World
Movie Review: Horror flick ‘Talk to Me’ is a hand-some high-five for twin Australian filmmakers
You’ve got to hand it to the Philippou brothers. They’ve taken an old horror cliche — a severed hand — and made something worth, well, applauding.
“Talk to Me,” which hits theaters this Friday, is a stylish, well-crafted piece of filmmaking that marks the auspicious arrival of twin Australian filmmakers Michael and Danny Philippou.
Directed by the brothers from a script by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, “Talk to Me” is modern and yet ancient, with just enough jump-cuts and zombies and dread, but not too much. It also downshifts out of madness in the final third to explore loss and guilt just when most films would ramp up the running-from-scary-guys part.
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Our focus here are a pack of teens in Australia. Teens Down Under are pretty much the same as they are everywhere — snarky, peer-pressure-y and clique-y. But in addition to stealing their parents’ booze and smoking, these guys have a porcelain hand that is a doorway to hell.
Curiously, these teens don’t sit around and play beer pong or spin-the-bottle. They take turns holding the hand and inviting whatever bug-eyed, damp and foul demon to enter their body. (For not too long, though: 90 seconds sounds good before someone needs to cut the connection.) The kids film it all on their phones and post it on social media. (Who should get royalties isn’t clear.)
OK, let’s talk about this hand, which initially just looks like one of those mannequin pieces you find in upscale jewelry stores to show off expensive rings. It’s got loads of graffiti but looks pleasant enough. Underneath the porcelain we’re told, might be the severed hand of a medium or a satanist. Don’t ask a lot of questions about how some teens in suburban Australia got it. Talk to the hand.
What’s surprising is the joy it brings to our weird group. Being possessed in this movie is a rush — an unconventional idea in the horror genre — even though the demon who briefly controls you can do embarrassing things, like make out with a dog. The script seems to be playing with notions of recreational drugs as much as horror here.
The heroine of this tale is played by Sophie Wilde and it’s her vehicle to stardom, too. It’s a role that asks her to be sad, exuberant, frightened, deadly, possessed, lusty, mournful and vengeful. She is all those things and more. She’s one to watch.
Her Mia is grieving the anniversary of her mother’s suspicious death and a demon that may or may not be mom shows up during their little game. That leads the plot in the second half to go supernatural and where holes in the logic tend to stretch.
But there’s no doubt the Philippou brothers have possessed us. Born and raised on YouTube — they cut their filmmaking teeth building RackaRacka (take that, fancy film schools) — they’ve crashed the party with a great debut. Welcome them warmly, just don’t shake their hands.
“Talk to Me,” an A24 release, is rated R for “strong, bloody violent content, some sexual material and language throughout.” Running time: 95 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
The federal government argues that the volume of traffic on the motorway network has increased more than five times over the past sixty years.
Swiss voters took to the polls on Sunday to vote no to bigger motorways, no to easier evictions and tighter subletting rules and yes to a new healthcare financing model.
The Swiss government’s proposal to allocate €5.3 million for expanding motorways and constructing new roads at six key locations, including near Bern and between Geneva and Lausanne, was rejected by 52.7% of voters.
The plan, approved by parliament last year, faced opposition from those concerned about its environmental impact and effectiveness.
The federal government, argues that the volume of traffic on the motorway network has increased more than five times over the past 60 years.
The result was celebrated by the Green Party which called the proposal “an out-of-date transport policy”.
Together with left-wing and environmental groups, the Greens campaigned against the project, highlighting its environmental impact and the concern that wider roads would only lead to more traffic. They now advocate for the funds to be used for public transport, active mobility, and the renovation of existing motorways.
Mattea Meyer from the no camp expressed her satisfaction with the referendum result.
“I am incredibly pleased that a majority of the population does not want a highway expansion, and instead wants more climate protection, a transport transition that is climate-compatible, which the highway expansion is not,” she said.
According to local media to counter this decision the yes campaign, plans on moving forward with expansion projects separately through agglomeration programs, reducing the chance for cantonal referendums.
No to easier evictions
On Sunday, Swiss voters decided on multiple housing issues, such as subletting and lease termination.
53.8% of them rejected the proposal which would make it easier for landlords to terminate leases early in order to use properties for their own purposes.
Additionally, 51.6% voted against a plan for stricter regulations on subletting residential and commercial properties. According to local media, these issues attracted significant attention because tenancy laws affect the majority of Swiss citizens, with about 60% of the population renting their homes, the highest rate in Europe.
The proposal to ease eviction rules faced strong opposition, especially in French-speaking cantons, with Geneva seeing 67.8% of its voters against the plan due to the city’s ongoing housing shortage.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Planet Earth is parting company with an asteroid that’s been tagging along as a “mini moon” for the past two months.
The harmless space rock will peel away on Monday, overcome by the stronger tug of the sun’s gravity. But it will zip closer for a quick visit in January.
NASA will use a radar antenna to observe the 33-foot (10-meter) asteroid then. That should deepen scientists’ understanding of the object known as 2024 PT5, quite possibly a boulder that was blasted off the moon by an impacting, crater-forming asteroid.
While not technically a moon — NASA stresses it was never captured by Earth’s gravity and fully in orbit — it’s “an interesting object” worthy of study.
The astrophysicist brothers who identified the asteroid’s “mini moon behavior,” Raul and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid, have collaborated with telescopes in the Canary Islands for hundreds of observations so far.
Currently more than 2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) away, the object is too small and faint to see without a powerful telescope. It will pass as close as 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) of Earth in January, maintaining a safe distance before it zooms farther into the solar system while orbiting the sun, not to return until 2055. That’s almost five times farther than the moon.
First spotted in August, the asteroid began its semi jog around Earth in late September, after coming under the grips of Earth’s gravity and following a horseshoe-shaped path. By the time it returns next year, it will be moving too fast — more than double its speed from September — to hang around, said Raul de la Fuente Marcos.
NASA will track the asteroid for more than a week in January using the Goldstone solar system radar antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, part of the Deep Space Network.
Current data suggest that during its 2055 visit, the sun-circling asteroid will once again make a temporary and partial lap around Earth.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Israeli officials on Sunday confirmed the death of an Abu Dhabi rabbi who had been missing since Thursday.
“The UAE intelligence and security authorities have located the body of Zvi Kogan, who has been missing since Thursday, 21 November 2024,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X. “The Israeli mission in Abu Dhabi has been in contact with the family from the start of the event and is continuing to assist it at this difficult time; his family in Israel has also been updated.”
“The murder of Zvi Kogan, of blessed memory, is an abhorrent act of antisemitic terrorism. The State of Israel will use all means and will deal with the criminals responsible for his death to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement added.
RABBI FEARED KIDNAPPED, KILLED BY TERRORISTS AFTER GOING MISSING, PROMPTING INVESTIGATION
Rabbi Zvi Kogan, a Chabad emissary, had been missing since Thursday. (Chabad.org via X)
Rabbi Zvi Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Hasidic Judaism based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City.
The 28-year-old was a resident of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates when he went missing Thursday. He is a citizen of both Moldova and Israel.
According to his LinkedIn, Kogan worked as a recruiter and was “passionate about volunteering and serving [his] community.”
A man walks past Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store managed by the late Rabbi Zvi Kogan, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)
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The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced its investigation into the unusual disappearance on Saturday. At the time, the statement said the disappearance appeared to be related to “a terrorist incident” but did not elaborate.
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior had confirmed it was investigating Kogan’s disappearance, but described his citizenship solely as a “Moldovan national.”
Rabbi Levi Duchman performs morning prayers on the roof of the Jewish Community Center of the UAE on March 22, 2021, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Andrea DiCenzo/Getty Images)
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The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday, according to the Associated Press. It had been a target of anti-Israel protests.
Kogan’s wife, Rivky, is a U.S. citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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