One of last year’s best indie films resurfaces on home video this month, alongside expected genre offerings doing their best to ramp up the thrills and chills, another aging Hollywood star trying to reinvent himself as an action dude, primo documentary fodder, and some head-scratching reissues.
Devil’s Due
In a nutshell: A couple documenting their pregnancy find themselves capturing more on video than they bargained for in this demonic horror from members of horror filmmaking collective Radio Silence (who memorably closed out the final tale of V/H/S). Zach Gilford (TV’s Friday Night Lights) stars alongside Alison Miller.
The buzz: 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety say it “offers precious little in the way of real scares or engaging characters, and even less in original ideas” while the Village Voice state the script “tips its hand so early on that Devil’s Due lumbers toward a woefully flat, predictable ending, and the unwelcome promise of something truly demonic – sequels”. On the other hand, FEARnet’s Scott Weinberg calls the film “virtually a found footage remake of Rosemary’s Baby, but it’s a pretty fun version of that”.
Reason to Watch: As Matt Saracen on Friday Night Lights, Zach Gilford proved endearing, if annoyingly mumbly and often an outright doofus. I;m curious to see how he fares here, and if you’ve seen the show but not Rosemary’s Baby then (1.) shame on you; and (2.) this could be worth a spin.
Open Grave
In a nutshell: Waking up in a mass grave a terrified Sharlto Copley (District 9) has no idea what he’s doing there, and is unable to escape until a rope is dropped for him to climb out. He eventually joins an equally confused bunch of individuals who attempt to piece together what they’re doing among the carnage – and why everyone they encounter is brutally, sadistically violent.
The buzz: 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. “The film’s aura of mystery only works in the first 20 minutes or so” says NPR, while Christy Lemire on RogerEbert.com is bummed out that “where the story leads is so disappointing-and hackneyed-it makes the entire journey feel like an enormous waste of time”.
Reason to Watch: Filled with twists and turns, we enjoyed watching this despite its flaws. While the final payoff may not amaze as much as the filmmakers may have hoped, you’re never really sure what’s going on among the bloodshed.
Want to watch it? Yeah / Nah
Cutie and the Boxer
In a nutshell: The 40-year relationship of two artists is the centre of this Sundance-winning documentary, portraying the decade-spanning marriage of renowned “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife Noriko.
The buzz: A whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hollywood Reporter calls the film “a finely textured and beautifully told story”; Variety label it “a warts-and-all portrait of love, sacrifice and the creative spirit”; and Wall Street Journal enthuses “Cutie and the Boxer is more than a great documentary. It’s a great film.”
Reason to Watch: Between those reviewer quotes and the bizarre image above of an elderly man in colourful goggles painting with gloved fists, come on already!
Muscle Shoals
In a nutshell: An all-star cast of musos line up to pay tribute to the town of Muscle Shoals and its unique magic when it came to laying down music. From Bono to Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys to Mick Jagger, and many more besides, they’re gushing over the Alabama studio and its signature sound as heard on “Brown Sugar”, “When a Man Loves a Woman”, and tons of other songs you know inside and out.
The buzz: Hey, this has a whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes too! Time Out describes the film as “an essential document of a defining era when ‘soul’ really meant something”; Hollywood Reporter says “even casual music fans will enjoy behind-the-hits doc”; and the Seattle Times goes for broke, reckoning “it is hands down one of the best music documentaries ever made”.
Reason to Watch: Like Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Muscle Shoals is essential viewing for soul enthusiasts and music fans in general.
Want to watch it? Yeah / Nah
Short Term 12
In a nutshell: A supervisor at a short term juvenile foster facility tries to juggle her challenging work, her relationship with a co-worker, and her own troubled past in this indie drama that just sneaks in here after having a blink-and-you-missed-it theatrical run.
The buzz: Hoo boy, 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Epic. Slate says that when the film “reaches its last scene, the lump it leaves in your throat feels earned”; Rolling Stone critique other rehab films and their force feeding of morals, noting “Short Term 12, an exceptional film in every way, breaks the mold”; and Flicks’ own Dominic Corry describes the film as a “quietly wonderful exercise in glorious empathy”.
Reason to Watch: In another universe the dramatic acting of Brie Larson would have triggered an avalanche of awards. But in our dire timeline we’ll have to do with watching this talented, confident performance sans such plaudits.
The Last Days on Mars
In a nutshell: Science fiction/horror starring Liev Schreiber and Olivia Williams, set just prior to the completion of a manned mission to Mars. Six months after they touched down, the crew prepare to head home with evidence of life may have existed on the planet, but one final mission onto the surface of Mars brings them in touch with an infectious organism that transforms its hosts into zombie-like aggressors.
The buzz: Dipping back into genre films brings us back to a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Fatally lacking in entertainment value” observes the Chicago Sun-Times; while on the other hand, the Los Angeles Times says it “takes a familiar story and tells it so tautly that we are pleased to be on board” and more promisingly the Village Voice argue “the first half plays out by the numbers, with undead astronauts popping open the fragile bubble protecting the crew, but there’s some grandeur to the second…”.
Reason to Watch: Sounds like this is one for the sci-fi/horror aficionados only – but if you’re like me you’ll have a suitably low enjoyment threshold that this might just bloody work.
Out of the Furnace
In a nutshell: Christian Bale stars in this thriller as a man out for justice, let down by the law when cops fail to follow through on the disappearance of his brother. The all-star cast includes Casey Affleck, Zoe Saldana, Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe and Forest Whitaker. Damn.
The buzz: 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. The New Yorker might not mean to be positive when they say this, but I’ll ake it that way – “The movie has an undeniable, dour force, but it’s basically conventional macho filmmaking, and it’s extremely violent”; “One of the best movies I’ve seen this year” reckoned Richard Roeper; while Rolling Stone enthuses about the lead performances, saying “What gives the movie its heat is the acting. [Casey] Affleck, his eyes pools of pain, is outstanding. His scenes with [Christian] Bale, all coiled intensity ready to spring, are electric.”
Reason to Watch: This is from the director of Oscar-winner Crazy Heart, and if that dude can make me tear up in a movie about a country singer, I trust him to take me inside this economically-depressed town and its brutal crime ring.
Wolf Creek 2
In a nutshell: Sadistic outback serial killer Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) returns in this sequel to 2005’s brutal Aussie horror. Once again, tourists are on his kill list, with a trio of Northern Hemisphere visitors wandering into his clutches…
The buzz: 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Detroit News has a descriptive list – “gory, disturbing, inventive, twisted and rather well made”; “Merely offers more of the same casual brutality” says Village Voice; and the New York Times note “Mick has been reimagined as a chortling, xenophobic butcher who enjoys a singalong of “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” and dismembers his victims with the help of Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces”.
Reason to Watch: With the director of the original returning, at least this isn’t just a cash-grab sequel in name only. I’ll be giving it a hoon.
3 Days to Kill
In a nutshell: Kevin Costner tries to pull a Liam Neeson here, starring for writer-producer Luc Besson (Taken) as an international spy racing against the clock to save his skin, but at the same time trying to build a closer relationship with his family.
The buzz: 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Costner seems bored by most of the convoluted goings-on” observes the New York Daily News; fellow Big Apple paper the New York Post slams director “McG, who does his usual McGhastly job with action and is McGruesome when it comes to comedy”; though Hollywood Reporter is more positive, noting “Costner effortlessly blends deadpan comic flair with action movie heroics in this preposterous but entertaining genre mashup”.
Reason to Watch: I’m struggling here. The Last Boy Scout‘s family dynamics mixed with Taken? Amber Heard? Why don’t you watch it, and tell us why we should.
Reissues
Much-maligned upon release, and due for re-evaluation (especially if the director keeps answering questions about the muddled pic online) is Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales. After Donnie Darko, the world thought he was a genius, giving him $17 million to make a comedy-drama-sci-fi-thriller starring Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake. And then it made less than half a million bucks at the box office… Ouch. Still, you couldn’t accuse this near-future, alternate history tale of lacking ambition, from memory it just lacks logic, cohesiveness, and… I dunno. Due for another watch, even just to verify its a car-wreck.
Speaking of cars -and comedy-drama-sci-fi-thrillers – 1984’s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension makes an appearance on Blu-ray this month, ensuring a better viewing experience of this cult hit starring Peter Weller as a heroic physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock musician doing his best to save the world from aliens and going up against a villainous John Lithgow.
And speaking of 1980s cult faves, Q: The Winged Serpent also heads to Blu-ray. From B-movie champ Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, The Stuff, Gold Told Me To), this fantasy horror stars Michael Moriarty, David Carradine and Richard Roundtree as they contend with Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, a winged serpent who has set up shop in the Big Apple.
