The Ugly Stepsister

 Strap in for some Scandi horror, as writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt delivers a wickedly black humoured retelling of the Cinderella story, here presented as a 19th century marriage mart. 

While not as gory as I had anticipated, the film does regularly serve up truly gruesome imagery. I was expecting a rivalry between stepsisters Agnes and Elvira, but actually it becomes more of a war between Elvira and the social expectations of her to contort herself to find a husband. Her sights are firmly set on drippy poetry-writing Prince Julian and to this end she is willing to allow various body parts to be broken, reshaped and in a fingers-over-the-eyes climax, to be lopped off. 

But before all that, Elvira goes through dance and deportment lessons and in the course of this swallows a tapeworm to lose weight, as you do. As soon as this happened, I thought: this tapeworm will be making a reappearance. And, OMG, it really, really does. 

The voice of reason in all this is Elvira's little sister Alma who watches, learns and offers the sensible comment that Elvira is not right in the head. I rather expected to see more of Alma and was intrigued by her turning up in Elvira's room late in the day wearing boys' clothes. This was never explained, so maybe something was edited out. 

The power shift between Agnes and Elvira is quite interesting and the viewer may well find sympathies shifting. To my disappointment, there is very little sisterhood on show. And the mother of the two girls. My god. She really is a piece of work.

 While it was quite well done, I would have liked to see someone in this deadly game realise they are all being played and bail out. 

The Ugly Stepsister trailer

 The Ugly Stepsister is available for digital download in UK from 9 May. 

Queer East: Incidental Journey

 For my final post from Queer East, I am looking at Incidental Journey, a 2001 film from Taiwan (dir Jo-Fei Chen) and shot on 16mm. I honestly thought this was a much older film as I watched as it's quite slow and dreamy and nobody uses modern tech. 

It's quite short for a feature, running at 61 minutes, and there are long stretches without dialogue as heartbroken Ching picks up hitchhiker Hsiang in a remote location and the two then get stranded. They end up spending most of the film at the truly gorgeous home of Hsiang's friends Ji and Fu who grow their own food and live near a river. Ching and Hsiang spend a lot of their time smoking and not speaking to each other, which is how we know they must feel an attraction. Honestly, I started to get annoyed at their lack of speech. But they grow on each other over time and on us, the audience. 

Ji is the interesting character as it is clear she shares some history with Hsiang. She proves a catalyst in moving the action along a bit. 

Can't say I loved the ending, as it baffled me, but that seems almost a given for the films I have watched for this festival.

Incidental Journey trailer

Queer East continues through 18 May.

Queer East: Extremely Unique Dynamic

 This one starts off quite well and then tails off, which really should not happen as it's only 67 minutes. Playing with the concept of meta reality, Extremely Unique Dynamic features two guys living in LA who are facing a separation as one of them is moving to Canada. At first I thought they were meant to be a couple but they are actually pals and one of them is getting married. But first they want to have one weekend to have fun... and make a film. As you do. 

But these two are both frustrated entertainers. Ryan is an actor not getting booked while anxiety-ridden Danny whose raps about loving tacos somehow have not made him famous. Ryan proposes a film within a film within a film (if I have counted properly) in which they film with both a DV cam and an iPhone to record their "unique dynamic" and somehow make a film with no real plot. 

The first 10 to 15 minutes are quite funny, as we see them trying to ride every internet wave and use services like "Giggle" etc. But once they start filming themselves, it gets a bit self-indulgent and not very funny. The self awareness also feels a bit cringey at times, with Ryan's marketing speak and Danny's nerd chic wearing thin over the running time. The cameos from a YouTube personality and an actor feel random, as if the filmmakers (the actors plus a third person) had called in favours. Most oddly, the unseen fiancee's voice comes from Kelly Lynch!

With the drama hinging on whether Danny will tell Ryan he's gay, it doesn't feel like much jeopardy. The footage of Danny and Ryan's childhood antics, which largely seem like them jostling to be in front of the camera, is also not that exciting.  More back story might have helped.

This feels like it would have been a great short which has been stretched to breaking point to make feature length. 

Extremely Unique Dynamic trailer

Queer East: Rookie

 Quite the departure from my recent viewing, Rookie, a film from the Philippines directed by Samantha Lee, takes us into the world of high school volleyball as awkward new girl Ace tries to acclimatise to her new school and the hostility of the team captain, Jana. 

That these two find common ground eventually is not really in doubt but it is quite refreshing to see high school sport used as the setting for this budding romance. My hazy memories of volleyball at school are mainly centred on my inability to serve properly. But I cannot remember receiving any coaching in the sport. 

Coaching is at the heart of this film, not just from the earnest Coach Jules but her shady assistant Kel and the upholders of the mores of the school. When Jana and Ace decide to go to prom, there are issues. And the shock of the nattily attired Ace being told by a nun her outfit is not modest is too much. This girl has the soft butch look down!

The team ethos grows over time, with several of the girls providing revelations about Kel and this offers a very satisfying, if brief, revenge scene.  

The climactic competition scene goes on a bit and then leads to a rather curtailed ending. But this film will give you the feels if you found school a bit awkward and wished you had asked that cutie to prom.

Rookie trailer

Queer East: Murmur of Youth

 This is my first time reviewing some of the titles from this festival which is on now until 18 May in locations in London. 

The 1997 drama from Taiwan, Murmur of Youth, is a curious beast, stretching to 104 minutes, during which not very much happens for the first 80. Two girls, both called Ming-Lei, are shown leading their lives in and out of schools in their very different environments. One lives in a rural area with her extended family and one lives in a high rise block. Their paths finally intersect 43 minutes into the film when they start working in the same cinema. 

And then the floodgates open. They speak! They joke! They confess their crushes and bodily secrets. It is quite the jolt from the previous sedate, almost wordless pace. I did wonder at why it was in a queer festival, but then that became clear in the last 15 minutes, which was also a jolt. 

I don't really know what to make of this film. I found it quite dull for the most part, but I did have questions afterward. Also, one will have to google to find a translation of an important document toward the end. A bit of a mystery all around. 

Murmur of Youth trailer

Two to One

 This German film from writer-director Natja Brunckhorst is set in the summer of 1990 as the GDR was waiting to be absorbed by its neighbour. As teenaged tearaway Jannek spends his days writing graffiti on abandoned buildings, parents Maren (Sandra Hüller) and Robert (Max Riemelt) ponder their newly unemployed status and wonder what fate awaits them. 

With the return of the hulking Volker (Ronald Zehrfeld) from Hungary, tensions rise among the three adults, with questions raised about their previous relationship and particularly in regard to Maren's daughter Dini. 

Meanwhile.... a stash of soon to be worthless Ostmarks is sitting in a conveniently located warehouse where Uncle Marke happens to work. So, they hatch a scheme to trade them in for D-Marks. What could possibly go wrong?

Billed as a heist comedy, Two to One is actually an odd mix of sepia hued Ostalgie for a lost dream, with a bit of love triangle and then a smidgen of action thrown in as an afterthought. It is not especially comedic but it is quite cryptic, a slow burn of building discomfort. By the quite rushed and confusing end, I had quite a few questions, mostly involving the currency scheme and also what had happened with the three protagonists. I couldn't work out if they had been a throuple gone wrong, a fling, or possibly had an open relationship. 

Brunckhorst's screenplay provides several moments that suggest impending drama or a confrontation only to pivot to the next scene, depriving the audience of the satisfaction of seeing how a scene plays out. But the film is quite affecting.

What is most extraordinary is this story is based on true events, as the closing credits explain. Numismatics will be thrilled by the trading machinations, but those with little knowledge of German politics may be a bit bewildered by the events as presented. 

Two to One gets its UK release on 2 May. 

Trailer

BFI Flare: Onda Nova

 In my final post from this year's Flare I cover a feature and a short both set in and around a women's football team. 1983's Onda Nova was banned in its native Brazil and is now getting a revival after a digital restoration. Rarely has a film irritated me so much. 

The Seagulls are a football team in Sao Paulo who are getting by and we meet various members of the team in various states of undress. This is Onda Nova's calling card, a mix of softcore sexuality, a bit of football and lots of ridiculous situations. The only characters who really stood out were Lilly, the goalkeeper, who is the smallest member of the team, Neneca, who is quite tall and the only black character, and Rita, a blonde woman who drives a gorgeous purple car. 

There is no real narrative, no character development, just a series of scenes that appear to have been shot, thrown in the air and edited together. Characters have a conversation and then for no discernible reason have sex wherever they are, whether in a clubhouse or a car. Most of these are male-female couples and it is disappointingly straight for a film showing at a queer festival. 

There is a lot of camp, mostly in the form of the singer Helena who performs early on and then just turns up in her boyfriend's kitchen and flirts with his daughter Potato (yes, really). No idea what Helena was up to. Ditto for most other characters in the film.

My favourite bit was the opening credits, spraypainted on sheets by two characters. PFFT. 

The short Solers United is a bit more coherent, featuring a football team facing the loss of its ground while a love triangle develops. This was good fun but felt like a proof of concept for a longer film.  

And that is a wrap. 

Onda Nova trailer