Forgive Us All

This debut feature from dir/writer Jordana Stott is a curious blend of sci-fi, horror and action Western, which delivers some chills and thrills. 

The story is formed of two strands: widow Rory lives with her father-in-law Otto in a remote location where they eke out a living from the land, while constantly imperilled by unseen zombie hordes, frequently heard howling in the woods. Much of the initial scenes featuring these two are largely dialogue-free and composed of long static shots. 

Suddenly we are in a Western, as a horseback rider flees three pursuers into a forest. Gunfire is exchanged and everything is dialled up several notches. Wha??? 

The two strands converge some way down the line and it becomes a bit clearer what is going on, as Noah the horseman is on a deadly mission. His pursuers GMA who are some kind of government enforcers, emerge as the antagonists, rather than the zombies, who barely feature until the last 15 minutes of the film. A bold move, if you are telling people you are making a zombie film!

Stott (and her co-writers) throw a few curveballs into what could be quite a formulaic picture. There is very little backstory given, a few flashbacks hinting at the traumas surrounding Rory and Otto. Nobody explicitly explains who GMA are or what they do. And love doesn't triumph in the end. In fact, I found the ending rather bleak, but that's me. 

Still, there are some strong incentives to watch. Firstly, the cinematography is gorgeous, bathing everything in a caramel glaze and showing off the local scenery to fine advantage. "Ooh," I found myself saying at several moments. Secondly, the actors, led by Lily Sullivan as Rory, turn in fully committed performances, even in the face of some rather silly moments. Every time someone said, "I'll stay here and hold them off," I stifled a guffaw. The action is well handled and the baddy, GMA officer Logan, is truly scary. Solid entertainment. 

Trailer

Forgive Us All will have a DVD & digital release on 13th October. 

Iron Ladies

 This doc by Daniel Draper casts an eye over the women who stepped up during the 1984-5 miners strike in the UK. Many of them were wives of miners and many attest in the film to the history they had with mining, coming from mining families and growing up in mining communities. 

Women Against Pit Closures is the thing that brought them all together, as local chapters sprang up across the UK once the strike bit. They provided food and clothing and information, stood on the picket lines and, as several of them state, kept the strike going. Some of the most affecting footage is the static shots of the now redundant works in several locations from Kent to Durham.

Unfortunately, although the interviews with the women form the backbone of Draper's film, he really does not do them justice. Each of them has her name shown on screen the first time she appears and then never again. As there are some 15-20 interviewees, it is impossible for a first-time viewer to keep track of who is speaking. Worse, Draper employs a rather quirky camera technique, zooming in for extreme close-ups that are jarring, and letting the camera drift one way or another as someone is speaking. At some point, I thought I must be watching the film in the wrong aspect ratio as a woman spoke with the top of her head, including her eyes, cut off. Utterly bizarre. And it really takes the viewer out of the narrative, such as it is. 

As the film progresses, we see that there is some kind of event being planned for 2024. I think it was a 40th anniversary meet-up but as there is no narration, I had to guess. Speaking at the event, several women affirm that the strike, though unsuccessful for the men, changed their lives. More context would really have helped increase the emphasis of this very flawed but welcome film.  

Trailer 

 Iron Ladies will be in UK cinemas from 10th October 
 

Borderline

A so-called black comedy about a star coming to the attention of a misguided fan who tries to strong-arm her into his world, Borderline sounds a bit like Cecil B. Demented, but unlike John Waters' feel bad film, this one is a bit hit and miss, mostly miss. 

Paul (Ray Nicholson) has his sights set on marrying pop star Sophia and assembles his A team of lunatics to kidnap her from her house and get her to the altar on time. Nicholson's one-note performance, a cheesy manic grin firmly in place, grows irritating over time and the frequent acts of violence take the edge off finding the situation funny. Stabbings, shootings, immolation--writer-director Jimmy Warden seems intent on finding new ways to torment his cast. 

 Samara Weaving does her best as Sophia, an entitled princess entertaining her basketball player date (Jimmie Fails, far too small to be convincing as a baller) sometime in the 90s (shades of Madonna and Dennis Rodman?), but the script does not give her much to do other than pout and wear a bunch of skimpy outfits.  

One bright spark is Alba Baptista (Ava from Warrior Nun!) who arrives far too late to save the film, but whose cheerfully malevolent presence offers its one genuine note of comedy (did I mention it is billed as a comedy thriller? No? Well, there is a reason.). Her duet with Sophia in ridiculous circumstances is an absurdist delight.  

Special mention to Eric Dane whose security guard gets stabbed and shot but maintains a granitey presence, and Jimmie Fails, who looks fetching in a wedding dress. They deserve better material. 

Borderline will be available on Digital Download from 8th September 

Trailer 

 

Noseeums

 When you watch a horror film, you often get a sense of who is going to die. And watching the first act of Noseeums (dir Raven Carter), I had a very definite sense of "Yup. These b__es are going down." 

Ember is a student living somewhere up north who goes on a road trip down to Florida with three fellow students, her roomie Tessa and two party girls, Abby and Lexie. The four seem companionable enough in the car journey, although Abby makes some iffy comments about Ember's changing accent and Lexie and Tessa back her up. 

As the film progresses Abby and Lexie show more and more passive aggressiveness toward Ember and Tessa often does not back her up. Meanwhile Ember has discovered something in the forest and then she starts having disturbing visions... 

The premise is intriguing, a mix of swamp horror, mean girls, a student road trip and.... land rights. The first few spell fun and the last definitely not. 

To be fair, there is very little fun in Noseeums. The acting is pretty poor, the script full of holes and the special effects laughable. There are a few plus points, though. It aims high, asking questions about accountability in the 21st century for evils inflicted in the previous two, in this case African Americans being driven from their land by white folks. 

But there are very few scares, and the titular noseeums, or midges, are not very effective as attackers. Really, the horror is in the entitlement of white people who don't understand accumulated privilege. But the script has the subtlety of a sledgehammer and the most interesting characters, Ember's mother and best friend Jas, get very little screen time. These noseeums are not nearly biting enough. 

In Transit

 Rarely has a film made me as cross on finishing as In Transit (dir Jaclyn Bethany). Billed as a tender queer drama, this quiet indie narrowly focussed on three people starts as a slow burn and builds to.... a slow burn out. 

Lucy (Alex Sarrigeorgiou) and Tom (François Arnaud) live in a small town in Maine, where she is a bartender and he does some kind of work he doesn't like. Ilse (Jennifer Ehle), a midlife-crisis afflicted artist, wanders into Lucy's bar and does a sketch of her. This leads to Lucy modelling for her, unbeknownst to Tom.

So far, so High Art, Carol and many, many other films in which an older woman comes in contact with a younger woman to greater or lesser effect. In Transit spends a lot of time on the sittings Lucy does with Ilse, and Ehle delivers a twitchy, nervy performance, wittering on about her practice while saying very little. Hers is potentially the most interesting character, caught in a crossroads as her marriage is crumbling and her child (only heard in a crackly telephone call) seems uninterested in her. What does she want? And what does she want from Lucy?

Unfortunately, the script (by Sarrigeorgiou, who also produces) does not really do character development. Lucy remains frustratingly blank and passive, while Tom gets one explosive monologue which at least gives us some indication of his wants and needs. The two women, supposedly the film's interest, get nothing of this. The film feels neither queer nor tender. Such a disappointment. 

In Transit has its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on 17 August.  

 

40 Acres

 This low fi Canadian thriller is an unlikely vehicle for Oscar nomine Danielle Deadwyler, who also produces, but here we are. Deadwyler's Hailey Freeman is the matriarch of a family fighting for survival in post-apocalyptic rural Canada where her farm is besieged by aggressive cannibals (yes) who want the family's crops and, uh, spices, and are quite happy to kill for them. 

The cannibal angle really never comes into focus, but for most of the film, the Freemans, a blended family of Hailey, her indigenous husband and four kids, live a martial existence of surveillance, supply runs and a lot of shooting. She also maintains radio contact with a woman called Augusta, who turns out to have a family connection. Eldest son Manny calls Hailey Ma'am and follows orders, until he doesn't.... 

The action sequences are fine, there is definite feel of threat and jeopardy but the family dynamics are poorly sketched. Deadwyler, a fine actress, spends most of the film gritting her teeth and clenching her weapons. One never feels engaged with the characters, to the point where I realised I was not even sure of most of their names. This is partly due to a sound mix that renders most dialogue a vague mumble. 

The themes of family, trust and letting go are clear enough but it is astounding that this is the type of fare being offered to Deadwyler.  

Trailer

 40 Acres will be in UK Cinemas from 1st August and Digital Download from 4th August 

Cedric Morris: Artist, Plantsman & Traveller

 This exhibit with the unwieldy title at the Granary Gallery in Berwick Upon Tweed caught my attention on a recent visit up north. I was not familiar with Morris's work and wondered if he were a relation to Walthamstow's own William Morris. Not the case, but Cedric Morris was a vibrant character whose life spanned most of the 20th century and a bit of the 19th. Living for many decades in Suffolk with his partner, fellow artist Arthur Lett Haines, he painted, ran a painting and drawing school and amassed an outstanding collection of plants. So, quite intriguing to me on many levels. 

The exhibit, which shows an array of both Morris's and Lett Haines' work, is fairly small, with paintings in low light facing each other, alongside some extended captions. I found Morris' self portrait, in three quarters view, to be quite arresting. There is a hint of melancholia in the shadowing of the eye closer to the viewer. A range of trees frames his head like a nebula or a tiara. Much of the rest of his work is landscapes, but the other one that caught my eye was La Rotonde, which owes a debt to the post-Impressionists in its subject and style, a cafe in Paris. 

What struck me was how many different styles the artists worked in. Lett Haines shows clear European influence with his paintings of train stations and abstract work. But their styles changed a great deal over time. 

Curiosity piqued, I picked up a bio of Morris which explains how the two met, their backgrounds and partnership. There is a lot of name-dropping of other painters, such as Freud and Hambling, as well. I also learned that Morris stopped doing portraits, in part because the sitters hated the finished works so much! 

Although he loved gardening and collecting plants, Morris did not like to be described as a plantsman. He reserved that term for others. But he and Lett Haines spent 60 years together, their interests at least complimentary if not matching. Two extraordinary lives. 

After years of neglect, the garden of their home, Benton End, is being restored with a view to reopening in 2026. Here is a tour of it. 

 Cedric Morris: Artist, Plantsman & Traveller continues at the Granary Gallery, Berwick Upon Tweed, through 12 October 2025.