The Invite

It could be a play. It wouldn't surprise me if it was done as a play. Also, I didn't know when I watched it that it's actually a remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs by Cesc Gay, who adapted it from his own stage play. So it was a play! And the thing about plays is that they usually have great dialogue. And they often take place in small settings. In this case, a San Francisco apartment. Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) have been married a good long while, have a teenage daughter, and have been kept awake by the wild escapades of the neighbours above. Angela invites Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) over one night for drinks and some food. Joe wants to have it out with them for making all the sex racket upstairs. Turns out Hawk and Piña have their own agenda too. If you told me that Woody Allen had made it, I would believe you. It's foremost a comedy, but there is something deeper here. At times, poignant. It touches on the desires of couples who have been together for a long time and know each other, know each other's weaknesses and shortcomings. At times there is brutal honesty. There are lots of truths you may relate to, especially if you have been in a long-term relationship. Pain, resentment, fears, guilt, and facing one's own failures get paraded about in Angela's warmly decorated apartment. It reminded me of His Three Daughters (a great film from 2024) but with different themes; that was about siblings and their relationship with their father. The Invite is about relationships between long-term couples, but the candour and humour of the former film feel similar, and it is also set in an apartment. Both have great dialogue. Make sure to accept your invitation to the party and catch it in theatres now at the ByTowne and The Mayfair, or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when it becomes available. 

The Twister: Caught in the Storm

I'm always down to watch a disaster movie. A lot of them are pure fiction with some small foothold rooted in science: Twister, Twisters, and San Andreas. Some are based on true events: The Impossible, The Lost Bus, and The Perfect Storm. All of these dramas or docudramas have actors emoting, writers bringing these characters to life, and they have the tinsel glitter of Hollywood. Not that it makes them bad, but it keeps us just slightly removed. I have only been in three major weather events, two ice storms and the May 2022 Ottawa derecho. The derecho left me without power for two weeks and caused major destruction across Canada's capital. I was inside a Canadian Tire when it rolled through - I came out and the sky was black, tinted with green swirling masses that looked like fish tank algae rolling through the clouds. When I watched this documentary, I could only imagine what I saw and experienced was a small fraction compared to what the people of Joplin, Missouri endured in the summer of 2011. This film focuses on about eight different individuals who were there when this massive tornado hit their town. On the day it hit, it was the Joplin High School graduation for approximately 450 students. Most of those featured were teenagers at the time. A group of three amateur storm chasers. A frozen yogurt employee, Cecil,  who was Christian, gay and still in the closet. He thought the Rapture was coming when the storm hit. This film is raw and riveting. The people interviewed are candid - feels like they are opening a wound when they tell their stories. Makes it very personal. It's as thrilling as any fictional drama or docudrama. In fact, it's better. And scary as hell. Plus it's highly emotional. You will be hard-pressed to find someone with dry eyes at the end of this one. This one blew me away (pun intended). Catch it streaming down on Netflix. 

Mr Inbetween

Scott Ryan is a unicorn. A rare magical creature, singular and dazzling. What a beast he is. Scott Ryan is the creator, writer, and star of the Australian show, Mr Inbetween. The show ran for three seasons from 2018 to 2021. Ryan plays Ray Shoesmith, a bouncer at a strip club, The Playhouse. He is also an independent contract killer. He is divorced and has a daughter, Britt, with whom he shares custody. Ray has a brother, Bruce, who has some sort of undisclosed illness, ALS or something similar. Bruce is played by Nicholas Cassim. I actually looked up to see if Cassim has some sort of disability or disease. He does not. That's how good he is in his role. Ray's sidekick is Gary (Justin Rosniak) who is constantly asking for Ray's help or coming up with silly ways to make money. Gary is comic relief with his golden shower DVDs and his foot fetish sex toys. There is no theme song for the show. It feels stripped down to the barest of bones. At first I thought it was cheap and low budget but I think it's more of a stylist choice. There is a simplicity to the show, all the fluff is stripped away and raw honesty is what is left. The dialogue between Ray and Gary feels like something Tarantino would write, but even more earnest. It feels like a conversation you might actually have with your friend. But let me remind you, this is a show, where the lead is a killer for money. Ray doesn't seem to have any problem inflicting violence on anyone if the price is right. Ray is loyal to a few friends and his family and that's it. The show goes in directions I didn't expect. Sometimes you can see the violence coming, and sometimes you can't. Breaking Bad remains one of my favourite TV crime dramas of all time. Coming in a very close second is, Mr Inbetween. Catch it streaming on Disney+ (of all places) or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff. 

Slow West

So at the end of last year I reviewed a film called Tornado. If you haven't seen it yet, giddy up. I said I would go back and check out director John Maclean's first film, Slow West. I finally got around to doing it and it's also fantastic. Maclean has only made these two feature films and IMDb tells me they didn't make a whole lot of money. Which is a shame. I feel like there is some sort of injustice, much like the Wild West Maclean likes to write about. Both of Maclean's films have this quiet savagery to them, a kind of Darwinesque, eat-or-be-eaten quality. But as I said, it's quiet, subtle. It takes a long time to build up to the violence, then it's fast. The threat of it always seems to hang there, like a gun just laying on a counter. What's it all about? A young, very naive Irish man, Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), is heading West across America in search of the love of his life, Rose (Caren Pistorius). Turns out that Rose is also a wanted fugitive. Tracking Rose is bounty hunter Silas (Michael Fassbender) who has had a falling out with a group of fellow trackers led by Payne (Ben Mendelsohn) who fashions a coat that looks like something Johnny Depp wore in Dead Man. They are all heading for destination Rose. Quentin Tarantino had already made seven films (ten if you include Four Rooms, True Romance, and Natural Born Killers; maybe eleven if you add Sin City) before he made Django Unchained and then The Hateful Eight. I would say Maclean's first two films are better Westerns. Saddle up and get yourself to your local video store, that would be Movies 'N Stuff here in Ottawa, and rent Slow West today. 

Satan's Slaves and Satan's Slaves 2: Communion

If you are a fan of The Conjuring, then buckle up and keep reading. If not, stop right here and move on to another review. If you are still with me, then let me tell you about these two Indonesian horror films which are just as good as any of The Conjuring films. Satan's Slaves and its even better sequel follow the story of a family which starts off living in small house in the rural countryside. There is a dying grandmother, a sick mother, and a father who leaves for a good chunk of the film, leaving in charge Rini (Tara Basro), who is in her early twenties, to take care of her three brothers, ages sixteen, ten, and six. The six-year-old doesn't speak. The mother has a mysterious illness and the grandmother lies in bed looking as pale as a geisha, and when she opens her eyes, they open frighteningly wide. Just her appearance alone will scare you. I don't want to bog you down in plot details, but trust me, this one will possess your attention. And the sequel is even better.

The family ends up moving to an apartment building. Satan's Slaves 2: Communion is kind of like The Raid meets Poltergeist. The family finds themselves trapped in the building by a massive storm and inside with them is a big elevator ride of supernatural horror. You will want to stop at every floor! Both are terrifyingly fun. Director Joko Anwar has made two masterful horror films and third in this series is due out in 2027 - I am Scooby Doo excited. Catch these films streaming on Shudder or go rent them from Movies 'N Stuff here in Ottawa. 

The Exorcist III: Legion

How is it that I've been walking around the Earth without anyone telling me about this film? How is it that nobody told me that The Exorcist III is one of greatest sequels and one of the greatest horror films of all time? Maybe because nobody I know has watched it. Well I'm here to remedy this situation. Or at least do my part to alert you, dear reader, and bring this important horror film to your attention. It stars the late, great, George C. Scott as a police detective who is investigating a murder. The film was written and directed by William Peter Blatty. Blatty's career was spent mainly as a writer. He wrote the screenplay for the first Exorcist film. He only directed two movies, this being his second and last. It's a holy moly show. There is a hallway scene,  a mise-en-scène shot, where the camera sits at the end of the hall and we are waiting, possibly for something bad to happen. In fact, we are sure of it and this just amplifies the tension as it goes on. Hitchcock, De Palma, or Dario Argento would be proud of this shot. It's magnificent. There is a dream sequence which lasts only a few minutes, but it feels like it had the budget and scale of Caligula - impressive. But the best part of the film is the dialogue. As I mentioned before, Blatty was mainly a writer. The script swells with earnest writing. The back and forth between Scott and Ed Flanders (who plays Father Dyer) in a gritty diner is wonderful - a man of faith vs. the grizzled cop who has seen too much violence and asks, "How could your God do such a thing?" These two characters are the best of friends, which makes it more interesting. The killings in this movie are gruesome and unnerving, although there is little actual gore - mostly discussed (and maybe what is left to your imagination is worse). George C. Scott screaming out "I believe in slime!" is one of the great moments in horror cinema. Loved it. The Exorcist III: Legion is the director's cut of the same film. Have faith in this one and catch it on Prime or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff. 

Backrooms

So I haven't watched any of director Kane Parsons' YouTube videos which, as I have read, led to the making of this film, his first feature-length movie. I went in cold except for the trailer. I recommend doing the same if possible. What's it all about? It follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the owner and operator of a discount furniture store in a warehouse area, circa 1990 - Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire. Clark performs cheesy TV commercials dressed as a pirate with a wooden leg. Clark is in therapy after the demise of his last relationship. His store is sad with ugly and outdated pieces that scream grandpa's couch. And no customers. The store also seems to have some serious electrical issues. Clark discovers a secret passage to another part of his store that looks like '70s or '80s office space. It's like Clark entered The Twilight Zone if it were a Guggenheim Museum art installation. Clark's therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) also has her own messed-up childhood backstory, which plays a role when she enters the backrooms in search of the missing Clark. Backrooms is like if you took Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3 and gave it characters and a plot. Or if you took Synecdoche New York and turned it into The Maze Runner. It's kind of like the 1997 Canadian film, Cube if the world was turned to a yellow-beige and you added bad furniture. If all of these film references are too obscure, no worries, you can still go get happily lost in Backrooms. It's strange, like doing mushrooms in your friend's basement that hasn't been updated since the early '90s - you may have a bit of a panic attack trying to find your way out. Catch this conundrum in a dark theatre room or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when it becomes available.