Josh Bell
This week’s low-profile VOD releases feature danger aboard a hot-air balloon and in an LA hipster’s apartment, plus the humble struggles of a single mother, an ex-con, and the Australian rural working class.
Turbulence (VOD and select theaters December 12): Filmmakers must be running low on novel locations for thrillers if they decided to set this uninspired revenge story aboard a hot-air balloon. Corporate executive Zach (Jeremy Irvine) and his wife Emmy (Hera Hilmar) are on a romantic vacation in Italy to revive their marriage, when mysterious stranger Julia (Olga Kurylenko) invades their supposedly private hot-air balloon ride. The extended opening scenes have made Julia’s agenda pretty clear, though, so Turbulence doesn’t have much to offer in the way of plot twists. Kelsey Grammer brings some folksy charm to his role as the salty balloon pilot, but he makes a fairly early exit, and eventually only the least interesting characters are left aboard the balloon as it drifts out of control. There are some nice aerial shots, but the special effects falter during the action inside the balloon basket, and director Claudio Fäh struggles to sustain the suspense. A movie with a premise this silly should not be this dull. Grade: C
Hag (Tubi December 12): If Lifetime made movies about gay men in peril, they might look something like this wan Single White Female riff. Heartbroken following the sudden death of his fiancé, barista and aspiring singer-songwriter Rowan (Ryan de Villiers) runs into Mag (Jane de Wet), a woman he “dated” in middle school before coming out. Mag immediately latches onto Rowan, and soon she’s renting his spare room, commiserating with him over bowls of ice cream, and doing everything she can to ice out his longtime best friend KC (Anja Taljaard). Mag is clearly unhinged and dangerous, and Rowan comes across as hopelessly naïve even as his new roommate is practically carrying a bouquet of red flags. Writer-director Sam Wineman offers occasional moments of campy fun — including an enjoyably nasty sex act with an electric toothbrush — but too much of Hag is plodding and flat, especially the subplot about a sleazy record executive taking advantage of Rowan. It’s a bit cheekier than the average Lifetime movie, but not by enough. Grade: C+
The Milky Way (VOD December 16): The “milk factory” where single mother Tala (Hila Ruach) gets hired at the beginning of this Israeli dramedy looks like something out of dystopian sci-fi, and it has enough potential to carry an entire movie. But writer-director Maya Kenig keeps shifting gears, leaving the factory behind in the second half as Tala makes various attempts to get her life together. Kenig explores the irony of a broke woman selling her breast milk to wealthy mothers, forcing Tala to feed her own baby with a bottle. A series of coincidences connect Tala with one of the factory’s customers, Nili (Hadas Yaron), and they form a bond that can never quite transcend their class differences. At certain moments, The Milky Way hints at something more sinister, but it remains low-key and grounded in Tala’s everyday challenges, which she handles with a mix of frustration and grace. Kenig’s plotting is scattered, but her examination of the contradictions of modern motherhood is often affecting. Grade: B-
Grapefruit (VOD December 18): Writer-director Chase Joliet holds back until nearly the end of this heartfelt drama to explain why the protagonist was in prison, but it never feels like misdirection or manipulation. It’s obvious that Travis (Joliet) committed a major offense, but it’s also obvious that he takes his rehabilitation seriously, and this isn’t a movie about an ex-con falling back into a life of crime. Upon his release, Travis moves in with his overbearing mother Evelyn (Rosanna Arquette), a recovering alcoholic who has her own issues to work out. He gets a menial job and strikes up a relationship with free-spirited addict Billie (Steph Barkley), whom he befriends at one of his mother’s 12-step meetings. Billie comes a little too close to the manic pixie dream girl stereotype, but the movie doesn’t shy away from her serious problems, or from Travis’. Whenever things get too whimsical, harsh reality comes crashing back in, and both the characters and the filmmaker deal with it in a thoughtful, emotionally resonant fashion. Grade: B
Flathead (IndiePix Unlimited December 19): An opening title card declares this Australian docufiction hybrid to be a tribute to the vanishing working class, but any social commentary is obscured by filmmaker Jaydon Martin’s opaque approach. The audience is left to piece together its own message, along with anything more than the most meager personal details about main subjects Cass Cumerford and Andrew Wong. The elderly Cass undergoes a brain MRI early on, but the status of his health remains unknown as he returns to his rural hometown of Bundaberg and wanders around. Martin spends equal time with Andrew, a cook who works at his aging father’s fish-and-chips stand. There are also interludes with other local residents, and some of the black-and-white imagery has a hypnotic quality, even if its purpose is tough to discern. There’s a barrier to engaging with these people when Martin gives no context for what they’re doing or why, which invites viewers to check out. Martin’s celebration of the working class gets aestheticized into nothingness. Grade: C
