Dir - Mathieu Turi
Overall: MEH
The ambitious, quasi-Cube re-working Meander, (Méandre), by writer/director Mathieu Turi has some clear detriments though it manages to remain predominantly nerve-wracking at least. Carrying virtually the entire film on her lonesome, Gaia Weiss is excellent as a terrified yet determined woman trapped in a brutally unforgiving maze. The production design is quite effective as well, creating a chilling, otherworldly environment. Turi maintains a relentlessly tense atmosphere with set pieces that rear close to torture porn territory without succumbing fully to unwatchable miserableness. While the movie assuredly succeeds in the suspense category, (with plenty of gross out moments for horror genre purists as well), the story is quite hackneyed. The premise easily recalls the aforementioned Cube series as well as Shinya Tsukamoto's short film Haze, but the emotional link of Weiss' character overcoming the traumatic loss of her daughter is quite pedestrian and undercooked. It is a shame that the film's overly-simplified narrative and somewhat derivative concept undermine the elements that do indeed work, yet for those simply in the mood for a deliciously claustrophobic, nintey-minute nightmare, this one will easily suffice.
Dir - Jill Gevargizian
Overall: MEH
With several short films under her belt, (including the one for which this is expanded and based upon), Jill Gevargizian unleashed the tensely odd full-length The Stylist. Centered around a severely unhinged introvert, the film is disturbing in its very nature even as it never bothers to delve very deep into the origins of Najarra Townsend's alarming behavior. She is attractive, well-dressed, lives in a large house by herself, has a hip job, appears quiet yet friendly enough in social encounters, yet her devastating struggles in keeping such upward appearances seem arbitrarily in place. The same goes for her obsession with one of her long-term clients, which more or less springs up out of nowhere. This narrative aloofness keeps the movie from being as engaging as it otherwise would be since the focus is on a character so impenetrably off that it is more of a voyeuristic experience for the viewer and one that borders on frustration. Still, Gervargizian's vision is remarkably stunning as the movie is wonderfully shot and as a thriller, she pulls off a number of nail-biting moments that are worth taking note of. The pay-off may be a bit standoffish, but then again, this may be intended as that seems to be a primary theme here in general.
Dir - Johnathan Cuartas
Overall: MEH
For his first full-length, writer/director Johnathan Cuartas takes a sobering and dour look at one of the horror films most abundantly used "monsters" and a handful of its tropes. Shot with virtually zero flash and utilizing a screenplay with virtually zero humor, My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To has a deliberately stark quality to it. The characters dwelling here exist in a perpetual state where their humanity continues to be drained away. What joy they do experience is found purely out of desperation, (a pawn shop karaoke machine, the by-the-hour attention of a prostitute, celebrating Christmas multiple times a year, etc), yet such sanity-maintaining measures have all but completely failed them by the time they are introduced to us. The movie is relentlessly depressing because of this and very often difficult to sit through. The minuscule cast does admirable work with such heavy material and there are no stylistic genre cliches anywhere to be found, both of which are good things on paper. What mild comforts it may offer are persistently dampened though and it all comes with an overbearing aura of life being brutally unforgiving and hopeless. It is as far from a feel-good movie as you can get then and such a warning should probably be given to those who wish to venture here.
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