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Willow Creek (2013)

26/05/2017 · by Joy

I will be the first to admit it: I love found footage. Well. I mean. I love found footage that’s done well. Well, I love found footage that’s done at least decently (or better). The Blair Witch Project, the Paranormal Activity series, [REC], Trolljegeren, Cloverfield, The V/H/S series… need I go on?

Willow Creek follows two main characters, boyfriend & girlfriend, Jim and Kelly, as they drive down to Willow Creek, California, to hunt for Bigfoot in Bigfoot country itself. Jim very much believes in the Bigfoot, but Kelly is a skeptic, so of course, one of them has to be wrong (spoiler alert: It’s Kelly).

Willow Creek did a great job of showing little and creating a ton of suspense and tension. There is a scene that has to be around 20 minutes long with no cuts where both characters are literally just sitting in their tent in the dark with only the camera’s light and each other for comfort, listening to the sounds happening around them. After a lot of build-up, tree-knocking, and whooping, everything reaches a climax very rapidly, and to be honest, I love the pacing of this movie. It’s a slow-burn, but it’s a slow-burn that was done really well and it’s not SO slow that you get bored in the middle. I read a review by Scott Weinberg, I believe, that said it’s the best Bigfoot film out there, and I’d have to agree, although truthfully, I haven’t seen any other Bigfoot films… ever.

After the film was over (I watched it for my second viewing experience with my boyfriend, David, and my dad while we visited him in his hometown which is a pretty… woodsy area, so we were a little bit freaked out), we ended up Youtube-ing Bigfoot sightings and finding this gem which I now feel I need to share with everyone I know… so with that, watch Willow Creek and enjoy:

Chevalier (2015)

30/04/2017 · by Joy

There are many things I don’t do in movie theatres, because it’s rude, because I hate it when people around me do it, because I think films should get your full attention (especially if you’ve paid to come and have a theatre experience in its honour). Things like using my phone in a theatre, talking to the person beside me, kicking the seat(s) in front of me… or leaving the theatre before the film has ended (other than to go to the washroom, of course). Today, I broke one of my own unwritten rules of the theatre. I stood up at about the halfway point in a film and I left. For reference, I’ve sat through some pretty abysmal films – my friend Paula reminded me that we sat through the entirety of Magic Mike when it was released in 2012 which I thought was about as poor as this film was… which is funny because they have very similar RottenTomatoes ratings (they’re both rated fresh, if you can believe it).

I can’t understate how excited I was to see Chevalier… honestly, this was the film I wanted to see – if I only saw one, this was going to be it, and I think that made it all the more disappointing. The trailer depicted this film as a hilarious movie about 6 men who are stuck on a boat and competing in the most ridiculous contests to determine who is the “Best in General” – contests where points are awarded and deducted pretty arbitrarily for things like sucking in one’s stomach? For tanning one’s legs? Vomiting? Who caught the biggest fish? I don’t know, it seemed like a comedy about men and their tendency to go overboard to ‘prove their worth,’ so to speak. That is not what I got. I don’t care what anyone says, the trailer is strictly false advertising.

Of course, I can’t comment on the end of the film. Maybe it all gets tied together, maybe the pay-off is great? I don’t know. BUT I sincerely doubt that any pay-off could be worth the suffering I endured for the first hour of the film. I was bored out of my mind. I fell asleep for little moments probably about four times. I squirmed in my seat, and not out of claustrophobia or a sense of being unsettled, out of boredom. I was in awe… of how bored I was. The cinematography was… wow. They didn’t know when to cut. We don’t need to see a panning shot of the entire boat that we’ve seen 8,000 times already. We don’t need to see the entirety of a boat making a turnaround, we get the point already! Nothing was funny. Not one character was likeable. The acting was okay at best. If you’re going to make a movie about 6 men having a pissing contest on a boat, you have to make the characters have some sort of relationship, a sort of camaraderie, with each other. I’m not sure how these men knew each other, were related, how they ended up on a boat together. I’m not sure why they were there. Were they working? Were they on a cruise? Vacation? I DON’T KNOW. Nothing was explained.

There was conflict, but I don’t know why or why it matters.

This is a film that I would choose to skip. I would like to go back in time and choose a different film. Needless to say, I am unimpressed.

Burn Your Maps (2016)

30/04/2017 · by Joy

Alas, another Sunday spent at the local Cineplex theatre. Today, we had planned once again to see three films, but unfortunately, being hard-working young people who work full-time, we have so many things to do around the house to prepare for the upcoming week, we’ve had to cut it down to two again! Our first film of the day started promptly at 12:00: Burn Your Maps. Directed by Jordan Roberts (who also did the screenplay for the animated film Big Hero 6) and starring the effervescent Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring, Bates Motel) and the incredibly talented Jacob Tremblay (Room), it 110% blew. me. away.

Going in, I was expecting to either be thrilled with the result or absolutely appalled and I’m glad to say it was the former, all the way. My boyfriend was on the fence about seeing it at all, but I’m so glad I was able to convince him (because obviously I can’t go to a screening ALONE, what do you think I am…) because this is probably one of my top 3 movies of 2016 (and possibly of all-time, but I could just be writing the “Fantastic Movie” wave with that one… only time will tell).

Burn Your Maps tells the story of a 9-year-old boy formerly named Wes, but who has now chosen a Mongolian name that I can’t remember and can’t find anywhere within the depths of the Internet. Wes, who is grieving alongside his entire family for his baby sister who passed away 10 months prior, has decided that America is not where he belongs – America is not his home. Rather, he belongs in Mongolia herding goats. It sounds super-ridiculous, that I will agree with you on, but man… it was a fantastic film. It was just the right amount of weird with a perfect balance between ‘hilarious’ and ‘heartbreaking.’ Tremblay is one of my favourite up and coming actors and BY FAR my favourite child actor… he is fantastic and this film proves that Room was no one-off, he really is that talented. He makes the film alongside his understanding and ever-supportive mother, played by Vera Farmiga. I love Farmiga in everything I’ve seen her in and this was truly no exception. I really want to say that she is the perfect actress (and also, maybe kinda sorta my spirit animal). I love her.

The whole cast is fantastic, including Marton Csokas, who plays the stern father of Wes who is struggling to keep himself together and feeling ripped apart by grief in silence. I’ve seen a review or two now that say his acting is wooden and stiff, but I honestly take that as just part of his character. If it’s an acting flaw, it fits. Suraj Sharma plays Farmiga’s ESL student from India who strikes a bond with Wes through their shared sense of displacement where they’re “supposed” to belong.

Burn Your Maps is an extremely well-written, well-acted, well-directed piece of film. It’s a film that allows you to lose your sense of time, it was so well-paced. A shining beacon of light that I wished I’d have seen AFTER I saw the next film, but that’s another story for the next review…

En man som heter Ove / A Man Called Ove (2016)

23/04/2017 · by Joy

It makes me so sad how often people write off a film because it’s foreign and/or because it’s subtitled. Some of the best films I’ve seen have been subtitled and after a while, you get so used to watching movies with subtitles that you start watching English movies with subtitles… and here I am. Doing that frequently.

Anyway, my second movie of the NOFSA Film Festival was A Man Called Ove. Ove is pronounced oh-vay, by the way. I learned this pretty much instantly. It is not pronounced oh-vvvv as I was under the impression previously (I am ashamed, I am uncultured swine). We got stuck at the front because apparently a lot more people wanted to see A Man Called Ove than had wanted to see Hello, Destroyer, which is not surprising since Ove was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at this past Oscars ceremony! It unfortunately lost to The Salesman, which I’m going to see next Sunday (maybe I’ll get there a bit earlier this time, though).

I was far more impressed with Ove than I was with Destroyer! I almost want to watch it again, it was that good. Ove is a grouchy, yet oddly loveable old Swedish man and while you should hate him in the first 10 minutes of the film for his stringent application of the rules and regulations of his neighbourhood and the way he calls small dogs “winter boots,” you just can’t. From the get-go, he’s endearing in his grouchiness. Throughout the course of the film, you learn Ove’s entire life story bit by bit as he: befriends his new neighbours, Parvaneh, Patrick and their two daughters; fights for his old friend, Rune; mourns his wife, Sonja; and finally, adopts a stray (seemingly purebred Ragdoll) cat.

When we first meet Ove, he’s trying to commit suicide and join his wife in the afterlife, however, it turns out to be relatively difficult since there are so many DARN interruptions going on around him. Each time he tries a new method, continually only to look out the window and notice someone breaking the rules or to have someone knock on his door, which sounds like a gimmicky attempt at getting cheap laughs, but it works. It really, really works.

By the end of the film, I was so attached to so many of these characters that are so quirky in their own ways. The movie spent a lot of time making sure you got to know each character well. I mean, I had questions about certain motivations, but they were flaws I was willing and able to let go because in the grand scheme of the film, they didn’t matter that much. What mattered was Ove, and his character, and his friendships, and his rounds.

A Man Called Ove was touching and heartwarming without going overboard and being too sentimental or sappy. It was really well done and you can definitely colour me impressed!

Hello, Destroyer (2016)

23/04/2017 · by Joy

There is a film festival happening in my hometown currently, being put on by the North of Superior Film Association and I purchased a 6-pack of tickets to go see some movies! Unfortunately, I found that they’re all very close together in times and some overlap, so it’s impossible to go see them all… but nonetheless, my first watch of the festival was this film: Hello, Destroyer.

Hello, Destroyer is directed and written by Kevan Funk, who has previously written and directed numerous shorts, but no feature films. It is sort of, but not really, but also kind of, building upon his previous short entitled Destroyer. Going in, I knew next to nothing about the film – I knew the plot synopsis and that was it. “A young hockey player deals with the consequences of hockey violence after he critically injures another player during a game.” So naturally, I think hockey = action = bustling film that doesn’t stop! Boy, was I wrong.

For the first half-hour or so, I was pretty into it. I cared about the characters, I was interested in the story, I wanted to know what would happen in the coming moments. I did notice right from the get-go that there were a lot of silent moments with nothing happening. Not just like, they idled a tiny bit too long to keep you on edge and feeling uncomfortable. Like, they had scenes that were just the main character, Tyson, staring at something and not emoting, not doing anything, for a solid 1-2 minutes at a time. They had shots of walls. Not only were the cinematography choices strange and unsettling, they made the movie feel like it was at least an hour too long. You could tell that the director had more experience with short films and that’s the format he was used to, because the story and the ambling plot felt like it was more suited to being a short film.

I was straight up bored. I felt, in those hanging moments, like this was wasted screen time. They could be showing us something, but instead there seemed to be nothing to show so they filled up those moments with… nothing. Filler. I was reading up on the reviews of this film afterwards and learned of things that were supposed to be metaphors, but I didn’t catch that and I didn’t think they were very clever or strong or compelling after learning that they were there, either.

All-in-all, Hello, Destroyer felt like a film that bit off more than it could chew. It felt like it was trying to be something a lot bigger than it was and that was it’s eventual downfall. It wasn’t a horrible movie by any means… I just felt that it lacked spirit and it could have been a lot more, especially had they given it’s lead, Jared Abrahamson, more to work with.

I wanted to see Studio Ghibli’s The Red Turtle, but we were hungry and there was only a half hour delay between this film and the next, so we opted to skip it for now. Tonight, we are going to see A Man Called Ove, which I’m really excited for!

Patriots Day (2016)

19/04/2017 · by Joy

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about America, it’s that they love to make movies about America. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just see a pattern. Regarding Patriots Day, all I’d heard was rave reviews from all around, so naturally, I was more than excited to see it. I actually purchased it on Bluray before seeing it for the first time… because I like to take risks like that. To say that I’m unhappy I did would be a lie as I very much enjoyed it.

I actually really like Mark Wahlberg in this film, where I normally am not a huge fan. I don’t think I’ve seen a movie and been left thinking, “Wow, you go Mark Wahlberg!” since… Four Brothers in 2005. I wasn’t necessarily in awe of his performance this time around, but he played his role convincingly enough that I wasn’t taken out of the story by the fact that they used a big-name actor, and that’s something.

Patriots Day really managed to take a story that I, for one, was already pretty familiar with, including the ending, and make it something suspenseful and keep me on my toes. That’s a feat that I think is difficult to accomplish when you’re taking a true (and widely televised) event and making it into a dramatic film. Even though I knew the final outcome, I’m glad it kept the tension coming.

My boyfriend’s first thoughts upon starting the film were, “oh, I hope they don’t spend too much time leading up to the actual bombing,” and his wish was granted! They cut to the chase, but still managed to make it effectively jarring and uncomfortable. They didn’t go overboard with gore, they didn’t make it more or less than it actually was… it was done very well.

The only real complaint with this film, and it’s a semi-large one, was that I didn’t really feel any emotional ties to the characters. I wasn’t particularly attached to Wahlberg’s character, Sergeant Tommy Saunders, and, while obviously I had sympathy for them, I just wasn’t drawn to them the way I usually am. It’s not a difficult thing to get me to be attached to a fictional character either, so I’m not sure if it was maybe a writing flaw or a directorial flaw, or maybe even Wahlberg’s portrayal. I just didn’t feel it!

Patriots Day did, however, succeed in giving more context to a documentary I watched a while ago entitled, The Thread (it’s on Netflix) about the Reddit thread which was basically a mass gathering of vigilante manhunters trying to find out who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013. While I’d give Patriots Day a solid 75%, I think I’d almost prefer The Thread.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

18/04/2017 · by Joy

After hearing nothing but good things about The Autopsy of Jane Doe, my interest was pretty well piqued and I couldn’t resist anymore. I had to watch it. So I rented it digitally on the Google Play store and settled in to enjoy a movie that has been hailed on RottenTomatoes as “nearly flawless” and “chilling,” expecting what everyone’s been describing. I don’t know if I was watching a different film or… maybe I saw, like, the director’s cut or something? I don’t know. I really don’t know. But it was anything but chilling and definitely no masterpiece.

They had a really good premise – a woman is found in a basement of a house where a horrific crime has taken place, buried in the dirt (but surprisingly unsoiled and sans decomposition, like at all). Everyone else in the house is covered in blood and viscera and this woman is there, dead, in the dirt in pristine condition. So what do they do? Take her to the local funeral home where a man and his son perform autopsies for the Sheriff’s office. Everything is going fine until they start to uncover disturbing findings and supernatural happenings are about, including, of course, the death of their cat, Stanley. Let me tell you, the whole “killing the family pet because they don’t want to kill a main character but we need to do something that will unsettle and disturb you” thing is getting reaaaaaaaally old. It doesn’t make me scared, it just makes me feel less sympathy for the owners of these pets because, you know, they leave them outside overnight or they let them wander or something stupid like that. Poor Stanley… we hardly knew ye.

Anywho. I found nearly all of the characters in this film dull and incessantly annoying, especially the son played by Emile Hirsch. Every 2 seconds, he had a question for which the answer was entirely too obvious. This kid has no critical thinking skills, whatsoever. I swear to god, at one point I was like, if he says, “Is that what killed her?” ONE MORE TIME, I will throw the remote at the TV. The father, the actual coroner, was slightly more clued in, but only slightly. These two together, underground, in a coroner’s office that is truly not up to code (I mean, come on, it has one entrance that is a cellar door and an elevator, that’s just ridiculous!)

The reason behind the “haunting” is silly. The acting was poor except for the body of Jane Doe because she literally just laid there and did a damn fine job of it. The effects were super-cool, but that’s really all that kept me going. I didn’t want to keep watching because it just seemed to get dumber and dumber and I felt myself losing IQ points watching this father-son duo bumble around, not entirely sure what they’re supposed to be doing. I was truly disappointed and having read numerous positive reviews for the film, I don’t see what they’re seeing. It was average and lackluster at its best moments and horrendous at its worst moments. I think I’ll pass on owning this one on Bluray, that’s for sure.

Suicide Squad (2016)

15/04/2017 · by Joy

I wouldn’t say I’m a mega-fan of superheroes or supervillains (except maybe for Deadpool because come on… it’s Deadpool!), but I’ve seen quite a few superhero films in my day. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of Suicide Squad from the get-go. It’s sitting at 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and a slightly more encouraging 6.3 on IMDb (although, I put almost zero stock into IMDb these days because it just never aligns with my personal ratings) and with, like, 13 “main” characters, I was expecting a busy, cluttered, overstimulating mess. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I got.

The things I did enjoy were few and far between. I really liked the casting choice of Will Smith as Deadshot, but that could just be because it’s Will Smith and the man can act. I also enjoyed Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. She just… fit. She was the perfect balance of psychotic and funny. Jared Leto as The Joker, however, was the opposite. Too much crazy, not enough jokes. I was pretty on the fence about Jay Hernandez as El Diablo… I liked his casting, but I don’t think he got enough character development. It’s not surprising though, because how are you supposed to cram THAT MUCH character development, plus a story, into 2 hours of film?

I really feel like that was the movie’s biggest flaw. They crammed TOO MANY characters into it. They could have easily done away with Slipknot (who had like, what, 10 seconds of screen time before getting downed?), Killer Croc (which is a damn shame because Croc is one of the best and most frightening Batman villains, in my opinion), Katana, and probably even Captain Boomerang, and been perfectly fine. It would barely have changed the storyline at all. When you think about it, they made a movie for a good number of the Avengers before putting them together into one collective film – Iron Man got numerous films, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor/Loki. Maybe they didn’t all get independent films first, but they introduced big players beforehand. If they had started out by making a Harley/Joker film, a Deadshot film, a Killer Croc film… anything… it would have given them fewer introductions to make to an audience that you have to assume knows little to nothing about each villain’s backstory. But instead, they took this route, and tried to do it all in one. It didn’t work out well for them.

At first, I was impressed with Cara Delevingne, who played June Moone/Enchantress, but after a while, the weird swaying thing she did with her body and the crying (which is apparently the only thing that June actually does as a person) just got old. She wasn’t a particularly well-developed villainess. Okay, she’s evil, okay, she’s mad, okay, she really likes her brother. Not entirely sure what the motivator behind her ending the world is, especially since she keeps talking about “ruling the Earth” – okay, cool lady, but you want to destroy the Earth to ensure that you’ll have… nothing to rule? I don’t know. Seems like absolutely no thought went into Enchantress’ actual reasons for being and reasons for being the way she is.

For that matter, why is Amanda Waller even putting together this “Task Force X”? She literally made this task force for some reason, then one of her subjects turned on her and she’s using the remainder of the task force to fight the rogue member of her task force. What?! If you needed a special task force to fight something, would you reaaaallly choose Harley Quinn anyway? She has no real “powers” per se, she just uses a bat to hit people with. Also, she’s crazy and pretty unpredictable. I think if I were preparing a task force, I’d pick reliable and relatively mentally stable people like maybe soldiers or something. I can KIND OF see why you’d pick Deadshot – man who can shoot guns really well… might come in handy. And Killer Croc is pretty bad-ass. But El Diablo? He’s literally sworn not to use his powers anymore. Katana? No real powers except, ooooh, her sword steals souls. How is that going to help, though?? And dear GOD, where was Batman? Where was Superman? Where was The Flash, who was literally in the film for a split second (I see you, Ezra Miller!)???

At all times during the movie, I felt like there was just too much going on. It was messy, it was noisy, it was cacophonous. I didn’t enjoy it. I mean, I’m not going to sit here and say it ranks down with Green Lantern or anything, but it was bad. It was not a good film. That I can say with confidence. What a letdown.

Imperium (2016)

28/03/2017 · by Joy

I think I can officially say I’m a Daniel Radcliffe fan. Just in the last, what?, 3-6 months, I have watched and loved the entire Harry Potter series, Swiss Army Man, and now, Imperium. He’s a phenomenal actor that has fit all three of his roles in these films to a tee. I feel that we’ll see more and more of his versatility as he stars in more varied films.

Imperium was something I was intrigued by from the get-go because I was thinking it would be something akin to American History X (you know, with Edward Norton) and I mean, I wasn’t completely wrong, but I wasn’t completely right, either. It was tense from the first minute to the final climax. It built the perfect amount of suspense and kept me on my toes precisely when it needed to. I wasn’t expecting to see Toni Collette in a role like this, but lo and behold, I did – and am I ever glad I did! She was really great. I am a fan of hers from the TV series, The United States of Tara (she plays a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder, you should check it out if you haven’t before)!

I don’t want to say that Imperium doesn’t quite… measure upt to the aforementioned American History X, but I will say it didn’t carry the same weight. I don’t think it’ll be regarded as a cult classic the way that AHX is and has been. It’s currently sitting at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think that’s an accurate approval rating, if not a little bit generous. If I had to rate it numerically, I’d give it at least a 75% based on Radcliffe’s performance alone.

I’m looking forward to more performances like this one from Daniel Radcliffe in the future!

Edge of Seventeen (2016)

21/03/2017 · by Joy

I’ve always been pretty intrigued by films about high school. I don’t know what that’s about seeing as I’m a full-fledged adult now (yeah… yeah, that’s what I am). Also, I’m a fan of Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit remake, anyone?) I love the way she says everything so, like, deadpan. It’s great. Just great.

I’m not too sure what struck a chord with me about this particular coming-of-age dram-com. I think it was the fact that more than it was a teen comedy, it was a comedy about a teen, who is so unlikeable to begin with that she’s likeable.

I really enjoyed pretty much every performance in Edge of Seventeen and, setting Hailee Steinfeld’s aside, Woody Harrelson’s was particularly notable. He is always enjoyable, but I find his role as strange, supportive mentor to be one of my favourites (hello, Haymitch!) The story was enough to sustain the film and I was actually pretty sad when it ended – I wanted more.

I just loved watching Nadine go from selfish, narcissistic teen dramatician (that’s a word I just made up, don’t Google it) into a slightly less selfish, slightly less narcissistic teen dramatician. It was an enjoyable ride. Maybe it wasn’t Oscar-worthy material, but it was fun and it was good!

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