Dir - Mimi Cave
Overall: MEH
In some respects Fresh is a, well, fresh debut from director Mimi Cave, (with a script from Lauryn Kahn), yet it does not quite nail the dismount. The "kidnapped while friends are looking for you" framework has long been a trope and of course most recently recalls Jordan Peele's hugely successful Get Out, with the same comedic relief that is almost self-referential here. There is a fundamental, macabre detail that differentiates it of course and overall this has a solid premise to work off of, especially coming from a female perspective. It is pretty swanky visually and the leading performances from Daisy-Edgar Jones and Sebastian Stan are as engaging as they should be. Cave makes some interesting choices that are fun, but the implausibility of the situation becomes a bit too much after awhile and that with the humorous tone shifts kind of muck everything up by the end. It almost gets by on style and charm alone, but the combination of deeply disturbing and kind of ridiculous aspects is a remarkably difficult thing to pull of so it gets an A for effort at least.
Dir - Goran Stolevski
Overall: GOOD
The full-length debut You Won't Be Alone from Australian/Macedonian filmmaker Goran Stolevski is an intensely stylized work that answers the question of what a horror movie by Terrence Malick would be like. Sparse narration over an endless montage of images with equally understated music playing throughout, it is Malick-esque to a tee and one could argue that it may even be a bit too derivative in such a regard. Then again, the haunting, highly ethereal mood fits the material well where an isolated girl in 19th century Macedonia comes into womanhood, gets freed, and then abandoned by a shapeshifting witch who passes on her "curse" to her stolen daughter. Several different actors excellently portray the mute protagonist in this violent, heartbreaking, yet ultimately uplifting coming of age story where amongst all of the struggle and confusion of such troubled times, there is still a level of hope that manages to win through. As the burnt, wolf-eatress Maria, Anamaria Marinca is quite chilling in her matter of fact portrayal as well. Challenging in its delivery maybe, but it is a wonderfully artful, well-rounded work as far as the modern new wave of folk horror is concerned.
Dir - David Cronenberg
Overall: GOOD
At age seventy-nine and presumably at the point of well-earned retirement, David Cronenberg surprised everyone with the second movie in his filmography titled Crimes of the Future; not only his first theatrical film in eight years but more excitingly, his return to the pioneering, textbook body horror that defined his career. Considering that the initial screenplay was written and went into pre-production back in 2003 before the project fell through and the director switched gears to comparatively more conventional drama, it has a "picking up where he left off" type of feel which is certainly not a bad thing. In fact the project seems to have benefited from the wait. The gritty, dystopian look is a bit trendy yes, but it melds perfectly with Cronenberg's textbook, fleshy technological aesthetic. The surgical tools are directly out of Dead Ringers, the organic control mechanisms out of eXistenZ, the odd, zombie-fied performances out of Crash, and the stomach cuts and openings clearly allude to Videodrome. Some could argue that this is merely the filmmaker basking in his legacy with such self-referential call-backs, but it has a dark, occasionally humorous, and certainly quirky tone that once again benefits from Howard Shore's alluring music and solid performances. A celebration of all things Cronenberg, it is a superbly crafted gift for those that admire his work and one which hits that much harder after so long of a wait.
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