Dir - Ryan J. Sloan
Overall: GOOD
This singular psychological thriller was shot over two years and comes from the mind of filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan and co-screenwriter/lead actor Ariella Mastroianni, lingering in uncomfortable intimacy as it follows a troubled woman who finds herself in the middle of an even more troubling ordeal. As the main protagonist, Mastroianni suffers from dyschronometria; a rare degenerative condition that makes it increasingly difficult for her to keep track of time, often zoning out for hours as her finances are in dire straits, her relationship with her daughter is non-existent, her stepmother who takes care of said daughter deliberately keeps her at a distance, and she is plagued by a combination of surreal and vague waking dreams from the night of her husband's suicide. Naturally, this makes her ill-equipped to deal with an unfolding mystery surrounding a woman who proves to not be who she seems that offers her a job which she cannot refuse. Sloan directly references David Cronenberg's Videodrome in one of Mastroianni's more bizarre nightmare revisits, cinematographer Matheus Bastos shoots everything in 16mm with a handheld camera, and the music by Steve Matthew Carter evokes a kind of urban eeriness that fits the bleak and often times antiquated New Jersey setting. It may frustrated those who are lacking patience or are too uncomfortable with Mastroianni's damaged POV to exclusively sit with it for nearly two hours, but it thankfully rewards those who can hop onboard its stark and uncompromising agenda.
Dir - Stephen Quay/Timothy Quay
Overall: MEH
An adaptation of Bruno Schultz' 1937 novel of the same name, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass is the latest from the stop-motion sibling animation duo of Stephen and Timothy Quay. Even more impenetrable than Wojciech Jerzy Has' 1973 version The Hourglass Sanatorium, the seventy-six minute films feels nine hours longer, which is fitting for a story that takes place in a dream dimension where time floats in and out in mysterious waves, melding the past, present, and future through a haze of one's own psyche. Unfortunately, it also makes for a maddening watch, not just because the pacing is labored, but also because the source material itself is so challenging and deliberately arcane. The Brothers Quay have no interest in unlocking its secrets, instead traveling inward even further with a combination of their patented disturbed and striking stop-motion and live action, little dialog, and murky cinematography that looks like a representation of someone's half remembered nightmare filtered through Vaseline on the lens. This is a shame since all of the stylistic trappings are purposefully in place and many of them are spellbinding, but just as many are impossible to decipher, and this is only taking into account the athletic and not the non-narrative that offers up a slow, slow, SLOW cacophony of nebulous strangeness to endure.
Dir - Zelda Williams
Overall: MEH
The directorial debut from actor Zelda Williams and the latest from screenwriter Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein is a charming-on-paper genre mash-up that needs to be both funny and clever to work, yet sadly is neither. What the movie does have going for it is a sharp aesthetic with vibrant colors, some neutered Tim Burton eccentricities, and a lovable performance from Kathryn Newton, even if her character, (and everyone else's), is underwritten at best. Cody's script has a lot on its plate. It tries to balance traumatic loss with zombie, romance, high school, and coming of age motifs, but the Heathers-style black humor does not come together, and Newton's makeover from awkward and emotionally ravished square to arrogant and reckless goth babe comes without any proper build up or logical footing. Cole Sprouce does his best Johnny Depp-as-Edward-Scissorhands impression as Newton's freshly revitalized corpse/slave/love interest, but he mostly just looks like a sad and constipated puppy as Newton's villainous transformation makes her less and less likeable. The tone is deliberately goofy of course, but its implausibility would not be so much of a problem if it was not so slapdash, or if more of the jokes landed, or if every plot point did not feel rushed. Williams and Cody's hearts are in the right place and their work bypasses some obnoxious tropes that it otherwise could have indulged in, but it still ends up being a clumsy mess.
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