Hello everyone, happy Thursday – it’s time for the Geeky Brummie film roundup! We have a trio of female-centric films for you this week, but first we take a quick look at Year Two of our very own…
Birmingham Anime Film Festival
That’s right, folks, BAFF is back! Starting today, all kinds of anime awesomeness will be flooding the screens of the Mockingbird in Digbeth and the Midlands Art Centre at Cannon Hill Park for the next three weekends. We will be on hand to introduce most of them, so keep an eye out for us and come and say hello.
The festival kicks off today with the mind-bending Mind Game at the MAC. Tomorrow evening, sorcerous series spin-off Jujutsu Kaisen 0 comes to the Mockingbird, shortly followed by racing thriller Redline, which will be presented by Never Seen Podcast. Stick around after the credits to watch Never Seen record a live episode discussing what they made of the film. High School drama Blue Thermal glides in on Saturday, followed by the industrial futurescape of Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis and the killer soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Rounding out the weekend on Sunday are touching drama Josee – The Tiger and the Fish, teen fantasy The Lonely Castle in the Mirror, cult astronaut drama Royal Space Force – The Wings of Honneamise, swordfighting epic Sword of the Stranger, and game adaptation Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.
And all that’s just week one! Take a look at the full schedule and buy your tickets on the BAFF website – whether you want something sweet and childish or dark and epic, there will be something for you. We hope to see you there!
The Substance
In The Substance, Demi Moore plays an aging supermodel named Elisabeth Sparkle who tries out a new black market drug – one that promises to release a younger, more beautiful version of herself (Sue, played by Margaret Qualley). But there’s a catch – after spending seven days as Sue she has to spend the next week as Elisabeth, always alternating between the two. When the temptation of Sue’s perfect life causes her to break the cycle, everything starts to go very wrong very quickly.
Even before things go off the rails, this looks like it’s going to be a surreal and intense experience. The extreme close-ups of Dennis Quaid’s cartoonishly gross producer make you feel queasy long before anyone gets injected with the titular drug. But when things properly get going, the Substance promises to become increasingly disturbing and head into all-out body horror territory. There’s bound to be a commentary on female beauty standards in there somewhere, but you might have to peel your hands away from your eyes to spot it…
The reviews for this so far seem very positive, with a lot of praise for Demi Moore. And it’s great to see Margaret Qualley in a more central role, having had relatively minor parts in a lot of great films over the last few years (such as Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness and Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood). I think this could be a really artistically interesting and unconventionally entertaining film.
- The Substance on IMDB
- The Substance on Rotten Tomatoes
Girls Will Be Girls
Set in a remote village in the Himalayas, Girls Will Be Girls tells the story of teenager Mira (Preeti Panigrahi), whose blossoming young romance with Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) is seen as something of an act of rebellion in their strictly traditional community – especially by her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti). But as Anila gets to know Sri better, she is also tempted to throw aside the repressions that society had instilled in her since she was Mira’s age. Will Anila get between Mira and Sri, or will Sri get between Mira and Anila?
I haven’t heard too much about this one, but at time of writing Rotten Tomatoes has it on a 100% review score. It looks like a slow burner of a film but with a lot of potential for some powerful messages – about the dangers of repressing your feelings, the stigma that comes with breaking from tradition, and, at its heart, the bond between a mother and her daughter. I don’t know the cast, but their performances in the trailer look natural and subtle. This is definitely one to watch out for.
- Girls Will Be Girls on IMDB
- Girls Will Be Girls on Rotten Tomatoes
Strange Darling
In Strange Darling, a young woman (Willa Fitzgerald) hooks up with a guy (Kyle Gallner) who is altogether too evasive when she asks him if he’s a serial killer. Before long he’s stalking her with a shotgun and a “Here, kitty kitty kitty…”.
If that sounds like a plot you’ve heard before, rest assured that by all accounts it’s not. This is getting some great reviews, all of which are pointedly not revealing too much of the story beyond that initial premise because it will spoil the film if you go in knowing too much about it. It’s all very intriguing but, unfortunately, does make it even harder as someone who hasn’t seen it to find much to say about it here!
The two leads (whose characters are credited as ‘The Lady’ and ‘The Demon’) have both been in things that I’ve seen, but I don’t particularly remember them. Writer-director JT Mollner has only made one other feature length film – 2016 western Outlaws and Angels, which I haven’t seen and don’t remember at all. The only person in the crew whose work I am familiar with is Giovanni Ribisi – the actor from Avatar and Friends – who is switching roles to cinematographer here. It does look like he’s done a decent job at it from the trailer though.
This sounds like a really interesting film and it’s one that I’m definitely looking forward to seeing – I’m just not sure I have enough information to tell you why yet…
- Strange Darling on IMDB
- Strange Darling on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Although I’m very intrigued by Strange Darlings, my film of the week this week is the gloopy body horror of The Substance.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Speak No Evil
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Alien: Romulus
Trailer of the week
The brilliant Bong Joon Ho’s next film, Mickey 17, has just dropped a trailer, and it looks fantastic. Fed up with his life on Earth, Mickey (Robert Pattinson) signs up to work as an ‘expendable’ – someone who is sent on dangerous missions to advance humanity’s knowledge of the universe, whose body can be reprinted with all his old memories when he dies. But, during his 17th incarnation, something goes wrong and a new Mickey is printed while the old one is still alive.
So the plot is basically Moon meets Edge of Tomorrow, with a bit of Star Trek thrown in for good measure. If you like Robert Pattinson, you get two of him on screen for the price of one. If you still haven’t forgiven him for Twilight, you get to see him die at least 16 times. The supporting cast includes Naomie Ackie (who looks to be having a lot more fun than she did in Blink Twice), plus Oscar nominees Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette.
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