Movie Reviews
Little Bites movie review & film summary (2024) | Roger Ebert
There’s an abundance of horror movies lately that underestimate the emotional intelligence of their viewers, choosing to pound home their metaphors instead of leaving them with unanswered questions. Horror needs to be a little gray, a little hard to decipher, a little debatable as to its meaning and purpose. When it’s not, and it shifts from mood to message, it loses its power. That’s one of several things that happens with Spider One’s frustrating “Little Bites,” a movie that constantly puts its themes in its performers’ mouths instead of letting them play actual characters and trusting us to meet the film halfway.
Krsy Fox, also at FF with “Terrifier 3,” which I couldn’t stay awake for on opening night but will get to before it opens, plays Mindy Vogel, a widow we meet in a living nightmare. She has sent her daughter Alice (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro) to live with her grandmother (Bonnie Aarons) as a way to protect her from the demon living in a basement room in their home, a creature named Agyar (Jon Sklaroff) that looks a bit like Nosferatu. Seen mostly in shadow, it’s a humanoid monster that feeds off Mindy, scarring her with ‘little bites’ instead of just devouring her outright. It’s a form of control, and a metaphor for addiction—a monster that often feeds off parents in a way that makes them incapable of raising their children—but also just the difficulty of motherhood. The repeated point is that Mindy will answer the bell every time that Agyar rings it if it keeps Alice safe. Motherhood is tough. And this is conveyed through scene after scene of Fox looking increasingly drained by her situation as Agyar physically, mentally, and emotionally abuses her.
There’s a short film in the concept of a demon that literally drains the lifeforce of a single mother, but Spider One expands that idea past its breaking point with a series of what are basically standalone encounters. A CPS worker named Sonya (the great Barbara Crampton) appears on Mindy’s doorstep, wondering where Alice might be. As good as Crampton is in these scenes, they make little narrative sense in that it doesn’t seem particularly illegal to say that a child is living with their grandmother for a few weeks, but they’re poorly shaped in a way that’s designed to produce tension that Mindy’s secret might be revealed. Ditto a scene in which Mindy brings home a guy (Chaz Bono) from the bus stop to try and give Agyar a heartier meal. This sequence turns into awkward comedy involving some poorly drugged ice cream, unsure of what it’s trying to say about its protagonist or her desperation. Every exchange in “Little Bites,” even a one-scene appearance by the great Heather Langenkamp, feels unnatural, either weighted with metaphor or uncertain about its characters.
It’s likely this narrative inconsistency and direction to play theme instead of reality that leads to some of the wooden, awkward performances. The horror icons like Crampton and Langenkamp make it out unscathed—they always do—but almost everyone else looks lost as often as they look frightened or empowered. Exchanges like the ones between Mindy and her mother don’t sound remotely genuine, which constantly breaks the spell that a film like this needs to cast to be effective. Fox is giving it her best shot—I’m pretty sure she’s in nearly every scene—and I’d be interested in seeing her challenged by a part like this again, but it’s so disheartening to watch someone give their all to a movie that doesn’t really know what to do with her character or performance. Motherhood is tough. So is filmmaking.
This review was filed from the world premiere at Fantastic Fest. It premieres on Shudder on October 4th.
Desert Warrior, 2026.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
Starring Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley, Ghassan Massoud, Sharlto Copley, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, Numan Acar, Nabil Elouahabi, Hakeem Jomah, Ramsey Faragallah, Saïd Boumazoughe, and Soheil Bostani.
SYNOPSIS:
An honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala, makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert.
With aspirations of being a historical epic harkening back to the sword and sandal blockbusters of yesteryear, Rupert Wyatt’s seventeenth-century Arabia tale is about as generic and epically dull as one would expect from a film plainly titled Desert Warrior. Yes, there appear to be real locations here, and there are some admittedly sweeping shots of various tribes storming into battle on horseback and camels, but it’s all in service of a mess that is both miscast and questionable as the work of a filmmaking team of mostly white creatives.
The story of Emperor Kisraa (Ben Kingsley, a distracting presence even with only one or two scenes) rounding up women from other tribes to be his concubines, which inevitably became the catalyst for a revolution led by Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart), uniting all the divided clans and strategizing battle plans for flanking and poisoning, is undeniably ripe for cinematic treatment. The problem is that what’s here from Rupert Wyatt (and screenwriters Erica Beeney, Gary Ross, and David Self) is less than nothing in the primary creative process; no one seems to have a connection to Arabic heritage or culture, but they have made a flat-out boring film that is often narratively incoherent.
Following the death of her father and escaping the clutches of oppression, the honorable Princess Hind joins forces with a troubled, nameless bandit played by Anthony Mackie (he totally belongs here…), who seems to be here solely to give the movie some star power boost without running the risk of white savior accusations. Whatever the case may be, it’s jarring, but not quite as disorienting as how little screen time he has despite being billed as the lead and how little characterization he has. It is, however, equally disorienting as some of the other names that show up along the way.
As for the other factions, Princess Hind talks to them one by one, giving the film an adventure feel that fails to capitalize on using beautiful scenery in striking or visually poignant ways at almost every turn; the leaders of these tribes also often have no character. There also isn’t much of an understanding of why these tribes are at odds with one another. This movie is filled with dialogue that consistently and shockingly amounts to vague nothingness. Nevertheless, each tribe doesn’t take much convincing to begin with, meaning that not only is the film repetitive, but it’s also lifeless when characters are in conversation.
That Desert Warrior does occasionally spring to life, and a bloated 2+ running time is a small miracle. This is typically accomplished through the occasional fight scene between factions that also serves to demonstrate Princess Hind coming into her own as a warrior. When the tribes are united in a massive-scale battle, and that plan is unfolding step by step, one certainly sees why someone would want to tell this story and pull it off with such spectacle. However, this film is as dry as the desert itself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
‘4’, the opening track on Richard D James’ (Aphex Twin) self titled 1996 album is a piece of music that beautifully balances the chaotic with the serene, the oppressive and the freeing. It’s a trick that James has pulled off multiple times throughout his career and it is a huge part of what makes him such an iconic and influential artist. Many people have laid the “next Aphex Twin” label on musicians who do things slightly different and when you actually hear their music you realise that, once again, the label is flawed and applied with a lazy attitude. Why mention this? Well, it turns out we’ve been looking for James’ heir apparent in the wrong artform. We’ve so zoned in on music that we’ve not noticed that another Celtic son of Cornwall is rewriting an art form with that highwire balancing act between chaos and beauty. That artist is writer, director and composer Mark Jenkin who over his last two feature films has announced himself as an idiosyncratic voice who is creating his very own language within the world of cinema. Jenkin’s films are often centred around coastal towns or islands and whilst they are experimental or even unsettling, there is always a big heart at the centre of the narrative. A heart that cares about family, tradition, culture, and the pull of ‘home’. Even during the horror of 2022’s brilliant Enys Men you were anchored by the vulnerability and determination of its main protagonist.
This month sees the release of Jenkin’s latest feature film, Rose of Nevada, which is set in a fractured and diminished Cornish coastal town. One day the fishing boat of the film’s title arrives back in harbour after being missing for thirty years. The boat is unoccupied. And frankly that is all the information you are going to get because to discuss any more plot would be unfair on you and disrespectful to Jenkin and the team behind the film. You the viewer should be the one who decides what it is about because thematically there are so many wonderful threads to pull on. This writer’s opinions on what it is about have ranged from a theme of sacrifice for the good of a community to the conflict within when part of you wants to run away from your roots whilst the other half longs to stay and be a lifelong part of its tapestry. Is it about Brexit? Could be. Is it about our own relationships with time and our curation of memory? Could be. Is it about both the positives and negatives of nostalgia? Could be. As a side note, anyone in their mid-40s, like me, who came of age in the 1990s will certainly find moments of warm recognition. Is the film about ghosts and how they haunt families? Could be…I think you get the point.
The elements that make the film so well balanced between chaos and calm are many. It is there in the differing performances between the brilliant two lead actors George MacKay and Callum Turner. It is there in the sound design which fluctuates from being unbearably harsh and metallic, to lulling and warm. It is there in the editing where short, sharp close ups on seemingly unimportant factors are counterbalanced with shots that are held for just that little bit too long. For a film set around the sea, it is apt that it can make you feel like you’re rolling on a stomach churning storm one minute, or a calming low tide the next. Dialogue can be front and centre or blurred and buried under static. One shot is bathed in harsh sunlight whilst the next can be drowned in interior shadows.
Rose of Nevada is Mark Jenkin’s most ambitious film to date yet he has not lost a single iota of innovation, singularity of vision or his gift for telling the most human of stories. It is a film that will tell you different things each time you see it and whilst there are moments that can confuse or beguile, there is so much empathy and love that it can leave you crying tears of emotional understanding. It is chaotic. It is beautiful. It is life……
Rose of Nevada is released on the 24th April.
Mark Jenkin Instagram | Threads
Released through the BFI – Instagram | Facebook
Review by Simon Tucker
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Mailing List
Related
-
California3 minutes agoCalifornia lawmaker introduces bill to protect wildlife from euthanasia, create coexistence program
-
Colorado9 minutes agoThornton marks 70 years: Exhibit traces Colorado city’s roots from developer’s dream to thriving suburb
-
Connecticut15 minutes ago
Marylin A. Shields Obituary
-
Delaware21 minutes agoDelaware Lottery Powerball, Play 3 Day winning numbers for April 20, 2026 – AOL
-
Florida27 minutes agoFlorida wildfire strands Amtrak passengers for over 24 hours
-
Georgia33 minutes agoDemocrats Are Ready to Reclaim Georgia. Is a Former Republican the Man for the Job?
-
Hawaii39 minutes ago7 Stunning Small Towns In Hawaii
-
Idaho45 minutes ago
Idaho Lottery results: See winning numbers for Powerball, Pick 3 on April 20, 2026
