Coming Soon: Fingerface

When it comes to low-budget films, it's possible that Andrew Dawson managed to break the mold. This filmmaker created a feature-length romantic comedy using only his own fingers and a whole lot of hours of creating scenery, filming and doing everything else a film needs. According to the Fingerface official site, the plot of the film goes like this:

After losing his job, Giles does the only logical thing. He gets very, very drunk. And in the haze of the bar he sees a girl. Not just any girl. Giles is sure that she�s the girl of his dream from the night before. Her name is Stephanie and it turns out that she�s a lot harder to impress in real life than in dreamland. To win Stephanie�s heart, Giles has to travel the world, turn his back on his friends and give up his other dreams of becoming a musician. But is she worth it? And is Giles really in love, or is it just good, old-fashioned lust?

Fingerface will be released as VOD on December 1st, 2015. You can watch  pre-order the film here or watch the trailer below.

Film Review: The Visit (2015)

Copyright: Universal Pictures

M. Night Shyamalan is a polarizing figure, which some adore and many others shun. 15 years ago, he burst onto the scene with a one-two punch that included The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, one of the most impressive mystery films of the late 1990�s. But then, as the age of the 21st century came about, Shyamalan kind of lost his touch, or was unable to evolve it into the new age, constantly reverting back into his comfort zone of early X-Files episodes, both in terms of narrative and visual delivery.

His subsequent films all lacked that synergy that could combine a twist-based idea with an interesting and attention-worthy movie plot. Instead of that synergy, most of them just ended up being a Twilight Zone episode turned into uninteresting films. Other, none-mystery films like After Earth were just horrendous and should be forgotten as quickly if possible. But now, out of nowhere, 15 years after losing artifact of cinematic super-power, Shyamalan found it in the most unlikely place � a horror comedy from the found footage genre.

As a true 90�s man, Shyamalan did not venture into the found footage domain, even though I believe he was attracted to the business side of it (he is nothing if not a savvy business person). Now, with the Visit 2015, he created easily his best work in almost two decades.

The film is refreshingly down-to-Earth from the get-go. In it, two teenagers, a sister and brother by the name of Becca and Tyler, leave their mom and go to visit their grandparents they never met. They arrive at their countryside home and first off, it�s all good: the grandparents are thrilled to see both of them while Becca films the entire experience as a documentary film. But soon, strange and bizarre things begin to happen and neither of them really knows how to approach newly formed and constantly changing circumstances.

As a unique combination of dark humor and strong horror elements, The Visit is a film that cannot be easily compared with some other movie, especially in the terms of atmosphere. It could be said that Housebound (2014) has a bit of a similar goofy-scary vibe, but both ends of that spectrum are much more intense in The Visit. In a very smooth fashion, Shyamalan shifts the film from moments when the audience is grossed out and/or terrified into really odd comical moments that are equally unnerving as they are funny. All the while found footage cinematography never goes overboard with shaking and motion blurring, making the film easily watchable and even more easily enjoyable. As the plot becomes more and more ludicrous, so does the film's raw entertainment appeal intensifies.

No one should doubt Shyamalan�s ability to make a solid film. With The Visit movie, he definitely showed that he can attain that precious synergy once again and move it right into the new age.

Film Review: Dope (2015)

Copyright: Open Road Films

It�s both strange and interesting to see that for the upcoming generation of teens, mainly those born in the late 90�s, the same decade is slowly becoming a part of an urban legend. Like the 80�s for those who are 10 or 15 years older, the time period that has passed since then allowed this decade to receive a shiny gloss that makes it look very appealing. Dope is not a film about the 90�s nostalgia, but the fact that it does include it as one of the main plot points shows that its creators and producers were able to recognize emerging trends. Fortunately, they didn�t ruthlessly exploit them but instead coated the bitterness of the film�s core message in an easily salable form.

It�s only when Dope is inside of our bellies that we recognize the grim topics it explores � mostly the rampart 2.0 racism that still dominates over the African-American and Latino communities in the biggest US cities. Its director Rick Famuyiwa is by no means a household name, but after this film, it is undoubted that he will receive plenty of exposures.

When it comes to his style and approach to troublesome social topics, he reminds me of a combination of a young Spike Lee and a more cheerful version of the young Darren Aronofsky. Throughout the Dope movie, the plot keeps unraveling and falling like a piano on top of a group of Inglewood nerdy kids who get into their possession a bag of MDMA and end up being chased or pressured by different criminal elements.

The main character of the group is Malcolm played really well by Shameik Moore, the de facto leader of the three-part gang. The three of them share good grades, no gang affiliation, love for the 90�s hip-hop and really bad but intentional fashion style. Moore translates both the comical confusion of his horny, but good-natured character, and also his seriousness about his place in the world, which is sadly shaped by his skin color and family background. Here, like in many of Spike Lee�s films, the theme of the film is a personal struggle within a man who must choose how to perceive a racist society � will he oppose it directly or try to work from the inside of the system.

Aside from these ideas, Dope 2015 has plenty of humor. In many ways, it is a sequel to Superbad, where kids from upper-middle class families have been replaced with ones from a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood. But still, the key points for the character remain the same � stay out of jail and have sex for the first time. All this takes place in a mayhem-infused environment, now a lot more impacted by things like Bitcoin and social media. And like the recent Inherent Vice, the film abundantly utilizes the location of Los Angeles, providing its story with plenty of gorgeous urban shots.

Dope is by no means a perfect film from a cinematic standpoint. Its use of narrating characters is unstable and a middle segment of the film begins to meander and disperse its energy. But it has a strong basic engine and it provides more than enough power for this coming of age comedy, set in a very real drama of a racially divided society.

Film Review: Pay the Ghost (2015)

Copyright: RLJ Entertainment

Since Nicolas Cage became a one-man-meme generator a couple of years back, a notion has grown in the public consensus that the man simply can�t act very well or according to the designated character. Of course, this idea elegantly ignores films like Vampire's Kiss, Wild at Heart, Raising Arizona, Guarding Tess, Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. 

Yes, it�s true that his choice of films in the 21st century wasn�t exactly stellar (Bangkok Dangerous, for example) and his manic energy often comes out in sublimely weird ways, but essentially, in my opinion, Cage has absolutely nothing to prove anymore.

Now, he obviously works using the Michael Cain rule of accepting all that is offered to him in his price range and Pay the Ghost is strangely one of the best films he participated in over the last few years.

But, this is more about his low artistic standards than the quality of this movie because this film is an average medium-budget horror which provides one or two interesting visual moments, but the rest is located in its entirety VOD territory; indeed, I bet many will watch Pay to Ghost on line primarily, instead of going to a theater.

In the story, Cage plays a college professor whose son disappears one Halloweens night. A year later, he is adamant about finding him, especially because he is certain that paranormal things were somehow involved. The director of the film, Uli Edel, brought very little of his sharp German-style cinematography, like the one we saw in The Baader Meinhof Complex, and instead drowned the film in general New York locations and settings. The same is true for the film�s horror moments, which generate tension, but do it with without much tact or grace. Similar to the story of the thriller Before I Go to Sleep, Pay the Ghost has it all from a narrative standpoint but lacks that spark that can really animate the story in a more engaging emotional way.

But, when it is compared to a regular, run-of-the-mill horror, watching Pay the Ghost movie is a pleasant experience, with much unwanted distractions or annoyances. I�m sure that Uli Edel can create a lot better horror films than this one and I would even like to see Cage act in them in the future.

Film Review: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

The latest installment of Mission: Impossible franchise seems determined to impress right from the first minute. As the well-known images of Tom Cruise hanging from an ascending cargo plane appear on the screen, along with a visceral feeling of anxiety (the director Christopher McQuarrie knows his action sequences), the audience is left to witness a film flawlessly made for the 5-second attention span generation.

As the story progresses, there is no time to slow down the action or take a break. The thriller and action modules just come one after another, linked together by a vague plot about a terrorist organization wanting to change the world for the better by killing important people and blowing things up.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt runs around once more, looking fit and stylish, strangely untouched by over 20 years since the first Mission: Impossible films both in stature and the way he presents his character. In the subsequent 2 hours of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, several fantastic segments take place, covering everything from suicide bike chases to suicide breath-diving hacking intrusions.

It seems to me that McQuarrie deliberately targeted that physical sense of danger threatening Ethan Hunt, determined to make the same feeling the main connection line to the audience. During the film, we fear that Ethan will fall from an airplane, drown in an underwater database or crash while speeding on his bike. In this sense, the film is a lot like those YouTube clips where you see Russian teenagers climbing radio antennae with a mounted GoPro camera. It�s thrilling, but really shallow, which is in the case of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation a completely valid choice, along with the decision to provide an unimpressive conclusion to the story, because it obviously doesn�t matter what happens in the end, as long as the beginning and middle are fun and interesting.

Like McQuarrie and Cruise previous film Edge of Tomorrow, the action is great and the story is there only to provide the a setup for a string of thrill & mayhem sequences. It seems to me that the even emptier narrative of the Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, filled with usual, but pointless spy elements, works a lot better than an apocalyptic science fiction setting for this type of movie.