8 billion (equivalent to about $4 billion today), making the Joplin tornado the costliest single tornado in U.S. history.  Overall, the tornado killed 158 people (including eight indirect deaths) and injured some 1,150 others, making it the deadliest tornado of the year of 2011. It ranks as the deadliest tornado in Missouri in addition to being one of the deadliest in the United States, having the highest death.

The doc also talks about Tornado Alley.  Tornado Alley, also known as Tornado Valley, is a loosely defined location of the central United States and, in the 21st century, Canada where tornadoes are most frequent.

The doc personalizes the event by including the voices of several survivors, mainly teens of various upbringings.  One of them is Chad Crilley who flew to Joplin with his mother the day before to observe twisters.  Crilley is already a celebrity.  \Chief Meteorologist Chad Crilley has had weather running in his blood since he was nine years old. When he was in middle school, before becoming a teen, Chad emailed several broadcast meteorologists across Tornado Alley asking if he could shadow them during severe weather season. One meteorologist in Joplin, Missouri, was quick to respond and extend an invitation.  After receiving the invite, Chad’s mother made arrangements and flew with him to Joplin on May 22, 2011, just two hours before the monster EF5 tornado destroyed much of the town. Chad sprang into action, grabbing his phone and recording reports as the storms tore through Joplin and sending the video back to stations in his hometown of San Diego, California. 

Other teens featured in the doc include Cecil,  a gay teen who thought he was left behind in what he thought was the Christian rapture (the second coming) because he was gay.  Others included teen couple Kaylee and Keegan.  Being in the Bible Belt, God comes into playing he much of the dialogue.

Other issues include the existence of a black fungus that was deadly and almost killed Will, a teen featured in the doc- called Miracle Boy.

The doc suffers from trying to humanize the tragedy too much resulting in sappiness reigning for the day.

CAUGHT IN STORM is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 17 March 2025

CANADIAN FILM FEST - 2025

Canadian Film Fest (CFF), the indie-spirited festival dedicated to celebrating Canadian filmmakers, today announced its lineup for the 2025 edition of the festival. Now in its 19th year, CFF continues to champion and support our country’s creatives and homegrown talent, bringing Canadian stories to Canadian audiences. This year, the festival will be showcasing 16 features and 50 shorts. Tickets go on sale March 10 and can be purchased at canfilmfest.ca. CFF returns to Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto and runs from March 24-29, 2025.

 This year, CFF welcomes films from across Canada, with feature films from British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The festival kicks off with Naomi Jaye’s award-winning film Darkest Miriam, an adaptation of Martha Baillie’s novel The Incident Reporter, starring Britt Lower (Severance, Man Seeking Woman) and Tom Mercier (Synonyms, The Animal Kingdom). The film tells the story about a librarian who lives in a fog of grief while working at the Allen Gardens branch of the Toronto Public Libraries. 

 Below are capsule reviews of select films, and screeners provided courtesy of the CFF.

Capsule Reviews of Select Films:

DARKEST MIRIAM (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Naomi Jaye

Selected as the Opening Night film for the Canadian Film Fest, the quirky DARKEST MIRIAM is set in and around Allen Gardens in downtown Toronto.

Librarian Miriam Gordon (Britt Lower) lives in a fog of grief while working amidst marginalized members of the public who populate the Allen Gardens branch of the Toronto Public Libraries. When a burgeoning love affair with Janko, a younger foreign cab driver (Mercier), coincides with her receiving a series of oddly threatening letters addressed to her, Miriam’s sheltered existence is cracked open.  The story revolves around the many characters who weave in and out of Miriam’s life, her life is as odd as Allen Gardens existing in bustling downtown Toronto.  Director  Jaye uses Allen Gardens well, except the titular dog park is missing.  Though the film occasionally seems aimless, all over the place, the quirkiness of the piece still warrants an audience’s attention.

GOLD BARS: WHO THE F*CK IS UNCLE LUDWIG? (Canada 2024) ***

Directed by Billie Mintz

Montreal lawyer Glenn Joseph Feldman risks his reputation and faces a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit after accusing his former business partner of living off Nazi Gold stolen from the Holocaust.  But when his concerned daughter Alex reluctantly joins the investigation to help her father, she confronts unreliable evidence and her father’s moral contradictions, uncovering a truth far more personal and complicated than she imagined.  The key question is whether the whole theft of the Nazi gold is true.   It turns out that the doc shows that the investigation is more intriguing than the truth.  The conspiracy theory cooked up by Feldman, the relationship between father and daughter, and the tracing of Ludwig are all interesting enough, though the amount of information provided to the audience can be quite overwhelming and a bit confusing at times.  Still, there is quote bait of humour as implied by the film title, in this doc with many re-enactments.

TO THE MOON (Canada 2024) ***

Directed by Kevin Hartford

Quirkiness is the word of the day for this quirky film from Nova Scotia, which begins with a father and daughter moon dance that is supposed to prevent the moon from moving away from the earth’s orbit.  Closeted single dad Sam (Jacob Sampson) finds his world upended when he meets a handsome stranger.  Meanwhile, his daughter Ella (Phoebe Rex) struggles with the challenges of teenagerhood and their writer’s block-suffering neighbour Claire (Amy Groening) tries to mine this offbeat father/daughter duo for source material. An ensemble comedy about love, choreographed dance, kitchen safety, stranger danger, planetary physics, and the idea that it’s never too late in life to figure out who you really are.   The story has three protagonists and director Hartford gives each around equal screen time.  Though the film tends to be all over the place, there is much humour and as stated, quirkiness that holds one’s interest.

VAMPIRE ZOMBIES … FROM SPACE (Canada 2024) ***½

Directed by Michael Stasko

In the first killing scene in which a farming family’s wife is blasted to death by some beam from a flying saucer after meeting a Dracula-like creature with fangs, the cheesy-looking film looks like a cross among three genres - sci-fi, zombie and vampire.  The setting is in the 50’s and 60’s like what old monster movies look like, with farm trucks driven around with characters wearing   ‘GREAS E’ like clothes.  But this is the purpose of director Stasko who has created a remarkable tribute to old monster movies - making it fun, and entertaining with a few scares added along the way.  From the depths of space, Dracula has devised his most dastardly plan yet; turning the residents of a small American town (though this is totally a Canadian film) into his personal army of vampire zombies!  A motley crew consisting of a grizzled detective, a skeptical rookie cop, ( a tribute to IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT), a chain-smoking greaser, and a determined young woman band together to save the world.  There are a few drags along the way, but the film is still a worthy effort.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 10 March 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BLACK  BAG (USA 2025) ****
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Espionage was a favourite premise in films from the 60s to beyond, fuelled by the ever-popular James Bond 007 action films.  More serious films like THE SPY WHO CAM IN FROM THE COLD, THE IPCRESS FILE as well as a lot of cheapies like the Matt Helm films also entertained moviegoers.  The genre is largely missing these days but up comes an espionage thriller that feels like a chamber piece though the action takes place in and around London with two key scenes taking place at a dinner table.

The film is called black bag as an actual black bag contains tools of the espionage.  A Black bag operation aka a covert burglary, is an espionage technique, referring to the black bag of equipment that a burglar would carry.

The film’s impressive cast includes:

Cate Blanchett as Kathryn St. Jean

Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse

Marisa Abela as Clarissa Dubose

Tom Burke as Freddie Smalls

Naomie Harris as Dr. Zoe Vaughan

Regé-Jean Page as Col. James Stokes

Pierce Brosnan as Arthur Steiglitz

Gustaf Skarsgård as Meacham

Kae Alexander as Anna Ko

When his wife (Blanchett), intelligence agent Kathryn, is suspected of committing treason, her husband, intelligence agent George Woodhouse (Fassbender) is assigned to investigate her. He faces the ultimate test - faithfulness to his marriage or loyalty to his country.  George is tasked too, of finding the traitor, ins which he does by means of clever parlour games during a dinner in which suspects are forced to attend - and play.  At times, the espionage thriller plays like a murder whodunnit.

Soderbergh alternates between small and big-budget movies. His small-budget PRESENCE, a haunted house ghost story, quote good, opened two months ago. BLACK BAG is a small film but boasts an impressive cast, shot entirely in London. It is brilliantly written and executed, with touches of humour amidst thrills and almost perfectly performed by its apt cast.

Trailer: 

CAN I GET A WITNESS? (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Ann Marie Fleming

At the beginning of the film, a title indicates that the film is a ‘fable’.   ‘Fable’ is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or lead to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying.  There are no animals, talking or otherwise featured in the film, so what is expected from the film after the complete viewing is a moral to the story.

How much time is enough?  Sandra Oh stars and asks alongside up-and-comers Keira Jang and Joel Oulette in Ann Marie Fleming’s CAN I GET A WITNESS?, a fable set in the near future, when humans are supposed to have solved all the world’s problems, from climate change to poverty to inequality.  But there is just one catch.  Humans have to end life at 50 and teen artists have to document it.  It does not take a genius to figure out the moral of the story.  The story shares similarity to the story of LOGAN’S RUN, in which humans are terminated at the age of 30 believing that they are reincarnated into a better life.  Where Michael Anderson’s LOGAN’S RUN looks futuristic CAN I GET A WITNESS? surprisingly looks like a vintage film.  

The film is set on Kiah's (Jang) first day on the job.  She is supposed to have the government's job of witnessing the culmination of life for individuals approaching or reaching the age of termination.  Without cameras or electronic devices that use chemicals that are currently forbidden, Kiah has to draw the EOL (end-of-life) protocols, her illustrations coming to life through animation that’s sprinkled throughout the film.  The animation appears often, not always from her drawing and whether these serve their purpose or a distraction is arguable.  Her mentor (Oulette) is a young man whose personal history (heart problems as a child losing his mother in the birth process) makes him wise beyond his years. Meanwhile, Kiah’s mother (Oh), is getting her own things in order. 

Canadian Sandra Oh has proven herself in both drama and comedy.  Oh puts on a serious side as the mother of Kiah.  Oh is always great to watch, she has been bypassed for her talent ever so many times.  One wishes for the script to have included more humour for Oh’s character,  For example in Alexander Payne’s 2004 SIDEWAYS, she was snubbed for an Academy Award nomination while Virginia Madsen won one, despite her performance being equal if not better than Madsen’s.

As the subject of the story is the environment and eco-friendliness above all, including human life, the filming also supports the issue.  The film is hot among the lush foliage and waterways of BC’s eco-conscious Powell River.  While shooting,  it is reported that production used real dishes and reusable water bottles, which helped keep over 180,000 items out of the landfill. 

CAN I GET A WITNESS? is intriguing enough though it suffers from a monotonous pacing that assumes the audience will keep getting more and more mesmerized as the story unfolds.

CAN I GET A WITNESS? has made it to this year’s TIFF “Canada’s Top Ten” as well as winning 5 Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards  CAN I GET A WITNESS? opens March 14 in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox), Vancouver and Montreal!  The film opens throughout the spring in other Canadian cities.

Trailer: 

THE ELECTRIC STATE (USA 2025) **
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo

THE ELECTRIC STATE is touted as Netflix’s and on record (over $300 million in change), of one of the most expensive films made.

The film is based on The Electric State, a 2018 dystopian science fiction illustrated novel by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag. Set in an alternate technologically ravaged 1990s, it follows a teenage girl and her robot on a journey to the West Coast of the United States in search of her long-lost brother.  (In 2017, the Russo brothers acquired film rights to the book. They directed and produced this Netflix film of the same title, starring Millie Bobby Brown.)

The widely acclaimed book is told through a series of paragraphs, linked to large artworks. The principal plot line follows Michelle (Brown), a teenage orphan travelling to the West Coast with a robot companion, Skip, to find her long-lost brother. Flashbacks gradually reveal Michelle's past and the reason for her separation, while a secondary plot line follows a federal agent tracking down her brother.

The film pretty much follows the book.  But credibility appears to be in jeopardy in the film with Michelle running around with the bot (now called Kid Cosmo instead of Skip) running around trying to locate her real brother in a journey that is both tedious, hard to believe and impossible to achieve.   In the meantime, there is the end of the world as one knows it with Stanley Tucci playing the main villain Skate, accompanied by his nasty partner and Bot hunter Colonel Marshall (Giancarlo Esposito).  They meet with Keats (Chris Pratt) and Herman (Anthony Mackie).   It is an all-sorry affair with special effects and unexciting action pieces.  The film is not helped by what might be deemed at many points corny or bad dialogue with jokes no one wishes to report.  Chris Pratt is largely wasted in a role, in which he overacts calling him to have feelings for his robot companion.  Most of the humour, that comes from his character falls flat as well.

Instead of animated characters, there are robot characters with many stars credited for the voices.  These include:

Woody Harrelson as Mr. Peanut

Anthony Mackie as Herman

Brian Cox as Popfly

Jenny Slate as Penny Pal

Alan Tudyk as Cosmo

Hank Azaria as Perplexo

Colman Domingo as Wolfe

Oscar and Golden Globe Winner Ke Huy Quan plays Dr. Amherst, the bespectacled doctor the team is searching for.  Nothing is impressive here either.

THE ELECTRIC STATE lacks spark and credibility and a story that will connect the audience to the characters or its events.   The result is a huge mess of special effects and high production costs in a film no one rally cares for.

THE ELECTRIC STATE had its world premiere on February 24, 2025, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Los Angeles, California, and is scheduled to be released by Netflix on March 14. The film received negative reviews from critics.

Trailer: 

NOVOCAINE (USA 2025) **
Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen

Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) is a mild-mannered introvert with congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) working as an assistant manager at a trust credit union in San Diego. His co-worker Sherry Marave (Amber Midthunder) pursues a relationship with him, but Nathan is hesitant due to his condition and inexperience with women. At a bar with Sherry, Nathan meets his middle school bully, who calls him "Novocaine." They get revenge on the bully by tricking him into drinking a shot of hot sauce and then they spend the night together.

The next morning, on Christmas Eve, a gang of robbers dressed up in Santa suits led by Simon Greenly (Ray Nicholson)  rob the bank and take Sherry as a hostage.

The rest has Nathan rescue the girl while experiencing excruciating injuries though not feeling any pain.

The film is based on a medical condition that affects the story’s hero.  The medical condition in which a person feels no pain is called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP). It is a rare genetic disorder that affects the nervous system, preventing pain signals from being transmitted to the brain. People with CIP do not experience pain from injuries, burns, or other harmful stimuli, which can lead to serious complications since they may not realize when they are injured.

The film has the feel of originality but it is not that original having stolen some ideas from classic thrillers.  Other films with characters with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain include:

1. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (2019) (*aka Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase): Character: Helen Cornin  Plot: While not the main focus, a supporting character in this Nancy Drew mystery has CIP, which plays a role in the unfolding mystery.
2. Piercing (2018) Character: Mia Wasikowska’s character (Jackie)  Plot: A psychological horror-thriller where the protagonist encounters a woman who doesn’t seem to experience and, leads to eerie and violent encounters.

While noting that Jack Quaid is the son of Dennis Quaid (HALF OF HEAVEN, BREAKING AWAY) and Meg Ryan (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY), the film also features Ray Nicholson who is the son of Jack Nicholson who has a small role as Simon.

The similar premise of the hero falling for the girl who works for the villa is not new.  In Alfred Hitchcock’s classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST, Cary Grant falls in love with Eva Marie Saint who is the villain James Mason’s girlfriend.

To capitalize on a hero who feels no pain, the film includes, as expected, scenes of extreme ultra-violence that include one in which Nathan extracts a bullet from his arm using tongs, breaks a finger in order to get off handcuffs, and is bashed hard against wall and barriers while in a fight.  This is the type of over-the-top action sequence that will excite comic fan movie types that pay no heed to subtlety and film craft.

Stealing originality from past successful thrillers, NOVOCAINE appears original but takes cheap shots at entertaining audiences with the result of only impressing 15-year-olds.

NOVOCAINE opens in theatres on Friday, March 14th.

Trailer:

OPUS (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Mark Anthony Green

The meaning of OPUS as in the Cambridge English Dictionary is a piece of music written by a particular musician and given a number relating to the order in which it was published.  The new thriller film OPUS is less about the music of a musician than his comeback after a long absence while having a hidden agenda for what the intended interview he wishes to give to the world.  But the film features original music written by Nile Rodgers and The-Dream.

A writer, Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri) travels to the compound of a pop icon, Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) who disappeared years ago. surrounded by his cult of sycophants, as well as a group of fellow journalists, she soon discovers his twisted plans for the gathering.

OPUS benefits from the zany, crazed performance from John Malkovich as the musician with a secret mission.  There are similar tones in the thriller BLINK TWICE in which unsuspecting guests are invited to a villa, just as reporters are invited to the musician’s villa, in which things are not what they seem.  “Are you having a good time?” is BLINKnTWICE’s tagline which could also be applied to OPUS as to whether the reporters are having a good time   As in both films, guests mysteriously disappear.

The film is writer/director Mark Anthony Green’s film debut and it is a worthy one, despite a few rough edges.  One thing the film has is that it is a compulsive watch.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2025, and it will be theatrically released by A24 on March 14, 2025.

 Trailer: 

THE WORLD WILL TREMBLE (UK/USA /Bulgaria/Israel 2025) ***½

Directed by Lior Geller

In September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, annexing its western regions.  The film follows this historical event and is based on a true story, the audience is informed at the beginning of what seems like a serious film. Jews are moved to ghettos before transporting to the east.  The story commenced in Chelmno, Poland in 1942.

The World Will Tremble is the first film to uncover the true story of the first escape from a Nazi death camp—an event that led to the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust. Despite its profound historical significance, this story has remained largely untold.

Between 1941 and 1945, over 300,000 Jews were sent to Chełmno, the first German extermination camp, where they were murdered in gas vans. Only four people survived. Among them were Michael Podchlebnik and Solomon Wiener, who were forced to work as gravediggers, burying victims who had been suffocated by carbon monoxide from the gas vans’ engines.

The magic question that has been asked many times about the Holocaust is why the Jews, the often number their captors never rebelled.  They just suffered and eventually perished.  This film supplies one answer.

“We must stop being afraid if we want to live.” says one prisoner about to rebel.

On the afternoon of January 19, 1942, in the very first Nazi death camp secretly built in Poland, a group of Polish Jewish prisoners attempted the unthinkable.  Held captive as gravediggers, forced to bury the bodies of men, women and children murdered in gas vans, they decide to launch a daring escape. Even after having lost their families, burying them with their own hands, they are determined to flee, not for themselves, but to alert the world of what is happening.  Using a stolen shard of glass, prisoners Solomon Wiener and Michael Podchlebnik tear through a transport truck and bolt into the forest. Fleeing gunfire and pursuing Nazi guards, Solomon and Michael brave a raging river, German soldiers and the Polish police before they become the first men to ever escape from a Nazi death camp, creating the world’s first eyewitness account of the Holocaust. Taking place in real-time and based on a never-before-told harrowing true story, “The World Will Tremble” is a nail-biting triumph of the human spirit, demonstrating that even under the most indescribable of human conditions, man’s determination and will—not only to survive but to tell others—can overcome the most insurmountable of odds.

` As the subject implies. the film is a dead serious and often depressing affair - as observed from the mistreatment of the Jews, the abuse of power, the suffering to the suspenseful escape. Not a comfortable watch, this story that needs tone told is revealed in an equally authentic and depressing tone.

The Germans are all, particularly the higher-ranking ones all portrayed as despicable.  The one that tends out is the smiling commander who lies through his teeth that all will be good if not better for the Jews, while knowing that they will soon be based to death,

An important film concerning the need of humans to fight back, THE WORLD WILL TREMBLE will be released in select theatres on Friday, March 14  

Trailer: 

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 March 2025

Many ambitious movies opening this week - all not ending up that impressive.  Read on.......

FILM REVIEWS:

DELICIOUS (Germany 2025) **
Written and Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen

DELICIOUS (Germany 2025) **
Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen

A German family's idyllic summer at their French villa in Provence (film shot in Avignon, according to the credits) unravels after they accidentally hit a young woman working at a tourist hotel, on a country road and take her in.  They take her in for fear of her going to the cops creating a hassle.  The wife thinks he can fix this.  Or can she?  Initially appearing helpful, each family member soon reveals their own hidden motives, seeking something different from the woman.  This mistake leads to unforeseen consequences that ultimately transform the entire family's lives.

This is not the first film in which a stranger totally destroys a family.  One that comes to mind is one from Chile where a maid has a secret with each family member and uses it for greed.   Another is Harold Pinter’s SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, in which a young and gorgeous Michael York enters and aristocratic German family and has sex with each family member from the mother played by Angela Lansbury to the daughter and homosexual son.

The film plays like a mystery banking on the uneasiness of the audience,  The tactic works in which audience anticipation (like a Hitchcock movie) is always at its height.  Quite different form the Chilean maid and SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, this film unfortunately falters at the end when the twist in the plot turns it from reality family check to a modern gothic horror piece.

At best the film plays the poor and the rich against each other, taking the side of the rich though the poor also gets their say, but in a  weird manner.

DELICIOUS opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 7th.

Trailer: 

(full review to be posted weekend)

MICKEY 17 (USA/South Korea 2025) ***
Directed by Boon Joon-Ho

The new Bong Joon-Ho movie after his much-celebrated Academy Award multiple winner PARASITE is available to watch in IMAX. It is touted as a futuristic $118 million blockbuster and is called MICKEY 17. But because of its premise, it could also be called MICKEY 18 or MICKEY BARNES.

Wanting to get off Earth, the financially destitute Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up to be an "expendable", a disposable clone worker, on the human colony Nilfheim. As an expendable, Mickey undertakes several dangerous assignments he is not expected to survive, with a new body being regenerated each time he dies. During one such assignment, one of his clones, "Mickey 17", is incorrectly assumed dead and prematurely replaced. Mickey 17 finds his way back to the colony and meets his replacement, known as Mickey 18. Under the colony's rules, only one iteration of an expendable may exist at one time, and if Mickey 17 is discovered, both he and Mickey 18 will be destroyed. Both the previous and current versions of Mickey Barnes have to grapple with the nature of being expendables and fight back against the oppressive leaders governing the colony.

Pattinson steals the show exhibiting a wide range of acting variations especially displaying different traits for MICKY 17 and MICKEY 18 as both human prints exist side to side and also fight each other.  Pattinson displays manic behaviour as well as rational ones proving himself to be quite the versatile actor.  Mark Ruffalo also deserves mention.  He plays Kenneth Marshall, an egomaniacal politician with sinister designs for Nilfheim.  He clearly pokes fun at President Trump showing his character and Trump’s as a ridiculous madman capable of much danger if left unchecked.

Three under-written roles include Naomi Ackie as Nasha Barridge, a security agent and Mickey's love interest and the girlfriend of one of his previous clones, Steven Yeun as Timo, a pilot and Mickey's childhood friend and the amazing Toni Collette as Ylfa, Marshall's devious and controlling wife.

Being a South Korean co-production, a lot of the extras are played by Koreans, more than one expects to see in a Hollywood movie.

But Bong’s film is a poorly written narrative mess with humans, creepies and megalomaniacs interacting on Earth and on another planet.  Given a huge over $100 million budget, Bong goes as crazy as his character Mickey Barnes in the adventure of one or several lifetimes.  Despite the film’s flaws and running time of over two hours, the first two thirds are an incurable compelling watch, flaws aside.  The film begins to bog down a little in its last third, Bong is unable to maintain his over-the-top craziness.  It is a classic case of fatigue and too much of a good thing.

The film’s special effects and cinematography are nothing short of stunning, a  given must these days for Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters.  In the beginning few months of every year when cinema is in the doldrums, MICKEY 17 should lift box-office returns for 2025.  MICKEY 17 opens in theatres on March 7th.  Being a sci-fi futuristic epic, the film warrants being seen in the IMAX format.

Trailer: 

NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE (Canada/France/Belgium 2024) **
Directed by Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro

The January and February months of every year is the lull for the new movies opening in theatres.  The same can be said for animated features and the new one, an international co-production is infantile and unfortunately falls into this category.  NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE (originally titled Night of the Zombies) is a 2024 animated comedy horror film directed by storyboard artists Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro, written by James Kee and producer Steven Hoban, and inspired by a concept by Clive Barker. The film follows a group of animal survivors in a zoo where a meteor virus turns various zoo creatures into slobbering mutant zombies.

A meteor containing a mysterious space virus crashes into Colepepper Zoo turning the animals into vicious gummi-like zombie mutants. A young wolf named Gracie (it takes the film 15 minutes before disclosing that the cartoon protagonist is wolf0 teams up with a gruff mountain lion named Dan to find a cure, while leading a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the leader of the zombies, Bunny Zero, from taking over the world.

Though it can be argued that this feature is aimed at kids, many animated features have included (is it that difficult?) to include adults to be entertained.  NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE is definitely a bore for the adults.  Myself I did not utter a laugh-out-loud even once.  The antics of the characters are infantile, silly, and pointless and the inter-communication lacks any imagination either.  The entire hour and a half already feels too long.  Apart from the satisfactory animation, there is nothing much this film has to offer.

NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE premiered October 6, 2024, at the 57th Sitges Film Festival,  Rest of the world: January 29, 2025 (France) and March 7, 2025 (United States and Canada)

Trailer: 

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (New Zealand 2024) ****
Directed by James Ashcroft

Opening Friday in theatres , and coming soon on the prime horror network for anything frightening comes a surprisingly must-see horror shocker from way down under New Zealand that could be destined to be a cult classic.  Two ageing stars Oscar Winner Geoffrey Rush from SHINE and John Lithgow (last seen in  CONCLAVE) play two ageing males in a nursing home at loggerheads (to put it mildly, since there is a fight to the death at the end).

Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called "The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen's pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy's reign of terror.

Rush plays a toxic resident who has suffered a stroke while pronouncing a sentence in a case involving child abuse and murder.  He is only too angry to find himself with a roommate, demanding angrily from the staff that he has applied for a private single.  Obviously this man did not read the fine print.  He is unlikable despite doing a good job as a judge.  It is good to see two great stars face off, as in the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford cult classic WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?  Lithgow, an American has a problem with his New Zealand accent and it would best to have given an excuse in the script for the character to be American.  Still, he is good to watch.  These are two characters. toxic as poison, who deserve each other.

The reason the film is called THE RULE OF JEENY PEN is not revealed and is a mystery even up to the film’s halfway mark.  The script teases.   Just like the start of the movie when the camera is on the faces of the judge. the accused killer and a crying mother.  At this point, the audience wonders what the rest of the film will be about.  It turns out to be the judge, who had just condemned the killer and the mother who had done nothing but let the tragic event happen. Now the judge himself is faced with the identical situation in which he is stuck with a stroke in a wheelchair able to do early anything while an abuser does havoc in the nursing home.

The less known about the film the better, as there are surprises around every corner.  The director is always several steps ahead of the story.   The best praise can be seen below - a quote from the horror master himself.

"One of the best movies I've seen this year."

• Stephen King

IFC FILMS’ THE RULE OF JENNY PEN opens Friday and should be on every horror fan’s watch list.

SEVEN VEILS (Canada 2023) **
Directed by Atom Egoyan

After years away, theatre director Jeanine (Academy Award® nominee Amanda Seyfried) re-enters the opera world to stage her former mentor’s most famous work. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to colour the present as her personal and professional lives begin to unravel.

The story of Salome is an old story and a lot needs to be known about Salome and the title SEVEN VEILS before venturing to watch this complex, messy but nevertheless intriguing Atom Egoyan movie.

Simply from the Bible’s Gospel according to St. Mark: But an opportunity came when King Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."  The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

In the film SEVEN VEILS (that is the name given to the dance given by Salome to King Herod), the story is told via opera.  The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Jeanine, a theatre director who is dealing with repressed trauma as she prepares to mount a production of the opera Salome.  She was working with Charles when he passed on, passing the baton to her to continue the production.  “I will make small but meaningful changes,” she says.  It also becomes known that Jeanine has had an affair with Charles.  Jeanine also suffers trauma from abuse as a child.  To add fuel to the fire, the German opera singer sexually abuses the prop artist. 

Director Egoyan fumbles through all the events with mass editing, flashbacks and messy storytelling.  With too many stakes at hand, not every one of the issues is solved satisfactorily.  One should give Egoyan credit for doing opera, tying in problems with staging it, and tying in current problems with the Salome story.

Atom Egoyan has lots to do with SALOME.  In the film SEVEN VEILS, Vinessa Antoine, as well as Ambur Braid as Salome and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as John the Baptist. Braid and Kupfer-Radecky both starred in the Canadian Opera Company’s most recent production of Salome, which Egoyan also directed after first directing the opera for the Company in 1996.

SEVEN VEILS premiered in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.  is in select theatres (at the TIFF Lightbox) across Canada on March 7

Trailer: 

THE SILENT PLANET (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Jeffrey St. James

THE SILENT PLANET  is a Canadian science fiction film, directed by Jeffrey St. Jules that premiered at the Fantasy Film Festival in 2024, where it was first runner-up for the Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature.  

Theodore (Elias Koteas, CRASH, CHICAGO P.D.) is alone.  Far from the Earth’s surface, he's a miner in the Capillian Star System on penal colony planet #384, sending extraterrestrial minerals to Earth via an interplanetary delivery system. It’s an experimental colonization project, and he is the only prisoner there. Ailing and half-sane, his life is routine, with journaling, watching TV show reruns, and taking comfort in memories of his life on Earth.

When a young woman named Niyya (Briana Middleton, SHARPER, THE TENDER BAR) is sent to planet #384 on terrorist charges, her tragic past follows her. Adopted by an alien race called “Oieans,” her resistance to prejudice towards the aliens and the history of their massacre lands her on this planet with Theodore. As they learn more about each other, Niyya suspects an ugly truth lies deep in Theodore’s deteriorating mind.  The  Oieans have their own language.  In fact the fill begins with one of their quotes, surprisingly the viewer's first impression is to think that Oiean is the name of a writer,

THE SILENT PLANET is set on an isolated planet, supposedly a penal colony for convicts who have committed treason, murder or terrorism.  The film is basically a two-handler, one of Theodore the sole living inhabitant convict on the planet,  When he is dying, someone is sent to replace him, Niyya—the interaction of the two forms the film’s premise.

The film covers issues of politics like genocide and also living in isolation.   Is Theodore crazy?  If one lives in isolation, does it matter?  And also comes to debate on truth.  Is his past a lie, made up, or is it the truth?  And does it really matter?  When one loses one's memory, everything is gone, which is a scary thought that haunts Theodore.  Or is he really Nathan, another person of the past?

For a small-budget film, director St. Jules covers the issues admirably.  The film is also simple in delivery, thus making it difficult to find fault with.  The film also possesses a sci-fi look, one reminiscent of the 70’s sci-fi films.  The lodging where the two are put up is minimal which allows a quaint and futuristic design (great production design by Andrew Berry).

The director Jeffrey St. Jules is no stranger to sci-fi films.  Neither is he a novice.  Jeffrey St. Jules is well known as a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who won the Claude Jutra Award in 2015 for his debut feature film BAND BANG BABY.   The film also won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.  His reputation allowed him to get veteran Canadian actor Elias Koteas to star in THE SILENT PLANET.

THE SILENT PLANET opens in Toronto at the Carlton Cinemas on March 7th.

Trailer: 

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 21 February 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BODY ODYSSEY (Italy/Switzerland 2023) ***
Directed by Grazia Tricarico

BODY ODYSSEY directed and co-written by Grazia Tricarico is described as an obsessive female bodybuilder’s quest for a perfect body and perfection. Of course, nothing will go the way she intends in this stylized horrific psychological drama.  The film is shot in English though it is a co-production between Italy and Switzerland.

Mona (Jacqueline Fuchs) is a female bodybuilder obsessed with an ideal of perfection and beauty. The body is her inseparable container, her most faithful ally, her partner responding to laments. Together they find themselves on the threshold of their destiny.  Fuchs is nothing short of phenomenal in her role, capturing the weirdness and completely insane obsession that she has.  Her daily schedule is carefully followed by her obsessive coach, Kurt (Julian Sands in one of his final performances), who rigorously monitors her every action like a demiurge: her sleep, her nutrition, her training, her doping, her psychology and even her sexual life. This unyielding regimen, however, becomes disrupted when a brief romantic encounter with a young man impacts both her discipline and her will.

The film’s beginning sets the tone for what is to come.  The female bodybuilder’s body flesh is pinched at different parts, and no matter how bulked she looks, there is always some loose skin somewhere.  But she is told that she is up to standard.  As she tours the gym, she is asked for tips by a fellow bodybuilder who says he wants a game changer.  “You need a change in your mindset,” comes her reply.  As she tours the gym, she sees a fat man using the treadmill, slowly but surely.  She moves to his machine and speeds up the dial from 3.0 to 8.0 as he watches one and increases his pace on the machine.  Quite an impressive start to this stylized drama.

Director Tricarico ups the ante during the last third of the film with it getting grimmer and scarier.  He uses a variety of techniques including sound, colour (bluish and greens as if shot on another planet), and fade-outs to black but mostly images of the perfect yet grotesque and o over-muscled competition body.  Mona also hears sounds just like a psychotic person hears the voice of demons.  Watching the film is like living through a nightmare and though the film is well made, the ultimate question on the tongue of audiences will be: Are we actually enjoying this?

Mona’s home invasion scene is also discomforting and marks the film’s most disturbing segment.

The film has a definite David Cronenberg feel, as in his horror hits like THE FLY.  Grazia Tricarico, who captured Best Director at Sitges in 2024.

BODY ODYSSEY is dedicated to Julian Sands as this is his last film.  The words “To Julian….” appear at the beginning of the film. Sands is a good-looking British blond actor known for films like the horror flick WARLOCK in which he had the title role.

BODY ODYSSEY makes its North American premiere on Indiepix Unlimted on February 28th, 2025.

Trailer: 

LAST BREATH (USA/UK 2025) ***

Directed by Alex Parkinson

LAST BREATH is the live-action 2025 survival thriller film directed by Alex Parkinson and written by Mitchell LaFortune, Parkinson, and David Brooks. It stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, and Cliff Curtis. It is a feature film remake of the 2019 documentary that Parkinson co-directed with Richard da Costa.

The 2019 Netflix documentary used genuine footage and audio recorded at the time of the accident on the divers' radios and body cameras, supplemented with interviews of several of the individuals involved, as well as some reconstructed footage, to tell the story of the accident. Chris Lemons, along with his colleagues Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa, was carrying out repairs 100 metres (330 ft) below the surface of the North Sea, supported by the support vessel Bibby Topaz.  The vessel's dynamic positioning system, supplied by Kongsberg Maritime, failed. This caused the vessel to drift in rough seas, dragging the divers away from the area they were working and eventually snapping the umbilical tether that provided Lemons with heliox to breathe, as well as hot water to heat his suit, power for his light, and a communications link to the surface.  He was left with only five minutes of breathable gas contained in the cylinders he wore on his back.

The new film follows very much the story of the doc with stars Woody Harrelson playing Duncan and Simms Lio and Finn Cole the two divers.  More is added in the 2025 version in terms of emotion and human characters.  The result is not always good, with the film teetering towards unnecessary sentimentality and artificiality.   The ultimate question is whether the world needs a remake when the doc is still available to watch.  The 2025 version also shows the intricacies of the vessels and equipment used to mend the pipeline.  Again the question arises whether it is worth putting human lives and the environment at stake for the purpose of complying profit in oil.  There is a slight debate about risking human lives to save the environment, a solid debate topic but which is unfortunately not taken any further.

The big miracle of the whole incident is Chris Lemmons’ survival against all biological and medical reasoning.  For reasons that are unclear to Lemons and his colleagues, but attributed in part to the cold water and having been breathing a gas mix with a high partial pressure of oxygen, Lemons survived for around 30 minutes while he was located by a remote underwater vehicle and then by Yuasa, who was able to pull him back onboard the diving bell.

LAST BREATH opens in theatres on February 28th.

Trailer: 

SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON (India 2024) **

Directed by Reema Kagti

Directed by Reema Kagti, SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON chronicles the life of Nasir Shaikh, whose no-budget, community-sourced movies turned his hometown into an unlikely dream factory.  This is not the first film made about Nasir (Supermen of Malegaon or Malegaon Ka Superman) was made in 2008 as a Hindi documentary) as this true story is perfect feel-good filmmaking fare.  It is 1997, and movie-mad Nasir (Adarsh Gourav)  is certain he’s destined for cinematic greatness, but great cinema never came out of his humdrum small hometown of Malegaon.  Borrowing gear from a wedding videographer and assembling a cast and crew of locals and friends, Nasir sets out to remake Ramesh Sippy’s beloved 1975 film Sholay.  At best, the film reveals both the life of the people in the small town of Malegaon, where poverty rules and people are looking for escapism in the movies and the problems and conflicts involved in making a movie, at its worst, director Kagti resorts to humour and silly antics of the characters pursuing lighter entertainment and compromising more important issues.  

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 16 February 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

THE MONKEY (USA 2025)s**
Directed by Osgood Perkins

THE MONKEY comes with the accolade that it is based on a Stephen King short story, one that was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1980.  It is a 1980 horror short story by Stephen King featuring a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy.  There are two differences between the short story and the film already,  One is that the characters in the film refuse to refer to the monkey as a toy, and in the film the monkey plays the drums instead of cymbals,  The cymbals are surely scarier but the film’s director begs to differ.  The other reason is that the monkey with the symbols is a Disney-patented toy. THE MONKEY also comes right after writer/director Perkins horror hit LONGLEGS.

After stumbling upon their father's vintage toy monkey in the attic, twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Theo James) witness a string of horrifying deaths unfolding around them. In an attempt to leave the haunting behind, the brothers discard the monkey and pursue separate paths over time. However, when the inexplicable deaths resurface, the brothers are compelled to reconcile and embark on a mission to eliminate the cursed toy permanently.

There are also major changes in the film.  In the King’s story, the monkey in a flight bag is weighted with rocks and thrown to the deepest part of Crystal Lake. As the bag sinks, the faint sound of the monkey's cymbals clapping can be heard.  During the disposal, the boat starts breaking up, but the Hal character manages to swim ashore safely to his son, Petey. The story ends with a newspaper clipping showing that hundreds of fish in the lake have died as a result. 

This is a more subtle and scarier ending which the film dismisses.  

THE MONKEY is nothing much more than a slew of very, very violent killings similar to the SAW horror franchise with the difference of the monkey doing the killing.  The killings are all at random so director Perkins has more liberty for various ways to dispose of the victims.  There is no subtlety here.

Perkins’ script has the main character Hal have an evil twin brother.  The enmity between the two forms a main part of the story,  The evil money in question is assumed by the evil twin to be able to cause damage as well as provide immortality.  The immortality is never clearly explained and serves to cloud the situation.  

THE MONKEY like the SAW franchise can be praised for the extreme violence and innovation of novel killings.  Apart from that, nothing really new or exciting has been brought to the horror genre.  Whether the changes from Stephen King’s short story improve the film’s story is questionable at best.  The characters in the film are also too wishy-washy to be sympathetic.  The  MONKEY toy should have never been taken out from Hal's father’s closet and the script for THE MONKEY should be locked in one

THE MONKEY opens in theatres on February 21st.  With its modest budget, the horror flick should bring in a tidy profit.

Trailer: 

OKIKU AND THE WORLD (Japan 2023) ***½

Written & Directed by: Junji Sakamoto

Two Japanese films have emerged in 2023 about toilets and shit.  One is the 2023 Oscar-nominated Best International Feature PERFECT DAYS from Wim Wenders about a public toilet cleaner employed in Tokyo who takes his job dead seriously.  Yes, cleaning shit is a serious but dirty job.  This film OKIKU AND THE WORLD is also about shit.  But this is a black and white film, though it does break into colour at one point, a period piece set in Edo, Japan.

Edo-era Japan is remembered for many things — brutal nation building, isolationist foreign policies, and the last samurai.   Leave it to veteran auteur Junji Sakamoto to remind audiences that it also marked the culmination of a truly sustainable ecosystem. OKIKU AND THE WORLD, tells the story of Yasuke (Sosuke Ikematsu), who makes a living out of selling human waste to farmers and persuades the young paper seller Chunji (Kanichiro Sato) to be his business partner.   Like PERFECT DAYS, the director takes great pains to show how the work is done - in this case scooping shit from the outhouses and mansions carrying the buckets of waste out, often travelling by boat, and then selling their wares as fertilizer to the farmers.  The film is shot in black and white so the waste looks even more real and gross.  The scenes are indeed enough to stop your appetite.

While sheltering from a storm, the pair meet Okiku (Haru Kuroki), a young schoolteacher and daughter of a disgraced samurai (Koichi Sato).   Okiky initially despises Yasuke but not Chunji who is at the time just selling newspapers, before being taken in as the shit apprentice.   She is haughty and proud and like many others cannot stand the stink and look down on the trade.  But things change after having Okie’s vocal cords severed during a brutal attack that also results in her father’s death and unlocks her new life, though she remains in her house for a long time, like a cocoon before coming out of her shell  Okiku falls in love with Chunji–yet how can their love blossom given his low social status and her inability to speak?

The film looks simple and plain, but there is more emotion and drama than meets\ the eye.  For one, it studies prejudice while showing a part of the period Japan Westerners are totally unfamiliar with.  This is where the film succeeds in fascinating the audience with a story as strange as its setting.

Performances by relatively unknown Japanese actors are sincere and credible.  The look of Edo with tis tenement row housing and countryside farming with the river as a backdrop all add to the authenticity of the story.

  Sakamoto’s latest period drama is a groundbreaking, realist work that revolves around the themes of youth, love, and sustainability, interspersed with a good dose of toilet humour.

OKIKU AND THE WORLD makes its North American premiere on Film Movement Plus, the new streaming service also available in Canada on February 21, 2025.

Trailer: 

PARTHENOPE (Italy/France 2024) ****

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

The film begins in 1950.  With the help of midwives, a baby girl is born in the sea of Naples that lies below her family’s wealthy home.  She is named Parthenope, named for the mythological Greek siren who’s credited with founding ancient Naples by an elderly gent known as the Commander.  This is the life story of Parthenope, right down to her in her old age.

  From 1950, the film fast forwards.  Now 18 years old, Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta) is again emerging from the sea, this time in a bikini (like the James Bond girls).  Thus begins her journey through teenage summers and young adult years.  Just about everyone is smitten with
Parthenope – playboys, strangers, her childhood friend (Dario Aita), and even her
brother (Daniele Rienzo) and a bishop (Peppe Lanzetta), neither of whom should be.

The film is set in the sunlit city of Naples. The smiling Parthenope recalls her childhood, in which her brother was obsessed with her.  Her anthropology professor finds her a brilliant student.  She considers becoming an actress but is not inspired by her eccentric acting coach. She wonders about becoming an aesthete and meets the drunken writer John Cheever (Gary Oldman), whose work she admires. Or perhaps she could have a romantic fling with the ugly bishop who attends the miracle of the dried blood that turns liquid each year, the phenomenon she is studying in anthropology.

Sorrentino’s Naples at times feels like a Federico Fellini movie for its excesses and indulgence.  The films of both directors can be difficult to take but not without their rewards.  Sorrentino’s PARTHENOPE, at least abstains from the ghastly and weird.  For example in FELLINI’S SATYRICON, there is the chopping of a hand on stage for entertainment, or the farting of a performer wearing an animal costume with the tail lifting and falling as  he farts on stage.  Sorrentino, on the other hand, embellishes beauty,

And Sorrentino knows how to shoot beauty.  This is evident in the film’s early scenes where he films beautiful young girls and men in colourful garments in slow-motion as they jump up and down or frolic in the open.  He also films a very seductive sex scene between a nubile couple as watched by a live audience.

The supporting men in Parthenope’s life are more interesting than hers.  The actors also outshine the actress’s performance, which can be described as forgettable as best.  All Celeste Dalla Porta can do is look beautiful, which she does quite magnificently.  The older Parthenope is portrayed by Stefania Sandrelli famous for her Pietro Germi’s 60 films like DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE and SEDUCED AND ABANDONED.  She is one reason to see this film.

Parthenope is gifted with both beauty and talent.  Yet her personality is clouded by her encounters.  The drunken writer, her professor and her mentors all serve to upstage her.  She meets her match when she meets the diva of divas who insults the entire Naples in her degrading speech to the city’s people

There is a good play with words in the film’s dialogue.  Parthenope is great at rebuttal comebacks.  “When chastised, she says at least it is original.”  To which comes:  “But it must be true.”  Every character has a good line at one point or another from the bishop to the commander but none can match the lines of Parthenope.

PARTHENOPE is gorgeous, irrelevant and entertaining, there are adjectives that can be used to describe director Sorrentino’s film as well as his other films   Despite the weak narrative, there is a story but it is the visuals and excesses that make the film.  Be prepared to be astonished by the film that premiered at Cannes last year winning a reported 9-and-a-half-minute standing ovation.

Parthenope was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 21 May 2024,  and opened in theatres on February 21st.

Trailer: 

THE QUIET ONES (Norway 2024) ***
Directed by  Frederik Louis Hviid

THE QUIET ONES is based on the true story of Denmark’s biggest-ever robbery in which $10 million US was taken and the 14 involved were caught and imprisoned.  

THE QUIET ONES is a suspenseful action thriller depicting a team of ambitious and uncompromising criminals who all share the same goal: To achieve the impossible— despite great obstacles and personal costs.

Director Frederik Louis Hviid’s heist thriller is typical of the crime capers made in the 60’s and 70’s.  It highlights the steely professionalism of men operating outside the law.  The exciting and suspenseful film centres on a group of men from Denmark in 2008, when across Europe pulled off the biggest heist of all time on Danish soil. Kasper, a boxer with few chances left in life, is offered the opportunity to plan the robbery by its foreign initiators.  At the risk of losing his family and everything that matters to him, he takes on the challenge in a bid to break all records and secure his place in the history books.  As he plans the job alongside an enigmatic hard-core, Kasper displays the kind of exacting professionalism that might’ve taken him far in a more legitimate line of work.  The little violence in the film is replaced by suspensful scenes.  THE QUIET ONES open in theatres and on Demand on February 21st.  The film premiered at TIFF last year.

Trailer: 

LAS TRES SISTERS (USA/Mexico 2023) **
Directed by Mar Novo

Facing the realities of life’s ups and downs, three sisters reunite, after years of estrangement, to complete their beloved Grandmother’s pilgrimage through rural Mexico.  One of the sisters is seeking a miracle, a cure for her terminal illness as she has been diagnosed with cancer.  She keeps the illness from the sisters who think she is there to solve her marriage problems.  With an old map, no hiking experience, and their lives unraveling around them, the sisters encounter what is hoped to be hilarious and touching experiences on the Talpa de Allende trail - that is until Kin, a local with a dark past, brings them together in order to reach the Miracle that awaits at the end of the trail.

Ted Lasso’s Cristo Fernandez who has a supporting role, as Ken, who has sex with one of the sisters.  He also executively produced the film The sister who organizes the pilgrimage is Maria (Marta Mendez Cross (THE BOUNCE BACK) who believes in a miracle of healing.  The loudest of the sisters Sofia (Virginia Novello) who if not drunk half the time, is making a fool of herself while flirting around at the same time.  The third sister who cannot get along with Sofia is Lucia (Valeria Maldonado, COCO) the most anal-retentive of the sisters who has just walked out of the job because she cannot stand being unappreciated.  She also looks after their mother and mothers her too much.  The mother hires a nurse so that she can go with the sisters.

Though the film lists 4 writers in the credits, the story of three sisters and their journey that involves sorting out what might be considered incorrigible differences is hardly original.  The humour is slight and the drama appears forced at times.

Three sisters mean that there needs to be three happy endings that the audience is forced to tolerate and sit through.  The film gets too sappy at th end, complete with a sing-a-long Spanish song by the three sisters.

LAS TRES SISTERS opens in theatres on February 21st.

Trailer: 

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 10 February 2025

The Oscar-nominated shorts are always a delight, year after year and 2025 is no exception.  Highly recommended!

There are 3 categories and it is hard to predict which one is best.  One year it could be documentary and another live action.  As the shorts were received late, this article will be updated daily till all the shorts are reviewed.

Documentary

ANIMATION

BEURK! (YUCK!) (France 2024) ***½

Directed by Loic Espuche

This short short runs around 12 minutes but it is a sheer delight and perhaps the most fun of all the animated shorts nominated for the Oscar.  A group of kids at a camping site cannot help it group together to watch adults kiss.  When they kiss, the words “Yulk!, Gross!  I will never do that when I grow up.)  come out of the children’s mouths.  One other kid even claims it is even more gross as he had also seen his parents ‘doing it’.    Couples kissing on the mouth are gross.  And the worst is, you can't miss them: when people are about to kiss, their lips become all pink and shiny.  Little Léo, which the short centres on laughs at them, just like all the kids at the summer camp.  But he has a secret he won't tell his friends: his own mouth has actually begun glistening. And, in reality, Léo desperately wants to give kissing a try.  BEURCK is the French word for Yuck meaning ‘a mess’.  There is actually more to the laughs as the short tackles deeper themes like growing up.

BEAUTIFUL MEN (Belgium/France/Netherlands 2023) ****
Directed by Nicolas Keppens

Three brothers (Steven, Koen and Bart) travel to Istanbul in 2021 (pandemic is on as can be seen by the wearing of masks) to get a hair transplant.  Apparently, once bald men get their hair they are on top of the world.  The clincher is that there is only one spot for one transplant, and not three.  The idea of homosexuality is eliminated by the fact that the three are brothers.  Using stop-animation, Keppens delivers a sensitive, insightful, and mature look at masculinity.  As they wait for the transplant, they wander around Istanbul and discover more of themselves and of each other.  Aptly animated (with details like the crumbling of a sock), entertaining and the element of curiosity about what happens in the story is maintained throughout.  This is an odd delight, having made its rounds through international animation film festivals while garnishing many awards.

MAGIC CANDIES (Japan 2025) ****
Directed by Daisuke Nishio

No one wants to play with Dong Dong.  The other kids at the park never ask Dong-Dong to play. That's ok. He's fine just playing marbles on his own. One day, he buys a bag of colourful candies instead of new marbles. The first time he pops one of them into his mouth, his old sofa starts talking to him. The two share an unexpected conversation before the sweet melts away. As it happens, the people, animals, and objects in Dong-Dong's life have a lot to say.  (The candies could stand for drugs adults take to hallucinate - but let's consider this short as a harmless magical tale!… )  With each candy, he discovers new voices and perspectives, including his own. Heartfelt and totally strange, Magic   Candies will have you rethinking how you treat the objects, and others, in your life.  The talking sofa is the funniest, the talking dog Gunsuri the most insightful and the resurrected grandmother the most heartfelt.  This one gets my vote for Best Animated Short!

WANDER TO WONDER (France/Belgium/Netherlands/UK 2023) ***½

Directed by Nina Gantz

If there is a weird one, WANDER TO WONDER would be a hard one to beat.  Though only 14 minutes in running time, the short covers a lot of material in terms of thinking.  In the 1980s, Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton starred in the children's television program Wander to Wonder. They are left alone in the studio after the show's originator passed away.  Left alone in the studio without any clue how to survive, the trio in essence wander to wonder how to carry on. Struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans. They cope, but only to a point when things start to turn crazy.  Toby Jones is the well-known Brit actor who voices Fumblteton.  The short is odd and funny, then turns seriously curious tacking issues like loneliness, death, and emotional stability.

DOCUMENTARY

DEATH BY NUMBERS (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Kim A. Snyder

A harrowing experience of trauma and survival given the full serious treatment of a survivor, Sam Fuentes of a mass killing in her school.  She confronts the killer at the ending scene in which she delivers, in court, a testimony (an unforgettable scene) of what she went through in terms of trauma and survival (she was wounded) and how she tells him what he had become.  Death by Numbers had its world premiere on October 5, 2024 at the Hamptons International Film Festival and finally won the prestigious nomination for Best Oscar Nominated Short.  Another brilliant film that comes to mind about a mass shooting is Lynne Ramsay’s 2011 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN which would be the ideal companion piece with this short.

I AM READY, WARDEN  (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Smriti Mundhra

The short opens with convicted murderer John Henry Ramirez speaking to the camera, 6 days before his execution for the murder of Pablo Castro after 29 stabbings outside a convenience store.  John Henry thanks those who have supported him and talks about his regret of his deed and indeed, he is ready for his execution.  The short puts the quince on his side before turning the tables when the next scene shifts to the son, 14 at the time when his father was senselessly murdered.  He, understandably wants justice in the death sentence.  The short also looks at Pastor Dana’s point of view when she says that John Henry is a changed man, and no longer the man he was before.  I AM READY WARDEN does to judge but allows the viewer to do so on their own terms.  But more important of all, is the question of capital punishment.  When questioned by ex-PM Brian Mulroney on bringing back capital punishment, his reply was that Canadians would never return to primitive times.

 INCIDENT (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Bill Morrison

INCIDENT gets my vote for the most arresting doc short eliciting raw emotions, uneasiness, and conscience.  This is film editing at its most efficient. And all based on a true but regretful event that should never have happened.  The film reconstructs a 2018 police shooting in Chicago, reassembling the event and its immediate aftermath from a variety of sources, including surveillance, CCTV, dashboard, and body-worn cameras, as a synchronized split-screen montage. A black barber is shot to death for no reason at all, the cops were responsible though they had thought that he had a gun hidden under his shirt, though he did not.  The cops try to cover it up - obviously, especially the white female cop Halley who clearly is the vicious villain in the short, lying through her teeth and protecting her partner,  See this short at your own risk!

INSTRUMENTS OF A BEATING HEART (Japan 2024) ***

Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki

The documentary follows Ayame, a schoolgirl, Ayame eager to participate in a group performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" to welcome new first graders.  Encouraged by the teacher to think beyond herself, Ayame wins the cymbal role in the audition.  However, a lack of dedication to her task leads to mistakes during rehearsals, prompting the teacher to emphasize the importance of harmony and diligence.  Following a reprimand during practice, Ayame loses confidence. Classmates and teachers offer encouragement and support, leading her to rejoin the group and become a part of its eventual success.  The film is performed by the teachers and students of a Tokyo public school which gives the short authenticity and credibility.  Accolades too, for young Ayame playing herself, delivering a knockout performance for such a youngster.

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Molly O’Brien

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA (the Philharmonic) is as the title of the short implies, a short with a strong female slant.  And with reason.  In 1966 conductor Leonard Bernstein praised Orin O’Brien as a miracle.  Orin O'Brien, a trailblazing double bassist, became the New York Philharmonic's first female musician in 1966, hired by Leonard Bernstein. Now 87 and recently retired, she reflects on her remarkable career, valuing a quiet, supportive role for loved ones and students. The documentary by her niece, Molly O’Brien, highlights Orin’s impact and her belief that fulfillment lies in embracing a secondary role.  The film is an homage to the O’Briens and all women who strive to excel in the field of their dreams.  And if that is not enough - the soundtrack of classics such as Mahler’s Symphony Number 2 can be heard throughout.  THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA is now playing and can be viewed on Netflix.

 LIVE ACTION

ANUJA (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Adam J. Graves

ANUJA is a 2024 American Hindi-language short film written and directed by philosopher-turned-filmmaker Adam J. Graves.  Starring Sajda Pathan, Ananya Shanbhag and Nagesh Bhonsle, it tells the story of a gifted (in Mathematics) nine-year-old girl who, alongside her sister Palak, faces a life-changing opportunity that tests their bond and mirrors the struggles of girls worldwide.  The setting is a clothing sweatshop in overcrowded New Delhi where the two siblings work.  The seriousness of the message of the film, which is assumed to make the world aware of child labour and other abuses, is undermined by the incident of Anuja trying to sell stolen goods from the authorities.  Anuja is seen running around with her pursuers but the camerawork looks amateurish and forced,  ANUJA is available to be watched in Netflix.

I AM NOT A ROBOT (Belgium/Netherlands 2023) ****
Directed by Victoria Warmerdam

In Drew Hancock’s recent COMPANION, the premise of the film purports that the sex doll can be attuned to A.I. capabilities resulting in a programmable companion for any human being.  The impressive short I AM NOT A ROBOT treads along the same lines but though only a short, it accomplishes more than Hancock’s feature-length film.  It parodies much of what social media does.  The film’s protagonist, Lara is told by her boyfriend and his new girlfriend that she is a ‘bot’ She questions the fact as the internet says she is 87% probability offing a robot, especially after repeatedly failing Captcha tests.  The answer comes at the very end forming the short's climax.  Very smart, very imaginative, very current, and thoroughly entertaining!

A LIEN (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by David Cutler-Kreutz and Sam Cutler-Kreutz

In this short, what property is a lien is up to the audience to figure out.  But this is an emotionally charged short that is as current as President Donald Trump evicts illegal immigrants from the U.S. using g the ICE, clearly the villains of the piece.  Trump has no respect for humans and treats immigrants as trash.  Oscar and Sophia Gomez are a married couple with a young daughter, Nina, en route to an immigration interview that they hope will grant Oscar a path to citizenship. Oscar is to be interviewed first regarding their marriage, and he takes Nina with him, leaving Sophia alone in the waiting room. When asked if he has ever returned to his country of origin, Oscar explains to the interviewer that he first came to New York in 1994 and feels no connection to his home country. Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Sophia notices other undocumented immigrants being detained and taken out of the office in handcuffs by ICE. When they begin calling Oscar's name over the loudspeakers, she panics, fearing that they intend to arrest him as well.  There is no happy ending here as during Trump’s 4-year term, but there is only hope.

THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT REMAIN SILENT (France/Croatia/Slovenia/Bulgaria 2024) *****
Directed by Nebojša Slijepčević

The film depicts the true story of the kidnapping and crime in Štrpci (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on February 27, 1993, on a passenger train travelling from Belgrade to Bar, when the Beli Orlovi paramilitary unit dragged 24 Muslims from the train and ended up killing them.  Dragan is a middle-aged man in a train car with several other passengers, including the teenager Milan, a grandfather and granddaughter, and a college student. The train stops unexpectedly, and the White Eagles are granted access to the train by the conductor. The soldiers force each passenger back into their seats and demand documentation and personal details from each. Many passengers are heard being forcefully dragged out. Milan admits to Dragan that he has no paperwork, and will also be arrested, but Dragan assures him that nobody in the car will let anything happen to him.  But the film’s non-silent man is not Dragan but another passenger, Tomo, whom the film is deicated to.  Based on true events, the short unfolds like a true suspense train thriller.  The short also won the grand prize for Best Short at Cannes,  Clearly the Best of the lot.

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 30 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BOGOTA: CITY OF THE LOST (South Korea 2024) ***
Directed by Kim Seong-je

Premiering at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2024, BOGOTA: CITY OF THE LOST tells the story of Kook-hee (Song Joong Ki), a young South Korean man who finds himself navigating the dangerous criminal underworld of Bogota, Colombia, after his life is turned upside down by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. 

The film opens in the wake of the Asian financial collapse, in 1999, which devastates South Korea and forces Kook-hee's family to flee their home country for a better life in Colombia. 

BOGOTA: CITY OFTHE LOST is a 2024 South Korean crime film co-written and directed by Kim Seong-je, starring Song Joong-ki, Lee Hee-joon and Kwon Hae-hyo. It tells the story of immigrants who start dangerous deals to survive in Bogotá, the last land for hopeless lives.

Bogotá is Colombia’s sprawling, high-altitude capital. La Candelaria, its cobblestoned center, features colonial-era landmarks like the neoclassical performance hall Teatro Colón and the 17th-century Iglesia de San Francisco. It's also home to popular museums including the Museo Botero, showcasing Fernando Botero's art, and the Museo del Oro, displaying pre-Columbian gold pieces.  The film serves a tourist promotion as can be observed in the one scene where Guk-hee is driven by a Colombian into the forests where several waterfalls in all their majesty canoe observed.

The film celebrates both South Korea and Colombia.  Though Colombia is known for drugs and dirty dealings, these are kept at a minimum, just enough to get the story going.  Those unfamiliar with Colombia should have a field day, as the film, shot in both Korean and Spanish paints a very insightful picture of Colombia.

Unable to escape the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, 19-year-old Guk-hee moves to Bogotá with his family, wishing for a better life only to end up living from hand to mouth. To survive in this unfamiliar land, Guk-hee starts working under Sergeant Park, who holds power in the Korean Merchants’ Association. Catching Park's eye with his diligence, Guk-hee is tasked with participating in a smuggling operation for clothing as part of a test. Amid a life-threatening crisis where Colombian customs nearly apprehend them, Guk-hee risks his life to protect Sergeant Park's goods, leaving a lasting impression not only on Park but also on Soo-yeong, a customs broker. Soon, Soo-yeong makes Guk-hee a dangerous proposal. Realizing that his choices can change the landscape of the Korean community in Bogotá, Guk-hee begins to yearn for even greater success.

Told and narrated by the 22-year-old Guk-hee, the film has a personal touch that allows the audience to identify with the protagonist and his family.  The film stays away from the easy wrought of being an action film but instead focuses on a story that deals with the resilience of the human spirit - in this case the survival of a man and his family in a strong and foreign new world - the world of Bogota, Colombia.  It is also a coming-of-age story of Guk-Kee as he examines the many options available to him, some of questionable ethics but might provide an easier way out.  And there is also an action-packed last third to satisfy action fans,

The film premieres in Canada on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

BRING THEM DOWN (UK/Ireland 2024) ***½

Directed by Christopher Andrews

Shot in rural Ireland, this intense and depressing film displays the hardships of sheep farming with the added stress of feuding neighbours.  Michael (Christopher Abbott) tends his family’s sheep business entirely on his own. His father (Colm Meaney) is disabled, and his mother died years ago in a car accident in which Michael was the driver.  Michael has lived with guilt ever since — as well as a secret he hopes will never come to light.  Michael’s ex, Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), was also in that car accident and has the scars to prove it. She wound up marrying Gary (Paul Ready), another sheep farmer. Near the start of Bring Them Down, Caroline and Gary’s son, Jack (Barry Keoghan, also at the Festival with Bird), claims that two of Michael’s prize rams were found dead on his family’s property.   Michael’s suspicions are aroused, old wounds are opened, and the two families, with neither willing to stand down, find themselves on a perilous collision course.  The film repeats a few scenes resulting in a disordered chronological order, but the narrative is still easy to follow,  A solid climax brings the riveting film to an unexpected end.

LOVE HURTS (USA 2025) *

Directed by JoJo Eusebio

Ke Huy Quan stars as Marvin Gable, a realtor working the Milwaukee suburbs, where 'For Sale' signs bloom. Gable receives a crimson envelope from Rose (Oscar® winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story, Argylle), a former partner-in-crime that he had left for dead.  She’s not happy. Now, Marvin is thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen, filled with double-crosses and open houses turned into deadly war zones. With his brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu; Tomb Raider, Warcraft), a volatile crime lord, hunting him, Marvin must confront the choices that haunt him and the history he never truly buried.

Universal gives Ke Huy Qian, the recent Academy Award Winner from EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE a leading role in his first movie,  Unfortunately, LOVE HURTS ends up a terrible movie, a pauper’s version of KINGSMAN or even JOHN WICK films.  Ke looks like a poor man’s Jackie Chan either way his comedic Martial-Arts fights are not funny nor exciting.  The interjection of the Valentine’s Day romance is silly and a cheap rip-off of the holiday celebrations.  The film is also unnecessarily violent.  The story is infantile, the performances infantile and the Chemistry between Ke and DeBose non-existent.  The sure worst film of 2025 so far.  This film HURTS!

Trailer: 

THE MONKEY (USA 2025) **
Directed by Osgood Perkins

THE MONKEY comes with the accolade that it is based on a Stephen King short story, one that was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1980.  It is a 1980 horror short story by Stephen King featuring a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy.  There are two differences between the short story and the film already,  One is that the characters in the film refuse to refer to the monkey as a toy, and in the film the monkey plays the drums instead of cymbals,  The cymbals are surely scarier but the film’s director begs to differ.  The other reason is that the monkey with the symbols is a Disney-patented toy,

After stumbling upon their father's vintage toy monkey in the attic, twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Theo James) witness a string of horrifying deaths unfolding around them. In an attempt to leave the haunting behind, the brothers discard the monkey and pursue separate paths over time. However, when the inexplicable deaths resurface, the brothers are compelled to reconcile and embark on a mission to eliminate the cursed toy permanently.

There are also major changes in the film.  In the King’s story, the monkey in a flight bag is weighted with rocks and thrown to the deepest part of Crystal Lake. As the bag sinks, the faint sound of the monkey's cymbals clapping can be heard.  During the disposal, the boat starts breaking up, but the Hal character manages to swim ashore safely to his son, Petey. The story ends with a newspaper clipping showing that hundreds of fish in the lake have died as a result.

This is a more subtle and scarier ending which the film dismisses. 

THE MONKEY is nothing much more than a slew of very, very violent killings similar to the SAW horror franchise with the difference of the monkey doing the killing.  The killings are all at random so director Perkins has more liberty for various ways to dispose of the victims.  There is no subtlety here.

Perkins’ script has the main character Hal have an evil twin brother.  The enmity between the two forms a main part of the story,  The evil money in question is assumed by the evil twin to be able to cause damage as well as provide immortality.  The immortality is never clearly explained and serves to cloud the situation. 

THE MONKEY like the SAW franchise can be praised for the extreme violence and innovation of novel killings.  Apart from that, nothing really new or exciting has been brought to the horror genre.  Whether the changes from Stephen King’s short story improve the film’s story is questionable at best.  The characters in the film are also too wishy-washy to be sympathetic.  The  MONKEY toy should have never been taken out from Hal's father’s closet and the script for THE MONKEY should be locked in one

THE MONKEY opens in theatres on February 7th.  With its modest budget, the horror flick should bring in a tidy profit.

Trailer: 

NO OTHER LAND (Norway/Palestine 2024) ****

Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor

The film NO OTHER LAND is about Palestinians but focuses on the few living in the West Bank.  The Gaza Strip has recently been in the news since the idiotic President Trump created chaos as usual by opening his big mouth wanting to claim the Gaza Strip from the U.S.  Can the Americans be more despised by the world?  There are similarities and differences between the two lands, and a bit of history is important in order to appreciate this awesome documentary better.

The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are two Palestinian territories that were part of Mandate Palestine and were captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. There are over 5 million Palestinians combined living in the two territories. The West Bank is an area of land located within the country of Israel.  The West Bank stretches across the eastern border of Israel along the west banks of the Jordan River and most of the Dead Sea, which is how it received its name.  In 1967, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria were involved in a military struggle most commonly known as the Six-Day War. Up until that point, the Gaza Strip had been under Egypt’s control and the West Bank under Jordan’s. However, after the Six-Day War, both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were seized by Israel.  Since the Six-Day War, though, the tension between Israelis and Palestinians living in the territories has been constant, often ending in violence. Because Israel controls all access to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Palestinians living there are under military occupation and are subject to Israeli restrictions, often depending on aid for food, water, and supplies.

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community's mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood.  The film begins with his narration at the age of 5 (when he first saw his father arrested) moving on to 7 (his first protest).  Basel documents the gradual erasure of the community of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, as soldiers destroy the homes of families - the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. The extreme inequality between them haunts their complex bond: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

NO OTHER LAND is a very personal and moving film that effectively gets its message across.  Though there is still no peace or resolve in the century-old conflict, the doc allows the audience to appreciate the meaningless human suffering that has resulted.  NO OTHER LAND is nominated for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary.  It opens at the TIFF Lightsbox on Friday, February 7th.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 27 January 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

THE DEAD THING (USA 2024) **
Directed by Elric Kane

THE DEAD THING is an ambitious new horror film directed by Elric Kane and co-written by Kane and Webb Wilcoxen.

What is THE DEAD THING that is referred to by the film’s title?  The answer is clear only in the last 15 minutes of the film’s 90-minute running time.

The film is described as an erotic horror thriller.  That it is, but the film takes its time to establish its footing.  It begins by focusing on its protagonist, a young pretty girl, Alex (Blu Hunt) stuck in a computer client-based job who finds sexual distraction by going on dating apps and meeting up with random strangers thus having sex with them.  All her hook-ups are quite good-looking, also of which forms the erotic element of the film, though with little nudity.  (Who says there must be nudity for a film to be erotic?)  But the encounters are meaningless until she finds Kyle, a mysterious crew-cut hunk named Kyle (Ben Smith Petersen) who seems different from the rest of her meet-ups.

But he is as strange as can be.  He disappears for no apparent reason and she catches him dating another girl.  He becomes an obsession for her.  She discovers that he is actually dead, but then sees him and meets again with him.  The relationship turns really weird.

The film is ok to this point, though the slow burn might frustrate horror fans expecting more.  It does not help that the film contains a totally muddled ending.  The extremely slow build-up, lack of scares, and muddled ending make the film more frustrating.

THE DEAD THING premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival.  It opens on the Shudder streaming service on February 14th.

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DEATH BEFORE THE WEDDING (Poland 2025) **

Directed by Tomasz KoneckiIwona and Ogonowska-Konecka

When Maja brings her fiancé home, her traditional parents must overcome their cultural biases amidst a crisis at their dairy farm. Can love find a way?  GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER Polish style.  But the drama is replaced by aught comedy in this Polish entry

The death referred to in the title refers to the sudden death of the manager of a dairy plant called Little Dairy.  The CEO of the chain wants to shut this plant down, it being the smallest and most insignificant.  But Miren who runs the company tries to keep the plant going,  But that is not the only problem.  he has forgotten his pearl wedding anniversary and his wife, Regina is more distraught than angry.  His daughter is engaged to be married but to a coloured man.  The condition the CEO gives Mirek for not shutting down the plant is to allow his wife to paint the daughter’s wedding.  In the meantime, Mirek has to find a new manager and come up with a viable plan for the plant.

That is a lot going for Mirek and the film in particular.  It is amusing to watch the racist and male chauvinist Mirek bumbling his way around trying to balance all his tasks while keeping a sound mind.  But hilarious it is not with the film being mildly entertaining at best.

DEATH BEFORE THE WEDDING opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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LA DOLCE VILLA (USA 2025) **
Directed by Mark Waters

Written by Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy and directed by MEAN GIRLS director Mark Waters, LA DOLCE VILLA (the name derived from Federico Fellini’s classic LA DOCLE VITA  is one of the too many romantic comedies opening this Valentine's Day week.  It stars Scott Foley who learned Italian for his role, a more senior adult romcom playing the father, Eric Field of a daughter in Italy finding romance when he starves in a small Italian village.

The reason for his visit to Italy is to prevent his daughter from buying a one-euro house.  Apparently, the Italians do this to entice investment.  So like Liam Neeson in TAKEN, the father travels to Italy to bring his daughter home while convincing her not to purchase the one euro vill.

Romcoms are my least favourite film genre, but this one caught my attention for a while.  There are several reasons that make LA DOLCE VILLA watchable.  One is the gorgeous Italian countryside and quaint village.  Filming took place in Rome, eastern Lazio, and Tuscany. The villa's interiors were constructed at Cinecittà Studios in Rome.  The second is the initial fast moving and quite witty dialogue in the script and thirdly,  the subject of an older person falling in love is a welcome change.  But the attention lasted only 15 minutes before it fell into cliched territory.  It does not take a genius to guess that Eric Field falls in love with the pretty town mayor.

Apart from the above reasons. LA DOCLE VILLA is an entertaining enough warthog.  It opens for streaming on Netflix the Valentine’s Day weekend.

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LUNE DE MIEL AVEC MA MERE (Honeymoon Crasher) (France 2025) ***½

Directed by Nicolas Cuche

Bridegroom Lucas (Julien Frison) is abandoned at the wedding altar while his parents Lily (Michele Laroque) and Michel (Dad Merad) look on.  This opening comedic scene could have been funnier.  But the film does get better.  The premise of the film based on the Spanish film (AMOR DE MADRE - Mother’s Love) is actually fresh since it has not been known in English-speaking North America.  Lucas has spent his hard-earned teaching job on a Mauritius honeymoon and there is no refund.  When this ex-bride calls him to ask to pick up her keys, he tells her that he is going on the honeymoon anyway, with someone else.  That someone else happens not to be his new girlfriend but his mother, who had not gone on her honeymoon because she was too busy having him.

The film is set up for full-potential comedy and hits the right spots every so often with a greater-than-average hit-and-miss ratio.  The mother and son duo is totally watchable as the mother looks young enough to pass as his bride through an older one.  Everyone in the honeymoon resort is impressed with Lily as it is seldom one sees an older woman with a young man.  The mother and son pretend to be newlyweds in order to get the super upgrades given by Gloria the hostess, wonderfully played by Rossy de Palma.

The contrast of personalities - Lucas is introverted while Lily is the opposite.  She is hung ho for everything exciting.  The one exception is when Lucas insists on telling the couple seated with them how they had met - in the maternity room, which makes up the film’s funniest segment.

The film also contains some serious drama, which works, that involves the mother-and-son relationship.  The dramatic parts work wonderfully.  They also display the talent of the two actors - Frison and Laroque.  The mother wants the best for her son -the son thinks she is suffocating him.  Both are right.

The film’s main setting is the honeymoon resort in Mauritius.  Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar.  The country is African.  The shots of Mauritius are nothing less than stunning,

HONEYMOON CRASHERS got a likely higher rating than most other critics or viewers would give it for the reason that I love French comedies.  This one is no exception to the rule - with a fresh premise and good clean fun with some dramatic moments put in that actually work, the film just begging for a Hollywood remake,  But there are some things one cannot remake, like the performance of Roissy de Palma as Gloria The Spanish actress who has been seen many times in Pedro Almodovar’s films - performing to the point of pure hilarity.

LUNE DE MIEL AVEC MA MERE (Honeymoon Crasher) (The English translation to the French title is Honeymoon with My Mother(opens for streaming on Netflix on Valentine’s Day - a different kind of love story.

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KNOW MERCY (USA 2024) **
Directed by Pernell Richardson

Stranded on Earth for centuries, Hanokh (Xavier Avila) is an immortal man conflicted by the ever-present question of his purpose.   Truth be told, every human being should be wondering for his or her won purpose on the planet.  As he navigates through time and the modern world, he yearns to uncover the secret of his existence.  A brilliant but terminally ill scientist (the villain of the piece) becomes obsessed with capturing Hanokh and believes that his immortality holds the key to his own salvation. His relentless pursuit jeopardizes Hanokh and the safety of the woman (Elia Williams who also co-wrote the script) he has grown to love after a life of solitude. As he closes in, Hanokh must confront the powerful force that wants to exploit him and navigate the betrayal of those closest to him. In a desperate race against time, he grapples with the moral implications of his immortality while simultaneously striving to protect the woman he cherishes. All the while, he also sought answers that could either liberate him or trap him in the eternal quest for meaning in a world where life and death are intricately connected.

The only actor who gets it right is Juhahn Jones in the supporting role of  Father Thomas who houses and mentors Hanukah.  He plays the role of Father Thomas for laughs and this is how the film should be.  With such an outrageous plot like time travel and events that occur without any rhyme or reason, it is all tongue-in-cheek material and yes, it has been said - Jones does it right.

Director Richardson’s film is all over the place, finally settling with a serious faith-type message similar to that of Christianity and John 3:13.  The film also gets too serious for its own good with director Richardson taking his project too seriously.  The quotation: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  God comes into the story ninth last part of the film with Hanukah placed on earth supposedly to fulfill one of God’s missions.   Is KNOW MERCY supposed to be a faith Christianity movie?  No one can be really sure.

Though KNOW MERCY is watchable and entertaining to a point, it ends up a puzzling and mostly frustrating enterprise in which nobody cares for the message (if it can be deciphered) or for the story’s characters.

The film has won the Grand Prize for Best Picture at the Culver City Film Festival and was nominated for the Audience Award at the Cleveland Urban Film Festival.  It was also screened at the San Diego Black Film Festival in late January. KNOW MERCY also received a ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced hiring.

Gravitas Ventures will release KNOW MERCY on digital platforms on February 18, 2025. The film has a running time of 1 hour and 23 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA.

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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (Indonesia 2025) **½

Directed by Robert Ronny

A playboy stages a dating show to earn his inheritance by granting his father's last wish, for his son to marry the most beautiful girl in the world.

Reuben and Kiara are not Romeo and Juliet.  They fall into the typical Harlequin couple mold.  They have disdain for each other h other but slowly all will dissolve into the mixture of love.  THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD is yet another one of too many romantic comedies driving during the Valentine’s Day season, this one running over 2 hours.

Despite the Chemistry of the two leads and the fresh setting of modern Indonesia (most of the films arriving here are Indonesian horror flicks set in rural Indonesia) and the parody of reality television THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD almost succeeds.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD opens for streaming on Netflix on Valentine’s Day.

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ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO (Japan 2024) ***
Directed by Joshua Woodcock

The film opens with the protagonist, Sam (Reza Emamiyeh) arriving at Tokyo airport.  It is 130 pm in the afternoon.  So, the night of the film’s title has not begun yet. Sam also stays in Tokyo for more than a night, so the title is misleading.  The ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO refers to the essential time in Toyo that changes Sam’s life.

One of the best things about ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO occurs at the film’s start where the audience sees a foreigner, Sam navigating Tokyo to find his girlfriend Becca (Cailee Oliver).  He arrives in Tokyo, at the airport and Becca is not answering her phone nor is she showing up as agreed before to meet him.  He takes the subway, with all the machines with instructions in Japanese characters.  Japan is a beautiful place, but the culture shock is often never mentioned in any film that features Japan as a setting.  There is no English, no letters of the alphabet and Japanese characters are totally impossible to read.  Even when meeting, for example, someone at a subway station is difficult.  Many stations are huge with as many as half a dozen exits.   Sam resorts to asking other caucasian directions, eventually finding Becca’s home.

Sam arrives in Tokyo to visit his expat girlfriend Becca -- only to be broken up with as soon as he arrives at her apartment. Left wandering around Tokyo alone, he decides to return to the U.S. the next day. Stuck for the night awaiting his new flight, he makes an unlikely friend in Ayaka (Tokiko Kitagawa), who reluctantly takes him out with her friends.

As Sam and Ayaka both struggle to communicate due to their language barrier, trust and reliance on each other become imminent when betrayal sends their worlds crashing down. As the pair venture through the mesmerizing streets of Tokyo together, they must not only overcome obstacles to understand each other but also break down their own walls to understand themselves.

The film succeeds more as an observational piece.  There is much to observe about the cultural differences between Japan and the West, about human personalities and character as well as human relationships.  The film does not strive to work as a drama, romance or moral tale.

Other keen observational points:

• one can observe how Japanese cliques behave (not much different from American ones)
• how breakups occur
• the actor as well as the character is Iran by decent, if one is wondering.  The actor’s first name, Reza is a common Iranian one though non-Iranians might not be aware of the fact
• how work always clouds up one's holidays
• how  a newcomer behaves in a new group

It should be noted that ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO is not much else.  There is no super romance or drama being told, no great performances (though the two actors are not bad), or super writing.  If one does not get a kick out of observing other human beings or situations, the film will seem boring and meaningless.

ONE NIGHT IN TOKYO is available on Digital/VOD on February 14th.

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PADDINGTON IN PERU (UK 2024) ****
Directed by Dougal Wilson

PADDINGTON IN PERU is the third Paddington film based on the lovable Paddington Bear created by Michael Bond.

The adventure begins with Paddington reaching for an orange on a branch that breaks.  Paddington falls into a gushing river and goes over the falls, only to be rescued by his Aunt Lucy.  When Aunt Lucy from the Home of Retired Bears run by a singing nun (Olivia Colman) goes missing in Peru, Paddington, now living with the Browns in London leaves with the entire Brown family to search for the lost Aunt Lucy.  Determined to solve the mystery, they soon stumble across a legendary treasure as they make their way through the rainforests of the Amazon.

The story by Paul King, Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton is inventive enough with lots of opportunities for adventure, humour, moral and family values and even some magic, as well as the best famous old movies especially THE SOUND OF MUSIC since Olivia Colma’s singing nun is a major character in the story.  There is one song and dance number similar to the singing nun number “Maria” in THE SOUND OF MUSIC with Colman banishing a guitar similar to the Singing Nun Julie Andrews  carried when she sang “I Have Confidence In Me” a number that ends with the background of hills similar to the start of THE SOUND OF MUSIC where Andrews sang “The Hills Are Alive”,

The British sense of humour is evident throughout the movie, which is hilarious enough to entertain any adult who has brought his children to see the lovable bear.  The values (very clever indeed) include the importance and difference between family and clan, as well as where one belongs and where one comes from.  

Voice characterizations are provided by a cast of classic British stars like Golden Globe Winner Julia Walters and Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (as Aunt Lucy). Paddington is voiced by Ben Whishaw (THE LOBSTER).  The real actors also ham it up very well from Colman who seems to have a chant for such things to Antonio Banderas as the handsome Captain crazy about finding gold.  Sally Hawkins who voiced Mrs. Brown in the first two Paddington films is replaced by Emily Mortimer.

Queen Elizabeth II briefly appears in the film in a framed photograph with Paddington, taken from the short film featuring the two produced for the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.   Michael Bond also appears briefly on a stamp in a letter Paddington receives at the start of the film.

Stay for the end credits.  There is a surprise cameo- A British actor (the identity of whom will not be disclosed here) but he appears twice once at the start of the closing credits and once again right at the end of the closing credits.  The closing credits run close to 10 minutes, so one has to be patient and stay right to the very end

The PADDINGTON franchise has been a solid film franchise with the latest PADDINGTON IN PERU being no exception.  PADDINGTON IN PERU opens in North America on February 14th and has already grossed around $100 million at the box office.   The film also marks the best film to open in 2025 so far.

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SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN (Que nadie duerma) Spain/Romania 2023) ***½

Dirigida por Antonio Méndez Esparza

A steamy encounter with a new neighbour who has gone missing leads the recently unemployed Lucia (Malena Alterio) to take on work as a cab driver in hopes of finding the man that reawakened her latent sexuality.  Using her new vocation as a means of radical connection and self-reinvention, she finds both erotic and intellectual stimulation from her clientele. However, the more Lucia freely gives of herself to strangers, the more it becomes clear that she might be the target of a nefarious plot with violent consequences.

Based on Juan José Millás' novel Que nadie duerma, the screenplay was penned by Antonio Méndez Esparza alongside Clara Roquet.  It was Méndez Esparza's first time working with a professional cast.   Roquet described the lead character as a female version of the protagonists of JOKER and TAXI DRIVER though this film has a lighter touch, until the very end at least, which is a shocker. while still maintaining the story’s urgency.

Lucia is terribly optimistic.  Lucia loves listening to opera though she does not understand it.  She loves listening in, particularly to Puccini’s Turandot, the famous song, Dessun Dorma from it heard many times in the soundtrack.  She also takes opera singing lessons.  She believes something is about to happen - and it is good, despite her current circumstances.  Lucia has just lost her IT job and decided to become a taxi driver.  She has a short fling with a neighbour one evening and believes she has fallen in love.  While she dresses up in a Chinese Cheong sum resembling a Chinese princess as in the opera Puccini’s Turandot, she finds that her neighbour has moved out without any prior notice. Still, she is in high spirits.  There is clear audience anticipation at this point in the movie and the 45-minute mark, that indeed SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, and likely it will not be good.

The film/story sidetracks with a few side paths.  Lucia has to care for her ailing father.   She pines over her mother who had committed suicide by jumping out a window,  Her various sexual escapades while driving her cab serve some erotic fodder.

Actress Malena Alterio (looking a bit like Carmen Maura in the early Pedro Almodovar films) excels in Lucia's lead role.  No raging beauty, but still an attractive woman by ordinary standards, she brings emotion and humanity to her role.  The audience feels for her demise and hopes that something good will happen to her. The film captured a Goya Award for Best Lead Actress for Malena Alerio.

The film covers many genres, making it more interesting a film.  It is a part romantic drama, surreal suspense, character story and sexual thriller.

SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN has its world premiere at the 68th Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) on 22 October 2023.  It opens on VOD, Digital, and on Film Movement on February 14th - a different type of romantic thriller.

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TIMESTALKER (UK 2024) ***
Directed by Alice Rowe

Agnes (Alice Rowe), a hapless heroine, falls for a mysterious man, known throughout the ages as Alex (Aneurin Barnard) and promptly meets her bloody demise, and then is reincarnated a century later.  When she meets her love again, the cycle begins anew. As Agnes traverses through time, she repeats all the messy thrills and spills that come with daring to follow one’s heart. How can she ever hope to break the cycle when she’s destined to be a fool for love?  The film’s caption: Romance is Dead!

(Review to be posted on week of film's opening)

TIMESTALKER opens exclusively in theatres and ON DEMAND starting February 14th (Valentine’s Day) making it a worthwhile romance alternative.

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THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP (South Korea/|USA/Poland 2025) ***
Directed by Kang Hei Chul

THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP is the second anime feature film following The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.  It is a 2025 adult animated fantasy drama film set in The Witcher universe. It was directed by Kang Hei Chul and written by Mike Ostrowski and Rae Benjamin.

The film opens with a fight scene with a monster called the Allamorax and a hunter named Geralt The Witcher.  The Witcher has been hired to kill the monster, his quest accompanied by a young man, Jaskier following closely hoping to create a ballad out of all this.  The Witcher meets the monster and in a 10-minute fight scene is unable to destroy it when he discovers it is a harmless creature that only eats oysters.

The Witcher is a series of 8 fantasy novels and 15 short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.  The series revolves around the eponymous witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Witchers are monster hunters given superhuman abilities for the purpose of killing dangerous creatures.  The Witcher began with a titular 1986 short story that Sapkowski entered into a competition held by Fantastyka magazine, marking his debut as an author.  Due to reader demand, Sapkowski wrote 14 more stories before starting a series of novels in 1994.  Known as The Witcher Saga, he wrote one book a year until the fifth and final installment in 1999.  The books have been described as having a cult following in Poland and throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

The animation, though not bad (always check out the animation of water in any animated feature) is nothing really out of the ordinary.  The main fascination with the film is the animated story that comes from the Polish Witcher universe, which at present has quite a cult following,  Though not as famous as Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Rings Universe, The Witcher series has its devout followers.

THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP is based on Andrzej Sapkowski's short story 'A Little Sacrifice', the animated adventure film picks up with Geralt and his trusty companion Jaskier (voiced once again by Joey Batey) on a new mission. This time, they're hired to investigate a series of mysterious attacks in a seaside village. Naturally, it proves to be more than what the monster hunter bargained for as he's drawn into a centuries-old conflict between humans and merpeople that shows no sign of abating.

The precious commodity in question in this story is oysters.  Humans have pillaged oysters and the pearls beyond acceptance and even hired a witcher to destroy the Allamorax, a harmless monster that only consumes oysters not hurting anyone

One of the film’s dialogues: “If a human opens his mouth, only a lie comes forth.”  The scriptwriters must have President Donald Trump in mind when they wrote that line of dialogue.

There is the impending war between the humans and the sea creatures.  The war has to be prevented at all costs.

THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP is now one for streaming on Netflix this week, a welcome break from all the romantic comedies and dramas that are filling the theatre and streaming screens during Valentine’s Day week.

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