I don't get to watch a lot of new films. Most of my years movie viewing tends to be older movies that are getting new releases and I'm reviewing the Blu-ray or DVD. Of the new films I do watch most end up being films I've been asked to review, and are movies that don't really get a cinema release, and as such the majority of the films in my list are likely to be ones that may have fallen under your radar, and some of the big blockbuster releases will be absent from this list. I wish I could watch more new films, but as it is I've still enjoyed a great deal of those I have seen, and here's ten that I liked the most.
Fitting In
Fitting In is a coming of age drama comedy that touches on some topics that most films aimed at teenage viewers ignore. Yes, there's sex and school drama to be found here, but it's chiefly a story about finding out your body isn't what you expected it to be. The film tells the story of Lindy (Maddie Ziegler), a teen who learns that she has the rare MRKH syndrome, which means that most of her reproductive system is missing. Lindy must come to terms with her intersex condition, and the knowledge that she'll never be able to carry her own child. Added on top, she can't have sex with her boyfriend because her vaginal canal is tiny. All of the angst around going from a teen to an adult, and maturing sexually is disrupted by these revelations, leading to Lindy spiralling out of control.
Molly McGlynn, the writer and director of Fitting In, has MRKH syndrome herself, and as such brings a lot of her own personal experience to the film. Lindy's journey across Fitting In is far from smooth, there are some ups and downs, some tragic moments, and some times of joy. It's a film that doesn't sugar-coat this subject, a subject that needs talking about more are intersex conditions and sex variances are a lot more common that people would want to think. And at a time where any deviation from this is being politicised negatively, where people are being hounded and abused for being different, or even perceived as different telling these stories has never been more important. Come to Fitting In for the coming of age drama, stay for the very real heart, and the special story it's telling.
The Contestant
The documentary film The Contestant covers a story that most people will have heard a little about, because it's one of the strangest and most disturbing things ever done for television. In 1998 Tomoaki Hamatsu auditioned for a popular Japanese TV show, Susunu! Denpa Shōnen, and 'won' based on a number draw. He was taken straight from the audition to a small apartment somewhere in the city, stripped of his clothing, and told he had to survive off items won from magazine competitions; and that he couldn't leave until he'd won a certain amount. Thus begun over a year of torture, as Hamatsu was left alone in this tiny apartment, trying desperately to survive, his physical and mental health deteriorating by the day, and his plight televised for the nation to laugh at.
The Contestant covers these shocking events, and speaks to the people involved. It's a film that has to be seen to be believed. The story it tells is one of the most shocking in the modern era, one that shows how terrible the entertainment industry can be. But it's also one that will make you think about the things you watch, will make you question how many reality or documentary shows are actually simply just exploiting people, and how they might be appealing to the worst parts of your own nature. People seem quick to forget others humanity, especially if it benefits them. Tomoaki Hamatsu is one of the best examples of this we have.
Alien: Romulus
I've been a fan of the Alien franchise for as long as I can remember, and watched the second movie when I was way too young. Having grown up loving the franchise I've met the last few decades of Alien movies with hope that has rarely been rewarded. There's good to be found in most of them, but with the very particular direction the last two films have taken it's not necessarily been what I was hoping for. Alien: Romulus, on the other hand, feels much more like the kind of Alien movie I've been waiting for. Set on a Weyland Yutani space station, the film follows a group of downtrodden workers as they enter the station to steal equipment they need in order to escape the cruelty of the company. Instead, they discover a station filled with horrors as they stumble across deadly experiments, and dangerous creatures.
Alien: Romulus takes a big risk by tying itself back to the first movie, literally beginning in the wreckage of the original film's setting and bringing back the first Xenomorph to kick off everything that happens here. But it works. Set between the first and second film, Alien: Romulus feels like a love letter to those films, recreating the look and feel of both of them whilst still being its own creature. The new cast of characters are a great mix, all with their own distinct personalities and reasons to care for them, and the cast do a fantastic job, particularly David Jonsson who might be the best synthetic the franchise has had. There are some things that detracted a little for me, such as the CGI recreation of a certain actor never quite feeling real, and a few call back lines feeling a little forced, but other than that I loved it. I came out of the film wanting more of it, and thinking that it had passed incredibly quickly. I was shocked to learn that it was a two hour film, as it had barely felt more than 90 minutes; and if an Alien film leaves me wanting more that way I have to have loved it.
Arcadian
Post-apocalypse fiction seems to be more popular than ever (wonder if world events might be a part of that somehow), and there are a lot of new stories focusing on the end of the world. Arcadian is Nic Cage's turn to survive the fall of humanity as he takes on the role of a father raising his two sons in the ruins of the old world. After a brief intro that gives us tiny glimpses at this end, we jump forward to when his sons are teens. Joseph (Jaeden Martell) ahs grown into a smart young man who listens to his father, whilst Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) has become something of a rebel, sneaking off to visit his girlfriend. The film introduces you to their lives and this new world before hitting you with the revelation that there are monsters that come out at night, leading to a second half of the movie that turns into a fight for survival against some frankly bizarre creatures.
Arcadian isn't a very long film, sitting at just 90 minutes, and it uses it's time well, balancing the more mundane and human aspects of the post-apocalypse with scenes of horror. I would have liked to have spend more time in this world and with these characters, and would have happily enjoyed a film that was closer to the two hour mark. It's a world that I wanted to know more about, and wished we could have explored more of outside of the quiet countryside where our characters had sought refuge. As it is, this is a well paced movie that doesn't overstay its welcome, leaves you wanting more, and could even kick off a whole new film universe if the creatives behind it wanted to go further; and that's a rare and wonderful thing to find in an age of horror films that don't feel like they're putting a whole lot of effort in.
Thine Ears Shall Bleed
Historical horror is a genre that I really like, but don't often get to see much of (and no, I'm not going to count all of the horror films set in the 80's and 90's). Taking the things that frighten us now, bumps in the night, strange apparitions, and things lurking in the shadows and shifting them to a setting where you can't just flick a switch to turn the lights on, or jump on the phone to call for help can often heighten the terror. Thine Ears Shall Bleed takes viewers back hundreds of years to follow a family as they travel across America on a covered wagon, searching for a new place to set down roots and build their church. When they enter a strange part of the forest that they can't seem to leave, and the father of the family discovers a strange noise that he believes to be the voice of god, it leads the family on a horrifying path.
Thine Ears Shall Bleed has some interesting ideas, it tries some new things, and it doesn't feel beholden to the tropes and conventions of the genre. Much of the movie plays out in the bright daylight, in the beauty of nature, it plays around with time and space and becomes almost dream-like at times, and at times it doesn't even feel like a horror film. There are some fantastic moments where you feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you as you figure out what's really going on, and you become so engrossed in the mystery and the story of the Thatcher family that you want to keep watching. The performances are very strong, particularly from a largely unknown cast. As someone who loves seeing horror stories in less common settings, particularly historical ones, Thine Ears Shall Bleed felt like an absolute treat. In a world of slasher movies and modern day haunted house films it's fantastic to find something that stands out like this, that isn't afraid to try something new and to be bold in its difference. I hope we see more films like this.
Things Will Be Different
Science fiction lets creators play around with a lot of cool ideas, and there's a lot of times when you can kind of just wave your hand away as to why things are happening and just tell a really cool story that other genres would restrict you on. This is the kind of film Things Will Be Different is, and fans of the unusual will definitely be drawn into it. Things Will Be Different sees a brother and sister on the run from the law after robbing a bank, in desperate need of somewhere to lay low. Luckily, one of them has access to a place they'll never be found, a mysterious farmhouse that can access a bubble outside of time. Stepping into this bubble, they find their exit barred by outside forces who are demanding that they perform a task for them before they're released.
Things Will Be Different sits at an hour and forty minutes in length, and the entire movie flew by for me. Considering how much is squeezed into the film I was surprised at how quickly I reached the end. It felt like what I'd seen was barely scratching the surface, and that there was much more that could have been done. I won't go into specifics so as not to ruin the ending, but it becomes clear at a certain point that there is a lot more in this story that we don't see, and that if we were to see everything this would be a multi-season television series instead of a film, and part of me really wanted that. I wish I could have spent more time here, that I could have learned more about this world and its mysteries. Unfortunately, there is only so much a single film can cover, and I'm happy to end craving more. Coming away with a load of questions might not be everyone's favourite kind of film experience, but I'm was more than happy thinking about this film for weeks.
Every year people go missing in the US national parks. No sign, no trace, just gone forever. Lovely,
Dark, and Deep asks the question of what happens to those who vanish, and if there's something more sinister at play. Following a new park ranger in the Arvores National Park, much of the film focuses on the beauty of nature as we follow her journey across the wilderness alone, clearing up after visitors and being ready to help travellers in need. However, when someone vanishes in the park and she manages to find them it sets of a series of events that reveals a world of dark forces and ancient promises that will forever change how she views the world.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is the kind of film that doesn’t hold your hand, it doesn’t spell things out for you, and it leaves you with the opportunity to make your own deductions and decisions. I enjoyed this aspect, and liked figuring things out as it went. And whilst I came away thinking I fully understood the story, the person I was watching it with didn’t quite get everything. As such, this might be a film that leaves some feeling like they need a second watch-through, or may even send them looking for an ‘ending explained’ type article or video. But if you like stories that aren’t just simple by the numbers horrors filled with jump scares and predictable plot, that actually get you thinking and leave you wanting more, this is a movie you’re going to want to try out for yourself.
Dogman
What kind of film is Dogman? Even after sitting with this film for most of the year I'm not sure that I can easily sum it up as it's one of the weirdest, scattershot films I've seen, with multiple wild plots and ideas that could easily support their own movies all mixed into this one oddly engrossing narrative. Starring Caleb Landry-Jones, Dogman follows the life of Douglas, a disabled drag performer who rescues dogs. Oh, and has trained his dogs to perform burglaries for expensive jewels, and gets arrested because his home is found full of bodies of local gangsters. Every time you think you've gotten a handle on the kind of story Dogman is telling something even more bizarre gets added to the mix, leaving you with a story that's hard to describe but you know you had a ton of fun with.
Whilst the film is essentially the story of Doug’s life, which borders on Forrest Gump levels of silly at times, it’s also a Luc Besson movie, and so action is never far away. When the film deals with why Doug’s home is filled with corpses the movie reaches an all new level of fun. His dogs lure people into traps, some are dragged into the wall like they’ve just been grabbed by the Xenomorph, and there are a few shots that elicited vocal reactions from me because they were so well made and so creepy that I began to wonder if the movie had turned into a horror film. Besson puts his action stamp onto Dogman and it’s absolutely wonderful. If you like a film whose main goal is to entertain the audience, and genuinely want to have a great time then Dogman is a film that you’re going to want to watch. Luc Besson has made some beloved films in the past, and Dogman more than has the ability to become one that people talk about in the same way.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
I'm a fan of Tolkien's work, I adore the The Lord of the Rings films, and have been enjoying The Rings of Power each season, so when it was announced that there was going to be an animated movie that tells some of the history of Rohan, and that it was being made by a Japanese anime studio I was incredibly intrigued. Jumping backwards in time to before the events of The Hobbit, The War of the Rohirrim focuses on Rohan, and a conflict that begins when one of the lords disrespects the king, a disrespect that leads to the king accidentally killing the lord in an honour fight. A few years later the lords son returns with an army of Wildmen and mercenaries to wage war on Rohan, a war that will lead to a siege at Helmsdeep, and the story of how the iconic keep gained its name.
The War of the Rohirrim still feels like an odd movie to me. I adore the animation style, but seeing the world of Tolkien presented that way kind of feels like something of a fever dream. It's the kind of thing that I'd have asked for as a teen, an anime Lord of the Rings project, so getting it now two decades later is a shock to my system; one that genuinely delights me. There are times when the animation feels a bit off to me, where characters seem to not match the environments as the camera makes some sweeping moves, but overall it works really well, and has some great action scenes, some fascinating lore moments, and will hopefully lead to more works like this in the future.
The Moor
There are certain places that will always feel a little bit creepy, places where humanity have failed to really make much of a dent thanks to the in hospitability of the land, and where nature still rules. In Britain this is the moors. A desolate, dangerous place, they're creepy enough on their own, but when coupled with murder it makes it all the more spine chilling. The Moor makes great use of this location, and will end up leaving you wary of ever setting foot in the place. The Moor follows a young woman who's friend was the victim of a child abductor and killer decades before, whose body was taken onto the moors but never recovered. Now, at the request of his father, she is trying to bring attention to the search by documenting the effort the grieving father is making to find his missing son's body all those years later. However, she soon learns that there are dark forces on the moors that may be responsible for the deaths of the children.
The Moor is a wonderfully dark and brooding movie, one that isn't afraid to take its time and let tension build. With some fantastic performances and some truly creepy moments, it's the kind of horror that gets under your skin and leaves you wanting more; even if you're not completely sure what you've just seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment