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jennytessa
Reviews
Money Fight (2021)
Super engrossing and raw fight film
This movie had me hooked pretty early on. Usually, I'm not a super big fan of the mockumentary style, but this was so incredibly well-done. It felt fully believable - usually, I find movies like this to be a little too manufactured and unbelievable. Money Fight, however, is raw and totally believable.
Partially based on the Nth Room incidents that spawned from the dark web in South Korea, this film follows four friends who ditch their 9-5 jobs to try and make it big in underground fighting. It's fascinating to follow the four main characters, but their competitors are probably the most interesting. The off-the-cuff interviews and "promo" videos with the characters are great. You hear their motivations for why they fight, and it's usually for terrifying, hubristic reasons. Like, the one Russian girl who says she just "likes violence" or the character Eunick who talks about how she wants to deform people and imagine they're her mother.
That's not to say that the main characters aren't interesting, though. Our lead is James, who starts off cool and calm but slowly starts to get caught up in his own desire to fight and makes a few missteps. When one of the four gets into a brutal fight and wins at the cost of his physical wellbeing, it's a really sobering moment. The stakes from that point onward were totally raised, and the tenseness doesn't end until the end of the film. It's intense and wild to watch each of the leads either start to lose their drive or get way too caught up in the frenzy.
The fight choreography is absolutely fantastic, too. The movie is filmed as if you're actually watching dark web live streams of illegal underground fights. That being said, the footage is taken via iPhone most of the time. This really makes the fight footage feel gritty and realistic. Plus, you can tell that the fighting is legit and that these are real, capable fighters who know what they're doing. You can't really fake punches with camera set-ups like that - I mean, I'm sure some of it is faked because if not that would be insanely dangerous, but it LOOKS fully real and that's what matters. I had seen James Boss's other movie, White Wall, which had solid action too, but I think the way this is shot definitely shows off his fighting skills (and the skills of his co-stars) more effectively. I found myself legitimately cheering everyone on and bracing myself when they would get thrown to the ground and things like that.
If I were to have a complaint, I'd say that the movie was a little long. Even then, though, it's well-paced and pretty tightly edited. There really isn't a boring moment, so it's easy to stay pulled in, even if you're a little attention-deficit like I am. Definitely a must-watch if you're a fan of fighting at all, or if you're interested in seeing a unique kind of action/fighting film.
White Wall (2010)
A pleasant surprise that spans various genres
White Wall tells the story of a world racked by disease and corruption. It focuses on a group of "brothers" - not blood related siblings, but those who endured gruesome internment camps together and managed to get out alive. When Shawn finds that one of them has died, he begins to investigate and unspools a conspiracy amongst the elites.
This movie is an action film, but it's very story-driven and focuses more on the mystery and the bonds between the "brothers." The sci-fi elements (and the giant wall) is a bit like The Maze Runner, mixed in with the noir elements of movies like Memento. Add in a dash of sibling tension a la Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, and you have White Wall.
The set design in this is great - plenty of dingy and gritty shanty towns and expansive, dusty Western landscapes. The cinematography is genuinely impressive with all its shadow-y noir influences. The actual conflict here is layered and ambitious, and it all culminates in a fantastically tense battle between Shawn and the "evil" brother, Jude Black. All in all, the film is definitely worth checking out.
Deadlocked (2020)
Claustrophobic and tense low-budget zombie movie
I had a lot of fun with this one - they did a lot on the budget they had, and it sells well. The setting of the elevator gives everything a really claustrophobic and tense feeling. It was easy to get hooked on the struggles of the characters - they were all really likeable and well-acted. I especially liked Jacqi, the knife-wielding teen. She was badass, and I especially liked her dynamic with Mason, the criminal with a heart o' gold. Overall, a really solid, fun little zombie flick - definitely worth watching!
Parallel Minds (2020)
Great sci-fi w/indigenous rep!
Indigenous people are routinely underrepresented in film (and in just about every industry, really), so the fact that this is an Indigineous sci-fi movie gives it an edge against other indie sci-fi movies. Parallel Minds takes an original approach to high tech science fiction from a point of view of people who have been marginalized throughout history. It's refreshing to be able to watch a film that utilizes Indigenous futurism and touches upon Indigenous Canadian history in a way that doesn't feel white saviour-y or ignorant.
The story goes like this: a tech firm is building a revolutionary contact lens that will let people replicate their memories and relive them. Red Eye develops a mind of its own and starts "consuming" people, including its "mother," inventor/scientist Elise Perrot. Her coworker Margo works with the gruff detective Thomas to figure out the truth about what happened to her. Along the way, they discover the power of the past and get wrapped up in a world of digital mind manipulation.
Personally, I'm a sucker for killer AI stories. The desire for these robots to become human and the things that they'll do to achieve it (and the things tech CEOs will do to cover up their bloodthirsty computer creations!) are really interesting. Since computers don't have souls, it thinks power will make it become human - of course, that's not how humanity works, but the computer will have to learn that over time. The third act is tense and actually dips into a bit of thriller territory. The final showdown is satisfying, and the multiple storylines intersect and resolve themselves well.
On top of that, there's some really nifty explorations of the mind going on here. It can be a little hard to follow at first, but as the story unfolds, you start to put together why people's minds and memories are being affected in the ways that they are. It gives it a philosophical bend which gives depths to the characters and their motivations.
There's a bunch of symbolism involving the medicine wheel, and the way the story blends Indigenous spirituality with technology is very innovative. Later in the film, the residential school system becomes a key point in the plot. This topic is rarely brought up in any meaningful way in film, so to have a sci-fi movie bring up this unfortunate bit of history involving Canadian Christians trying to force Native Americans to assimilate is novel and fresh.
There's a lesbian cyberpunk rock character named Jade who is apparently dating the AI on her computer, and that is the kind of thing I LIVE for. She says some quality lines like, "I'll run you through a newspaper roller if you want to be on the funny pages." The movie was pretty interesting even BEFORE she showed up, but she definitely sold me.
I also enjoyed Thomas, who is running from a troubled past. He made a mistake as a police officer that haunts him, and the memories of this flood through him when he uses Red Eye. The scenes of him remembering his trauma are intense. It's jarring when these scenes come through at first, but it adds to the disjointed feeling of memories and minds melding. As the story goes along, you get more glimpses at his backstory until it eventually all ties together into the bigger mystery about Red Eye. Though he has a tragic backstory, he still manages to bring some charm to the movie, like when he casually sips some of Elise's (probably expired) milk while he's investigating her apartment.
Visually, the movie's pretty solid. Since it's a futuristic story, there are a lot of scenes set in laboratories. The lab sets in the expensive tech firm are a cool blue and white, which contrasts with Jade's more home-made garage lab. I really, really liked the set for Jade's lab because it has this DIY wire jungle gym going on. It's very grimy and punk. Spin-off movie about Jade and her lab, please!
Overall, it's a charming sci-fi mystery that taps into sci-fi in a new and interesting way. Visions play a key point in the story, which gives it a spiritual angle. The mystery, neo-noir aspect also adds a neat layer to the whole thing - it's like an Indigenous sci-fi episode of CSI or something. It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking to explore something new and a little different. I highly encourage watching independent films, especially ones that highlight people of color like this, and this one's a great place to start if you're into science fiction flicks.