(film review) - Backrooms

I remember watching Cloverfield for the first time and, by the end of it, asking myself, "What the hell was that?" Not because it was bad. Quite the opposite. I was fascinated by it, but I also had that lingering feeling of, "What exactly did I just watch?" By the time the credits rolled on Backrooms, I found myself having a very similar reaction.
Now, one of the things that intrigued me going into this film was learning that the director is only twenty years old and originally made a name for himself as a visual effects artist. Pair that with A24, a studio that seems incapable of avoiding interesting projects, and I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.
I can safely say I discovered what the fuss was about. Whether I completely understood it is another matter entirely.
I'll be honest: a lot of this film went straight over my head. After watching a few reviews and ending explainers, I realised I'd picked up on some of the themes and ideas being presented, but the deeper CreepyPasta lore and mythology surrounding the Backrooms? Yeah, I was completely lost there.


Backrooms stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, an architect who now finds himself working in a furniture store. While investigating a lighting issue, he discovers a hidden doorway that leads to a seemingly endless maze of interconnected rooms. After discussing his discovery with his therapist, Mary, she decides to investigate the mysterious space herself, and from there things become increasingly strange, unsettling and difficult to explain.

One thing that immediately stood out to me was how little this film must have cost to make. This genuinely feels like it was made for the price of a bag of fish and chips, a portion of mushy peas and maybe a cup of gravy if the budget stretched that far.

The film mostly revolves around two central characters, with only a handful of supporting roles, and the majority of the story takes place within a single environment. Normally, when films work with those kinds of limitations, they need one of three things: a brilliant script, brilliant performances or brilliant ideas. Backrooms definitely have at least two of those.

The story itself is where things become a little complicated for me. On paper, there is absolutely a narrative. We meet Clark, we learn about his problems, we follow his journey, and eventually we reach a resolution. But this isn't a film interested in traditional storytelling.

It isn't concerned with explaining itself. It isn't interested in answering every question. And that reminded me of Cloverfield; I did not mind that.

Mary's storyline in particular felt underdeveloped to me, or at least they could have added a little more to really flesh out her character. I found myself wanting more from her character and more exploration of what she was going through. However, I also recognise that the film is deliberately designed to leave gaps and allow the audience to fill them in themselves.

The film seems far more interested in exploring ideas surrounding accountability, guilt, trauma and possibly forgiveness than it is in explaining what the Backrooms actually are. And honestly, the film never even attempts to provide those answers.

As a horror film, though, it absolutely succeeds. The cinematography is fantastic. There are moments that genuinely made me uncomfortable despite very little actually happening. Slow camera movements, endless corridors, dark corners, strange sounds and objects that appear slightly distorted or out of place all combine to create an atmosphere that feels consistently unsettling. The Backrooms themselves are often filled with furniture, objects and environments that look familiar at first glance but feel wrong the longer you look at them. That uncanny feeling becomes one of the film's greatest strengths.

The sound design deserves a lot of praise as well. There isn't a huge amount of music throughout the film, but what it lacks in score it more than makes up for with atmosphere. Every creak, hum, distant noise and echo is used to make you feel uneasy. Then there are the performances.

These kinds of films live or die based on the actors carrying the audience through long stretches of uncertainty, and thankfully, the cast is more than up to the task. Chiwetel Ejiofor is superb, as he usually is. He plays Clark with an intensity that constantly keeps you guessing. There were several moments where I wasn't entirely sure whether I trusted him, understood him or even fully believed what he was experiencing.

Alongside him, Renate Reinsve delivers a strong performance as Mary. She spends much of the film attempting to maintain control while clearly carrying unresolved trauma beneath the surface. Watching her navigate the increasingly bizarre situation reminded me at times of the characters in The Descent.

Ultimately, Backrooms is a film that has a lot to say, but it absolutely refuses to spoon-feed its audience. It doesn't explain the rules. It doesn't explain the mythology. It doesn't tell you how or why things exist. They simply do. I did not mind that, but perhaps I needed just that little bit more; another part of me found it fascinating.

Maybe a sequel will explore more of the lore. Maybe the director intends to build an anthology around the Backrooms mythology. Or maybe the mystery is entirely the point. What I do know is that this is one of those films that sticks with you after the credits roll, especially with what you see. I would definitely watch it again. And who knows? Maybe the second time around, I'll finally understand what on earth I just watched.

(trailer review) - Project Hail Mary

 

A few months ago, I saw the trailer for this, and it looked ok, just ok. It looked like there may have been more to it, but I was not initially sold on the movie at all. Since that trailer, I keep hearing about how great the book is, and this film is going to be really good, and Ryan Gosling is this and that, and having now seen this trailer, this trailer sold the film for me more than the first trailer did. This trailer is funny, it has heart, and I understand more of what the trailer is telling me, storywise, and we get to properly see the alien. A couple of moments that made me smile or laugh were two moments: the moment he says, "Rocky", puts on a puppet show for his tiny brain to understand and the moment where he asks about being expendable and she turns around to the group to discuss, two great moments.

So the trailer starts off with Grace knocking on a window to communicate with the alien, and the alien knocks back and shows him a model of an astronaut. We are told Grace has a doctorate in molecular biology, and he is needed to save the world due to the sun dying. "Rocky" the alien, is a genius engineer whose planet is also dying, so they work together to, I assume, help to save each other's planet or "Grace Rocky Save Stars". The trailer shows both Grace and Rocky working together with a few flashing sequences of Grace running, people cheering for him, a drawing of "saved the world" by children (children he likely teaches). This trailer exudes warmth, a dire situation, an adventure, charm and heart. Unless there is a twist at the end where the alien has notorious plans, this looks like it may end up being a really entertaining film, kind of like how the film The Martian was when that was released.

(trailer review) - Bill & Ted Face the Music

(Trailer 1)

So in my last trailer review, I said "As I remember, Bill & Ted was a decent film (for my mind frame) at that time and if I remember correctly, I really liked Bogus Journey as I thought the Robot Bill & Ted was cool.  As for this trailer, hmmm, I'm just not sure yet." Considering the link above didn't offer much than the actual trailer above, I can now say, this looks like it's going to be a real fun movie.  Harkening back to my earlier statement having seen this trailer, this Trailer made me really smile.

The trailer showed Bill and Ted having been called again to save the world and it actually looks like their daughters (of whom are just like their fathers), will be in on the ride to help their fathers with the task.  The couples therapy gag was funny, the end clip with the daughters in hell gag is funny, the visit to the future 'jacked up' selves in prison gag is funny and it seems it delivers warmth in a way that will be endearing and fun just like the first two movies.  I actually want to see them now.  Also, bringing back the telephone booth really made me smile.  I'm sold.  Just wondering how i'll be able to see this on September 1st.

P.s. That ORION logo is just WILD to see!

Directed by Dean Parisot and starring Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and William Sadler

(trailer review) - Umbrella Academy: Season 2

When I watched the first season of Umbrella Academy, I was blown away.  If you are into Superhero shows, movies and that genre altogether, then you will understand what this show is about and what it is similar to.  X-Men, but not as PG as there is swearing involved and extreme violence.  As the Superhero genre has been booming in TV and film for over 18 years and since the 2000s, it was refreshing to watch this show of a dysfunctional superhero family in this over saturated industry and to be honest, this is not a bad thing at all.
I'm going to have to watch the first season again before this season starts as I cannot remember everything that happened, but it's going to be a delight as the acting is superb and seeing them all again is great.

This trailer is great and while I was waiting for this trailer since forever, I'm definitely loving the crews dynamic and how it seems they have now gelled well as a family and are actually bonding more with their natural squabbles here and there.  I'm loving the fact Five is still the bearer of knowledge and telling people what is happening since he is the time traveller and it is interesting and very cool to see Ben more throughout this trailer and i'm assuming throughout the second season.

Unless I'm mistaken, it is out later this month and due to the success of the first season, providing they keeping the same energy as the first season, this will be another successful season.  It was just upsetting that I had not seen Mary J. Blige as she was soo good in the first one.

Directed by Steve Blackman and starring Aidan Gallagher, Cameron Britton, David Castañeda, Ellen Page, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Justin H. Min, Robert Sheehan & Tom Hopper.

(trailer review) - Color Out of Space

Now this looks intriguing.  Say what you will about Nicholas Cage but he is a pretty decent actor and he is always in a movie.  It's something like a minimum of 4 movies a year.  8 Movies last year, 6 movies this year and as it currently stands, 5 movies next year, he is working HARD!  Though some of these are likely to be direct to DVD, small releases or what-have-you, some of his movies really stand out from the crowd such as Mandy which got a lot of praise.

This film is from the producers of Mandy and strikes me as an modern day B-Movie.  It would be interesting to see what the audience thinks once they have seen this as people could have fun with it. I'm neither here or there with it but as I said, intriguing and the film might actually be good.

Directed by Richard Stanley and starring Nicolas Cage

(series review) [STREAMING] - Raising Dion

You'd think by now we would be oversaturated with comic-book movies, shows, etc and we'd basically see another one and physically vomit from reading the synopsis, however this one does something we haven't quite seen yet on TV.  Well, at least from what I have seen, thus far. The series ‘The Boys’ brings drama and action in a dark and gritty world with dark humour, whilst ‘Umbrella Academy’ brings drama, action with a family dynamic accompanied with a bit of humour and comic book absurdities.  As for this one, Raising Dion on Netflix, not only brings THAT with fantasy and adventure included, but leans heavily into family drama and isn’t about a bunch of adopted kids (family).

I stumbled across this on Netflix and I saw a little chatter online regarding it.  Kid with super powers, whoop-ti-doo.  But I thought I would give it a go and see what it was all about.

Nicole Reese (Alisha Wainwright) is a woman who is Raising Dion (roll credits), her son (Ja’Siah Young), as a single mother after her scientist husband (Michael B. Jordan) is killed in a freak storm.  As this becomes increasingly difficult with the loss of her husband in whom she misses dearly, things become more strenuous when she discovers her son has now got superhero-like abilities.  Knowing this to be a problem, Nicole tries her best to keep her son’s powers a secret especially when a shadowy organisation grows interest in little Dion.  With the help of her deceased husband’s best friend Pat Rollins (Jason Ritter), Nicole does what any good parent would try to do…and that’s keep her child safe.

This 9 episode show was good and I really enjoyed it.  In places it slowed down and in other places I felt it added scenes that were character building, but I was disinterested.  I understood the reasons behind them but I already understood what the showrunner and director was going for.  A mum struggling trying to raise her child in a world where being a single parent is difficult as you are not likely to have that support.  Not to say they were beating you over the head with it, but I think I just wanted something else.  Also, that having no support after having a child can also halt your dreams.  Life gets in the way sometimes.

When the series was finished though, not only was I in shock by the penultimate episode and the very good ending (obviously leaving you wanting more), the show ends with a “to be continued” feel, without having the words displayed.  I was also very keen on the age the child was when they started filming as I would like for a sequel to play out in “real time”.  An example, if the child was 8 when filming and the show came out two years later (hypothetically), then it took another two years to green-light and make another, if the child is 10, for them to explain that season two picks up 2 years later where the actor is 12 playing a 10 year old, so on and so forth.  I believe this way, as the child gets older in real time, we don’t end up having a child looking too old for the role and recasting as I would like to see where this story could go, considering his powers and the content.  I do believe it would be interesting to see Dion in his teens with his powers.  With that said, the content, I would like to see if there are any other people with powers and if more powers get revealed over the course of the series with bigger, badder and more dangerous threats so that Dion can truly turn into the Superhero he wants to be.  Plus we could use the same actor as other than a mischievous little boy who doesn’t listen, I believe Ja’Siah was good in the role.  Alisha was great playing the mum and Jason was also great playing the Godfather to Dion.

If you are interested in superhero shows like this, although very different from The Boys and a little younger in age bracket than Umbrella Academy, this is still a very decent watch with great special effects and a brilliant “no-name” cast which is also all-inclusive  I think they should green-light a second series immediately and get on with it…lol. Enjoy!

(film review) - Bumblebee

I’m trying to figure out (along with the rest of the world), how this new Transformers movie fits into the universe of the Transformers franchise.  At first, I heard it was a soft franchise reboot, but it comes across as a prequel, kinda.  I mean, Michael Bay has f’ed up this franchise in the most royal way. The Transformers franchise is basically an X-Men movie timeline at this point and nobody is interested in it any more.  We can argue it made money at the Box Office, but when nobody generally likes it, overall, it a question of, "Who Actually Cares?"

Let me get into it.

Bumblebee is a fish out of water story of a boy and his dog.  Well, I believe that is the two idioms you could use to describe a film like this.  A civil war is engaged between the Autobots and the evil Deceptacons.  Losing the battle, Optimus Prime wants to establish a new base of operations and sends Bumblebee as a scout to Earth as a potential base as they retreat to regroup.  "After a battle and being awoken and disorientated, Bumblebee is intercepted and tracked down by two Decepticons who threaten to find his leader Optimus Prime and destroy Earth.  With only his one human friend, Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), Bumblebee is the only Robot to save it. He is Bumblebee."

Pretty straight forward and straight to the point.  Nothing major or anything we haven’t heard/seen before.  Think if the movie ‘ET’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ had a baby.  This is essentially how the rest of the movie plays out.  If anything, the same plot synopsis of the first Transformers as well, maybe.  I don’t know and at this point, frankly I don’t care, as this film is actually really really good.  At the top, I stated that I am trying to figure out where we stand in the franchise, unless from the very beginning as a reboot, I am totally fine with this and I hope they do intend to go forward in this direction.  Anything else is just confusing.

The first 5mins of the movie was AMAZING!  It reminded me of 'Man of Steel' where we see Krypton.  The little kid in me smiled with glee as we were able to finally see the Gen 1 Transformers fighting on Cybertron.  I mean, I’m just going to spoil the first 5 minutes of the movie because frankly, we need more people to see this movie to get more movies and I would be doing the movie a dis-service if I didn’t mention it.  Soundwave! Shockwave! Ravage!  Just like the toys you played with as a child!  If you are as old as me.  I don’t need to explain the Ravage and Soundwave connection I’m sure, but seeing this on screen was amazing.  Travis Knight clearly had a great vision with this movie and for what he executed in the first 5mins alone was enough to have any Transformers fan salivating for more.  Alas we don’t get any more than maybe 5-10 minutes of that, but the rest of the movie is also very good, albeit with a few nit-picky bits I didn’t like, which could arguably be the Michael Bay influence.

So it goes without saying that I found the movie aesthetically pleasing visually and the story wasn’t great but pretty serviceable.  The supporting actors next to Hailee were throwaway characters and although John Cena as a lead was ok.  He was nowhere near as bad as previous military characters in other Transformers movies.  The movie didn’t have enough Autobots and Deceptacons, but from what I saw, I was fine with.  More for the sequel?  The nit-picky things were things I thought we had moved away from in Transformers movies, and in cinema as a whole.  Maybe I was reading too much into it, but the black man dying first or more importantly, sacrificing himself to save the white man, because essentially, that is what happens.  Or at least it seems that way as you never see him again.  Weirdly enough, I didn’t notice that until my friend alerted me to it.  I did notice the black man being the butt of the joke, which was the wannabe boyfriend.  I get it we needed comedy interjected into the movie, but I thought that was what the "Fish out of water" element with Bumblebee was.  As I said, maybe I was over thinking it, but these were the things I hated regarding previous Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay.  At least there wasn’t any unnecessary explosions and over sexualized shots and 360-degree camera spins…although it was EXECELLENT in bad Boys 1.

I’d definitely suggest to watch this movie, even if you dislike Michael Bay Transformer movies, as this one is different, and it’s executed well.  Other than the nit-picky moments, this is a feel-good movie.

(film review) - Interstellar

Christopher Nolan flew onto the scene for me when he directed Batman Begins.  Who is this guy?  People were talking about Memento, something I had never heard of and how he is a good director.  Up and coming, I think I heard somewhere, "could be the new Spielberg.  Having seen Batman Begins, then The Dark Knight (in which I really enjoyed), then Inception (a film I LO VE!!!), Christopher Nolan was a house hold name at this point and I surely wasn't going to let this film slip by me.  I heard about The Prestige being a great film, but I was already invested with this movie from the moment I saw the trailer.  Space, futuristic space travel, saving humanity or something, vague first initial trailer, but I was going to see it regardless.

Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is an ex NASA Pilot and now farmer, living with his two children, daughter Murphy Cooper (Jessica Chastain), son Tom Cooper (Casey Affleck) and father in law Donald (John Lithgow).  As the world is slowly becoming inhabitable due to servere dust storms, Cooper embarks on a journey instructed by Professor Brand (Michael Cain) to travel to inhabitable planets with Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi) and Doyle (Wes Bentley).  However, when one of the scouting trips going horribly wrong, the crew are now racing against time, desperate to find a planet to colonise before it becomes too late for those living on Earth.

This film was a lot!  I loved it just like how I love Inception, but I also hated a singular moment in this film which now has me hating Anne Hathaway.  I know it's a character and I know it's a role, but there is something she does in this film that infuriated me to no end that even now as I am typing this, I'm getting angrier and angrier.  The film also touches on love and how love can transcend space and time, the future of humans and the need to live/survive no matter the cost.  Towards the end of the movie, it does get really confusing and abstract that you may not understand what is happening, but Nolan has definitely directed this film in order to have repeat viewings.

The sound, the cinematography, the acting, everything was beyond superb.  The tension in this movie is at a very high scale and moments in this movie will have you on edge whilst other moments may have you hating an actor forever! I joke, although right now she isn't in my good books.  The film isn't JUST set in space either, so the dynamics on the ground, well...Earth also contributes to the overall story and the ongoing mounting pressure.  Lies, betrayal, love and will, is littered throughout this movie and for me, I will need to watch it again, but not because i didn't get it, well the end, a little maybe, but it is such a good film, it deserves a rewatch.