From the opening scene, in which lead character Swanson (Tim Heidecker) describes in detail the effects of an anal prolapse before insulting the sexuality of the male nurse whose job it is to take care of his barely breathing invalid father, Rick Alverson’s new film does everything it can to be as aggressively alienating as humanly possible. An ugly tale of a fat, over-privileged, middle-aged New York hipster stuck in [...]
If I eschew traditional film reviewing conventions here, it’s because the work I’m reviewing isn’t really a film at all. One of the features of the “Signals: For Real” section at this year’s International Film Festival of Rotterdam – a programme designed to challenge and subvert the ways viewers think about cinema – Soundtrackcity Rotterdam is in a lot of ways more like an audiobook than a movie – although [...]
This year, the 41st annual International Film Festival of Rotterdam screened over 450 short films in addition to its 268 features. With films in every conceivable style, the shorts programme offered audiences the chance to witness exciting and experimental works from directors ranging from seasoned veterans to filmmakers whose careers are still in their infancy.
While my time over the past two weeks has been primarily concerned with features, I still [...]
Any ghost story that claims to be “based on a true story” is already fighting an uphill battle, but when it’s as middling and generic as Pat Holden’s When the Lights Went Out, it’s even easier to dismiss. A stock standard haunted house story, the film follows an English family who experience paranormal disturbances upon settling in to a new home. Although not entirely lacking in creepy images or suspense, [...]
A gangster movie out of Iceland, Black’s Game [Svartur-Leik] was executive produced by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. As such, comparisons to his recent Drive — the best film of last year — are inevitable and perhaps not unwarranted. Both films are unashamed in their attempts to make every frame as cool as humanly possible. But while Drive employed ice-cold restraint and was a success, Black’s Game goes the [...]
“All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing”. Never has this famous saying been truer than in the case of the brutal stabbing murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964, a crime that occurred within earshot of thirty-eight people, none of whom lifted a finger to prevent it. A grim indictment of human cowardice and apathy, the case has been referenced and [...]
In the back of an ambulance, a paramedic tries to keep a critically injured car-crash victim talking. He asks her name, and if she has any siblings. At first it seems like he’s just trying to help her remain conscious, but then his questions grow more obscure and personal. It’s just one of many early clues in Alps that something in this world is seriously amiss. This new film from [...]
In Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a man’s penis turns into a power-drill while having sex with his wife. She’s into it. In the sequel, Body Hammer, a man’s arm ruptures and transforms into a gun, which he then uses to shoot his infant child. Japan’s answer to David Cronenberg (The Fly), the films of Shinya Tsukamoto have always been horrifically confronting. But his latest outing – Kotoko – deals less [...]
