I Used to be Normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story: DVD Review

I Used to be Normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story: DVD Review

The pantheon of boybands is never ending.

Screaming girls, packed together in throngs, crying and loudly adoring their wannabes.

They're an easy target for mocking, for those outside of the current obsessions of the popworld.

And yet, director Jessica Leski's affectionate doco, which began life on Kickstarter, seems to douse its subjects in a universal appeal that it makes their obsessions seem normal.

Centring on four different fans - 16 year-old Elif, who's a One Directioner, Dara, 33, who's a proclaimed Take That fan, 25 year old Sadia, a US Backstreet Boys fan and 64-year-old Susan who was there at the start of the trend with her Beatles love - Leski's piece becomes more of a rounded piece as it goes on.

It begins with the obvious, with all of the quartet explaining their loves for their musical heartthrobs, but yet as it continues, I Used to be normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story actually shows the dichotomy of society and what these women face thanks to their obsession.

For Sadia, it's moments of self-examination after going on a Backstreet Boys' cruise; for Dara, it's self-reflection on who she is, why she still needs boybands; for Elif, it's a sign of her growing and tragic divide with her life choices and her family and for Susan, it's a reminder of good times had and friends lost.

It's a clever touch deployed by Leski, who could so easily have over-indulged in the cheesiness proffered by such subjects of adoration. However, even though Sadia's practically drooling at Backstreet's video Quit Playing Games with My Heart, what you begin to see is her coming-of-age via her idols in a Muslim world that's strict.

And the conflict Elif faces with her family is heartbreaking as the chasm opens.

Leski's strength lies in never mocking her subjects, and never mocking the crucial growing up experience that is fan adoration.

As a result, the success of the pace, coupled with the nicely put together archive footage and open moments of their subjects means I Used to be normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story proffers an inclusive exploration of Boybands, their eternal appeal and their fans' formative experiences.

The Curse of the Weeping Woman: Film Review

The Curse of the Weeping Woman: Film Review

Cast: Linda Cardinelli, Raymond Cruz, Marisol Ramirez
Director: Michael Chaves

The Conjuring Universe continues to expand out with this latest, a solid but formulaic piece of fright fare that doesn't quite build on its promising premise.

Sacrificing subtleties in favour of providing the Weeping Woman as a punchline to most scenes, The Curse of La Llorona deals with some dark issues - infanticide, suspected abuse, repressed grief as it spins the tale of recently widowed Anna Tate-Garcia (Scooby Doo and ER star Linda Cardinelli).

A social worker, Anna's called in to try and help the children of Patricia Alvarez who show signs of abuse. But when the children are found killed, drowned in a local lake, Anna's sanity begins to be questioned when a folktale of La Llorona, who takes children, appears to becoming true.

The Curse of The Weeping Woman is relatively taut, and as mentioned, hints at some real darkness, before ultimately deciding to sideline that in favour of rote scares.

By keeping the film's point of view within Anna's family alone, there's a palpable sense of claustrophobia as the jolts start to come. And Chaves makes some good fist of a few visual tricks to build a creeping sense of terror. But much like any fairground horror house, he can't resist the pull of the cheap scares, and that's where The Curse of The Weeping Woman starts to fall down, as every scene becomes punctuated by Ramirez's ghost popping into frame.

It's lazy at best and detracts from some genuinely unsettling edges which are displayed throughout. It's a shame the psychological edges aren't mined more, for a deeply upsetting denouement.

From a bathtub sequence to a final housebound showdown, the film's successes come from making the most of the surroundings and some of the genre tropes.

Unfortunately, in bringing in Cruz's former priest, the script settles for laughs and one-liners when the truly terrifying touch would have been to continue on with the darkness that's hinted at - suspense, suspicions and susceptible children make great bedfellows for any decent horror movie, but The Curse of The Weeping Woman doesn't seem content enough to push the boundaries, jettisoning the narratively beefy for the frighteningly familiar.

It's by no means a disaster, and offers the requisite thrills for what you'd expect, but at times, this mash up of The Exorcist and The Nun starts to feel horrendously like a horrific case of deja vu, and worryingly points to the Conjuring Universe potentially running out of tricks to pull on its audience, who are all too willing to go along for the ride.

Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker

It's here, your first look at Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker!

Check out these new social handles, too!

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in NZ Cinemas on December 19.

Fresh Propaganda Released | New Trailer | Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love

Fresh Propaganda Released | New Trailer | Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love

Coming to Steam, GOG, PS4, Xbox One + Nintendo Switch Originally broadcast to the beloved people in July 2018, Artifex Mundi have released a follow-up trailer to their upcoming Cold War, communist-comedy era adventure game - Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love.

Set in a bizarre Eastern European country ruled by t̶y̶r̶a̶nn̶i̶c̶a̶l BELOVED leader, the game will take players through an exciting and often exaggerated spy story of epic communist vs capitalist caricatures.

Take on the role of Evan, a bumbling journalist and unbeknown spy as he solves a puzzles, meets the eccentric people of this great nation and reveals what’s actually behind the Irony Curtain.

Climax: DVD Review

Climax: DVD Review

Where the hell do you start with Gaspar Noe's latest?

Climax is a sensory assault, a nervy, twisting, paranoid horrifying wet dream of cultivated chaos.

Centring on a bunch of dancers who are coming to the end of a retreat somewhere in Paris' forests, the film's electrifying from the start.

As the dancers wind down and party, things start to go wildly awry with all of them having some kind of collective freak-out that builds to epidemic levels.

Really, that's it for plot - but Climax is not really about plot.

Opening with a scene of someone staggering through the snow via way of an aerial shot, and then launching into credits and a claim that this happened in 1996, Noe's unsettling from the start, but also visually arresting.

Following a series of vox-pop interviews with the dancers, Climax continues with a one take electrifying dance sequence that was done in one take and is simply incredible - a co-ordinated collection of limbs that choreographs brilliantly before segueing in to the post-party.

With pulsing EuroBeat music pounding away, the film's descent into darkness is wildly evocative and yet utterly terrifying. Quick cuts capture dialogue here and there as various groups splinter, and various conversations cover the usual machinations and mentalities of parties.

But as the dread of what's transpiring kicks in, Climax really grabs, a vision of hell spiralling through the corridors of the dance floor. It resembles some kind of purgatory as delusions bubble up, emotions spill out and everything escalates in utterly terrifying fashion.

Unlike most of Noe's back catalogue, this film's perhaps nowhere near as provocative (aside from its A French Film and Proud Of It title boards) as you'd expect, but its mental toll is much more horrific.

Feeling like a cinematic claustrophobic vice for the most part, Climax is simply a director in complete control of the chaos from beginning to end - whether you're in for the ride is upto you, but it's a celluloid trip of dancehall dread that won't let go from the most basic of premises.

Hellboy: Film Review

Hellboy: Film Review

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane
Director: Neil Marshall

For many, Ron Perlman is the definitive Hellboy.

With gruff voice and wearied attitude, his Hellraiser, along with director Guillermo del Toro set the tone for the story of the demon here to protect us all. But that was back in 2004 when the film hit a high, and now 15 years later, there's a new attempt to bring Mike Mignola's comics back to life.

This time, Stranger Things David Harbour is old Red, and Dog Soldiers' director Neil Marshall helps helm the CGI creations as Hellboy tackles an ancient sorceress bent on revenge in the R-rated flick.

The road to Hellboy is paved with good intentions.

But unfortunately, this reboot is nothing more than a slightly polished stinker that does nothing for the legacy work created by del Toro.

A CGI creature feature that in parts looks like the bastard son of Jack The Giant Slayer, the creature work is so incredibly cheap-looking that it distracts mightily from what's transpiring on the screen.

Which isn't to say much, because the basic plot and piecemeal sewing together of various scenes in the film feels beyond rote, and borderline dull.

Harbour tries to deliver what he can under the prosthetics, but if you're after subtlety, this ain't it.

All the good character work done by Perlman and del Toro is distilled down and then thrown out, because all Harbour has to work with is what the script writers believe Hellboy is, a series of quips and some petulance, rather than a build up of emotional heft aimed at immersing you in his world, and buying into the torment he feels at his place in the world.

It just doesn't work though throughout, with a Scouser pig creature that's supposed to be Jovovich's character's sidekick feeling like an extra from a bad cartoon movie. Fight scenes aren't much better either, scored as they are to heavy metal tracks and distinctly looking cheap in their execution.

The cheapness affects the feel of the film and the script struggles for any kind of heft; even worse, the world-building feels less fantastical, more rushed, rote and utterly  lazy. There are precisely two good moments in Hellboy, and unfortunately, they come right at the end of the movie as Marshall demonstrates some directorial flair for action sequences, chopping and changing between slow-motion and speeded up ass kicking from Hellboy.

It only serves to show what's been missing in the Hellboy 2019 reboot, a film that chops around all over the place, uses terribly clunky exposition to anchor its hero, and delivers nothing short of a disappointment.

Simply put, Hellboy in its latest incarnation deserves its place in cinematic hell.

Mary Poppins Returns: Blu Ray Review

Mary Poppins Returns: Blu Ray Review

How do you solve a problem like Mary Poppins 2?
With the longest gap between sequels ever recorded in cinema history, it seems like the return of the English nanny that so delighted so many decades ago was always bound to be divisive.

So it is with Mary Poppins Returns, a film that is both respectful of its nostalgia and yet also seems to be bound up by it, unsure of its own path to follow.

Set in the Great slump, London is facing a post-war depression with the inhabitants of Cherry Tree Lane in the firing line of the Depression. Newly widowed Michael (Whishaw, in mournful elegaic mode) and sister Jane (Mortimer, perky, but under-used) face losing the family home due to lack of mortgage payments.

With 5 days to find a shares certificate which will give them fiscal freedom, the Banks children and their own children are more in need now of a visit from Emily Blunt's Mary Poppins....

There's a sense of loss pervading lots of Poppins 2; and there's a lot of juggling needed for the tone of the Depression and balancing it with the edges of an old school Hollywood musical. It doesn't always quite work, in all honesty, and the film's blighted with the fact it's barely blessed with some truly memorable songs in the vein of Spoonful of Sugar, Chim Chim Cher-ee et al.

There's one central song that does soar - even if it has Lin-Manuel Miranda's Jack and his lamplighter brigade firing around on bikes like an outtake of a BMX festival - and that's Trip a Little Light Fantastic With Me. This one mixes both the terrible Cockney accent along with a memorable chorus, to produce an ode that gathers speed and is brilliantly translated to the screen.

Blunt's Poppins is a nicely starched character, with moments of eye-twinkling mixed with some sad mournful looks as she realises how far the children have fallen - and how much the London depression has hit.

In many ways, it's easy to see Mary Poppins Returns as a rejoinder to current political climates (the celebration of London, the demonising of the banks, the Depression) within the UK, but the timelessness of the first is what is, at times, missing from this, even if there is a sweet sense of escapism on offer this time around.

Yet, there is magic within Mary Poppins Returns, as it tries to rekindle an "excess of imagination" in both its subjects and the cinema audiences, who are becoming more enamoured with musicals (La La Land, The Greatest Showman).

"She never explains anything," says Miranda's Lamplighter Jack, a dismissive oneliner which says much about Poppins' appeal and the nonsensical edges of the flights of fantasy within. It's a meta line if ever there was one, and one which applies to Mary Poppins Returns - it may hit a younger audience, but an older audience, brought up in the memories of the first replayed through the years, may find it lacks a killer hook to keep you whistling along afterwards.