2018

These reviews are more of a reaction than an actual in-depth review. I do my best to communicate my feelings towards the film that I am reviewing.

1. Curse of the Wolf

Curse of the Wolf is Len Kabasinski's second film as director. The film is about a young woman Dakota(played by Renee Porada) who is a lycanthrope that has been struggling to stay away from her pack. They show up when she leasts expects and kills whoever she is with in order to convince her to come back. Epic ninja fights, grotesque special effects, and awesome line delivery make this movie a very exciting one.

The fights in this movie seemed very well rehearsed and every hit looked much more brutal than I thought it was going to be. Usually in these low budget movies every punch looks restrained or like they aren't putting any force behind the punches and kicks. In this movie Len has the camera in a way that the impact point can't be seen, such as having the camera behind the person while the character is punched in the chest, which lets the actor/actress throw a full punch at the ones they are punching. There are times when we see the impact land and it's usually when there is a special effect to be shown.

The special effects in this movie was very well done. All of the blood looked real, the injuries the characters received didn't look rushed, but the only thing that isn't really that well done is the look of the vampires themselves which is understandable because of the inability to use very good CGI that most mainstream werewolf movies have. The transformations though were superb. Especially in the beginning of the movie when one of the werewolves were stripping off their flesh to reveal their werewolf body. The makeup department did a very fine job with the effects in this film and there were many moments where me and my watch partner both went "Hell yeah!" when something really well done happened.

My favorite character in the movie is by far Michael(played by Todd Humes). Michael is the alpha wolf of the pack and every time he is on screen he just steals the scene. His line delivery and his execution of his stunts was the absolute best in making this a fun movie. The way he spoke and emphasized almost all of the final words of his lines made him a very likeable character. Another star of this film is the director himself who plays a character named Stick. He is one of the mob(?) members who decides to help Dakota get rid of her pack. He has really good stunts too and is more of a laid back lady's man. His performance was really good and his playboy-like behavior never really seemed forced or cringey.

The version of the movie I had was one on the DVD box set called "The Snow Creature" by Echo Bridge Acquisition Corporation which I assume is a company who buys up low budget movies and packages them all together into one set that they can put into Walmarts and sell enough of to gain a profit on them. This film was well made enough that I think the $3 I spent on this set is definitely worth the movie. Really the only problem that I had with the film itself was that the audio was just all over the place. Some of the actors seemed to not have a microphone near them because when they talked the volume was much lower than the one actor with a mic. I don't know if the bluray of the film fixes this or not but it was hard to hear some of the dialogue in the film.

Overall I really liked this movie. It's a really nice callback to the 80's action genre and everything seemed to be very carefully planned. I had been meaning to get into Kabasinski since watching the Redlettermedia episodes that he appeared in and especially when he did an AMA on Reddit in which he took the time to answer almost all of the questions people had and even just acknowledging the comments people made. He's a really hard worker who is open to constructive comments in order to make his films the best that he can make them. Since this film was one of the first of his, I really look forward to seeing how he has grown as a director.

2. Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis is a Coen Brothers film from 2013 that is about a struggling musical artist trying to keep himself from falling into despair. I absolutely loved this movie and I would rank this higher than O Brother Where Art Thou?. This film was emotional and really showed the nasty side of the "starving artist" lifestyle that many people ignore when dreaming about being a musician. The cinematography of this film is similar to Day of the Dead and The Thing in that the camera is up close to the actors/actresses and for the few wide shots in the film that give you space to breathe, Oscar Isaac dominates the frame. The music was very well done and I was delighted to find out that all the actors learned how to play the songs and performed it in full and live when the camera was rolling. The cast is amazing with Oscar Isaac of Star Wars fame playing the titular character and he really sold the idea that he was desperate for anything. At the end of the film we see him just fed up and he gives a great delivery in his "I am so fucking tired" monologue that he gives to his ex girlfriend. His ex girlfriend is played by Carey Mulligan and she is quite amazing. Every time Oscar Isaac's character shows up and buzzes her to let him into her apartment complex, her line delivery really shows that she doesn't want anything to do with her ex but something always prevails deep within her. John Goodman makes a surprise appearance by playing an overweight(this was pre-weightloss John Goodman) jazz musician who always has a story to tell no matter if anyone wants to hear it. His character sleeps almost all of his runtime and when he's not sleeping he is sauntering to the bathroom and comes out by having his assistant practically carry him out. Later on in that endeavor we find out that he shoots heroin into his arm and everything clicks into why he is the way he is. Justin Timberlake is also in this film and he plays like a beebop musician who is also Carey's character's boyfriend. He was amazing as always but he wasn't really used enough. The characters talk about him a lot but rarely does he show his face outside of character introductions and the one recording session that Oscar Isaac and Timberlake have in the beginning of the film. As I stated earlier, this film is great and I would go so far as to say it is a modern masterpiece. The acting, cinematography, and story of this film just makes it for me. This film is the antithesis of Whiplash.