The Tasters

 This new film from Italian director Silvio Soldini is a fictionalised account of real events during the Second World War when a small cohort of German women was pressed into service to taste Hitler's food. 

When Rosa Sauer arrives exhausted from besieged Berlin during 1943 to stay with her in-laws, little does she realise she will be whisked to a compound near the Führer's Lion's Den in the countryside. Soon she is seated at a table with six other women and after their initial excitement at being offered rare delicacies, they discover they are actually test subjects: they must eat the dishes and then wait for an hour to ensure that the food is not poisoned. After the initial set-up, I did wonder how the film would maintain its drive for two hours. 

 It does so by introducing an SS officer called Ziegler who sets his stall out as a hard ass and then turns his attentions to Rosa. Thus ensues a queasy courtship which had me declaring, "Oh, No, Rosa". Her husband is declared missing on the Soviet border and she is lonely.... but still. Ziegler, surprise, surprise, is not a nice person, given to threats, intimidation. But still Rosa is attracted. 

With a film like this there can be no happy ending. It's not a rom com, and these are not kind, good-hearted, likeable people. Rosa forms an uneasy alliance with another of the tasters, Elfriede, who seems to be hiding something. And indeed the last act is tense and fraught with dangers. 

The story is true--there were tasters for Hitler, but this film is based on a novel and so must be judged on that rather than historical accuracy. It is well staged and acted. I could have done without the "love" story, but it does raise questions about loyalties and how far people will go in extreme circumstances. 

Trailer 

 The Tasters opens in the UK and Ireland on 13 March.  

The Spin

 This Irish indie road movie (dir Michael Head) starts promisingly enough, as hapless Elvis and Dermot are cornered by their landlady and given a deadline to pay rent on their failing record shop in Omagh. Following the trail of a horde of valuable vinyl, the hit the road and drive down to Cork. 

But once they leave town, the film drags badly, the pair's semi-improvised banter wearing thin. Tara Lynne O'Neill has a few good moments as the voracious landlady and the two leads, Owen Colgan and Brenock O'Connor, have decent chemistry, but the film goes nowhere, despite its penchant for wacky cameos (Kimberly Wyatt with a baffling accent-- Why?). 

In the end, the viewer is left wondering why our patience is being tried on two dimwits who appear to share a brain cell. Instead of whimsy what comes across more is idiocy.  

Trailer

The Spin will be in UK cinemas from 27th February. 
 

Justice for Kali

 Happy New Year to all and sundry. My hopes for this year are that it runs a bit more smoothly than last. It's also a chance to say goodbye to some old favourites, not least Stranger Things, which concludes its five-season run last week. 

SPOILER ALERT 

Like many, I was gripped by the drama with its twists and turns, new characters and at least one old face. Unlike many, I was thrilled to see Kali, she of the supposedly reviled Lost Sister episode of season 2. In the original episode, not only did Eleven discover she was called Jane, she actually met her birth mother and aunt, thereby giving some context to her life. But not only that, she discovered another survivor of the lab experiments in Kali, who helped her discover her powers. I loved this episode and was disappointed when Eleven/Jane simply discarded all of this new info and headed back to grim Hawkins and her toxic father figure, Hopper. 

Kali then vanished from the story until episode 4 of season 5 and, shock horror, she was back in the clutches of the evil scientists, this time led by Dr Kay. Naturally, I assumed she would join forces with her sister Jane and take down the villainous Vecna. Others assumed differently. The internet with rife with theories that Kali was a plant from Vecna or trying to undermine Eleven. Not a problem--everyone has an opinion. 

 But what were the Duffer Brothers playing at? In bringing her back, they said they wanted to give her a chance to shine, blah, blah. Well, if being repeatedly sidelined and victimised is shining, then they succeeded. Kali barely had a chance to do anything and only used her powers of illusion as she escaped the lab. Nobody really acknowledged her except her sister and even worse Hopper was openly hostile to her. I could not understand what her purpose on the show was, unless it was to make Eleven look good by contrast. Such a wasted opportunity. 

And her demise was grotesque--Hopper leaves her wounded as he carries off Eleven, only goes back grudgingly to get her when Eleven asks him to, then appears quite happy to let her get shot so he doesn't have to give away Eleven's hiding place. But he never needed to give away anything. He could have given fake info to at least stall the captors. Previously, Hopper had said he would happily kill Kali if she made a wrong move. Kill her. A young woman who had been repeatedly tortured, as had Eleven. Who saw her comrades excecuted by the military. Who was then held and had her blood drained repeatedly for experiments. 

 Where was the compassion? The empathy? At least some acknowledgement that this person was suffering trauma? Nowhere. Instead, this character, who had been absent for several years, was just served up as some kind of limp sacrifice to create conflict or influence Eleven's journey or some such nonsense. Yeah, thanks for that. Kali deserved better. 

I like to imagine Jane and Kali off somewhere, invisible to the human eye, living a life away from the military, toxic alpha males, mad scientists and the crazed fanbase that never respected there could be two sister survivors of Hawkins Lab.  

A Tooth Fairy Tale

Who doesn't love an animation featuring fairies, goblins and trolls? I was really looking forward to this new film from director Michael Johnson. But, oh, dear. 

Van is an aspiring tooth fairy being tutored by his strangely muscular dad in the ways of harvesting teeth from unsuspecting children. But Van is restless and not really in tune with his magical powers. Plus, he gets his head turned by hot green goblin Gemma when he catches her spiriting away one of his would-be captures. So ensues an action adventure romance thingy. 

So far, so okay. But Johnson and his screenwriters concoct an awful mess involving an annoying troll, some tooth mines, family drama and, most egregious of all, villainous spiders. Why spiders? Who knows? The writers had a cornucopia of mythical beasts to choose from including gremlins, dragons, griffins, leprechauns, werewolves, centaurs, and gorgons. And they went for spiders, including a cackling queen lazily voiced by Fran Drescher, clearly phoning in her performance, as befits the material.  

Some elements of the story work, such as the idea that the feuding tribes can work together to free their offspring and look to a better future. One without spiders, presumably. Utterly baffling. And really not great for educating kids about biodiversity. Plus, Gemma, who is meant to be a brilliant scientific mind, is reduced to a passive love interest who has to be rescued in the rather ridiculous third act. 

Oh, and Michael Johnson et al, about that climax? Most spiders can swim. Please do better.

Trailer  

 A Tooth Fairy Tale is available on digital download from 8th December
 

 

 

Upon Her Lips: Open Secrets

 This collection of five shorts on lesbian themes is a curious beast, wildly variable in tone and quality. 

The first one, CCTV (Iran) feels like a proof of concept, setting up a scenario in which two schoolgirls are summoned from class to explain themselves for an unnamed transgression. It seems like it's going to explore their relationship or perhaps their plan to escape punishment but does neither. 

SHE’S A FRIEND [UNA AMIGA] (Spain) is much longer, depicting a couple arriving for some type of holiday in a cabin and then being interrupted by the brother of one of them. It becomes quite the melodrama but it is never clear why there is such drama in this family. 

 The next two are definitely the best. QUEEN SIZE (France) is very cleverly written and shot, showing two disparate women dragging a mattress across Paris and getting to know each other a best. The two actors have good chemistry and one wants to see what happens once the film ends. 

 A LADY’S RITUAL (Germany) is the longest, at 30 mins, and is an oddity, a costume drama that also has elements of eco-politics that seem more modern. There is quite good use of costume and it has humour, as well. 

 The final film, JOEY’S HEART (New Zealand), I found quite confusing. The opening is a delight as the titular Joey expertly multi-tasks, attending a video call while also, uh, performing other  actions. From there it is a bit downhill, never capturing the earlier vigour. It feels like it jumps around in time as characters appear and disappear from Joey's love life, while she complains about being single. For me it does not go anywhere and it is not clear how it fits in with the theme of open secrets. 

 So, a mixed bag.  

Trailer

Available on various UK and global streaming and digital platforms, including Vimeo PeccadilloPOD and Payhip and Amazon.co.uk. 
 

She's the He

 This teen gender swap comedy from writer-director Siobhan McCarthy is a bit of a Marmite film. High school buddies Ethan and Alex decide to pretend to be trans to visit the girls locker room and from that springs the tale.... 

I didn't find the film all that funny or original. The premise is absurd and the film spends much of its time revelling in Alex's crude sexism and idiotic posturing while then pulling back in the final third to attempt to be tender and sensitive. The big set piece features an arsenal of sanitary products repelling a group of not very convincing jocky guys and Ethan's journey from cis guy to trans woman feels entirely rushed and unconvincing. There are a few witty moments of whimsy and some of the underwritten supporting characters like Forest are more intriguing than the main ones. Nico Carney has some good moments as Alex, but the post-credits out takes are much funnier than anything in the film.  

Trailer

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. 

 

94114 to E17

 It's rare I get to go out in my locality, tucked as it is on the end of the Victoria line. The number of times I have had people ask, "Where's that?" 

The Times designation as the best place to live in London notwithstanding, Walthamstow is still an under-appreciated neighbourhood.  

So, last night was a rarity, a visit to the new Soho Theatre in Walthamstow. Formerly the EMD cinema and a hotly debated planning morass, the theatre has finally opened, offering live performance to Stowies and non-Stowies alike. On stage was Justin Vivian Bond performing Sex With Strangers, a tribute to the music of the late Marianne Faithfull. 

I confess I never got to see Ms Faithfull live, though I have seen DVDs of her live performance, and I found the ups and downs of her life fascinating. Joining Mx Bond onstage was a five-piece band, bringing the torch and roll of MF to life. 

The last time I saw JVB was way back in 2002 when the headliner of Ladyfest London had cancelled, necessitating a last minute replacement and Kiki and Herb graciously stepped in, doing fabulous covers of female rockers such as Peaches and Alanis. It was brilliant. 

But I go a bit further back with the performer as both of us lived in SF back in the early 90s and I well remember JVB holding court at A Different Light Books in the Castro, offering candid opinions on the written fare on offer. 

How odd it was to sit 10 feet away in the gloriously Baroque grotto of the SHW while Bond worked the stage and told rambling anecdotes about friends, family and Faithfull in amongst the Faithfull song book. I actually felt some of the songs did not suit Bond's voice. Broken English is one of my favourite songs but I didn't feel they did its bassy griminess justice. 

On the other hand, I loved what Bond did with "Why'd Ya Do It", coming toward the end of the 2-hour set. I think the whole band needed to warm up, as did the chanteuse. One person said at the intermission, "I don't know most of the songs, but I'm having the best time." 

The surroundings helped, as well, with many attendees craning their necks to look up at the vaulted ceiling. I recognised a few faces I usually see at Flare, but not in my neck of the woods. Everyone is welcome in E17. I hope they come back and see us some time. 

For Bond's part, they said there are plans to do a show at St Anne's church in September and they hope to use a Roger Waters song. Interesting bedfellows! Marianne would probably have a deep throaty filthy voiced chuckle. 

 Here is Marianne Faithfull's collaboration with Derek Jarman. 

Sex With Strangers continues at Soho Theatre Walthamstow on 12 July.  

Unearthed: the power of gardening

 Not 100% sure how to render the punctuation in this exhibit at the British Library but since today is the start of a two-day conference on gardens and empires, it seems timely to recount my visit to Unearthed. 

I was quite keen to see what might be included, as I have been staying away from indoor spaces since 2020, I have been starved of visual stimulation and gardening has become quite the focus for my attention since then. I attended a relaxed viewing and was indeed the first to arrive for my slot, so had the space to myself for quite some time. 

Alas, relaxed meant no open sounds, so I was unable to fully appreciate some of the installation work on show. I actually prefer sounds to pictures, so that was a shame. But there were some videos that had both captions and headphone-type devices to use so there is some good choice. 

 The selection of items puzzled me. It was so farflung, everything from Gertrude Jekyll's boots to pamphlets and some historical explanations. Presentation included the usual glass cases, plus a confusing spinning globe, some attempts at sheds and a digital screen allowing one to design one's own garden. Alas for me, you can only take away the result with a smartphone that reads QR codes. Oh, well. 

The most interesting bits to me were the mentions of guerrilla groups and squat communities connected to gardening--gardening activism, if you will. That seems to best illustrate the notion of claiming power, as opposed to being the recipient of it.

I felt coming away from the exhibit curiously underwhelmed, as if having so many gardening topics actually lessened the impact of the whole. 

What I thought might be fascinating would be to explore more fully topics like gardening and community or gardening and empire, hence my interest in the above conference, which I have only just found and so will not be attending. 

 But I am intrigued to look more into some of the groups I discovered by visiting, such as  Coco Collective, as well as learning more about land enclosures and The Diggers. 

 Unearthed: the power of gardening is at the British Library in London until 10 August. 

Various local libraries have related exhibits, such as this one at Warwickshire Library.  

The Venus Effect

 This Danish film directed and co-written by Anna Emma Haudal is billed as a lesbian rom com. Well. Not so sure about that.... 

 Taciturn Liv works at her parents garden centre and has a meet cute with hippy wild child Andrea when the latter's car breaks down and she bursts in wearing a pussy costume. 

 The first 15-20 minutes are quite intriguing as the writers weave in notions of growth and natural elements: trees, bees, plants making music. I was quite hopeful. 

 But once the two women strike up a relationship, the film falls flat. There is no sense of why these two disparate characters would get together, much less Liv cheat on her boyfriend. There are several set pieces in which characters sit down to uncomfortable meals that could be hilarious farce. But not here. It's just lots of awkwardness. It put me in mind of some of Joanna Hogg's work, with her tense silences and people putting on brave faces and being polite. I have never warmed to Hogg's work, and this felt equally stilted. Plus the two leads have no chemistry. 

The last 20 minutes pick up considerably, as we finally get a satisfying conflagration (over Christmas dinner), and Liv finally expresses some deeply held emotions after 80 minutes of being frustratingly passive. Over goes the tree. No cha cha heels, though. So, not so much rom com as low key drama.  

One thing I noticed was that the references to plant life also disappeared in the middle part and the director throws in very oddly paced cut aways to trees. A shame she didn't develop that strand as relationship and plant growth are a good match. 

Trailer

THE VENUS EFFECT is available on streaming services from 2 June.
 

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