Josh Bell
In this week’s low-profile VOD releases, one lonely farmer befriends a kind paperboy while another seduces a big-city reporter, plus college students mess with the supernatural, and New Zealanders fight for post-apocalyptic survival.
The Depths (VOD September 18): Astral projection doesn’t seem like particularly strong subject matter for a found-footage movie, since it occurs in a realm where cameras would not be functional. Writer-director Tristan Reed doesn’t so much solve that problem as sidestep it, using astral projection as a hasty excuse for demonic activity, with only the barest justification for the sinister consequences of what looks like simple guided meditation. Sibling college students Tommy (Ryan Yauger) and Parker (Isabella Bonanno) attempt to reach the astral plane as part of a project for Tommy’s documentary filmmaking class with an arrogant professor (Eric Roberts), and they almost immediately bring back evil entities. Tommy and Parker are separately stalked by the ghosts (or whatever) that they inadvertently summon, one of which starts killing Tommy’s classmates, like a slasher-movie villain. Reed pads out the running time with pointless excerpts from other students’ documentary projects, further stretching the viability of the found-footage format. The annoying characters face tedious and underwhelming horrors, leading to an anticlimactic shrug of a finale. Grade: C-
Solitude (Film Movement+ September 18): The crotchety old man who reluctantly bonds with a friendly kid is a well-worn set-up, but Icelandic director Ninna Pálmadóttir takes an appealingly quiet, sensitive approach to the familiar material, at least until a late-film turn into bleaker territory. Solitary farmer Gunnar (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) moves to the city after his longtime family home is forcibly annexed by the government for the building of a dam. He’s overwhelmed by his new surroundings, and at first he rejects the kindness of neighboring paperboy Ari (Hermann Samúelsson), but soon they’re playing chess and eating pizza together, a couple of misfits who find pure, honest connection. There’s also a half-formed subplot about Gunnar supporting Afghan refugees, but Solitude isn’t making any grand political statements. It’s best as a low-key character study, which makes it especially jarring when Pálmadóttir and screenwriter Rúnar Rúnarsson abruptly introduce a shocking challenge to the central relationship without the time to adequately explore it, ending the otherwise charming movie on a sour, unresolved note. Grade: B-
Twiggy (VOD, DVD, and select theaters September 22): Actress, singer, and pioneering supermodel Twiggy seems like a lovely person, but that’s not enough to make for a riveting documentary. Director Sadie Frost delivers a basic, competent combination of talking heads and archival footage, which is most compelling while chronicling the rise of Twiggy’s career in the 1960s, when she was the Beatles of supermodels. Frost effectively makes a case for Twiggy as a revolutionary force in British modeling, with her bold working-class style in contrast to her staid, posh predecessors. After that, though, the movie speed-runs through several decades of Twiggy’s work in film, TV, music, stage productions, and commercials, with a dizzying array of celebrities and associates paying homage. There are a few nods to darker moments in her personal life, but nothing revelatory or complex. At one point, Twiggy’s daughter looks directly at the camera and professes her love for her mother, and the movie is full of similarly sweet gestures that are better suited for an awards-show tribute than a feature film. Grade: B-
How Hard Can It Be (VOD September 25): The Hallmark romance formula of a big-city career woman traveling to a small town and falling in love with a rugged local man doesn’t just apply at Christmastime. Screenwriter Marlana Hope and director Michael Day follow that template pretty rigidly in this tepid dramedy, although it isn’t actually a Hallmark production. The likelihood of brand confusion is a selling point for such a generic movie, which consistently makes the easiest, most obvious choices. New York City magazine editor Mallory Logan (Anna Schafer) gets stuck writing about Meramec, Alabama, the winner of an essay contest for the best small town in America. She stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by gruff rancher Wren Kirkpatrick (Jack Kesy) and soon succumbs to the charms of the completely nondescript town, as she and Wren grow predictably closer. The couple’s conflicts are perfunctory and vaguely sexist, and the plotting is as trite as the cheesy essay by Wren’s mom (Kate Flannery) that was selected by an allegedly sophisticated and influential publication. Grade: C-
Battle Cabin (VOD September 29): Despite opening title cards ostensibly explaining the post-apocalyptic setting, this monotonous thriller from New Zealand never convincingly establishes its high-level stakes, which makes it tough to care about what happens to the characters. As part of the averted build-up to a world war, New Zealand has been struck by both an electromagnetic pulse and a bioengineered plague, leaving it a depopulated wasteland. Devoted couple Kellan (Josh McKenzie) and Melinda (Delaney Tabron) seem pretty much fine, though, puttering around their isolated home and garden until Melinda is infected by the still-circulating pathogen. In exchange for the necessary medication to keep Melinda alive, Kellan has to join forces with a lone survivalist to defend his fortified cabin from marauders. The bulk of the movie involves repetitive attacks on the cabin, with mediocre action alongside poorly written interpersonal drama. Kellan and Melinda each befriend orphaned children in the filmmakers’ clumsy attempts at thematic resonance, but any humanitarian messages are lost amid the jumbled world-building and the unnecessary, telegraphed plot twists. Grade: C
