Reviews
White Coffin
For the last of my New York City Horror Film Festival posts for 2016, I wanted to discuss three of the feature films from the line-up. The festival offered something for every kind of film fan. Not every film worked for me, but the variety impressive and well-curated. I would definitely return next year to see what else they choose to showcase. And now onto the films…
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Under the Apple Tree
The New York City Horror Festival has come to an end and I’m pleased to say it was a great deal of fun to attend for the first time. One of my favorite parts was the showing of shorts before each feature film. All of the shorts were impressive, but I want to focus on the three stand-outs that really made an impression on me.
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On the eve of taking her vows, young nun Colleen (Addison Timlin) returns to her childhood home in Asheville, NC, to reconnect with her family, with whom she has not spoken in three years. She’s drawn back when her brother Jacob (Keith Poulson) is released from the hospital after suffering disfiguring injuries in the Iraq War. Now a recluse, he hides away in the family’s guesthouse, distancing himself everyone, including his loving fiancee Tricia (Kristin Slaysman). Their mother Joani (Ally Sheedy), whose suicide attempt provided the impetus for Colleen’s initial departure, claims to recovered, but relies on self-medicating in order to get by. The family patriarch Bill (Peter Hedges) is kind but aloof, seemingly unaffected by everything that’s going on around him. Perhaps the only comfort Colleen finds is her old bedroom, untouched since she left, in all of it’s black-paint and goth glory. Welcome to Little Sister, the new film written and directed by Zach Clark.
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Challenging films often pay off in ways that you can expect. You go into a film thinking that the subject matter will be titillating, even shocking, and you walk out with a sense of relief in knowing that you got exactly what you bargained for. That is not the case with Elle.
The new film from controversial filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven, is an adaptation of Philippe Djian’s French novel, Oh, and stars the inimitable Isabelle Huppert.
The story follows a successful entrepreneur, Michèle, who is attacked and violently raped in her home by a masked man. It is a film about identity, violence, body possession, and personal responsibility, and it’s a fucking doozy.
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The Lure
We wish we could do a full review for every film we watched, but there just isn’t enough time. But we also did not want to miss the opportunity to address the many films we watched and appreciated.
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When you go to Fantastic Fest you expect to see a few films that surprise you. You’re never disappointed, but there are always those two, three, even five movies that you just can’t stop thinking and talking about after you leave. They capture the stories that you kind of fall in love with. This year, one of those films was Colossal.
The setup for Colossal isn’t necessarily simple, but here it goes. Gloria (Anne Hathaway) tries to deal with her alcoholism by going back to her hometown. Once there, she reconnects with her childhood friend, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). They quickly indulge each others bad habits and become drinking buddies. After a particularly heavy couple of nights, the two learn that they could in fact be connected to the monsters suddenly appearing and destroying Seoul, Korea.
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The Void is a superbly surreal nightmare of a horror film the writer/director team Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski. Haunting from the first moments–a couple fleeing from a sinister house with gun-toting pursuers–the film never relents and never goes where you could ever expect. The approach is very much, throw it all against the wall and see if it sticks. And, almost miraculously, IT ALL STICKS.
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Fashionista is a hypnotic exploration of identity and transformation written and directed by Simon Rumley. The narrative focuses on vintage clothing shop owners April (Amanda Fuller) and Eric (Ethan Embry), whose marriage is tested when April begins to suspect her husband of having an affair. After her suspicions are proven, their lives fall apart. April, seeking validation, attracts the attention of the wealthy, brooding Randall (Eric Balfour).
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I’m just going to come out and say it right away: The Arrival is one of those movies that make me remember why I love going to the movies. That’s been said before about a lot of movies, each time valid for the writer. But these types of movies don’t come around very often, especially ones so firmly steeped in genre.
The basic setup is that mysterious aliens have come to earth and humanity must discover what they want from us. Is it war, friendship, or something more sinister? Beyond this premise, at the heart of the film is Louise (Amy Adams), a linguist that’s tapped by the US Military to break the barrier of communication with them.
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12-year old Luke (Levi Miller) is in love with his babysitter, Ashley (Oliva DeJonge). He holds out hope they can overcome the 5-year age gap between them, but time is running out because she’s set to move away in a few days. When his parents (played by Virginia Madsen and Patrick Warburton) hire her to watch him one last time on a snowy December night, Luke knows it’s now or never. He has it all planned out, until they find themselves threatened by a home invasion.
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