Wilding

 Don't be alarmed. It's not a reflection on the hideous tabloid freakery from the 1980s. No, this is a documentary based on a book by Isabella Tree about revisioning a family farm.

The doc is narrated by an unnamed woman, who I assume is Tree. Odd she is never named, and she repeatedly refers to Charlie, who turns out to be her husband. Some little pointers for the viewer going in cold would not go amiss. The first three minutes are also marred by a poor sound mix as Unnamed Woman fights to be heard above the strains of T-Rex. 

Tree and Charlie had inherited the farm, Knepp, in Sussex and realised they needed to do things differently if they wanted to bring the soil back to life. After hundreds of years of ploughing, fertilising and pesticides, the soil was almost dead. So, they did some research and instituted a version of rewilding, allowing the land to regain its more ancient state.

Interestingly, at least to me, this involved bringing in animals, among them ponies and cattle and letting them roam. This would allow the animals to interact with the landscape, shaping it and revitalising it. At one point Tree refers to the animals being managed but does not elaborate. So, I wondered, how wild were these animals? Were they vaccinated, have their hoofs and teeth checked? Was there any intervention if they became sick or injured? No information was given, although the couple do refer to questions by their neighbours who are not keen, which suggests they thought these questions were beyond the pale. Not really.

Instead there is a lot of footage of pigs rootling, stags wandering, birds nesting and water flowing. Beavers are brought in but this is also not explored. I had to go online to discover the two beavers who were brought in initially did not last long at the farm. I would love to see if the beaver experiment succeeds. 

Charlie concludes he could see the animals making their way to the sea, but how would this happen, what with motorways and other human creation in the way? The film ends on this note, which is rather unsatisfactory. But the ideas are intriguing, even if most of us do not have a spare 3500 acres lying around to pursue them. 

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Things Will Be Different

 This indie drama/sci fi/horror from writer/director Michael Felker is intriguing and well made if a bit confusing. Siblings Joseph and Sid (Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy) meet in what we assume is the present before he takes her to a remote location to hide out after some kind of robbery that has earned them $7m. Entering a certain closet allows them to go somewhere else in time until they can return safely. Except they can't. 

The time travel plot device plays out rather awkwardly in places as the two kill time in a big house and offer minimal exposition. Why are they estranged? Why did they commit a robbery? Eventually a strange force called The Vise enters their lives in the form of a mysterious safe with tape recorder. (Quite lo fi for a time travel film!) They need to follow instructions to get back safely. 

One oddity is how the two siblings are so well armed. Did they serve in the military? They stalk the property with their guns and then retreat to the kitchen to make use of the automatically restocking fridge. Once I noticed the contents resemble film set craft, I couldn't shake the notion the whole film is a metaphor for DIY film-making: being stuck in a location with a limited supply of food while the world proceeds unbothered. 

Anyway, Sid and Joseph await an unwelcome visitor and the whole thing goes full fight-to-the-death for a bit. And then gets weirder. By the end I had no idea what had happened or why. It seemed improbable certain characters would or would not recognise each other. So, it proved a frustrating watch, albeit with fully committed performances from the actors and some clever film-making to work within what was clearly a limited budget. 

I want an automatically restocking fridge!

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Paddington in Peru

 This third entry in the Paddington series finds our ursine hero and his human family the Browns en route to Peru to visit Aunt Lucy at the Home for Retired Bears. The title suggests an opportunity for the tables to turn as Paddington revisits his birthplace and the Browns are along for the ride as the outsiders. 

And to a point that is true. There are bears galore at the retirement home which is run by nuns led by Olivia Colman in shimmering grinny form. She even sings! 

And much later when the family is lost in the jungles and encounters some wild creatures it does appear as if Paddington is equipped to lead the way. But this is not really how things play out which is a disappointment.

So much time is spent on the hunt for Aunt Lucy and giving screentime to Antonio Banderas's hammy riverboat captain (clearly hoping to repeat the Hugh Grant in overdrive trick of the second film), that very little thought is given to the bears at all. Think about it: this would be the first time Paddington would be in the majority. Surely he would want to revisit his old home, perhaps pay tribute to his Uncle Pastuzo, use his own language? 

Not a bit of it. The climax which finds the family face to face with some unexpected inhabitants affords zero time to Paddington even considering his birth roots. Everything is quickly wrapped up and then it's back to London for a quick cameo from an old face. 

Never thought I would say it but Paddington really needs more bears and fewer human beings. 

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Members Club

 If someone, somewhere has been searching for a horror comedy about middle-aged male strippers encountering an ancient witch, this one's for you. The ahem members of the troupe, Wet Dreams, are booked in for a gig in Essex at a strangely deserted working men's club. Then something stirs.....

The set-up is fine, a sub-plot about stripper Alan's attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter Daisy emerging as all hell breaks loose. There are some laughs and a bit of gore. It's all good fun. Oh, and Peter Andre turns up in a ludicrous wig for no discernible reason. 

The gender politics are harder to determine. Is this meant to be a reversal of the age-old premise of hot young strippers being imperiled? Most of Wet Dreams have seen better days and the lads spend most of the film clad only in tiny glittery shorts. Then there are the witches, in multiple. Is witchcraft inherently bad? Not clear. There is quite an ugly scene toward the end that rather ruined the viewing experience, as Alan suddenly steps up to take action, urged on by his mate Deano. 

Ah, yes, Deano. So, Deano has an interesting anatomical feature only revealed right toward the end. Is this meant to be a joke? Is the whole film a health film in disguise? Not clear. A bit of a dampener, one might say. 

"It's cock-a-clock!" one character announces. If that appeals, this is your film. 

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Studio One Forever

 This documentary almost feels like it should have an exclamation mark at the end of the title. As West Hollywood councillor John Duran stands on stage, he bellows the words to his audience of former revellers and the attendant unseen angels. More on that later. 

There is no exclamation mark but the entertaining film revisits a lost gay club popular in the 1980s with plenty of archive footage and remembrances from staff and visitors. There is quite a large quotient of name-dropping, as well as everyone from Elton to Cary to Sylvester was there. Chita Rivera (RIP) is interviewed about launching her cabaret at the club's back room and admitting how daunting it was crossing the dance floor to get to her show. 

All of this great but so what? Lots of clubs existed in the 1980s. What made this one special? The hook is that the now-shuttered club is about to be demolished in 2018 as a big bad developer has taken over the property. Duran and his pals are keen to stop the demolition, and they put on a reunion to raise the club's profile. It takes until the 70th minute for anyone to mention AIDS and then it turns into a memorial as Duran speaks of all the lost angels looking down on them. This is moving but many people who were mentioned earlier are never given their due. What happened to them?

The editing is bizarre, skipping from a declaration that the club owner ran a racist admission policy to talking about Can't Stop the Music and then on to the DJ playlist. Visits to a local archive are interesting and there is a brief glimpse of some lost and now found photo negatives. But it's a bit of a mishmash. 

If this gives a new generation an idea of how club life functioned in WeHo pre-AIDS, then all to the good. I do wish there had been a bit more reflection on Studio One's cultural context. Spoiler: the party ended very, very badly. 

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Portraits of Dangerous Women

 This British indie film is a real burst of fresh air, quirky, inventive and surprisingly moving. Pascal Bergamin is not a name with whom I am familiar, but the writer-director has crafted a delightful film, peopled by a brilliant cast, among them the luminous Tara Fitzgerald, Yasmin Monet Prince, Mark Lewis Jones and Jeany Spark, abetted by small cameos from Sheila Reid and Joseph Marcell. 

These characters navigate around each other in an unnamed small British town with outstanding scenery. Everyone seems to live in a period cottage while Lewis Jones' character operates a small art gallery. Who are these people? How do they fit together? The film takes its time establishing links but I found it refreshing it was neither broad comedy, trite romance, nor heavy drama. 

The titular portraits are small found photographs of women in unusual poses, from shooting to climbing. They are gathered by Ashley (Monet Prince) who is trying to establish herself in the art world and strikes up an alliance with John (Lewis Jones). Meanwhile Tina (Fitzgerald) and Steph (Spark) work in the same school, but in very different contexts. Steph is a teacher while husky-voiced Tina spends her days in a boiler suit skulking around toilets and testing chairs, as she is the school caretaker. 

Watching Fitzgerald at work is fascinating, her way of inhabiting this moody, flinty character suggesting hidden depths. It's a marvellous performance and anchors the film, even if Spark and Lewis Jones have more showy parts. 

Broken relationships, a dead dog, many unexplained financial issues. These all figure in this film but really it's a clever ensemble piece featuring flawed human beings attempting to find their ways through. A triumph. 

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Inherit the Witch

 Well, Hellooooo, camp as tits folk horror film! We have missed you! Inherit the Witch is a batshit crazy lower than lo fi UK film featuring an OTT witch running amok in the New Forest, plus a toxic gay couple and family drama galore. 

Cory returns to his hometown for his dad's funeral, alongside Scandi f-buddy Lars but never makes it as he is visited by estranged sister Fiona who wants him to remember weird shit that happened in their childhoods. Plus, an older couple are enacting some ritual with a metronome. Then Fiona stumbles into a basement..... 

Bizarre set pieces, terrible acting, a nonsensical plot and some questionable accents mean that this one is a very, very guilty pleasure but I enjoyed it mostly. I really wanted to see a proper Final Girl but Fiona is so, so passive, spending her time in peril mostly gasping for breathing and shrieking. FFS, girl. Run!

At least Fiona gets some nice lighting, especially when she is bumbling through the forest with her lit torch, hunted by robotic Lars and possibly satanic Cory. Hide, girl!

One part Hammer Horror mixed with The Owl Service, Inherit the Witch is not a great film. But it is entertaining. 

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