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Julia Sarah Stone
Film Review: THE UNSEEN (Canada 2016) ***1/2
June 29, 2018 June 29, 2018 festreviews 2018 movies, movie, Movie Review	Aden Young, Camille Sullivan, film reviews, geoff redknap, gilbert seah, Julia Sarah Stone, THE UNSEEN
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A man who abandoned his family now risks everything to find his missing daughter, including exposing the secret that he is becoming invisible.
Geoff Redknap
Geoff Redknap, Geoff Redknap
Aden Young, Camille Sullivan, Julia Sarah Stone
THE INVISIBLE MAN would be an alternative title to the occasionally inventive thriller called THE UNSEEN. It smartly encompasses several genres like sci-fi/horror, (yes, even) gay parenting, thriller, family drama, daughter/father relationship and crime noir and succeeds in each.
THE UNSEEN begins as a family drama. A separated husband and wife who obviously still care for each other but do not wish to make a go again for obvious reasons have a problem daughter, Eva (Julia Sarah Stone) who is living with her mother.
As the film opens, the daughter, Eva is about to take a trip with her friend, against the wishes of the mother, Darlene ( Camille Sullivan). It is revealed that Darlene is a lesbian mother, raising Eva with her female partner. The audience takes it to be the reason the father, Bob (Aden Young) and Darlene are apart. It is good to see current films like THE UNSEEN accept gay relationships as a given, quite unlike films of the past decades.
Writer/director Geoff Redkap shifts the story's point of view among the father, mother and daughter, quickly but effective;y, resulting in a film that makes the audience more connected to the characters. THE UNSEEN begins with the mother's, then the father's then occasionally the daughter's points of view on the incidents of the story though the film stays eventually settles on Bob's, though all three are just as valid and interesting.
Bob Langmore is a former hockey player, now a struggling mill worker who years earlier mysteriously abandoned his family and isolated himself in a small northern town. He returns for one last chance, after losing his job in the oil drilling company (one assumes from the surroundings and work description) to reconnect with his troubled daughter Eva (Julia Sarah Stone) but must partner with Crisby (Ben Cotton) a strung-out animal trafficker, to finance the trip. When he discovers Eva is missing, Bob risks everything to find her including exposing the secret that he is becoming invisible.
Director Redknap is fond of ambiguity. The northern town where the film is set is not named though clues are left as to where it might be located. A brief shot of a road sign at one pout in the film lists the town of Kelowna, south of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The history of mental illness in the family also leaves the audience guessing as to which side of the family it comes from or whether it has to do with the invisibility.
The invisibility occurs in stages with the victim suffering in pain. The film's last third turns into action thriller mode with the film ending in a built-up climax.
Redknap creates a good compelling character out of Bob. Bob is an asshole at times in the film, threatening kids or the cops. But he is an asshole the audience will root for. So, when he gains his invisibility powers, the film soars to a new high.
THE UNSEEN is a solid Canadian horror piece. It appears initially to be the run of the mill at the beginning, but giving the film a chance proves Redknap's mettle as a writer and director.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r51Lz5aH8Ks
Full Review: ALLURE (A WORTHY COMPANION) (Canada 2017) **
April 6, 2018 April 6, 2018 festreviews 2018 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized	ALLURE (A WORTHY COMPANION), Carlos Sanchez, Denis O'Hare, Evan Rachel Wood, film reviews, gilbert seah, Jason Sanchez, Julia Sarah Stone
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A house cleaner meets a teenaged girl and convinces her to run away and live with her in secret.
Carlos Sanchez, Jason Sanchez
Evan Rachel Wood, Julia Sarah Stone, Denis O'Hare
ALLURE is the new title of the film A WORTHY COMPANION which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, a title more uplifting given its sombre subject matter.
Montreal-based fine arts photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez's debut (written and directorial) feature is a hard psychological thriller which centres on Laura (Evan Rachel Wood), a thirty-year-old woman, troubled by her past and struggling with a dysfunctional relationship with her father, seeking sexual and emotional fulfillment through a series of failed relationships. However, her life changes when she befriends and convinces an unhappy sixteen-year-old girl, Eva (Julia Sarah Stone) to run away to her house, under the guise of a confidante who wants to help. Although the arrangement initially works, it soon becomes clear that for the young girl to stay and continue satisfying her needs, the older woman will have to employ immoral tactics. Manipulation, denial and co-dependency fuel what ultimately becomes a fractured dynamic that can only sustain itself for so long. Laura also begins sexual advances towards Eva.
But Laura begins getting really obsessive and prevents Eva from leaving the house. The relationship turns out to be something like the Stockholm Syndrome. Apparently, though no details are given, Laura has had the same type of 'stalking' problems before, as her dad, who employs her mentions in the film. The film is both disturbing and engaging though onot always likeable. Both actresses Wood and Stone (who looks a-like a very young Catherine Frot, the French actress) bring compassion to their roles and show their need for normalcy. Unfortunately, as can be seen in the film, this normalcy is not easily to come about and the state of affairs come about from their own personal behavioural flaws.
The film' setting is left vague. Though the wrier/directors are Montrealers, the characters speak fluent English and there is no trace of French. The neighbourhood does look like a typical Montreal neighbourhood though there are no signs in French. The film begins in the fall (judging from the colour of the leaves on the trees) and ends in winter (with snow seen on the ground). It is a school term but nowhere in he film is Eva's school mentioned. Eva's schooling is conveniently left out in the story. Or any of her friends or acquaintances. Does Eva not own a cell phone?
The film suffers from an open ended ending, which for a film like this, one expects some satisfactory closure though one would to be surprised that there isn't one.
ALLURE ends up an ok made, very nasty movie about nasty people dealing with nastiness. The film began with dialogue like: "Fucking faggot!" But one would think that this gay slant nastiness could have been down away with.
Trailer: http://www.eonefilmsmedia.ca/FileBank/Video/2018/91453-Allure%20-%20Canadian%20Domestic%20Trailer%20-%20Theatrical%20-%20Coming%20Soon.mp4
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: A WORTHY COMPANION (Canada 2017) ***
September 5, 2017 festreviews 2017 movies, Movie Review, TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews, Uncategorized	A WORTHY COMPANION, Carlos Sanchez, Denis O'Hare, Evan Rachel Wood, gilbert seah, Jason Sanchez, Julia Sarah Stone, tiff 2017, TIFF movie review
Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.
Plagued by the abuse of her past and the turmoil of failed intimate encounters, Laura struggles to find a lover and a sense of normalcy. Her beacon of hope comes in sixteen year-old Eva, a …See full summary »
Montreal-based fine arts photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez's debut feature is a hard psychological thriller which centres on a 30-year-old woman (Evan Rachel Wood) embarking on an intimate yet ultimately manipulative relationship with a 16-year-old runaway (Julia Sarah Stone).
But the woman, Laura begins getting really obsessive and prevents Eva from leaving the house. The relationship turns out to be something like the Stockholm Syndrome. Apparently, though no details are given, Laura has had the same type of 'stalking' problems before, as her dad, who employs her mentions in the film.
The film is both disturbing and engaging though one can hardly look forward to a satisfactory or happy ending. Both actresses Wood and Stone bring compassion to their roles and show their need for normalcy.
Unfortunately, as can be seen in the film, this normalcy is not easily to come about and the state of affairs come about from their own personal behavioural flaws.
The film suffers from an open ended ending, which for a film like this, one expects some satisfactory closure.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI1bAF6tOdE