THEN CAME YOU

Stars: Craig Ferguson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ford Kiernan, Phyllida Law and Elizabeth Hurley.
Writer: Kathie Lee Gifford
Director: Adriana Trigiani

Rating: ★ ★ ★

In what feels like, for most of its running time, two old friends having a lark in the Scottish countryside finds just enough heart and honesty at key moments to keep Then Came You from being just a sweetly disposable confection. Craig Ferguson, exuding true leading man charisma, shares genuine chemistry with co-lead and scripter Kathie Lee Gifford…which is fortunate, because it’s all the narrative really asks of them.

In an all-too-rare bigscreen outing, Ferguson transposes his stand-up/talkshow persona into the role of Howard Awd, a widower overseeing a lochside estate that was once his home but is now a guesthouse. With his best mate Gavin (Ford Kiernan, delivering the goods in that rom-com staple role), Awd is struggling to keep alive the memory of his late wife by maintaining the magnificent but increasingly dilapidated manor (shot at the picturesque Ardkinglas House in the Scottish coastal hamlet of Cairndow).

Into Awd’s life comes Annabelle Wilson, a Nantucket widow carrying her late husband’s ashes in an empty chocolate box (because her husband’s favourite movie was Forrest Gump, in the first of many movie references that include Titanic, The Way We Were and, amusingly, Braveheart). As Annabelle, Gifford is no Streep but she certainly does all she has to do to convince as a likable fish-out-of-water Yank with a little dark cloud over her soul.

From the moment she’s off the train and in Awd’s care, the pair are giggling and bonding and bickering like a couple of silver-haired teenagers. This almost becomes too much of a good thing, until Ferguson brings the acting chops in a scene where he fronts up about the true nature of his own grief. It’s a relatively brief sequence but it is all the film needs to provide enough grounded emotion in the pic’s second half.

Despite sharing above-the-title credit, Elizabeth Hurley (more breathtakingly beautiful than ever) has only a handful of scenes as Awd’s fiancee; the great Phyllida Law pulls of a thankless role as the pivot of a subplot that never rings true. Adriana Trigiani, ably directing her first feature since the undervalued 2014 melodrama Big Stone Gap, unloads large passages of exposition via disembodied dialogue; Annabelle’s reason for being in Scotland is plonked down by an off-camera Gifford as the pair drive around the stunning countryside (the hardest working crew member was the drone pilot, without a doubt). 

That’s not a big deal, as narrative is secondary to niceties in this type of mature-age romantic fantasy. With two seasoned performers outfront, clearly comfortable in each other’s company, Then Came You will nicely serve the Senior’s Club ticket holders seeking postcard locales and personable dramedy.

FRIENDS AND STRANGERS

Stars: Fergus Wilson, Emma Diaz, Victoria Maxwell, Amelia Conway and Greg Zimbulis.
Writer/Director: James Vaughan

Reviewed at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021 (online).

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Director James Vaughan achieves considerable success with his debut feature, the meandering, understated, ultimately rewarding Friends and Strangers, if only via the skill with which he imbues millennial mumblings with meaning and resonance. Vaughan has his able twenty-something cast communicate via the discordant verbal punctuations (‘like’, ‘um’, ‘D’you think...?’, ‘I don’t know’) synonymous with the generation, utilising the very un-cinematic cadence perhaps as best as can be.

Chief mumbler is Ray, played by Fergus Wilson in a characterisation that alternates between excruciating and endearing. Ray reconnects with Alice (Emma Diaz, nailing ‘fading tolerance’ in most of her scenes) upon her return to Sydney, ultimately inviting himself on a camping trip she has planned. These early scenes mostly consist of Ray not really listening to Alice’s attempts at conversation, with Alice gradually, if politely, distancing herself from him. Once at the campsite, she favours the insight of a pre-teen fellow camper Lauren (Poppy Jones; pictured below, left, with Diaz) over anything Ray offers.

The narrative rejoins Ray back in Sydney, moping about Alice’s rejection to the increasing frustration of his video production company partner Miles (David Gannon). They have a client meeting with waterfront McMansion owner David (a fun Greg Zimbulis), father of the bride (Amelia Conway), to prepare for the wedding shoot, as if a love-starved, self-obsessed minor-man could capture the essence of someone else’s most romantic day. Finally, Vaughan turns to an Allen-esque comical set-up, as Ray stoops to spying on Alice after a chance encounter.

The commentary he affords the solipsism of contemporary, well-to-do lives and their tendency towards introspection to the point of self-obsession has drawn comparisons to French New Wave great Éric Rohmer, particularly his late career work, A Summer’s Tale (1996). Rohmer would often focus on educated young adults and the world they populate, such as beaches, parks and lovely homes (so, Sydney). 

Vaughan has generational malaise and middle-class white privilege in his crosshairs. Friends and Strangers (the title itself carrying Bergman-esque tones) may present as a loosely-structured echo of its lead character’s directionless wanderings, but that would do a disservice to the debutant director’s skill as an observational storyteller and satirist. (The influence of European masters extends beyond the cinematic greats; a lovely shot of a middle harbour bathing spot clearly reflects George Seurat’s iconic painting, ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’).

Opening credits play over artwork from Sydney’s colonisation, preparing the audience for a story in which the setting is as important as the characters. Vaughan’s Sydney is not sweeping shots of foreshore icons (the city skyline is occasionally glimpsed as background detail), but instead the Sydney of affectation - cafes, hairdressers, manicured parks and affluent homes. Just as notable is DOP Dimitri Zaunders expert framing of the ‘ugly beauty’ of big-city life - stacks of pallets jammed under an overpass, the jarring juxtaposition of historical masonry and modern steel beams of which Sydneysiders have become inexplicably tolerant. 

We first meet Ray and Alice not on a park bench silhouetted against the Harbour Bridge, but leaning on a concrete barrier, struggling to connect over traffic noise and looking down upon (literally and figuratively) the boring minutiae of city life. It is an establishing sequence of a confident filmmaker, conveying thematic intent and character depth, and signaling Vaughan as a young director already in touch with his own film language.

MUSIC

Stars: Maddie Ziegler, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Ben Schwartz, Mary Kay Place and Hector Elizondo.
Writers: Sia and Dallas Clayton.
Director: Sia.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

In Australian singer/choreographer Sia’s directorial debut Music, a neurotypical actor has been cast as a character with non-verbal autism. The practice is, of course, hugely problematic; casting able-bodied actors to portray disabled characters is as old as cinema itself. As past insensitivities in the name of storytelling have been mothballed, we hope the casting of the neurodiverse in roles depicting their experiences is inevitable. (For an impassioned plea to end the faking of on-screen disabilities, read fellow critic Grant Watson’s take over at Fiction Machine, or Variety’s coverage of autism advocacy group’s collective outcry).

So, the question arises as to whether a film that employs such a practice can, even should, be reviewed fairly in light of its casting. 

Whether her presence sits uncomfortably with the majority of 2021 film watchers, lead actress and Sia’s long-time muse Maddie Ziegler is terrific as ‘Music’, giving a compelling performance of technical skill and deep resonance. Some critics will bemoan it, citing it is all ‘ticks and clicks’ merely reinforcing a century of well-intentioned but cliched portrayals of those with additional needs. But there is no doubt that Ziegler’s nuanced acting and her director’s interpretation of Music’s worldview prove deeply moving.

Part of that ‘worldview’ is presented as intricately choreographed song-and-dance interludes; vibrant, giddy flights of whimsy by which Music comprehends her reality. It is an inspired creative choice for the director to make, and while it seems unlikely that there will be a wave of ‘mental health musicals’ in the wake of this film, the role these sequences play in helping the audience understand Music’s emotional state is crucial. 

Music’s structured daily routine is thrown into turmoil when her grandmother and carer (Mary Kay Place) passes suddenly. Despite a neighbourhood support group that includes caring super George (the wonderful Hector Elizondo), sweethearted softie Felix (Beto Calvillo) and handsome loner Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr.), it falls to opportunistic half-sister and recovering addict Zu (Kate Hudson) to reconnect with and care for her. Not everything rings true about Hudson’s portrayal - with her ripped movie-star physique and pearly whites, she’s the healthiest-looking black-out drunk in movie history - but the relationship she develops with both Music and, by extension, Ebo, does convince.

Sia has been open about her ‘creativity and community’ philosophy and that is exactly the themes that she expands upon in an impressive filmmaking debut. Her take on big-city life is every bit as rose-colour filtered as her conjured dance numbers; this is an only-in-the-movies LA neighbourhood, where street vendors shout out your name with a smile and drug dealers look and act like the adorably camp Ben Schwartz. When the movie does dip into the harsh realities of, say, an alcoholic’s fall from the wagon, the loneliness of life has an HIV sufferer or the horror of domestic abuse, the impact is appropriately jarring.    

With co-scripter and children’s author Dallas Clayton, Sia's articulation of life on the autistic spectrum has credibility and is a vision shared with and buoyed by her lead actress’ dedication. Yes, we want ASD actors cast in parts drawn from their authentic life experiences. Still, we cannot deny that Music considers those experiences with heart, integrity and artistry.

SHORTCUT

Stars: Jack Kane, Zander Emlano, Zak Sutcliffe, Sophie Jane Oliver, Molly Dew, David Keyes, Terence Anderson and Matteo De Gregori.
Writer: Daniele Cosci
Director: Alessio Liguori

Rating: ★ ★ ★

A serviceable creature-feature that will play well enough with housebound under-’20s, the patch-quilt monster-movie/teen drama Shortcut is light on logic but buoyed by an engaging spirit. It will certainly be an advantage if you haven’t seen any of the Jeepers Creepers trilogy, Neil Marshall’s Descent or Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic, genre works that clearly influenced writer Daniele Cosci and director Alessio Liguori (and we’ll get to The Breakfast Club beats later), but for a streaming-service rip of those DVD-era guilty pleasures, Shortcut is perfectly watchable.

An Italian/German co-production that dresses up its Euro locales as a very green middle America, we meet our five heroes on a bus trip heading somewhere deep in the woods. Under the care of warmhearted bus driver Joseph (Terence Anderson) are (cue Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’) the every-dude Nolan (Jack Kane), arty blonde Bess (Sophie Jane Oliver), life-of-the-party Karl (Zander Emlano), bespectacled nerd Queenie (Molly Dew) and tough guy rebel Reg (Zak Sutcliffe). Forced onto a sideroad (not really a ‘shortcut’, but...), they are hijacked by snarling escapee Pedro (David Keyes, going all-in on his bad guy turn), a madman known for eating the tongues of his victims.

Pedro soon becomes the least of their problems when their bus breaks down in an abandoned tunnel and the resident of the darkness, a Mothman-like parasitic-humanoid that comes to be known as ‘The Nocturne Wanderer’, begins to hunt them down. Forced into a labyrinthine network of concrete corridors that come with their own dark secrets, the five must find a common strength to survive.

‘Why a whole school bus for these five students?’, ‘Why these five students?’ and ‘Where are they going?’ are just some of the questions left unanswered while watching Shortcut, but such deep-thinking is not really necessary; in fact, it’s best to disengage from reality entirely. These five kids symbolise all teens, and the monsters they face are the allegorical challenges all adolescents face as adulthood looms. 

That might seem a long bow to pull to cut Liguori’s film some slack, but it goes some way to explaining away incongruities and shortcomings that would otherwise derail Shortcut. Age-appropriate audiences will draw more from the characterisations and the dilemmas they face than jaded critics or hardcore horror hounds. 

The overall standard of production - Luca Santagostino’s evocative low-light cinematography; Jacopo Reale’s slick editing; the top-tier practical make-up effects of creature crew supervisor Leonardo Cruciano and offsider Elisabetta Paccapelo - refuses to allow the film to be dismissed as trashy monster malarkey. It generally delivers on that front, of course, but earns respect as a more ambitious entry in the genre.

THE END OF THE STORM

Featuring: Jürgen Klopp, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker.
Writer/Director: James Erskine.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

In the English Premier League, you need to be able to pivot on both feet, to be able to exhibit sturdy control and razzle dazzle in equal measure. Which is as good a way as any of describing The End of the Storm, documentarian James Erskine’s part-hagiography/part-rousing sports narrative charting Liverpool Football Club’s record-breaking 2020 dominance, both athletically and commercially.

In this oh-so-authorised account of the Merseyside super-squad’s first title in 30 years, Erskine and his leading man, wünder-manager Jürgen Klopp, riff on the inherent emotion in taking on the challenge of EPL glory for a club like LFC. The German coach, who came to Liverpool after Bundesliga success and a stint at Tottenham Hotspurs, states that the club’s iconic chant ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ mirrors his own philosophies on life, stemming from a childhood steeped in family values and deep friendships. 

The ‘life mentor’ role that is a crucial part of any good manager’s duties is certainly touched upon, as in when Klopp espouses such team spirit-building mantras as, ‘You’ll only feel free in life if you feel protected’. But Erskine pulls up shy of taking the camera into the dressing rooms and boardrooms to capture real drama (as was so compellingly chronicled in the masterful Netflix docu-series, Sunderland ‘Til I Die), instead ensuring that the mood is kept buoyant and in line with the giddy thrill that only Cup winners are afforded.

There is an unsubtle subtext of ‘legacy’ in Erskine’s take on football history-making, notably of the patriarchal kind. Klopp imagines what it would have meant to him had his father been alive to see his achievements, while profiles of fans from all over the world draw clear lines between traditional father figures and the bond with their children that being a Liverpool supporter has enabled. These sequences, some shot as far afield as Kolkata, Detroit and Auckland, walk both sides of a fine line between capturing joyful fan adoration and catering to the commercial realities of a global football franchise.

Undoubtedly the most compelling passage of The End of the Storm is how the organisation confronted the unprecedented shutdown of the global football season as COVID-19 took hold. At the time of the postponement of all EPL fixtures, Liverpool were soaring clear at the top of the ladder by as much as 25 points - mathematically, still able to be run down, but in all reality very clearly champions. However, the very real possibility existed that the 2020 season would be abandoned and the three-decade wait for domestic football glory would be denied to players and fans.

The film builds to a crescendo that plays like an all-American, aspirational sports melodrama, but given the emotional (and commercial) stakes when beloved mega-brands like Liverpool Football Club are in play, and the grand achievements that Klopp and his side accomplished, such excess seems entirely appropriate.

The football action is, of course, superbly captured. Songstress Lana Del Rey contributes an appropriately production-rich reworking of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', underpinning the film's ambitions to embolden both the club mythology and brand power. 

(Ed: As a Derby County supporter, whose team is battling League One relegation as I type, The End of the Storm will be as happy an account of English football as I’ll see this year).

IN CORPORE

Stars: Clara Francesca Pagone, Naomi Said, Kelsey Gillis, Sarah Timm, Frank Fazio, Christopher Dingli, Timothy McCown Reynolds, Amelia June, Simone Alamango, Don Bridges and Naomi Lisner.
Directors: Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin.

Available to view via LIDO at Home. 

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

The challenges faced by four women who just want to shape their destinies on their own terms is the bridging device that binds this portmanteau drama from co-directors Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin.  

Confronted with personal and social hurdles stemming from traditional gender stereotyping, the protagonists in this bracingly contemporary work are not always likable, but that’s kind of the point; whether you love them, hate them or just don’t get them, if you don't respect the decisions they make in the running or ruining of their own lives, then you are part of the problem.

In Corpore (a Latin adverb, meaning ‘in body; in substance’) is broken into four stories, each one focussed on vibrant young women coping with relationship complications. In Melbourne, sculptress Julia (Clara Francesca Pagone) is visiting her friends and parents on a brief trip home from her New York base. Recently wed to a much older man and with broadminded views regarding polygamy and open marriages, Julia indulges her desires when she has morning sex with her old friend Henri (Frank Fazio).

In Malta, Anna (Naomi Said) is facing pressure from her long-term boyfriend Manny (Christopher Dingli) and her extended family to bear children, a life-changing decision that she is not yet willing to undertake. In Berlin, gay couple Rosalie (Sarah Timm) and Milana (Kelsey Gillis) are struggling with jealousies and insecurities steadily on the boil. Then, in New York City, we rejoin Julia as she shares her moment of meaningless infidelity with her silver-fox husband, Patrick (Timothy McCown Reynolds), who, like most of the men in the film, reacts with self-centred petulance and brattish intolerance.  

Two key directorial decisions ensure In Corpore will surface mostly in daring festival placements and in the homes of indie-minded inner-city urbanites. Firstly, the dialogue is improvised, with the actors bouncing off each other with a delivery style that is sometimes pitched a bit high. When it is done right, it conveys heartbreak and honesty and humanity with an aching accuracy; best among the cast is Naomi Said, whose soulful performance is lovely.

The other stylistic choice that Portelli and Malekin gamble with are intensely staged and extended sex scenes. These sequences are clearly designed to positively convey the nature of the emotional connections shared by the characters; in the wake of a particularly heated argument, Timm and Gillis have rough shower sex that speaks to the desperation they are both feeling as their relationship frays. Said and Christopher Dingli make passionate love, yet when their motivations are revealed, the awkward honesty captured is remarkably moving. Many filmmakers claim they only use sex scenes to advance their narratives and build character, but few achieve that noble goal; Portelli and Malekin, and their fearless cast, do so with grace and class.

In Corpore is a slyly subversive battle-of-the-sexes commentary that positions modern young women determined to chart their own course through life as a kind of new heroic narrative arc. The DNA of such landmark empowerment films as Paul Mazurky’s An Unmarried Woman (1978) and Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends (1978) courses through its veins. Like those independently-minded films, In Corpore may also emerge as a work that ushered in a period of social change.

TALES OF THE UNCANNY

Featuring: Kier-La Janisse, David Gregory, Eli Roth, Joe Dante, Mark Hartley, Mick Garris, Ernest Dickerson, Joko Anwar, Ramsey Campbell, David DeCoteau, Kim Newman, Jovanka Vuckovic, Luigi Cozzi, Tom Savini, Jenn Wexler, Larry Fessenden, Richard Stanley, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Brian Yuzna, Gary Sherman, Rebekah McKendry and Peter Strickland.

Director: David Gregory.

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE: Screening with NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR 35th Anniversary presentation at Monster Fest from 1:30pm on Sunday, 6th December, Cinema Nova, Carlton, Melbourne.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Anthology films, those critically under-valued providers of thrills and chills for generations of genre fans, are afforded an appropriately passionate, often giddily infectious reappraisal in Tales of the Uncanny. Severin Films’ boss David Gregory, working with renowned horror academic Kier-La Janisse, have corralled over 60 exponents of cinema’s darkest artistry to recount and respect the greatest short-form film narratives in movie history. Refreshingly, the doco compiles two Best of... lists - for whole films and individual segments -in a gesture that will help new fans seek out the finest of the genre.  

While even the best of anthology films suffer from the inevitable saggy segment (a common trait acknowledged by the filmmakers and their interviewees), no such dip in tone or quality infects Gregory’s buoyant love letter. Tales of the Uncanny tracks the portmanteau format from its origins in Germanic puppet theatre and the collected works of Poe and Lovecraft in publications such as Grahams and Weird Tales magazines through the very earliest days of filmmaking. 

Anthologies played a key role in early European cinema, such as the German masterpieces Eerie Tales (Dir: Richard Oswald, 1919) and Waxwork (Dirs: Leo Birinsky and Paul Leni, 1924) and the great British work Dead of Night (1945), featuring director Alberto Cavalcanti’s classic segment ‘The Ventriliquist’s Dummy’ (with Michael Redgrave; pictured, below). Anthologies soon found favour within Hollywood’s star-driven studio system; director Julien Duvivier’s 1943 pic Flesh and Fantasy boasted the dream cast of Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G Robinson and Charles Boyer.

The obsessively-minded cavalcade of contributors - amongst them, filmmakers (Eli Roth, Joko Anwar, Brian Yuzna, Larry Fessenden, Jenn Wexler, Mattie Do); authors and academics (Kim Newman, Amanda Reyes, Maitland McDonagh); genre giants (Tom Savini, Roger Corman, Luigi Cozzi, Joe Dante, Greg Nicotero, David Del Valle); and, Antipodean talent (Mark Hartley, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Mark Savage) - recount seminal moments in the anthology classics of their formative film years. The coverage is exhaustive, but extra attention is paid to such landmark movies as Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963); Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1964); and, Histoires extraordinaires (1968; aka Spirits of the Dead), featuring segments by Louis Malle, Roger Vadim and Frederico Fellini.

Even at a relatively lean 103 minutes, Gregory and Janisse are able to fully profile U.K. outfit Amicus Productions, kings of Britain’s golden age of anthology films (Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, 1965; Torture Garden, 1967; The House That Dripped Blood, 1970; Tales from the Crypt, 1972 (pictured, top; with Joan Collins); From Beyond the Grave, 1974); highlight small-screen anthology horror, from the groundbreaking work of Dan Curtis (Trilogy of Terror, 1975; Dead of Night, 1977) to the resurgent anthology TV-series boom of the ‘80s (Amazing Stories, Tales from the Crypt, Freddy’s Nightmares); and, the classics of the modern era, both adored (Creepshow, 1982; Twilight Zone The Movie, 1984; V/H/S, 2012) and ignored (Cat’s Eye, 1985; From a Whisper to a Scream, 1987; Southbound, 2015).

Tales of the Uncanny has done its job if the viewer comes away with a list of films to re/watch, and it certainly achieves that. It also succeeds in painting the portmanteau genre as a form of film storytelling that needs to be more seriously addressed by both mainstream audiences and film historians. At their very best, anthology films offer the most unique of movie-going experiences and, with credit to David Gregory and Kier-La Janisse, ought now be examined more respectfully.    

APARTMENT 1BR

Stars: Nicole Brydon Bloom, Alan Blumenfeld, Susan Davis, Naomi Grossman, Clayton Hoff, Giles Matthey, Taylor Nichols, Earnestine Phillips and Celeste Sully.
Writer/Director: David Marmor

Available in Australia on iTunes, Amazon, TelstraTV BoxOffice, Fetch TV, Youtube and on DVD from JB Hi-Fi. Distributed by Eagle Entertainment.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Recalling Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Michael Winner’s The Sentinel (1977) in its depiction of the paranoid untwirling of a young woman’s psyche, David Marmor’s Apartment 1BR is a similarly tightly-wrought, singularly-focussed exercise in psychological and existential terror.

Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) is only just finding her feet as an adult. Her temp job, however thankless, is secure, and the distance she is putting between herself and her father brings a new sense of calm (as does the Zoloft). However, like a great many Los Angelinos, taking control of your mind while establishing your own small portion of the city is a daunting task. When she finds a too-good-to-be-true rental in a classically Stucco-rendered gated complex, Sarah envisions her life taking on some kind of order; she promises the affable tenants committee that she will do all she can to fit into their order of living.

Her ideal apartment begins to go bump in the night to such a degree she becomes sleep-deprived, allowing doubt over her own powers of perception to creep in. Any deviation from what is accepted by the body corporate draws increasingly disturbing ire (let’s just say pets don’t fare well in these types of movies). Soon, Sarah’s defiance in the face of what the community requires of her spins the film into some chillingly realistic moments of horror.

As recently as one year ago (when Australian audiences first saw the film, then known as 1BR, at its Monster Fest premiere screenings) the key narrative elements were Sarah’s - one woman’s story, basking subtextually in #MeToo empowerment and self-realisation. But viewed again as we bear witness to the death throes of an administration fuelled by cult-like devotion and immoral, self-serving rationalisation, Marmor’s rogue’s gallery of bullying neighbours takes on razor-sharp real-world relevance. 

Willing to maim and torture (and more again) to ensure their collective social goals are met - goals that allude to the sanctimony of imbuing in oneself and those that follow you the moral high-ground - 1BR is as incisive a slice of pitch black social satire as it is a squirm-inducing horror film. Played to perfection by such everyperson character actor types as Naomi Grossman, Clayton Hoff, Giles Matthey and a terrifying Taylor Nichols, the tenants are so grotesquely normal in their appearance yet so vividly vile in the inhumanity of their society. 

The final frames hint that good people like Sarah need to stay alert and be ready to act and react, because gated communities festering with self-interest and privilege are everywhere. With his remarkable debut feature, David Marmor offers you a slice of American pie and rubs your face in it.

AN UNQUIET GRAVE

Stars: Jacob A. Ware and Christine Nyland.
Writers: Christine Nyland and Terence Krey.
Director: Terence Krey.

WORLD PREMIERE: Sunday October 11 at NIGHTSTREAM Virtual Film Festival, U.S.A.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

A sly, slow-burn two-hander exhibiting a genre heritage best described as ‘supernatural-noir’, An Unquiet Grave tightens the narrative screws with a mix of psychological thrills, grief-infused drama and OMG horror. Kept real by grounded depictions of desperation, sorrow and fear by two terrific lead performances, director Terence Krey’s high-end low-budgeter builds empathy and understanding for its protagonists before getting down and dirty in a pulse-quickening third act.

An established and respected ensemble player (notably in TV series like Boardwalk Empire and Graves), Jacob A. Ware takes full advantage of leading man status as ‘Jamie’, fleshing out the nuanced psychosis impacting a man still struggling with the death of his wife, Julie. A year on, he has taken to driving in the dark of night with Julie’s sister, Ava (Christine Nyland, who co-scripted), to the site where Julie died. Their shared hope is that Julie may not have lived her final days if what Jamie has learned is true.

Along the way, interaction between the pair waivers from warm and understanding to edgy and devious. Nyland and Krey’s script is a work of considerable skill, with each line playing a carefully constructed role in complicating character traits and strengthening the conceit. When the setting shifts from the front seat of the car to a cabin in the woods and the narrative spins from sideway glances and ambiguous wordplay to shovels and shallow graves, the transition is seamless. 

If, by the hour mark, you are wondering why The Unquiet Grave is bowing at the Nightstream horror fest, one especially challenging sequence will silence your concerns. While certainly a great visceral horror sequence, the reveal also reinforces the notion that the true horror in the story of these lost souls stems from their broken hearts.  

Krey, Nyland and Ware stay focussed on character and mood over genre tropes and histrionics, aided immeasurably by the artful eye of DOP Daniel Fox, who works wonders with a lot of single-source light/night-time location work. An Unquiet Grave is an assured genre exercise in the corrosive nature of profound sadness and how it can dissolve the moral core of good people.

PACIFICO

Featuring: Christian Gibson, Chris Gooley, Charlie Wilmoth and Minnie Piccardo.
Directors: Andreas Geipel, Christian Gibson.

Available to rent or own worldwide from October 1 on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo on Demand.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

An experiential odyssey through the land, culture and humanity of Latin America, Pacifico chronicles the impact upon two young Australian men seeking meaningful connection beyond our desk-bound, web-dependent society. Cloaked under the aesthetics of a surfing doco, kindred spirits Christian Gibson and Chris Gooley front a remarkably poignant, visually gorgeous travelogue that captures true beauty, both natural and emotional.

Welcomed by the voice of 20th century philosopher Alan Watts reciting his new-age anthem, The Secret of Life (“Let's have a dream which isn't under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's gonna be... And finally, you would dream where you are now”), we meet the Melbourne-based Gibson bemoaning the sale of his stalled internet start-up. The upside is that the 26 year-old is now cash healthy and determined to break down barriers to a wider world that he has unwittingly erected around his cloistered western life.

Gibson meets up with Gooley and is soon swept up in their journey of shared enlightenment, carried by their trustee steed - a decked-out van they call ‘Ulysses’. The pair cover thousands of miles across Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia and Peru, to name a few, seeking not only headland breaks and perfect barrels whipped up by the Roaring Forties, but also jungle treks, mountain trails and trout-rich rivers. While the union of man and nature is examined in earnest on their travels, so too is their own dynamic and their interactions with the villagers of the region.

Andreas Geipel, not present at all for the boy’s six month journey, earns a director credit for the skill with which he corrals hundreds of hours of footage into a singularly enriching narrative. The German filmmaker, employing introspective voiceovers from both Gibson and Gooley to help convey the life changing beauty of the land and its people, has crafted a deeply thoughtful work. 

The dual meaning of the title repping both the pulsating, life-giving ocean and the peaceful, soulful nature of the region’s population, Pacifico is a film about journeys. Gooley ponders his connection with the waves that have travelled thousands of nautical miles to carry him for a few joyous moments at a time; the young men bring a sense of discovery to two generations of local men when they hand over the control of Ulysses on a vast salt lake; and, in sweetly-captured glimpses of new love, Gibson commits to a journey of the heart when he falls hard for Argentinian beauty, Minnie.

Citing as the inspirational life force of the journey the spirit of Andean goddess Pacahmama (‘Mother Earth’), Pacifico resonates with the courage required to take that first step beyond the way of life to which one becomes accustomed. It is a call to arms for adventurers, those seeking profound discovery of both body and soul.