"MASTER" // SXSW 2022

BY MATEO MORENO

Institutionalized racism is the subject on hand here, as MASTER presents itself as a different kind of horror film. Not only does it feature the bumps in the night, but it tells of the terror in the dark, especially as a Black student in a predominantly white school. The film focuses on several black students and faculty members. Regina Hall is Gail Bishop, the first African-American Master at New England University Ancaster. This isn't lost on anyone, especially the staff who seem to continue to pat itself on the back for being so "diverse" to choose a black woman as the university's master. There's also the Freshman named Jasmine (Zoe Renee), a hardworking and doesn't understand why her papers in Professor Liv Beckman's class (played by Amber Gray). She's also told about the curse of her room, room 302. Supposedly, the campus was built on the grounds of a witch burning in the 17th century and anyone who is unlucky enough to live in room 302 will be haunted by her curse. Why room 302 in particular? Seems that there's another dark secret that happened within that room involving a young black woman.

Gail herself starts to witness strange things in the shadows and slowly starts to see through the fake progressiveness of the institution that she works for. Her friend Liv is called out by Jasmine to the University, as Jasmine believes that she is being treated unjustly by the Professor. Secrets begin to unravel and the horror stories that seems to be sneaking around in the darkness begin to clash with the horrors of modern day racism and white privilege.

Is MASTER a horror film? A cautionary tale of institutionalized racism? It's both and much more. Writer/director Mariama Diallo has crafted a powerful film here, with a stunning performance by Regina Hall anchoring the entire film. But it should also be noted how good Zoe Renee and Amber Gray are as well. With brutal honestness and a no holds bar approach, this is a film that tears the genre apart and doesn't want to even put it back together. It leaves the scars of what we just witness lying on the ground, still broken, still shattered with a profound story left in our memories.

GRADE: A

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Mariama Diallo STARRING Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Talia Ryder, Talia Balsam, Amber Gray. SELECTED AS PART OF THE 2022 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL. FOR MORE INFO: MASTER

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE // A FILM REVIEW OF "THE CLIMB"

BY MATEO MORENO

There has been a lot of film with male characters in arrested development. Often white, usually privileged and they just can't seem to get it right, or treat anyone right. Somehow, by the end, they kind of get what they were searching for all alone. This kind of film can absolutely work, when you care about the characters and you actually see them have a journey that you feel for. That sadly isn't the case in THE CLIMB, a well-made but pretentious film about two white best friends who are kind of the worst.

Written by and starring Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin (Corvino also directed), the film follows two best friends, named Mike and Kyle, who in the first scene are bike riding though the French countryside. Mike is the more skilled cyclist, while Kyle is definitely struggling. So Mike takes this opportunity to tell his bestie that he's been sleeping with his fiancée Ava (Judith Godrèche), certain that Kyle won't be able to keep up after the anger sets in. Kyle ends up calling off the wedding and we find out that Mike married Ava and some years later, she passes away. Mike's family invite Kyle over for the holidays, arguing that he's family (Even though he ruined Kyle's wedding plans, which oddly no one seems to care about). They eventually rekindle their friendship as Mike is now happy and newly engaged to his high school girlfriend Marissa, who nobody likes (Gayle Rankin, literally the only female character who isn't one dimensional). But Mike hasn't changed and ultimately wants to also destroy this wedding of his so-called best friend. If you're sensing a pattern that Mike is a shitty person, you're not alone.

THE CLIMB really wants to be a deeper experience than it is. But in the end it's simply a well-made, well shot movie about a sociopath and his best friend, the pushover. Neither truly have any "good" character traits and every woman is only there to be a plot device to further their action. Only Marissa has a true personality and even she doesn't really have a character arc. The opening scene has a fun absurdity to it, as does several other moments in the film (many sequences are told in chapters). And it's clear that the writer/actor duo is talented. There's several chuckles and they are both solid performers. But overall, all we are left with is two really unlikable characters, one infuriatingly so, and the world that constantly forgives them, even though they don't deserve it. It's a self-absorbed annoyance empty shell of a film, one that's really not worth the climb at all.

GRADE: D

WRITTEN BY Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin DIRECTED BY Michael Angelo Covino STARRING Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino, Gayle Rankin, Talia Balsam, George Wendt, Daniella Covino, Eden Malyn, Judith Godrèche. Opens Fri, Nov 13th in select theatres. For ticket info: https://tickets.theclimbfilm.com/