The Woodcutter Story – Film Review

Posted on October 19, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Mikko Myllylahti

Writer: Mikko Myllylahti

Starring: Jarkko Lahti, Iivo Tuuri, Hannu-Pekka Björkman

Rating: ★★½

The Woodcutter Story is a strange film, filled with bizarre and otherworldy events. It’s a black comedy drama filled with surrealism. Pepe (Jarkko Lahti) is a very optimistic man, so when his life starts to unravel it doesn’t seem to faze him at all. In fact he seems quite content with most things in his life, even after losing his job, his mother dying, finding out his wife is having an affair, and many many more things that just happen to him one after the other. No matter how bad things get, he just goes with it.

The film is quite relentless on Pepe, without much going his way. It’s a very odd and quiet film, with an ambient score. There’s a coldness to it all, as Pepe seems so detached to the events in his own life. Most other people in the village seem similar, they’re more lively than Pepe, but not by much. You don’t really feel anything for Pepe as his life completely falls apart. It all just feels passive, much like how Pepe reacts to it all.

His best friend, Tuomas (Hannu-Pekka Bjorkman), is the only person in the film who treats Pepe well, looking out for him where possible. He confronts the barber who Pepe’s wife is having the affair with, in a short moment of shocking violence that is pretty out of place for the rest of the film. Even when that happens Pepe’s wife is distant, even with the blood splattering onto her. She doesn’t really react.

As the story progresses it leans in more on the stranger elements, with some weird imagery and moments that are left for you to interpret. This is something you could sit there for hours thinking about, long after the credits have rolled. There’s a strange orb that comes out of TV, a fish that speaks to him, and a strange looking beast that seems to trigger the death of Pepe’s mother. Then the film is bookended by strange scenes in remote cabins that aren’t really explained.

One by one the people in Pepe’s life leave, either by death or just literally leaving town. His wife, mother, best friend, and even his son leave him completely isolated. He has no one left, and still keeps on carrying on. Which is really all he can do.

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Inland – Film Review

Posted on October 18, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Fridtjof Ryder

Writer: Fridtjof Ryder

Starring: Rory Alexander and Mark Rylance.

Rating: ★★

Inland is the feature length directorial debut from Fridtjof Ryder, a story about a young man (Rory Alexander) who is struggling after the disappearance of his mother. No one knows what’s happened to her, and he has a lot of anger that he doesn’t know where to direct. After being discharged from a psychiatric hospital he makes his way back home and stays with a local mechanic, Dunleavy (Mark Rylance).

For the most part this is a very cold and distant film, so you never really connect with any of the characters. The young man is clearly struggling with the loss of his mother, but that’s about as deep as his character gets. He’s not even named. Rory Alexander gives a good performance, but it’s not a memorable character. Likewise, Mark Rylance is excellent as Dunleavy, who takes the young man under his wing. The best parts of the film are when they share the screen together. There’s a warmth between them as they play backgammon towards the start, and that’s missing for most of the remaining run time. 

There is a strange and uncomfortable tone throughout, with some almost Lynchian imagery. The young man always seems to be unfocused and not present in the moment, apart from his first reunion with Dunleavy. There’s a lot of tension between in his life, which is reflected in the way the film is shot, with loud sound design. He feels his skin is tight, especially around his chest, and there’s moments where you can hear it when he’s moving, like leather being stretched. There’s great sound throughout the film, and it does create a strange and almost hallucinogenic atmosphere. 

The worst thing about Inland is that pretty much nothing happens. It’s incredibly slow, and even though the entire film is barely eighty minutes long it feels a lot longer, as each second drags into the next. It’s mind numbing to watch, and not interesting at all. It feels like the film is trying to be poignant, and the offbeat nature is trying to be something from a David Lynch film, but it’s just not. What starts off as an interesting drama, fizzles out into nothing.

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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – Film Review – London Film Festival

Posted on October 17, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Writers:  Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale, and Matthew Robbins

Starring: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett, Finn Wolfhard, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton

Rating: ★★★★

Guillermo del Toro first announced his adaptation of Pinocchio almost fifteen years ago, before it was delayed over and over until Netflix stepped in. The film, which is animated in stop-motion, has been a passion project for del Toro for years, and it’s finally here. A much darker adaptation to the classic story, with the nightmarish style you’d expect from del Toro.

In essence the story remains the same, with the puppet Pinocchio being brought to life. In this version he’s created by Geppetto, while he is mourning the loss of his son Carlo (sharing his name with Carlo Collodi, the author of the original story), who died in a bombing during the first world war. Geppetto spends years mourning his son, and in a drunken rage makes the puppet to bring him back. Life is then granted to the puppet by tree spirits.

The stop-motion animation is absolutely beautiful, with Pinocchio actually being shown as a puppet. It’s filled with magical imaginative designs, for the sets and characters. There is also a really great cast to bring these characters to life. Ewan McGregor is excellent as Sebastian J. Cricket, the narrator of the story. David Bradley is wonderful as Geppetto, and Gregory Mann is brilliant as the title character. That’s without mentioning the supporting cast, who are all equally fantastic.

While this is a children’s film, it’s a lot darker than the usual adaptations, with some violent deaths, and some scary scenes. The moment when Geppetto first meets Pinocchio is genuinely scary, as Pinocchio rolls around on the floor, almost like a spider. There’s also a focus on war, blending scary moments, with the reality of war and the more fantastical elements.

The original novel was written in 1883, and del Toro’s version updates it slightly, setting the story in during the fascist era of Italian history, with Musolini appearing at one point as a character. It really adds another layer to the darkness, with the looming war hanging in the background. It will probably go unnoticed by children watching it, but adults will see the horror of it all.

Coming hot on the heels of Disney’s live action adaptation, del Toro’s version completely blows it out of the water. In ten years-time there will only be one adaptation from 2022 that people will still be talking about. This is the better of the two versions by far, and the only one that should be watched.

Sinister, funny, and heartfelt, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a spellbinding film. It changes the well-loved story quite a bit, adding in some new and much more darker elements to the tale, but it retains the central themes and moments. It’s also surprisingly emotional, leaving quite a few teary eyes in the screening.

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Fast & Feel Love – Film Review – London Film Festival

Posted on October 16, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

Writer: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

Starring: Nat Kitcharit, Urassaya Sperbund, Anusara Korsamphan, Kanokwan Butrachart, Wipawee Patnasiri

Rating: ★★★★ 

Fast & Feel Love is written and directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, and follows the story of Kao (Nat Kitcharit). His entire life revolves around competitive cup stacking. At school he had no prospects, with poor grades since too much of his time was devoted to cup stacking. Now that he’s an adult everything is still about cup stacking.

Kao’s girlfriend, Jay (Urassaya Sperbund) is very supportive of Kao, making his life as simple and as easy as possible in order for him to succeed. She pays the bills, does all of the chores, and makes him meals, believing that just being part of his success is enough. Things start to go wrong in their relationship when Jay starts to realise that she wants a family, and Kao isn’t on the same page, as all of his time and energy is focused on an upcoming tournament.

The film mixes together sports, comedy, and drama together to create something that’s completely unique. It’s clear that writer/director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit has a lot of passion about the story, as everything shines in the film, especially the characters who are all great and you instantly really care about them.

At its heart this is a story about growing up and sacrifice. Kao has always been looked after by Jay, but once she leaves the house, he must learn to look after himself. Everything is a massive challenge for him, that he struggles to overcome. Throughout the film both Kao and Jay must sacrifice their relationship to follow their own dreams. It’s very emotional at points, as the characters seem so well written that you want them to be happy.  

Becsuse of this Kao turns to others in his life in order to achieve his dream. He realises that he can’t do everything alone, and turns to a bunch of odd characters to help. All of the side characters are funny and quirky in their own ways. There’s his new housekeeper Metal (Anusara Korsamphan), who seems to have stepped right out of Parasite as she gets Kao to hire people, she knows to carry out jobs for him. Por (Wipawee Patnasiri) is the manager at the stacking school that Kao teaches at, and is behind Kao every step of the way, although that may be due to her betting on him to win. There are other smaller characters as well, and they’re all brilliantly written with great performances.

Parasite isn’t the only reference in the film, with plenty of callbacks to classic films throughout. There’s a lot of referential humour in the film, but it’s not relied on too heavily. It’s subtle and if you don’t get the reference, it doesn’t matter. It also breaks the fourth wall a few times, in a way that never feels jarring. Kao makes reference to how the trailer for this film had more cup stacking in at one point, and he also turns to the camera to comment to the audience. It’s not overused but really drives home the fun style to everything.

A film about cup stacking shouldn’t be this good, but it’s pure brilliance. It’s funny and sweet, while also being dramatic and sentimental. There’s something here for everyone. 

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Halloween Ends – Film Review

Posted on October 15, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: David Gordon Green

Writers: Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton, Rohan Campbell, Kyle Richards

Rating: ★★★½

Back in 2018 David Gordon Green directed Halloween a sequel to the 1978 film of the same name, as well as the start of a new trilogy that disregards all of the previous sequels. It was a genuinely good film, that rejuvenated the franchise. Not only did it bring back Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), it also brought back the original’s director, John Carpenter for the score, as well as executive producer. Flashforward to 2021 and the delayed Halloween Kills was released, with its incredibly annoying characters, stupid non-moving plot, and characters repeating ‘evil dies tonight’. Kills, with its stupid title, is one of the lowest points of the entire franchise. It’s just a complete bore to sit through. Expectations are low for the equally stupidly named Halloween Ends, as we know there’s no way there won’t be a sequel coming sooner rather than later. Surprisingly, this time around though, Ends is one of the better entries to the long running franchise. It actually feels a lot closer to the style of the original sequels, like Curse of Michael Myers, which is always a good thing.

The film starts one year after Halloween Kills with a scene introducing Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), who is babysitting Jeremy (Jaxon Goldberg). It’s a great opening, and the best part of the entire film. Jeremy is troubled by the Michael Myers attack the year before, and Corey, wanting the night to be fun, allows him to watch The Thing (directed by original Halloween director John Carpenter). Jeremy then dies in a freak accident which comes as a complete shock. You sit there waiting for Michael to appear, only for him not to. In fact, Michael doesn’t appear until quite a way into this film.

After the opening, it skips three years into the future, and we see that Laurie has decided to start living and not allowing Michael to ruin it. It’s a strange twist in her character, considering that she spent forty years preparing for his return, and then after the death of her daughter, she just seems fine and pretty well adjusted. It’s a complete U-turn after how we’ve seen her in the previous two films. The real downside to this character change is that she’s writing a memoir about her experiences, with a voice over giving some of the most cliched and on the nose details about trauma and not letting it take hold of your life. It’s clunky, and a really unnecessary plot point. There’s almost no subtly in the film, with all of its themes being explained with heavy handed and unnatural dialogue. The cast do the best they can, but some of the lines are just awful.

Despite this, the film does do something that makes it more interesting and entertaining to watch. It doesn’t focus on Michael Myers, really at all until the third act. Instead, there’s a much greater focus on characters, which gets you more involved in everything that’s going on. More importantly it turns Corey into the villain. After the death of Jeremy, he’s seen as a monster in Haddonfield, and this leads him down a dark path. He has a great character arc, where he essentially is taken under Michael’s wing, learning how to make himself stronger with each kill.

Even if it’s not Michael doing the killing, there’s still a bloodbath. Corey more than makes up for the lack of Michael, with enough deaths to keep you entertained. They’re not scary, but there’s a good amount of gore and imagination when it comes to the violence. Without giving too much away the highlights involving a blow torch and another kill involving a tongue. Then we get to the ending, which is completely over the top to the point it’s funny. The climactic finale is the closest Ends gets to being a sequel to Kills.

Halloween Ends is flawed, but you can tell it’s going to end up being a cult classic entry into the franchise, much like Halloween III. While it’s getting mixed reviews, it deserves praise for doing something different, and while it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel, for the most part it’s entertaining. At the very least it’s a damn site better than Halloween Kills. Now we just need to wait for the inevitable new entry to the franchise, as we all know there’s no actual end for Halloween in sight.

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