Author page: mrqe

Seven years ago, Dutch filmmaker Thijs Meuwese co-directed the science fiction film Molly a film overflowing with ingenuity, a no-budget post-apocalyptic superhero epic. You can read my review here… That film had an incredibly impressive finale, and it marked its directors and lead actress Julia Batelaan as people to keep track of. And there is good news on that front: Thijs and Julia reunited and made a thriller with a strong science-fiction slant called Psychonaut. Even better news: it has secured itself a World Première at the Brooklyn Horror festival this month. Senior programmer Joseph Hernandez describes the film as follows: A futuristic healing machine capable of piercing into one’s memories is Maxime’s only hope to save her dying girlfriend. Along with the help of…

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Four years after her layered character study A Leave, director Lee Ran-hee returns to the Busan International Film Festival with her sophomore film The Final Semester, a film that also examines the professional struggles of the trade-bound working class. While her first film followed a middle-aged carpenter, here she looks at the lives of several vocational students as they embark on the tricky transitioning from school to factory life. Chang-woo and Woo-jae are guided by their teacher, who helps them to secure placement in a company and suggests what kind of paths are open to them during these sensitive early steps of adulthood. Certain jobs may offer them an opportunity to be exempt from military service, others could help them obtain a subsidised spot at…

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Following his intriguing debut The Girl on a Bulldozer, which screened at the Busan International Film Festival in 2021, directed Park Ki-woong returns to the festival with the New Currents competition title The Land of Morning Calm. Set far away from the big city, the film examines social prejudice and small-mindedness in a tiny and hardy coastal town where it is impossible for anyone to get away from prying eyes and wagging tongues. Opening at the break of dawn looking at an ominously quiet sea and lighthouse under a darkening sky, with only a few seagulls showing signs of life, the film soon shows how deeply ironic its title is. The protagonist, played with crusty authenticity by Yoon Joo-sang, is the ageing captain of a…

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Possibly the highlight among the new Korean Indies on show at the Busan International Film Festival this year (though this critic hasn’t quite seen everything yet), Kike Will Hit a Home Run is a quirky, charming and assured follow-up from director Park Song-yeol. The film is very much cut from the same cloth as his debut film Hot in Day, Cold at Night, which screened in Busan three years ago, but it builds on that film’s more modest achievements with a tighter story and clear stylistic aims that heighten both the film’s visual appeal and emotional throughline. Director Park and producer Won Hyang-na, who are also married off-screen, once again appear as a married couple quietly struggling to get by in the big city. Things…

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If you’re under the age of 18 in France and you were itching to see Terrifier 3 in the cinemateques, looks like you’re shit outta luck.   The Classification Committee over in France has recommended a ban on the film for minors under 18. Well, not a ban as it’s been put out there but an age appropriate rating on the film, the equivlant of an NC-17 here in North America, the death knell for distributors.   This means, according to the film’s distributor, that tens of thousands of fans (read ticket sales) will not be able to watch the third installment of the extreme horror franchise in cinemas.   The distributor is crying foul about, deploring the decision as they put it. They’re talking…

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