Reviews

While watching "Strange Nature", a horror/thriller with a description that mentions mutated frogs, I was pleasantly surprised to notice that this movie was more than just cheap visual thrills you'd find in a B grade horror film. There was an actual message here, and a pretty good one, that involved a few plot twists and some solid acting performances.

The story revolves around Kim Sweet (Lisa Sheridan) and her son Brody (Jonah Beres) as they return home to a small town in Minnesota to live/care for Kim's father Chuck (Bruce Bohne) who has cancer. Kim experienced fleeting fame as a pop start back in the day and that part of her past, along with her less than stellar relationship with her father, makes coming home a bitter pill to swallow.

However, it doesn't take long for Kim to stumble upon some bizarre things going on with the local wildlife and as she investigates, she finds it's more serious and widespread than anyone realizes. She has difficulty getting the local townspeople to believe her, her past pop reputation makes people believe she is just looking for attention, and even Mayor Paulson (played by the always wonderful Stephen Tobolowsky) pushes her concerns aside. So she begins digging deeper and really, this is where the movie gets interesting.

The story takes the over used plot device of little guy versus the big, bad corporation and twists it a few times, leaving the viewers scratching their collective heads in terms of what exactly is going on. Writer and director James Ojala does a good job in mixing up the story and keeping it moving at a good pace, especially in the first half where there is a lot more talking than there is bloodshed.

There is a nice build up in the gore as well, first introducing the mutations, then the killings until we have the big showdown at the end. There are some nasty visual bits, not just with animals but newborn babies as well, so people with weak stomachs in that regards have now been officially warned. They manage to pull off the effects pretty well, with quick camera shots and even quicker acts of violence, to cover up anything that might look too fake.

The actors are solid, especially Lisa Sheridan as Kim, who does the haunted kid returning to small-town America routine very well. She sells her character with ease, making her investigation into what's going on seem more plausible. Also, Stephen Tobolowsky is great as the mayor, giving him many different shades for the audience to ponder as we try and figure out if he's going to be helpful or if he's been in on what's going on the whole time.

There are a few times during the movie where things don't work so well. The first forty minutes or so is heavy on story, which is asking a lot for an audience who is most likely made up of fans from the mutant frog side of the genre pool. Also, some interactions between certain characters don't work and the bad boys in town part of the story could probably have been cut back or cut out completely.

That being said, there was a lot to like in "Strange Nature", which surprised me on more than one occasion with the twists in the story. Mutations and morals have never looked better together, leaving me satisfied and eager to encourage others to check out this solid film.

Horror comes in all shapes and sizes but some of the most p otent imagery to bring the genre alive is when what you're watching could actually happen. In Issa Lopez's Tigers Are Not Afraid, we are exposed to just that, and in this case, the horrors of children living on the street in Mexico, desperately trying to stay alive while avoiding being snatched by the local drug cartel and sold off like animals. Of course, there is a dose of supernatural here as well but I'll get to that shortly.

We meet Estrella (Paola Lara) whose mother goes missing and she is left to fend for herself. This is a frightening enough predicament for any child but in this setting, it's life or death. With no friends or family, she meets Shine (Juan Ramon Lopez), a local street boy who is basically in charge of/leads a gang of orphaned kids. Hiding in the shadows, rooftops, and back alleys to avoid being taken away never to return, Shine, Estrella and the rest of these kids exist day to day looking for food and trying to survive. It is only after Shine steals a cell phone from a cartel thug and at the same time Estrella starts seeing things do we begin to see where Lopez is intent on taking the story.

While Estrella begins to see the ghost of her mother, along with all the ghosts created from this cartel war, the real horror lies in the lives these children lead. Estrella and Shine are mature and wise beyond their years, forced to be mature and deal with the horrific circumstances that life has dealt them. However, they are still kids, as are those they are 'leading', and there are many times during the movie where this pendulum of maturity and immaturity swings back and forth, creating moments that will break your heart and make you mad as hell.

Paola Lara and Juan Ramon Lopez and incredible, grabbing every second of screen time and making it their own. Sometimes it is easy to forget they are just kids, their unflinching demeanor is almost scary, but when the masks fall off and their true ages are revealed it is sometimes very hard to watch. Issa Lopez guides these two through the framework of fantasy and reality with a steady and unwavering hand, sticking to her ideas and thank goodness, for the movie is wonderful because of her presence.



The fantasy or supernatural part of the story is good, weaving stories of tigers and visuals of dragons into the plight of the orphans with ease. The dead even have a place, not hear just for visual shock value and the ending is wonderful and horrible as we watch it unfold. Kids often look to outside help when things get tough and that is no different for this group, except they look for otherworldly to guide them in a world where there is no one they can trust but each other.

It was wondrous to watch Issa Lopez weave this story between the supernatural and real horror while child actors performed liked veterans and carried Tigers Are Not Afraid to dizzying heights. It was a magnificent, wonderful and devastating film to watch, full of sorrow and triumph in a sea of make-believe and real horrors that some children face every day.

TORONTO AFTER DARK 2018

Grim and grimy, Prospect is one of those films that really wants to be a sci-fi western and for the most part, it succeeds, thanks to some great direction by Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell, solid performances and wonderfully bleak atmosphere that surrounds this entire film.

We meet teenager Cee (Sophie Thatcher) and her dad Damon (Jay Duplass), piloting their space freighter on a mission to find some very valuable alien gems that will, in turn, make them very wealthy. Of course, they're best-laid plans go out the window and soon they find themselves in the company of a rival named Ezra (Pedro Pascal) and all bets are off. A complicated relationship begins between Cee and Ezra, he becoming a weird anti-father figure to her, and this is where the movie begins to really get interesting.

Earl and Caldwell, co-directors and co-writers of the film, do a great job setting the stage with some wonderful tension, haunting landscape, and great visuals. Earl, who is also the cinematographer, paints a great picture using a great combination of CGI and practical effects. The planet that Cee, Damon, Ezra, and scattered others are on looks great and deadly at the same time. Death is always hanging there, whether in the form of humans or things all around them native to the planet itself.

Sophie Thatcher as Cee is a joy, slowly ramping up her performance as the movie moves along and has a very weird, complicated and necessary relationship with Pascal's Ezra. For the most part this collaboration works, driving the movie forward although at times there are moments where their scenes are too telegraphed, the characters and their 'relationship' too familiar. However, that doesn't take away from the performances, especially Thatcher who is very strong in her role as Cee.

While it is this relationship that drives the film, Earl and Caldwell are smart enough to know they will need more than just this, and interweave dark and beautiful landscapes during this western sci-fi trek. The interiors at the beginning, those inside the spacecraft, also come across as very real and somewhat claustrophobic. It is a nice contrast to the vastness and open country of the planet the bulk of the film is on, although being in those suits still gives the audience that claustrophobic feeling, which is a very nice touch.

Although there are moments in the film where some of the dialogue suffers and the scenes or scenery scream 'been there, done that', the movie reaches for the stars, no pun intended, and is successful in creating a great story and atmosphere for the audience to enjoy. Science fiction comes in many shapes and sizes but when it is dirty, haunting and human-like Prospect, it is a much more interesting story to watch unfold.

TORONTO AFTER DARK 2018

While the title may make this sound like a simple heist film, Robbery is much more than that, moving back and forth from a crime film to family drama with some nice twists in between.

We meet Richie (Jeremy Ferdman), a part-time thief who finds himself in debt with a very ruthless casino owner (a scene-chewing Jennifer Dale). Needing cash, and help as a thief because he really isn't very good at it, Richie enlists his dad Frank (Art Hindle) to help him out. However, the fact that Frank has dementia almost negates his knowledge of being a thief, he was one back in another lifetime, but it allows for a great storyline to unfold in interesting directions.

Richie meets a woman named Winona while trying to get help for his gambling addiction, which turns out to be loads of fun and not nearly the clichéd native woman with a gambling issue inserted into the story that it seems. The story takes a lot of different turns, but the gambling, Frank's illness, never seem to be a gimmick but instead important parts of the story that needs to be discussed.

Written and directed by Corey Stanton, his debut film, the film moves at a solid pace, building story and tension well, giving us some wonderful moments to digest while trying to keep things in perspective in terms of just who the good and bad guys are. The idea of Frank's seemingly five minutes of clarity from his dementia to help with the thefts is done flawlessly and doesn't come across as a cheap parlor trick.

The performances by everyone are solid, especially Hindle and Ferdman, who are really quite the combo as father and son. Ferdman plays off of Hindle perfectly while Hindle is very believable as a man who is both sympathetic in his medical plight as he is questionable in his morals concerning crime and his son. Sera-Lys McArthur adds some extra spice more than a simple love interest and Jennifer Dale is spot on as the evil and unflinching casino owner that haunts Richie and his future.

There is some great dark humor and wonderful tension sprinkled throughout this film and only in certain moments does it lag a bit, a few uneven plot points that the story could have done without. However, these moments are few and far between as Stanton's script is written in a way that doesn't allow too much time to be taken on any one moment, moving the story ahead while throwing some interesting wrinkles in to keep the viewer off guard.

A wonderful tale of family, addiction, crime and deceit, Robbery was a great film that will keep viewers interested right to the very end