Silent Retreat – 2016 – A new cool flick!

When I was asked if I wanted to review this movie I was actually very indecisive about it. I haven’t written a review in a long time and I thought I might have a hard time with it. But then I watched the trailer and knew I had to write about it. I also realized that the movies director was Ace Jordan which directed a short I wrote about some years ago. I knew that this would be more than the average amateurish flick that so often seek reviewers. I don’t say there’s anything wrong with that. I really like low budget movies and I often find them very refreshing. But it’s not a contradiction that a low budget movie must be amateurish by default and this movie proves it!

It might come short to the best of the bunch when it comes to acting and directing but the story is solid written and I just lover the persona gallery. There’s some characters that are so out there and I just love them. Ace also manages to deliver characters that really annoys me. That’s is at least as important as characters you love and can relate to. It creates some tension in the group of people the movie is about. There are some elements of a true slasher here. The persona gallery certainly hints about it. We have the bitch, the comedian, the natural leader and the girl next door. But it’s more than a plain slasher. It’s also a movie about team building and mental illness. It is also a ghost story of sorts.

Actually it’s hard to pinpoint what the core genre of this movie is. There is an old asylum somewhere in the background of the story. And that is of course accompanied by a raving lunatic. We get to see flashbacks of, should we say, questionable treatment once used in mental institutions. Methods that could never be used today. Or perhaps there are still places where the physicians lobotomize their patient. I hope not but I wouldn’t really be surprised. I hope the brain split isn’t carried out through the tear channel though. There is such a scene early on. Pay attention, this is actually how they used to preform it. There was also a quite high death rate among the patents.

We get to follow a boy in the past tense story and we get to follow a group of teambuilding youngsters in the present day story. Somehow these are combined and there’s also a raving lunatic running around. It’s not the slasher the persona gallery implies. I already admitted to that. But there are violent deaths involved in the story and you can see some of it in the trailer that I attached to this post. I like the movie a lot but still it seems like it’s lacking some nerve. And at the end of the day this needs to be taken into consideration when rating the flick. Verdict below.

6/10

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A Dark Rome – 2014 – A Black Comedy from Italy

To be frank, my first impression of this was “what kind of amateurish crap is this?”. But then I started to watch it and I realized that what I initially thought was amateurish, was indeed part of the black humor. It has about as much presence of realism as a British drama, which is to say a lot. I believe in the characters in some weird sort of way. They are all exaggerated but still on the spot. It’s really nicely acted when you get it. Hopefully you will “get it” faster than I did. It took me three times before I really understood what I was looking at.

Don’t misunderstand me now. This is a good thing! I love it when I don’t understand the concept of a movie the first time. The experience of being “outsmarted” by the movie itself is just a measure of how well written it is. Some movies that you get right away might be very entertaining, but when they’re over, they’re just over. There’s nothing more to think about. Here it’s more like “what the heck did I just see?”. A very rare and pleasant feeling.

Part of what’s confusing me is that the story isn’t told in a conventional way. It’s more or less fragmented and skips in time back and forth. But on the other hand, this is way more common these days than it was a couple of decades ago. So this might be more conventional than I realize. Anyway, the story itself is about this guy who is hunted by the ghost of his murdered friend. I think this should symbolize the inner dialog; conscious of guilt and so on. They guy is involved to some extent in the death of his friend and is torn between doing the right thing, morally or what benefits him as a person the most. That’s my interpretation anyway.

By the end of the day, I find this a thoughtful piece of what’s morally right. It might not be very entertaining at first but it grows on you and if you dare to use your brain and think for yourself, you’ll see that this is by far more interesting than most of the mainsteam blockbusters out there.

I like it!

7/10

Trailer

The Perfect Husband – 2014 – Witty and disturbing!

What goes on in a deranged mind? I don’t know and I guess that no one without a deranged mind would either. Having that said I just declared myself sane, which might or might not be a lie… In either case, we get to follow a couple with a broken background when they try to find peace with each other and themselves during a country trip.

It’s obvious that neither of them feels very well. The reason is obvious if you keep your eyes open. And even if you don’t you’ll get the message later on. They have lost a child, a new born child. We get glimpses of a birth and a stillborn child. Nothing can be more horrifying in this world than to give birth to a non-breathing baby. This couple quickly gets my deepest sympathy.

It’s kind of a low paced story, almost too low paced at times but it does get really bloody and violent as it goes along. It’s really terrifying what a broken couple might do to each other in the moment of their worst anxiety. We aren’t spared any of it either. There’s a lot of violence that almost makes me want to turn my head away. That’s very unusual but there are a couple of things I feel very uncomfortable seeing. I can’t stand mutilation of hands and eyes for example.

It’s also pretty well acted which is a great asset when it comes to suspense. It’s a pretty exciting movie actually. It’s terrifying and suspenseful at the same time. It’s rather unusual I think, that a film as bloody as this one also manages to keep the audience in such suspense. As I watch it I’m curious on what s going to happen, and who is going to snap first. I mean really go over the edge. It’s obvious that it is going to happen, just not when. And I’m not disappointed at the final breakdown, I can tell you that. There might be one or two twists too many in the story but that’s not such a big deal. This is a great movie, no doubt about it!

8/10