Simon Rumley (Red, White And Blue) Interview

Last year The Horror Channel premiered Simon Rumley’s stunning piece of award-winning cinema, The Living And The Dead and this month they are giving his equally astonishing and controversial movie Red White And Blue its UK TV premiere on Oct 20 at 10.55pm

 

Set in Austin, Texas, this dark love story follows the disaffected and promiscuous Erica (Amanda Fuller - Buffy The Vampire Slayer) as she sleeps with a series of nameless men, until she is befriended by Nate (Noah Taylor - Submarine, The Proposition), an ex-Iraq war veteran with a sociopathic streak.  Nate, seems interested in Erica for more than just sex - but when one of her previous partners, hard-rocking mamma’s boy Franki (Marc Senter) resurfaces, Erica’s actions come back to haunt her, leading to a terrifying climax which has shocked audiences worldwide.

Rumley talks about his deeply shocking yet tenderly moving film, what it was like shooting the movie in America and why distributors are confounded by his work.

Red White and Blue is very different to your film The Living And The Dead, where did the idea come from?

SR: It came from a mixture of personal fears, reading about crazy events on the internet, wanting to do another horror film that wasn’t obviously classifiable as a horror film and also wanting to make a film that was, like The Living And The Dead, equally tragic and disturbing…

Why set it in America?

SR: I'd been wanting to shoot a film for a long time in America and it seemed like the perfect setting for the film. Some films can work well in different countries but some are very country specific and I felt this wouldn't work in the same way in the UK as it would in America. There's a filmic classicism to neon lights and wide open spaces and the flipside of the American Dream which, naturally, we don't get in the UK.

What was it like shooting in Austin, Texas?

SR: Fantastic. Austin is such an excellent city and the people are so friendly and welcoming and laid back and cool in the best possible sense of the word. One of the reasons we went to Austin was because my friend Tim League and his wife Karrie, lived there. They own a bunch of cinemas called the Alama Drafthouse and pretty much know everyone there is to know so I knew if we ever got into trouble or needed help they'd be able to help us. As well as filming in peoples' houses and diners and bars, we also had a ton of local extras and our whole crew apart from the DP and editor were locals. It was a tough shoot and they really stepped up to the challenge really well.

It's a raw and very gritty piece, set very much in the real world. Would you agree this is where horror works best?

SR: Absolutely - escapist horror can be fun at times but for me, if I don't believe the situation and the characterization then usually I'm not emotionally affected which means I'm not scared and/or I'm not disturbed. Certainly for me, most my favourite horror films are based in a believable reality whether it be Freaks or The Omen.

The cast is outstanding, Amanda Fuller as Erica and Noah Tyler as Nate bring a brutal and heartbreaking honesty to their roles. Did you write the parts with these actors in mind?

SR: No; I'd never heard of Amanda before we cast her in the film but when I saw her audition and then met her, it did feel like the part had been written for her. Once I'd written the script and we started casting, Noah was my first choice for Nate. Although most people are bowled over by his performance, they're also slightly dumbfounded by the initial casting of him as such a character. I've been a massive fan ever since I saw him in his debut feature The Year My Voice Broke and although he's never played anyone so dark, I always felt he had a quirkiness and a darkness that hadn't been previously explored.

The characters are very "damaged" in different ways and you don't pull away from showing the audience how much. Do you censor yourself at all as you create a script?

SR: Good question! I generally don't censor myself but after Red White And Blue and my two anthology features I've done in the last few years (Little Deaths and The ABC's Of Death) I'm now making a deliberate effort to work on scripts which aren't as 'tough' because although they go down well with the audiences, most the film industry, that being sales agents and distributors, are usually confounded by my films because they're so uncompromising. I'm now writing scripts which are still very much my ideas but which are more 'identifiable' as product that can be bought or sold; sadly, what directors make is and always will be seen as a commodity by many.

What was the atmosphere like on set?

SR: It was actually pretty great. Everyone was really friendly and did their job really well. Initially people were a bit sceptical that we'd get everything shot in time but when we started picking up the pace, everyone loved it and had no time to do much apart from concentrate. Both the producer and I agreed it was the most harmonious set we'd worked on.

There's quite a twist to the story, was this to give it an extra layer, a moral in fact?

SR: Yep, absolutely - if it's the ending you're talking about - the very last shot in fact. I thought that justified Nate's actions even more and made the whole thing even more tragic; personally I thought it was a pretty devastating ending although I'm not sure what everyone else thought!

Red White And Blue is getting its UK TV premiere on the Horror Channel, how do you feel about that?

SR: Very excited. The Horror Channel used to be a bit goofy but nowadays it has the best selection of both contemporary and older horror of any channel in the UK so it's a must for any self-respecting horror fan.

What's your honest opinion of horror cinema at the moment, is it in good health?

SR: I think there's more interesting and unique horror directors around now than there have been in a long time and all you have to do is look at the ABCs Of Death to view the breadth of what's on offer. That said, I think much horror is still stuck repeating older formulae as well working on remakes and sequels. Even though there haven't been many fantastic horror films in the last few years, I still think it's a very exciting time generally for the genre.

So what projects are you working on at the moment?

SR: Well, as discussed, I've just finished The ABCs Of Death which premiered at the Toronto film festival. Beyond that I have a few projects which seem close to happening and a few which I'm still developing...

Simon Rumley, thank you very much.

SR: Thank you!

Red White And Blue premieres on the Horror Channel Oct 20 at 10.55pm

Luis Prieto's PUSHER Review

Luis Prieto's British made update of Nicolas Winding Refn's 1996 film, Pusher, received its world premiere at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival . The Spanish director has presented us with a gripping, adrenaline fuelled ride, which is by far one of the most exciting British crime thrillers in recent years.

Frank (Richard Coyle) may just be London's most unlucky drug dealer. After a deal goes horrendously wrong, he finds himself owing a ruthless Serbian crime boss over £55,000. In a desperate search for money, Frank soon finds his life spiralling out of control and relationships with those around him beginning to crumble.

It is hard to deviate from certain traditional elements in this genre, for example, risky deals and unrelenting Mr. Big figures are always going to feature. However, these elements feel utterly fresh and skilfully handled in Pusher, thanks to Prieto's energy as a storyteller. The Spanish director's film feels like a fusion of the classic British crime thriller (Coyle's performance drawing some parallels to that of Stacey Keach in 1977 feature, The Squeeze), with an added vibrant, modern twist.

The tension rarely drops in Pusher, creating a truly gripping ride. This is furthered by Simon Dennis' striking cinematography - creating a visually impressive piece taking on pulsing neon infused clubs to dank warehouses, with equal impact. Pusher also captures the ruthless and gritty criminal underworld of London through Frank's encounters with Serbian crime Boss, Milo (Zlatko Buric, star of Refn's original Pusher Trilogy) - most notably in one suspenseful scene involving bolt cutters and a finger. The high octane thrills are paired with a energetic electronic dance score from Orbital, fitting the tone of Pusher perfectly.

Even Pusher's day by day narrative structure acts as reflection of Frank's impending deadline, ebbing closer. This means it is hard not to feel part of the dealers' journey as he uses every resource he has to get money - whether it be calling in on old loans from vulnerable customers or simply by taking it from the sleaziest clients. Even Pushers' emotive conclusion is cut off in the height of anguish and tension, leaving the viewer to question the outcome.

Richard Coyle's solid lead performance thrusts us into the desperation and angst that faces the character, however, we as the audience are always on his side. Agyness Dean's supporting turn as Frank's girlfriend, Flo, proves equally flawless. Flo simply wants a better life for herself and Frank - she works as a dancer and escort, careers that are beneath her, and as viewer you want to see her and Frank happy. Zlatko Buric's intense performance as Milo also proves to be a chief scene stealer throughout Pusher.

Luis Prieto's Pusher proves to be an exhilarating, thrill ride that holds the viewer in a vice-like grip from start to finish. The vibrant cinematography combined with an outstanding lead performance from Richard Coyle and a razor sharp score from Orbital, help make Pusher one of the strongest British crime thrillers in recent years.

Andrew McArthur 

★★★★☆

Rating: 18
UK Release Date: 12th October 2012
Director: Luis Prieto
Stars: Richard Coyle, Agyness Deyn , Zlatko Buric, Paul Kaye

Raindance Film Festival Awards 2012

The 20th Raindance Festival came to an end on Sunday night with its closing gala feature, Sal closing the curtain on a successful fortnight in the capital. The independent festival achieved record attendance numbers with Londoners out in force to take in the best independent cinema from around the world. Short films, music videos, discussions, workshops, documentaries and debuts made up an eclectic 12 days at Piccadilly’s Apollo cinema.

    For some there was more at stake than merely the enjoyment of seeing your film play out to the masses as the competition element of the festival was decided and the gongs handed out. There was a distinctly Scandinavian tone to the ceremony with the recipients of Best Debut Feature and Best Documentary coming from Finland and Denmark. Scooping the former, Indebted is the downbeat Finnish tale of the lengths people will go to for money while the Danish documentary Ballroom Dancer focuses on esteemed Russian dancer Slavik Kryklyvy striving to regain his status several years after an injury forced him to retire.

    There was success too for Love tomorrow which took home the prize for Best UK Feature. The film has echoes of Sliding Doors’ time concept as it follows the 24 hour period after a chance encounter between two dancers in a London tube station. Laurentie was the only film to pick up a prize away from Europe as the slow burning Canadian film was awarded the Best International Feature accolade.
Full Nomination/Winners List 

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Dark Hearts
Laurentie [winner]
From Tuesday To Tuesday
Vegetarian Cannibal
A Road Stained Crimson
SAL

BEST UK FEATURE

City Slacker
Confine
Live East Die Young
Love Tomorrow [winner]
String Caesar

BEST DEBUT FEATURE

After School Midnighters
The Ascent
Bad Hair Friday
Indebted [winner]
A Night Too Young
Strings

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Ballroom Dancer [winner]
Despite The Gods
The Lottery of Birth
Orania
Over My Dead Body
Trashed

BEST UK SHORTS

Achele
Bird
For Elsie
Mapmaker
The Pub [winner]
A Thousand Empty Glasses               

BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORTS

Bolero
Buzkashi Boys [winner]
The End
The Foreigner 
Interview Date               
The Old Woman             
            

FILM OF THE FESTIVAL [SHORT]

For the sixth year running we are very excited to announce the Film of the Festival Award. This year’s award is supported by the Independent Film Trust and the winner will make next year's cinema advert.

One of the short films at the festival will be awarded Film Of The Festival. This film will be shortlisted for an 2013 Oscar^TM Nomination for Best Short Film.
The winner is:
Buzkashi Boys

FILM OF THE FESTIVAL [FEATURE]

Awarded to the feature film or documentary that best embodies the spirit of Raindance. The nominations are:
Death
How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song? [winner]
Corrode
Frank
Consuming Spirits
This Ain't California

Raindance 2012: Mon Ami Review

Smudged with the finger prints of the Coen brothers comes Canadian slacker-kidnapping caper Mon Ami, a darkly comic feature from writer/director Rob Grant. His first film Yesterday garnered widely favourable reviews, something he can expect to continue with this follow-up. Cal and Teddy are best friends unenthusiastically working at a Hardware superstore, undermined by customers and going nowhere fast. When these two long serving employees are overlooked for a promotion they concoct a plan and, like all good plans it involves kidnapping their boss’ daughter.

    Apparently unaware that ‘the best laid plans of mice and men oft do go astray’ this soon becomes plainly evident for our protagonists as, despite a meticulously prepared set-up theirs becomes a lesson in how not to conduct a kidnapping. From the offset the path is far from smooth as the practicalities of capturing the bait prove trickier than expected, quickly establishing our leads as truly inept hostage-takers. That (unlucky in more ways than one) hostage; Crystal, soon proves to be equally less reliable in her role as obliging victim than they had envisaged and when an attempted breakout goes unnoticed the stakes are invariably raised. Out of their depth and forced to alter their plan the two aren’t aided by the constant interruptions of Teddy’s wife Liz whose interspersed phone calls serve as effective tension breakers as well as to annoy the increasingly irritated Cal. The tension within the three is a running theme of the film and asks questions about male friendship and where they go if one’s life-plan differs to the other. Here, the perception is that they turn to crime to re-connect their bromance and there’s a felling that Cal is largely doing this simply to spend some time with his best friend away from his ‘nagging wife’ – that is very much the image of Liz in a role that won’t endear itself to many a female.

    The graphically bloodstained moments of the film are reminiscent of Tarintino or American Psycho and well balanced with the comic elements of the film with the overall effect coming across as something far more akin to Fargo. It’s to Grant’s credit that the comparisons don’t feel far overstretched, taking care to establish these believable characters in unbelievable situations as well as crafting neat stylistic touches.
Yesterday was unfairly but inevitably compared to Shaun of the Dead but alongside his sophomore effort he can rightly claim to be carving out a niche very much of his own. By establishing his own set of rules, language and narrative his is a tone destined for cult following.

Matthew Walsh

Rating:18
UK Release Date: 2nd October 2012 (Raindance Film Festival)
Directed By: Rob Grant
Cast: Mike Kovac, Scott Wallis, Bradley Duffy,

Shut Up And Play The Hits DVD Review

    What’s the best possible way to end a band? Is there ever a ‘good’ way to end a project, musical or otherwise? These are themes that snake through the centre of Will Lovelace’s film Shut up and Play the Hits, a portrait of James Murphy and his band LCD Soundsystem as they perform their last ever concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Far from the usual infighting, drug overdoses and ubiquitous ‘musical differences’, theirs was a very planned departure from the music world, there was an announcement, a final album, a world tour and finally this – a farewell concert with a party atmosphere at the biggest stage in their home town. Then again, LCD Soundsystem were never an act to tow the lines of musical cliché. After 10 years and three landmark albums, the inventive New Yorkers depart leaving the lines between dance and rock, elctronica and punk distinctly blurred.

    Seeped in sepia, Lovelace and co-director Dylan Soithern’s film flitters between footage of the concert, taking in the fervent and enthusiastic crowds, and Murphy’s life outside the band framed by a one on one interview with journalist Chuck Klosterman. It’s these candid moments that capture Murphy as a considered, thoughtful and far friendlier character than any one of his hipster imitators clogging up the swamped Brooklyn scene. Despite the incessant interruptions and exhaustive length of questions coming his way, Murphy talks eloquently about his hopes for his bands legacy (a refreshingly laid-back and inclusive approach), his take on pretension “being a pretentious child allowed me to learn a lot of cool stuff” and why he decided to call it quits – a subject he’s had to openly muse upon in every post-announcement interview on chat show sofa’s around the globe.

    Heightening the focus on endings as a whole, we see Murphy in post LCD Soundsytem mode, solitarily roaming rooms and offices accompanied only by his faithful pug and coming in stark contrast to the packed, lively scenes backstage at Madison Square Garden that they come up against. What is his role now? Is he happy to turn his back on that life in favour of this new, infinitely slower paced one? Somewhat intriguingly these answers don’t come in the form of black and white answers from the horses mouth but are instead hinted upon with Murphy admitting that touring was never part of the plan anyway. Comprised of members used to a life on the road, his band came to fruition relatively late with the intention purely to make records and playing gigs very much an afterthought.

    It’s to our benefit that that afterthought turned into a lived-out reality as the concert footage shows a band in full swing, top of their game and with new poignancy added to their lyrics (particularly in the epic All My Friends). The complete four hour party comes on the second and third discs of this bumper DVD package which also includes the interview in full and James Murphy trying his hand as sound recordist, turning the questions on his former manager. The overall effect is one that leaves us too wondering why this band couldn’t just keep it going for another tour, now how about a reunion?

Matthew Walsh

★★★★☆

Rating:15
Directed By: Will Lovelace, Dylan Southern
Cast: James Murphy, Chuck Klosterman ,Gunnar Bjerk
Buy:Shut Up And Play The Hits DVD/Blu-ray

Eureka Entertainment Announce Early 2013 Masters Of Cinema Line Up

Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini and Sacha Guitry join the Masters of Cinema Series as Eureka Entertainment announce their release schedule for January and February 2013.

Eureka Entertainment announced today via their twitter feeds (@eurekavideo & @mastersofcinema) the forthcoming releases in The Masters of Cinema series for the months of January and February 2013.

Following a spate of epic releases for the last quarter of 2012 which included Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen and Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Masters of Cinema Series returns in 2013 with the nearly-impossible-to-see debut feature film by Stanley Kubrick, a long-awaited Blu-ray and DVD Dual Format release of Josef von Sternberg's classic first-collaboration with Marlene Dietrich, new restorations of films by the European giants Fellini and Guitry, and a Blu-ray upgrade of Kaneto Shindô's cult horror confection Onibaba.

Producer of the Masters of Cinema Series, Craig Keller stated “January sees the release of Stanley Kubrick's 1953 debut feature Fear and Desire, newly restored by The Library of Congress — a war-film psychodrama that exhibits many of the thematic obsessions and visual motifs that would course throughout all of Kubrick's films over the next four decades — needless to say, ravishingly photographed, even this early on in his career. We are extremely excited that UK audiences will at last be able to see where that body of work called "Kubrick" all began. Also this month: we've got the HD debut of Josef von Sternberg's immortal The Blue Angel, in both its German and English-language versions (shot by Sternberg simultaneously) featuring Marlene Dietrich as the impossibly erotic cabaret singer who bewitches Emil Jannings — and consigns him to perdition.

In February we present three titles, two of which capitalise on sumptuous HD restorations carried out by Gaumont. The first of these is Federico Fellini's unhinged 1980 post-punk epic, City of Women [La città delle donne / La cité des femmes], starring the great Marcello Mastroianni in a kind of reprise of his role from Fellini's 8-1/2. The second new HD restoration is the initial entry into The Masters of Cinema Series by the French comic genius Sacha Guitry — La Poison [Poison] — starring the equally brilliant Michel Simon (of Renoir's La Chienne and Boudu sauvé des eaux, and Vigo's L'Atalante). We're so proud to introduce this venomously witty murder-comedy to UK audiences — it's a perfect example of why Guitry was revered as a kind of god both by the French public at large and by the critics and filmmakers that went on to form the New Wave. Our last release of the month is a new Blu-ray upgrade of the recently deceased Kaneto Shindô's Onibaba — one of our most popular films — an unsettling, atmospheric erotic horror film whose Scope frames veer between sunlit existential dread and moonlit mystery/suspense.

Managing Director of Eureka, Ron Benson added  “We're very excited by this Jan/Feb lineup — with new HD elements of all five films, each accompanied by numerous supplements and the kind of lengthy booklets our fans will be thrilled to pore over. But we're only getting started — 2013 might be our most exciting year yet."

No Exact dates have been confirmed yet however we’ll update you when we get the details and fingers crossed we’ll have the reviews of the films when they arrive as well as the remaining 2012 Masters Of Cinema releases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radioman Review

Radioman is a legendary figure in the New York City film world. He is a former alcoholic homeless bum who started his film career in 1990 on Brian De Palmas’ Bonfire of the Vanities. He simply walked onto to set and handed Bruce Willis a beer because he though he was a bum as well. His life story has been told in the recent documentary directed by Mary Herr also called Radioman.

It’s features interview snippets of such stars as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Josh Brolin, Tom Hanks, Johnny Deep and the list goes on and on. They all say how much they like seeing Radioman on set and how they it’s the same if it’s a New York film and he isn’t on set. Robin Williams one of the first celebrities who he met on a film set (the film is question was Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King) jokes his resume is larger than his, Radioman’s IMDb page doesn’t list a 10th of the films he has appeared in.

It’s an interesting look at somebody who clearly has some mental health issues but has such a deep love for films. It shows his daily routine, which is getting on his bike and cycling to the daily film set and sometimes he evens go to other states besides New York.  It’s show shis mess of a apartment. It also mentions his desire to get more prominent roles, which he been getting. He has a noticeable role on Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island for example.

It doesn’t really just judgement on Radioman. However it’s at times very difficult to watch because some of his behaviour and the footage is so revealing it gets very difficult at times to watch. Overall it’s a good little doc about the other side of the film industry.

Ian Schultz

★★★1/2☆

Rating:12
UK Release Date: 12th October 2012
Directed by:  Mary Kerr
Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep

Attack Of The Werewolves DVD Review

I had such high hopes for Attack of the Werewolves (2011), the new Spanish monster horror which has been impressing audiences and critics alike since its initial release earlier this year. Unfortunately as most of director Juan Martínez Moreno's hairy tale, starring Gorka Otxoa, Carlos Areces, Luis Zahera and Secun de la Rosa takes place in the dark, it's extremely hard to tell what is going on for most of the time and whether, as a result, it's any good.

Legend has it that in 1910 in a remote Spanish village, the evil Marchioness of Marino, captured a travelling gypsy and managed to get herself pregnant by him. In revenge the gypsies wife cursed the Marchioness's resulting offspring, transforming him into a werewolf and placing the village under a reign of terror from the beast. The only way to free the village and the Marchioness's son from the curse is for one of her descendants to be sacrificed to the werewolf on the one hundredth anniversary of the original atrocity.

The present day and Tomás Mariño (Otxoa) a semi-successful writer has returned to his home town, where he has been invited by the local people to receive an award - or at least so they have led him to believe. Unfortunately for Tomás the villagers have something darker in mind, if only they can get him to play along with their plan.

As I said I was really looking forward to this offbeat black comedy which, if I'm honest, is reasonably well executed, up to a point. The wolves when they eventually appear (you begin to wonder when you will actually see any, as it's almost a third of the way into the film before they actually put in an appearance) are effectively pulled off, albeit in a 1980's American Werewolf in London way. A sharp vein of black humour runs through the proceedings as a whole, with one scene involving the amputation and cooking of certain human appendages in order to placate a suspected werewolf being particularly effective. The relationship between Tomás and his hapless friends and relations who find themselves joining forces in a fight for their lives, also helps to add an extra dimension which leaves the viewer actually interested in what happens to the characters, which makes for a refreshing change.

Another aspect in the film's favour are the settings. Filmed in Galicia, Spain, the sun-bleached streets of the village and exterior of Tomás' family manor house lend themselves perfectly to this tale of late night lycanthropy. Or at least you imagine they would if you could see them. When the sun sets it's hard to see exactly what is gong on, other than the odd close up of a furry, fanged face, the odd severed limb flying through the air and a lot of screaming and crunching of, what one presumes, are bones.

In the glory days of Hammer, the studio which put horror on the map was well known for its day for night shots, which must have been reasonably effective as the scenes shot this way appeared to be taking place at night, yet still let you to see everything that took place. Many modern fright films should be provided night vision goggles in order to let you see what is happening once the sun goes down, and as a result leave the viewer guessing as to much of what is taking place.

Attack of the Werewolves is, on the whole, not bad. One can only imagine its brilliance if you'd been able to see it all.

Cleaver Patterson

★★★☆☆

UK Rating:15  
DVD/BD Release Date: 8th October 2012
Directed By:Juan Martínez Moreno
Cast:Carlos Areces, Secun de la Rosa, Luis Zahera, Mabel Rivera, Gorka Otxoa, Manuel Manquiña
Buy Attack Of The Werewolves:DVD / Blu Ray

Kotoko DVD Review

Mental Illness is no laughing matter nor should it be something we should ignore either and it comes in all shapes and sizes but most of all it can affect us all. We sometimes think we understand the illness or selfishly think we have all the answers to curing the illness, in Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko it never tries to answer but instead shows the illness from the person we sometimes forget about from the perspective of the sufferer.

Kotoko (folk singer Cocco) is a young single mother who lives alone with her young infant son.Suffering from an unknown illness that makes her see things double especially people making things difficult for Kotoko impossible to know which person is really leading her to violently lash out. With things getting harder for her in the daily grind her day to day chores become harder making her a liability not just for herself but also her young son. Her son is taken into care (looked after by her sister) Kotoko is now on her own her frame of mind and broken  is fragile her thoughts are dangerously scattered which makes it scary for all who share her life.

From the minute Kotoko starts we're thrown right into the chaos, the anguish of the film's protagonist which sets the tone for the rest of the film. At no point of the film does it attempt to figure out why Kotoko's mental state is what it is but taking us right into her mind giving us a voyeuristic  look at the horror from the eyes of the sufferer herself. What really annoyed me with this film was the use of 'horror' not from the film itself but from some of the reviews I read some calling Kotoko a horror or J-Horror which this is the film is not. This is not a film of mythical creatures or found footage malarkey, this one does have demons but the inner demons of psychological proportions.

Kotoko will hit you in the spot that will hurt you the most. It's a visceral, raw intense nightmarish journey which will leave uncomfortable, disorientating but will leave you with an everlasting reminder that people with this illness are human beings and their pain is their cry for help.

One of the success' of the film is the central performance of it's lead actress, Cocco. I've always been a little sceptical of films which have non-actors (sports, musicians) been picked especially in lead roles as sadly majority of the time history has shown it's ended in disappointment. There has always been a few exceptions like Cocco and on the level of her début acting role  in Kotoko has been nothing but incredible. Cocco really goes all out with a performance that really connects with you, it's intimate but also very claustrophobic , truly cathartic all thanks her drawing on her own real life personal experience making this one work.

Cocco her self-suffered from mental illness/ self-harm when she was younger though we never really know if it was intentional to use her in the role thanks to that dreadful part of her life it does give Kotoko a real genuine touch. As I said earlier the film never really delves into what triggered her suffering however when you watch the film you do get small glimpses what they might be with a lack of a father figure in her life (her own parents divorced when she was younger) which could be also the reason why there's no father figure in her own son's life either. Could the male population be the main reason, was she raped? Whatever you think the men who have entered her life including that good Samaritans  don't get a good ride here. What's really touching about this film as well as being an inaugural part is Cocco's singing within the film which gives Kotoko moments of escapism from her inner demons. As well as providing the film's score (like she did for the directors 2004 film  Vital) the music really adapts into film naturally reminding me of Bjork in Lars Von Trier's Dancer Of The Dark giving the film a sense of tranquillity among the madness.

Kotoko is a beautifully well-crafted film which will pull at your heartstrings as well as make it uncomfortable to watch but to appreciate the pain a sufferer has to go through we sometimes have to go to places we don't want to go to. There's a great David Bowie song called Fantastic Voyage which really sums this film up listen to it  read the lyrics as it reminds us this illness affects us all, there's no stereotypical profile of a sufferer just a stark reminder when the mind body and soul are fragile the world around us can be the most terrifying place to be in.

Paul Devine |★★★★☆

Drama, Horror | Japan, 2011 | 18 | 8th October 2012 (UK) | Third Window Films | Dir:Shin'ya Tsukamoto |Shin'ya Tsukamoto,Cocco |Buy Kotoko:DVD/Blu-ray

Electrick Children DVD Review

Electrick Children is the directorial debut from Rebecca Thomas. The screenplay focuses on Rachel – played by Julia Garner – who is part of a strict Mormon community. After listening to rock music on a cassette tape she stumbles across, Rachel then discovers she is pregnant. Convinced it was the music on the tape which caused this, she drives off to Las Vegas (unknowingly with her brother who has just been exiled after being suspected of incest in tow) in an attempt to unravel the mystery of the tape.

Although the plot does sound barmy, it is very watchable – mainly due to Garner’s charming and innocent screen presence. The lighting and photography are great, both on the farm in Utah and amongst the glittering lights of Las Vegas. However, although pretty on the surface, there is not much substance underneath this. After meeting a young guy from a rock band in Vegas he tells Rachel he doesn’t like her and then says he will marry her, what are his motives behind all of this? He seems to show little emotion. This is similar to all the characters, like the brother Mr. Will. He discovers what life is like outside of his Mormon household, but decides to go back to the community. Electrick Children is an artistic and compelling first film by Thomas, but is let down by a lack of character depth; as well as an ending that ties together a bit too neatly.

Sophie Stephenson

★★★☆☆

Rating:15
DVD/BD Rating:15th October 2012 (UK)
Directed By: Rebecca Thomas
Cast: Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken, Bill Sage, Billy Zane