WAKE UP
(France/Canada, 2023)
I’ve got a fleshy soft spot for a good slasher flick, and with the stalk’n’slash sub-genre making a notable resurgence (like a steadily approaching Michael Myers), I’m on the lookout for one’s that tick some of those crucial boxes (both likeable and unlikeable victims, solid practical effects, quick pacing, highly suspenseful, to name a few). The latest from RKSS (Road Kill Super Stars), the team behind cult fave Turbo Kid, and is their second entry into the slasher arena, following 2018’s Summer of ’84. The three filmmakers, François Simard, and brother and sister Anouk and Yoann-Karl Whissell, have fashioned a highly-entertaining movie, pulling all of the tropes and slapping them around. This one will no doubt be gaining a lot of bloodied traction in the months to come.
A good-looking bunch of Z-Gen activists sneak into a home superstore (think: IKEA) and hide in waiting for the store to close so they can parade about in their animal masks spraying anti-deforestation slogans, dumping offal on show pieces, uploading the protest videos to social media, and indulging in a game of paintball for good measure. Meanwhile a couple of after-hours security guards are at a loose end; one of them quickly getting drunk, the other an embittered sociopath who has narrowly escaped being fired, and is now seething, passing the time making a crossbow. Why? Because he’s a frustrated survivalist itching to get his hands bloodied with the kill of a wilderness hunt.
It goes without saying that things are going to get ugly, especially when the security guards confront a couple of the young troublemakers. Soon it’s every guy and gal for themselves as the nutjob security guard goes into rampaging Full Hunter Mode, setting booby traps and screwing with the activists’ agenda. With a healthy dose of black humour, especially during the second half of the movie, some terrific kills, and an ending you won’t see coming, Wake Up definitely lives up to its namesake, keeping viewers on their toes as the hunter stalks his prey. How many trophies will he get? Will the surviving activists manage to stay alive until the store re-opens?
IN VITRO
(Australia, 2024)
It is some years in the near future, on a remote farm property of the Monaro Plains in the Australian countryside. A husband and wife, Jake (Ashley Zukerman) and Layla (Talia Zucker), are a very industrious couple, using Jake’s advanced cloning biotech, following ecological disaster that wiped out cattle production, in the hope they can save themselves from financial ruin. They have a farmhand, Brady (co-director Will Howarth), but apart from him, the team work alone. It is soon revealed that Jake has been duplicitous, undertaking nefarious experimentation, much to the horror of his wife.
The work of partners Howarth, Zucker, and co-director Tom McKeith, the three creatives have written a tightly-constructed morality tale that tackles the imminent mis-use of cloning, and the extraordinary ramifications it might have on humanity (as a kind of parallel concern to the meteoric rise – and misuse – of Artificial Intelligence). Superbly lensed by Shelley Farthing-Dawe, capturing an inherent isolation and loneliness that exudes from the rugged beauty of the landscape, and ominous skies. This is further enhanced by the stunning score by Helena Czajka and sound design by Matt Perrott, almost creatures in themselves.
This is a frighteningly astute projection of the dangerous potential of cloning, the ruinous nature of narcissism and megalomania. While it plays on the age-old “Man playing God” scenario, it does so from a fresh and thrilling perspective, and never once feels ludicrous, which with such high-brow science-factual-fiction, a plot like this can run the risk of becoming risible. I thought I saw certain things happening, and was pleasantly surprised when they didn’t, yet entirely satisfied by where the narrative ended up. The excellent performances from the two central roles cements this as a new Australian modern classic.
SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY
(US, 2024)
Sometimes I can be a real glutton for punishment. Case in point, this startling new documentary that celebrates the unusual relationship trajectory between two adrenalin junkies against the backdrop (drop being the operative word) of what is known as rooftopping, or skywalking, an extreme form of climbing made “popular” over the past fifteen years by Russian nationals scaling the highest man-made structures they can find, but more importantly, they can conquer.
Ivan Beerkus set out to be the top rooftopper in the world, finding the highest, most challenging buildings, towers, and cranes, trespassing and climbing without the aid of any harness. It’s an incredibly dangerous and highly illegal game of death. But the spectre of death, although immediately apparent to any sane viewer, does not deter, as Beerkus is utterly fearless. And, most definitely crazy. With Ivan’s Instagram account at the top of the Followers, it isn’t long before someone else is challenging him. Enter: Angela Nikolau, a trained gymnast. While Beerkus is all about the next challenge, Nikolau wants to bring a level of artistry to the picture. Their paths eventually cross and become intertwined, as they seek the second-highest skyscraper in the world as its construction nears competition. Their goal is to climb to the top of the spire before security technology is properly installed.
Filmmakers Jeff Zimbalist and Maria Bukhonina document the journey, and with access to the couple’s videos dating back to 2015, filling in the background of where these outrageous stunts originated, completing a portrait of the two charismatic extremists. While the doco never really digs deep into the psychology of why people such as Ivan and Angela do what they do (I see it as a deathwish myself), it’s a compelling, superbly shot, and utterly heart-stopping experience to watch. A missed opportunity not to release this in 3D, but hey, the 2D Go-Pro footage is terrifying enough, especially in IMAX where I saw it.
HUNTING DAZE
(Canada, 2024)
The literal translation of this French-Canadian production is Day of Hunting, so it’s curious that the international distributor has tweaked the title to suggest something more, shall we say, out of control. And, this weekend in the North American forest is one that definitely wanders from the path of least resistance. This is a dark meander into toxic masculinity and female survivalism. Yes, it’s well-worn territory, but the rules have been broken.
Nina (a terrific performance from Nahémi Ricci) is an exotic dancer and sex worker. She’s a gut-full of her boss/pimp and we enter the narrative somewhere in the midst of this breakdown in trust, on a lonely stretch of wilderness road. Merde will hit the fan. Nina is abandoned, but mercifully one of the bachelor’s from the party she just performed at reluctantly agrees to her joining him and the other reprobates in a cabin for further bucks’ shenanigans. Nina is wary, but it’s any port in a storm. At first, she doesn’t suffer the fools gladly, and almost gleefully accommodates their feral hazing. Later the plot thickens like mountain stew, and Nina’s situation becomes more tenuous.
This is a powerful, uncompromising, and very assured debut feature from director Annick Blanc, who wrestles the existential question, “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” and then buries it, along with many preconceptions. While the movie doesn’t reward in the usual ways, the tone and nightmarish elements are harnessed and wrestled with such striking confidence it’s impossible not to be impressed, especially the photography and camerawork. Beware the exit game, it bites.
KILL
(India/US, 2023)
There are movies and then there are Bollywood movies. This, however, is not a Bollywood movie, though it takes great influence from Hollywood, but takes more of its inspiration from South-East Asian hardcore action flicks, and it does so with a surplus of relish. Not a dance in sight, or a song to be heard, but close-quarters, hand-to-hand combat junkies will savour this one with glee.
Army Captain Amrit (Lakshya), a skilled commando, and buddy Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan), are set to enjoy a little post deployment r&r, but Amrit’s secret lover Tulika (Tanya Manitktala) informs him of her upcoming arranged engagement, much to their shared chagrin. Amrit, with Viresh in tow, boards a crowded train bound for New Delhi (with much of Talika’s family as passengers) so he can intervene and elope with Tulika. But bandits are also onboard, lead by the firecracker Fanli (Raghav Juyal), armed with knife and posse, ready to rob the entire train.
There will be carnage. Lots of it.
While Kill, as the title so aptly says, is chiefly a claustrophobic, violent action flick – and yes, it is gleefully ultraviolent – it is also a romance, and as such, there is an incongruous, but oh so Bollywood, tone of unbridled romantic sentiment that sits like a sickly Baklava on the smorgasbord of savoury bloodletting. If you can tolerate the mix of extreme brutality with the sweet love then this brew will be for you. It’s not my cup of tea, but I was able to keep the sentiment at bay whilst I relished the choreographed exhibition of mayhem. Kill is no John Woo, guns are almost entirely absent, nor is it at the high level of The Raid, with its elaborate martial arts and stunt work. It’s closer to Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes For Us, just not quite as brutal, or as impressively staged. This is not saying Kill is soft, by any stretch. Kill is not for the squeamish.