2018 Films: #16. They Remain

An OnDemand viewing on July 21st in Chicago. I don't know how the rest of you out there come up with a streaming choice but at our house it takes awhile. We run through Netflix, HULU, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, iTunes and OnDemand. My wife played this trailer, we looked around some more and finally came back to it.

The picture is directed by Philip Gelatt, he also wrote the screenplay, and is based a short story by Laird Barron. Set sometime in the future, Rebecca Henderson and William Jackson Harper are investigating the site of a murderous cult that apparently cause a lot of havoc years ago. They set up cameras, run soil samples and even discover some human remains. There's some distrust for the corporation the work for and they both seem to have vivid dreams. Things slowly breakdown as weird things start to happen; the cameras malfunction periodically, they hear things, and there's a similarity of their weird dreams. Eventually, they both slowly descend into madness.

They Remain received a 61% Rotten Tomatoes Rating which means its somewhere between meh and mediocre. It's more on the meh side in my opinion. It's not a bad film but there's a lot lacking. The film's run time is 102 minutes but it's more slow than a slow burn. Other than dream imagery, there isn't a lot of exposition on the murderous cult. It's also hard to differentiate sometimes which is a dream and which is reality. Gelatt tries to build the tension but falls flat most of the time. There are some interesting and creepy scenes but they're few and far between. The film's ending left me with a "so what just happened" feeling.

Gelatt could be someone to keep an eye on. He wrote the screenplay for Europa Report so he knows his way around creepy sci-fi. The acting is fine and the film is sound technically. Maybe the source material is not that fantastic. With the amount of time we spent looking for a film to view, They Remain didn't payoff.

2018 Films: #15. Wildling

OnDemand viewing June 23rd in Chicago, IL. My wife and I thought the description seemed interesting so we took a chance. As fan of the werewolf genre, it seemed like a good idea. The film received a 71% Rotten Tomatoes rating and that sealed the deal.

First time director Fritz Böhm, who also co-wrote the film, gives us a tale of a young girl who's held in a room by her father (the always creepy Brad Dourif) who tells her stories of the "wildling." She grows up before our eyes and starts getting injections for an "illness" as she reaches the age of puberty. One night her "father" shoots himself and Anna (Bel Powley) is taken into custody by Sheriff Ellen (Liv Tyler, who also received a producing credit). Ellen takes Anna into her home.

It doesn't take long for Anna to realize she's a little different than the other teenagers. She slowly starts seeing changes and has reoccurring nightmares. Ellen's brother Ray takes her to a party and things go off the rails after Anna has an encounter with local bully Lawrence.  Anna is taken into custody and proceeds to escape. Her "father" recovers from his self inflicted wounds and decides to round up the old posse of wildling hunters in order to kill Anna. Will she be able to get away?

After seeing this film, the Rotten Tomatoes rating was too high. The film has a reasonable run time of only 92 minutes but it just seems to drag on in parts. Then there's the scene where her "father" decides to go after Anna. He clearly knew what she was, why not kill her when he had the chance in his home? He couldn't bear killing her but shoots himself (FAIL) and then when she starts to transform, then he has no problem killing her. Then there's James Le Gros' character, Wolf Man (real subtle). He's a guy who walks around in, you guessed it, wolf pelts.

No really this guy hangs out in town. No job. Nothing. It's totally not weird.

He hangs around town and no one seems to look twice at him. His only purpose is to give Anna exposition about what she really is and the local history of the wildlings.

The acting was fine and there's some nice cinematography but the story seemed weak to me. It tried to be an interesting take on the genre but it came out like a cross between Teen Wolf, Wolf and American Werewolf in London. It didn't work.

2018 Films: #16. Won't You Be My Neighbor?

July 6th in Chicago, IL. Morgan Neville directs this documentary about television legend, Fred Rogers. Neville traces Rogers humble and good natured beginnings in television that would morph into Mister Roger's Neighborhood. Neville gives the history of the show from interview footage of Rogers as well as interviews with family, friends, cast and crew.

Rogers felt that children deserved better programming and for over 30 years, he gave it to them. He dealt with topics (race, death and anger to name a few) that no other kids shows dealt with. His goal was to educate children not just turn them into future consumers. He even testified in front of Congress for funding in 1969, apparently the Republican Party has been trying to destroy public television for decades.

The last 10-15 minutes are an emotional roller coaster. Starting with a clip from the show with a special needs child, about how his funeral was protested by westboro baptist church types for tolerating homosexuals to the on air reunion with Jeff Erlanger at his induction into the Television Hall of Fame. I bawled my eyes out.

This is a fascinating documentary chronicling the life of a fascinating advocate for children.