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Reviews
Northern Comfort (2023)
A Missed Opportunity
This film really missed the mark for me. It's rare to find anything with Tim Spall in that disappoints, but this did fall into that category. I had high hopes despite the fairly average rating, as I felt that this had good ingredients, but unfortunately, they were deployed badly.
I am usually keen on anything involving aviation, mystery, or wonderful landscapes, but I wasn't engaged with this at all. None of the characters were believable as they were so riddled with contradictions and were never properly developed. The few moments of comedy were absurd rather than clever and, despite mostly decent acting performances, the script failed to properly explain or explore anything to give the viewer something to invest in.
The pacing of the film felt all wrong for a comedy and equally wrong for a credible drama, so for me, it didn't really deliver on any level. A real shame given what could have been done with this,
Hillwalkers (2022)
Poorly written
I have no issue with small budget films and in some ways the director did a good job. I certainly felt that the landscape and decent cinematography were going to make for an atmospheric and tense thriller. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here due to poor writing which failed to create sympathetic characters or deliver any tension whatsoever.
As a previous reviewer pointed out, the real problem I had was during the hikers' initial encounter with the farmers. I am unsure why there was an attempt to create unrealistic and unwarranted tension here because it would just never play out like that. And, why does the supposedly strong and assertive woman let the feeble chap lead the negotiations when she has said she will do exactly the opposite just minutes before? A woeful scene that made no sense.
Sadly, none of the characters are even remotely believable and are, largely, so dislikable, that you don't route for any of them. Of course, suspension of disbelief is often required for this type of film, but there are just so many gaping plot holes and nonsensical elements that it was too much for me to engage with on any level.
Superterranean (2020)
An extraordinary achievement
So many Hollywood / large budget films leave me checking my watch within half an hour, but I was completely captivated and invested in this film throughout. The cinematography is extraordinary given the resource limitations and despite some criticisms from others, I thought that the dialogue was clever and very tight with no words wasted whatsoever. Ian Gordon is clearly a man of many talents and I will keep an eye out for future works from him. Personally, I like a few more ambiguous things to be tied up at the end of a film, so am not awarding 10 for that reason, but can find few criticisms beyond that.