With Cine-Excess 2019 being the first film festival I actually attended, (where the late Norman J Warren was a fabulous guest.) I signed up straight away when I discovered a second online version of the festival was being held. Noticing that this had the shortest run-time of the films in the line-up,I got set to pop a pill.
View on the film:
Going behind the camera for the first time since the short movie What Came After (2016), costume designer/production designer/ writer/director/lead actress Tonya Pinkins is joined by cinematographer John Hudak Jr. In gathering the nine "Progressives" inside a isolated rural house filled with glossy whip-pans that slide between merry exchanges with the pals and iffy CGI jump scares.
Cutting to grainy CCTV footage of the friends being secretly recorded, Pinkins unveils distorted glimpses into Folk Horror, before shooting it down for a dire, flatly shot ending clearly based on The Handmaid's Tale TV series.
Entering a "red state" on the eve of the election, the screenplay by Pinkins disappointingly fails to give any of the friends major distinctive differences,with attempts at satire landing with a thud as they all agree on everything,and the baddies being given so little room to create an impression, that the twist ending comes off as a badly judged wacky final note,as the red pill turns blue.
View on the film:
Going behind the camera for the first time since the short movie What Came After (2016), costume designer/production designer/ writer/director/lead actress Tonya Pinkins is joined by cinematographer John Hudak Jr. In gathering the nine "Progressives" inside a isolated rural house filled with glossy whip-pans that slide between merry exchanges with the pals and iffy CGI jump scares.
Cutting to grainy CCTV footage of the friends being secretly recorded, Pinkins unveils distorted glimpses into Folk Horror, before shooting it down for a dire, flatly shot ending clearly based on The Handmaid's Tale TV series.
Entering a "red state" on the eve of the election, the screenplay by Pinkins disappointingly fails to give any of the friends major distinctive differences,with attempts at satire landing with a thud as they all agree on everything,and the baddies being given so little room to create an impression, that the twist ending comes off as a badly judged wacky final note,as the red pill turns blue.