THE REVEREND’S REVIEW
FT’s resident man of the cloth REVEREND PETER LAWS dons his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot!
It’s scary how films can seed our mind with prejudice. Up until Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It (101 Films, Blu-ray and digital), the only time I’d experienced Kazakhstan was in the Borat movies. Sasha Baron Cohen said that Kazakhs were grubby peasants who drank horse urine and bred in-house. Of course, I never really believed that was actually true. But had I bothered to look into the real country at the time? Nope. I didn’t even notice that Cohen was speaking in Hebrew and not Kazak. And did I let that stereotype of the country seep into my subconscious? I’m ashamed to say I must have done, because five minutes into Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It, I noted a brief second of ‘surprise’ that such a fabulous and accomplished film could come from such a country. It’s a dazzling horror comedy about three friends on a fishing trip where an ‘ear-meets-fishhook’ accident turns out to be the least of their worries. They stumble onto a man being executed by a gang of thugs and a series of wild set-pieces follows, packed with gory slapstick, laugh-outloud dialogue and touching, emotional depth. If the Kazakh file in your brain is currently marked ‘Borat’, set yourself right and watch this cracker soon.
Slapface (streaming on Shudder) worked on me in unexpected ways. This American indie follows Lucas, a young boy who lives with his older brother Tom. After the tragic death of their mother, Tom tries his best to raise Lucas, but the way he deals with tension or disagreement is to play a game called Slapface, in which the brothers take turns smacking each other hard across the cheek. Lucas’s only friends are some girls at school, who treat him like crap and push him around. Yet after exploring an abandoned building he encounters a frightening, witch-like figure. A strange friendship begins, but will it help his life or ruin it? As it ran, I was fairly impressed with this folk-horror E.T. but the impact really came in the closing moments. Props to young actor August Maturo, who offers an emotionally wrenching performance as a child thrust into adulthood way too soon.
Caveat (AcornMedia, Bluray, DVD and digital) opens weird and stays that way. Isaac is hired to babysit a troubled young girl. The catch? She’s unstable; plus she lives in a creepy old house; plus Isaac has to be secured to the cellar via a long chain, so that he can reach all rooms in the house… except hers. Plus they’re on a tiny island, and Isaac can’t swim. I’m always encouraged when left-field creepers like this crop up: the tone is ominous, the concept bizarre and it’s peppered with nightmarish shots – not least, a Pipkins style rabbit with dead eyes and a drum. Special praise to Jonathan French for his powerful turn as the babysitter who is desperate enough (or kind enough?) to say yes to all this madness.
An ‘ear-meets-fish-hook’ incident turns out to be the least of their worries