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Articles by Sep Gohardani
Treads Familiar Ground With Sincerity- My Little Sister (Film Review)
Sven (Lars Eidinger) is a stage actor suffering from cancer who is desperate to perform again. His twin sister, Lisa (Nina Hoss), takes care of him and is equally invested in ensuring that he gets the chance to do so, convinced it would benefit his health and give him something to aim towards. A playwright herself, Lisa’s career has stalled and she has followed her husband Martin (Jens Albinus) to Switzerland, where he has a teaching job at a prestigious international school.
"My Paintings Took The Place Of All This" – Frida: Viva La Vida (Documentary Review)
There is some irony in the choice of phrase accompanying Frida as the title of this documentary. Viva La Vida translates as Long Live Life. Not, as some might think, a reference to the Coldplay song, but to her final painting. A phrase added in the last days before her death in 1954. The irony is that Frida Kahlo’s life was difficult. Marred by illness, accidents, miscarriages, and heartbreak. Frida: Viva La Vida attempts to give us an insight into the conflict in Frida’s mind.
Lacklustre Noirish Thriller - The Ballad of Billy McCrae (Film Review)
Chris (Ian Virgo) has returned to his hometown in Wales after the demise of his business venture in Canada. Penniless and needing work, Chris ends up working at a quarry owned by Billy McCrae (David Hayman), a highly volatile, despotic figure whose grasp of the general area is much tighter than one might think. While working for Billy, Chris meets and becomes enamoured with his daughter Elen (Sianad Gregory), whose charismatic presence proves impossible to resist.
"Clarity, Calmness and Control" – The Alpinist (Documentary Review)
Why on earth do people climb free solo? In 2018 Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi brought Alex Honnold’s solo ascent of El Capitan to our screens everywhere in the documentary Free Solo. It won Best Documentary at the 2019 Oscars and made climbing docs something of a mainstream hobby.
Anticlimactic, but not entirely without merit - Earwig and the Witch (Blu-ray Review)
Occasionally you see a film, and at the end you’re not entirely sure how to feel about it. Gorô Miyazaki directs his third film for Studio Ghibli, following Tales from Earthsea and From Up On Poppy Hill. It’s also Ghibli’s second adaptation of a story by Welsh author, Diana Wynne Jones, after Howl’s Moving Castle. Earwig and the Witch is Studio Ghibli’s first foray into digital animation, and it’s a mixed bag. There are elements that place it firmly into their usual style.
A Sweet Treat With A Sour Aftertaste - Sweetheart (Film Review)
There seems to be an interesting trend occurring in British Queer cinema – one of self-discovery and exploration within holiday parks. This was kicked off by Claire Oakley’s Make Up, a dark and brooding psychosexual endeavor with shades of The Wicker Man painted into its style, and now we have Marley Morrison’s Sweetheart.
Stilted and Unconvincing - Between Waves (Film Review)
Between Waves has an interesting central concept and some arresting cinematography, but a poor script and some strange narrative choices make it a much more tedious experience than it perhaps could have been, considering the uniqueness of its subject matter. Billed as a “metaphysical love story” on its poster, Between Waves tells the story of professional photographer Jamie (Fiona Graham), whose quantum physicist boyfriend Isaac (Luke Robinson) has gone missing, and is presumed dead.
Uninspired and Dull- The Unholy (Film Review)
Is there any other genre that produces as many forgettable, cash grabbing films as horror? Horror has always been a reliable, safe genre for studios; cheap to make with good profits, even with bad reviews. The people simply love to be scared. Written and directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos, The Unholy seems exactly the type of disposable entertainment that you consume and then discard like yesterday’s paper.
Disjointed - Antebellum (Blu-ray Review)
Antebellum is a disjointed hodgepodge of ideas loosely strung together by a central conceit (a modern woman apparently transported back in time to a plantation and forced to become a slave) that feels tenuous at best, struggling desperately to match its ambitions with a tone that veers wildly and a narrative that gestures towards something greater without ever coming close to achieving it.
"It’s Time For You To Learn The Truth" – The Birthday Cake (Film Review)
Every now and then a film comes along that, on paper, has everything going for it. Every now and then a film comes along with a cast that is so explosively talented and dynamic, it must surely be a winner. Every now and then a film comes along you desperately want to enjoy, but ends up being a convoluted and mind-numbingly dull mess. Step forward, The Birthday Cake.
Tense, if generic – Alone (Blu-Ray Review)
Alone builds tension well throughout, maintaining an atmosphere of persistent threat that contributes to making this an effective if not remarkable exercise in stripped back thriller film-making. After a traumatic event, Jessica (Jules Willcox) is moving away. Having packed her things up in a trailer, she embarks on a road trip through the American countryside. On the road, she encounters the same car repeatedly, behaving strangely and almost causing a serious crash.
Superficial and irritating - A Perfect Enemy (Film Review)
Based on The Enemy Cosmetique, a novel by Amélie Nothomb, the film tells the story of an architect, Jeremiasz Angust (Tomasz Kot), who is heading back home to Warsaw from Paris after speaking at a conference. On the way to the airport, his car is stopped by a young woman (Athena Strates) in need of a lift to catch her flight. She asks for a ride and he reluctantly agrees. What starts out as an innocent request, takes a darker stranger turn, especially when the woman won’t leave Jeremiasz alone.
A thriller with no thrills- Paradise Cove (Film Review)
Veering between tedious and extremely overblown, Paradise Cove is a bizarre hodgepodge of ideas that isn’t helped by a poor script and some mediocre performances, resulting in a film that fails to engage at all. Knox Bannett (Todd Grinnell) and his wife Tracey (Mena Suvari) move to Malibu, California to restore Knox’s mother’s beach house and sell it on so they can live out their dream lives together.
Harrowing, yet valuable- The Nightingale (Blu-Ray Review)
Jennifer Kent’s follow-up to The Babadook is an unflinching, brutal, and relentless depiction of the bleakness of life in the Tasmanian wilderness in the 19th century. The story follows Clare (Aisling Franciosi), an Irish convict trapped in indentured servitude, working for a British officer named Hawkins (Sam Claflin) at a British army outpost.
Promising, but unfocused - The Exception (Film Review)
Fantastic performances and some very powerful scenes don’t stop The Exception from feeling like a bit of a missed opportunity, as it makes one misstep too many to fulfil its potential as a film that is effective and impactful throughout.
A valuable, if mixed, collection- Short Sharp Shocks (BFI Flipside Anthology) (Blu-ray Review)
Short Sharp Shocks is a valuable collection of short films, charting various decades of British horror and thriller filmmaking from the heyday of supporting features and allowing people to see moments in film history that may otherwise have either been lost to time or not reached the same level of audience that they now will.
Amusing but ultimately insubstantial - Dead (Film Review)
Often amusing and not without its charms, Dead is nevertheless too slight and underdeveloped to make good on its excellent central concept. Dane Marbec (co-writer Thomas Sainsbury) is a good-natured stoner, known to his friends affectionately as ‘Marbles’. He lives an ostensibly ordinary life if it weren’t for the fact that he can talk to ghosts through the use of a cocktail of drugs that he discovered through experimentation with neurological medication.
Sincere and heartfelt - Sócrates (Film Review)
Bolstered by a magnetic central performance from first-time actor Christian Malheiros, Sócrates is an intimate and passionate film with plenty of heart, showcasing debut director Alexandre Moratto’s talent and what can be achieved on a very small budget.
Unsettling slow-burn - She Dies Tomorrow (Film Review)
Kate Sheil in She Dies Tomorrow by Amy Seimetz Clever and unique, She Dies Tomorrow is a sometimes frustrating, but generally rewarding slow-burn of a film that showcases the talent of its writer-director Amy Seimetz, whose abstract tale packs a sardonic, biting punch in its best moments. Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) has just bought a lovely and very large new house, an occasion one would think is worthy of celebration, but her mood is altogether more depressed.
A missed opportunity- Piranhas (Film Review)
Overlong and far less emotionally resonant than it could be, Piranhas is an almost worthy, stuttering tale of gang warfare in Naples and the way teenagers are dragged into it in their search for wealth and power. The film follows Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli), a 15-year-old whose boyish charm matches his ambition and resolve to make something of himself in the only valid mode of work that he can see: crime.
Simmering tension- 'A White, White Day' (Film Review) - VultureHound Magazine
Gorgeously shot and carefully paced, Hlynur Pálmason’s A White, White Day simmers and broils throughout, building up a sense of tension offset by its naturalistic tendencies and Pálmason’s dedication to nuance. Ingimundur (Ingvar Sigurdsson) is a semi-retired police officer in a small Icelandic town whose life is haunted by the recent death of his wife (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir).
Nonsensical- Proximity (Film Review)
A poorly made homage to Spielbergian science fiction, Proximity is as inept as it is laughable, featuring a nonsensical plot and no discernible chemistry between any of its cast. This is writer-director Eric Demeusy’s debut feature, though he’s an experienced visual effects specialist, and the effects make up the best parts of the film. As enjoyable as it can be visually though, thematically and narratively it is anything but.
Enjoyable, but heavy handed - The Boys: Season 1 (Blu-Ray Review)
The Boys is highly entertaining and delightfully acerbic at its best, but slightly too heavy-handed and self-indulgent at its worst. Nevertheless, there’s plenty to enjoy and it’s fun to explore a much darker side to superheroes amid the pervasive Marvel and DC mania entrenched in popular culture.
Those Who Remain Uses Darkness to Terrify Us, but Players Might Terrify Themselves Too
Set in the seemingly sleepy Washington town of Dormont and due for release in June, psychological horror game Those Who Remain is the latest by Camel 101, its first game since 2016’s Syndrome. It’s a game with a simple premise: darkness kills. This is not just any darkness though, but one brought forth by a demon terrorizing the inhabitants of Dormont, ensuring there is no escape. Players take on the role of Edward Turner, a man searching for a woman amidst this unsettling landscape.
Brutal deconstruction - Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse (Blu-Ray Review) - VultureHound Magazine
A slow-burn of a horror film that simmers gently throughout, Hagazussa: A Heathen’s Curse is an acquired taste, though one that’s intricately crafted and revels in the atmosphere it creates. A debut for writer-director Lukas Feigelfeld, the film is very precisely constructed, each scene intended to increase a sense of ominous dread that creeps its way into the first frame and only leaves once the credits start to roll.
No light at the end of the tunnel- The Beast (Film Review)
A more adventurous second half stops The Beast from plodding along as just another police procedural with a dark colour palette, though doesn’t quite do enough to make it anything other than passably diverting. The Beast, directed by Lee Jung-ho, is a grim tale of blurred lines in the Korean police, and attempts to portray the murkiness inherent in getting down and dirty with criminals, as well as the corruption that comes along with that.
A trailblazer? - Rio Grande (Blu-Ray Review)
While it isn’t up there with John Ford’s greatest films, Rio Grande, initially released in 1950, is an understated and nuanced film in the guise of a run of the mill western, with excellent performances from its main cast. The third and final film in Ford’s ‘Cavalry Trilogy’ after Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, it follows John Wayne’s Lieutenant Kirby Yorke, who is posted on the Texas frontier in 1879 as protection for settlers against Apache attacks.
Tedious - Midway (DVD review)
An example of by-the-numbers filmmaking at its blandest, Roland Emmerich’s retelling of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway that followed it reaches for epic but only manages to stumble towards the generic, landing firmly on the tedious. Emmerich’s specialty has always been the bombastic, for better or worse, and his attempt to bring a level of authenticity to this film is overshadowed by his reluctance to eschew that propensity towards large scale spectacle.
A balletic heist movie - Raining in the Mountain (Blu-Ray Review)
Set in a remote 16th-century Chinese Buddhist monastery, King Hu’s 1979 film Raining in the Mountain is a beautifully executed blend of heist movie-esque intrigue, spirituality, comedy and drama that revolves around the power struggle that ensues when the monastery’s abbot announces his impending retirement.
Clichés galore - Gemini Man (DVD Review)
“I’m retiring,” says DIA assassin Henry Brogan (Will Smith) confidently, positive that everything’s going to work out and a happy life of fishing and solitude lies in store for him. Except it obviously doesn’t, because Gemini Man is determined to play cliché bingo with every Hollywood action thriller known to man.
Disjointed - Mr. Jones (Film Review)
Very interesting subject matter and good performances don’t stop Mr. Jones from being too disjointed to be as gripping and impactful as it perhaps could have been. The titular Mr. Jones is Gareth Jones (played by James Norton), a brave and determined Welsh journalist in 1933, eager to discover the truth of what was really going on in a world where conflict broiled barely under the surface.
'Worthwhile and sobering' - Anne Frank: Parallel Stories (Film Review) - VultureHound Magazine
Anne Frank: Parallel Stories provides a reminder of how excellent and vital Anne Frank’s diary is while giving it thought-provoking and intelligent context. Unfortunately, it is harmed somewhat by a bizarre framing device involving Twitter hashtags that dampens its impact, though not enough to stop it from being a worthwhile film.
Shows promise, lacks bite - A Serial Killer's Guide to Life (Film Review) - VultureHound Magazine
In its best moments, A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life is an engaging, sharp, witty and darkly fun black comedy, though one that doesn’t quite live up to its full potential.
'Drenched in psychedelic colour' - Into the Mirror (Film Review) - VultureHound Magazine
Lois Stevenson’s debut film is attractively shot and drenched in psychedelic colour, telling an initially engaging but ultimately frustrating story of a man’s journey towards finding comfort in who he is. Stevenson’s biggest triumph is her command over the film’s aesthetics, which are impressive throughout but especially in the frequent heightened, dreamlike sequences that serve as the method through which the main character’s subconscious thoughts and feelings are explored.
Atmospheric and sparse - Gwen (DVD Review)
Beautifully shot and unrelentingly gloomy, Gwen is an impressive, if sparse, debut feature from writer-director William McGregor. The film’s strengths come in the wonderfully evoked atmosphere, achieved through a combination of beautiful cinematography (fantastically shot by Adam Etherington), excellent performances and astute direction from McGregor. He constructs this gothic horror tale deftly, with an understated effectiveness that ensures it’s consistently chilling.
A Battle of Faith - By the Grace of God (Film Review)
François Ozon’s latest work is a sombre, sobering exploration of the systematic child abuse prevalent in the Catholic church in France, and their ensuing cover-up efforts. The film tells the true story of multiple men who were assaulted by Father Bernard Preynat as boys, and how they end up getting caught in a movement that sought to make the church acknowledge his abuse and stop shielding him from further punishment, which allowed him to continue working with children into his old age.
Not a wasted moment - Desecho (Debris) (Short Film Review)
Gripping from start to finish, Julio O. Ramos’ Desecho tells a harrowing tale of the horrors of labour trafficking in the USA, and the inescapable plight in which workers can find themselves. The film is set entirely on a construction site as Armando (Tenoch Huerta) and his workers try to fix up a house. After an accident occurs on the site, Armando does his best to deal with it, but things spiral out of control and he uncovers a darker truth about the whole situation.
Messiah Ward - Atlas (Short Film Review)
Maciej Kawalski’s latest short is an absurdist, comic journey into a psychiatric hospital that’s entertaining if not quite as remarkable as it teases it might be. Atlas tells the story of a man, played by Tomasz Kot, in a hospital room who appears locked in place, arms in the air.
From God of War to Darksiders: A Journey Through Epics — An Interview With Composer Cris Velasco - OnlySP
Music has always been a crucial aspect to consider when building the atmosphere of a video game. Whether it is a part of a blockbuster or an indie game, music adds texture and feeling that makes them feel complete. Cris Velasco has had an extensive career in scoring games, and has worked on titles both big and small, including the God of War trilogy, Mass Effect, and Darksiders. He spoke to OnlySP about his career in games and delved into some of his work more specifically also.
Film Review: ‘Widows’ [City Screen, York]
The creative force behind ‘Widows’ is enough to set expectations very high indeed. With multi-award winning director Steve McQueen at the helm, and Gillian Flynn of ‘Gone Girl’ fame collaborating as screenwriter, this film already had a top team working on it before we even get to the list of stellar actors involved. It’s good to say, as a result, that it’s every bit as good as it should be, and another example of McQueen’s prowess behind the camera.
Film Review: BlacKkKlansman [City Screen, York]
“Dis joint is based on some fo’ real shit.” As far as a retelling of a true story goes, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman is not interested in just going through the motions. It has powerful source material; the story of Ron Woodruff’s infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan is definitely one worth telling, but Lee’s singular perspective turns this version in to something more interesting, with a satirical, biting edge that compliments the twists and turns of the story.
Film Review: ‘A Quiet Place’
When you think of a horror film, John Krasinski is not the first name that comes to mind. Or the tenth. Or the fiftieth. And yet, here is a film directed by the man most known for playing Jim in the American version of ‘The Office’ that shows that in future, his name will be associated with way more than just one genre. Krasinski tells the story of a family in the future, living in a world after an invasion by a violent and powerful race of aliens, who pounce upon any sound.
Film Review: ‘Lady Bird’ [City Screen, York]
Beautifully made and written with intelligence and insight, Greta Gerwig’s solo debut in the director’s chair is a stunning examination of adolescence and the transition in to adulthood. Saoirse Ronan plays Christine McPherson, or Lady Bird as she’d like people to call her.
Film Review: ‘The Shape of Water’ [City Screen, York]
Renowned for having an affinity for monsters, director Guillermo del Toro’s latest film approaches them with a more sympathetic eye, crafting a magical, gorgeously crafted work that is drenched in atmosphere and bolstered by a superb central performance by Sally Hawkins. The film, which is set during the height of the Cold War in 1962, tells the story of a mute woman named Elisa (Hawkins) who lives in an apartment above a cinema and works at a secret government laboratory as a cleaner.
Film Review: ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ [City Screen, York]
Wonderfully well-written and featuring a stunning central performance by Frances McDormand, this film’s unruly, almost deliberately mundane title belies a work of raw emotional and thematic depth that gets under the skin quickly and, in true Martin McDonagh fashion, finds a pitch black humour in very tragic circumstances. McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a woman grieving the rape and murder of her daughter, filled with rage over the lack of progress made by the local police force.
Film Review: ‘Molly’s Game’ [City Screen, York]
Featuring a stellar cast with Jessica Chastain in the lead role, Aaron Sorkin’s debut directorial effort tells a very interesting story in his typically snappy style and is engaging throughout, though could perhaps stand to use a little less voiceover. Chastain plays Molly Bloom, a former competitive skier with dreams of the Olympics.
The 10 Best Films of 2017
I called 2016 an unpopular year in my last ‘best of’ list, but it’s hard to say that 2017 was any better in a lot of respects. In fact, it was probably worse.
Film Review: ‘Blade Runner 2049’ [City Screen, York]
Rejoice Blade Runner fans. Normally a sequel released released 35 years after the original would set off alarm bells, and it did for many when it was first announced, but Blade Runner 2049 is that rarest of creatures, a worthy sequel that builds on its predecessor and maintains a lot of what made the first film a valuable work, arguably expanding on it to create something that transcends the original.
Film Review: ‘mother!’ [City Screen, York]
Visceral, surreal and often absurd, Darren Aronofsky’s ‘mother!’ is a battering ram of a movie that ratchets up the tension until it reaches a ridiculous finale that almost assaults the viewer. This is by no means a bad thing though, the film is a thought-provoking and incredibly memorable exercise in the ludicrous, a fever dream that cements itself a place in the brain.
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