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FROZEN

FROZEN (2010)

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If you hate ski lifts and think they are the most dangerous contraptions ever made or have a deep-seated fear of wolves, Frozen may be a step too far in your weekend viewing choices! Adam Green's Frozen is one of the most nerve-shredding films released during 2010 and a movie where you find yourself shrieking at the screen in horror as you watch three twenty-somethings fight for their lives on a stalled ski-lift as the night draws in. Joe (Shawn Ashmore), Dan (Kevin Zegers), and his girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) are enjoying a weekend of skiing at a New England resort before their fun turns into gut-wrenching horror as a late-night trip down the mountain becomes a matter of life and death. As they sit alone in a swinging metal cradle, their conversations echo the terrors that await them as they attempt to figure out the best escape methods before they freeze: do they jump? Attempt to climb up to the cables, or sit tight and wait for help? There are no simple answers as you watch Adam Green's taut, horrifying, brilliantly performed thriller and horror unfold. Frozen was largely overlooked on its release, yet Green's movie is a tour-de-force in terror that will leave you questioning whether to ever get on a ski lift again!

SAINT FRANCES

SAINT FRANCES (2020)

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While Alex Thompson’s debut feature film Saint Frances may, at first sight, appear to be a standard thirty-something tale of disillusionment, his delightful film never falls into the usual comedy/drama tropes. Instead, Thompson offers us a comedy that bravely dissects modern neoconservative beliefs, allowing Saint Frances to walk a different road from any similar films. Like many people in their mid-thirties, Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan) finds herself caught between a disappearing youth and the need to find something new. The adventure and excitement of her twenties is now fading, with her work offering little to no stimulation. Meanwhile, her relationships remain trapped in a strange student haze. However, Bridget sees a potential escape in the form of a summer job as a nanny to five-year-old Frances while Frances’ two mums, Maya and Annie, deal with the stresses and strains of a newborn baby. However, far from being a walk in the park, Bridget’s life, ideas and future path will come into sharp focus. Saint Frances reflects the challenging decisions we all face in our lives, many of which others may find disagreeable, taking us from laugh-out-loud comedy to emotion in a fascinating and detailed character study of a woman searching for something new.

boiling point

BOILING POINT (2021)

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Following his 2019 short film of the same name, Philip Barantini's feature-length one-shot wonder features Stephen Graham as Andy, a head chef and business owner whose restaurant is on the verge of disaster from the stressed front-of-house team to the under-pressure kitchen led by the tenacious sous-chef, Carly (Vinette Robinson). Barantini's fast-paced fly-on-the-wall drama dials up the heat as you bite your nails to the quick, wondering where the narrative is heading. Here, the restaurant falls slowly into a spiral Andy can't recover from as the threads holding his life and business together are slowly plucked one by one. The result is a bold and brilliant cocktail of drama that weaves together the personal journeys of each character into a tapestry of highs, lows, sacrifices and full on kitchen nightmares.

LUCA

LUCA (2021)

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After serving as a story artist for Coco and Ratatouille, Enrico Casarosa finally took to the director’s chair with his first feature, Luca – a delightful, engaging and colourful exploration of friendship, pasta, vespers and diversity. Each scene is bathed in the sunshine and sea air of the Italian coast as we meet two young sea monsters, Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer)—their newfound friendship, coupled with a daring exploration of the human world above their ocean home. Casarosa, Andrews, and Stephenson’s story takes the saying “A fish out of water” and layers it with a delicate exploration of identity, discrimination, acceptance and love. While it may follow a similar narrative arc to many of Pixar’s previous outings, Luca feels delightfully different, a love letter to Italian culture and filmmaking. Meanwhile, the voice performances of Tremblay and Grazer fill every scene with warmth and honesty – their magical sea creatures in boy’s clothing believable, heartwarming and joyous.

WARGAMES

WARGAMES (1983)

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With the social fears of Nuclear War still alive with tension, John Badham's 80's teen thriller would combine those fears of conflict with an early exploration of artificial intelligence. The result was a thriller that has remarkably stood the test of time. WarGames arrived on cinema screens the same year as Apple launched the Lisa computer and Microsoft launched its first Word software. Meanwhile, Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan became the first movie to use computer effects with Lucasfilm's DEC VAX. But WarGames release was also surrounded by the first computer-to-computer communication as ARPANET was born (the precursor of what we now call the internet). WarGames not only reflected the march of tech in our analogue world but asked one pertinent question: What happens when A. I. takes control and learns the rules of the game from flawed humans?

FAST GETAWAY

FAST GETAWAY (1991)

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Born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1971, Corey Haim earned widespread acclaim for his early acting roles in Firstborn, A Time to Live, Silver Bullet and Lucas before becoming a teen idol following The Lost Boys. But by the early 90s, Haim struggled to find roles that allowed his talent to shine while addiction issues haunted his private life, and Hollywood turned its back. Released on video in 1991, Fast Getaway was just one of many low-budget flicks that played on Haim's boyish good looks and charm to find an audience. On paper, Fast Getaway aims to offer us a classic father/son road movie with a comedic crime caper twist, but in reality, it quickly turns into a somewhat confused straight-to-VHS mess. However, while it doesn't achieve its goals, Fast Getaway is also great fun and a reminder of those straight-to-VHS films that lined the shelves at your local Blockbuster, waiting for the weekend teen rental audience. Is it Haim at his best? No, but is it light-hearted VHS fun? Undoubtedly.

BUGSY MALONE

BUGSY MALONE (1976)

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Alan Parker's gloriously unique kid's mobster musical is a timeless joy full to the brim with splurge guns, cream pies, art deco sets, and toe-tapping musical numbers from the legendary Paul Williams (The Muppet Movie). In Parker's pre-pubescent gangster world, adults are kept at bay even though they sing every classic song in the Bugsy repertoire. Here we follow Bugsy (Scott Baio) through a mythical gang-land feud in 1929 New York as his loyalties are split between trying to impress the city newcomer Blousey Brown (Florence Garland) and protecting the business interests of Fat Sam. Unlike anything before or since, Bugsy Malone is delightfully cheesy, deliciously mad and undeniably brilliant. Here, Alan Parker pays homage to the classic gangster movies of old through the eyes of a child as he offers us a musical like no other. So get down to Fat Sam's, where you'll always find a table, and there's always room for just one more.

HIGH GROUND

HIGH GROUND (2021)

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Australia’s complex, violent and colonial history has been reflected through several influential films over the years, from Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale to Phillip Noyce’s Rabbit-Proof Fence and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country. High Ground never quite matches the power of these films through its exploration of imperialism, genocide, and cultural appropriation in a John Ford Western style. But that doesn’t mean High Ground does not contain moments of brutal honesty as we follow Gutjuk (Guruwuk Mununggurr), a young indigenous boy taken into the care of a mission following the slaughter of his family. Through Gutjuk’s journey, High Ground asks us to reflect on the horror of colonialism and its horrific legacy of power imbalance, enslavement and genocide.

MINDING THE GAP

MINDING THE GAP (2018)

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Bing Liu’s outstanding fly-on-the-wall documentary speaks to the challenging journey from boy to man in a community of limited opportunity. Minding the Gap mixes the adrenaline-soaked world of skateboarding culture with a nuanced exploration of masculinity, coming of age and family as Liu follows his friends as their lives change over time. The result is a deeply emotional journey of self-discovery, poverty of opportunity and domestic conflict and a dissection of the American dream. Minding the Gap started as a collection of home skateboard movies but became a stunning community portrait of Rockford, Illinois and the lives of the young men attempting to navigate its streets. Here, Bing Liu explores the importance of youth subculture in creating a feeling of belonging and place while demonstrating its fleeting nature as adult life and responsibility take hold. True honesty and powerful self-reflection are housed in this home movie turned documentary as each young man silently screams for hope, escape and transformation while sharing the most intimate parts of their journey to adulthood.

THE RETURN

THE RETURN (2020)

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We all love a haunted house movie, right? On the first appearance, BJ Vernot’s new film would appear to fall directly into the traditional haunted house genre. After all, here we have a young man, Roger (Richard Harmon), returning to his family home following the sudden death of his father, where he is greeted by a mysterious apparition that emanates from the walls. However, BJ Vernot’s film is not what it initially appears to be, as it throws us a curveball of epic proportions. Much like the recent Ghosts of War, The Return is a sci-fi thriller in supernatural clothing. I am not about to ruin the twists, but as with many films that attempt to transcend genre boundaries, there are a few problems, from a twist you can see coming to a final act that descends into farce. However, despite these flaws, there is much to admire and enjoy, and The Return is creative and engaging, if not perfect.

BABY DRIVER

BABY DRIVER (2017)

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Baby Driver hummed with the energy of a high-octane engine as it revved up a storm in 2017. Edgar Wright's testosterone-soaked movie would defy any simple genre labels by merging the classic heist thriller with the car chase spectacular and the Hollywood musical. His inspirations ranged from Walter Hills The Driver (1978) to Saturday Night Fever, Heat, The Blues Brothers and Bullet. Looking at that list, one might be forgiven for thinking it would never work as the engines started and the mysterious Baby (Ansel Elgort) plugged himself into a world of classic tunes. But Baby Driver is addictive from the get-go, a perfectly choreographed musical heist that never takes its foot off the gas. As the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion rings in our ears, Baby Driver dances through the hum of an engine, the click of a tape, the screech of the brakes and deliciously timed performances that work in perfect synchronicity with every symbol, guitar and drumbeat. Baby Driver is a love letter to the power of music, its score the heartbeat of its action as Edgar Wright offers us a classic yet fresh high-octane movie musical.

GIANT LITTLE ONES

GIANT LITTLE ONES (2019)

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Franky (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas (Darren Mann) have been close friends since childhood, spending most of their time together. However, after an alcohol-fuelled night, their friendship is tested like never before as hormonal energy and experimentation mix with explosive results. Early in proceedings, director Keith Behrman dispatches with the tried and tested tropes of the high school coming out story, opting for a contemporary exploration of sexuality and gender in youth culture. Behrman reflects on the changing landscape of adolescent experience while delving into the social, gender and sexual barriers that still affect young people as they grow into young adults. Giant Little Ones explores friendship, peer pressure, and family identities as we follow young Franky, his family and friends. Josh Wiggins beautifully captures teenage life’s confusion, anger, joy, trepidation and ambiguity, while Darren Mann’s Ballas explores the fear and confusion of a threatened sense of self.

DATING AMBER

DATING AMBER (2020)

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Eddie (Fionn O’Shea) is a boy committed to following in his dad’s footsteps by joining the army, with his school life mired in homophobic jokes about his lack of a girlfriend. But to add to his troubles, Eddie’s home life is consumed by his parent’s marital problems and a younger brother who provides daily commentary on his non-existent sex life. Meanwhile, fellow student Amber (Lola Petticrew) suffers the same homophobic taunts and jibes as everyone speculates about her sexuality, her volatile life with her mum caught up in the continuing waves of her dad’s suicide years before. However, when Amber suggests to Eddie that school life may be easier for them if they pretend to be a couple, Eddie is initially filled with horror. Does this mean Amber knows his deepest secret? As Amber and Eddie enter into a relationship of convenience, their newfound friendship soon morphs into a journey of love, self-acceptance, support, and escape as Ireland slowly changes around them. With echoes of Handsome Devil and Submarine Dating Amber is a warm, funny, and emotional journey into teenage belonging and pride that is full of energetic performances and bags of charm.

TUCKED

TUCKED (2019)

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Jamie Patterson’s low-budget Tucked is a rare gem as it explores themes of mortality, intergenerational friendships and age in the LGBTQ+ community through exquisite performances full of humour and love. Filmed over ten days in Brighton, Tucked delivers a funny and deeply emotional character study that never seeks to play to stereotypes or clichés. Jackie or Jack (Derren Nesbitt) is an ageing drag queen who still performs a routine of one-liners and musical numbers on the vibrant Brighton gay scene. On finding out he has terminal cancer, Jackie befriends a 21-year-old drag performer, Faith (Jordan Stephens), who is new to the scene, and it is not long before the unlikely pair strike up a friendship, first of convenience and then of belonging and care as Jackie prepares for his final performance. Jamie Patterson delivers a genuinely remarkable film on a shoestring budget as he celebrates life, love, and friendship through the delightful performances of Nesbitt and Stephens in a film that carries a surprisingly hefty emotional punch.

Suggestions

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FROZEN, SAINT FRANCES, WARGAMES, HIGH GROUND, FAST GETAWAY, BOILING POINT, MINDING THE GAP, THE RETURN, BUGSY MALONE, BABY DRIVER, GIANT LITTLE ONES, LUCA, DATING AMBER, TUCKED