Zeros and Ones – Film Review

Posted on March 4, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Abel Ferrara

Writer: Abel Ferrara

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Cristina Chiriac, Phil Neilson, Valerio Mastandrea, Dounia Sichov, Korlan Madi, Mahmut Sifa Erkaya, Anna Ferrara

Rating: ★★

Abel Ferrara’s latest film, Zeros and Ones, is a direct response to the pandemic that we’ve all been living through. It’s a strange, messy and dreamlike thriller. At times it hypnotic, but it’s also very alienating to watch. Ethan Hawke stars as both soldier J.J and his revolutionary brother Justin. J.J. is stationed in Rome to try and stop a terrorist attack, while his brother is being held captive in America. Justin may hold information that could stop the attack but isn’t co-operating.

On the surface it feels like Zeros and Ones is going to be a straightforward action/thriller. It’s not. Instead, you follow J.J around as he goes about Rome just kind of doing things. Some of it feels important, other parts don’t. It’s very loosely structured and kind of meanders through its runtime. It’s only around one hour and twenty minutes but seems to suck out a good portion of your day anyway.

The film is bookended with two clips showing Ethan Hawke, out of character, talking directly to us as the audience. In the opening he explains why he wanted to work with Ferrara, and how this is a response to the pandemic. Not that you really need that explaining, it starts with J.J. walking through an almost completely abandoned train station and then vacant streets only to be greeted by that all too familiar skype call when he gets home. There are cleaners sterilising everything, people wearing masks in every shot. It’s dark and dreary. You know what this film is about straight away, and Ferrara does a good job at creating the hopelessness that we’ve all been feeling. It’s scenes like this, where the film really is interesting and almost gets you hooked, but it’s never truly captivating. 

The film then ends with another clip of Hawke talking to us, as if he was watching the film alongside you and tries to explain what it’s all about, how two people can see the world completely differently and both be right. It’s not a good sign if the film needs to break the fourth wall to explain itself, especially when it’s so short. 

Hawke is great in both roles, as the more subdued J.J. and the erratic Justin. He’s intense in both roles. The score also has some great moments, especially with the industrial piece over J.J. walking through the empty streets at the starts. it’s just a shame the script isn’t great. There’s no sense of real tension, even when things go bad. It just kind of happens and you’re detached completely from what’s happening on screen.

Ferrara has created, with Zeros and Ones, an often incoherent and very strange story that’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before. It may kind of feel like it sums up the last couple of years, but at the same time it doesn’t really leave an impact and no clip of Ethan Hawke trying to explain the film is going to change that. 

Signature Entertainment presents Zeros and Ones on Digital Platforms 7th March & DVD 4th April

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The Weekend Away – Film Review

Posted on March 3, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Kim Farrant

Starring: Leighton Meester, Christina Wolfe, Luke Norris, Amar Bukvić, Ziad Bakri

Rating: ★★★

The Weekend Away is a Netflix’s thriller, directed by Kim Farrant based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Alderson. It feels like an airport novel, as it is easy to watch, keeps a quick pace and there are plenty of twists and turns, some you’ll see coming and some you won’t.

Kate (Christina Wolfe) invites her best friend Beth (Leighton Meester) for a weekend away in Croatia, after Kate’s divorce. After a night out Kate goes missing and Beth must uncover the truth of what’s happened as she becomes the police’s main suspect in Kate’s disappearance.

The first half an hour or so of the film feels like The Hangover if it was a thriller and not a comedy. Beth wakes up, barely remembering the night before, but knows her friend is missing. She retraces her steps to find clues to Kate’s whereabouts and slowly uncovers the truth. The film then shifts gears once it’s revealed that Kate was murdered, and evidence is starting to point towards Beth.

As secrets are uncovered everyone becomes a suspect at one point or another. From Kate’s ex-husband, a taxi driver, the apartment owner where Kate and Beth stay, to even the police officer dealing with the case. The film keeps a quick pace with new twists thrown at you in quick succession, especially as the film reaches the final act. Some of them, like the apartment owner, you’ll see it coming as he’s odd from the first moment he’s on screen, which is before Kate even goes missing, but there are other twists that aren’t as obvious and keep you engaged throughout the story.

Some of the acting is very questionable at points, where it almost becomes laughable. It’s not completely distracting, but very noticeable with unnatural dialogue. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from something like this. It does take away some of the tension that should be there because the characters don’t feel very real.

The Weekend Away is an entertaining thriller. It’s not excellent, but it’s enjoyable and passes the time if you can’t find anything else to watch on Netflix this weekend.

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Against the Ice – Film Review

Posted on March 2, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Peter Flinth

Writers: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Joe Derrick

Starring: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Joe Cole, Charles Dance, and Heida Reed

Rating: ★★½

Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who also co-wrote and produced the film, Against the Ice is an adaptation of memoir, Two Against the Ice, by Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen. In 1909 Mikkelsen had set out to disprove America’s claim that Greenland was split into two pieces of land, and by doing so proving that Greenland belonged entirely to Denmark.

Mikkelsen is forced to leave his ship behind to continue the journey, with only a single volunteer, Iver Iversen (Joe Cole). Together they travel across Greenland facing the elements and animals along their way to get the proof they need.

Against the Ice is a survival thriller, with a lot of tense moments as the pair complete their mission. The first third of this film is great, it keeps the pace up nicely, with an incredibly tense moment quite early on that the rest of the film fails to live up to. Strangely the further into the story, the less tense everything is. Once they find their proof and start to head back, with still quite a bit of the runtime to go, things start to deflate and no matter how many obstacles are thrown in their way, it doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat like it did on the outward journey.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is really great in the film, and is completely believable as Mikkelsen, even if he is way too old to be playing someone who was twenty-eight/twenty-nine at the time. Joe Cole is also great as the more naïve Iver Iversen, who volunteers without really understanding what he’s getting himself into. Iversen gets very attached to his sled dogs, despite being warned not to, he makes mistakes that Mikkelsen has to fix. They do play off each other nicely, and their relationship feels authentic and real, as they both learn from each other while surviving their expedition.

Torben Forsberg does a great job with the cinematography, capturing the danger of their expedition and giving you a real sense of the scale and how cold everything must be. There’s also a good use of muted colours to make everything seem bleaker and more desolate.

Sadly, everything is let down by the pacing. The film runs a little over ninety minutes, but feels a hell of a lot longer. By the half way mark it feels like we should be closing in on the end, but it’s still half the film away. There are twists and good moments in the later half, but it fails to keep you engaged and does feel very dragged out, despite what’s happening on screen with bear attacks, a mix of dream and reality as madness sets in, and an overall feeling of doom.

Against the Ice is a decent film that really would be better if it had been trimmed down a little. The characters are great and the moments of terror and tension work really well. None of that can overcome how tedious the film starts to feel in the second half. A story of survival for the audience, as well as Mikkelsen and Iversen.

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Sideshow – Film Review

Posted on March 1, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Adam Oldroyd

Writer: Adam Oldroyd

Starring: Les Dennis, Anthony Head, April Pearson, and Nathan Clarke

Rating: ★★★½

Written and directed by Adam Oldroyd, Sideshow is a black comedy about a psychic being a victim of a home invasion. Filled with plenty of laugh out loud moments and great characters.

Les Dennis stars as Pendrick, a has-been psychic who plays to nearly empty theatres and doesn’t win over the audience in the process. His manager, Gerald (Anthony Head), is frustrated with Pendrick’s act and how he treats the audience. After one show, Pendrick goes home and is the victim of a home invasion as he sleeps. Two thieves, Eva (April Pearson) and Dom (Nathan Clarke), break in thinking that Pendrick has been hiding money for years.

The story is told as a series of chapters, with titles cards showing sideshow attractions with definitions underneath them. It breaks up the slowly unravelling mystery as we slowly learn why Eva and Dom have broken into Pendrick’s house. There are quite a few twists and turns throughout the story, and while some of them are obvious almost straight away, there is a couple towards the end which you won’t see coming.

Sideshow is a very funny film. It’s silly, over the top at points, but has more than enough laughs to keep it entertaining as the story plays out. Most of the comedy comes from the inept thieves who don’t really know what they’re doing. Dom googles what breaking and entering is before they start the robbery. Les Dennis is also funny, as he tries to get himself out of the situation. The characters are well-written and feel nicely developed.  

While Anthony Head plays a major part in the film, he’s not in it that much. The film instead is mainly set during the home invasion with Les Dennis being held captive by April Pearson and Nathan Clarke, with Anthony Head appearing a couple of times throughout. The two thieves play off each other nicely and that’s where most of the comedy comes from. Nathan Clarke is hilarious as Dom and really shines in the role, delivering most of the best jokes of the film.

Sideshow is kind of what you expect, with a few twists along the way. It’s a good time, but not something that’s outstanding. It’s funny and entertaining.  

Sideshow will be in UK Cinemas from 11th March & available on Digital Download 21st March! Pre-order here

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Studio 666 – Film Review

Posted on February 28, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: B. K McDonnell

Writers: Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes

Starring: Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, Rami Jaffee, Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega, Jeff Garlin

Rating: ★★★★½

The Beatles had A Hard Day’s Night, Spice Girls had Spice World, and now Foo Fighters have Studio 666. Dave Grohl was inspired by other musicians who starred as themselves in films, came up with a full-on horror story. The film follows the band as they try to make their tenth album, in the house that Dream Widow died in during the early 1990s. Frustrated with writer’s block Dave stumbles across a sacrificed racoon in the basement and is possessed by demons who spark his imagination to set forth on writing an epic satanic song.

This is something for true Foo Fighters fans. It’s like one of their music videos stretched out to a little under two hours. It’s funny, full of cheese and hammy acting. The film is completely over the top. What’s surprising is the horror side of things. While it’s full of laugh out loud moments, it’s also filled with true jump scare, and some incredibly gory and inventive deaths that other horror films would be jealous of. To top it all off it also receives an excellent new track from John Carpenter, the master of horror, who also cameos in the film at one point.

Watching Dave Grohl, who is known as one of the nicest people in rock, turn into a demon possessed psycho is incredibly funny and the whole audience as laughing at points. When he’s in full diva mode, shouting about how he’s a rockstar and gets to park wherever he wants, it’s pure gold. It’s like the short clip they made before with Grohl going solo but stretched out and even funnier.

The song that they end up working on is a great metal song. Not knowing how to finish it, Grohl and co. end up making a seemingly never-ending song that reaches the forty-five minutes mark without an ending. It’s entertaining just to watch them playing their instruments, then you add on the controlling demon Grohl on top of that.

There is a lot of incredibly gruesome deaths, right from the moment go. It’s not exactly a scary film, but it has its moments. The effects are a lot better than you’d think they’d be, and they are viscerally gruesome. It’s essentially a slasher film starring the Foo Fighters.

If you’re a fan of the band and horror (like me), then this has been made specifically for you. It’s everything you want it to be and more. It never feels dragged out or boring. It’s destined to be a true cult classic to be re-watched over and over for years to come.

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