Dir - Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Overall: GOOD
One is likely to compare the singular work of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul to the debut from fellow Thailand-operating Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, (What a name!). A Useful Ghost, (Phi Chaidai Kh), takes a similarly quirky approach to its supernatural subject matter where characters nonchalantly react and coexist with otherworldly entities, in this case spirits who decide to posses domestic appliances. It is a hilarious gag that gets plenty of stone-faced laughs early on, only becoming more thoughtful and intricate as it goes along. Boonbunchachoke winds up exploring everything from matriarchal manipulation, to conservatism, to homosexual relationships, to the 2010 Bangkock protestor slayings, to beyond the grave revenge. At the core of all this wild thematic melding is the overarching concept that tragedies and the loved ones taken by them need be remembered or else further injustice and oppression will continue to thrive. Wisely, Boonbunchachoke does not overburden the audience with these ideas, instead letting them find their course naturally over two hours, with touching, funny, and downright bizarre moments making this one of the most unique genre movies of its kind.
Dir - Osgood Perkins
Overall: MEH
Filmmaker Osgood Perkins delivers another in a mostly continuous stream of stylistically engaging yet faulty horror excursions, sticking with his exclusive genre of choice and working his auteur magic, warts and all. Keeper is Perkins' second time using a script that is not his own, choosing one from Nick Lepard to shoot quickly during downtime on the same year's The Monkey which went on hiatus due to the Writers Guild of American and SAG-AFTRA strike. Filmed on the cheap in Canada with a minuscule stable of accomplished local actors, the movie is a refreshing slow boil that makes atmospheric stillness and some well-placed WTF strangeness the primary focus. At this point in his behind the lens career, Perkins has a exemplary knack for such things, and it is a joy to watch how he subverts a few genre pratfalls and kicks up the intimate creepiness in the process. Unfortunately, Lepard's script indulges in loose ends that fail the icebox test and does what almost every horror screenplay does, which is to dilly-dally around a story that should have logically been wrapped up an hour earlier, spending half of its third act deflating itself with muddled exposition, spooky monsters crawling around like spiders for no reason, and a narrative turnaround that seems to play it fast and messy with its own supernatural rules. As is usually the case where Perkins is concerned, there is a better film lurking in here than what it delivered, but what is delivered still has plenty to recommend about it.
Dir - Colin Tilley
Overall: MEH
Prolific music video director Colin Tilley takes his first crack at a feature with the unremarkable and occasionally embarrassing Eye for an Eye, a type of country-fried A Nightmare on Elm Street that is brimful of schlock. We have prerequisite jump scares, characters monologuing exposition while dramatically looking off in the distance, unintentionally funny set pieces, cartoonish bully behavior that is necessary for plot purposes, awful CGI, stock/loud monster sound effects, and a sloppy third act that bulldozes through rapid-fire nightmare sequences, delivering an abrupt and weak ending in the process. As far as the performances go, Golda Rosheuvel comes off the worst due to the cringe-worthy dialog that she is given, laying on the southern drawl thick as her uneven character both laments and warns against the dangers of a local boogeyman that she has once released while also nonchalantly giving a young child the tools to unleash said boogeyman himself. The script by Elisa Victoria and Michael Tully feels like it is missing several pieces, particularly where the pro and antagonists are concerned. This actually may have been more satisfying if it was fleshed-out as a miniseries instead of a lone full-length, something that would have also provided a chance to deepen the mythology of its supernatural baddie. Tilley has a showy eye for visuals, but much of what is here is either arbitrary or hackneyed at best.
No comments:
Post a Comment