Gimme Danger is by no means a groundbreaking documentary. It’s by-the-book filmmaking, full of talking heads and archival footage, and very much reminiscent of the punk rock films of Don Letts. The Letts comment, of course, is not a negative at all. Don Letts is a great person to emulate when searching for cinematic punk rock aesthetics.
Readers from last year may have remembered my disdain for the Canadian short films featured at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. This year, out of a wide array of great shorts preceding each feature, the programming won me back.
The Lure (DIR. Agnieszka Smoczynska) Often, a film that has a convoluted plot is trying to hide the fact that it has nothing else going for it. Thus, it is absolutely understandable if someone were to question whether or not to see a Polish horror-musical about a pair of human-eating mermaid sisters who work in a cabaret show, partially based on the original Hans Christian Andersen version of “The Little Mermaid”. Thankfully, Agnieszka Smoczynska’s The Lure is…
Antibirth (DIR. Danny Perez) Antibirth is the feature film debut of Danny Perez, someone who has – until now – worked exclusively in music videos, and it shows. The film has a chaotic punk rock aesthetic and beautiful imagery, but not much else going for it. Just like a music video, Antibirth is all about getting from one image to the next, only this time with several minutes of dead air between each visual. The film follows Lou (Natasha…
As the Gods Will (DIR. Takashi Miike) Takashi Miike has two modes of filmmaking: a deadly serious style that’s evident in films like Audition, and a goofy, over-the-top style visible in films like Ichi the Killer. In As the Gods Will, it takes the viewer mere minutes to figure out which category Miike’s latest falls into (for me, it was the moment when a student gets decapitated and bleeds red marbles).
Shorts After Dark – a program of carefully selected international short films – returned to the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on Saturday, October 15. In the past, these shorts usually run the gamut of subgenres, as well as the gamut of quality, with the spectrum ranging from brilliance to downright horrendous. This year’s selection was solid. Even in comparison to past showcases, this year’s worst short was still better than former duds that have made the cut.
Blood Father (DIR. Jean-François Richet) Mel Gibson was once one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Now, he is staging a comeback which includes a few directorial efforts. Preceding those is his starring role in Jean-Francois Richet’s Blood Father, a film which could be cynically viewed as an attempt to get Gibson back on the public’s radar and nothing more, if only it was not so entertaining and memorable.
Train to Busan (DIR. Yeon Sang-ho) Sometimes, a film fails at everything – an abject failure. Sometimes, a film fails at the majority of its goals while succeeding in some, earning a designation of mediocrity. Then, there are the rare cases of films failing in a majority of ways with a few successes, wherein those successes manage to outshine the failure. Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan fits into that final example, a film that comes…
Christine Chubbuck was a woman who managed to do what no one else could – shock America. In 1974, in the midst of countless political assassinations, mass murders and serial killings, it would take a truly jarring event to shake the American public, which turned out to be a suicide on live television; “the latest in blood and guts, in living colour”. Chubbuck’s suicide has been an object of morbid curiosity since and it has…
Sometimes, it becomes difficult to separate an artist’s work from their personality; sometimes, this is because the artist has done something horrible and unforgivable. Director, writer and leading actor Nate Parker is one of those people: this is not the space to get into his actions, but I would recommend all uninformed readers to do their research before deciding if they wish to give him their money. With that out of the way, it became…