© FAKESHEMP.NET
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • WTF was that?
  • Good Movie Monday
  • About

MIDWAY

29/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

DANGER GOD

28/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
2019 | DIR: JOE O’CONNELL | STARRING: GARY KENT, CHARLES BAIL, TOMI BARRETT, JOHN ‘BUD’ CARDOS, MONTE HELLMAN, RICHARD RUSH,  MARC SINGER, DON JONES | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON 

Picture
I recently had occasion to re-watch (for the millionth time) Richard Rush’s 1980 masterpiece The Stunt Man. Whilst Gary Kent, the subject of Joe O’Connell’s documentary DANGER GOD, is not one of the more than two dozen stunt men listed in the credits, the film still has a significance in the unfolding of Gary Kent’s story. One of his closest compadres is Charles Bail who is so terrific as the stunt coordinator Chuck Barton in Rush’s film, and Rush himself makes several appearances in the doco, as an old friend and director of some of Kent’s (and Rush’s) earliest B-Grade outings.


Gary Kent was a journalism student who joined the Naval Air Corps after graduation before finding himself in Hollywood in 1959 where he began a forty year career as an actor and stunt man working with the likes of Jack Nicholson in movies like Monte Hellman’s 1966 western Ride in the Whirlwind and Richard Rush’s 1967 biker flick Hell’s Angels on Wheels. And whilst it’s not directly mentioned in this doco, he’s also one of the legendary stuntmen upon which Quentin Tarantino supposedly based Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) in his latest movie Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. There’s a pretty interesting sequence in DANGER GOD that looks at the movie making days out at George Spahn’s ranch during the time that Charles Manson and the Family were living there – that piece of history is reflected in one of the best sequences in Tarantino’s film, and Gary Kent has his own, terrific Charles Manson story to share.
​

All this mythology can only serve to raise the expectations of a documentary like this and, sadly, as entertaining and informative as it is, it doesn’t quite meet those expectations. Part of the reason for that is that the bulk of old footage that O’Connell relies on is from Kent’s various talks and panel appearances and book launches which is generally poorly shot and overused. It provides too much rambling chat and not enough incisive insight.


Picture

Similarly, the many ‘fly on the wall’ bull-sessions between Kent and old friends like Charlie Bail and Bud Cadros amount to little more than old war stories and reminiscences which, again, have a high entertainment value but don’t allow us to drill down into the psychology of the stunt men or the mechanics of how they pulled off such amazing feats in the pre CGI days. What’s great, though, is to see the old clips of all the classic (and awful!) B Grade movies when a young and very handsome Kent was an actor as often as he was a stunt man.

On an emotional level, the film does give us a very personal view on grief and mortality through Kent’s eyes as he takes us through his difficult relationship with Tomi Barrett and how he coped with her eventual death, as well as his own trials and tribulations at the latter end of his life. This latter part of the doco, however, becomes overly focused on Kent’s failing health and the limitations of old age and, with the exception of a terrific little sequence when an elderly Kent shows a bunch of young filmmakers how to throw a punch and make it look good for the camera, Danger God shift down a gear for its third act and becomes a different film altogether.
​

Gary Kent is a larger than life character who has the gift of the gab and a million stories that benefit from that gift. He’s a worthy subject for a film like this but, as good as this documentary might be on a superficial level, Kent’s story and the development and ingenuity of his craft is worth a deeper, more forensic examination than the material Joe O’Connell has been able to assemble affords us. 

​​
Picture
0 Comments

A HIDDEN LIFE

27/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

UNDERWATER

27/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

23/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

FILM SCHOOL AFRICA

22/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
2019 | DIR: NATHAN PFAFF | STARRING: KATIE TAYLOR, SIHLE JAMES, REPRO MPITSA, TK SHIKWAMBANA, JUAN VAN DER WALT | REVIEW BY ALEX MAYNARD. 

Picture
FILM SCHOOL AFRICA is a prime example of reaching a predictable conclusion in an engaging way. Even its premise: an American casting director moves to South Africa to teach young people how to make films, will likely inspire expectations of a saccharine message about the medium’s transformative power. However, director Nathan Pfaff keeps his subjects grounded, delivering a moving and insightful account of communities still recovering from the horrors of apartheid. Yes, it has plenty to say about the catharsis offered by telling one’s story, but after hearing and watching everything these students have been through, you’ll be elated that they’ve been given this opportunity.

Although Katie Taylor has never been a household name, her interviews for this film convey a clear sense of the life she ultimately gave up for the Film School Africa program. Taylor’s credits range from award-winning dramas (The Descendants, Milk) to blockbusters (Spider-Man 3), a testament to the pure love of film she espouses whenever she isn’t talking about her students. In fact, we are told early on that the idea Film School Africa was conceived during her visit to the poor township of Kayamandi in 2008. Here, Taylor met a young man who said he was born to be a filmmaker despite having no knowledge, money, or equipment to realise this goal. After returning to Kayamandi with cameras, laptops and a modest lesson plan, she discovered other residents who shared this passion. 
​
I imagine anyone reading this would likely agree on the power and value of cinema. This is what makes FILM SCHOOL AFRICA’s documentary format such a smart idea, as the audience is unambiguously shown and told the impact Taylor’s classes have on her students. For instance, one student casts his parents in an autobiographical short depicting an argument between the pair from his childhood. The experience allows his mother to realise not only how vividly her son had remembered this event, but its impact. Given Taylor largely focused on adapting students’ stories into traditional narratives, the interview-heavy approach adopted by Pfaff here is not the most obvious choice. Yet ironically, the history of the program feels so much like something out of a film that I might not have believed it were true otherwise. 

Picture

​The program grows following Taylor’s permanent relocation to South Africa, eventually hiring additional staff and offering classes at three locations. Subsequently, Pfaff spends most of FILM SCHOOL AFRICA’s second half focused on a single group of students: Sihle, Repro, TK and Juan. This cohort coincidentally represents four different cultural heritages, giving the viewer an insight into the dynamics and contrasts between communities. Most interestingly, Juan, an Afrikaner, has never been to a township and is visibly nervous when going to Kayamandi to shoot. Meanwhile, Sihle and Repro grew up in similarly impoverished areas; thankfully, this merely leads to some teasing and suggests that the youth of South Africa will be able to overcome any lingering divisions from the apartheid era. 

Nevertheless, my enjoyment at seeing the four students successfully premiere their films to family and friends was slightly diminished by the relative lack of attention paid to most of Film School Africa’s early adopters. An especially glaring example of this is Molathise, a young man who is not properly introduced until after his tragic death. I think this is largely a structural issue given the ‘main’ quartet are absent for so much of the film’s first half, but other stories do feel strangely unfinished. In fact, Gasthon, one of Pfaff’s first interview subjects, went on to become a staff member and launched the program in his own community. This would’ve been a perfect (if once again, almost too good to be true) epilogue, but isn’t in the film. I looked up Film School Africa’s website and discovered it for myself. 

FILM SCHOOL AFRICA effortlessly keeps the audience invested in its subjects and will have you feeling optimistic about our ability to tell our own stories. My (very minor) issues aside, it’s a charming debut from Nathan Pfaff which is perfect for anyone looking to explore South African history and cultures and enjoy every minute of it. 
​

Picture
0 Comments

BOMBSHELL

20/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
2019 | DIR: JAY ROACH | STARRING: CHARLIZE THERON, NICOLE KIDMAN, MARGOT ROBBIE, JOHN LITHGOW, CONNIE BRITTON, ALLISON JANNEY, MALCOLM McDOWELL, STEPHEN ROOT | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON

Picture
It’s a tough gig when the same story gets told twice in the same six-month period, especially if you’re the second one out of the blocks (even if the first version is in series form on the small screen and the other’s a big screen feature). It’s hard not to compare. I must admit, though, that I blew a bit hot and cold on Jason Blum and Tom McCarthy’s seven-episode, The Loudest Voice on STAN last year which was the first to tell the story about Roger Ailes (played on the small screen by Russell Crowe), the founder of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the way he embodied (in quite a large body) the idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely. In that version, the sexual harassment case brought against him by Fox & Friends alumnus, Gretchen Carlson (played there by Naomi Watts) is only one part of the larger story of his frightening rise to and ultimate fall from grace and power. Curiously, the involvement of high-profile anchor Megyn Kelly and Production Assistant Kayla Pospisil were excised from Blum and McCarthy’s version, so I was quite keen to see Jay Roach’s BOMBSHELL which focused in on these three women and that case in particular.​
Sadly, BOMBSHELL is a bit of a bloodless affair. Despite assembling a powerhouse cast led by Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly with Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson and Margot Robbie as Kayla Pospisil, the film seems to skate over the surface of the story and never really gets down and dirty in what is a truly reprehensible down and dirty tale. Part of the problem stems from the fact that Carlson (who’s the one with all the dirt on Ailes – she recorded his lewd and lascivious overtures) signed a non-disclosure agreement at the end of the legal process that means she’s prevented from revealing what she really knows. (that’s not a spoiler... it’s history). Carlson has been quoted as saying she regrets the muzzle that NDA puts on her in terms of the real story being able to come out but, despite that, feels that Roach’s film version doesn’t quite get as close to the mark as the small screen version does.

But needing to tap-dance around the facts of Carlson’s story is just one of BOMBSHELL's problems. The real trouble seems to be in how the story is realised under Jay Roach’s direction. After a string of comedy successes including the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises, Roach had a tilt at more serious subject matter with Trumbo (2015) which, in my view, suffers from a similar bloodlessness. Unlike the director, Adam McKay, who took a similar path from silly comedies to serious social and political stories, Roach doesn’t seem to be able to communicate as well with the serious stuff as he does with the silly stuff. McKay really excelled in the serious stuff of The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018). In McKay’s movies, there’s an anger and outrage that courses through the veins of his storytelling that is only sharpened by the razor wit of their comedic devices. Roach seems like he’s reaching for something akin to this but, in the end, settles for just joining the dots of the story. The reason for drawing this analogy isn’t just because of the similar paths taken by the two directors. BOMBSHELL is written by Charles Randolph who also wrote the great screenplay for McKay’s The Big Short, so he knows how to tell a complex, political story and he knows how to do it with a witty and acerbic style. But not so much here. Whether the fault lies in the screenplay (I haven’t read it) or in the way the screenplay is brought to the screen, BOMBSHELL has none of the masterful storytelling technique that Randolph’s other screenplay is drenched in. True, there are fleeting moments of this style with a bit of quirk here and there and the occasional direct address to the camera, but these flashed aren’t followed through to the rest of the film and only serve to remind us what we’re missing out on.

Picture

​The most authentic moment on screen is the vox-poppy appearance of a series of real women who have real stories to tell about sexual harassment in the workplace. It’s a neat way of getting around the fact that Carlson can’t ‘testify’ and is the sequence that, for me at least, reaches the audience more powerfully than anything else in the film. 

​
This is not to say that the performances aren’t terrific. All three women bring a power to the screen that would have been so much more effective if the film had let them off the leash; if they could just go to town on the story. John Lithgow is suitably creepy and oily as Ailes although Crowe on the small screen trumps him for capturing a true horror of chauvinism and despotism that lies not very far beneath the surface of his skin. It’s so disappointing that Bombshell wasn’t able to rise to the opportunity it had within its grasp. It’s an important story and a timely parable for the way we need to shine a light on the terrible things that some men have got away with for too long. In the end, what Bombshell did was prompt me to re-assess my feelings about The Loudest Voice. Perhaps it was a better screen experience than I gave it credit for.
​

Picture
0 Comments

FARMAGEDDON

17/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
2019 | DIR: RICHARD PHELAN & WILL BECHER | STARRING: JUSTIN FLETCHER, JOHN SPARKES, CHRIS MORRELL, ANDY NYMAN, DAVID HOLT, KATE HARBOUR, AMALIA VITALE | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON 

Picture
After the disappointment of Nick Park’s decidedly unfunny Early Man (2018) I was questioning whether the genius of Aardman had run its course; had the well of smart, sharp, witty films dried up? But then I saw the sequel to Mark Burton & Richard Starzak’s 2015 feature adaptation of the six-season television hit, Shaun the Sheep, and all is forgiven; the genius is back. Obviously, they were just saving it for a younger audience.

Picture

In this second outing the Farmer’s dog Bitzer is in his usual adversarial relationship with Shaun, his young cousin Timmy and all the other sheep who live at Mossy Bottom Farm. But then a new character drops in – literally. Lu-La is a glowing blue alien whose spaceship lands in a field not far from the farm, much to the horror of Farmer John and his dog Bingo who are enjoying a walk and some takeaways. Fleeing the alien invasion, Farmer John drops his bag of chips which is promptly consumed by Lu-La who becomes an immediate fan of junk food. Her search for more treats leads her to a pizza delivery guy who’s taking pizzas to Mossy Bottom Farm and, so, in a scene reminiscent of Eliot and ET, Shaun and Lu-La meet and bond over a handful of pizza crusts. And like ET, Lu-La just wants to go home... and like Eliot, Shaun is determined to help her get there. 

Meanwhile, the whole town of Mossington has UFO fever and while the Farmer hatches a plan to cash in on that fever by building a UFO theme-park (called Farmageddon), the incompetent, hazmat-suited agents of the Ministry of Alien Detection (its acronym is no accident) is investigating the sighting led by Agent Red and her trusty sidekick, a robot that bears a striking resemblance to Wall-E. But there’s more to Agent Red than we first suspect, as becomes clear later in the movie. 

The genius of this movie is the simplicity with which it communicates its ideas, its narrative and the relationships between the characters. To all intents and purposes, it’s a silent movie, using strong visual imagery, vocal sounds, music and clever juxtaposition to get its ideas across. In fact, in recognition of its silent movie DNA it portrays the MAD Agents in the style of Mack Senate’s Keystone Cops (1912-1917) and makes a cute reference to Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936). 


Picture

But these aren’t the only movie references that await the film-savvy viewer. Beyond its very obvious parallels with ET: The Extraterrestrial, the whole film is littered with echoes of films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (or ‘furred’ kind as the poster suggests), 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Great Escape, Jaws, James Bond, Doctor Who, The X-Files and more. Plus there are more Easter-eggs than the eagle-eyed viewer could poke a stick at: the local Garage is called H.G.Wheels, the brand of the Farmer’s jam is Roswell, and so much more. And if all this sounds like it’s likely to go well above the heads of a four to seven-year-old audience, then that’s exactly the point. This is not a kid’s film to be tolerated by adults; it’s a film made for kids and adults alike and it succeeds in this admirably. 

As is generally the case with an Aardman movie, the stop-motion animation is excellent as are the visuals and in addition to a sweeping old-school movie score by Tom Howe, the soundtrack features a host of toe-tapping songs including its theme song LAZY written by Howe and performed by Kylie Minogue and the Vaccines. (and if you stick around for the end credits, you’ll be rewarded by a final musical gag). 

As a franchise, A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon succeeds where many others might fail. Not only did the first Shaun The Sheep film successfully make the transition from seven-minute episodes to a feature length story, this sequel (it’s more second story than a sequel) doesn’t lose any of the momentum established by the first one, nor does it feel like it’s cashing in on that film’s box office success. As derivative as the humour needs to be in terms of its many references to other films and pop culture, the screenplay by Jon Brown and Mark Burton is original enough to feel fresh and engaging and, within the bounds of a film for little kids, manages to touch on some strong thematic ideas especially through the character of Agent Red whose backstory and character arc is all about sticking to what you know to be true even if everyone else is laughing at you. 

My one quibble is that the idea that Lu-La becomes almost immediately addicted to junk food is a very topical and one that relates so importantly to the kids who see it and yet, even though the idea is continued throughout the film for laughs, it’s potential health impact is never really addressed. Not that I’m looking for a didactic message here, but it seemed like this idea was ripe for a deeper resonance with the lives of its audience. It’s one missed moment within a film that is made up of so many moments that are bang on target. 

It's easy to point to Pixar when we want to find examples of leading-edge animation and exceptional storytelling with incisive, clever humour and sophisticated depth of emotion. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon consolidates Aardman’s place right up there with Pixar at the top of the pile of some good but many mediocre children’s animations. It’s reassuring to see both Pixar and Aardman continuing to treat the younger filmgoer with respect by making great films that acknowledge their ability to deal with intelligent and complex themes and ideas which recognise that they deserve rich and exceptional film-going experiences just as much as the adults who accompany them. ​
​
Picture
0 Comments

DOLITTLE

16/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

BAD BOYS FOR LIFE

16/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

ITSY BITSY

3/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
2019 | DIR: MICAH GALLO | STARRING: ELIZABETH CROSBY, BRUCE DAVIDSON, DENISE CROSBY, ARMAN DARBO, CHLOE PERRIN, TREVA ETIENNE, MATTY CARDAROPLE, GRACE SHEN | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON Chris Thompson

Picture
There’s a long, proud tradition of schlocky horror films about spiders of all sorts and sizes terrorising innocent victims going back to Jack Arnold’s 1955 sci-fi-horror Tarantula (notable as one of Clint Eastwood’s first big screen appearances as a squadron leader) and making stops along the way in 1990 for Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia and again in 2002 for Ellory Elkayem’s Eight Legged Freaks. With a background in visual effects, Micah Gallo makes a valiant attempt to join the august ranks of spider-horror-film directors with his first feature, ITSY BITSY and he makes a good fist of it despite some difficulties with the way the mismatched story elements play out. ​

The film begins in the jungle where Ahkeeba (Treva Etienne) a procurer of ancient artefacts is hightailing it away from a primitive tribe with a large stone ‘black egg’ that he’s liberated from the tribes ancient ceremony of worship and sacrifice to a spider-like deity. A bit later, as he delivers the black egg to the rural home of Walter Clark (Bruce Davidson) an invalid collector of mostly stolen treasures, there is a disagreement over their deal and Ahkeeba smashes the egg unwittingly releasing a giant spider with venomous intent (that doesn’t end well for him).

Meanwhile, Kara Spencer (Elizabeth Roberts) has arrived from New York to work as a carer for Walter, taking up residence in the house next door with her two kids Jesse (Arman Darbo) and Cambria (Chloe Perrin). Kara is not in a good way, haunted by the death of her other son Stevie in a car crash that was her fault and addicted to pain killers as she tries to deal with her guilt and her grief.
​

These two stories come together, uneasily, as Kara tries to care for Walter whilst Jesse begins to form a relationship with him presumably as a kind of surrogate father. And as Walter tells Jesse the story of the spider worshipping tribe, the giant spider itself is making itself at home in Kara’s house next door.​

Picture

What jars with this story is that the elements of the narrative don’t fit well together and ultimately don’t serve the horror that the spider is intended to create. For a start, the title obviously comes from the children’s nursery rhyme about the spider who climbs the spout but gets washed down by the rain. But, even though there’s a little girl who’s afraid of spiders, there’s really nothing in this story that suits the nursery rhyme reference (despite there being spooky voices singing the rhyme in the trailer, which doesn’t happen in the movie).

Secondly, the idea of a white western man procuring sacred artefacts from primitive tribes is a great starting point for a horror story if it delved into the propriety of such acts and, classically, used the spider trope as way of the collector getting his comeuppance. That almost happens here – there’s a nice scene between Jesse and Walter when Jesse returns an object he’s stolen, and Walter calls him a thief. Jesse comes straight back at the old man pointing out that his ‘collecting’ is no different. But that’s about as far as this idea goes before it gets swamped by the final story element which, of course, is Kara’s drug addiction and guilt over her dead child. As a set up for a mother who must ultimately face the giant spider, this backstory and character flaw gets in the way of the horror story and fails to fuel its suspense.

It's a shame that these elements don’t form a more cohesive narrative spine, because many of the other aspects of the film work quite well. It’s nicely shot by Marcos Durian and the special effects overseen by Dan Rebert provide some nicely icky and gooey spider secretions and the spider itself is pleasingly non-CGI (even if the creature work is at times a bit stilted). There are some good scary moments that work fine but would be all the more terrifying if they were better embedded in the narrative.

The performances are solid and the presence of more experienced actors like Bruce Davidson (X-Men, Apt Pupil, Willard) and Denise Crosby (Ray Donovan, Deep Impact, Star Trek: Next Generation) add some gravitas to the cast and Gallo’s direction keeps things moving at a good pace.
​

Itsy Bitsy may not be the most satisfying flick in the cannon of spider-horror, but it does offer an entertaining and occasionally scary night in front of the screen. 

Itsy Bitsy will be available on home-entertainment through Eagle Entertaimnet in March 2020.


​​
Picture
0 Comments

    OUR WRITERS
    GLENN COCHRANE
    ALYSSA DE LEO
    ALEX MAYNARD
    CHRIS THOMPSON
    SAMANTHA HOWSON​
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010

    RSS Feed

© 2018 FakeShemp.Net    All rights reserved.  FakeShemp.Net Illustrations by MJ Barros. 
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • WTF was that?
  • Good Movie Monday
  • About