Nightcrawler

The underbelly of overnight freelance videographers - stringers - is not what I would usually consider a viable film topic.  Nightcrawler attempts it with some level of success.  Incredibly uncomfortable at times, weak in others, the film portrays Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a thief and general creep, who stumbles into a new business selling video to the local news, the gorier the better.  Lacking any morals, the role is seemingly perfect for him, and yet its hard to not be continually disgusted as he shows just how far he'll go for the story.  Overall the film is not horrible, but it's not excellent, and I'm very surprised a major studio picked it up for release.

Nightcrawler
2014, 117 minutes, directed by Dan Gilroy

During the Q&A, director Dan Gilroy added a few interesting tidbits:

• The film was shot in 28 days with an $8M budget.
• Jake Gyllenhaal lost 38 pounds in 10 weeks prior to shooting.
• They followed a real stringer around in prep to get a feel for the business, and were generally horrified at what they saw.  Much of what happens in the film is real. 

Redemtor (Redeemer)

Marko Zaror is the Redeemer.  Meting out forgiveness - or punishment.  Trying to atone for his sins.  Hunted at all times by the Scorpion, his mortal enemy.

This festival has lacked martial arts action, so the Redeemer is a refreshing relapse.  The film lacks the raw, real feel of Zaror and Espinosa's early films, nor does it have the noir polish of Mandrill.  What it does have is three kick-ass one-on-one fights with skilled opponents, brought forth from Zaror's dabbling interest in MMA.  The styles of each fight are distinct - a pro MMA fighter, a genjikai karate master, a kickboxing champion - so relish in those and worry less about the hum-drum mook slaughter.

Redentor (Redeemer)

2014, 88 minutes, directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinosa

The Editor

Giallo, according to Wikipedia, is an Italian film genre from the 1970s featuring a crime/mystery, eroticism, and elements of horror.  The Editor, a modern tribute to the genre, covers all of that with a healthy layer of melted cheese.

Rey Ciso is a famous film editor past his prime, hampered by the loss of his fingers on his right hand, forcing him to use wooden prothsetics.  His job to cut and edit the latest giallo film from the only studio to accept him is hampered by a series of deaths in the cast and crew, all with their fingers removed just like him.  Rey must help solve the case while staying a step ahead of the police and reediting the film to feature the surviving cast.

Set in the 1970s complete and dripping with mustaches and cleavage, bad out-of-sync dialog and gore, this film surely tickles the right nerves of lovers of this genre.  For the rest of us, it's a good laugh.

The Editor

2014, 102 minutes, directed by Adam Brooks

Tombville

I don't know very much about Belgium.  Apparently some of their filmmakers follow the French style of cinema, which in my experience often involves existential madness, poor lighting, and melodramatic music.  Tombville delivers on all of the above.  David finds himself in a town sort of, or at least a place with some buildings (it's very dark).  He doesn't remember anything at first, including his name, but quickly finds himself on the run from the town's inhabitants, unable to escape until he remembers how he arrived.  Memories of his childhood, with his verbally abusive prostitute mother, are intermixed, tracing through his life up to it's defining moment.

Tombville

2014, 69 minutes, directed by Nikolas List

Open Windows

It's nice to have one of the top films of SXSW brought back to Austin, though that's a given as the film was created through Fantastic Fest.

Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood) is the lowly webmaster of jillgoddard-caught.com, a website dedicated to the famous actress.  He's won a contest to interview Jill herself (Sasha Grey).  When the interview is cancelled, a disappointed Nick is cajoled into some subtle spying, which quickly escalates into a race against the mysterious Chord (Neil Maskell) to find and save Jill.

Taking place entirely within windows on Nick's computer screen, Open Windows flourishes under its self-imposed constraints.  The only parts that seemed to falter was when I though they'd left that screen.  It thus has a few weak spots, but is overall a solidly fantastic film.

Open Windows

2014, 100 minutes, directed by Nacho Vigalondo

The Duke of Burgundy

Evelyn, the most domineering sub ever learns not to abuse a GGG partner Cynthia during a summer of love and entomology.  From the director of Berberian Sound Studio, this slow melodrama feels like a BBC/PBS miniseries with a overbearing score and many, many stills of pinned moths.

The Duke of Burgundy

2014, 104 minutes, directed by Peter Strickland

Housebound

This film was billed as a midnighter, a suspense horror.  Kylie is sentenced to eight months home detention, back at her mother's home.  And while Kylie is all grown up now, her mom and her younger self feared the man in sheets, the boogie man lurking in the basement or creaking in the walls.

This is where I thought it would devolve into abject terror.  Instead, it turns out her parole officer is a part-time paranormal investigator, Kylie ain't afraid of no ghosts, and comedy will rise to balance the fright.  And it all works.  The film is really pretty good.

Housebound

2014, 107 minutes, directed by Gerard Johnstone