BY RYLAND ALDRICH |
Twitch Presents: 5 Fantastic Films to Keep on Your Radar
Top movie news site TwitchFilm rounds up some international genre pics for your fall viewing pleasure.
TwitchFilm is a top movie news and review site that features the leading voices in global cinema. As Twitch has long been associated with the fantastic side of international and genre cinema, this week we're taking a look at a few films from the fall festival circuit that should be on every film fan's radar. Each of these movies should be heading to a theater near you within the next year.
Bullhead
The Dardenne Brothers (Jean-Pierre and Luc) have received the honor of representing Belgium's Foreign Language Oscar submission three times over. So it is certainly worth noting that Michael Roskam's debut feature Bullhead was selected this year over the Dardennes' Cannes hit The Boy with a Bike. Set in the unlikely underworld of the bovine hormone trade, Bullhead is a twisting and turning thriller that connects with audiences due in a large part to the heartfelt performance by lead actor Matthias Shoenaerts. The film has drawn comparisons to last year's Animal Kingdom with due cause, as both films feature sharply written scripts and break though performances in dark, soul rumbling stories. Watch for the film coming soon from Drafthouse Films and certainly be on the lookout for whatever Roskam decides to take on next.
→ Read Twitch's Full Review of Bullhead
Sleepless Night
Set mostly over one evening in a Parisian nightclub, Sleepless Night is an action packed cop-on-the-edge thriller that features a powerful performance by star Tomer Sisley. When a drug deal goes wrong, Sisley's Vincent finds his son kidnapped by a nightclub owning mob thug. Vincent heads to the nightclub to trade the drugs for the boy, but the involvement of an over ambitious internal affairs officer throws a wrench in his plans. What follows is a tightly wound narrative that shows off the impressive chops of director Frédéric Jardin and co-writer Nicolas Sadaa. Cleverly doubling back through the labyrinthine nightclub, Sleepless Night at times reminds of classic Hollywood actioner Die Hard. No surprise then that Warner Bros. has already snapped up the remake rights to be produced by remake heavyweight Roy Lee. Regardless of how that project turns out, the original is a lot of fun and a can't miss for any action aficionado. Look for the film in theaters soon from Tribeca Film.
→ Read Twitch's Full Review of Sleepless Night
The Raid
Igniting audiences as the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight opener, Gareth Huw Evans's Indonesian actioner The Raid is quite simply the most impressive martial arts film in decades. The film stars Iko Uwais as a member of a squadron of elite cops fighting their way to the top of a Jakarta apartment complex stuffed with baddies. The Indonesian fighting style Silat is on display as Uwais and co-stars Yayan Ruhian and Joe Taslim kick, punch, bend and break with lightning speed. The action is fast and furious, but the film is smart, and Evans inserts the perfect amount of story to keep the audience engaged and the action moving. While this is another film ripe for a Hollywood remake, it is pretty tough to imagine a retelling of this story could provide the excitement and bone crunching action that Evans delivers here. But fear not, as Evans's sequel Berandal is already in the works – again starring Uwais. The Raid must be experienced and audiences everywhere will get their chance when the film is released by Sony soon.
→ Read Twitch's Full Review of The Raid
You're Next
Another darling of the TIFF Midnight program, Adam Wingard's You're Next is a home invasion slasher with a twist. The twist is that the home being invaded happens to house badass chica Erin, played with impressive badass-ity by Aussie heartthrob Sharni Vinson. Erin is the kind of girl not afraid to pick up a crossbow and fire back, and the home invaders soon find they're ones being hunted down. With just the right mixture of belly laughs and blood spillage, Simon Barrett's script provides Wingard with the goods he needs to craft the perfect kind of genre madness – the kind that's a whole lot of fun. Check it out when Lionsgate brings it to theaters – hopefully sooner than later.
→ Read Twitch's Full Review of You're Next
Carre Blanc
One of the big hits from this year's Fantastic Fest, Jean-Baptiste Léonetti's French dystopian science fiction tale Carre Blanc is a weird, poetic and wonderful look at modern society. Part Soylent Green and part 1984, with heavy nods to French filmmaking tradition, Léonetti takes us into a world where strange psychological tests determine one's rank in society and those who don't make the grade are recycled into hamburger. Probably the least accessible of the bunch, Carre Blanc is also the most artistic and maybe the funniest as well. This all means the film could find an odd crossover audience of art house and genre fans - if it can lock down US distribution first.
→ Read Twitch's Full Review of Carre Blanc
Ryland Aldrich is the festivals editor at TwitchFilm. You can follow him on Twitter at @RylandAldrich.
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