Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Epimetheus

Happy Halloween everyone!

We are delighted to announce the release of our next Strange Tale:

EPIMETHEUS

Screenplay by Xander Grant (from a story by Rhys Jones & Xander Grant) and directed by Rhys Jones

Starring: Lucas Eisele (Peter), with the voices of Bethan Leyshon, Matthew Doman, and Hannah Celyn Griffiths


Peter hosts his weekly Un-Boxing Streaming Channel. This week, he has been sent something very special - but would you open the box?

Watch here!


For more information about the project and the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Review: Midsommar (UK Cert 18)

Ari Aster's second film (after the gutwrenching Hereditary) ventures into Wicker Man territory with a nasty but guiltily pleasurable folk horror. 

Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian's (Jack Reynor) relationship is foundering, but- just as Christian gets the nerve to end it- Dani suffers a horrific family tragedy. Lost and grieving, Dani goes with Christian and two of his friends- Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter)- to Sweden, along with their friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) for his home village's once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival. But what should be a summer of fun soon descends into a nightmare as the festivities reveal a darker motive...

This isn't a traditional horror movie. There are several shocking moments of gore and intense violence, but if you're looking for a more jump-scary film, this might not be for you. The film is also slow, deliberate, and takes a long time to get going (which sounds like a criticism, but it isn't). We spend a long time with the characters before they get transplanted into Sweden, which is good- it establishes the characters effectively so, when they do get to Pelle's village and things really start to kick off, the audience has got a sense of who they are and- more crucially- what they may do. 

Florence Pugh's performance is visceral, authentic, and intense. She bears the emotional heavy lifting of the piece, if you will, and is utterly compelling. As tragedy piles on tragedy, she is undoubtedly the one character you're meant to root for and her emotional arc (whilst somewhat predictable) is still satisfying. By the utterly batshit bonkers finale (which again, sounds like a criticism but isn't), Dani isn't the same girl who entered the village at the start and you can't help but have a little twinge of pleasure seeing her change. I believe the word I'm looking for is schadenfreude...

Christian could easily have just come across as an unfeeling douchebag, so it's to Reynor's credit that the character isn't just an absolute tool (which could easily have been the case). True, he's emotionally distant and there are times you wonder how the hell this relationship ever got as far as it did (it's telling that there's no scenes of intimacy between the two; not even a kiss). But in a hamfisted and desultory way, he's trying to be there for Dani. It's just not enough. Again, there's a perverse kind of pleasure seeing what happens to Christian: even if it does involve one of the most bizarre and- frankly- unerotic sex scenes I've seen in a while.

Will Poulter plays Mark as an abrasive asshole who totally disrespects the village, and does it well; such is the performance that you're just waiting for Mark to get his comeuppance (which, of course, does come). If you're used to seeing William Jackson Harper as the nervy Chidi in the frankly brilliant The Good Place, you'll see a different side to him here: Josh is much more laidback, although even he can't resist crossing some lines (for which he duly pays the price). Blomgren's nice-guy Pelle is a lovely contrast to the Americans and never comes off as creepy or deranged. He also seems to genuinely care for Dani, although there's never a hint of impropriety. Whilst the outsiders see barbarity in the festival, he sees it as natural, what they do. There's also some strong performances by Henrik Norlén and Gunnel Fred as village elders Ulf and Siv, who lead the festivities. 

The cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski is sublime. The village and its environs look beautiful and it's interesting to have events that (in traditional horror) would take place in dark places out in the bright sunshine. The script also does something that I like; when the villagers are speaking Swedish to one another, it's not subtitled. We, like the outside characters, are left to intuit what's being said. 

I think I've said more than once on the blog that The Wicker Man (1973) is one of my favourite films, and there's a definite vibe of that film in Midsommar. Outsiders to an otherwise insular community who have their own ways of doing things which seem unusual to those not from there, charismatic leaders, seductive maidens, and a striking ending where things go up in flames... but Midsommar has a style of its own and isn't just a pale rip-off of a superior film. Yes, there are moments where the plot gets predictable but that doesn't really matter as the performances carry those moments. 

A cerebral and visceral horror film, perfect for Halloween. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Cardiff On Film

Cardiff is abuzz at the moment with news that a major thoroughfare in the city has been closed off to allow filming of a feature film. Mark Wahlberg's latest film Infinite has been able to close off a portion of Newport Road for a couple of days in order to film a car-chase sequence. 

Cardiff is becoming very well known as a filming location. Several big-budget TV shows (including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock, and Merlin) have utilised the city onscreen and films are starting to follow suit. 

Here are ten films that have been shot in the Welsh capital.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Opened in 1999, Cardiff's Millennium [now Principality] Stadium is one of Europe's finest sporting arenas (although I might be biased). It's hosted everything from international rugby fixtures and massive concerts, to speedway and monster trucks. Unsurprisingly, it's also in demand as a filming location. The second Kingsman film used the stadium as a holding ground for cages of those infected by Poppy's (Julianne Moore) deadly drugs.

28 Weeks Later (2007)

The Millennium Stadium also appeared in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's sequel to 28 Days Later..., doubling for Wembley Stadium.

Yesterday (2019)

Danny Boyle's musical fantasy, in which aspiring musician Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wakes up one day to find he's the only person on Earth that remembers the Beatles, also used the Principality Stadium as a venue for filming, during Ed Sheeran's record-breaking four-night residency there in June 2018 (Sheeran appears as "himself" in the film)

The Contractor (2007)

The former British Gas offices at Helmont House on Churchill Way (in Cardiff's city centre) have been used on TV a few times (in both Doctor Who and Torchwood), and are used in this Wesley Snipes action thriller. Tez used to work for British Gas and says it was an incredibly surreal day to look out of the window and see Wesley Snipes standing outside work doing fight choreography!

Sword Of The Valiant: The Legend Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight (1984)

Cardiff has not one, but two castles, in the city: there's a large one in the centre of town (home to the Bute family) and there's a smaller one- Castell Coch [the Red Castle], known for its fairytale turrets- on the outskirts of the city at Tongwynlais. Both castles were used for this ripping tale of sword-and-sorcery starring Miles O'Keeffe as Sir Gawain and Sean Connery as the Green Knight. 

A Kiss Before Dying (1991)

Much like some of the other films on this list, you might not expect it to have a Welsh connection. The opening sequence to this crime drama, starring Matt Dillon as a murderous student and Sean Young as both his girlfriend and her twin sister, is set in a steel mill - and was filmed in Cardiff! 

Human Traffic (1999)

OK, so the film is actually set in Cardiff and isn't pretending to be anywhere else - but I couldn't leave it off the list. Justin Kerrigan's cult flick about five friends on a massive weekend features many of Cardiff's pubs and clubs (including the Philharmonic, Club X, Emporium, and what used to be the Firedrake and Firkin [and is now Gassy Jacks]) as their backdrops. 

Solomon & Gaenor (1999)

One of two Welsh-language films to date to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (the other being Hedd Wyn, the 1992 biopic of the eponymous Welsh poet), this romantic drama set in 1911, about a young Jewish man (Ioan Gruffudd) and a young Welsh girl (Nia Roberts) who fall in love, was shot throughout Cardiff. 

Flick (2008)

A one-armed detective is on the track of a 1950s Teddy Boy who was murdered and has been brought back from the dead in the modern day and is out for revenge. Now I've got your attention... this is (believe it or not) the basic premise of David Howard's comedy-horror Flick. And as if this wasn't surreal enough, the one-armed detective is played by Faye Dunaway. Yes, that Faye Dunaway. The film was shot throughout South Wales, including Cardiff. 

Killer Elite (2011)

Dubai, Marrakech, Melbourne... Cardiff? The globetrotting cast of Killer Elite certainly got around! They filmed in the Welsh capital in July 2010, with stars Robert De Niro and Jason Statham seen filming on Windsor Place in the city centre. Filming also took place in the Pontcanna area of the city.

Review: Joker (UK Cert 15)

SPOILER WARNING! This review discusses and/or mentions a few important plot points. If you would prefer not to have these spoiled, please stop reading now and come back once you've seen the film.

Afflicted with a condition which causes sudden and uncontrollable laughter, Arthur Fleck makes his living as a clown, although he aspires to be a stand-up comedian. However, when he is sacked from his job then gets into an altercation with three Wall Street douchebags on the subway, Arthur begins a spiral to becoming... the Joker.  

This film was always going to be a tough sell for me. As I've said in previous reviews, I'm not a massive fan of Joaquin Phoenix so the film already had that going against it. Also, I was wary about any kind of origin story for the character, as the Joker always works better as an enigma, an agent of chaos and anarchy, rather than there being a man with a past behind it (the obvious exception to that is The Killing Joke, but even that's not definitive). So, the film had a bit of an uphill climb before it even started. But I suppose director and co-writer Todd Phillips (The Hangover, Due Date) and co-writer Scott Silver should be congratulated. They've done something I never thought possible: they've made the Joker dull. 

I'll give Phoenix this: his performance as Arthur/Joker is certainly committed. Losing over 50lbs, his body looks ravaged, angular, and frankly unwell. It's a physical transformation up there with Christian Bale's in The Machinist, and it does make for a striking visual image. But the script is bland, tedious, self-important, and over-reliant on Phoenix's tics and tricks which (had they been used sparingly) would have been more effective. Take the laughter, for instance. The first time you hear it, it's unnerving. Not so much, the fifth or sixth. It loses its impact quickly. Similarly with all the dancing; the first time it happens, it's quite striking (although goes on too long). But that is used and overused to the point of absurdity. 

Arthur/Joker describes himself as a "mentally ill loner" but the illness is never specified, and frankly the screenwriters are playing a dangerous game tying mental illness to villainy. Jesus, as if it needs saying, but not everyone with a mental illness is an unhinged obsessive with a streak of sadistic violence lurking just under the surface. See? You've made me go all 'Not all men...' on this issue, Phillips! Similarly, the script goes for the most low-hanging fruit to give some kind of explanation for Arthur's mindset (child abuse), which is frankly insulting. At least they (sort of) undo the 'Arthur-is-Thomas-Wayne's-illegitimate-son' angle which had more than one audience member scoffing with derision (although there's still a maddening hint at the end that it could still be true) and they don't pull a Batman (1989) with having Arthur as the Waynes' killer which looked glaringly like the case at one point.

The main problem I have is that Arthur never feels like the Joker. If you look back at other versions of the character (specifically Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson), there's a tension, a menace, every time they're on the screen. At any moment, they could erupt into an act of hideous violence then continue as if nothing had happened. That danger makes them enthralling. Not once, never once, did I feel that about Phoenix. There was a hint of it in the final scene when he gets on to Murray Franklin's chat-show, but by that point it was too little too late. Phoenix does a better job at the character than Jared Leto did in Suicide Squad, but if that isn't damning him with faint praise, I don't know what is. 

In the press interviews for Joker, one of the main influences that has been talked about a lot is late 70s/early 80s Scorsese, specifically Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, and The King Of Comedy. So it's no surprise that Robert De Niro turns up to try and give the film a bit of legitimacy by having him as talk-show host Murray Franklin who initially mocks Arthur (and even gives him the name 'Joker', although not as a compliment). It's a solid turn by De Niro, but the role of Murray Franklin could have been played by literally any other actor. 

Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) gets massively underused as Sophie, a nascent love interest for Arthur, but there's a clue from the off that things aren't quite right; when Sophie goes to Arthur's door to ask whether he had been following her to work (because nothing says romance like stalking, am I right?), she decides to forgive him this massively creepy behaviour because he's 'funny'. Frances Conroy- another great character actress- is wasted as Arthur's overbearing mother Penny, although she does get one or two good lines, especially one where she asks Arthur 'don't you have to be funny?' to do stand-up. 

The film isn't a complete let-down: there were some bits I liked. The scene where you see why Arthur gets fired (for bringing a gun to a performance at a children's hospital) is well done. I liked Brett Cullen's unexpectedly hard-man turn as Thomas Wayne; Thomas always seems to be presented as a kind of wimpy milquetoast, but here he's got some guts. The Modern Times sequence (where Arthur infiltrates a gala showing of the Chaplin film then confronts Thomas in the men's room) is strong. Plus the sequence towards the end, where he's driven through the rioting streets of Gotham, surveying the madness that he's wrought, is pretty effective. It's just a shame that the 'Kill The Rich'/us-v-them/destroy the 1% now feels a bit like going over old ground; had the film been released a few years ago, say around the time of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it might have felt a bit more relevant.

All said, Joker was a letdown. A few interesting moment shine through amidst the self-indulgent claptrap but they're few and far between. There was no real need for this film to be made at all, and even less need for a sequel. Let this end here. For the love of God, please.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Tez