Welcome to the second of the chronicles that we will dedicate day after day to the 57th edition of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.
'Get Away' – Nick Frost tries once again to emulate or recover the sensations of 'Shaun of the Dead', like so many other horror comedies of the last 20 years -How time flies!-. We like Frost, no doubt, but it's not the same without Simon Pegg by his side… and especially without Edgar Wright. TO 'Get Away' It lacks a good cast, a good script and a good direction that highlights its undoubted good will and best intentions. Also much more bad temper and gratuitous violence, if possible also more inspired and incisive. Thus, we are left with “another” passable horror comedy that will get you through the day but that you will have a hard time remembering in a week; even more so in weeks like Sitges. ***** 'Apocalypse Z: The beginning of the end' – Within a subgenre as overexploited in recent years as that of zombies, to stand out requires something more than what this, on the other hand, willful incursion into the country offers (which arrives a little late to the party, yes) ). An appreciable incursion that only stands out for its Spanish setting. If it stands out when what defines it, it is, in fact, that it does not stand out in anything. It is a very correct and successful approach that, beyond some specific details, lacks any element that personalizes a “déjà vu” that is as distracting as it is, clearly, conceived in a way that is too hygienic, superficial and commercial for what we are used to. in a very well-trained genre here (or is it stream-trained?). ****** 'Exhumes' – During its first half it is very reminiscent of 'The Stranger' by Na Hong-jin, although this initial atmospheric impression evaporates with the passing of the minutes and its progressive and relative stagnation. It is true that the film never loses face of the story it wants to tell, but it also works much better when it plays to insinuate instead of just showing. The latter is precisely what loses it a little, its obsession “to show” in a final stretch that transforms the suggestion of its beginnings into an effect of little impact. Which, even though it is always distracting, reduces it to being a forgettable average movie with a bittersweet taste of disappointment. ****** 'Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story' – Thinking about Christopher Reeve automatically means thinking about Superman. And in his accident. And in his injury. At least those of us of a certain age. They are inseparable, from here to eternity. In the same way that happens with Michael J. Fox… And in the same way as 'The Life of Michael J. Fox', this DC Studios documentary fulfills and works as it is expected to fulfill and work, even more so taking into account Note that Reeve's artistic career is much more limited than Fox's. In any case, it is highly unlikely that this emotional and effective although in the end a somewhat heavy documentary will not please and will convince anyone of a certain age who watches it on their own initiative . ******* 'Confession' – Nobuhiro Yamashita gets to the point. In less than 10 minutes, the Japanese filmmaker has already developed his official synopsis and stated his premise. A simple and concise premise with a theatrical air that with only two characters and a stage does not stretch beyond 70 or so minutes. But unlike, for example, what usually happens with the work of Quentin Dupieux, 'Confession' It does look and behave like a movie. A simple and concise, direct and effective film that, at the point of a knife, keeps us highly distracted with its game of cat and mouse throughout its entire length. ******* 'MadS' – Promoting a film based on how it was shot is a double-edged sword, as it often makes you pay more attention to the technique than the story. In 'MadS' However, both things go hand in hand, being in practice the result of the fusion between the two. There would be no film otherwise: The story is the technique, the technique is the story. All of this served with much, much intensity and musical harassment. A crazy and fast-paced 90-minute sequence that partly feels like a new installment of 'V/H/S', in an irresistible and overwhelming flight to nowhere that works because of his blind faith in a project whose viewing, like that 'One Cut of the Dead' should be accompanied by some 'making of'. *******
