Movie Reviews
Smile tickles the brain and terrifies without remorse
Polygon is on the bottom on the 2022 Incredible Fest, reporting on new horror, sci-fi, and motion films making their strategy to theaters and streaming. This evaluate was revealed at the side of the movie’s Incredible Fest premiere.
Parker Finn’s debut horror film Smile is rigorously calibrated to do various things to completely different viewers. To somebody who isn’t properly versed in horror, it’s an environment friendly and efficient scare-fest, full of huge, startling scares and freaky, grinding rigidity.
Nevertheless it works fully otherwise for a savvy horror crowd who can acknowledge the methods Finn iterates on different widespread horror films, and predict from the beginning the place the story is sure to go. Smile typically winks on the viewers, providing up a silent what comes subsequent, proper? You’ll be able to see how dangerous this might get, can’t you? It’s simple to see at any second what Finn is doing along with his characters, and the place he’s aiming the story — and that appears to be fully deliberate. Even so, it’s by no means simple to shrug off the impression when the promised horrors arrive.
Working from a earlier quick movie, 2020’s Laura Hasn’t Slept, Finn’s script takes virtually no time to determine who his protagonist is earlier than her world begins falling aside. Working in a hospital’s emergency psychiatric ward, therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is used to seeing individuals in disaster, and speaking them down. Then she encounters a badly shaken affected person who claims she’s haunted by some form of malevolent entity nobody else can see, a creature with a horrifying smile who torments her by showing within the guise of individuals she is aware of.
The story seems like a paranoid delusion — and when Rose tries to speak to different individuals in regards to the shape-changing, invisible, malevolent curse-creature, she seems like she’s having paranoid delusions, too. “I’m not loopy,” she professes to her blandly type fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), her brittle older sister Holly (Gillian Zinser), and her patrician former therapist Madeline (Robin Weigert, in a job that’s light-years away from her flip as Deadwood’s Calamity Jane). However Rose can’t discover a strategy to sound convincing when she says it, particularly to a world that’s cynical and unsympathetic towards the mentally unwell.
Smile is commonly a gimmicky, even corny horror film, filled with so many jump-scares that the sheer pile-on borders on laughable. Finn makes use of abrupt, loud sound cues and brutally fast cuts to get viewers yelping and flinching over issues as mundane as Rose biting right into a hamburger, or tearing off a hangnail. However regardless of how excessively the authentic scares pile up, they’re startling and convincing. The modifying and music are impressively tuned for max impression each time the slow-burning rigidity resolves with an abrupt, ugly shock. All of which makes Smile an environment friendly journey, if an unusually unrelenting one.
However Finn pulls off the equal of a magician displaying audiences how the trick is finished, then doing it so successfully that it nonetheless appears to be like like magic anyway. His script patterns Smile after The Ring, with Rose experiencing an inciting incident, discovering she’s on a lethal deadline, drawing in her reluctant however soulful ex to assist her, then doing analysis into the phenomenon, with worrying outcomes. However the place different movies that adopted The Ring’s beats simply felt spinoff (together with a number of of its personal clumsy sequels), Smile makes use of the familiarity of the story to arrange anticipation. When Rose sees a potential resolution to her drawback, Smile invitations viewers to contemplate the logical endpoint of her discovery, and wonder if she’ll make the identical egocentric selection Naomi Watts’ character made in The Ring — and if that’s the case, who will endure consequently.
Equally, Smile’s setup broadly mimics the one in It Follows, with a menace handed virally from individual to individual, continuing implacably towards its subsequent sufferer, whereas sporting quite a lot of faces, turning everybody within the protagonist’s life into a possible menace. However once more, as a substitute of feeling like a copycat, Smile makes use of the familiarity to intensify the sense of hazard, till viewers can’t belief anybody they see on display screen to be human — which places them neatly inside Rose’s more and more disintegrating mindset.
The human ingredient in Smile is as rigorously calibrated because the soar scares, in methods designed to maintain the viewers worrying once they aren’t flinching. Finn populates the story with weak potential victims: Longtime horror followers know to be nervous when it seems that Rose has a beloved cat, or that Holly has a candy 7-year-old boy, or that Rose’s useful ex Joel (Kyle Gallner) is delicate, open-hearted, and nonetheless in love along with her. (Kal Penn additionally pops up as Rose’s supervisor, in a job that appears notably designed to supply a goal for mayhem.) And the best way Rose is repressing a childhood trauma, which she partially shares with Holly and is partially the rationale for a lot rigidity between them, units up some notably wealthy emotional floor. Smile is sort of painfully environment friendly in establishing for calamity: It’s bare-bones storytelling, with each new character or ingredient designed to strengthen the sense of dread over who’s more likely to die, and the way badly.
The film’s central theme provides to the sense of dread as properly. From the second a policeman dismisses his duty to research a grotesque demise by writing the sufferer off with a cavalier “She sounds fucking loopy to me!”, it’s evident that at coronary heart, Smile is in regards to the stigma round psychological sickness, and the urge to dismiss or demonize individuals navigating it.
Finn finds fertile floor within the huge and presumably unbridgeable hole between victims and even well-intentioned onlookers. The viewers’s sympathy is more likely to be with Rose, who’s dwelling with a terror she doesn’t know how you can battle. Nevertheless it’s additionally simple to see why different individuals would discover it discomfiting, making an attempt to take care of a girl who’s behaving erratically and even dangerously, whereas blaming all of it on some sort of incomprehensible fear-demon.
A deeper model of this film may go even additional into ambiguity about Rose’s scenario, lingering on the query of whether or not she actually is simply having a psychotic episode, introduced on by stress, overwork, and legit trauma. Finn chooses to keep away from that path, making it pretty clear all through that one thing supernatural is at work. It’s an affordable option to make in a film this dedicated to piling up worry atop worry, in getting the viewers to anticipate the worst that would occur, whereas authentically caring in regards to the individuals who may endure when it does. Nonetheless, it robs Smile of potential subtlety.
However there’s nothing incorrect with a horror film that’s extra designed to terrify an viewers than to play video games with them. As a writer-director, Finn appears to know that folks may go to horror films for various causes, some extra mental and a few extra emotional. Both means, he does a powerful job of creating certain they’ll all come away glad, and not less than a little bit shaken.
Smile opens in theaters on Sept. 30.
Movie Reviews
Caitlin Cronenberg’s ‘HUMANE’ (2024) – Movie Review – PopHorror
Humane was written by Michael Sparaga (United We Fan 2018) and stars Jay Baruchel (Random Acts of Violence 2019) Emily Hampshire (Mom 2024) and Peter Gallagher (American Beauty 1999). The story follows the upper crust York family in a dystopian world, where the government requires volunteers to be killed to control the population. Those that volunteer have their families rewarded with tons of money upon their death. The heads of the York family gather their children to tell them the news, and all hell breaks loose.
Only one of the Yorks sticks to the death pact, so the government must collect a second body. Trapped in the desolate mansion, the family must now either work together or fall apart, as secrets and tension mount.
Humane hits a home run in terms of the chemistry and clear delineation of its characters. Every member of the York family has a rocky history, clear motivation, and can be seen for who they are, very quickly. The brother and sister dynamic and family toxicity feels real and is worn on each of their faces. This dialogue-heavy success is well paced, and leads to some genuinely funny dark comedy, without ever killing the tension that it builds.
Humane also uses its rooms to isolate the characters and peel back the curtain on their relationships. Cronenberg clearly thrives in the chaotic world she builds, just like her father. But unlike David’s body-horror, Caitlin weaves societal statements into her work. Themes of classism, racism, governmental divide, and greed are woven expertly into this game of survival. With all of the subtext it provides, it would feel dystopian not to have this movie in the upper crust of your horror lists by year’s end.
Humane is currently streaming on Shudder.
Movie Reviews
Sathyam Sundaram Movie Review – Gulte
3/5
2 hrs 57 mins | Slice-of-life | 28-9-2024
Cast – Arvind Swamy, Karthi, Sri Divya, Devadarshini, Jayaprakash and others
Director – C Premkumar
Producer – Jyothika, Surya
Banner – 2D Entertainment
Music – Govind Vasantha
96-fame director C Prem Kumar returns to the director’s chair after nearly five years to helm Sathyam Sundaram, a slice-of-life film on relationships and nostalgia. The film stars Aravind Swamy and Karthi in lead roles, who play the titular characters of Sathyam and Sundaram respectively. Sathyam and Sundaram is originally titled Meiyazhagan in Tamil. While the Tamil film is set in Thanjavur and Chennai, the Telugu film’s locations have been changed to Guntur and Vizag respectively. Sathyam Sundaram is produced by Jyothika and Suriya, who have previously backed critically acclaimed films like Soorarai Pottru (Aakasame Nee Haddura in Telugu) and Jai Bhim.
What is it about?
Sathyam (Aravind Swamy) and his family lose their beloved ancestral house in Guntur due to a property litigation in 1996, following which they tearfully leave the town and move to Chennai. 22 years later, Sathyam makes a trip back to Guntur to attend his sister’s wedding. What happens when Sathyam bumps into an overly friendly childhood acquaintance in the village (Sundaram) forms the crux of the story.
Performances
Karthi is the heart and soul of the film and he is the reason why everyone connects with the story. He also elicits the most laughs out of the audience. Aravind Swamy plays an introverted character with a lot of trauma. His screen presence fades a bit when he is with Karthi, but nevertheless, he delivers a strong performance.
Sri Divya and Devadarshini play the wives of these main characters. Despite their limited screentime, they are both endearing and memorable. Rajkiran, as Sathyam’s uncle Sukumar, is extremely relatable and effective, reminding a lot of us of our uncles.
Technicalities
The film has extremely emotional and soul stirring music by Govind Vasantha. The intent and meaning of the original Tamil lyrics of the songs have also been translated competently by Rakendu Mouli.
The film’s original location Thanjavur, with its ancient temples, plays a major role in determining the film’s overall production values. Though the makers of the film have changed the location in the Telugu version to Guntur, it is hard to miss the effect of Thanjavur in the film.
In addition to the friendship between Sathyam and Sundaram, the film also emphasises the relationship these actors share with animals of all kinds, ranging from cats, parrots to bulls and snakes. It adds a wholesome and heartwarming flair to the overall narrative.
The cinematography, by Mahendiran Jayaraju, plays a huge role in conveying the film’s soothing-yet-hard hitting themes. The result makes the film look both real and cinematically beautiful at the same time.
Thumbs up
Karthi & Aravind Swamy
90s nostalgia
Writing
Worldbuilding
Music
Thumbs down
Runtime
Slow paced narrative
Analysis
Sathyam Sundaram is a beautiful trip down the memory lane. Much like the director’s previous film 96 (and its Telugu remake Jaanu), a majority of the film takes place in the space of one night with just two characters.
Movies that take place entirely within the span of a single night fit well in the thriller genre, but clearly, 96 and Sathyam Sundaram are exceptions to this rule. Each dialogue, scene, sub-plot and arc in the film leaves a person with a smile and a good feeling in their hearts.
The film slowly but steadily wins the heart of everyone with its sincere emotions. A couple of scenes in particular, have the potential of making the audience tear up, due to their highly effective and relatable emotionality.
The makers have taken good care to ensure that it appeals well to Telugu audience, with attention to detail given to the dialogues, comedy and lyrics. This film will particularly impress 90s kids, with its bicycle sub-plot, flashback portions in the village and the actors humming iconic 90s songs like Singarala.
The film could have been much easier to enjoy though, had it been 30-40 minutes shorter (the runtime is 177 minutes long). The film’s makers could have also gone for a different title since it gives a spoiler to one of the film’s biggest mysteries. All in all, Sathyam Sundaram is a positive step in the direction of good, soulful cinema. However, those who do not enjoy slice-of-life emotional dramas or three-hour long films must definitely think twice before watching Sathyam Sundaram.
Verdict: Emotional Journey Of Pure Hearts
Rating: 3/5
Related
Movie Reviews
Satyam Sundaram Telugu Movie Review, Karthi, Aravind Swamy
Movie Name : Sathyam Sundaram
Release Date : September 28, 2024
123telugu.com Rating : 3.25/5
Starring : Karthi, Arvind Swamy, Sri Divya, Devadarshini, Swathi Konde and others
Director : C. Prem Kumar
Producers : Jyotika Sadanah, Suriya Sivakumar
Music Director: Govind Vasantha
Cinematographer: Mahendiran Jayaraju
Editor: R.Govindaraj
Related Links : Trailer
Karthi and Arvind Swamy’s Meiyazhagan made its debut in cinemas yesterday, and the Telugu version, Sathyam Sundaram, released today. Take a look at the review to know how this Prem Kumar directorial performs.
Story:
In 1996, Sathyam (Arvind Swamy) and his family are forced to leave their home in Guntur and start afresh in Vizag. Two decades later, Satyam returns to Guntur for his cousin’s wedding, where he encounters Sundaram (Karthi), a spirited individual who seems unusually attentive to him. Sathyam feels puzzled and uneasy, as he doesn’t recognize Sundaram or understand his actions. As events unfold during the wedding, Sathyam prepares to return to Vizag, but a series of dramatic incidents between the two reveal hidden emotions and long-lost connections, leading Satyam to discover Sundaram’s true identity.
Plus Points:
In an era where deeply emotional stories are becoming rare, Satyam Sundaram stands out as a heartwarming film that relies on genuine expressions and simple, meaningful conversations. The film’s strength lies in its ability to connect with the audience through its beautifully crafted characters and the subtle emotions they convey.
Karthi and Arvind Swamy’s performances are a major highlight. Both the actors sink into their characters so naturally that their on-screen presence feels effortless. Karthi’s outgoing and energetic persona blends well with Arvind Swamy’s quiet, introverted nature, creating a delightful contrast. Their chemistry, mixed with humor, brings a sense of lightheartedness that is engaging and enjoyable.
The supporting cast also adds value, delivering strong performances that enhance the emotional depth of the film. Another major asset is Govind Vasantha’s music, which amplifies the film’s emotional tone, making certain moments even more impactful.
Minus Points:
Though the film is emotionally engaging, its slow pace and reliance on lengthy dialogues may not appeal to everyone. Some viewers might find the narrative dragging in places, particularly because the story focuses more on conversations and small gestures rather than a gripping plot.
The absence of major twists or high intensity moments might leave those looking for a fast-paced drama feeling underwhelmed. Additionally, the extended runtime could test the patience of some viewers, as certain scenes feel unnecessarily prolonged.
Technical Aspects:
One of the film’s technical achievements is its seamless adaptation from Tamil to Telugu. The attention to detail – from signboards to banners and even the opening and closing credits—is impeccable, making it feel like a straight Telugu film. The team deserves credit for ensuring the authenticity of the language and setting.
Director C Prem Kumar once again proves his ability to explore human emotions with finesse, much like his work in 96. He masterfully portrays the journey of self-discovery through the perceptions of others, though the slow pace of his films may not suit every viewer’s taste.
The Telugu dialogues are skillfully dubbed, and the cinematography beautifully captures the charm of rural life. The production values, while modest, are used effectively to maintain authenticity throughout. Although the editing is decent, trimming some extended sequences would have improved the film’s overall flow.
Verdict:
On the whole, Sathyam Sundaram is a heartfelt drama about human relationships. Karthi and Arvind Swamy’s performances add warmth to their characters, making their interactions enjoyable. While the slow pace and long runtime might not suit everyone, the film offers a thoughtful look at memories and connections. If you’re in the mood for something reflective, Sathyam Sundaram is worth considering.
123telugu.com Rating: 3.25/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team
Click Here For Telugu Review
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