Dead By Dawn 2016: Antibirth (2016)

I started off laughing at Antibirth. It wasn't exactly a hard film to find amusing. But then it keeps on going and I just found myself laughing less. And less. And less. Until I eventually stopped. But still the movie kept going, throwing quirky black comedy beat after quirky black comedy beat at me. The last ten minutes or so put a smile back on my face, but that still wasn't enough to make up for the preceding 80+ minutes (that felt much longer to me).

Natasha Lyonne plays Lou, a young woman who spends her time getting drunk, stoned, or drunk and stoned. Chloe Sevigny is her best friend, and seems to enjoy spending a lot of her time the same way. And another couple of plot strands feature Mark Webber as a supplier of drugs and girls while Meg Tilly pops up to portray a character I can't even be bothered explaining. I'm sorry. I really can't. She's not exactly Miss Exposition, I guess, but she's certainly not far from it. Anyway, let's get back to Lou. Things get very interesting for her when she finds out that she's pregnant. Unfortunately, she cannot recall how this happened. In fact, she's pretty sure that it shouldn't actually BE happening to her. Has she blanked out during a sex session that led to her impregnation? Or is the explanation a stranger one?

Writer-director Danny Perez sure knows how to enjoy himself. Thankfully, there are times when that enjoyment seeps off the screen. It just doesn't happen as often as it should, or as often as it needs to. And he wears away your goodwill by piling on the quick cuts and clumsy editing as things become more frenetic and strange en route to the finale. Lyonne help to make things bearable, she's always fairly enjoyable and this is just the right type of role that lets her shine, as does Sevigny, Webber, and even Tilly (despite her thankless role I was just happy to see her again - not sure what else she's been doing lately but it's not been on my radar anyway).

If you like your horror to be less horrifying and more steeped in surrealism then this might just be a little cracker for you. And the practical effects used in the final, wild scenes almost make up for everything that has come along beforehand. Unfirtunately, this just didn't strike a chord with me at all. Which left me sitting there in growing discomfort and gloom while others laughed at the collection of disconnected moments of weirdness.

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3/10

Dead By Dawn 2016: Green Room (2015)

AKA that film that features Patrick Stewart as the leader of a bunch of neo-Nazis. AKA "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who previously gave us the excellent Blue Ruin (and before that gave us Murder Party - which I have yet to watch), Green Room could accurately be described as a snarling beast of a film. It feels raw and visceral throughout, and not just because the main protagonists are members of a punk rock band who prefer their vocals to be primal and full of anger.

The band is made up of Alia Shawkat, Anton Yelchin, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner. They're not having a very good time, having to siphon petrol to keep their van on the road and being interviewed by someone who no longer has a show on air . . . . . . . . and can't get them the decent gig that they thought they were travelling to. To make amends, they are offered a gig elsewhere. It's the middle of nowhere. Most of the audience seem to be of a certain political leaning, to put it nicely, but the band figure that they can insult them, play a few songs, and make out with a few hundred dollars for their troubles. Which isn't bad at all. And then someone pops into a room backstage and witnesses some people around a fresh corpse. Which is when things start to go from bad to worse to the stuff of nightmares.

Green Room is a lean, nasty, grimy thriller that feels very much like something from an earlier decade. Thankfully, it manages to feel that way without making too many obvious nods and winks to viewers. The most obvious jumping off point would be the classic Assault On Precinct 13, and one or two other John Carpenter movies, but these characters, and this level of violence and brutality, could have stepped out from any number of xploitation movies from the '70s and '80s.

But I don't want to spoil your expectations with hyperbole here. Don't go into the movie expecting a) wall to wall violence and b) nastiness unlike anything you've ever witnessed before. No. What Saulnier does so well is litter his movie with moments to make you wince and scenes that often take a left turn when you thought they were moving right (no pun intended).

All of the aforementioned cast members do a very good job, even when jumping around and trying to look like punk rockers, and Patrick Stewart certainly makes a great impression with his relatively limited amount of screentime, but there are also fantastic turns from Mark Webber and Macon Blair, to name but two of a handful of people I could have singled out. Imogen Poots is a bit out of place here, but I like her anyway and she's not exactly stinking up the entire film. She just doesn't really seem to fit into this world.

If you're hoping for another Blue Ruin then this isn't for you. But if you're hoping for a film that uses fight dogs, box cutters, guns, fire extinguishers, and plenty of fake blood then get to this as soon as possible. Personally, I think this is the better film. But that just says a lot more about my mental state than the difference in quality between the two. 

9/10

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Happy Christmas (2014)

Writer-director Joe Swanberg is quite a prolific guy. The last film that I saw from him was Drinking Buddies, which I found to be okay. With an interesting, and diverse, filmography, Swanberg is probably most associated with films that are labelled as "mumblecore" - films with very naturalistic styles and sometimes non-professional actors mixed in. You won't find any major set-pieces in mumblecore movies. The focus is, instead, on the everyday struggles that people go through, the decisions they make and the repercussions of those decisions. Or, as I like to think of them, some Swanberg movies are like feature-length equivalents of Seinfeld episodes. Without the humour. I know that sounds horrible, but it's not really. I'm just emphasising that movies don't have to be about anything in particular.

Swanberg also stars here as Jeff, a young man happily settled down with Kelly (Melanie Lynskey). The two have a baby and they're also about to welcome a new arrival . . . . . . . . in the shape of Jeff's younger sister, Jenny (Anna Kendrick). Jenny has recently split up from her boyfriend and is relocating, which means that she needs a temporary place to live. But it's not long until she shows that she's not always the most considerate person, which causes a few problems as the household tries to adjust to the new situation.

I can't criticise the acting here. Swanberg is solid enough, Kendrick and Lynskey are both as fantastic as they always are, and there are decent supporting turns from Lena Dunham, as Jenny's friend, and Mark Webber, as a man who Jenny may want to get to know a bit better.

It's just everything else that's the problem. None of the characters are that interesting, nothing about the situation creates the tension that Swanberg must think it creates, and a number of moments just feel unnecessary, which is surprising in a movie that only runs for about 80 minutes. It's not that there aren't moments of, say, confrontation. It's just that they don't seem symptomatic of anything major under the surface. Jeff and Kelly are a loving couple who are trying to balance their lives. Kendrick is a bit young and irresponsible. Oh no, good god, how will this group even get through a week together? People drink, sometimes to excess, and people smoke pot. Those things may have been more frowned upon decades ago, but they will barely cause people to so much as blink nowadays.

I've probably given the impression that I really disliked this movie. That's not true. I just didn't like it all that much. It's so just . . . . . . . . . . . . there . . . . . . . . that I can't bring myself to have any strong feelings about it whatsoever. You'd have a better chance of rallying around a group of people to help protest against the colour beige.

Swanberg has talent. There are often, at the very least, individual moments in his scripts that make that much clear. And he knows how to get great, naturalistic performances from his cast. Hell, he's a decent actor in his own right, and good on him for wearing so many hats at the same time without everything turning to complete crap. I just prefer it when he also seems to have something to say, and that wasn't the case here.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Christmas-Anna-Kendrick/dp/B00MEQUO8G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417694014&sr=8-2&keywords=happy+christmas