Tag Archives: Sydney Underground Film Festival

SUFF 2019 – Movie review: Girl on the Third Floor

12 Thursday Sep 2019

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CM Punk is on the precipice of leaving the wrestling ring and embarking on a career in horror movies, including the much-talked about remake of Cronenberg’s Rabid by the Soska Sisters.

First up though is Girl On The Third Floor, which sees Punk as a married man about to embark on a home D.I.Y. project of an old Victorian house in time for his pregnant wife to move in, but not all is as it seems within the house, including its token living component. Surprisingly, Punk was incredibly convincing in the lead role (Don Koch) who appears to be the dedicated, hard-working husband but slowly reveals that he is a guy used to getting his way in business and the bedroom, and is easily led astray by his many vices.
Punk is used to putting his body through the extreme measures in both his martial arts and wrestling years, and at times his facial expressions channel those of Bruce Campbell’s Ash as he is pitted against otherworldly sights.

When Don meets the mysterious neighbour Sarah, he succumbs to temptation, and ends up with more than he bargained for when he treats her as a one night stand. Just like his renovations, Don soon finds the walls tumbling around him and his life falling apart, revealing some disturbing sights, hidden within the house. 

Director Travis Stevens weaves a world that oozes slime, puss, and blood that seeps into the crevices and delicately shifts between mystical suspense and body horror that ticks along at a decent pace. The shifts in tone and narrative position are equally strong, as the audience continuously shifts their perception of the characters, none-more-so than Don’s wife Liz, who comes across as a little vapid and overbearing until she is given her moment to shine and present a more rounded, complex character facing a tough dilemma that thrusts her front and centre and taking charge of the situation.

The Diagnosis:

Stevens serves up a promising debut feature that questions our discernment of the characters at play, and challenges our preconceived ideas by lifting the lid on what we wish to remain buried. In doing so, he exposes our inner thoughts and desires and rips them apart so that there is nowhere to hide. Can we face those demons and is there strength in us to change our ways or be forever damned? 

  • Saul Muerte

Catch the screening of Girl on The Third Floor at the Sydney Underground Film Festival at the Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

Screening times and tickets available below:

FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER – 8.30PM (Cinema 1)

SUFF 2019 – Movie Review: Dreamland

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

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Every so often a film will come along that can be truly classified as unique and Bruce McDonald’s (Pontypool) latest feature can proudly sit in this category. Like a glass of smooth whiskey, Dreamland scintillates the senses and warms the cockles as it seeps into the bloodstream. As expected from its name, McDonald provides a narrative that draws you in deep and hypnotises you into a state of transcendence. 

At its heart, Dreamland is a hitman with a heart movie, but what makes it stand apart is how the storyline transfuses Eastern European mythology with a Far-East culture and spiritualism. This injected with a cool jazz music that would make Martin Scorsese swoon, we are carried through a journey where the audience can drift along with relative ease knowing that we are in the safe hands of a more than accomplished director.

It’s not just about style though, as the substance is grounded by some heavy-hitting performances from Henry Rollins, Juliette Lewis, and Stephen McHattie in his dual role of the afore-mentioned hitman, Johnny and jazz trumpeter The Maestro. McHattie is magnificent in his portrayal of both parts and adds weight to McDonald’s composition. 

When hitman Johnny learns of children being smuggled and sold off to a collective group, he endeavours to free them of their torment and quit the business ahead of high-profile wedding. There is trouble ahead, but more than Johnny possibly bargained for as the wedding guests are from a vampiric bloodline, with the groom resembling Count Orlok, who has a blackened heart set on making one of the kidnapped young girls his blushing bride.

The Diagnosis:

Dreamland is a simply glorious film that entices you into a beautiful world with a rich soul.
It is a mystical journey that sends the audience beyond the physical realm and transports you through a dark and disturbing land whilst surrounding you with an invisible ray of light to shepherd you to a sublime conclusion.

  • Saul Muerte

Catch the screening of Dreamland at the Sydney Underground Film Festival at the Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

Screening times and tickets available below:

FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER – 10.30PM (Cinema 1)
SATURDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER – 6.00PM (Cinema 2)

SUFF 2019 – Movie review: Fingers

07 Saturday Sep 2019

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One of the reasons I love the Sydney Underground Film Festival so much, is that each year you can guarantee to view some of the most off-centre films from the industry. No matter how hard you try they refuse to ‘fit-in’ to the mainstream, perfectly content to live among the strange, surreal, or bizarre. This year, Fingers can proudly sit among this prestigious group of outcasts, described by SUFF as a ‘quirky and off-the-wall jam’.

We all have our phobias, and for Amanda, it’s fingers. So when she is confronted by a fellow worker who is missing one of his digits, she freaks out and spirals into a world that she is forced to endure and overcome her demons.

Fingers soon blurs the boundaries as we are presented with Dr. Scotty, a self-help psychologist, who aims to guide Amanda on her journey; Two masked hit-men; and a curious old dude played by Michael St. Michaels who some viewers may recognise from The Greasy Strangler. Each of these characters come with their own curiosities that slowly seep to the surface and sheds light on all our of our oddities that we try to keep buried beneath the surface. In doing so, the characters must own up to their “weaknesses’ and embrace them. For without them, humanity will never grow and become trapped in their own personal hell.

The Diagnosis:

Whilst Fingers may not suit everyone’s tastes, those that relish the strange and quirky souls of human life, will find great satisfaction from this little gem. If you can push beyond the first 20mins, you will find yourself absorbed into the narrative and willing to plunge into the dark and twisted mind of director, Juan Ortiz (Jennifer Help Us). Particularly striking was Jeremy Gardner as the unhinged hit-man, Talky, who tord the fine-line of madness, mayhem, and vulnerability with effortless ease.

  • Saul Muerte

Catch the screening of Fingers at the Sydney Underground Film Festival at the Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

Screening times and tickets available below:

FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER – 10.30PM (Cinema 4)

SUFF 2019 – Movie Review: Tone-Deaf

06 Friday Sep 2019

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It’s been 5 years since director Richard Bates Jr released Suburban Gothic, and his latest feature, Tone-Deaf harnesses a similar blend of wit and horror from its lead actors that has become closely associated with this auteur. Those that enjoyed Bates Jr’s approach to the celluloid form will appreciate the inclusion of this movie in this years’ Sydney Underground Film Festival. 

Tone-Deaf offers a topical insight into the gulf that divides the Baby Boomer generation and the Millennials. Robert Patrick is magnificent as disgruntled home-owner, Harvey with an axe to grind with the current generations’ attitude or neglect towards all that his generation has built or established.

On the other side of the divide is Olive, who is going through her own crisis after losing her job and splitting from her dead-beat boyfriend. At first Amanda Crew’s portrayal of the struggling Millennial comes across as sipid, and I found it hard to engage with her, but once she holes up at Harvey’s Airbnb, she soon starts to shed some of her harsh exterior and we soon warm to her. Which is a good thing too, because once Harvey goes nuts, we need to champion for someone in the narrative.

Speaking of Harvey, when we’re first introduced to him, I found it a little jarring too as we’re greeted to the first of many soliloquies as he addresses the audience, but at least it doesn’t go to Clint Eastwood Gran Turino grumbles. In fact, Patrick’s performance is more on the lighter-side of darkness as he delves into the melancholy, which allows us to warm to Harvey despite his obvious affliction.

The Diagnosis:

As the movie plays out, we’re treated to a see-saw of oppositions that continually ebbs and flows without the slightest hint about who will come out on top. The humour peppers along and provides reprieve from what could be construed as a bleak outlook but Bates Jr clearly has fun ridiculing the obvious disconnect between the generation gap.
Whilst the horror is slight, this home invasion thriller manages to entertain and delight through the ensuing conflict. 

  • Saul Muerte

Catch the screening of Tone-Deaf at the Sydney Underground Film Festival at the Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

Screening times and tickets available below:

FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER – 6.30PM (Cinema 3)
SATURDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER – 8.00PM (Cinema 2)

Movie review: Kuso

01 Friday Sep 2017

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“What the fuck did I just watch?”

It’s hard not to view the directorial debut from Flying Lotus without uttering these words into the mix.

Kuso is a film best described as an experimental, avant-garde piece that suits the twisted mind of it’s artist.

His music that blends hip-hop and electronic into a stylistic and fresh approach to the scene that has had people both gripped in either love or despair, so it should come as no surprise that Flying Lotus carries this across onto the visual canopy of film.

When the film premiered in Cannes, there were reports of people walking out of the movie in disgust. The numbers of which may have been grossly overestimated, but when viewing Kuso, you can understand the temptation to turn away.

Whilst I too felt the compulsion to revolt in the comfort of my chair when watching the film, I felt compelled to see it through and challenge myself not to resort to the knee-jerk reaction to what was being laid bare.

Flying Lotus flings everything at the viewer not only to confront our visual senses but also to shed light on the grotesque and ugly of society.

The film is essentially broken into 4 vignettes that are interspersed throughout the post-apocalyptic narrative following the mutated survivors of an earthquake in Los Angeles.

Labelled as a body horror that would have the likes of Cronenberg and Lynch proud.

We’re thrust into a world with a talking, singing boil; inter-dimensional creatures getting stoned in an apartment, and a large bug that lives inside a doctor’s anus set to cure a man from his fear of breasts; a kid who is prone to self-defecating and feeding his faeces to a creature in the forest; and a woman who eats concrete and steered by God to travel down a hole in search of her missing baby.

The end result is a mishap of the strange, vulgar, and wonderful.

It’s not for the faint of heart and could steer the hardened viewer away from the screen.

While it may suit the fans of experimental and challenging films, I challenge the average viewer to step outside their comfort zones and witness a spectacle like no other.

But be warned, some of the images may scar you. It’s been awhile since a movie from this genre has warped the senses and disturbed the soul.

 

  • Paul Farrell

 

Catch the Closing Night Event screening of Kuso at the Sydney Underground Film Festival.

Screening times and tickets available below:

SUNDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER – 08:30 PM
SUNDAY TICKET

Kuso Poster

Movie Review: Prevenge

28 Monday Aug 2017

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Driven by the voice of her unborn child, seven month pregnant Ruth embarks on a homicidal killing spree to avenge the recent death of her husband.

This slasher black comedy is the brilliant directorial debut of its star Alice Lowe. Seen in various low budget Brit flicks particularly the absolutely outstanding Ben Wheatley classic “Sightseers”, she cements her role as that crazy woman you wouldn’t sit anywhere near on a bus.

“Prevenge” is a low budget low key thriller that appears influenced by the days when Hammer Horror ditched the monster creature features and produced a couple of contemporary horrors, see “Straight On till Morning” if you haven’t already. It’s the real life monsters that are in fact the scariest, and in this case; pregnant widows.

Partly reliant on what appears as a largely improvised or bare bones dialogue script it’s the editing, cinematography and the understated music that’s the real driving force here. Music from ex-Unkle members now Toydrum, the synth atmospheric score creates an unsettling edge complimented by Lowes insanely real performance.

Naturalistically shot, clearly using available light, the cinematography places the audience deep into this gritty grainy story whether they want to or not.

The supporting cast are excellent too, with the female supports getting the biggest slice of the corpse. Jo Hartley (This is England, The Mimic), Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones, The Moorside), & Kate Dickie (The Witch, Prometheus), the standouts.

If I did have one quibble, it would be that the demises were mostly one note. A bit of gore-induced variety wouldn’t have gone astray.

I absolutely applaud Lowes tenacity in making this film whilst being 7-8 months pregnant herself. Her drive, or axe to grind, very apparent in getting this beautifully crafted horror comedy out of her system.

There’s a message here deep at the films core…don’t piss off Alice Lowe…EVER!!

  • Myles Davies

 

Catch the Sydney Premiere of Prevenge at the Sydney Underground Film Festival.

Screening times and tickets available below:

FRIDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER – 08:30 PM
FRIDAY TICKET

SATURDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER – 08:00 PM
SATURDAY TICKET

Prevenge Poster.jpg