Indie Showcase: The Bachelor Party (2018)

When it comes to parodies, the basic principle for successful films in this genre doesn't change over time. Today, like always, the more over the top, the better. This is why The Bachelor Party promises a great ride for anyone who is into these types of comedies. Here is how the film describes itself:

Internationally mega-viral superstar Shawn "The Showstopper" Valentino is "The Most Famous Bachelor in the Galaxy." After his hero Hefner passes away, Shawn faces the most impossible mission of his life: a choice to settle down with 1 of his 5 girlfriends or to continue his playboy lifestyle of decadence and fantasy in this ridiculously over-the-top parody of spy films and romantic reality TV.

Two-Paragraph Review: A Private War (2018)

I'm not sure if it's really possible to perceive a film like A Private War without having some kind of position towards the conflicts it features. Sure, the film tries to be objective and somehow shift the focus from the wars to the journalists who were brave to traverse them, but it is hard to gauge how successful is it in the same design. This is especially true when it comes to Libya and the war that took place there (and still goes on), now with all that we know in 2019.

Across all of this, A Private War review should, in theory, avoid the choking geopolitical ramifications of the role Western media played in all of that and focus on Rosamund Pike and her great depiction of Marie Colvin. Yet, for me, the focus of the film is not the Colvin’s personal life but the editorial decisions back in London and the how and the why of those moments. In that setup, it is Tom Hollander as Sean Ryan of the Sunday Times who is actually the main character. Sadly, the film offers no answers to the same questions. Marie Colvin might have not been interested in which plane or artillery piece bombed a village, but I can’t help but wonder who sold and shipped those weapons there, as well as those on the other side.

Two-Paragraph Review: Roma (2018)

The thing about Roma is that it follows and depicts a particular kind of childhood, which took place in the turbulent years of the 1970s in Mexico. Yet, at the same time - and this is the thing that makes it so relatable - it is also about everyone’s childhood and their slight absentness from it. In the film, the children and the family that are experiencing the whole snapshot of this part of their lives is only one side of the story.

The second one, in some ways the major tale, is that of the maid working in the same home. Her life is separate from the family but at the same time, it is also fused with their stories as well as a kind of living but an ever-present prop. In spite of this, the family is mostly barely aware of her, as if she is the same complex and undefinable emotional development through which they became adults. She, like the same process, might be forgotten later on, but Roma shows that its actual influence is both unmistakable and irrevocable.

Two-Paragraph Review: Overlord (2018)

Overlord is a great movie and there should be no doubt about that - it’s one of my biggest positive surprises in this hybrid horror genre since Bone Tomahawk. Its director, Julius Avery, does a precise and very technical, but at the same time bold and unexpected slalom run through horror, war movie, and splatter adventure comedy genres. In the film, there are parts that are in equal measure worthy of Saving Private Ryan, Inglourious Basterds, and The Dirty Dozen.

At the same time, Avery managed to make a really good movie without the use of practically any big actress or actor. Regardless, through the use of plenty of German and French being mixed up with the English language, its cast pulls off an engaging movie. The plot tells the story of a small band of survivor paratroopers on a mission to blow up a Nazi installation on D-Day - there, however, they find things much more dangerous than a radio jamming facility.  In the hell ride that comes after this discovery, the actors and Avery do much more and present it as a great and very gory adventure. You don’t want to miss out on this gem of a film, especially if you find war films and those from the WW2 era at list slightly interesting.

Short Film Review: Hang Up! (2018)

Watching Hang Up! is like unintentionally allowing a sense of sheer darkness to envelop you. The story of the film is concealing simple - Gary, a middle-aged man accidentally drops into the phone conversation that his wife Emelia is having with another person.

He tries to get her attention but fails, but before he can hang up, his entire day, week, month, year and even life change forever.

The movie is focused on the barest and most minimal cinematographic elements. Most of the 13-minute run time is simply the narration of the man’s wife and the other person on the line, followed by the silent’s husband’s reaction and shots of his office. Yet, saying that this mixture becomes a combustible material in the mind of the viewer is an understatement.

Documentary Review: Minding the Gap (2018)

Copyright: Hulu

Growing up might be hard, but skating towards adulthood seems to be even harder in Minding the Gap. This documentary came about through 12 years of footage of the kids who lived and breathed skating in their hometown of Rockford, Illinois which was even then considered one of the prime Rust Belt locations.

Driven by dysfunctional families where violence was an apparent norm parent-children relationship, three friends try to find an emotional valve, a meaning of life and a chance for a better future in each other and their wheeled boards.

Bing Liu, the director of this fascinating documentary, managed to take the notion of a skate video and blew it up out of proportion in the best possible way. The movie opens like any film shot on a skateboard that follows people riding their own.