Dir - Saul Williams
Overall: GOOD
A surreal, Afrofururist musical collaboration between Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, Neptune Frost plays out like a Terrance Malick movie except even less narratively overt. Stylistically, this is a triumph that is visually stunning with neon colors, intimate camerawork, and a rich, cultural aesthetic that is rooted in a futuristic Rwanda that may as well be taking place at any point in history, though its themes of technological colonialism and the exploitative toll that it takes on Third World nations is potent in a contemporary sense. Also dealing with nonconformity, gender, and individuality amongst a peaceful tribe of telepathic hackers who wish to remain off the grid while expanding their message to oust their oppressors, such elements are explored through musical numbers and frequent dialog exchanges. Both of these things are repetitive in nature to not only emphasis their point, but also to further crystalize the film's mesmerizing expression. A singular work to be sure and one that transcends proper genre classification, it can entice and frustrate in equal measures since there is no spoon-feeding as far as its storytelling coherence is concerned.
Dir - Sim Deok-Geun
Overall: MEH
Though it boasts the gimmick of being the first South Korean film to be screened in SD, 4DX, and ScreenX versions, Sim Deok-Geun's directorial debut Guimoon: The Lightless Door offers up a pummeling barrage of supernatural set pieces at the cost of both a coherent story and proper character development. Filmed at an abandoned training center in the city of Pocheon, it has the grimy aesthetic of Session 9, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, or pick your favorite horror movie that has characters venturing into a dilapidated, cartoonishly creepy setting where arbitrary and inescapable ghost activity is happening left and right. Formulaic premise aside, the story launches right into its spook show aspects, bouncing between narrative timelines every couple of minutes after a brief set up where Kim Kang-woo's psychic research director vows to uncover the mystery of what happened to his shaman mother four years earlier. Jong-ho Lee's script prefers to throw both the audience and the people on screen into the deep end with no life guard on duty, barely establishing any rules to follow along the way which makes every on-paper "scary" thing more frustratingly inconsequential than nail-biting. Frenzied editing, cheap scare tactics, incessant music, and messy cinematography further muddles up an already derivative and unfocused experience.
Dir - Santiago Menghini
Overall: MEH
At one point in No One Gets Out Alive, Cristina Rodlo's protagonist shoots awake from about her hundredth vivid nightmare, proclaiming "Fuck!" out loud as a means of echoing the audience's similar frustration with such a tired gag. There lies the primary problem with visual effects man Santiago Menghini's full-length directorial debut in that its genre-pandering is limited in scope and makes for a monotonous and redundant viewing experience. An adaptation of Adam Nevill's novel of the same name, both the location and focus is switched, moving from England to Ohio and concerning a Mexican immigrant who is hard-pressed to begin her adult life after caring for her invalid mother for a number of years instead of going to college. These changes make for a more interesting narrative that explores the exploitation of working class minorities, particularly women who end up at the mercy of two brothers that run a haunted house with cheap rent, throwing in a final act twist that subverts more unsavory, rapey red herrings. Besides the derivative presentation and mood setting, (plus Menghini's aforementioned reliance on repetitive scares), the story loses focus with its supernatural ideas and becomes unintentionally silly with a big stupid CGI monster reveal that comes out of nowhere and clashes against the otherwise grounded approach.
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