VAL

Featuring: Val Kilmer, Jack Kilmer, Mercedes Kilmer and Joanne Whalley. 
Directors: Ting Poo, Leo Scott

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Val Kilmer has forever existed in a weird Hollywood limbo, a professional realm between brilliant, talented character actor and A-list heartthrob star. His darkest period professionally was also his biggest box office success - Batman Forever. His career has fluctuated between films that didn't find an audience (The Doors, The Ghost & The Darkness, Wonderland); for which he seemed awkwardly ill-suited (Willow, The Real McCoy, Red Planet); or, benefitted from his vivid support work (Tombstone,True Romance, Heat, Top Gun).

In the documentary Val, he provides a first-person account of his life - the work he’s known for, the loves he has had, the man he is now. All the footage is taken from a personal archive of material shot either by him or of him (collated by directors Ting Poo and Leo Scott), from his earliest high-school plays through to the contemplative but ebullient cancer survivor he is today. His personal journal provides the narrative, read in voice-over provided by his son Jack.

Just as the man is a unique film industry figure, so is Val that rarest of beasts - a star profile that eschews, even undermines, the subject’s celebrity to provide not an actor’s portrait, but an everyman journey of a complex individual. Industry milestones, like working with his idol Marlon Brando on the infamous Queensland shoot of The Island of Dr Moreau, ultimately seem like existential asides compared the lifelong grief of losing his teenage brother Ben, wooing then divorcing his wife Joanne Whaley, raising their children and coming to terms with the legacy of his father. 

The darkness of his past is balanced by a mature-age man’s boundless playfulness. At one point he collapses in front of the camera, only to rise from the floor giggling at his son’s panicked reaction. He can be a bit of an arsehole, as some of his directors and co-stars can attest, and which he acknowledges and attempts to put into perspective in the doco.

His late-career, last pre-cancer project Citizen Twain, in which he dons heavy make-up for his self-penned one-man show that explores the life of America’s great humorist, embodies not only the immense talent but also the rare empathy that Val Kilmer brought to his most invested characters. Those elements are what shine through in Val.

CLASS REUNION 3: SINGLES CRUISE (LUOKKAKOKOUS 3 - SINKKURISTEILY)

Stars: Jaajo Linnonmaa, Aku Hirviniemi, Sami Hedberg, Ilona Chevakova, Eino Heiskanen, Niina Lahtinen, Antti Luusuaniemi, Pihla Maalismaa, Mari Perankoski, Jukka Puotila, Kuura Rossi and Pertti Sveholm.
Writers: Renny Harlin, Aleksi Bardy and Mari Perankoski; based on characters created by Claudia Boderke and Lars Mering.
Director: Renny Harlin.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ 

The low-brow hijinks of middle-aged man-children has been a comedy staple the world over, nowhere more so than Finland. There, two bawdy, lamebrained romps - Luokkakokous (Reunion, 2015) and Luokkakokous 2 (Reunion 2: The Bachelor Party, 2016) - earned Finnish blockbuster status, boasting over 800,000 admissions. And when the words ‘Finnish’ and ‘blockbuster’ are paired up, the words ‘Renny’ and ‘Harlin’ aren’t far behind.

And so we find the action veteran making his first film in his homeland since 1986’s Born American, a forgotten B-action lark that was inventive enough visually and successful enough commercially for L.A. to notice. Soon, with the cult horror pics Prisoner (1987) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master (1988) to his name, he would become Hollywood’s hottest director - Die Hard 2 (1990); Cliffhanger (1993); The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996); and, Deep Blue Sea (1999) represented a run of hits few directors experience (not to mention that cinematic asterisk, 1995’s Cutthroat Island, which was a whole other experience entirely).

For his homecoming present, the Finnish industry has gift wrapped Harlin a surefire hit in Luokkakokous 3 - Sinkkuristeily (Class Reunion 3: Singles Cruise), only asking in return that he brings his consummate style in service of jokes about catheterization, masturbating, flatulence, urinary retention, laxatives...you get the idea. Reuniting for #3 and leaving no doubt as to why the Reunion franchise is a crowd favourite are original cast members Jaajo Linnonmaa, the most popular breakfast radio host in Finland; Aku Hirviniemi, one of Finland’s acting superstars; and Sami Hedberg, the nation’s most popular stand up comedian.

Our immature mature-age trio are facing the hard truths of growing older. Antti (Hedberg) is fat and lonely, jerking off to infomercial hostesses and seeming barely coping with anything adult, like interacting with his young son (Kuura Rossi) and estranged wife (Ilona Chevakova). Tuomas (Linnonmaa) remains a free-spirited rock’n’roll wannabe, imagining life a non-stop party and sex with his wife to be far more spectacular than it is. By far the most interesting character development involves Niklas, aka ‘Nippe’ (Hirviniemi), who is sensing that his latent bisexuality may finally need acknowledging.

To get Antti some action, they decide that a singles cruise is the best option. Clearly, the film was conceived and greenlit pre-COVID while somewhat ironically, was one of the few that completed principal shooting during the pandemic. On the high seas, and with Antti’s senile father (Pertti Sveholm) doin’ alright with the ladies...to a point, the lovely Pilve (Pihla Maalismaa) falls for Antti; Tuomas almost scores with two Swedish poledancing influencers; and, Nippe goes full-Winslet with a handsome steward (Eino Heiskanen) in the cargo hold. 

Much of Class Reunion 3 is very beautiful to look at, with Harlin employing DOP Matti Eerikäinen to fill the screen with eye-popping colour and opulent sets, often bathed in smoky sunlight. It is a lot of effort to capture glistening gold fountains of urine or a shit-smeared bedroom wall, but this is where the Reunion films make their money (and likely a hefty sum for the director). There is a fun through-line in nostalgia, with oddly-placed but warmly recognisable references to the Village People, The Love Boat, The Shining and, rather distastefully, Carl Douglas’ gimmick-hit Kung-Fu Fighting. Just as much fun is had in spotting Harlin’s nods to his own career highlights, with none-too-subtle shout-outs to Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2.

Every repugnant moment and non-PC aside seems so calculated to offend as to make the very effort to upset redundant. Instead, there’s a goofy charm to the antics of the three friends; such is the level of their blokish idiocy, the joke is mostly on them. And when it’s not, the barbs are aimed at the most deserving - vulgar tourists, boorish stepdads, shrill social media types. This isn’t uncharted territory for Harlin - with shock comic Andrew Dice Clay, he upset everybody in 1990 with The Adventures of Ford Fairlane - and watching him once again indulge in humour puerile and extreme will be a guilty pleasure for many.

THE DEEP HOUSE

Stars: Camille Rowe, James Jagger, Eric Savin and Carolina Massey.
Writers: (French) Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury; (English) Julien David, Rachel Parker.
Directors: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

What do you call two internet influencers at the bottom of a lake? If you answered, “A good start”, you’ll likely find some dark-hearted glee amongst the legit chills in The Deep House, the latest from horror cinema’s most promising new directors of the ‘00s, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.

Brattish Urbex YouTuber Ben (James Jagger) has convinced his gf Tina (Camille Rowe) to travel the European countryside, exploring society’s forgotten relics, the kind that often hold supernatural potential. Ben is the sort of boyfriend who enjoys frightening Tina in abandoned mansions, because that’s what earns likes and shares on his travel site; on more than one occasion, Tina justifiably mutters, “You’re so annoying.” 

Their latest destination is a submerged home deep in a remote French lake. Led there by Pierre (Eric Savin), that most dangerous of horror tropes - the ‘mysterious local’ - Ben and Tina (with their underwater drone camera, ‘Tom’, as in ‘peeping’) are soon exploring the murky depths yet oddly pristine corridors of Montegnac House. The setting is pure ‘haunted estate’, but the claustrophobic intensity of scuba diving and the constant ticking-clock that is the oxygen reader exponentially increases the tension.

When their debut 2007 work À l'intérieur (Inside) was judged amongst the best of the new wave of French ‘hardcore horror’ films, the sheer brutality and filmmaking bravado of Bustillo and Maury earned them critical bouquets and cult status (both of which were less forthcoming with the arty hollowness of their 2011 follow-up, Livide). 

With The Deep House, they embrace a more barebones aesthetic; a first-person immediacy, the kind of filmmaking usually associated with the ‘found footage’ genre. Go-pros, drone lensing, body-cams, hi-tech mask-mics - the cutting edge tools of the video adventurer are used to record a fateful expedition, an undertaking filled with the kind of shocking revelations and otherworldly vistations that, ironically, would have ensured Ben the social media eyeballs he craved.

In the 14 years since they burst onto the scene, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have only improved as cinema craftspeople. With almost an hour of its 83 min story spent underwater, the directors and their DOP Jacques Ballard were submerged for 33 production days, capturing Hubert Pouille’s detailed production design and Ilse Willcox’s set decoration with consummate artistry. That The Deep House manages to be a white-knuckle ghost story as well seems like a value-added bonus.

INFERNO WITHOUT BORDERS

With Charlotte Epstein, Chels Marshall, Dan Morgan, Gavin & Leanne Brook, Glenn Willcox, Graham Parr, Jane Whyte, John Merson, Julie & Jo Berchu, Khloe Syllebranque, Stuart Robb, Noel Webster (aka, Uncle Nook), Tassin Barnard and Tom Butler.
Co-director: Sophie Lepowic.
Director: Sandrine Charruyer.

Screening with BLACK SUMMER as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival at Cinema Nova on August 1. Check with venue for screening details.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

The cataclysmic devastation wrought by the bushfires that swept across Australia in the summer of 2019-2020 was a once-in-a-generation event that was foreseen and avoidable, posits Sandrine Charruyer’s understated but enraging documentary, Inferno Without Borders.

Responsible for 18 million hectares of charred landscape, 2779 destroyed homes, 1 billion stock and wildlife deaths and the taking of 34 human lives, the tragedy is revisited through the eyes of those whose futures were forever changed by the disaster. But in addition to acknowledging the human impact of those hellish weeks, Charruyer and co-director Sophie Lepowic argue that 200 years of mismanagement of our unique bushland in the hands of white colonists fuelled an inferno that led to what would become an unprecedented level of national grief and horror.

Inferno Without Borders presents evidence that accepted fire control techniques, such as ‘backburning’, employed by modern bush management officialdom, defies the millenia-old understanding that Australia’s indigenous population have regarding the co-existence of fire and country. The documentary allows extraordinary insight into the methodology and benefits of the ‘cultural burn’, a slower, surface-level reduction of the dry-leaf fuel that does not render the soil beneath devoid of moisture. 

The practice has long been a traditional part of Aboriginal lore, a skill that allows for the land to retain its life-giving properties and for the fauna to co-exist with fire, instead of succumbing to its rage. Charruyer speaks with elders, traditional bush management consultants and current land owners who have all recognised the holistic relationship between man and country that can be derived when the respect and understanding of those who have lived the land longest is embraced.

Inferno Without Borders is also deeply affecting when it addresses the current incarnation of white settler politics and colonial mismanagement. The Morrison government’s blinkered stand on global warming, ongoing coal industry reliance and misguided faith in dated bushcare policies are exposed, again. While the production pulls up just shy of laying the blame for the 2019-20 bushfires at the feet of conservative politics, it leaves no doubt as to how destructive nature will become should the Federal Government continue to defy both indigenous culture and modern science.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON: NEVER GIVE IN

Featuring: Sir Alex Ferguson, Cathy Ferguson, Jason Ferguson, Mark Ferguson, Darren Ferguson, Gordon Strachan, Archie Knox, Ryan Giggs and Eric Cantona.
Writer: Mark Monroe
Director: Jason Ferguson

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Lately a wave of British sports documentaries have offered fly-on-the-wall insight into the personalities and dramas of premier league football. Some are the cinema of a club’s marketing division, notably the fan-service Liverpool FC pic, The End of The Storm, but most have been surprisingly revealing - Amazon’s All Or Nothing, about the Mourinho era at Tottenham Hotspurs, and Netflix’s Sunderland ‘Til I Die, a heartbreaking look at the inner turmoil of a great club in freefall, are two of the best.

Stemming from the UK’s life-governing passion for football but taking an altogether more personal approach is Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In. England’s greatest ever manager, Ferguson retired from the role at Manchester United in 2013, after a 37 year reign that oversaw the emergence of the club as a global football giant; in his wake were 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two UEFA Champions League titles.

In 2018, he collapsed at home, and was found to have five blood clots on his brain, a condition that ends the life of about 80% of sufferers. He would regain consciousness and ultimately recover, but Alex Ferguson was a changed man. He realised how much he cherished his past; not only the incredible football legacy he forged, but his working class parents, Scottish seaside upbringing and the origins of his core values.

The title sounds a bit rah-rah sporty, but Never Give In is, in fact, a very emotional story steeped in the universal themes of family, memory and destiny. Directed by son Jason, who was so moved by his father’s hospital melancholy that he initiated the production, the film is a portrait of not only the great manager’s glory days (his hatrick on debut for his local team, Rangers FC; the 1999 UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich, believed to be one of the greatest football wins in the sport’s history); it also about an old man taking stock of a life well lived.

Much of the footage is archival, as is to be expected; this was the United of Cantona, Beckham, Schmeichel - some of the most photographed sportsmen in history - and the change room and onfield action is seamlessly woven into the narrative. However, it is the to-camera interviews - with wife, Cathy; sons Mark and Jason; those he mentored, like Gordon Strachcan and Ryan Giggs; and, of course, the man himself - that sets it apart from other recent real-world accounts of top tier world football. 

Never Give In is less about the day-to-day anxiety of being at the pinnacle of a sport, more about the simple complexities of a man that helped him stay there for four decades.

SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY

Stars: LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, Khris Davis, Sonequa Martin-Green and Ceyair J. Wright, Steven Yeun, Sarah Silverman and Zendaya.
Writers: Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler, Terence Nance, Jesse Gordon and Celeste Ballard.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

Director Malcolm D. Lee’s amped-up odyssey through Warner Bros. licensed property goldmine subs in LeBron James for Michael Jordan as the NBA superstar zapped into a ‘toon netherworld, but in every other respect Space Jam: A New Legacy is a just a fresh coat of CGI-paint on the 25 year-old concept. ‘You Do You’ is the meaningful thematic depth of the studio's literally on-brand reboot, and that will be fine for the family audience drawn to this mostly fun, often frantic romp.

In a brief prologue, tweenage LeBron gets a talking-to when his coach catches him distracted by the latest handheld tech - a Nintendo Gameboy (aaww...). From that moment on, vidgames were out, replaced by life lessons learnt through the prism of achieving basketball greatness. That proves a problem when adult LeBron’s middle-child Dom (Cedric Joe) excels at game design and is meh about basketball (though he designs a basketball game, oddly). 

A trip to Warners to hear a pitch from two execs (played by in-house HBO stars Steven Yeun and Sarah Silverman) turns incredible when LeBron and Dom are digitized and kidnapped by the evil algorithm, Al G. Rhythm (a hit-&-miss Don Cheadle) and cast into vastness that is ‘The Warner’s Serververse’. It is inside this extraordinary vision of a digital galaxy that Space Jam 2021 hits its stride; planets repping such WB profit centres as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and DC Comics are superbly-realised concepts.

In line with the ‘95 original, LeBron must collect and coach the misfit Looney Tunes team and defeat Al G. Rhythm’s bad guys in a ball game for very high stakes. Lee and his six screenwriters (!!) take a little too long getting to the big game, although there are fun moments along the way that allow for time in both ‘classic’ animation mode (beautiful to watch) and updated 3D CGI (remember when they made Homer Simpson 3D? It’s just as disappointing here).

When Jordan teamed with Bugs Bunny in 1995, the stable of Warners’ animated characters had stagnated. The project was initiated to give that rascally rabbit, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote a fiscally advantageous jolt; it was directed by ad-guy Joe Pytka, a commercials and music vid director, before and since. The studio paid big bucks for an extended Bill Murray cameo and Seinfeld’s Wayne Knight, but there are no similar comic-relief/fallback players in 2021.  

Instead, the Warners’ ‘toon ensemble enlists all their studio buddies to bolster box office potential, and herein lies the unexpected joy for film buffs. The last thing one expects to see in your Bugs Bunny cartoon are supremely silly and very funny riffs on Mad Max Fury Road, The Matrix or Casablanca, or a barrage of back catalogue faces (The Herculoids!! The freaking Herculoids!!) When gathered for the final match, the Warner Bros properties are a sight to behold; looking past the foreground action to discover another great WB character becomes second-nature. Parents will have fun on the drive home explaining the cultural significance of The Droogs from Kurick’s A Clockwork Orange.

While Space Jam: A New Legacy doesn’t come within a stuttering pig of the live-action/animation genre’s high-water mark, Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the tech is of such a standard in this day and age there is no doubt that LeBron (by far the least animated presence in the movie, in every sense) is interacting alongside his co-stars.

WEREWOLVES WITHIN

Stars: Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Catherine Curtin, Wayne Duvall, Harvey Guillén, Rebecca Henderson, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins, Glenn Fleshler.
Writer: Mishna Wolff.
Director: Josh Ruben

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

A proposed pipeline creates divisions within the small town of Beaverfield and a snowstorm traps its residents together inside the local inn, all within the zippy first act of Werewolves Within. The newly-arrived forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Milana Vayntrub), must try to keep the peace and uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature that begins terrorizing the community in director Josh Ruben’s spin on that most precarious of sub-genres, the feel-good horror romp.

Keeping that peace is a lot harder said than done - just about everyone in the snowbound township has a beef with each other. Hillbilly mechanics, environmental scientists, nature-be-damned capitalists, conservative suburbanites and the only same-sex couple in the village end up stuck together in the cosy bed-&-breakfast, with not only a rampaging lycanthrope but also a gun-toting mountain man to deal with.

Ruben returned to his rural roots to tell this story; from the press notes, he grew up in the in and around a landscape just like the setting for Werewolves Within. He clearly loves this milieu and loves these characters, but he’s also got in scriptwriter Mishna Wolff (yep, that’s her name) a wordsmith that can supply the ensemble with crackling dialogue and a very funny, twisty narrative, the best of it’s kind since Knives Out.

Sam Richardson steps up to likable leading man status after his sidekick stints, notably in Veep, and he shares a lovely chemistry with the cherubic Milana Vayntrub. The small-town setting, trope subversion, expertly-etched bit players and zippy camerawork make this the best Edgar Wright film Edgar Wright didn’t make; it’d fit very nicely alongside any of the Cornetto trilogy, especially Hot Fuzz. 

In werewolf movie history, it’s got less hairy, bone-cracking transformation moments than classics like The Howling or An American Werewolf in London, but that seems deliberate; as the title suggests, Werewolves Within is less about the monster manifested and more about the beast within us all. On its own terms, it’s hugely enjoyable and certainly earns its place amongst the best of the genre.

LISEY'S STORY

Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Joan Allen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dane DeHaan, Ron Cephas Jones and Sung Kang.
Writer: Stephen King, based on his novel.
Director: Pablo Larraín

Eight episode limited series; screening on AppleTV+.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

From source material that Stephen King cites as his most personal novel comes a work that feels like an arthouse, post-horror spin on the tropes and themes favoured by the author. It’s the ‘arthouse’ and ‘post-horror’ elements that explain the presence of star Julianne Moore and Chilean director Pablo Larraín, both of whom wield executive producer might (with producer J.J. Abrams also weighing on) on the AppleTV+ limited series, Lisey’s Story. 

Allowing the most successful author of all time to script every installment of the 8-episode arc may have proven one creative visionary to many. Everyone involved seems determined to draw something deep and meaningful out of the King bestseller and craft a work of precise beauty, layered plotting and dark psychology. And while moments of Lisey’s Story convey all those things, it’s never wholly convincing or, more’s the concern, compellingly scary. Compared to recent adaptations of the author’s work, it represents a marked improvement over CBS’ ill-conceived reworking of The Stand, but falls well shy of last year’s HBO stunner, The Outsider. 

King’s novel was published in 2006, written while recuperating; one account says it was pneumonia, the other complications from his being struck by a van in 1999. The writer’s wife Tabitha took advantage of her husband’s downtime and cleaned up his office, packing many of his half-works and scribblings into boxes. King imagined this is how his workspace would look after he died, an image from which his most heartfelt narrative grew.

The utterly committed Moore plays Lisey, the widow of publishing phenom Scott Landon (Clive Owen), who was struck down by an assassin’s bullet two years prior. While continuing to struggle with her grief, she also wrangles her relationship with her sisters, the short-fused Darla (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the often catatonic Amanda (Joan Allen). At the same time, her late husband’s scumbag colleague, Professor Dashmiel (Ron Cephas Jones) wants Scott’s unpublished writings and acquires the services of Landon’s most unstable superfan, Jim ‘Dandy’ Dooley (a legitimately unhinged Dane DeHaan; pictured below) to convince Lisey to give them up.

Beyond these real world concerns are the realms of imagination and fantasy that symbolise Scott’s memories. The murky psyche of the late author is represented by a creepy aquatic amphitheatre known as ‘Boo’ya Moon’, populated by a shrieking Lovecraftian giant formed from howling humans and home to Amanda in her worst moments. Lisey begins to understand her husband’s sad past, brought to life in horrific flashbacks to Scott’s boyhood abuse at the hands of his father (an unrecognizable Michael Pitt). With that insight comes the ability to travel between worlds, giving Lisey control of a new destiny, albeit one that walks a dark path filled with physical terrors and raw memories.

Pablo Larrain draws superbly etched character work out of his female leads (Jackie, 2016; Ema, 2019; the soon-to-be-released Spencer) and his work with Moore excels at exploring the sadness and longing in Lisey. But King’s fantasy/horror elements prove altogether more challenging for the director; he stumbles in his conjuring of menace and foreboding, often too enthralled by image over substance (the usually reliable DOP Dharius Khondji proving another overqualified hired hand not in tune with the material).

Lisey’s Story is the end result of a lot of mismatched top-tier talents, although crucial shortcomings fall largely at the feet of writer King. Moore and especially Owen gurgle out his dialogue, which is often not dialogue at all but repetitive cues that infer meaning while actually having none (“Babyluv?”, “Babyluv…”). That it remains watchable at all, and there are moments (mostly from DeHaan as the most celebrated of King’s archetypes, the ‘crazed fan’) that are certainly watchable, Lisey’s Story is a textbook case of its parts being greater than its whole.

CLAW

Stars: Chynna Walker, Richard Rennie, Mel Mede, Ken ’Gabby’ Mertz and Roger the Raptor.
Writer: Gerald Rascionato and Joel Hogan
Director: Gerald Rascionato

WORLD PREMIERE: Byron Bay Underground Film Festival, Saturday May 22 at 8.30pm. Tickets available at the official festival website.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Eliciting the same thrills as the best moments from Jurassic Park and capturing the endearing buddy-comedy chemistry of cult fave Tremors, Claw proves a surefire crowd-pleaser. Clearly made with an un-ironic appreciation for the creature features of yesteryear (ie, the 90s) and a degree of skill that elevates the small scale production into something very big, director Gerald Rascionato’s monster-movie lark deserves global genre festival attention ahead of a long shelf life via whichever smart streamer acquires it.

Rascionato and co-writer Joel Hogan understand that the hard exposition work has already been done by Messrs Chrichton and Spielberg, so next-to-no time is spent on any of that ‘mosquito in amber’ malarkey (some razzle-dazzle gene-splicing graphics behind the opening credits suffices). Instead, their script invites the audience immediately into the friendship of Julia (Chynna Walker) and her bestie Kyle (Richard Rennie), deep in desert highway territory on their way to her big stand-up comedy break in LA. 

Circumstances dictate that they must spend the night with ghost town loner Ray (Mel Mede), an adventure that spins out of control when that most cinematic of prehistoric villains, the velociraptor (credited as ‘Roger the Raptor’), escapes from the confines of a nearby crazy scientist (Ken ’Gabby’ Mertz). The narrative proceeds to careen from one near-death escape to another, with just enough breathing space between the action to maintain audience empathy for the protagonists.

In a star-making turn, Walker’s small frame but strong physical presence is a major asset to the production; her confrontations with ‘Roger’ are legitimately thrilling. More importantly, the actress has a winning on-screen vibe with Rennie, who slots into the ‘damsel in distress’ role with endearing flair. Some of the script’s best moments involve the pair’s initial distrust of Mede’s Ray, recalling the ‘stereotype deconstruction’ genre comedy of 2010’s Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and are indicative of the smarter-than-usual investment that Hogan and Rascionato have written into their B-movie concept.

The director also takes cues from Spielberg’s other great monster movie Jaws, keeping his villain a growling presence largely in the shadows for much of the film’s first half. When unleashed, however, ‘Roger’ relentlessly pursues our heroes more in line with a Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers type. The effects team, supervised by industry veteran Steve Clarke, have crafted a top-tier CGI character that is seamlessly inserted into the action.

CENTRAL PARK

Stars: Justiin A. Davis, Grace Van Patten, Deema Aitken, Ruby Modine, Guillermo Arribas, Michael Lombardi, Sarah Mezzanotte, Jordyn DiNatale, Marina Squerciati, Malika Samuel, Nicole Balsam, David Valcin and Justin Reinsilber.
Writer/Director: Justin Reinsilber

Now streaming in Australia and New Zealand on Fetch, iTunes, Google Play and YouTube.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

From the opening frames of Justin Reinsilber’s slasher redux Central Park, one senses that the writer-director knows his genre tropes to the letter. A gentle camera pan across the New York skyline, followed by a slow zoom into the lush, green lungs of the metropolis, the serenity of the images made boisterous by a grab-bag of ambient city sound effects...the year could be 1980, and Joe Spinell’s ‘maniac’ could be sharpening his scalpel just out frame.

Which suggests that Central Park is just another fanboy homage to those slice-and-dice VHS rentals, a film that would play just as well (probably, better) in the pan-&-scan format, peppered with snowy scratches growing deeper with every roll over an uncleaned VCR head. But feature debutant Reinsilber has several years worth of variations on the kids-in-the-woods narrative on his mind and drags his teen blood-bags into at least the first decade of the 2000s. His narrative references (many times over) the Bernie Madoff scandal and, in a heartfelt moment only a true New Yorker could fathom, an orphaned teenager’s grief over 9/11.

Beats more familiar with 90s-style ‘masked killer’ slashers (Scream, 1996; I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1997) provide the framework. The social standing of preppy rich-kid Harold (Justiin A. Davis) is taking a beating after it’s revealed his father has Ponzi-ed the hell out NYC’s wealthiest, most of whom have kids in H’s class. With his hot socialite gf Leyla (Grace Van Patten), her bestie Sessa (Ruby Modine), doper Mikey (Deema Aitken), third wheel Donna (Malika Samuel) and bro’ dude Felix (Guillermo Arribas), he heads deep into Central Park to smoke and drink his blues away.

The film’s raison d'être is to kill off the rich kids, of course, and there is some tension created in trying to deduce which of these brats will emerge mostly intact. To his credit, Reinsilber’s script has ambition’s beyond blood’n’gore (though visual and sound effects departments deliver in that regard); he weaves initially ambiguous subplots (a school teacher and his wife; two cranky veteran cops) into a third act resolve that has a genuine element of surprise. This extends to not one but two mysterious figures in the park, with their identities and motives intertwined, ultimately providing further moments of unexpected plotting. The ending plays like a franchise kicker, but not in the manner usually associated with slasher pics.   

Ironically, contemporary elements undo some of Reinsilber’s good work. Mobile phones play too big a part in plot developments, either found coincidentally or not used when they should be. Credibility is also stretched when one recalls that all this carnage is happening in Central Park, not the Appalachian Trail; running 50 feet in any direction means you’ll find a path, possibly some people, maybe a street. And when Nicole Balsam’s park patrol cop says it’s been a quiet night about 70 minutes into the film, one wonders where the f*** she’s been.

A final mention must be made of Eun-ah Lee’s cinematography, which recaptures the rich, dark shadows and warm colours of the New York City we know and love from when films were shot on film.

CENTRAL PARK - Trailer from Jinga Films on Vimeo.