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Film reviews

They Shot the Piano Player Review

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The focus of music flows with a jazz melody in the introduction of They Shot the Piano Player. The film lays out its investigative foundation in the form of an animation docu-drama. Directed by Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba, the latter is the main writer of They Shot the Piano Player. The film has a direction of narration where one’s attention about jazz music is captured by abackground of interest and diversity. It is set during the Latino musical movement around the Bossa Nova style. A true period piece where the pieces flow smoothly for an articulate purpose.

This animation is one-of-a-kind as it introduces its audience to Jeff Harris (voiced by Jeff Goldblum). Jeff is a music journalist. He dives deep into the evolution of music and cultures and others that inspired how diversity in the genre began grew over the years. His writing and research shifts when he come across the story of Francisco Tenorio Junior, a Brazilian samba-jazz pianist. An artist with a lot going for him who vanished in Buenos Aires in the spring of 1976. The story is one that Jeff gets hooked on.

The film evolves into the creation of fascination when Jeff does interviews for the story. Many of the characters are the real people doing their own voices. The reality of the individuals taking part in the film adds value to the film—it heightens the lavish feel and surrealness of the many moving parts that Jeff comes across. Jeff interviews Malena Barretto (who was close with Francisco), Gilberto Gill (a musician who Franciso knew well) and many others who use their real name. The facts, the research, and the deep digging direction of the film are inspiring. Is there a form of lightness or darkness in the story of why Franciso disappeared though?

They Shot the Piano Player is animation with high quality artwork. Francisco is dead, and Jeff dives deep trying to figureout how he came to his demise. I found that the enticing factor was much of the glamour of the jazz world blended with aspiring animation. Jeff narrates each introduction to many of the moments of his research in this very moving picture. The amazing voice of Goldblum and his delivery of the facts is in tune with the investigative narrative of They Shot the Piano Player.

The focus of what the outcome might be tends to be misconstrued though as the film goes into musical history, cultural backgrounds, and continues to trace back to Francisco. This makes the film feel two-sided. Is the musical research the bigger picture or is it the death of Francisco? There is a track of too much information digging deep where the mind of its audience may feel altered or confused on some levels. Still, it maintains its breathtaking flow of the artistic and the divine. The many political vibes in the era of the Jazz movement and the international background go back and forth and the cleverness of the story is on point. Three out of four stars for They Shot the Piano Player.

Film reviews

Escape Review

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Escape takes place during a beach vacation where many of the women are beautiful. A vacation setting where parties are the main event. It quickly becomes a setting of having to be prepared for death. The film maintains an eerie continuity of direction that moves it forward. Written and directed by Howard J. Ford, Escape is one of those death-trap thrillers. This onethough, is one where it sold me for the first hour and then turned into just a blur for the last thirty-minutes. A blur of over-the-top and grotesque violence, blood-spattering, and disturbing images to keep up in attempting enticement for gore—it does not do any justice to the production.

The film centers on two girls, Karla and Tamsin. Karla is played by Sarah Alexandra Marks and Tamsin is played by Ksenia Islamova. They are two friends on a beach vacation. They make it to their resort, and within moments they are targeted by a sex trafficking organization. Jude (played by Louis James) is the one that targets the girls. The boss of the organization is Andres (played by Sean Cronin). The girls land in paradise only to later find themselves in a jail cell with other girls. Together they all must fight and figure out the captor’s routine to find a chance of fleeing for safety. With the cell being below a mansion many miles away in a desert, it is not an easy task.

The film starts out with that heavy approach of vulnerability. With the girls all talking in the cell and building up a plan they all realize they were captured in the same or similar way. The two lines of survival that spoke to me with Escape were “It’s done or die,” and “Information is key.” Those two quotes are at the core of what is to be accomplished in order to find the routes of making it out alive. The writing here is unsettling. It creates adynamic for the audience to think if the situation is real or not—these events do happen in real-life. Where is the path to fight and run? Are there any sources that can be traced?

The women use their personality and flirtatious attitude to influence the minds of the criminals guarding their cell. Once one task is achieved, the maze of violence emerges. The madness of chases and all kinds of mayhem gets more grotesqueas the storyline progresses. The film thrives primarily on a lot of stabbing and gut punching. Andres begins to lose his mind as he realizes his means of making his money is beginning to backfire, as the girls have learned his territory and methods. For Karla and Tamsin though, they are still vulnerable and limited in their options for escape.

The enticement hits a low point for this film when Escape goes down the path of relying soley on life-and-death writing. Thereis no way to flee while the criminals have control over the property which is hard to navigate. It is a Tetris of risking death in the desert. From there, it is just more extreme violence and trauma. The film tries to keep its realism of being intense, which may appeal to some, but not to me. I was left lackluster by how it was so much about the violence and chases over creating a stronger foundation of plot and providing reasons for the events that happen. Two out of four stars for Escape.

Film reviews

Imaginary Review

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A film with a teddy bear at the center of the movie may make the audience think that the bear is going to come to life. Surprisingly, the bear in remains calm and silent in Imaginary, a thriller where the terror can be hard to find. Directed by Jeff Wadlow, Imaginary is one of the most authentic thriller films I have seen. Not exactly excellent, but high quality and, again, authentic.

Imaginary begins with Jessica (played by DeWanda Wise), a woman who grew up with a harsh life of abuse and hardship. She is married to Max (played by Tom Payne), and she is a stepmom to Tom’s daughters, Taylor (played by Taegen Burns) and Alice (played by Pyper Braun). When Jessica moves with her family into her childhood home, Alice’s mood start to shift. Alice has an imaginary friend named Chauncey. At first Jessica believes it’s a phase—until more evil begins to emerge in the most unexpected realms throughout the childhood home.

There is a background of conflict that mingles throughout Imaginary—a mother with a harsh childhood, a father who is divorced, a daughter who is a typical teenager and another daughter with a detrimental imaginary friend. The audience will at first believe that the film is a typical horror film where a spirit makes a child evil, but the terror in Imaginary backfires in unpredictable ways, and it tends to pop up like an old-fashioned wolf man monster. The film is more of a puzzle than anything else, and there seems to be a lot of over-thinking in the writing and execution. The film is just not written to leave the audience feeling scared after. Rather, it leaves them curious. What in Jessica’s past is related so much to the teddy bear? What are those weird moving parts in Jessica childhood home?

I found Imaginary to be not extremely well written, but it has a niche in the horror genre. It has a spiritual type of terror that is hidden in a teddy bear. It also seemed to create a maze of sorts that grows with tainted memories. Karma and misdirection find itself combined in this film, and that is what sold me the most with Imaginary. But instead of a revenge teddy bear, which we expect after the teddy bear is introduced, it heads down the track of almost a terror Tetris. The questions and theories keep evolving. And instead of scary terror, it’s more about experimenting and investigating the spirits that are flowing. The film begs the question of who will find the answers to the terror? Find out in Imaginary. Three out of four stars.