littlemankazoo

The strongest thing I can attribute to Surviving Me: The 9 Circles of Sophie is that it most certainly has a voice behind its screenplay, directions and thoughts it intends to provoke. That voice is Leah Yanaton, and throughout her talk afterwards it was clear just how passionate she was for the art of film, poetry, and showing her vision. Through what she described as plenty of turmoil in her own life, multiple incidents of sexual assault and harassment included, her voice very clearly was injected-into the ideas and characters presented in Surviving Me, which certainly makes it a loud film and one with clear intentions.

All of that said...I cannot truly will myself to call it a good film, as it has so many issues riddling it that it ends up as a cinematic equivalent of a megaphone; the words and message is most certainly loud, but is it clear? Does it work cohesively as one thought or piece? In my mind, the answer is a less overwhelmingly-positive one.

Surviving Me is an independent production, very clearly, and thus many of the pitfalls of that fact come with it. The camerawork is rather iffy, at times coming off as something out of television. It has a quality of cheapness to it, which cannot be avoided when attributing its lower budget, so that is understood at the very least. That said, plenty of very cheap-looking independent films have transcended these budgetary constraints and excelled through its content. Its editing, its characters, etc etc.

The problem becomes, however, that the film also has issues in these regards just as well.

The editing is excruciatingly choppy at times, with certain particular points like the sex scenes becoming very difficult to keep track of or view due to the quick cutting and lack of cohesiveness. Certain continuity issues arise through these cuts, which only made the issues that much more glaring to me as an audience member and frustrated me because a good scene could certainly be assembled from what was filmed, but it simply didn't work for me.

The characters, aside from the eponymous Sophie herself, also feel very unfortunately underdeveloped. In fact, and I will be openly honest about this, I almost feel that all of Yanaton's characters here are treated as sex objects without self-awareness. Leah Yanaton's talk regarding her dismay at seeing women turned-into sex objects in the early 21st century was an argument and viewpoint I certainly sympathized with and agreed with...but on that very same token, I found it contradictory to hear that viewpoint so stressed after seeing a piece in which a young adult male is treated as a bumbling male companion that is appreciated but criticized for his lack of sexual prowess and a young adult female who's only truly memorable character trait was her sexually-active lifestyle and constant references to sex.

Perhaps this was part of Yanaton's point? Perhaps it was an intentional decision in the writing stage to display the excess and over-fixation of society on the sexual lifestyle and Sophie's losing of herself into the very same cultural obsession...but for myself at least, I did not find that idea stressed enough for the excess and lack of character for these two examples to be enough to forgive it as artistic direction. It struck me as shallow character writing, and frankly, contradictory to the intended message of the film regarding the objectification of female and male bodies. I am not bothered in the slightest by an abundance of sexual activity in a film, even when you make it a central point of a character's personality, but when it comes at the expense of character and contrasts with your film's message...lines become fuzzy, messages become lost, and my intrigue becomes confusion and skepticism.

As I said before, I think Yanaton has a very clear vision and a very loud voice. This film was clearly from the bottom of her heart, and she seemed like a fantastic woman and a passionate screenwriter. However, I think what hurts this film most in my mind is the confusing, mixed messages it sends across. Much as I can hear what the intention was from Leah after the film is over...the message itself gets lost amidst confusing editing, weak characters, and cinematic values that are rather concerning and contradictory to the film's intended meaning.

A strong voice and extremely good intentions, but a very messy and unfortunately confusing piece in the end...

Take the most ornate, well-lit art house film.

Cross-breed that with the most off-the-wall, gritty, grindhouse pulp horror film you've ever seen.

Now add NICOLAS CAGE to that equation.

Boil that cauldron of insane ingredients together, you get "MANDY", one of the most visually spectacular films I think I have ever seen, and one of the wildest rides I have had the pleasure to take in this spectacular year of great cinema.

Choosing where to begin, I find myself inclined to talk about the direction of this, by sophomore director Panos Cosmatos ("Beyond The Black Rainbow"). This film is every bit of "style-over-substance", but it's spectacle is more than enough to overpower any desire of meaning you seek in this. This is a RIDE.

Bright neon against thick fogs of smoke. Faces changing all in one shot. Heavy Metal-style animated sequences. Nicolas Cage having a CHAINSAW DUEL.

Cosmatos throws every single possible thing at the wall in this film, all in its pulpy, gritty, insane, bloody perfection and imperfection...and by the end of it, nearly all of those fluids stick.

The score is done by the late and dearly missed Johann Johannsson. His work here is SPECTACULAR, crafting a hybrid of 80's-era synth straight from groundhouse horror films and a hard rock undertone that make this the ultimate backdrop for the insane imagery we witness throughout. From minute one, this film ENVELOPS you in its sound, in all its aggressive and mystifying glory.

The performances are all perfect for its pulpy, over-the-top tone. Nicolas Cage, for all of his negatives, is absolutely beastly in this and will make you cry, make you laugh and make you absolutely terrified to even look at him. I'd dare say this is career-reigniting for him, and no man in Hollywood deserves it more. He sells his soul to this role. Andrea Riseborough is also phenomenal in what she manages to get in, along with the rest of a bonkers cast that sells this world and tone better than anyone has in recent memory.

This film is available on digital right now, but if this is in theaters anywhere close to you, it is WORTH IT to seek this out. This is an otherworldly film that needs to be seen to be believed, and I cannot see anybody leaving this film without their jaw hitting the floor at least once.

I highly recommend you see "Mandy", whether on digital or in theaters, right this second. It is seriously an insane trip of a film, and certainly one of my absolute favorite films of this year thus far.

This is one that you need to SEE to BELIEVE...

What an strangely so-so, oddly-conceived, painfully mixed bag this film is...

"Slice" is the strange story of Small Town, USA...which also happens to harbor various monsters in it, such as ghosts, witches and werewolves. It also runs primarily off of food delivery services, specifically a tiny little pizza place that may very well be the gates to Hell.

...See, from that log line alone, one would be HOOKED to see what goes down in this film, no?...

"Slice" is the writing and directorial debut of Austin Vesely, who previously directed music videos, and also the acting debut of Chance The Rapper, who has worked with Vesely before (And, to be quite honest, is in this film so little it's a wonder why he gets top billing...). While I want to believe this was a concept the two of them dreamed-up one strange night, I cannot be totally sure.

What I CAN be totally sure of is how much this film works and doesn't work is completely inconsistent, which is truly a shame because there's plenty of things I really enjoyed here...and plenty of things that were absolutely dreadful.

"Slice" fancies itself very much in the same threads of a 80's B-movie run amok. Much of the film is very tongue-in-cheek, the world is played for laughs quite often, and the horror is downplayed often to show how ridiculous the story is getting and keeps borrowing strands of other lore to incorporate and stack the strangeness.

In this case, the screenplay is the one to blame, and the screenplay in its content is hardly lacking in quality. Plenty of monster movie lore is touched-up and taken-from to plant the seeds of an interesting world this film can take place in, and for a long while the tone and world really did mesh and created a fun little world to run around in.

The issue becomes clear about halfway through the film, however; the film's script lands about as often as a shotgun hits a rifle target. That's to say, it is ALL OVER the place, scattershot, throws every bullet at every angle, and rarely hits its bulls-eye.

The script feels cobbled-together, constantly trying to balance about five different sub-plots in a run-time that barely qualifies as a feature-length film (82 minutes? Come on now...). Various characters are established and then never seen again, or are woefully underutilized (You cast Joe Keery and Hannibal Burress and use them for 2-3 scenes MAX? C'mon now...).

Add-in that the humor sometimes hits, sometimes does not. There are big laughs in here, but at other times, the script or the actors can't seem to stick the landing and thus creates giant joke bombs where the film truly needs them most. There was clearly a FUNNY script here, but either the talent or revisions let it down.

Speaking of revisions...Good gravy, was the climax of this film ever hacked-apart and cobbled-together. It feels so patchwork and unfinished in how swift they simply try to end the film, I almost wonder if they simply did not have anything left in the budget to complete it. The cinematography was poor, the editing was poor, the makeup and effects were poor...Everything was just noticeably bad, and not something that should've been in a film that (Presumably) was slated for a theatrical release.

The concept also feels very much wasted in such a short film that never delivers on the promise of the premise. We get these opening moments where we are introduced to a world where humans, ghosts and other supernatural creatures co-exist...yet there's not much fun had with that concept beyond a few jokes and the climax, which simply falls flat on its face. An opportunity was missed with a concept this insane and destined to be fun, and it seems only half the fun was had with the idea.

For all things negative that I have to say...there do exist some bright spots to this otherwise disappointing and confusing venture.

The cinematography can actually be quite good at times, particularly when lighting is played with. It almost achieves its desired effect of an 80's B-level schlock film, something akin to 'The Monster Squad' if it were made in 2018. While in some moments the film looks like a TV sitcom, in rare cases I can really admire what work went into the staging.

The score is also nothing to shrug at, as its use of Synth somewhat works in its favor as another 80's callback. Clearly there was inspiration here, and it mostly works in the film itself. If it had made itself more prevalent, perhaps the score could've saved some more face.

I also can't help but touch-upon the premise again and the world this film "tries" to create, despite its minimal effort. It really is an oddly FUN, weird world it builds for us early on. Much as little is ever developed with it, I really would've loved to see a better writer and a better director and a bigger budget tackle it.

But in the end...this film is a mess. A mess of good things, but a mess of bad things just as well. A great score, great cinematography and a strangely interesting concept are counteracted by a poor script, a terrible climax, and technical aspects that seem just as inconsistent as this entire film seems to be.

For me, I almost dare to give this film extra points because I actually enjoyed some parts of it enough to say I didn't "Hate" it...but at the same time, I know I can't in good conscious recommend it.

It's an ambitious, poorly-executed, disappointing, slightly-interesting mixed bag, for me...