El Apego (The Attachment Diaries) (2023)

El Apego (The Attachment Diaries), directed by Valentin Javier Diment, blends melodrama, noir and horror as it delves into the depths of human desperation and the lengths some people will go to in order to survive. However, the weirder the film gets, the less satisfying it becomes.  

Set in 1970s Argentina, the story follows Carla (Jimena Anganuzzi) a young woman who finds herself during a rainy night at the home of gynecologist Irina (Lola Berthet).  Destitute and unable to have an abortion, Carla offers to sell herself and her baby to Irina who agrees to find foster parents for a hefty profit.  From there, the film takes a dark and twisted turn, exploring themes of sexual depravity and obsession.

Initially, the cinematography is shot in black and white; the film eventually bursts into color after Irina experiences an orgasm with Carla.  This sexual awakening opens the floodgates for mutual obsession and attached dependency, as quickly as the bodies begin to pile up. 

 

While the retro visual style keeps everything interesting, ultimately the film’s desperation to shock is apparent while taking a deep dive into B-movie schlock, which some audiences may enjoy.  🎬🎬 (2 out of 4)

Falcon Lake (2023)

Falcon Lake is a beautifully crafted drama that portrays the innocence and complexity of adolescence. Director Charlotte Le Bon has done an impressive job in creating a romantic and delicate narrative with an unexpected surprise narrative twist.

The narrative follows 13-year-old Bastien (Joseph Engel) who is on a vacation with his family in Quebec. Bastien meets Chloé (Sara Montpetit), the 16-year-old daughter of his mother's old friend Louise (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman), and they begin to develop a relationship that is both sweet and mature.  

The performances of the lead cast are praiseworthy. Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit have a natural chemistry that is heartwarming to watch. Karine Gonthier-Hyndman as Louise delivers a performance that is both strong and vulnerable.

The film's atmospheric cinematography captures the hazy summer landscapes of Quebec and adds to the film's overarching themes of self-discovery, family, and love. The imagery is carefully constructed to add depth to the story's emotional arc of the characters.  Overall, Falcon Lake is a poignant, beautiful, and touching film that explores the complexities of adolescent relationships. Le Bon has created a intimate film that is relevant and relatable.  🎬🎬🎬 (3 out of 4)

Censor (2021)

Censor is the psychological horror feature debut from director and screenwriter Prano Bailey-Bond and premiered in the Midnight slate of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.   Shot on Kodak 35mm film with muted and dreary color palettes, Censor effectively captures the tone of the Thatcher era of censorship and video nasties that should help find its niche with horror genre audiences.  

The premise involves Enid, a British film censor during the 1980’s video nasty hysteria who views her job as a personal responsibility to save others from the violence and degradation she edits out of films for theatrical distribution.  Her social responsibility stems from her massive guilt involving the mysterious disappearance of her sister.  To make matters worse, she begins to lose grip of her reality after a murder is committed with a striking similarity to a horror film that she passed for distribution with minimal cuts.  Enid sinks into further delusion as she continues to experience flashbacks of her sister’s disappearance triggered by a particular video nasty that is strangely familiar to her own life.  With this discovery, Enid sets out to find the film director and the truth about her sister while her reality and cinematic fantasy begin to blur.  

 

Censor is rich with a multi-textured, but dated social commentary involving censorship and the impact of cinematic violence on society.  While Bailey-Bond’s love for the horror genre is apparent, particularly the throwback era of the video nasty.  However, the limited appeal feels irrelevant because video games have since replaced the well-worn conservative argument against violent entertainment.  While it does work as a touchstone of a bygone social hysteria, the film is not entirely convincing that a younger audience will really connect with the underlying issues regarding the video nasty debate.  Yet, the screenwriter’s perspective does stay very faithful to the academic argument that rallied these films do not bring out violent behavior with society, but simply is a response to the horrific things that happen to people. 

Ultimately, the underlying commentary falls apart during the over the top final act involving a film crew and Enid because of her delusional response that does suggest her reality has been severely impacted by violent content, which is a confusing, mixed narrative message that doesn’t quite know how to write itself out of.  A similar problem that existed within the social commentary of Cannibal Holocaust, the notorious big kahuna of all video nasties. Despite the flaws, there is an enjoyable   nostalgic appeal with its use of film clips from various classics and the film-within-a-film narrative device that hopefully will help Censor find distribution and its audience.  🎬🎬🎬 (3 out of 4)

In Fabric (2019)

In Fabric, scheduled for a limited United States theatrical release later in the year is from writer-director Peter Strickland and is a completely bonkers and wildly entertaining film about a seriously possessed dress that can sliver across the floor and under closed doors, as well as mysteriously hover in the air.  The origins on how the dress became so cursed is not revealed within the narrative except that it was worn by a former model during a freak zebra crossing accident. Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a recently single mother who purchases the dress for a special date that ends up being a dud and even worse, she inherits all the bad luck included with her purchase such as a body rash, a dog attack and nighttime premonitions that something just doesn’t seem right.  Strickland even throws in a faulty washing machine that works as a narrative device to connect three characters the dress is passed along to. Sheila is killed off in a surprising Hitchcockian plot twist revealing that she is not main character of the film and the narrative shifts to a washing machine repairman (Leo Bill) who wears the dress for his bachelor party before passing the demonic frock over to his fiancée (Carolina Catz).  No one seems to notice the otherworldly and bizarre nature of the department store called Dentley and Soper and the odd behavior of the employees and weirdly stylized mannequins.  The interior and exterior shots of the store were clearly filmed on a sound stage and help give a fake, off center visual style.  

The off centeredness is accentuated further with an audience displacement of time due to the mixture of the present-day setting combined with retro 1970’s (or 1980’s) department store sale advertisements on television, the look book models and the rapid retro fashion montage sequences that become hypnotic visual collage artwork on the screen. Further audience displacement is used with unspecific foreign language accents from the antagonists within Dentley and Soper.

Strickland sensually obsesses with fashion and texture to the point of fetish.  Specifically, during the scene involving a pair of fabric scissors cutting out the pages from the department store look book, the audience can hear the thick texture of the pages.  This visual design is what gives In Fabric such a unique quality that is nothing like anything else out there.  Mannequins are frequently used for a creep out effect, as well as an incredibly bizarre erotic scene that is the most unsettling moment that I have seen in quite some time.  

The narrative walks a fine line between horror and comedy as Strickland wisely understands it is the best thing to do with a premise about a cursed dress and the fact that he pulls it off so well is something that needs to be seen to be believed.  The theme of fashion and consumerism is a well-worn idea. However, the climax involving the downfall of the department store with its shoppers, as well as the brilliant electronic film score by Cavern of Anti-Matter indicates Strickland has unquestionably created a surrealist masterwork.   🎬🎬🎬🎬 (4 out of 4)

Too Old To Die Young (2019)

Too Old To Die Young is the latest offering from Nicolas Winding Refn and Amazon Prime that is an extended film broken down into ten episodes with a running time between an hour and a half to a little over an hour per episode.  In other words, Refn has guaranteed that fans of his work will be getting their money’s worth.  TOTDY is a brutal, surprising and stylish look into Refn’s criminal underworld full of hit men, drug cartels and corrupt police officers with shifting identities that never turn out who they pretend to be.  Episode One (The Devil) opens with the protagonist Martin, a police officer who witnesses his co-worker extort money and threaten a civilian stopped for a routine traffic violation.  After his co-worker is killed due to a robbery gone wrong involving the leader of a Mexican drug cartel, the revenge murder introduces the audience to Jesus and Yaritza (a.k.a. The High Priestess of Death), the inherited leaders of the Mexican drug cartel establishing their power within the drug underworld.  Episode Two (The Lovers) centers on Jesus’ family, their cartel business and the death of both matriarch and patriarch that ends the peace agreement between Mexican law enforcement and the cartel family.  Each episode featuring Martin and Jesus present the idea that people are never who they really seem to be.  The characters seem to have ordinary lives while maintaining very seedy connections to the drug culture underworld.  The opening sequence of Episode Four (The Tower) includes a shot of a movie broadcast of the 1961 thriller Night Tide, a film about a mysterious woman with a very big secret that reinforces the theme of mysterious identities and helps connect Martin’s identity shift from law enforcement officer to a moralistic vigilante.  While Martin is promoted to a Los Angeles investigative unit, his first assignment involves the murder of a pedophile physical therapist that lead him to Viggo and Diana.  Her occupation is a violent crimes advocate, but she also provides an offering when the time is right that consists of the name and address of the perpetrator who committed a violent crime against her victims.  This offering allows Viggo and eventually Martin to kill them off as a final retribution for the victim.  The remaining episodes shift back to Jesus and Yaritza and their retribution against Martin for his involvement with the robbery gone wrong and the death of their matriarch.  The conclusion of Too Old To Die Young is a final identity shift involving Jesus and Yaritza and the film itself that crosses genres from crime thriller to mystical science fiction.  

The extended narrative of Too Old To Die Young touches on various themes regarding family, Christianity and Trump’s America.  Family is emphasized with scenes between Viggo and his mother, Jesus and Yaritza, Martin and his girlfriend’s father, as well as a gangster named Damian and an intimate scene of his daughter ice skating.  Jesus and his mother Magdalena reference Christian biblical scripture and tarot mysticism throughout the episodes while the sequence of Viggo wiping out an entire trailer park in an exaggerated manner is clearly about Trump’s middle America socioeconomic demographic.  Stylistically, frame composition is at the forefront of the film and cinematographers Darius Khondji and Diego Garcia compliment the tension building narrative with the occasional neon-soaked lighting.  Deep space, shallow focus and extreme close-up camerawork often emphasize the open desert terrain that help create a sense of isolation and dread effectively.  There is consistent panning from left to right and back again throughout every episode, while the actors do not move and pose within the frame instead.  However, most of the camera work often seems flat and never quite reaches the visual dazzle of Natasha Braier’s cinematography work from my personal favorite The Neon Demon.  

Nicolas Winding Refn is often referred to as a cinema bad boy and there is plenty of shock value to be found here.  Scenes with complacent and drawn out dialogue are interrupted with bursts of violence that is often brutal and uncomfortable to watch.  Too Old To Die Young touches on everything from sexualized violence, bisexuality, homophobia, misogyny and everything in between. Regardless, Too Old To Die Young has plenty to offer and is definitely worth checking out and fans of his work certainly will not be disappointed either.    🎬🎬🎬 (3 out of 4)

Diamantino (2018)

Diamantino, written and directed by Daniel Schmidt and Gabriel Abrantes is a wonderfully bizarre Portugal film where at the center lies an incredible warm-hearted sweetness. 

The title character, played by Carlota Cotta, is a soccer player (clearly inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo), who is responsible for a cultural disappointment after missing a penalty kick during the final moments of a World Cup championship game. Diamantino decides to make good for himself by adopting a refugee. Unbeknownst to him, the adopted refugee is actually a lesbian secret service agent who is investigating him for money laundering. Diamantino's problems worsen once his money obsessed siblings decide to hand him off to a mad scientist with plans to clone his genetics for a government plot to strengthen Portugal's power within the EU. The under the radar queerness is almost undermined with the muddy sexual dynamics of the narrative. The film veers into the dangerous old school notion that male charm is irresistible, even for a lesbian. A notion that hopefully contemporary audiences have enough sense not to buy into as an argument for sexual preferences instead of orientation. 

Additionally, the lesbian/secret service/refugee character Aisha, who is pretending to be a young boy and calls Diamantino ‘daddy' while watching the character development between the two becoming more intimate had me absolutely squirming in my seat with its implications. The redemption of the film is the compassionate message about finding acceptance and love, even if gender bending, genetically modified breasts are involved.  🎬🎬🎬 (3 out of 4)

First Reformed (2017)

First Reformed marks Paul Schrader's triumphant return to compelling cinema following a series of not so wonderful films that peaked with The Canyons. Ethan Hawke plays Reverend Toller, a minister of a church whose dwindling faith and physical health is further challenged after meeting an environmental activist and his wife. 

While the film feels modest in tone, Ethan Hawke's performance and the screenplay written by Schrader help exhibiit his auteur style that is slightly reminiscent of his earlier films Taxi Driver and Hardcore, particularly regarding the conflict between religion and contemporary morality that result in one of the year's best films.  🎬🎬🎬 🎬 (4 out of 4)