Drugstore June

The apathetic adult child, usually a favourite as a male character, but thankfully there has been quite a few female characters like this appearing on our screens. In her 20s, living very comfortably at home, still stalking her ex and doing the bare minimum where possible in life, June is the apathetic adult child. While she does have a job at the drugstore (hence the name), she spends her time concerned with her online presence and her ‘June Squad’ follows. When the drugstore where she works is robbed, she decides to investigate and find the culprits. Her motivations is not to help out her beyond patient manager, but for the ice cream machine that was damaged in the robbery. 

June’s quest for the truth leads her to meet various characters, some as weird as her, others that seem to accept her strange demeanour and reasonings for everything. Although frustrating, June’s delusional personality is an absolute joy to watch. She is thoroughly entertaining and even, on very few occasions, makes very accurate observations of her surroundings. The mystery elements in the film, allow June’s detective skills to shine through, opening for more funny scenes, random characters that all play into solving the crime. 

Drugstore June is a difficult comedy to place and this is part of its charm. June is the clear stand out, played to perfection by Esther Povitsky, who also co-wrote this gem. Sometimes it can be grating for these delusional characters to never learn a lesson, but June’s charm out-weighs this character flaw and just becomes an easy comedic watch.

Everyone Loves Touda - Cannes Film Festival

 

Chasing dreams and wanting more, a better life is an age-old tale. Films such as these can feel predictable as soon as the tone is set. As an audience we become hopeful along with the dreamer of the story and even though we can guess how things will end, we still cling onto the hope that this character somehow succeeds. In Everyone Loves Touda, we enter the world of hopeful dreamer Touda and share in her journey, but we know all too well how this story ends.

Touda, is a Sheikha, a traditional Moroccan performer who are empowered by the songs of fierce female poets who lived before. Trying to carve out an existence in her rural town, performing each night in darkened bars to drunken men, Touda wants more from life. Deciding to take a chance, she moves to Casablanca, the big city, in the hope of being recognised as a true artist and securing a place for her son at a school that accommodates deaf children.

Full review over at Filmhounds.

5lbs Of Pressure

 

There are some emotional punches thrown throughout but the bleakness of the final act that makes it difficult to see a silver lining in any of the chaos that proceeded it. Betrayal, redemption, hope are all expressed throughout 5lbs of Pressure. Consequences from actions long in the past and immediate future play out side by side as each character tries to get by and make better choices.

Adam, about to complete his parole, returns to his old neighbourhood to start over and to finally meet his son he missed growing up. When hearing about Adam’s return, Eli, the brother of the man Adam killed, plans his revenge as his own life falls apart.

Full review over at Filmhounds.

Swede Caroline

 

Although competitive vegetable growing or more specifically, growing giant vegetables does take place around the world, the event feels very much like a typically ‘British’ pastime. Any competition steeped in tradition will be able to find the comedy and in this case it’s a mockumentary about one vegetable grower and her story to win the coveted prize of heaviest marrow. The subject and setting is humorous before the film has even started. What’s good enough for Wallace & Gromit is good enough for the amateur film crew who ‘stumble across’ a major story worthy of its own documentary. 

Set in the world of competitive giant vegetable growing, the community is rocked by scandal when relatively new competitor Caroline has her prized marrow plants stolen. Together with her partner, Paul who fancies himself an amateur sleuth and her overly helpful neighbour Willy, Caroline is determined to find the culprit and still try for the top prize at the competition.

Full review is over at Filmhounds. 

Immaculate

 

Religion and horror go hand in hand, for obvious reasons, with the most popular being Catholicism. Fire and brimstone, hell and the devil, there’s too much temptation to take this religion to it’s darker corners. Immaculate is Sydney Sweeney’s passion project, having been attached to the film for years and eventually ended up being one of the producers as well as starring. This does seem, on the surface, an unlikely role for her to take on. But as soon as Cecilia arrives on screen, as the sweet and somewhat naïve novice nun, it becomes very clear that this is exactly the role Sweeney should be playing. 

No sooner as Cecilia arrives at the impressive convent buried in the Italian countryside, there is an ominous atmosphere that all is not what it seems. Anyone well versed with horror films that focus on religion will recognise the story beats and settle in nicely for the bizarre events ahead. Immaculate hams up the horror to the max, with jump scares every five minutes it feels, mixed in with some disturbing dream sequences that may be real after all. But as every character Cecilia interacts with feels like an omen or doomed ally, this sense of dread is constant leaving very little mystery. 

For those who enjoy an ominous horror and the company of nuns easily manipulated by a priest (as they always seem to be) will enjoy this blood-filled holy fest. Sweeney herself is actually pretty good throughout but her shining moment is at the climax of the film, caked in blood, having a very cathartic primal scream. However, all, the film is entertaining but it doesn’t rise above others made of the same ilk. The mystery is thin and the premise intriguing but nothing that shocking when you realise what’s going on in the catacombs. The fact that this film was stuck in development for a years does show, but luckily Sweeney sticks with it to give the film that shining moment.

Dream Scenario

 

Nicolas Cage never seems to disappoint us with his performances. They are either standard action with an edge of ridiculousness, serious with a strange concept or outright ludicrous. Dream Scenario sits within the middle bracket, as a story about an average man who finds himself appearing in people’s dreams. Benign at first, but eventually turns into a complete nightmare for himself and everyone who dreams about him. The film comes across as dark comedy but very quickly slips into something more serious and unfortunately, depressing. 

Without explanation and without conclusion, Dream Scenario, leaks into our minds as a very abstract midlife crisis. Paul, helpless as to what people dream about, let alone how he appears in people’s dreams, is at first idolised, feared and finally abandoned by his friends, colleagues and family. This is a tragic story in which the protagonist and near to no control over his life and what happens. Paul could be seen as guilty as lapping up the attention at first, his ego inflated but ultimately, he is just a sad character with a simple life, a somewhat domineering wife and the all round basic existence. There is no cautionary tale here, no, be careful what you wish for, only a sense of disappointment and emptiness. 

Dream Scenario won’t go down in Cage history as one of his best performances or best films. Interesting concept for sure but beyond that, it would be best to let this film fall into the ether.