Josh Bell
This week’s minor VOD releases feature a family of militia members, a star-crossed lesbian couple, a multi-generational spy dynasty, and a cult dedicated to the holiness of the alligator.
Maya & Samar (VOD September 4): It’s love (or at least lust) at first sight when free-spirited Canadian journalist Maya (Nicolette Pearse) and Afghan exotic dancer Samar (Amanda Babaei Vieira) meet at an underground rave in Athens, Greece. Maya is visiting an expatriate friend, while Samar is an undocumented refugee forging a new life. Director Anita Doron’s erotic drama earns its NC-17 rating with some remarkably explicit sex scenes, and it’s passable as a simplistic cross-cultural romance. Doron and screenwriter Tamara Berger are better at capturing passion and sensuality than they are at interrogating complex social issues, and the eventual turn toward weightier matters falls flat. Instead of examining the privilege involved in Maya’s efforts to write about Samar’s situation while also sleeping with her, the filmmakers opt for a cheap twist ending that invalidates any questions of exploitation or betrayal. Maya is a terrible journalist, friend, and person, but she and Samar are undeniably hot together, and that’s all that seems to interest her — or the movie. Grade: C+
Burning (IndiePix Unlimited September 4): The characters in this mopey Kyrgyz horror movie keep saying that the house of unhappy couple Asel (Aisanat Edigeeva) and Marat (Omurbek Izrailov) had been burning for a long time, but like so much in this dour, didactic film, that’s just a belabored metaphor. The actual burning of the house occurs on a single night, after which several of Asel and Marat’s neighbors gather in the local general store to share their thoughts on what occurred. Three different neighbors tell three different versions of the same story, in which Marat’s mother comes to visit and clashes with Asel, who flees the house before her husband retrieves her. The first two segments posit supernatural explanations for the familial conflict, with a handful of mildly unsettling moments. But the final segment is presented as the truth, revealing the preceding 70 or so minutes as elaborate misdirection for a heavy-handed story of domestic abuse. The performances are listless, and the well-intentioned message doesn’t make up for the pointless, repetitive wind-up. Grade: C
The Militia (VOD and DVD September 8): While writer-director Dylan King Welter’s thoughtful drama certainly couldn’t be called pro-militia, it benefits from its humanistic portrayal of people who engage in extreme anti-government action, making it clear just how much danger they pose. There’s a genuinely loving family at the center of The Militia: Teenager Daniel Pierce (Sam Williamson) idolizes his farmer father Lee (Michael Broderick) and is counting down the days until he’s old enough to join Lee in the local militia. When Lee gets arrested by the new sheriff who refuses to turn a blind eye to insurrectionist activity, Daniel steps up, recruiting several friends into a sort of junior militia with the goal of freeing his father. Welter’s matter-of-fact style highlights how this type of open rebellion is essentially a way of life in places like the Pierces’ unnamed rural town, and while the pacing drags at times, the cumulative effect is powerful in its forthrightness. The low-key, naturalistic performances make the moments of stark violence all the more chilling. Grade: B+
Gator Face (Select theaters September 11; VOD September 15): The presence of actual alligators (some of whom get individual acting credits) goes a long way toward making this standard-issue slasher movie exciting and fun. Writer-director Padraig Reynolds offers the minimum necessary character development before unleashing the title character (Nikolas Kolasinski) on unsuspecting vacationers in the Florida swampland. Gator Face is exactly what he sounds like: a mute, implacable ax-wielding killer in an alligator mask. Reynolds keeps up the momentum as Gator Face chases his victims through dense vegetation and into abandoned houses, where they come face to face with his menagerie of deadly alligators. The movie slows down a bit when the survivors take refuge in a church, where a creepy preacher (Scot Scurlock) reveals that Gator Face is the avatar of an alligator-worshiping cult whose muddled worldview is not nearly as thrilling or scary as the preceding predatory pursuits. Still, Gator Face and his pets are never offscreen for too long, and the delightfully gory kills continue all the way through the admirably brutal finale. Grade: B
Knightfall (VOD September 11): Casting Roger Moore’s son is not enough to lend James Bond-level credibility to this threadbare spy thriller. Geoffrey Moore is only back-up here anyway, always trailing behind the father-daughter duo of Charles Knight (Ian Ogilvy) and Ros Knight (Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott). Ros reaches out to her retired-spy dad after an operation gone wrong puts her in the crosshairs of terrorists seeking a lethal biological weapon. The set-up is confusing, and the shifting alliances are equally incoherent, making the inevitable double-crosses largely meaningless. Moore plays Ros’s boyfriend, but he and Sothcott have no chemistry whatsoever, and neither of them is remotely credible as a secret agent. Much of the murky, poorly staged action takes place at the Knight family’s remote country estate, in an obvious bid to evoke another Bond classic, but Knightfall is no Skyfall. Every time the filmmakers attempt to emulate more accomplished espionage thrillers, they just emphasize how terrible they are at even the most basic elements of suspense and intrigue. Grade: D+
