Fashionista

Rare sub 5 score for me. Art for the sake of art.

Empty. Takes a theme/concept and just tries to justify an "art" film or "psychological thriller" out of it. And this is where the crux lies...film has no idea what it wants to be.

Writing around a Mcguffin. The writing doesn't carry the story. So the director just tries to create an almost Hitchcock paranoia to the film. Mangles all the cuts together. Flipping in and out of time and scene with no real direction other than to artificially create confusion. You suspect the director is trying to show mental health issues by way of random scene cuts, but ultimately fails.

Anyway, at about the 1h30m point, the film way overstays its welcome, delves into some over the top "artistic" representation of mental health issues, and just loses any semblance of crafting anything out of the previous 1.5 hours. It almost feels like the writers and directors give up.

What is really troubling is that the movie focuses on a current overly dramatic trauma as being the cause of mental health issues rather than trauma during formative years. The main character obviously has mental health issues throughout, but the writers choose to completely ignore what formed these issues in the first place.

And finally, the ending is just devoid of humanity.

I read another review where the reviewer was telling us how good and strange the movie is ... but only gave it 5 out of 10. Which is kind of strange, because the things he was admiring, are objectively good. So while I am giving this movie the full score for its scope and for the fact it does not take any prisoners and dares to go places others are not going, I do understand that this won't be for everyone - in fact, quite a few will not like this.

That doesn't mean that the movie is bad, quite the opposite. It is slow (so keep that in mind) and it does seem to switch gears halfway through. The first half being almost about something else. But not really, because it is a setup. And it is also allowing for repeat viewings. There is so much to discover and there are so many questions left for the viewer to answer for themself. If you like that concept and like being challenged, like a movie that works with images/colors and knows the craft of direction and mystery storytelling, this is the movie to watch for you

A woman (Amanda Fuller) who uses clothes as an emotional crutch discovers her life is not as ideal as she thought...

Director Simon Rumley has assembled a small stable of actors well-known for their recent horror contributions. We have both Alex Essoe ("Starry Eyes", "Tales of Halloween") and the perennial favorite Ethan Embry ("Late Phases", "Devil's Candy"). Leading the way is Amanda Fuller (Rumley's "Red, White and Blue", "Starry Eyes", "Cheap Thrills", and more recently "Last Man Standing"). If for no other reason, this cast makes the film worth a watch.

The counterbalance is Eric Balfour, a man with very wolflike features, which makes him perfect as the seductive third party to lure in Fuller's character. Balfour was in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but interestingly enough also appeared in "Can't Hardly Wait" with co-star Embry. Frankly, Balfour's list of horror credits being so short is a surprise, as he has exactly the right look for it.

The cinematography has a strange, unnatural color palette, which seems to be Rumley's trademark. He (or cinematographer Milton Kam) used a similar device in "P is for Pressure". Perhaps not coincidentally, "Pressure" also had a certain plot element revolving around fashion / modeling. So is this another trademark of Rumley's: the love of clothes? Like the characters in "Fashionista", does he have a "special connection to clothes"? Well, without the addiction or running naked through stores, of course.

The film in general is quite good, though it does take a bit to get going. If you watch only the first half, you get a story about a second-hand store and infidelity. But it shifts gears in the second half to addiction and even darker themes, clearly treading into horror territory. We even get some interesting visual nods – a "Tenebrae" poster, and a "stitch woman" in a dream, which is unlike anything seen in film (the closest that comes to mind is "May").

"Fashionista" screened July 29, 2017 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. It is not the most conventional of horror stories, but that may be its strength. Simon Rumley went quickly from being a new face to being on the front lines for the next generation of genre fans. This film clearly adds to his already notable resume.

It is low budget? Yes. But is it wildly ambitious and creative with its execution and how it approaches a typical story structure? Yes it sure is. What it manages to do right it does it very well. Plus I'm always a sucker for a good Lubbock, Texas shout-out! The montages are both intense yet sentimental. It has a very definite style and feels like it is influenced by something but for the life of me I cannot figure out what. That is an accomplishment in and of itself, because how can something be influenced seemingly by itself? Who knows? I don't know, but I like it. The story is somewhere between obsession and mysterious circumstance mixed in with a mental collapse. The pacing is incredibly unique, you never know what is going to happen next. It keeps you on your toes. Along with an excellent use of soundtrack the camera seems to me to move just when I wanted it too yet without feeling redundant like someone just went through the motion of filming proper coverage of the scene to have options in editing. A great example of this, no spoilers, is a tense scene near the end that builds with the hypnotic beat keeping focus on one static long shot for an intense build, the scene breaks up into a completely different direction than you expect, the characters reactions perhaps real in an unexpected sort of way, then it goes somewhere else completely and finally is all fizzled out. Yet it all somehow works... for the most part. The acting is not the best in places but in other places it is fine. Some scenes seem very unnatural (like the threesome, I'm real life she would've stop it and went "wait a second, ago on earth is this old lady") but the movie always plays it safe when it comes to how far each scene goes. There are excellent montages and a surprisingly good soundtrack of low-cost songs that fit very nice with the style and add to some truly incredible moments. Overall the movie is very inconsistent, with a few flaws that are hard to overlook but it is well worth it if you are looking for something different. I would definitely recommend it as something new and interesting to sink into for an hour and 40 minutes. Don't regret it, just enjoy the movie.

Very confusing and bizarre film. The cinematography looked bad. All the characters wasn't likeable. The only thing was Alex Essoe. Terrible film.