Favourite last lines

Watching Sarah Colangelo's 'The Kindergarten Teacher' recently provided me with one of those closing lines that seems to me a perfect full stop, one that reflects on the meaning of the whole thing, the past and future of the characters. 

It's not quite the same as "Favourite Last Scenes", but it's in the same tombola.

It made me compile a small list where the last thing that is said - in the case of 'Winter Light', it's a sermon - just puts elevates the film to the next level. If I thought on it more, I am sure I would fill out the list to a round number, but these ones are just off the top of my head. But no, I am not going to quote them here for risk of ruining the effect if you haven't seen. All, in their own way, are devastating.

1.     'The Kindergarten Teacher' 
- Sarah Colangelo, 2018
2.      'Killing Them Softly'  
... which comes across as a declaration of war. - Andrew Domini, 2012
3.      'Brighton Rock'  
...or rather, what is prevented from being said. - John Boulting, 1948
4.      'In A Lonely Place' 
- Nicholas Ray, 1950
5.      'Winter Light' - 'Nattvardsgästerna'
- Ingmar Bergman, 1963
6.      'The Killers' 
- Don Siegal,1964 

FrightFest 2019 - Final Notes

This is all to do with the Main Screen films.

It was FrightFest 2012 that seemed defined by a lot of rape, from the opening film ‘The Seasoning House’ onwards, earning it an apparent nickname “RapeFest”. I remember the time we got to Jennifer Lynch’s ‘Chained’ on the last day (it’s good), I was thinking “If I have to see another woman dragged screaming across the floor…”

But 2019 seemed to me to have come a long, long way, a corrective. All the time, there were female-centred films where the fact they were capable and resilient didn’t seem to come with overcompensation or that macho kick-ass one-liner attitude; there was no compromise to their vulnerability. In a run of films with exemplary performances, even those that didn’t require so much were given nuance and far more than they needed by the female leads: I’m thinking of Kaya Scodelario in ‘Crawl’, and Samara Eaving in ‘Ready or Not’, and Hayley Griffth in ‘Satanic Panic’. There was less exploitational nudity and, in fact, probably equal male nudity. I overheard a woman laughing that she had “seen enough penii this festival.” Was this truly what equality in the genre looked like? It was refreshing because it offered several tough-nut female protagonists without all that macho-posturing and one-liners. I mean, you’re always going to have that, but I didn’t find myself rolling my eyes due to it much this festival. Well, aside from ‘Nekrotronic’. I mean, you couldn’t take ‘Bullets for Justice’ seriously and even that was balanced with male nudity and a homoerotic fascination with one guy’s arse. There just seemed added texture with all this attention to women as people. Even a majority of the male roles seemed to come from a place of enlightenment: for example, I was even taken with Alex Essoe in ‘Drone’ denying a typical jock role it’s usual asshole spin.

FrightFest Favourites 2019:

• Come to Daddy
• Bliss
• Daniel Isn’t Real
• The Black String
• The Drone
• Why Don’t You Just Die!

Yep, those ones that were mostly ambiguous and using horror tropes to investigate damaged psychology are certainly my preference. And ‘The Drone’ because it was so much fun to watch with a genre-savvy audience. A drone flying around a house being all sinister proved hilarious. 'Come to Daddy' because it feinted this way and that and was highly entertaining when perhaps you thought you had it pegged. 'Why Don't You Just Die!' was my preference for all the "rollercoasters" on offer.

There were so many good performances that we were spoilt.

• Dora Madison (‘Bliss’)
• Frank Muniz (‘The Black String’)
• Sarah Bolger (‘A Good Woman is Hard to Find’)
• Elijah Wood (‘Come to Daddy’)
• Stephen McHattie (‘Come to Daddy’)
• Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (‘Spiral’)
• Sasha Lane (‘Daniel Isn’t Real’)

But that wasn’t all. Caitlin Stasey & Thora Birch & Macon Blair in ‘Kindred Spirits’. Samara Weaving ‘Ready or Not’ just getting down to it without being a superwoman. Hayley Griffith totally selling her fuzzy-bunny pizza girl as Rebecca Romjin thoroughly delighted in her ‘Dynasty’-style witch in ‘Satanic Panic’. Richard Brake in ‘Feedback’. Alexsandr Kuznetsov and Vitaly Khaev in ‘Why Don’t You Just Die!’. Hell, the ensemble cast of ‘Ready or Not’ and ‘Tales from the Lodge’ were a joy to see working together. Much to choose from.

‘Crawl’ reminded me that jump-scares could be good. My friend delighted in the fact that the men behind him kept jumping and bashing the back of his chair.

‘Dark Encounter’ at least reminded me that strange lights coming into the house from outside are scary.

I really wasn’t expecting ‘Bliss’, ‘The Drone’ or ‘Satanic Panic’ to be as enjoyable as they were.

Best parody/pastiche: ‘The Drone’.

Best WTF: obscene possessed foetus in ‘Ghost Killers vs Bloody Mary’.

Best trippiness: ‘Bliss’ and ‘Daniel Isn’t Real’.

Best fight: opening tussle in ‘Why Don’t You Just Die!’

Best fight and kill: Elijah Wood finds his assailant on the toilet and has to desperately fight for his life in ‘Come to Daddy’.

Best horror debate: the complexities of sex with the possessed in 'Ghost Killers vs Bloody Mary'.

Most coveted location: The coastal home in ‘Come to Daddy’.

Best downer: ‘Spiral’

Best props: the painting in ‘Bliss’ and the crossbow in ‘Ready or Not’.

It was good this year. See you next time around.

10 Shocks & Scares

Here are 10 of my favourite shocks & scares, both drawn out and skin-jumpers.

1. SHOCK 

(Mario Bava, 1977): 

Boy-into-man jump-scare.

So simple but so effective.

2. WILLOW CREEK 

(Bobcat Goldthwait, 2013): 

In the tent.

When I saw this at FrightFest, a woman screamed and usually this might encourage a chuckle from others, but by that time the tension had us wound so thoroughly that nobody murmured a thing.

3. The OTHERS

 (Pedro Amenabar, 2001)

The curtain.

Just a little thing, but thoroughly chilling.

4. TERRIFIED 

(Damien Rugna, 2017)

The man under the bed and/or the corpse at the table.

A truly effective and fun dispenser of fright scenes.

5. JAWS 

(Stephen Spielberg, 1975)

Shark reveal.

Well, not seeing Bruce has been pretty damned scary up until that point, and then...

6. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON 

(John Landis, 1981)

Home invasion dream.

Never fails to unnerve me and scared me shitless as a boy. I mean, I was already freaked out by the moors scene, but then...

7. Dr WHO: The Talons of Weng-Chiang 

(David Mahoney, 1977)

Mr.Sin.

Old-school scary puppet. Terrified me as a kid and once Mr. Sin’s true nature is revealed – something to do with being a pig-creature – as an adult I found something viscerally repulsive in him too.

8. The HAUNTING

(Robert Wise,1963) 

Whose hand? 

Well, the whole thing really, but this one moment is a classic.

5. THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL 

(Mike Flanagan, 2018, NetFlix series)

The car jump-scare.

This is a jump-scare in the tradition of “Boo!” that the ‘Insidious’ and ‘The Conjuring’ franchises pedal, but this one actually caught me out. And that’s because it seemingly comes as a reaction to sibling squabbling and thereby also has resonance. It’s headlong to disappointment from then on and therefore far inferior to the other entries here. But it gets a mention because it fully worked on me and I jumped mile. 

10. SUNDAY’S CHILDREN

(Daniel Bergman, 1992)

The swinging ghost.

Directed by his son, but written by Ingmar Bergman whose work has always seemed just a shadow away from horror. These moments often come without warning in otherwise perfectly realistic domestic dramas, and they’re all the more shocking and scary for being unexpected. 

Favourite moments in 2018 films

Some Favourite Moments of 2018

Here are some of the moments that really stood out this year; moments that sent shivers down my spine, or made me really laugh, or made me go WTF, et cetera.

1. Kid’s silent scream in ‘Loveless’

2. The final set-piece for ‘Custody’

3. The car accident in ‘Hereditary’

4. Jack-Jack vs racoon in ‘Incredibles 2’




5. Dancing in ‘Climax’

6. Ethan Hawke’s face in ‘First Reformed’

7. Ruth Wilson in ‘The Little Stranger’



8. The punchline to ‘Teen Titans Go! to the movies’: 

Robin beseeching the kids in the audience to ask their parents THAT question

9. Matthew McConaughey crying in ‘White Boy Rick’

10. Watching a man being traumatised at The Battle of Waterloo in the opening of ‘Peterloo’ 

11. The corpse at the table in ‘Terrified’

12. The bus massacre set to a cover of “My Way” in ‘mon mon mon Monsters’

Highlights of 2017 cinema

Because lists are popular and because there was so much to choose from:

The confrontation between Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams in ‘Manchester by the Sea’. Confrontations are so often just arguments in drama, but this was something else: two people trying to talk about what they had been through but the rawness of feeling makes it impossible and the moment is a remarkable dance around body language and non sequetirs. 

The final kitchen scene in ‘Moonlight’. The openness of André Holland’s performance and Trevante Rhodes’ hesitancy and reticence make this moment thoroughly disarming.

The Brazilian in ‘Raw’: and I saw someone walk out during this.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2’: Baby Groot dancing to E.L.O.’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’. Electric Light Orchestra’s feel-good bombast, the cheesiness and melodies always disarm me, and although there are many other great moments, baby Groot dancing to 'Mr Blue Sky' is unashamedly cute and delightful.

The opening of ‘Dunkirk’: sets up the stakes straight away and only stepping away for a moment might save you from that unseen enemy that only wants to kill you.

The opening fight in ‘The Villainess’: the corridor scene of ‘Oldboy’ as done through ‘Hardcore Henry’. When she looks back to survey the carnage, the FrightFest audience applauded. 

Fight in holo-Vegas and the fight in a flood in ‘Blade runner 2049’. Yes, two moments that combined a brilliant mixture of the physical and effects. And if we are talking shots of the year, shots flying over the city and that shot of the ocean wall keeping back nature were exceptional.

The train arriving in ‘A Cure for Wellness’: the reflection of the scenery on the side of a train was a truly beautiful shot.

Explaining the cultural background of graffiti on a car: ’20th Century Women’. 

The men peeing in the jungle in ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’. But keep in mind one is a woman in Jack Black’s body, discovering the utilitarian purposes of the penis. 

The party in ‘Toni Erdmann’: a considerable melding of po-faced indie-drama, farce and surrealism.

The book-reading in ‘The Handmaiden’.

The car ride to the prom with Peter Parker and The Vulture in ‘Spider-man: Homecoming’. I could have gone for Peter’s gleeful recapping of his battle in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ at the start, or even his spider-sneaking into his room only to find he has been watched, but it’s this car ride that truly achieves something sinister and shows why Michael Keaton probably signed up for this.

The coastline of 'The Red Turtle'.

The warmth of the performances of André Holland (‘Moonlight’),

Michael Stuhlbarg (‘Call me By Your Name’) and Annette Benning (‘20th Century Women’) and Willem Defoe ('The Florida Project').

The wonderful density of performances by Anne Hathaway (‘Colossal’), Josh O’Connor (‘God’s Own Country’), Nicki Michaeux (‘Lowlife’), 

Tom Holland’s exuberance as Peter Parker; James Franco as Tommy Wisseau; the women of ‘In Between’; the comedy collective of ‘The Death of Stalin’.

The most calming backdrop and overall feel: ‘The Red Turtle’ and ‘Call Me by Your Name’. 

and

A mention for the  rope bridge scene in ‘Sorcerer’: it was an old film I saw at the cinema but this was truly jaw-dropping in an old-school way.

best of home-watching 2016

Here’s a list of  the top films I saw at home during this year.

Eastern Boys

Robin Campillo, 2013, France. 

A fascinating gay drama that moves into thriller motifs without losing focus. The early party invasion scene is brilliantly elongated and credible, a thorough masterclass on how to play out a moment in all its tones. It’s cool, slightly detached approach leaves many questions unanswered and thereby capturing an open-ended realism.

Song of the Sea

Tom Moore, 2013, Ireland-Denmark-Belgium-Luxumbourg-France.

A dazzlingly beautiful animation mixing the modern with Celtic Myths. With loss as its central theme, it avoids patronising its potentially young audience and bears a pleasing melancholic tone despite its exuberance and constantly startling with its visuals. 

Hard to be a God 

           Aleksei German, 2013, Russia

Overlong, maybe, but this is the kind of film-making that is haunting, surreal and hallucinatory and bizarre without any use of cinema trickery, just divining those qualities from the oddness of humour behaviour and set design.

Penda’s Fen

Alan Clark, 1974, UK

A film that captures the variety of overlapping themes that characterise many bildungsroman in literature but often abridged in cinema. Baffling and dated it may be for some, but rarely has the complex shifting of a young person’s delusions been so richly captured.

And

Leviathan                            

Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014, Russia

Where Zvyagintsev’s ‘The Return’ bore immediate emotional resonance, ‘Leviathan’ is far more insidious. Small town politics prove an insurmountable obstacle and overwhelmingly mean-spirited force that destroys anyone that gets in its way. 

Slow West

John  Mclean, 2015, UK-New Zealand

Possibly the opposite of the more naturalistic style of modern Westerns such as ‘The Homesman’ and ‘Bone Tomahawk’, nevertheless ‘Slow West’ has an artiness that comes across like a perfectly contrived short story. With the excellent closing shoot-out, the narrative reveals its true colours.

Aferim!

       Radu Jude, 2015, Romania-Bulgaria-Czech Republic-France

Not so far from ‘Embrace of the Serpent’ in conjuring up another era to explicate on a lost culture and the timelessness of prejudice.

ALSO

Microbe and Gasoline

          Michel Gondry, 2015, France

Wherein the rough and sensitive nature of adolescence finds perfect juncture with Gondry’s magic realism, inventiveness and sad-sack humour. A film whose attitude doesn’t seem to care what the adults think.

Coherence

         James Ward Byrkit, 2013, USA-UK

A sci-fi horror story about reality failing you. A triumph of low-budget film-making where the puzzle-box narrative dominates.

The Jungle Book

      John Favreau, 2016, UK-USA

Nope, it’s not as cuddly as the original animation and there be objections to the differences, and maybe I felt it more threatening than others did (but then it’s been called ‘The Revenant’ for kids by more than one reviewer), but I was beguiled at its oddness and the rendering of talking animals. One can also see a message of hope with the ultimate all-coming-together-to-defeat-a-common-foe. It doesn’t quite fully gel all its elements but it cheekily cherry-picks the best from the original animation while staking out more of a tone that feels closer to ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

The Assassin

  Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2015, Taiwan-China-Hong Kong-France

Another film that won me over due to its oddness and elusive qualities, as well as being lush and literary. Another film where multiple viewings will reveal more and more.

Force Majeure

  Ruben Östlund, 2014, Sweden-France-Norway-Denmark

Against the backdrop of brochure cleanliness and clarity plays out a tale of the more undesirable attributes that make up a personality: attributes like cowardice. That clean look and the precise style make this fell like a dissection of a family where being on holiday can't protect you from your flaws.

The Firm

           Alan Clarke, 19890, UK

Clarke’s no-nonsense portrait of a community of football hooligans, unable to band together to beat a perceived common foe because they can barely express themselves beyond insults and posturing. 

Evolution

      Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015, France-Belgium-Spain

Another triumph of oddness, the kind ordinarily relegated to short films and all too rare in horror cinema. Surreal, mysterious and disturbing.

Nevermore

       Toke Constantin Hebbeln, 2006, Germany

A small tale of a boy losing it all and then getting out of town dressed up in a fairy-tale like atmosphere and the appearance of magic-realist diversions, even if fantastical things don’t really happen. 

Captain Phillips

        Paul Greengrass, 2013, USA

Where Greengrass’ hand-held style proves ideal for the claustrophobia of a ship being hijacked. Tom Hanks has probably never been so good: earnest, trained, afraid and smart. Those final moments where he can finally let go of the composure he has shown all along are riveting and exemplary, the camera joining in with the professionals around him by never letting him alone.   

Re-uniting with:

Films I watched again and found better than ever

The Brood

        David Cronenberg, Canada, 1979

The pinnacle of domestic drama finding such chilling expression through horror. There's something furiously aggrieved in here. Oliver Reed’s quiet, silky tones prove the film’s secret weapon, never allowing his character to overbalance the whole thing into trite melodrama of “mad scientist” tropes.

Network

Sidney Lumet, USA, 1976

Prescient, chilling and insightful, now more than ever.

I should know better, but…

Exists 

       Eduardo Sanchex, 2014, USA

Despite everything, that final close-up of the sasquatch meant I forgave so much.

Roar

        Noel Marshall, 1981, USA

It’s been called the most dangerous film-shoot of all time… well, it’s certainly a pinnacle in the WTF files of film-making. It doesn’t even come into the so-bad-it’s-good pile– it’s something else.