ABBERANT VISIONS
4x4 (2019)
Starring: Peter Lanzani, Dady
Brieva, Luis Brandoni
Director: Mariano
Cohn
Writers: Mariano Cohn, Gaston
Duprat
Running
time: 88 minutes
A man breaks into an SUV to steal anything he can. But he can’t get out, no matter what he smashes. The vehicle has been sound-proofed and fitted with windows that allow occupants to see, but not be seen.
Eventually the car’s owner contacts the thief and informs him that his fate is squarely in the hands of the owner. A darkly comic and ironic Argentine tale of creative vigilante justice.
Pieta (2012)
Starring: Min-soo Jo, Lee Jung-jin, Ki-Hong Woo, et. al.
Director: Ki-duk Kim
Writer: Ki-duk Kim
Running time: 103 minutes
Back in the day, South Korean film-makers wrote the book on revenge-based morality plays. Pieta is a prime example, if somewhat more extreme.
A brutal, cold-blooded enforcer for a loanshark has his life thrown into disarray when a woman shows up, claiming to be the mother who abandoned him as an infant 30 years earlier.
There’s a bit of David Mamet in the screenplay, although it veers into areas the American playwright likely wouldn’t consider.
The movie is an examination of what a person is willing to lose for love, money or revenge. The result is unflinchingly brutal, with a dollop of twisted black humour.
The Closet (2020)
Starring: Jung-woo Ha, Yool Heo,
Nam-gil Kim
Director: Kwang-bin
Kim
Writer:
Kwang-bin Kim
Running time: 97
minutes
A recently-widowed architect and his tween daughter move into a new home. Their fragile relationship takes a dark turn when the girl disappears into her closet (literally). Reminiscent of Asian horror films like Ringu and Ju-on, The Closet examines the emotional carnage parents sometimes inflict on their children, often with good intentions and without realizing the effect. This Korean film is more cerebral than visceral and should satisfy those who appreciate that kind of approach.
The Place of No Words (2019)
Starring: Mark Webber, Teresa Palmer, Bodhi Palmer
Director: Mark Webber
Writer: Mark Webber
Running time: 95 minutes
What happens when we die? This fantasy/drama deals with the question through the eyes of a three-year-old boy whose father is terminally ill. The movie shifts between scenes of a rugged Viking fantasy world filled with fairies, ogres and “farting” ponds and the real world of past good times and present hospital beds. The on-screen family, btw, is a real-life one. A gentle and thought-provoking affair.
Buoyancy (2019)
Starring: Sarm Heng, Chan Visal, Chheung Vakhim, et. al.
Director: Rodd Rathjen
Writer: Rodd Rathjen
Running time: 93 minutes
A 14-year-old Cambodian boy, tired of being ordered by his father to work long days sewing and harvesting rice, runs away in the hope of finding a better life in Thailand. He gets a hard lesson in social Darwinism when he’s sold to work as a slave on a Thai fishing boat. This award-winning movie, with Khmer and Thai dialogue, works as a socio-political commentary — it may make you reconsider ordering that shrimp cocktail appetizer — and as a blueprint on how to create a killer.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Starring: Jim Cummings, Riki Lindhome, Robert Forster, et. al.
Director: Jim Cummings
Writer: Jim Cummings
Running Time: 83 minutes
A snowy, mountain town is ravaged by a serial killer. Some think it’s a werewolf; others think it’s not.
What starts out as a horror story quickly turns into a study of a sheriff overwhelmed by the simple horrors of his daily life: he’s an alcoholic with not-uncommon family issues and department colleagues who’d rather have the case turned over to another department. Some viewers may appreciate the dead-pan humour, others may find the characters — especially the lead — simply annoying. And anyone looking for a more straight-ahead horror movie better look elsewhere.
We Are Little Zombies (2019)
Starring: Keita Ninomyia, Mondo Okumura, Satoshi Mizuno, Sena Nakajima
Writer: Makoto Nagahisa
Running time: 120 minutes
A quartet of young Japanese teens meet at the funerals/cremations of their respective parents, none of whom died of natural causes. The new orphans commiserate, bond and form a rock band, which becomes an overnight sensation thanks, in part, to the hype/social media chatter about their personal tragedies — a couple of their tunes, sung in English, are actually pretty catchy even if the lyrics are a bit morbid. There are no “walking dead” in the movie, just the talking living. What they say is absurd, nihilistic and wise in a cynically naive way. The message may be that there is no rulebook or appropriate way to grieve. You just have to deal with it.
She Dies Tomorrow (2020)
Starring: Kate Lyn Sheil, Jane Adams, Chris Messina, Katie Aselton, et.al.
Director: Amy Seimetz
Writer: Amy Seimetz
Running time: 84 minutes
A young woman is certain today is her last day on earth. Starting with her friend, that conviction is passed on, infecting various people in their lives — a “virus” going viral if you will.
That her friend spends much of her time wearing pyjamas, looking at a specimen through a microscope and going to a birthday party and the emergency room, may be a central symbol.
Profound? Pretentious? That’s up to the viewer to decide.
Archenemy (2020)
Starring: Joe Manganiello, Skylan Brooks, Zolee Griggs, Glenn Howerton, Amy Seimetz
Director: Adam Egypt Mortimer
Writer: Adam Egypt Mortimer
Running time: 90 minutes
Max Fist is a homeless barfly who scores drinks by regaling other patrons with tales of how he is really a hero from another dimension who fell to Earth through a hole in the universe. He gets to show his true self when he comes to the aid of a young friend in this comic book sci-fi noir story about stories, story tellers and story telling which combines comic book animation and live action.
The plot is nothing special, but the performances and style make the movie worth a watch.
PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020)
Starring: Nita-Josee Hanna, Owen Myre, et. al.
Director: Steven Kostanski
Writer: Steven Kostanski
Running time: 95 minutes
Nothing less than the fate of the universe is at stake in this Canadian bizarro riff on Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie plays out like something from the overheated imagina - tion of a young teenager who’s spent too much time in front of a video screen. And that’s meant in the best possible way. Visually it looks like it deserves an R-rating. But in its heart, Psycho Goreman is a PG. §
