FrightFest '24 ~ day 4

The Last Ashes

Director: Loïc Tanson.

With: Sophie Mousel, Timo Wagner, Jules Werner, Luc Schiltz.

Luxembourg 2023. 120 mins.

 

A revenge Western drama set in 19^th Century Luxembourg opens with the kind of absurdist black-and-white maltreatments that remind of the absurdism/cruelty of, say, ‘The Painted Bird’ or Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel ‘Laprova’. Then fifteen years later in colour and Hélène is back to burn it all down so she can make peace with her trauma and move on. The violence and sadism of misogyny and the patriarchy is the enemy here, and the pleasure is in seeing our defiant protagonist Hélène (an excellent Sophie Mousel) putting in place the pieces of her long-term vengeance. The film takes its time with this, but the consistent tone and engaging and unusual setting is always compelling, always boiling its elements. Often pretty, some nastiness, occasionally shocking and a gratifying finale, fuelled by an outrage at the absurdities and brutality of religious misogyny.

 

The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee

Director: Jon Spira.

With: Peter Serafinowicz, Harriet Walter, Peter Jackson, Joe Dante.

UK 2024. 104 mins

 

The animation that Spira employs to tell the tale of Christopher Lee’s may initially seem a little too cute, but by the end it’s all very moving. Lee’s history is fascinating and surprising long before he played Dracula, a role he seems to have spent the rest of his life trying to shake off, even up to his knighthood (which proves a perfect and hilarious note to end on). Regal, onery and, it would seem, surprisingly insecure. But it’s lovely to think he was having some of the best times of his life right up to his viewing choice with the nurses before he passed away.

 

AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH

Director: E.L. Katz.

With: Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Katariina Unt, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.

USA 2024. 85 mins.

 

Silly, but always entertaining. After “The Rapture”, people give up the “sin of speech” (?), and instead seem to get over communication issues by whistling and meaningful looks. And even its post-apocalypse, you’ll still have the chance at a to-the-death fight to some electropop. And although the monsters seem be only roaring dirt-covered cannibals, there are some good moments of practical effects gore.

 

In comparing with ‘The Last Ashes’, here it is a matriarchy that Samara Weaving wants to burn to the ground, although apparently it is all resolved with a little maternal instinct.

 

Saint Clare

Director: Mitzi Peirone.

With: Bella Thorne, Rebecca De Mornay, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley.

USA 2024. 92 mins.

 

‘Promising Young Woman’ as a High School comedy-drama, but missing the devastating sadness and intelligence of that film. Bella Thorne is memorable and well up to the task of trying to negotiate a general inconsistency of tone, but there’s a shallowness under the kitchen sink that’s thrown in (for example, the religious gestures the film makes aren’t explored). It’s a decent if superficial horror entertainment.

 

Invader

Director: Mickey Keating.

With: Vero Maynez, Colin Huerta, Ruby Vallejo.

USA 2024. 70 mins.

 

Shamefully, I had it in my head that ‘Strange Darling’ was directed by Keating and I was writing and saying how surprisingly different it was to what I knew of his work, although the Cool Retro vibe of ‘Strange Darling’ film was something I could see carrying over from Keating’s ‘Psychopath’. Anyway, after I had confessed and corrected my error (and put it down to sometimes just being stupid and getting carried away), ‘Invader’ was very different after all: rather than the stylisation and staginess, ‘Invader’ shouted a smash-and-grab intent. It’s a slender, brash and often intense home invasion tale told in hand-held fashion that – in their stage introduction – Keating and editor Valerie Krulfeifer warned we may have to look away and take a break from at times. And yes, sometimes the shaky-cam is confusing – blocking doesn’t seem to be a thing – but it is obviously deliberate rather than artless. Keating talked of trends in the nineties for films about Americans going abroad and getting fucked up, and how he wanted to invert that (and just stopped short of saying outright “Why do people want to come to Chicago?” Keating and Krulfeifer were light and breezy, likable and funny). And it’s true that the America presented here is litter-strewn, unfriendly, threatening and ultimately homicidal in a weirdo get-up. ‘Invader’ is a short but loud burst of social anxiety with no room for relief.

 

 

Babylon

 

Babylon

Writer & Director – Damien Chazelle

2022, US

Stars – Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart

 

A “Look At Me!” film from the very start, but less obnoxious than Luhrmann and not quite as Music Video as Snyder. Bookended by a deliberate showiness at the beginning and a delusion of meaning at the end, there’s still a lot to like here. It would seem that those involved think of ‘Babylon’ as an important statement on cinema and the era it evokes – indeed, the title doesn’t suggest modesty – but the drama and flashiness aren’t original, just entertaining. It’s all the tropes in their best dress. Brad Pitt is initially in shit-eating-grin mode and Margot Robbie is one of those intolerable “troubled free spirit” whirlwind girls, but when the film settles and stops only showing off and the actors add nuance, they get to do sterling work. After all, these are great actors. Robbie’s bar-top dancing debut and her first foray into the talkies are great set pieces. But it’s Diego Calva that does the work that grounds the drama; you can see and care for the development of character in him most of all, from wide-eyed set flunky to someone who can manipulate even himself and his genuine niceness when his newfound career demands it.

 

There’s a hint of what ‘Blonde’ was on about, exploiting and devouring its own; impressive old-style hundreds of extras in the background; a horror diversion into a dungeon of freaks that proves again that the film is just running on tropes, however amusingly. And there is a Tobey Maguire in a maximum scary cameo. Even Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a time in Hollywood’ touches base with the reality of behind-the-scenes more credibly. The grit and destruction here is the Hollywood Dream kind.

 

 

So we end up with a montage namechecking films that broke technical moulds. It’s both an audacious and laughable montage, proclaiming a film student level of insight and emotional resonance. You may snort, “Really?” Critic Robbie Collins gives a most generous reading that Manny’s tears and smile are those of defeat and acceptance at a system that chews’em up and spits’em out; but that’s perhaps allowing it more than surface depth (it certainly didn’t strike me that way). For me, the most poignant scene, the one that made me think I was being told something real, is the moment where the black performer Sidney (Jovan Adepo) is persuaded to apply black face to be as dark as his band mates for the camera.

 

Otherwise, I was left wondering what I was meant to feel nostalgia for? A party that is half orgy? Reckless and dangerous film sets with no safety rules and rampant exploitation? Characters that are lushes and addicts and privileged bores at best and moral vacuums at worst? Decadence as the ultimate goal? It’s a charmless world, however hedonism is celebrated. Despite the many great scenes and moments, despite the cast doing solid work, despite always being entertaining and lush, the film’s nostalgia for a romanticised film era – one the Chazelle is too young to have experienced – ultimately seems muddled and false. It’s no way as genuinely troubling as his ‘Whiplash’ existentialism, asking, “What does it take to be an artist?”  

 

Entertaining but unconvincing.