THE BOBBY DIAMONDS STORY - Poster Reveal and Interview with Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

The Bobby Diamonds Story now has a poster. The poster reflects the duality of a poker player as well as the duality of the story the documentary unfolds. The film also recently won Best Documentary Short at the Tokyo International Short Film Festival joining the film's win at the Venice Fullshot Film Festival.

Director and writer Robert Aaron Mitchell also recently did an interview about The Bobby Diamonds Story and film making in general. You can find that interview HERE The film's iMDB page is HERE 

Here is the trailer once again:

FROST Extremities of Survival Reflections by Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

Hypothermia is a medical emergency when your body loses heat faster than it can produce it. As your body temperature drops, your heart, brain, and internal organs cannot function. Without aggressive resuscitation and rapid rewarming, you will ultimately not survive. Hypothermia can begin in five minutes if exposed to cold temperatures.

Families can be complicated. Abby (Devanny Pinn) is driving to see her father Grant (Vernon Wells). She has not seen or spoken to Grant in five years. Abby is also pregnant. She arrives to his house high in the mountains and surrounded by an immense forest. They have dinner and the conversation is light and then turns into a strained, awkward conversation. 

Quite sometime ago the father and daughter lost the matriarch of the family in a horrendous and unexpected way. Grant self medicates with alcohol and has taken to a near hermit lifestyle, fishing and hunting to make ends meet. 

The next morning Grant is off to fish. He invites Abby along to relive the old days when they would embark on fishing excursions together. A set of innocuous small events leads to disaster. Grant requests that Abby leave her phone at the house. Abby asks her father to drive. Grant loses control of the car and crashes into the heavily forested mountainside.

A thriller operates on the astringent action continually rising. The film succeeds in creating viable moments of tension that is true to the world the film exists in. In the thriller genre there is always the next problem, then the next hardship and the next obstacle. The filmmakers have crafted a film where these elements are well executed. They have also handled the tone of the film very well. A movie like this can very quickly go into "eye-rolling" territory. Frost resonates and is highly effective because the film does not wavier in it's survival story timbre.

Devanny Pinn is outstanding in Frost. This is indeed her film. The audience is with her all the way as she navigates the crash scene and as she tries and survive the elements. A huge amount of praise must also be bestowed upon the special effects team of Frost. For this film to work the special effects must be incredibly and credibly constructed. They succeed and the film succeeds because of their hard work.

Frost is unrelenting as the story unfolds into extremities of survival. How intrinsically ingrained is the survival instinct in human beings? Few films have made me physically ill. I have seen many of the most intense horror films ever crafted. Frost made feel quite queasy. Frost took me to something I have never seen before. 

SMOKE AND MIRRORS: The Story of Tom Savini. First Look Trailer & Stills

Here is a first look at a new documentary about special effects artist Tom Savini. Special Makeup Effects legend, Actor, Director, Stuntman. Tom Savini has redefined the horror genre with his arsenal on talents. But who is the man behind the "King of Splatter?"

From his his childhood in Pittsburgh, PA; to his tour of duty during Vietnam, to his beginnings with George A. Romero and beyond. SMOKE AND MIRRORS is the defining documentary on the life and career of horror icon Tom Savini.

Featuring Tom Savini, Danny McBride, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Trejo, Alice Cooper, Greg Nicotero, Tom Atkins, Corey Feldman, Doug Bradley, Bill Moseley, and more!

From Wild Eye Releasing, director Jason Baker's SMOKE AND MIRRORS on Digital October 19. Here is the official trailer:

TIFF 2022 LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE Ang Pagbabalik ng Kwago: Mabuhay ang Sinehan!

 Leonor Will Never Die closed at the 2022 Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was a film I did not know anything about which is one of the great aspects of a film festival. You take a seat, the lights dim and go on an unexpected and unknown ride. And what a ride Leonor Will Never Die is. The film is written and directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar.

The title character is Leonor Reyes.  She was a successful screen writer. Shelia Francisco brings Leonor to life with great pathos and passion befitting an aging writer. The screenwriter's days are spent slipping in and out of reverie. She has a fondness for action movies and watches them as much as she can. She also forgets to pay the electricity bill. 

A freak accident sends Leonor to the hospital. The doctor explains her Leonor's condition to Leonor's son Rudie, "Rudie, you see, sometimes, we are awake, other times, asleep. But sometimes, you can be between both. That is called conscious sleep or hypnagogia. That's is the state your mother is now. Right now we don't know how to wake her up, or if she will wake at all. At least we're sure she's alive." Rudie, "How do we wake her up?" The Doctor responds, "You can't wake up someone who is not asleep." It is so with this story as well. A theme of the film is lines. The line between reality and fantasy, life and afterlife, sleep and awake.

The art form of cinema can really deliver on straddling the fictionalized "real world" of the movie and slide effortlessly into a fantasy world the characters of the film drift into. I have always gravitated to films that are movies within movies, mise en aybme. Anguish, Adaptadtion, Videodrome come to mind. This is something seen a lot in horror movies or drama. To see reality and fantasy blend so well in the context of action film was magnificent. Scenes that are exceptionally strong in Leonor Will Never Die are where the reality of the story run into the fantasy action film that Leonor is engaging with. The movie is also a love letter to Filipino action movies from years gone by.

I especially love the scenes of creating the screenplay for the movie within the movie. Ang Pagbabalik Ng Kwago. The Return of Kwago. Depicting writing in a movie is not an easy feat to pull off. Martika's imagination and innovation soar as the film revels in the act of writing A scene where Leonor is simultaneously typing and acting out what is she writing is a sheer joy.

Step back, this where another fight scene happens.

A film is created by a great many folks, I want to also acknowledge the editor Lawrence S. Ang. Pulling together a film that moves within it's own fantasy and reality takes a keen talent to succeed. The look of the reality and the action sequences created by cinematographer Carlos Mauricio are also wonderful.

There is something to be said or in this case, to be written about what the film watcher brings to watching a movie. I watched the film on what is my mother's first birthday after her passing in March. Watching this movie on this day, there was a lot that hit me a lot more as I engaged with the film. Leonor Will Never Die is a film that addresses grief. The movie celebrates the joy and healing in the act of artistic creation. It is also a testament to strong material. Good screenplays never age.Mabuhay ang Sinehan!

After watching Leonor you have to ask yourself why are we not seeing more grandmothers kicking ass in cinema. Ending a story can sometimes prove difficult. Getting a great ending though is uplifting. Leonor Will Never Die, what a great ending to Midnight Madness 2022.

. The screenwriter's days are spent slipping in and out of reverie. She has a fondness for action movies and watches them as much as she can. She also forgets to pay the electricity bill. 

A freak accident sends Leonor to the hospital. The doctor explains her Leonor's condition to Rudie, "Rudie, you see, sometimes, we are awake, other times, asleep. But sometimes, you can be between both. That is called conscious sleep or hypnagogia. That's is the state your mother is now. Right now we don't know how to wake her up, or if she will wake at all. At least we're sure she's alive." Rudie, "How do we wake her up?" The Doctor responds, "You can't wake up someone who is not asleep." It is so with this story as well. A theme of the film is lines. The line between reality and fantasy. Life and afterlife. Sleep and awake.

The art form of cinema can really deliver on straddling the fictionalized "real world" of the movie and slide effortlessly into a fantasy world the characters of the film drift into. I have always gravitated to films that are movies within movies, mise en aybme. Anguish, Adaptadtion, eXistenZ come to mind. Scenes that are exceptionally strong in Leonor Will Never Die are where the reality of the story run into the fantasy action film that Leonor is engaging with. The movie is also a love letter to Filipino action movies from years gone by.

I especially love the scenes of creating the screenplay for the movie within the movie. Ang Pagbabalik Ng Kwago. The Return of Kwago. Depicting writing in a movie is not an easy feat to pull off. Martika's imagination and innovation soar as the film revels in the act of writing A scene where Leonor is simultaneously typing and acting out what is she writing is a sheer joy.

Step back, this where another fight scene happens.

A film is created by a great many folks, I want to also acknowledge the editor Lawrence S. Ang. Pulling together a film that moves within it's own fantasy and reality takes a keen talent to succeed. The look of the reality and the action sequences created by cinematographer Carlos Mauricio are also wonderful.

There is something to be said or in this case, to be written about what the film watcher brings to watching a movie. I watched the film on what is my mother's first birthday after her passing in March. Watching this movie on this day, there was a lot that hit me a lot more as I engaged with the film. Leonor Will Never Die is a film that addresses grief. The movie celebrates the joy and healing in the act of artistic creation. It is also a testament to strong material. Good screenplays never age. Mabuhay ang Sinehan!

Ending a story can sometimes prove difficult. Getting a great ending though is uplifting. Leonor Will Never Die, what a great ending to Midnight Madness 2022.

TIFF 2022: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT Reflections by Robert Aaron Mitchell

"War is hell." This a statement that has been attributed to General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman a Union General in America's civil war, this counties bloodiest war to date. War is indeed hell. Since the beginning of cinema there has been the war film. An entire genre of movie that has striven to convey General Sherman's sentiments.

Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front is third film bearing the title of Erich Maria Remarque's novel, Im Westen nichts Neuces. There was the original 1930 film directed by Lewis Milestone which sees Lew Ayres play Paul. The 1979 TV movie directed by Delbert Mann that has Richard Thomas play the lead character of Paul. 

Edward Berger has said that in regards to the previous cinematic iterations of All Quiet he just ignored them but was very aware of the historic presence of Lewis Milestone's milestone film. "I ignored it. Ascribe to the idiocy, maybe. We just went for it. While writing it and story-boarding it, I sometimes thought, "What the hell did I do this?" What big shoes to fill." Going into Berger's iteration the 1930s film indeed is on ones mind entering the theater. 

Sitting down to write about this film or any well made war-film, it is helpful to have the thesaurus handy. Harrowing, brutal, barbarous, inhuman, harsh, callous, merciless, atrocious, inhumane, horror, senseless are words to have at the ready.  

The film opens on a beautiful mountain surrounded by forest. The sun is rising. A fox and her kits huddle together for warmth. It is quiet. Looking upwards through the forest to the sky. Looking downward to a snow covered ground that is strewn with dead soldiers. Gunshots are fired intermittently. Blood from the dead are flung upwards. The camera movies into the trenches, through the barbed wire. Running through fields, no man's land through gunshots and explosions. Mud and dirt covered soldiers. War is hell.

Following the efforts and journey of recycling and reusing bloody uniforms taken from dead soldiers. The washing of the clothes in a giant bloody, soapy tub to stitching the fabric back together in a room full of women working on sewing machines. The machine of war continues waiting for new recruits to get ground up and minced by bullets and bombs. There they are. As a German leader says, "Not children but soldiers" but they are baby faced children. They are laughing and excited, the folly of youth, more gristle for the machine.

The great ominous music composed by Volker Bertelman belies where this story is going. The audience knows where this story is going. The German children now recruited soldiers are still excited unbeknownst to them where their stories are going. James Friend and his team do an exquisite job making the brutal, beautiful. That is the thing with the war film. So many times great film making technique is employed to hammer home the war is hell motif. The better the technique the more a film can unwittingly glorify war. Of course with the iconic title the novel and previous iterations are very much a part of this films talking points. However it is Elem Kilmov's Come and See that I for one was thinking about more as I watched Berger's film. There is also the other recent cinematic look at WWI through the direction of Sam Mendes and the non-stop camera of Roger Deakins.

Of course All Quiet on the Western Front is harrowing, brutal, barbarous, inhuman, harsh, callous, merciless, atrocious, inhumane, horror, senseless. It is an extremely well made film. How many times can one watch a well made film about war. Is the message not clear by now. 

Paul the lead character in the film has no real backstory. He is just another mud caked, blood splattered face that ages over the runtime of the film. We see the grisly details other war films do not focus on. The film succeeds in the details. A close up of shell cases rattling around the wooden bed of a military truck. A soldier's boots swinging off the back.  The landscape shots are breathtaking. The reusing of bloody uniforms. Paul rolling over dead soldiers and pulling off their dog tags. Recognizing one of his friends. The distant camera. The sad, melodic music. The endless horror surrounded by natural beauty.It is difficult to have an audience feel the cold of winter. This film achieves that. 

As Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl, Inglorious Basterds) the head of the German delegation is racing towards armistice and proposing a ceasefire during negotiations with the French the men we have followed from the beginning of the film have just arrived in the trenches of the front line. A General knows that the war is ending and refuses to give up any ground to the French. The French hold out a pen to sign the armistice agreement. A body lies in a pool of mud. Another body on barbed wire. The soldiers continue to run towards gunfire. The film is also about class. We see soldiers dying in grisly, brutal ways. Others are barely surviving. The higher up military people are dining in grand dining rooms, eating finely prepared meals, traveling in luxury on trains.

As Edward Berger noted, "Unfortunately this type of movie is always relevant." and as I said during my write up about Causeway, the cost we expect each generation sent to war to pay is far too great and the burden they carry far too heavy. Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front is this generation's All Quiet. The Netflix version. In twenty years there will be another version and in that, there lies the tragedy. 

TIFF 2022 THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER: A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

"Based on a True Story." With these words so begins The Greatest Beer Run Ever. It is 1967 and the film begins in Inwood, New York City. A neighborhood in northern Manhattan. With beer, lots of beer, pitchers of beer! Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) sometimes cheapskate, sometimes merchant sailor is buying the rounds tonight. He stills lives at home with hos parents and is not really do a whole lot with his life.

The Vietnam war is raging and so are the tensions in the country and around the Donohue breakfast table. The brutal images of war are on TVs at the local bar. A debate is going on with The Colonel, the bartender (Bill Murray) and Chick and his buddies about the war being shown on television. Regardless young men are being killed and returning home in caskets. Protests are gong on, "LBJ how many kids did you kill today?" An argument ensues about the nature of protest being against the troops and the counter argument that it is honoring the soldiers by demanding they be sent home. The country, Inwood is divided.

Like a lot of insane ideas the crux of this story beings in a bar. The Colonel casually throws out the wish to just going over to Nam and bring the boys from the neighborhood as a gesture to just say thanks. Chick has a revelation, he can do that. Sign up for a ship that is going to Vietnam and jump off and bring the boys some brews. There is definitely a lot guilt and inadequacy of not serving in the war going on in Chick's mind. 

Chick heads to the shipping office and through fate or dumb luck there is a ship heading out in Vietnam in three hours that actually needs an oilier. Now that he is on the ship there is the matter of getting off the ship. A story is concocted and it works. He now has three days to get off the ship, head into a war zone and find his buddies. Beer from New York acts as currency. 

Now that Chickie is in country and has met up with his first buddy now he has to figure out how to navigate a war zone. He figures he'll just hitchhike to meet up with the other Inwood boys. He heads over to the hotel where all the press are. They of course find his story and ambitions, "an idiotic but noble gesture." Left with no other recourse he takes to the streets of Saigon and sticks his thumb out. A military truck picks him up. He heads to a base and tries to hop on a plane. Chick somehow gets on a plane when the Captain exclaims, "It's one of you guys." Things start weirdly falling into place. The military personal believe he is someone who it is indeed not. The funny thing is Chick just straight up tells the truth. 

Everywhere Chick goes there are dead American boys being moved. The further North he heads the further embroiled in the actual war he becomes. Chick sees more brutality as his journey continues and his ideas to get back to Saigon and the ship are increasingly dangerous. He learns first hand how scary, intense and absurd war is.

This fictional film follows the book by Chick Donhue and J.T. Molly and the short documentary by Andrew Muscato. This film is directed by Peter Farrelly (Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber). I appreciate that the soundtrack of this Vietnam movie was not steeped in the soundtracks of the others that have preceded it. It is also great that Efron is going against a movie star type playing Chickie, a regular schmo in the midst of a very stupid idea. The Farrelly name is so ingrained in a collective imaginations as being associated with over the top dumb comedies. The Greatest Beer Run Ever is not playing for easy laughs even though the true life story could have seen an adaptation easily turned into a farce. The film exceeds in showing how everyone was struggling with the war. The boys in Vietnam, the friends and family back home. There are a lot of strong visual montages in the movie.

One of the strongest scenes in the film is when Chick and reporter Arthur Coates (Russell Crowe) are having a conversation - over a few beers - about the effect of the war on everyone. Chick believes it's the truth and the never-ending "bad" stories that affecting everyone. Coates points out that it isn't the truth that is hurting America, it's the lies. The first causality of war is the truth. This scene leads to a great sequence. When the bullets start flying, war is indiscriminate in it's terror. 

Chickie's three day Vietnam sojourn turned into eight weeks. The amount of resources that Chick goes through for his "idiotic yet noble mission" is straight up crazy. It is also indicative of the larger war he somehow is miraculously is moving through shows how truly idiotic the American involvement in Vietnam truly was. War is scary, intense and absurd. He also learns that it is a lot easier to get into a war than it is to get out of a war. Chick brought beer to the boys over there, he brought pack a perspective and truth to the boys in Inwood.

TIFF 2022 V/H/S/99 A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

V/H/S/99 a reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

The year 1999 has been on my mind a lot recently. I watched Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage and began thinking of the year that was. Culturally turbulent. I remember quite distinctly the buildup, panic and fear surrounding Y2K. The paranoia was very real that computers would not recognize the year 2000 and thereby crash the entire system. Banks where running out of cash. Grocery stores were running out food.

1999 was actually pretty chaotic beyond the millennium scare. It was a year that saw riots at the WTO Seattle of what became known as the battle for Seattle. On June 1st Napster was launched completely changing how we consume culture and entertainment. The Columbine school shooting tragedy occurred. As previously mentioned, Woodstock 99 concert took place. A corporate music festival billed as an anti-commercial love fest which turned into a nightmare, as riots, fires and numerous sexual assaults happened. If you were a teenager in 1999 it was also a time of restless energy, pranks, skateboarding and nights wandering around Blockbuster looking for a videotape to rent.

This bring me to V/H/S/99. Alongside the sequel, the found footage concept is another staple of the horror genre, the anthology film. Creepshow (1980) Southbound (2015) XX (2017) Trilogy of Terror (1975), The ABCs of Death. The V/H/S movies combine found footage as well as the anthology structure. V/H/S/99 premiered at the 2022 Midnight Madness program. The fifth film in the series. I have always had a fondness for VHS tapes and camcorders. I spent the 1990s making ninja fight scenes with my friends. Graduating to more complex gangster and art house movies shot around my hometown. There was indeed a thrill to put in a blank tape with nothing written on the label to see what was on the videotape.

A staple to the structure of the anthology film is the wraparound story. In the case of V/H/S/99 it is less a story than something that begins the VHS tape and is then buried under many other recordings and resurfaces in the midst of tracking lines and static. It is highly imaginative and funny as hell. Little green army men in a stop motion movie with great voice overs. These army men segments are the work of Tyler MacIntyre who also directed a longer segment in the film. Which reminds me in the backyard of a townhouse in Mississauga, Ontario near the Meadowvale Mall are several G.I. Joes I buried alive that never made it back to the base. I have been meaning for quite sometime to return to that townhouse on a mission of archeological importance.

The tape goes through infomercials, BMX stunts, more static, "The Video Journal of Neurosurgery"...and settles into something quite akin to my 1999 experience, videotaping skateboarding at the local skate park and a garage band. This segment is Shredding written and directed by Maggie Levin. Way before YouTube and TikTok the original "content creators" were 90s kids running around with LP videotapes as is the case with this group of friends in a band. Local legend has it that a band called Bitch Cat played a show to very catastrophic results. The kids are going to the place where the show happened to see what they can find. Perhaps some new gear for their band and most definitely some more stuff for them to shoot on their camcorder. The fun of this segment is watching and vibing the transition of kids mugging for the camera, juvenile hi-jinks to suspense and horror in a very quick amount of time.

The unique pressures of conformity when heading to university. It leads some to take on great risks so that the next four years of their life are filled with friends, parties and maybe find a boyfriend or girlfriend. The tape settles on what is Suicide Bid written and directed by Johannes Roberts. Lily has found a sorority that she has fallen in love with and wishes to pledge to. She is so taken with the sorority and afraid of spending her university days alone that she decides to pledge only to them which means that if she doesn't get in, that's it, no sorority, social suicide aka the suicide bid. She meets up with girls form the sorority in a graveyard where she will be placed in a coffin and buried alive. There are safe guards in place. The lengths someone will go to become popular are indeed downright scary.

Ah, the Nickelodeon kids game shows of the 1990s. Competition is fierce and broadcast across the nation. You could lose and be humiliated  on national television It could very well be a nightmare scenario. Losing far more than the competition is where Ozzy's Dungeon directed by Flying Lotus and written by Zoe Cooper and Flying Lotus takes us. The lengths that a Mom will go to right the wrongs for their children is at the heart of this segment. It is also a segment that asks the question, "What would you do for a Sega Dreamcast?"

Another great aspect of the 1990s was the prank. It could be done in person, at a sleepover. For my friends and I, our favorite was the prank was the telephone call. Today's kids will never know the simple pleasure of being complete dickheads and phoning complete strangers in the middle of the night. 

It turns out the little green army men were being filmed by Brady the little brother of Dylan the protagonist of The Gawkers written by Chris Lee Hill and Tyler MacIntyre. Directed by Tyler MacIntyre. The big brother promptly snatches the camcorder back from Brady and begins filming himself flexing in the mirror and prank after prank with his buddies. The extremely hormonal teenagers then focus their camcorder lens on Sandra the girl next door. Turns out that Brady while being a genius stop-motion storyteller also has mad computer skills. Once again we see someone sellout morals for the sake of acceptance. 

The tape of V/H/S/99 winds up in a logical place, New Years Eve 1999. All those fears of the Y2K bug and the new millennium take a back seat in Joseph and Vanessa Winters' To Hell and Back. A group of documentary filmmakers are shooting a documentary with a bunch of people anticipating what the last night of 1999 will bring. "You're in for one hell of a trip" one of the people say to the camera. We can all hope to run into Mabel if our journeys do not take us exactly where we thought we might go. Great creature effects and humor close out the anthology on high note.

The fun of V/H/S/99 are the stories within stories that propel the characters forward in their segments. A doomed band, a tale of a sorority pledge gone horribly array, a horrific appearance on a kids game show. Another completely engrossing and entertaining aspect of the film is being propelled by the imaginations of the storytellers as they take their segments to places you had no idea where they were going to wind up. Watching the filmmakers play within the context of VHS camcorder is also one of the great aspects of the V/H/S anthology films. The end credits arrive with Danzig's "Long Way Back from Hell" blasting. Pitch perfect. 1999 what a fucking year. Don't be a dweeb, rewind the tape for the next person who finds this tape.

 

TIFF 2022 THE PEOPLE'S JOKER

 

The People's Joker in a first for the Midnight Madness program screened once at it's world premiere and was hit with a cease and desist order from Warner Brothers. Filmmaker Vera Drew is positive the film will be seen again. As I learn more I will share the details. 

TIFF 2022 PEARL: A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

Pearl was the surprise movie that was announced after X premiered at the South by Southwest Festival. Not only was the film announced as an origin story to Pearl who appears in X, it was already completed. As the story goes X was filmed in New Zealand at the height of the pandemic and Covid restrictions. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired set, house, barn and a guesthouse was already built. Having an already built full-on set was the origin for this origin story. In a two week hotel quarantine stay West came up with the story and script for Pearl. Once again A24 came onboard to make the film. 

The film begins as a camera passes through a barn. The barn doors open revealing an idyllic farm pastoral. The music composed by Tyler Bates and Tim Williams is full of wonder and splendor. We see Pearl in her room surrounded by dolls. She is made up, her lips a rich hue of red. She stands. She is Judy Garland. As we learned in X Pearl was/is a dancer. The lights dim in her mind's eye, a spotlight hits her and reflects off of the mirror she stand before. The door opens and the illusion is shattered. It is back to life on the farm. However dreams do not fade, a pitchfork makes a great dancing partner. The cows are a rapt audience. 

Pearl maybe look like an innocent farm girl. This is also the Pearl from X. A goose wanders into the barn. The goose is carried out of the barn impaled on Pearl's pitchfork.  She carries the goose out to the dock overlooking the lake where Pearl will first spy on Maxine many decades later. 

On a side note on the interesting dynamics of film festivals. I watched All Quiet on the Western Front and later Pearl. Both on the same day. Both films take place in 1918. Both films are horrific in their own right. It is an extremely interesting condition of seeing so many films in quick succession. There are emotions, notions and observations that carry over int different pieces you are writing about films on any given festival day. 

Along with World War One, another major event was occurring. A pandemic, the Spanish flu. In an exceptional parallel to our times. To escape the hum drum of farm life, an over bearing German mama and her ill Father, Pearl goes to the movie picture house wearing a mask. The other patrons are all masked as well.  A news reel shows graphic scenes from WWI. Palace Follies begins to play. Pearl is enraptured by the singing and dancing and the morphine she is sipping on. Pearl meets the projectionist who in turn hands her a little piece of cinema. Then it's back to the corn fields. 

Both Pearl and X are definitely part of which is now a trilogy with the announcement of MaXXXine rounding out the last film of the trilogy. Both films stand on their own but there is much more to be gleaned from Pearl having seen X prior. It is compelling from a film making stand point to see two vastly different cinematic styles applied to the same set. There is a great scene with Pearl and the projectionist who shows her a film "nobody has seen yet" that leads in the late 1970s in X.

As the horror in Pearl slowly builds - a Ti West trademark - it pays as much homage to Tobe Hooper as X did with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre so too does Pearl pay homage to Hopper's second film Eaten Alive. Does this mean the third Mia Goth/Ti West film will be an ode to Lifeforce? Only time will tell. Or perhaps being the third film it will be Salem's Lot.

The horror is also the dread of family dynamics. Pearl lost in isolation and reverie. A husband at war who has not been heard from in months. An overbearing Mother who is trying to shelter her. A sick Father. Dreams that will not subside of somewhere faraway on stage in front of an adoring audience. It is a potential suitor turning cold.

Ti West has become much more a stylist in these films, which I dig a lot. He has also grown on me as filmmaker with these last two movies. A lot has been said about Mia Goth and all the positive accolades are very warranted. Mia goes from oh shucks to full on Psycho in the flip of a switch. These films are Pearl and Maxine's world of which Mia brings to grainy 16mm and Technicolor life. West and Goth have become each other's muses. 

Mia Goth delivers one of the all time great soliloquies delivered on film. All the world's a stage and all the men and women in Pearl's way are merely victims.

TIFF 2022: THE GOOD NURSE Reflections by Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

The Good Nurse is based on a true story. Jessica Chastain plays nurse Amy Loughren. Eddie Redmayne plays Charles Cullen. Charles Cullen is a serial killer who killed patients in hospitals. The film is based of the book written by Charles Graeber. Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917) adapted the book. Tobias Lindholm who directed tiff favorite Another Round as well as The Hunt in 2012 helms The Good Nurse.

There was a lot of anticipation ahead of the premiere of Lindholm's first American feature film. The journey of this film was a long one as Lindholm was sent a version of the screenplay several years ago. He was drawn to the material because the focus was not an obsession with the serial killer but the nurse who stops him. 

The film opens in a hospital room as doctors and nurses rally around a bed of a patient who is dying. The camera. They are of to the side. The focus of the opening is a slow zoom towards Charles Cullen (Redmayne) who stands expressionless as the events unfold. The patient passes away. Cullen slouched walks down a hallway under a glowing red exit sign. 

The events of the film center around Parkfield Memorial Hospital in New Jersey in 2003. The hospital is run on a strict budget. The American hospital is a business. The nurses are overworked and exhausted. She works the overnight ICU shift as well as caring for her two kids. Amy is informed that she will be getting help soon as another nurse was just hired. Amy also has health problems of her own. As she sits on a bed in a doctor's office he walks in with a clipboard and informs Amy, "If you continue like this you're looking at a serious coronary incident within months." Amy is in danger of suffering a stroke. She has to continue to work the long stressful hours because she does not receive health insurance until she has been employed by the hospital for a year. The consultation she just had runs 980 dollars. The American healthcare industry is a business.

Amy sits in her car in the parking lot of a hospital as the rain pours. We see her grappling with her circumstances. She gets out of the car and pushes forward. She meets Charlie and shows him around the ward. They begin to bond over the job and their similar backgrounds. Both have two girls around the same ages. The dynamics of their burgeoning friendship is what makes The Good Nurse fascinating. Amy has a heart episode in front of Charles. He shows empathy talking her through the situation. He asks her if she has spoken to their hospital.s cardiologist. She panics and asks Charles not to mention her health condition to anyone. They both have secrets. 

In a film where the two lead actors are Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne one would expect that performances are great. One would be correct. The filmmakers do a great job balancing the film, as the stories unfolding are personal dynamics, hospital drama and police procedural. The film becomes quite compelling as the tension increases with intensity. Amy becomes trapped between the system of the healthcare industry and the legal system.

A hospital should be a place of empathy, care. People should be treated with dignity. In the apparatus and gears of capitalism, patients can become products. When something is suspect the system is designed to protect the hospital from lawsuits. The American healthcare system, the insurance machine, the bureaucracy, the costs of care can be horrific. To then have a serial killer running loose in ICUs that hospital administrators and lawyers are covering up, truly horrific. The film made me think a lot about systems and how they operate. How the hospital industry dealt with, not dealt with Charlie Cullen reminded me of another giant system, the catholic church. How they move abusers around. The policing system, problematic police are fired only to be rehired somewhere else. The film speaks to the fortitude and strength of Amy Loughren a good nurse that stood up against the system and fought for justice for Cullen's many victims.

TIFF 2022 GOOD NIGHT OPPY: A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

"At the beginning, there's nothing. There's no concept of a robot explorer crawling across the surface of another world. And then, gradually, you start to think. You start to act. We just start to build. And those machines come to life." the principal scientist on the Opportunity mission. Steve Squyres 

Oppy is the affectionate nickname for the Mars exploration rover named Opportunity. Oppy was expected to be operational for 90 days and wound up roving the red planet for fifteen years. In Ryan White's documentary, Good Night Oppy. Ryan White has directed previous documentaries, notably, The Case Against 8 which was the behind the scenes look at overturning California's ban against same-sex marriage and a film I helped screen at The In Light Human Rights film festival in Bloomington, Indiana in 2014. 

White and his team follow the rover and the scientists over the course of Opportunity's lifespan. From the ten years of proposals until NASA gave the green light to begin the program. To how would they get the rover to Mars. How do you get the rovers to land on Mars without damaging the robots. How do you build the machines so they can roam the arduous surface of Mars. What cameras and other equipment to you put on the rovers to collect and transmit data? The rovers began to be created at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It's just a box of wires, right? But you end up with this cute-ish looking robot that has a face." Doug Ellison, camera operations engineer.

At one point early on we see Oppy navigating the surface of Mars and stops at it detects a hazard. It is only Oppy's shadow and NASA informs the robot rover she is safe to proceed. In 2003, twin sister robots named Opportunity and Spirit were sent to Mars. 

One of the great sequences in the documentary is watching the scientist figure out the airbag landing system to get the rovers to land safely on Mars. We see people sewing this giant airbags. We watch the creation and testing of the parachutes. One of them crash to the surface during a test. That was going to be one of the parachutes that were going to go to Mars.  There is genuine suspense as we follow the trials and tribulations of undertaking this mission to Mars. There are so many things that have to go right for any scientific space exploration mission and there are so many more things that can go wrong.

"And along come Opportunity. And on every test, Opportunity came through with flying colors. So, even before they left this planet, Spirit was troublesome, Opportunity was Little Miss Perfect." Doug Ellison. We see Opportunity take her first steps. "To say that it is like a child being born would be to trivialize parenthood, but it feels kind of like that." Steve Squyres.

In an age of science denial it was great to spend time with scientist asking questions about life on other planets. The grand adventure, the thrill of discovery and the act of creating robots. How can you not get emotionally caught up watching the rockets blast off to Mars with Spirit and Opportunity. "...it was hard to say goodbye. I devoted 16 years of my life to these rovers. And then you put them on top of a rocket and shoot them into space and you're never going to see them again." Steve Squyers. 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As the Sols go on and Oppy lives far past her projected lifespan. She gets arthritis and suffers memory loss. It is a hell of a thing to get so emotional invested and defeated when the two rovers pass away.

Spirit and Opportunity. It what was expected to be a 90 Sol mission. Opportunity explored Mars for 5262 Sols. What a journey. Roam where you want to.

TIFF 2022 CAUSEWAY: A Reflection by Robert Aaaron Mitchell

 

The American Psychiatric Association defines Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as, "Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being. Examples include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying." In the era of World War One this condition was known as "shell shocked" and was far less understood than our modern era. 

According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs the number of military service people who have PTSD, "Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year.Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime."

This brings me to the tiff premiering film Causeway, I hesitate to say "starring" Jennifer Lawrence as this is a film far removed from popcorn spectacle. Along Ms. Lawrence is Brian Tyree Henry. The film marks the feature film debut of director Lila Neugebauer working from a script written by Elizabeth Sanders, Luke Goebel and Ottessa Moshfegh.

Jennifer plays Lynsey a U.S. Veteran returning to America dealing with a traumatic brain injury that she received while serving in Afghanistan. She arrives at a care facility where she is trying to rehab. She has mobility issues, panic attacks and struggles with PTSD. Jayne Houdyshell plays Sharon, Lynsey care taker. In the midst of this struggle where even the act of driving a car brings out a deluge of painful emotions Lynsey's goal is not to transition to civilian life but to redeploy in another tour of military service. 

The camera, "we" sit across from Lynsey as she transverses her way back home, to New Orleans. The silence as she looks out the window as the bus moves across American highways, we she the look of apprehension and determination on Lynsey's face.  She arrives home unknown to her mother. Her mom wanted to plan a heroes welcome. Lynsey just wants to sleep. 

A near empty fridge freezer, a pick up truck that needs a new carburetor that Lynsey doesn't want or doesn't have the money to replace underlies her need to return to work, which for her means a war zone. For now, she applies for a job as a pool cleaner. As she is driving home she once again as a debilitating panic attack.

This story could be now or perhaps it was twenty years ago when we see a C.D. Player in a car. That's the thing about America at war, it spans decades. Decades of returning soldiers trying to return to life in America. Decades of pain, torment and silent suffering. 

This is a film anchored by performance. Lynsey in a Doctor's office retelling the day she was driving in a convoy in Afghanistan which came under attack is told by her without flashy Michael Bay flashbacks. When she mentions the explosion we the audience are not jolted by a fireball across the screen with a giant soundtrack boom. The camera slowly zooms towards Lynsey as her retelling draws both the Doctor and us, the audience close to this tragic and traumatic event. 

The day Lynsey is driving home after getting the pool cleaning job and the pick up truck she is driving breaks down Lynsey drives it to a nearby garage. Where is meets Henry, a mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry) they strike up a friendship. Watching their burgeoning friendship is a joy in a movie that has such intense material. 

Causeway is in no way a "message" movie. It is a slice of life film. Causeway is a film that follows people navigating random traumatic life circumstances in American life. It reminds us that the person sitting next to us on a bus or having car problems near us on the morning commute maybe dealing with events that scar both physically and mentally for the duration of life. As Lynsey's mom remarks upon her return home, "Well, you look like you." It is the hidden wounds that society does not see that can be the hardest to navigate in a world that is built and functions well for able-bodied, mentally well adjusted people. People may leave a war zone but the war is always there. What we ask of each generation that is shipped to war and the cost they pay is far too great and the burden they carry far too heavy.

TIFF 2022 MY POLICEMAN: A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

A lot can and will be written about the 2022 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival but there is no doubt that one of the biggest stars to arrive in Toronto was Harry Styles. King street was crowded more than it has been in years which was a great change of pace form the last couple of Septembers. The screams, oh yes the screams. Loud is not a word that does this collective sound justice.

Waves cross the oceans. They can be rough or calm but they are always moving. Rolling in and out. Rolling out and in. The tide can be high and the tide can be low. Waves can be metaphors or they can be literal. There is a house by the sea where waves are literally crashing into the beach. Those same waves are extremely rough today such as the regrets of a life nearing an end. 

J.M.W. Turner was a British painter. Arguably Britain's most famous painter. Turner primarily painted in water colors. His landscapes were vibrant, expressions of color. His maritime paintings were also beautiful practices of color interpretation. Fiery palettes. The seascapes were also violent. Turner's watercolors depicted life as both beautiful and turbulent. Ships on fire. Ships sinking. Snowstorms, swirling vortexes, slavers throwing the dead overboard. In Calais Pier (1803) Ships are in a momentary break from a storm and are desperately trying to navigate extremely turbulent seas trying to reach the safety of shore. Waves man.

My Policeman opens with the metaphorical and literal waves of the sea. A frail old man Mr. Hazelwood (Rupert Everett) arrives at a house. The house of Older Marion (Gina McKee) and Older Tom (Linus Roache). Older Tom is not happy to have Mr. Hazelwood staying with them. 

Marion begins to care for the old man. She takes a reflective smoke break. As she looks out the window she spots Older Tom walking up the road. The camera lingers and she and us are back in time with Young Marion (Emma Corrin) and Young Tom (Harry Styles). They are standing on a beach. Young Tom says, "I'm a policeman now" The titular character. Young Marion remarks to Young Tom that "Must be quite fulfilling" Young Tom looks over to Young Marion kinda smiles and looks back at the waves. We since that life as a policeman is not so fulfilling.  Since they are at a beach and you guessed it waves are rolling in. Could anyone have guessed that Marion is afraid of water. She is. As Young Tom says to her, "Well, you can't go through life afraid of the water." Instead of going into the ocean though they head to a pool or as Young Tom calls it a Lido. 

Young Marion and Young Tom begin spending more time together. They are in a library and Young Tom mentions he has never really looked at art before. He know believes he could get something out of it. Young Marion asks if there is any particular painter Young Tom is interested in. He asks if there is a painter named Turner. Oh Young Tom, indeed there was. He was also arguably Britain's most famous painter whose water colors were interruptions of beautiful and turbulent life. They acquire some books and Young Tom studiously pours over the pages. Swimming lessons in the lido continue. Oh glorious summer days of youth. 

Young Tom takes Young Marion to the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery will they will be going on a private tour conducted by the Director of the Western Art Galleries, Young Patrick (David Dawson). Young Tom met Young Patrick at the scene of an accident where Young Patrick was a witness. An accident, a random act that occurred in the never unfolding universe. The three of them stroll through the empty museum surrounded by so many beautiful pieces of art. They stop at a painting by arguably Britain's most famous painter, J.M.W. Turner. They then look at a painting done by Blake. As Young Tom says, "Blake's trying to startle the senses as well as the spirit. There's so much passion in his work. You just have to let it take hold of you." There is a lot at work in this sequence Young Tom and Marion are on a date. This is the first time all three people are in the same space. There are stolen glances from all three people directed to one another. Unspoken words, a tension is building. Perhaps the two boys fancy Young Marion. 

The three become inseparable. Attending classical recitals. Dinners. Talk of travel. Young Patrick wishes to go to Mother Russia because it is the setting of his favorite novel Anna Karenina. The story of Tolstoy's novel goes, "The story centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness, but after they return to Russia, their lives further unravel." Young Marion hasn't read it. Young Patrick assures her she must because it is literature's most tragic love story. He goes on to insist that all love stories are tragic. 

Time is the frequency of longitudinal energy waves. If a wave frequency changed today we would not know the difference. Our perception of time would still be the same. So it goes with Young Marion, Young Tom has changed however Young Marion cannot register it. They get married, they consummate the union, Marion lies and says it was lovely. Time is a miraculous concept, it matches ever forward and yet while sitting still in a house by the ocean one can go back to the days of youth. A dairy written by one you caring for in elderly state of life helps. My Policeman takes on qualities of Rashomon. The glances and the subtle touches at the art museum take on different meanings. 

The crux of My Policeman, many other writers and reviewers seemed to have a personal grudge against Harry Styles and what acting chops he brought to the film, some more than likely were caught up in a the stories out of Venice days prior. Stories of in fighting on another film, a possible spitting incident at another world premiere. Harry Styles was fine. The crux is My Policeman is a film that leans into metaphor of the art the characters are gravitating towards and a simple look at the plot of Tolstoy's novel leaves none too much dramatic surprise. Of course this story is going to be tragic, because aren't all love stories.

TIFF 2022 SICK: Reflections by Robert Aaron Mitchell

There was a lot of anticipation for Sick, the new film by screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Do Last Summer) playing the Midnight Madness program. Kevin has been a leading figure shaping the horror genre. The screenplay was also written by Katelyn Crabb. Horror is one of the tenets of the program with wold premieres such as Hostel, Saw and showcasing the French New Extremity wave in the early part of the century. Add to the the anticipation Sick being directed by John Hyams. John's take on the Universal Soldier franchise, especially with Day of Reckoning is absolutely fantastic. A film that drew from numerous film inspirations one of which is Gaspar Noe. I was personally was very much looking forward to Sick, a horror, action hybrid set during the early part of the pandemic. 

The film opens with the following facts. April 3, 2020 273, 880 COVID-19 cases reported and rising. 42 states have issued stay at home orders. Nearly 97% of the country is quarantined. Reading this takes one right back to the dread and fear of the unknown. An airborne virus was unleashed on the world and no one really knew what was going to happen. The film opens on empty selves in a grocery store. As someone who was working in a grocery store during the pandemic reaching America these images immediately take right back to  all the overwhelming emotions of the time, which as of this writing seems both a long time ago and just yesterday. 

A surgical masked customer asks a clerk "Hey do you have any toilet paper in the back?" "What you see is what we got." The customer name is Tyler and he starts getting text messages from some unknown person who wants to party. A woman coughs. Everyone stares at her. Tyler gets a text message saying "Nice Ass" and a picture of him standing in the checkout line. He looks back, everyone is a suspect and anyone could be carrying the virus. The phone rings, he answers, silence. "Fuck you and your stalker bullshit." Instant Scream vibes. 

Tyler gets home and wipes down his groceries with wipes. Ah, the early days of the pandemic. The news is playing, Tyler shuts off the tv and a figure clad all in black brandishing a knife appears. This first scene of brutality is exactly what I would expect from John Hyams and his team. Intense, visceral, right in your face action and brutal. Sirens sound outside. Help arriving? More likely someone with Covid being rushed to the hospital. 

We then meet Parker (Gideon Adion) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) They are heading to a lake house to ride out the pandemic. We know this and who ever is following Parker on Instagram now knows this.  The house is a substantial giant wood (cabin) mansion. The place is pretty sick. "I know how to 2020" Parker. Ding. Ding. They begin to receive text messages from some unknown person. Creepily specific text messages. Blocked. Problem solved.

Nothing like a good drinking game watching pandemic news and taking a shot every time Fauci is mentioned! The doorbell rings. Then banging on the door. Parker arms herself with a knife and heads outside. Mimi masks up. That is what is great in the movie how our collective fears of the global pandemic play into the fear of a serial killer. The ringer of the doorbell is an unexpected "friend" shows up at the lake house. DJ Cole (Dylan Sprayberry)

Like any good serial killer film your protagonists should get high, really high, however in our Covid times one must practice safe social distance single use joint smoking and a good Lysol spray down as you throw down dancing. 

I love mise en scene in movies. I believe it is not written or talked enough in interviews with filmmakers. The mise en scene in relation to the intruder and the other characters is great. The use of the phone in the film is also so effective. What's the first thing anyone of us do upon waking these days? Reach for your phone. Oh the horror of not having it charging beside you upon waking. The suspense is highly effective. Which brings me to the classic "what the fuck are these characters doing". Once the film ratchets up the violence there is a lot of WTF with the character decisions. The filmmakers have to be fucking with us, the audience, right? Oh yeah there are. 

The movie brings the scream vibes, big time. Not so much in the pop cultural referential way but in the way our protagonists and killer move throughout the movie. The film is a tight, tight sojourn through a night from hell in a pandemic lock down. All in all, it's pretty sick.

THE BOBBY DIAMONDS STORY Award Winner and Official Trailer

 

The Bobby Diamonds Story has begun it's film festival run. On September 5th the film won Best Documentary Short at the Venice Fullshot Film Festival. I am very grateful and humbled by this award as my short begins the roller coaster ride that is submitting to film festivals.

Underground poker player Bobby Diamonds steps into the spotlight in a hallucinatory, hilarious and heartfelt documentary. Here is the official trailer: