7/20/2015

#MurderSelfie - a Comedy-Horror Kickstarter Project



The team of Confine is at it again. Director Tobias Tobbell explores the theme of home invasion once more but from the comedy angle this time. The story is directly based on Tobbell's misfortune. The indie director was held at knife-point in his South East London apartment by an intruder who stole his most precious possession: his smartphone! "I think the worst part of the experience was how lost I felt without my phone, my life-line, and kind of hated and marveled at the power social media had over my life", Tobbell admitted. 

The incident contributed to inspire a short comedy-horror movie starring Bad Education’s Nikki Runeckles as the young, smartphone-obsessed female lead. When masked intruders break in and enter her property, her addiction to social media takes a whole new level...

Social media isn't only the center of the plot, it's also a tool used by Tobbell to produce the movie. You can support his project on Kickstarter for another 12 days and even choose the final mask that the bad guys will wear.

Obsessed by horror, comedy or social media? You can support the team at #MurderSelfie !

6/29/2015

Café de Flore (2011)


Never Gonna Give You Up



From its polished soundtrack to its paranormal twists, this brilliant movie directed by C.R.A.Z.Y.'s Jean-Marc Vallée is worth watching. You're alternately taken to 1969 Paris and 2011 Montréal respectively following a single mother raising her son with Down syndrome and a family coping with parental separation and the father's new soulmate situation. As the plot slowly - Quebec filmmakers take their time - developed on a cloud of Sigur Ros songs, everything I had not expected from this movie happened. The seemingly two unrelated stories only linked by matching tunes turned out to be much more. I thought this would be a heartbreaking drama drowned in 8th grader romance and miserable fatality. It is more of a Vanilla Sky-type intrigue and quite the mindfuck. The cast is absolutely flawless from Vanessa Paradis' portrayal of a mother struggling with societal prejudice to Evelyne Brochu's character of the obviously hated stepmother and stunning new soulmate or even Marin Gerrier who plays Paradis' son. Café de Flore is everything you want in a movie and more.

1 reason to watch it: this is art.



3/30/2015

Nous York (2012)


Les Misérables Clichés




This nonsensical empty attempt at comedy - or whatever it is they tried to do - consists in three childhood friends screaming "OBAMAAAA!" every 15 minutes. Those thirty-something immature boys fly to New York to surprise their other friend on her birthday. This leads to some existential quest for love and happiness within the family and friendship spheres. Not only has the plot barely scratched the surface but if you dug harder, there would be more surface. The poorly cast ensemble doesn't do justice to the typical French tourist and the filmmakers don't even have the slightest idea about American culture. They haven't even researched any of it and they portray the weirdest unbelievable facts. For example, every person they meet in NYC lives in some fancy 10-acre penthouse. Really? Do they have any idea of the housing market in Manhattan these days? Even Charlie Sheen's character in 1987's Wall Street had trouble paying rent for his little bachelor suite. But let's just assume that it makes sense because one of the protagonist is the assistant of some famous actor. Sure she is! How many French illegal workers in Manhattan actually are the assistant of De Niro or Woody Allen? That's right. None. Then there are the scenes regarding shoes on power lines. The three amigos first spot those in Brooklyn where one of them says it's just what New Yorkers do for fun or style. You expect a later scene in which they try to throw their shoes on a wire and a drug lord's street associate chasing them. That never happens. They end up throwing their shoes there and screaming the name of the 44th President of the USA. It is not deep, nor is it French-charming, clever or even funny. This is the last thing you want to watch to try out French comedy.

1 reason NOT to watch it: it's le merde.