This week\u2019s low-profile VOD releases warn viewers about the risks of postpartum depression, unseen kidnappers, and a polluted, corporate-controlled future \u2014 with no respite even when going on vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last Known Location<\/em><\/strong> (VOD November 15):<\/strong> Director Danny Donnelly\u2019s plodding kidnap thriller attempts to bring more well-rounded development to its victim characters, but only ends up with tedious filler that makes the grim trauma porn even grimmer. Donnelly plays the sadistic criminal who locks up three women in his suburban Philadelphia basement, and the director initially obscures his own face, in a tactic that seems designed to shift the focus away from the psychotic villain. The movie then abandons that approach in its second half, undermining its theoretical good intentions and turning into a bargain-basement police procedural. Two of the women get wistful flashbacks about their pre-kidnapping lives, while a third spends half the time in a drawn-out romantic storyline before finally ending up exactly where the audience knows she\u2019ll be. The acting is uniformly terrible, and Donnelly and writer Aimee Theresa (who also plays one of the victims) have a misguided understanding of police investigations. Instead of uplifting their female characters, they just drag out their painful ordeals, to no discernible purpose. Grade: C-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n La Palisiada<\/em><\/strong> (Film Movement Plus November 15):<\/strong> Maybe someone with an extensive understanding of Ukrainian history and culture could parse the country\u2019s official entry for this year\u2019s Oscars, but most international viewers are likely to be completely baffled by director and co-writer Philip Sotnychenko\u2019s inscrutable drama. Before its title-card drop 20 minutes in, La Palisiada<\/em> is a contemporary story about one couple\u2019s deteriorating relationship, culminating in a sudden act of violence. It then shifts back in time to 1996 to focus on the couple\u2019s respective fathers, both involved in the investigation of a police officer\u2019s murder. Sotnychenko seemingly does everything he can to obscure even basic details, though, and the characters\u2019 positions, motivations, and connections are often impossible to work out. He shoots in a shaky handheld style that sometimes appears to be intended as found footage but at other times clearly could not be. While it\u2019s occasionally evocative of the post-Soviet chaos of 1990s Ukraine, La Palisiada <\/em>is largely too opaque to convey much of anything to anyone not already in the know. Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Worst Laid Plans<\/em><\/strong> (VOD November 22):<\/strong> This vacation-themed horror anthology boasts a unique hook, with each segment based on one of the short stories from the book of the same name. That keeps Worst Laid Plans<\/em> more cohesive than a lot of scattered indie horror omnibus movies, but it doesn\u2019t make the individual pieces any more entertaining. All three segments offer slow wind-ups to fairly obvious stingers, which would be more effective at shorter length, perhaps with another story or two added in. The first two segments are straightforward Creepshow<\/em>-style tales with weak acting but endearingly ridiculous low-fi creature reveals, which are amusing if not particularly scary. The third segment, adapted by Jeremy Herbert from his own short story, takes a more oblique, meditative approach to its relatively grounded material, which proves more frustrating than rewarding. There are plenty of stories left to adapt from the Worst Laid Plans<\/em> book, so maybe another edition could produce more satisfying results. Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n