PERSONAL TRANSCENDENCE // A FILM REVIEW OF "STANLEYVILLE"

BY MATEO MORENO

STANLEYVILLE is a bizarre movie, and it wears that like a badge of honor. In fact, that's the main thing that drew me to it initially. Think of it starting as a sort of oddball version of Squid Games but forgetting to include any real payoff for the viewer. Julian Richings announces himself as a man named Homunculus and he straight away approaches a lonely woman named Maria (Susanne West) in the middle of a shopping center. They are strangers, but Homunculus seems to have chosen Maria for a contest, or an experience of sorts. One that will let her experience "authentic personal transcendence." There's no real reason for her to take this man at his word, but she's tired of her home life and is excited to hear that she has been chosen among thousands of millions. She happily accepts his offer, without knowing anything truly about it.

Maria then finds herself in an office building of some sort, along with four other "contestants:" Felicie (Cara Ricketts), Manny (Adam Brown), Andrew (Christian Serritiello) and Bofill (George Tchortov). They are a mix of lost toys, of sorts. One is caught up in a protein powder pyramid scheme, one is in the world of finance, one is a delusional actor and one (Felicie) simply wants the main prize: the orange SUV. Felicie may be the one that's not as bizarre as the rest, but she also has intense tunnel vision. No one will get in her way of winning this contest and that makes her the most unpredictable. Homunculus begins a series of tests that they must all compete in, all of them quite ridiculous. As they progress, some contestants form alliances, while others grow suspicious of the others. 

The title of the film comes from a real person: Henry Morton Stanley, a controversial Welsh/American explorer who's portrait hangs in the room, looming over them. But what is the true connection of the film to the explorer himself? Well... that's a mystery, at least to me. The film doesn't try to connect any dots, merely tends to throw out strange and unusual circumstances and experiments. Who Homunculus is or how the contest picked anyone in the first place remains a mystery that's never revealed, or even hinted at. It does seem that Stanleyville is making a comment on the easily fracturing of society and how monstrous humans can become over a prize, any prize, even if it's just a car. Each actor brings a unique strangeness to the film and it does start out quite funny and strange and intriguing. But by the time you figure out that almost nothing is going to have an answer, frustration begins to overtake any enjoyment and the third act peters out with a less than stunning finale. Stanleyville is an interesting experiment, indeed. But like many experiments before it, nothing quite comes of it.

GRADE: B-

WRITTEN BY Rob Benvie, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos DIRECTED BY Maxwell McCabe-Lokos STARRING Susanne Wuest, Cara Ricketts, Christian Serritiello, George Tchortov, Adam Brown, Julian Richings 

A BLOODY GOOD TIME // A FILM REVIEW OF "VICIOUS FUN"

BY MATEO MORENO

Often when I see films that have adjectives like "fun," "funny" or "amazing" in their title, I worry. If it doesn't live up to being exactly that, it's like giving a bad review from a critic an automatic weapon against it. If it has the word "bad" in it, same thing. However, I haven't seen a film live up to its title like VICIOUS FUN in quite a long time. The new film directed by Cody Calahan is bloody, fast paced, funny and above all very fun. Our eyes in is Joel (Evan Marsh), a horror film critic who revels in his takedown of hacks and seems to relish giving bad reviews. At home, he pines over his roommate Sarah (Alexa Rose Steele). She's dating who he deems is a loser, so one night he follows her new beau, a man named Bob (Ari Millen), to an out of the way bar. His goal is to out Bob as a cheat and someone who's not good enough for Sarah. Instead, he gets drunk and passes out in a broom closet. When he wakes up, things have significantly changed, and he now finds himself in what seems to be a very vicious and strange support group for killers. Forced to "blend in," he pretends that he's supposed to be there, but we all know that can't last forever, can it?

VICIOUS FUN throws itself firmly into the horror comedy genre with a gleeful abandon. It also joyfully pays homage to 1980's horror films, straight down to the synth soundtrack. Evan Marsh is a joyful idiot, a goofball everyday man with a great sense of comic timing. The killers in the group are a very fun mashup of classic serial killer stereotypes. There's the Jason-like lumbering killer of teenage girls (Rober Maillet), the smooth talking ladies man 80's bad guy (that would be Bob), a creep with no humanity left in him (Julian Richings) and several more to boot (including Amber Goldfarb, Sean Baek & David Koechner). There's tons of style in the look of the film, with neon lights a glow and an eye-popping set that just feels like a fun place to set a horror film in.

What's great is that even our hero Joel isn't above critique. It's pointed out to him that by following his roommates boyfriend to a bar in the middle of the night, he himself is being a creep, something that is often a plot device of films like this but rarely pointed out. The script by James Villeneuve is very funny and the entire ensemble cast shines, every one of them having a great moment or two (or three). The year is only halfway through, but it'll be tough to imagine a more fun horror film to come out this year. Settle in for some scares, some blood and guts and a whole lot of stylized and vicious fun.

GRADE: A

WRITTEN BY James Villeneuve DIRECTED BY Cody Calahan STARRING Evan Marsh, Amber Goldfarb, Ari Millen, Julian Richings, Robert Maillet, Sean Baek, David Koechner, Alexa Rose Steele, Kristopher Bowman, Mark Gibson, John Fray STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY ON SHUDDER JUNE 29TH. FOR MORE INFO: SHUDDER

LOST IN SPACE // A FILM REVIEW OF "STARDUST"

BY MATEO MORENO

The excitement and thrill of David Bowie's life can hardly be summed up in one review. Or one song, one album. Even the entire Bowie catalogue doesn't quite tell the full story of the Thin White Duke. You also need his concerts, his interviews, the images, the memories. Truly one of the most groundbreaking artists of all time, and certainly one who never let himself be put inside a simply understood box. Since his untimely death in 2016, fans around the world have yearned for a film to properly give him the send-off he truly deserves. For most fans, STARDUST won't be that film, especially since the Bowie estate had no involvement in it and there isn't a single original Bowie song within. So can the film fly on its own?

Playing the legend is Johnny Flynn, who finds a kind of Bowie-like rhythm but struggles to ever truly inhabit him. The film follows Bowie as he embarks on a "tour" of America to promote his album The Man Who Sold The World. His American publicist Ron Oberman (Marc Maron) seems to be the only American who truly believes in him (his popularity hasn't gained traction in the states yet) but he is given very little money to promote him. Plus, due to Visa problems, Bowie himself isn't allowed to sing any of his songs. He can only talk about them (quite a save there, since no songs actually COULD be performed in the film). It goes badly right away, as the increasingly shy & timid Bowie doesn't quite know who he is an artist so he doesn't know how to sell himself to the US crowd. He's also haunted by memories of his half-brother Terry (Derek Moran), who introduced Bowie to all sorts of music styles before being institutionalized and becoming the "dark secret of his family."

Yet, none of this seems like Bowie. A shy, timid portrayal of one of the most forward thinking musicians of all time. This Bowie wants to become famous and the art kind of falls into his lap later (here suggested by his manager in a throw away comment that I guess resonates with him enough that he draws upon it later). This "Biopic that's not a Biopic" gets a lot of the details wrong, and freely admits that in the opening moments, where it states that ost of the film is Fiction. So, why go through in making it? It is, after all, supposed to be telling the tale of how Bowie first became Ziggy Stardust, yet you can't actually show any of the proper journey, or hear any of it (It should be noted that The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars also wasn't the album he crafted after his actual NYC trip. That would be Hunky Dory, but again, most of the film is fiction, not fact). To suggest that Bowie's biggest influence was his fear of not becoming his brother and going insane seems far too simple of an explanation to the window of his genius. And it seems that way because it is. Johnny Flynn doesn't have much to work with here and sadly is nowhere near Bowie, nor does he really look or sound much like him at all. Marc Maron's version of Rob Oberman is entertaining (because it's Marc Maron doing it), but it's not at all who the real Oberman was. Jena Malone's character arc as Bowie's first wife is truly one dimensional, with a whole middle section missing from her development.

All of that being said, there are a few magical moments of true wonder in STARDUST but as a David Bowie story it is severely lacking, and frankly kind of boring. There are some strong performances laced throughout, but this is not the Bowie Biopic that we fans have been clamoring for. It mostly serves as a palet of quesitons for fans. Why is everyone in the cast purposely too old to play these roles? Why is Bowie a timid, boring figure? Why is there no magic or true weirdness? Bowie has meant so much for millions of fans out there (including this writer, who mourned his death as if he was my own family member), and sadly this misfire will only be a footnote in the sure to be long road to get a proper (and estate sanctioned) Bowie on screen. 

GRADE: D+

WRITTEN BY Christopher Bell, Gabriel Range DIRECTED BY Gabriel Range STARRING Johnny Flynn, Marc Maron, Jena Malone, Derek Moran, Anthony Flanagan, Julian Richings. Opens in Select Theatres and on VOD November 25th. For more info: https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/stardust