Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - Sleep

Marlene (Sandra Huller) suffers from extreme night terrors, She stops breathing when these events occur and her daughter Mona( Gro Swantje Kohlof) often has to come into her room to calm her down and get her breathing calmly once again. When Marlene wakes from a dream she hurriedly writes down the details in a notebook. She is also disturbed by an advertisement for the Hotel from her dreams on an onboard magazine. The recordings of events become increasingly sharp and violent. Mona sees that the situation is getting worse and demands that her mother goes to an ENT specialist. Marlene agrees to go after a scheduled planned overnight shift to Istanbul for her job as a flight attendant to Istanbul. Instead of going on her flight she goes to the mountain village where the hotel is located. Marlene checks into the Sonnenhugel Hotel hotel that is off-season. She sees photos of the three men known as pillars of Stainbach on the wall of the hotel. Marlene recognizes them from her dreams knowing that they all committed suicide. Back at home, Mona finds her mother's notebooks neatly stacked on her bed. As she goes through them she begins to see the story of Stainbach and the Sonnenhugel hotel in the pages. Being in the hotel is too much for Marlene she clutches her totem of a boar as she collapses into a stupor and is hospitalized. Mona receives an urgent call and comes to the town to investigate.

Director Michael Venus' story explores the inner workings of the mind, hidden memories and buried family history. The specter of Germany drifting back into nationalism is also present in the film. The empty off season hotel that Marlene then Mona inhabit reminds the viewer of the Shining's Overlook Hotel. The transfer of memories between family members is also front and centre.

When Mona arrives she meets Otto(August Schmolzer) the over-friendly Hotelier and his wife Lore (Marion Kracht) who wants to see her off as soon as possible. Mona's first night brings a vision of a woman and the impression of the name Tore that does not ring any bells with the staring townsfolk. However, Mona continues to dig proving to be more stubborn, determined, and mental sound than her mother in her attempt to get to the truths that could eventually extract her mom from her psychological prison. 

           

Sleep is a journey into the psychological and a look at the subconscious living in a space where dreams and reality overlap. As the viewer follows Mona's exploration the line between dreams and conscious thought is blurred. The debilitating paralysis that psychological trauma can have on the human body is also on display. It a harrowing tale filled with Lynchian elements well shouldered by its young female lead that is definitely worth the watch. 

*** 1/2 Out of 4.

Sleep | Michael Venus | Germany | 2020 | 102 Minutes.

Tags: Nightmares, Suicides, ENT, Medications,Totems, Hospital, Steinbach, Mountain Village Off Season, Hotel, Boars, Family Secret, Lullaby  Jenga. 

 

 

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw

The Opening scroll reports that a group of families separated for the Church of Ireland in 1873 and started a closed settlement in North America. They maintained their practices ignoring world events outside their town line and shunned modern technology. After and Eclipse 17 years before the main events of the film pestilence hit the settlement affecting all of the settlement except for Agatha Earnshaw (Catherine Walker) who lives on the outskirts. The villagers have there theories on her and she also happened to give birth to a daughter the same year as the Eclipse. The townsfolk continue to struggle as Audrey (Jessica Reynolds) has grown into womanhood in secret. The answer may be to become more devout or to lash out at the woman who many believe is a heretic and responsible for their bad luck. 

It's now the Autumn of 1973 as the camera swoops in over the small settlement by the woods a man comes to trade by Agatha sends him away. He leaves with a veiled threat then Agatha gives the same to his daughter as a further reason why she must stay hidden. The pair head out to meet the Others a group of ritualistic spiritual women in white that some might brand as witches. To get to the meeting they have to pass through town as the preachers is burying his grandson. They make it through after a confrontation that Audrey watched from inside a crate vowing she is ready to help and her mother should never face such ridicule again.

Writer-Director Thomas Robert Lee tells a story of a religious community anchored firmly in the past. The first question of such communities is should they maintain their ways when modern advancements could reduce their suffering especially in the case of children who are sick or could die from their illness. The narrative is so absorbing that the viewer forgets about the outside world and commits the tale not jolted out of the world until a plane passes overhead towards the end of the film. 

Catherine Walker works well as the protagonist for the first sections of the film as Agatha. She is overprotective of her daughter seeing to her every need but is well aware of the true nature of her parentage and that Audrey is growing stronger every day. Jessica Reynolds is a fresh new face as Audrey she is memorizing to the town folk with the ability to quickly get them under her spell. She puts a curse on the town for their treatment of her mother and when she decides to break free there is no one that can stop her. 

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw will have some thinking about M. Night Shalayman's The Village. Here though the townsfolk are all aware of the outside world and consciously choose not to be part of it. The manifestation of Audrey's powers is subtle at first then wash over her and the town like a wave. The film does raise questions on the practice to commit so completely to a set of tenets a debate that has been going on for centuries and will continue. 

*** Out of 4

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw | Thomas Robert Lee | Canada | 2020 | 93 Minutes. 

Tags: Religion, Righteousness, Ritual, Secrecy, Sacrifice, Eclipse, Pestilence, Isolation, Famine, Witchcraft, Curse, Horse and Cart.

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - Time of Moulting

Using the Still Life format for an ambitious first foray as a feature director Sabrina Mertens wrote Time of Moulting split into 57 snapshots of a family holed up at home while the family matriarch drifts in and out of mental anguish. 

The story centres on Stephanie seen at two stages as a child then 10 years later as a young adult. Young Stephanie (Zelda Epenchied) has to invent games playing in the dirt around the family home or board games with her mom Sybille (Freya Kerutzkam. A couple of girls her age move into the area but her mother deliberately scares them off refusing to let them in the house when Stephanie asks for permission. The specter of her grandparents is always present wither their possessions and family pictures resting in the addict. With so little to do and being confined to the home except when she goes to school, Stephanie becomes fixated on her grandmother's false teeth and her grandfather's suitcase full of butches tools especially his butcher's hatchet. 

Stephanie relations with her mother is a role reversal. Her mother is often tired spending a lot of time in bed surrounded by stuffed animals. Stephanie sleeps with her mother at night and her mother appears to be heavily dependent on her bringing her meals, looking for back rubs, and as a playing companion. Her Dad Reinhardt (Bernd Wolf) is mainly interested in tinkering around the home. The family  does not appear to be well off and the state of the house is cluttered moving toward hoarder status. Stephanie constantly complains about how dirty the home is  which is not helped by the family cat that pees everywhere and it is mostly left to the pre-teen Stephanie to clean.

In the second act 10 years later Stephanie (now played by Mariam Schiweck) is still in the family home, never seeming to go out and seeming surrounded by more dirt, cat pee, and clutter. The family now has a small TV which her father now spends most of his time rooted in front of doing not much else. The effects of an isolated childhood take their toll on the elder Stephanie, She's now prone to verbal outbreaks, throwing things at her parents, self-harm, and unnaturally obsessing on the two items that she most associates with her grandparents have become unnatural. 

Mertens puts a lot on the screen almost exclusively shot with a fixed camera in her structured directorial debut. It's a psychological exploration into an unhealthy relationship with a parent(s) can have on a child when that adult figure is all that the child sees and knows of an extended period. Even when the child is has grown with the physical capacity to exert their will their psychological scars built up over many years paralyzes them from acting.   

***1/2 Out of 4. 

Time of Moulting | Sabrina Mertens | Germany | 2020 | 80 Minutes. 

Tags: Tableaux Vivant, Germany, 1970's Country Home, Isolation,Mental Illness, Butchers Hatchet, False Teeth, Psychological Abuse, Clutter, Hansel & Gretel.

 

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - I WeirDO

Director Liao Ming-yi must have had a good feeling when he came up with the idea for I WeirDo. A story about a super fastidious young man who isolates himself because of his condition meets a female with a similar condition masked, gloved, and sporting a knee-length rain slicker. It's as if Liao predicted the pandemic and foresaw living in isolation and dating in a world where first encounters are hermetically sealed. 

Chen Po-ching (Austin Lin) is obsessive-compulsive. He washes his hands and cleans his apartment constantly. Meals for the week are prepared ahead of time placed in sealed containers.He works at home never going to the office or seeing his co-workers .On the 15th of the month, he piles on the P.P.E. venturing out to pay bills grocery shop and more importantly obtain a fresh supply of cleaning products. He gets on the subway standing as always fully protected.  He spots a female Chen Ching  (Nikki Hsieh) clad in a similar manner who gets off at the same stop apparently headed the same direction. Chen follows as she enters his grocery store. He continues to watch her as she counts boxes of chocolates in the candy isle then steals one. Incensed Chen confronts Chen Ching who turns the tables and threatens him. Chen now completely out of his routine goes back to the grocery store the next day. Chen Ching is there thinking that he will turn her in. They part ways Chen under an imposed  deadline for their next contact.  

Liao shot and edited the film in its entirety on an iPhone XS Max. The use of basic colours is a key feature of the film as part of Chen's OCD compulsion is the need to coordinate them. Liao must have thought his story was about too oddballs (weirdo is in the title) that few could relate to but instead with the onset of COVID-19 hand washing, wearing masks, constant cleaning, and staying home is everyone's reality. 

The pair that seem to be the ultimate soulmates suffer a crack when Chen becomes fixated on pigeon outside his window. He is drawn outside to it and like that his OCD is gone. Liao cleverly gives this change a visual marker by expanding the field of view from portrait to full screen. The group of doctors that the couple used to go to to try and find a cure for their ailments are now consulted to bring Chen's back. Obviously small habits that differ in partners can cause a strain on a relationship with Chen's OCD gone Chen and Chen Ching are now diametrically opposed.  

IWeirDo is a fitting meet-cute/ romantic comedy for the COVID -19 era. Liao Ming -yi's tale about two people on the fringes turns out to be a bullseye centre-cut portrayal of people's experiences today. Anchored by Austin Lin's Chen naive protagonist and Nikki Hsieh's bolder Chen Ching surrounded by an array of basic colours visuals Liao has produced an innovative piece of film making that should find mainstream appeal as it represents a shared experience for us all. 

***1/2 Out of Four.

IWeirDo | Liao Ming-yi | Taiwan | 2020 | 100 minutes. 

Tags: iPhone XS Max, OCD, Doctor's Appointments, Shopping, Kleptomaniac, Skin Rash, Meet-Cute, Portrait, Landscape, P.P.E., Primary Colours. 

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - Hunted

The song of the forest wails as a woman tells her son the story of a medieval priest's pauper army headed to free the holy land suffers misfortune in a particular forest the pair inhabit when the crusaders corner a young local girl who the forest awakes to protect proving that the company of nature is often better than that of man.  

Eve (Lucy Debay) is the project leader for a foreign construction project getting push back from the local workers. Her boss drives her to be tougher on the crew from afar. Eve vows to get the project moving not needing any assistance from any of the males at her firm. She dodges her partner Alex as she forms her plan of attack for tomorrow. Bored in her hotel room she heads out for a walk popping into a mostly empty cub for a drink. A drunk businessman hits on her when a seemingly nice guy (Arieh Worthalter) intervenes. The evening is going well with the guy until the pair leave to take their affair private. Eve is in the back of a car with him when his supposed brother (Ciaran O'Brien) enters the front seat. Eve slowly realizes that she is a target of a kidnapping ending up escaping into the same woods discussed in the prologue.

Director Vincent Paronnaud crafts a story that will have the viewer frustrated to the point of talking at the screen during the opening stanzas. Eve has clear opportunities to get away from the situation that she doesn't see, realize, or take. Fortune turns against her captors after the incident that leads the trio into the forest followed by a violent breakdown of their alliance.

Eve's survival skills truly kick in when she escapes from her date for a second time sensing that the forest is on her side. She lets out a primal scream grabs a natural weapon and is transformed into a being that is more dangerous to her wounded former tormentor than he is to her. The forest has picked sides and the bad guy is on the wrong end.

Luce Debay and Arieh Worthalter play well off each other and they switch back and forth trading off who has the upper hand. It's a primal deathmatch that ends up in the most unlikely surroundings for the final act. The driving beat of the rhythmic score heightens the urgency and intensity of the battle until nature steps in once again to show that the company of animals is often better than that of men. 

*** Out of 4.

Hunted | Vincent Paronnaud | Belgium/France | 2020 | 87 Minutes. 

Tags: Construction Project, Visiting Supervisor, Taser, Kidnapping, Duct Tape,The Forest , Mojitos, Paint Ball, Open House, Security Guard, Guard Dog. 

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - Dinner In America

Detroit Michigan is the setting for the extrovert and introvert nerd paring of Simon (Kyle Gallner) and Patty ( Emily Skeggs) in Dinner In America. The film opens with Simon volunteering for human trails for minimal pay. His only other two forms of income are selling his blood and dealing drugs. He is also the lead singer for a passionate punk band Psyops that sports a small but very loyal following. However, Simon is anonymous pure to his craft always wearing a mask when performing as alter ego John Q Public. Patty is working on clean up duty at a pet store and not doing that job well. When she is not being bullied by her peers she's in her room listening to Psyops indulging in a strange intimate ritual when she gets worked up.  The pair meet when Simon running from the cops for yet another act of pyromania gets her assistance to avoid the cops. Simon heads to her home seeing it as a perfect hideout where the cops would never find him. 

Simon comes off as the punk rock anarchist. He's the king of the dinner table referring to friends dads by their first names and snarling at other patrons and staff in diners and burger joints. We see the first inkling of his real nature when a couple of bullies bothering Patty accept his challenger for a fight then we see him at his own family table where he gets smaller and smaller as the insults towards him fly.

Galllner shines in the role of Simon. He is punk to the core but willing to see the best qualities in a perceived misfit like Patty. He will not stand for her being bullied and demands that she treats herself with dignity and respect. It's a strong physical performance where Gallner often expresses his mood with the raise of an eyebrow, hand gesture or a scowl. Emily Skeggs is a delight as Patty. She is half a step behind but blissfully unaware of the common knowledge she does not possess always remaining positive hoping for and expecting the best outcome. 

Dinner In America is the latest twist on the alienated youth theme. Here Michigan is the setting as we follow an odd young woman immersed in her love of punk music. Outward appearances and personas are not always what they seem in this Punk yet charming tale that I can highly recommend.

***1/2 Out of 4.

Dinner In America | Adam Rehmeier | U.S.A. | 106 Minutes.

Tags: Human Trials, Thanksgiving Dinner, Pyromania, Wanted Poster, Punk Rock, Pet Shop, Drugs, Dub Cassette, Fan Girl, Love Poems, Polaroids, Pill Box, Concert Flyer, The Hawaiian.

Fantasia Film Festival '20 Film Review - Fried Barry

First conceived as a short film in 2008 writer-director Ryan Kruger found critic and audience success with Fried Barry. The short centered on heroin addict (Gary Green) as he stumbles around a post apocalyptic building fueled by a foreign chemical substance that is clearly in control. For the feature, Kruger expands on the short making the port agonist playground all of Cape Town. 

Barry starts his day seemingly like any other. He sits at the breakfast table ignoring his wife Suz (Chanelle de Jager) and child as she berates him in both Afrikaans and English to be a better Dad and partner. Seemingly having had enough he storms out to his local watering hole where he meets up with a fellow traveler who has the great idea that the pair should head back to his hole in the wall place to share needles and do heroin. After the hit, things immediately become murky what the audience experiences for the remainder of the film. Next Barry is wandering on the street in the dead of night, is sucked up by a beam of light arms and legs flailing as he rises, then probed in all manners by shiny metallic instruments before the alien tries on his body for size returning to earth to explore. 

What follows is a drug-filled, raving mix of sex and alien research into life on earth as the visitor sees Cape Town through Barry's eyes picking up words, phrases, and mannerisms from those he meets as a newborn does from his parents.  Barry ends up in bars, dance clubs, amongst street urchins, heroin addicts, taken captive, in jail, in a mental hospital plus several encounters with prostitutes and the local pimp. 

Kruger keeps the dialog to a minimum leaving Green to express the experiences of his alien snatcher through body and facial expressions. Green is perfect for the role looking older than his age clad in his ever present jean jacket wandering his old haunts behaving a little stranger than usual but not so much to have friends and family key into what's up. Chanelle de Jager gives a passionate performance as his wife. Wanting the romance back with Barry from days gone by. She pushes him hard but will always stand by him as he's her man.  

Fried Barry is a frantic kinetic journey through the underbelly of Cape Town. It's unclear if the events play out on screen occur or is Barry still on the couch at his friends in a near comatose drug haze. Gary Green gives a physically challenging performance as Barry that borders on contortionist. Underpinned by a driving if not jarring soundtrack by Haezer and a visual rainbow of colours from Gareth Places' lens it,s a wild ride if you wanna have some fun.   

*** Out of 4.

Fried Barry | Ryan Kruger| South Africa | 2020 | 99 Minutes.

 Tags: Heroin, Space Ship, Alien Abduction, Body Snatching, Birth, South Africa, Cape Town, Rave, Milky Milk.