‘Neon Bull’ at the Brazilian Embassy

Yesterday was an extremely sad day for Brazilian and world democracy, as the president Dilma Rousseff was removed from office by a coup d’état thinly disguised as a legal impeachment process. Artists throughout Brazil have denounced the reactionary and illegitimate process, most notoriously the filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho and the crew of his latest film Aquarius. They held signs exposing the coup on the red carpet of the Cannes Film festival this year. Brazil’s undemocratic government led by Michel Temer reacted furiously, giving the film an adult certificate and manoeuvring in order to prevent it from being selected for the Oscars.

Many filmmakers including Gabriel Mascaro, Anna Mulayert and Aly Muritiba almost immediately withdrew their films from the competition in protest against the censorship and reactionary government. DMovies held the screening of Mascaro’s Neon Bull last night at the Brazilian Embassy In London – precisely the film that he removed from the Oscar entry competition.

Director Gabriel Mascaro examines the vaquejada, a countryside Brazilian sport, where cowboys (vaqueiros) on horseback pursue a bull and attempt to knock it over. Despite representing such a masculine universe, the main character Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) has a passion for fashion. His ambition is to design exotic clothing for women, in stark contrast to his manly occupation.

Neon Bull exposes the dark traits of everyday vaqueiro life often in rich and graphic detail, in the tradition of Naturalism (the Brazilian literary movement of the 19th century). It is extremely sensual and somewhat bizarre. There are long takes of cowboys pissing, Iremar is shown having sex with a pregnant woman, and even masturbating a horse to the point of ejaculation.

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The significance of this film screening is dual. Not only is Neon Bull an extremely audacious and realistic portrait of a lesser-known aspect of Brazilian culture (the vaquejadas), but it has now become a very important voice for democracy and freedom of expression. DMovies are extremely grateful to everyone at the Embassy – particularly Fernanda Franco, Andrzej Snowden and Hayle Gadelha – and very proud for the opportunity to use art and cinema as a venting outlet against censorship and oppression.

High-rise buildings, kaleidoscopes and slimy stranglers

Ben Wheatley is the man behind some of the original, inventive and funny British films of the past few years, which have established him as UK’s foremost talent. Together for with his wife Amy Jump and producer Andy Starke, he runs the company Rook Films. Their credits include Down Terrace (2009), Kill List (2011), Sightseers (2012), A Field in England (2013) and High-Rise (2015, out now on Steelbook, Blu-Ray and DVD). He is pictured above at the setting of High Rise.

Maysa Monção from DMovies met Ben during a screening of High-Rise – a very dystopian view of housing problems in the UK – promoted by Shelter, the UK housing and homelessness charity. He told us that he grew up around Chalk Farm area and thought he would never be able to own a house in North London. He moved to Brighton because University costs were more affordable and still lives there.

The 60th BFI London Film Festival announced on September 1st its full programme for 2016. Free Fire, Wheatley’s latest feature, will be the screening of the closing gala’. The film will receive its European premiere on Sunday October 16th. If you are lucky to be in Toronto in September, you can watch it earlier at the Toronto International Film Festival.

DMovies – How is it to be invited to close BFI London Film Festival? What can you tell us about your Free Fire?

Ben Wheatley – I am very honoured and it was a complete surprise to me. It has been a few years now that we show stuff at London Film Festival [High-Rise screened as Festival Gala in 2015 and Sightseers as Laugh Gala in 2012]. Free Fire is a kind of an action movie and it is pretty funny too. I am going back to the cinema I really like. It is set in late 1970s in Massachusetts. It is an understandable action movie.

DMovies – You produced one of the dirtiest and outrageously odd films lately, The Greasy Strangler. What was there that caught your attention?

BW – I like [the director] Jim Hosking a lot. I work with [producer] Andy [Starke] and he came with this idea. I thought it was fab. I don’t like to get involved too much. I am there to support them.

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Maysa and Ben before the screening of ‘High Rise’

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DMovies – In both A Field in England and High-Rise there are psychedelic scenes. How were they made?

BW – For A Field in England we built a lot of lenses. We used a telescope and experimented with that. For the effect of a kaleidoscope in High-Rise, we took a carpet tube and put a triangle inside. It is all in camera. It would be very hard to achieve what I wanted in a computer.

DMovies – Tell us about working with your wife, writer Amy Jump. Do you split tasks when writing the script? Many other directors tried to adapt J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise book to the screen, but gave up in the end.

BW – We have been together since we were teens. There is a solid bond between us. It all depends on the project. For High-Rise she wrote on her own. It is an open negotiation but we don’t discuss much. Probably I wouldn’t be able to work as free as I am with her with another scriptwriter.

DMoviesDown Terrace, Kill List and even High-Rise show scenes of violence. Sometimes they are physical, sometimes they are subtle, sometimes they are psychological. What is your concept of violence in films?

BW – There are different degrees of violence in everybody’s relationships. You know, the thing about film is that we insert a short version of a conflict. And I like to make it as close as possible to the real life experience. Violence cannot be glamorous. Films take you to dangerous places you would not be in other circumstances. What is dangerous is when there is no connection between the violence in the street and the scenes we make.

DMovies – Thank you very much, Ben. We will see you at the London Film Festival closing ceremony!

The Closer We Get

Family life isn’t always pretty. Ageing is inevitable, health problems and the inability to communicate feelings, anxieties and disappointments are often conspicuous. No family is exempt from thorny and painful issues, even where there is plenty of love, affection and altruism. Scottish artist and filmmaker Karen Guthrie took the difficult and brave decision to film her own family in all of their virtues and fallacies. Cinema here isn’t just a register of woes and wounds. It is, above everything else, a tool for reflection and reconciliation. Perhaps it is also a cathartic venting outlet.

Karen’s mother Ann is very old and frail, having recently suffered a stroke. Karen voices her predicament in a very shockingly candid fashion: “We’ve brought back home what’s left of her”. Ann’s memory and speech have been deeply affected, and the impact on Karen and the rest of the family is tremendous. Karen is once again very succinct: “Hope she forgot all she lost, because we haven’t”.

The filmmaker brazenly exposes the shortcomings of her family members, particularly her father. He abandoned the family 15 years ago in order to live in Africa, but recently rejoined them. She also exposes the day his secret Ethiopian love child arrived on their doorstep, and how her family welcomed the unexpected and unlikely new addition. Yet she is neither resentful nor patronising of her dad. She displays instead a firm and stoic acceptance of the mistakes the old man made in the past. Perhaps she understands and respects his decisions.

The film is packed with awkward silences and long takes of her mother being hoisted in and out of bed and around the house. Karen’s narration is heartfelt and yet laborious. Emotions are very British. Had this been an Italian or Brazilian film, there would be likely plenty of screaming and finger-pointing. Yet the British seem able to get very close to the heart of the matter without an epic display of anger and frustration.

The most powerful moment of the film comes in the end, when Ann – despite her extremely frail body and fragmented mind – tries cheer up her daughter Karen. Despite her condition, she is still able to convey altruism, hope and happiness. A very beautiful lesson to be learnt.

DMovies is giving away three DVDs or Blu-rays of The Closer We Get to our readers in the UK. Just e-mail us the name of the filmmaker to info@dirtymovies.org. We will announce the winners during the second week of September.

You can find out more information about distribution rights and how to view the film on their webpage here. And you can also watch the film trailer below:

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Jim: The James Foley Story

The tragic and barbaric fate of the American freelance journalist James Foley – who was imprisoned by the Isis and then finally beheaded in a video posted on YouTube – became the second most newsworthy event of the century in the US, second only to September 11th.

Foley was a an independent reporter in the most dangerous conflict zones of the world. He picked his job despite knowing the risks, and he always accepted that the outcome may not be rosy. He was held captive for the first time in Libya as he reported on the collapse of the Gaddafi regime. His release was widely publicised in the world media, but Foley seemed undaunted, and soon after he embarked in a much more dangerous mission in Syria, which would also be his very final one.

Jim: The James Foley Story is a saccharine-doused account of the life of a superhuman. The two-hour film is packed with images from his childhood and heartfelt statements from his family and friends about his virtues. He was a courageous, resilient, generous and charismatic man, the ultimate American hero. Very few interviewees point out his shortcomings, perhaps except for the conflict journalist Clara, who highlights Foley macho-aggressiveness and questions whether he was actually doing good and helping the people in the conflict zones.

The importance of independent journalists in war conflict zones cannot be overstated, and there is absolutely no doubt that Foley performed a much needed informative role. The problem is that the film barely investigates what Foley achieved as a journalist, instead consistently showing his ultra-positive personal qualities. At one point we are told that Foley helped to raise money for a hospital and ambulance in Aleppo, but we are never told how he did that, and how the people benefited from these facilities. For a a journalist, the impact of their work on is far more important than the endeavour in itself, and this is where the film fails to do. At one point Foley’s father claims: “Jim is in a line of journalists that gave his life to tell the truth” – so why doesn’t the film examine and reveal this “truth”?

The film does contextualise any of the wars and conflicts taking place. Presenting a personal story does not prevent a filmmaker from examining the social and political circumstances that led to the conjecture in question. What is it that drove Foley to the war zones? The film often says that he was very altruistic and religiously-tolerant, but why is it that he picked Lybia and Syria? Why the interest in these two countries? Was his reporting critical of American belligerence and meddling? Was his reporting authentic and passionate? The film doesn’t answer any these questions at all.

Most of the second half of the film is a reenactment of the time James Foley was in captivity in Syria with another 19 journalists. The images and strangely somber and beautiful. The plight of this westerners is explored in minute detail, including their physical pain and profound anguish. They are often tortured and starved, and are constantly in fear of the outcome of their predicament. on the other hand, the film hardly exposes the plight of the civilians in Libya and Syria, which is what Foley did as a journalist.

While James Foley himself may have been a very good journalist, impartial and empathetic, this film certainly isn’t. It’s simply a highly romanticised tale of American resilience and grandiosity.

Recently the film Dugma: The Button explored the Syrian War from a very different perspective – the eyes of suicide bombers. Just click here in order to read our review.

Jim: The James Foley Story is distributed by Dogwoof. It is out in UK cinemas on September 2nd.

You can watch the film trailer here:

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Front Cover

A bittersweet relationship and wild ventures into troublesome sexuality and complex cultural background are the backdrop of this American production directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Ray Yeung. Ryan Fu (Jake Choi), a gay fashionista living in busy New York, is offered a job to style upcoming Bejing star Ning (James Chen) based on his Chinese heritage. The two seem to come from very different worlds: Ning is a proud nationalist, with a core belief on China’s visibility around the world, whereas Ryan conceals his background – he used to work his parents at a nail salon.

Seemingly homophobic, Ning rejects Ryan’s candid attitude towards his own sexuality, using cultural differences as an argument for the fall of their working relationship. Far from being completely established, Ryan knows his job is at risk when his feisty boss Francesca (Sonia Villani) dismisses his complaints and forces him to turn the situation around. Ning slowly adapts to Ryan’s attitude when, during a photoshoot, racial slurs fly out of the window. This unexpectedly draws both men together, perhaps due to some sort of complicity of their own demons.

A ‘coming-out’ game for both parties, you could easily mistake it for another simple-minded approach in a ‘gay boy meets straight boy’ bait. That is not to say the film entirely dodges the subject of gay estigmatisation. For instance, when Ryan affirms himself as a top – despite his effeminacy – during a failed hook up on a phone app. Sexuality is a complex and often treacherous zone, and it doesn’t neatly fit into the bigoted “no fems” and “no Asians” stereotypes.

The story takes a different turn when Ryan’s parents (Elizabeth Sung and Ming Lee) inadvertently assume both men are dating. The tender love of a mother and the subdued but supportive behaviour of a father are a great given opportunity for the director to guide us through three different generation’s struggle for acceptance. It is, however, the true highlight of the film, with awkward, yet tasteful and naïve moments. Front Cover is a step the direction of tolerance, casually telling us of the problem of the camouflage in our culture and/or sexuality, and the natural embrace of pertaining people and elements.

Front Cover opened this week in US cinemas. You can find out more about screenings in Europe and overall distribution information on Strand Releasing page here.

And you can watch the film trailer here:

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As I Open My Eyes (À Peine J’Ouvre les Yeux)

“With the country’s problems, people lose their mind; in their minds castles are being built”, sings 18-year-old Farah (Baya Medhaffar) in her Tunisian band in the town of Gafsa. She vents her love, anger and rebellion through music, just like many people around the world. Sadly her country is not very tolerant of dissenting voices, particularly coming from a woman and where the establishment is often the subject of criticism.

The film takes place in the summer of 2010, shortly before the Arab Spring – known as Jasmine revolution in Tunisia – in the same year. The film illustrates the strict censorship, sexism and hardly veiled hierarchic forces and oppressive mechanisms that rule a country often perceived as vaguely progressive and liberal. Farah smokes, drinks and sings, in a clear affront to the regime. She deftly describes the country “in a state of inebriation”, and sings out that “heads are exploding from torpidity”. The young singer is not slamming alcohol consumption; she is instead denouncing the false sense of freedom that seems to intoxicate the entire country.

As I Open my Eyes is a very feminine look at the struggle that female continue to face in not-so-open and modern Arab nation. The film is directed by a woman and debutante filmmaker (Leyla Bouazid), and Farah’s mother Hayet is performed by Ghalia Benali. Hayet reacts with extreme rage upon finding out that her daughter is singing bars, and even stops talking to her. At first, she comes across as very conservative and intolerant, but it in reality she is trying to protect her daughter from a similar fate she encountered in her youth. The maternal bond is suddenly rekindled. Benali was a very good choice for the mother’s role – she’s a songwriter, singer, dancer and visual artist herself, of Tunisian background, born in Brussels, and who often performs in the Arab world. She is a good actress with a very strong facial features, reminiscent of Brazilian veteran Sônia Braga.

Both Medhaffar and Benali are superb, and the film is riveting and convincing as an epitome of the female struggles that pass from generation to generation. Farah has to face a terrible predicament, and yet the film never hints that the Jasmine Revolution improved her life and the prospect for women in Tunisia. In fact, the film ends before the political turmoil, leaving it for audiences to decide what happened to Farah, and whether she recovered from the ordeal to become a an artists, a singer, a woman and a revolutionary.

In addition to the good acting, Medhaffar is also a very good singer. The songs are powerful and vibrant, with an Arab rhythm, some electro beats and even a twang of punk.

As I Open my Eyes won the BNL People’s Choice Award at the Venice Film festival last year. It will be theatrically released in the US next week, on August 30th. European screenings are likely to follow soon – just click here in order to find out more.

You can watch the film trailer below:

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Incident Light (La Luz Incidente)

‘Incident light’ is an occasional light that hits something, whether it comes from a direct or indirect source. A clever name choice for a film which enlightens a simple tale of grieving. Minimalistic and enriched by an extraordinary performance of actress Erica Rivas, Incident Light is a proof that cinema can be grandiose as long as the filmmaker is capable of blending a delicate script, a touching performance and superb photography. Incident Light is a sparkling glimpse of highbrow cinema that may not get the recognition it deserves. Instead it will always linger and shine in the memory of those who came across the story of Luisa (Erica Rivas).

In the Argentina of the 1960s Luisa faces a big tragedy in her life after losing her brother and husband in a car crash. Widowed and traumatised, she is left with two little daughters and in an unstable financial situation. At a party she meets Ernesto, a mysterious and rich man, that manifests an intense interest in her. A suitor that could resolve her imminent problems but who instead creates a discomfort for Luisa, who just carries on grieving.

Directed and written by Ariel Rotter this piece introduces from the beginning, and in each scene, a small detail that will reveal the nuances of Luisa’s turmoil. Most of the action feels staged for a theatre, particularly the lengthy scenes of the protagonist’s pain and suffering. She is unable to overcome the past tragedy and embrace a new future. Combined with a magnificent black and white photography (by DOP Guilhermo Nieto), Rotter finds the right path to create Luisa’s universe. Incident Light sometimes evokes the melancholic atmosphere of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Night (1961) – perhaps because it is black and white and takes place in the 1960s.

Erica Rivas does a great job in conveying Luisa’s dilemma – she was recently in Damián Szifron’s Wild Tales (2014), – the biggest foreign language hit in the UK box office in 2015. In Wild Tales, a compilation of short stories, Rivas acts in an unforgettable wedding scene. Coincidentally she also dances a waltz in Incident Light, if in a very different context and mindset. The film has classic 1960s’ beauty and feeling, with very few close-ups. Rivas even looks a little like Audrey Hepburn.

The film is showing as part of the Argentine Film Festival taking place in London right now – just click here for more information about the event.

You can watch the film trailer below:

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Tickled

Journalist David Farrier made a career of looking at the weird and bizarre side of life in New Zealand. One day while looking for material for his TV show on HBO, he came across a series of “competitive endurance tickling” events in the US and thought it would make a very peculiar film. What Farrier and co-director Dylan Reeve couldn’t guess was that this initiative would take them into a real minefield of subjects and taboos. Tickled is a documentary about porn, homosexuality, blackmailing, crime, fetishism and shame.

Farrier was intrigued by the videos of male adolescents and young adults involved in this competition and emailed Jane O’Brien, who apparently was in charge of the American business. “Clothes are on. From what we could tell there’s nothing else. It’s tickling in clothes.”, says Farrier. It’s not clear, however, how this business generates money.

The American entrepreneur identified as O’Brien reacted angrily to the e-mails, ordering the New Zealand crew to stop investigating their business. The tone of the emails was aggressive and insulting, and she threatened legal action. At last, O’Brian said she would send some people to New Zealand to get into an agreement with them.

Farrier waited for them at the airport, with a big sign… and a camera on. That was not a very sensible thing to do. Three men recognised the sign and promptly ordered them to switch off the camera. More threats followed. The kiwis continued their investigation and found out a series of further domains related to these videos. They then decided to fly to the US in order to interview some of the men filmed by O’Brian.

Many of the young men were scared to talk to their camera. Farrier and Reeve took weeks to convince them, and only one of them (called Jordan) eventually agreed. At this point, HBO was no longer fully funding the project, and so they decided for a crowdfunding campaign instead.

The filmmakers continued their investigative journalism and found out that Jane O’Brian was in reality a creation of David D’Amato. D’Amato is a millionaire lawyer, son of an American banker, who was busted by FBI.

Apart from the crimes of harassment and false identity D’Amato committed, Tickled reveals an intriguing and disturbing plot where D’Amato threatens “to out” the subjects of his movie as gay porn stars. The videos did not contain any sex scenes but the suggestion of homosexuality and pornography terrified the teenagers. They had accepted a large sum of money to participate in those videos. Some of them were sons of Republican and military families.

Tickled was a sensation earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, in the US. It opens at Picturehouse Central this Thursday August 18th, followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers. The nationwide theatrical release is on the following day.

You can watch the film trailer below:

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‘Neighbouring Sounds’ at the Brazilian Embassy

Last night a group of cinema lovers and enthusiasts of Brazilian culture showed up at the Brazilian Embassy for the fourth DMovies screening this year. Previous titles included the off-kilter Batguano (Tavinho Teixeira, 2014), the provocative Dead Girl’s Feast (Matheus Nachtergaele, 2011) and Rat Fever (Cláudio Assis, 2011). Rat Fever was followed by a debate on sexual freedoms and anarchy, with Brazilian member congressman Jean Wyllys, BFI Flare‘s programmer Brian Robinson and professor of cinema studies Lucia Nagib – click here in order to see a video of the debate.

In Neighbouring Sounds (2012), the then debutant filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho explored the dull urban cacophony that ties together middle-class neighbours in Recife to outstanding results. The New York Times voted it one of the top 10 films of the decade.

Unlike other Brazilian films such as City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) and Elite Squad (José Padilha, 2007), Mendonça Filho chose not to denounce violence and corruption in a graphic and tantalising manner. There is no armed gun fighting, car chases, electrifying music and sadistic murders in Neighbouring Sounds. Yet the film is at times excruciating to watch: the violence and the corruption here are much more subtle, yet no less powerful. They slow their ugly face in events so banal in Brazil that they hardly cause any commotion: a car radio being stolen, a juvenile delinquent forced down a tree and beaten up by the local security staff.

Kebler Mendonça Filho’s second film Aquarius was part of the official competition of the Cannes Film festival earlier this year. The film’s crew protested at the steps of the Promenade against against the recent political developments in Brazil by holding signs that said “Stop the Coup in Brazil” and similar messages, an event that attracted international media attention. There are rumours that the film will premiere in the BFI London Film Festival in October, so stay tuned for the programme in early September

Click here in order to read DMovies‘ five-splat review of Neighbouring Sounds.

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The last session of DMovies at the Brazilian Embassy will take place on August 31st, with the audacious Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro, 2015). The film, which has never released in the UK, before portrays the naked and raw life of Brazilian vaqueiros (cowboys) in rich graphic and sensorial detail.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Hayle Gadelha, Fernanda Franco, Andrzej Pierce and everyone else at the Brazilian Embassy for their continuous support.

Gary Numan: Android in La La Land

In late 1970s, everyone in Britain was dancing to an electronic beat and questioning whether Gary Numan was human. Well, 30 years later Gary Numan: Android in La La Land finally revealed that the iconic and emblematic musician was not only the godfather of electronic pop music, but also a family guy.

The man/machine relationship has troubled philosophers, artists, engineers, scientists and critics for a long time. When Gary Numan came into the music scene he was just 21. His robotic dance and single ‘Are Friends Electric’ reached number one in the UK but according to the press he was a “freak”. One paper even suggested his mother should have prevented from giving birth to him. Numan admits he “was a nerd kind of bloke” and “antisocial”. Nevertheless his amateur experimental music, that mixed punk with electronic, pleased many teenagers. Gary wanted to be the first artist in the world to do an electronic album, but he realised that there were other musicians exploring the same avenue, such as Kraftwerk and David Bowie.

This documentary explores the trajectory of the pop idol, going deep into the ups and downs of his career. It is an honest tale based on the present Numan, with little archive foortage. Numan self-imposed a long hiatus of shadow as he could not deal with the sudden rise of fame. His confidence went down. His ambition brought depression, anxiety, a long period in the wilderness, and also led him into a near bankruptcy. His parents were very supportive in the beginning of his career but they contributed to his childish behaviour. When he lost control of the money, he cut relations with his family.

He confesses he had panic attacks. “One thought brings another, and you can’t help it. You won’t stop.” Taking antidepressant drugs “doesn’t make you feel better, but you can then cope with your problems”.

Gary had the fortune of marrying Gemma, his biggest fan since she was 15. In Gary Numan: Android in La La Land it is clear that he would not have made it without her. The couple has three young daughters, Raven, Persia and Echo, but their marriage hasn’t always been flowery. Gemma says, “We had a lot of horrible things together”, referring mainly to her miscarriages before Raven was born. The girls are obviously proud of their pop idol father, though they admit he is a different kind of daddy. “My father doesn’t go out to work. He works at home”, says the eldest.

While Numan was in his reclusive period he learnt how to pilot a plane. This achievement is indeed symbolic of his career which all of a sudden took off and then fell into an oblivion. Despite having influenced artists such as Dave Grohl (Nirvana and Foo Fighters), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Marilyn Manson and Lady Gaga, Gary Numan struggled with self-confidence for many years.

In recent years, he went back to the studio and on an extensive globe tour. Then he moved to Los Angeles with his family, a dream he has pursued for a long time. He returned in 2013 with the album Splinter, that was his first album to reach UK Top 20 in three decades. He is now much more spontaneous and comfortable on stage. He counted with the help of Matt Colton, who mixed his ideas in studio. Colton worked before with Muse, Coldplay, George Michael and Peter Gabriel. His most recent hit is a ballad, dedicated to Gemma. After all “everything changed the moment she came along”, Numan puts it.

Gary Numan: Android in La La Land premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June and it is in UK & Irish cinemas from August 26th.

Below is the film trailer:

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The Unspoken

In 1997 the Anderson family vanished from their home without a trace. No bodies were ever found. For 17 years the house has remained undisturbed, until Rudy Harris (Chilton Crane) and her silent son Adrian (Sunny Suljic) move in and immediately very spooky events start taking place. She hires a nanny called Angela (Jodelle Ferland) to look after her introspective son, who reluctantly agreed to take up the post despite knowing the house’s harrowing past.

The Unspoken exhaustively uses the most conventional horror devices such as plenty of blood, spectres, flying objects, very gruesome deaths and cattle prod scares, sometimes to effective results. There are the usual acting bad and being severely punished for their irresponsible and selfish behaviour. There is a vulnerable and fragile woman (Angela) whose mother-like instincts to protect Adrian are superior to everything else. This is your typical dichotomy of Marianismo incorporated into American mainstream: the male virility versus the female passivity and purity.

The first problem with the movie is that the plot is sometimes disjointed and ragged, and often bursting at the seams. The acting is average, but perhaps none of the characters will leave a lingering horror sensation. Except perhaps for the ending, which partly redeems the film from the ordinary and tiresome horror tricks throughout. The outcome is an interesting subversion of the horror genre.

The movie was produced by the acclaimed Steven Schneider, who already counts Insidious and the Paranormal Activity films under his belt. The Unspoken is a ultimately an enjoyable horror experience, but it lacks the subtlety and the visual poignancy of the Paranormal Activity films, or the fluid elegance and more well-structured script of Insidious.

The Unspoken will be released on UK Digital on 22nd August 2016 and on UK DVD on 5th September 2016 by Arrow Films at the RRP of £12.99. You can pre-order it now on Amazon – just click here.