There\u2019s quite a menagerie in this week\u2019s fringe VOD releases, including a snowboarding dog, a murderous jackalope, and an injured fox cub who befriends an Austrian soldier. Plus, MUBI and Tubi offer two disparate movies about Americans spending time abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Last Year of Darkness<\/em><\/strong> (MUBI March 15):<\/strong> Director Ben Mullinkosson provides almost no context for his documentary about the final days of an underground nightclub in the Chinese city of Chengdu, but it\u2019s not hard to figure out what\u2019s coming, as huge construction equipment encroaches ever-closer to the small but vibrant enclave known as Funky Town. It\u2019s a bit harder to parse the relationships and motivations of Mullinkosson\u2019s subjects, all longtime patrons of the club that provides a haven for expats, musicians, and members of the LGBTQ community. Mullinkosson\u2019s film is more impressionistic than expository, and it can be a bit disjointed as it jumps from person to person, spending long chunks of time away from the club and depicting personal interactions that are often inscrutable. At the same time, it\u2019s consistently affecting and illuminating, with a glimpse into a side of Chinese life not often shown to Western audiences. Mullinkosson portrays the changing Chengdu as beautiful and mysterious, and he captures a stylish snapshot of the fleeting youthful energy within. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You Shouldn\u2019t Have Let Me In<\/em><\/strong> (Tubi March 15):<\/strong> Apparently all you need to do to keep a vampire out of his own house is sign a temporary lease, but bride-to-be Rochelle (Isabella Egizi) and her friends aren\u2019t aware of that loophole when they invite suave Italian aristocrat Victor (Fabi\u00e1n Castro) to party with them at the villa they\u2019ve rented from him for Rochelle\u2019s bachelorette weekend. Victor has his eyes on Rochelle\u2019s estranged best friend Kelsey (Diana Gardner), who\u2019s a dead ringer for his long-lost bride. It\u2019s all pretty standard vampire stuff, occasionally enlivened by self-deprecating jokes and a modern social-media take on the classic search for the immortal\u2019s reincarnated lover. Director Dave Parker can\u2019t settle on a tone, though, lurching from steamy eroticism to goofy humor, while the familiar plot operates mostly on autopilot. Gardner is appealing as the insecure (but obviously gorgeous) underachiever, but Castro is neither sexy nor menacing, and the climactic reveal of Victor\u2019s monstrous form is more laughable than scary. The sequel-baiting final scene suggests a looser, more fun dynamic that the rest of the movie never quite achieves. Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fox<\/em> (VOD March 22):<\/strong> The premise of this Austrian drama sounds like the set-up for a treacly inspirational story: During World War II, soldier Franz Streitberger (Simon Morz\u00e9) finds an injured fox cub and nurses it back to health, keeping it as his companion amid the horrors of war. Writer-director Adrian Goiginger instead presents a stark yet sensitive drama about a troubled young man thrust into a terrible situation. Goiginger takes his time, devoting a 20-minute prologue to Franz\u2019s rough childhood, when his parents essentially sold him off as a farmhand because they couldn\u2019t afford to feed him, which leaves him with abandonment issues that he projects onto the fox. Goiginger downplays the Nazi aspects while making it clear that Franz is a conscript rather than a true believer. He keeps the story personal, shooting in a 4:3 aspect ratio with rounded corners, resembling the framing of old home movies. It\u2019s a tender examination of how one kind of trauma can be amplified by another, with only minimal moments of sentimentality. Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n