Meet Kazuto (Kazuto Osawa), an aspiring actor. There’s just one problem: confrontation makes him weak. So weak, in fact, he tends to faint and recovers only to severe embarrassment. This sets him apart from his childhood hero and career inspiration, Rescueman, a ridiculous caricature of superhero fame who appears throughout this cartoonish comedy.

After Kazuto loses his job as an inefficient security guard, he serendipitously runs into his brother Hiroki (Hiroki Kawano), who introduces him to a new acting concept: Special Actors. This is a company that employs actors to pull off everyday acts to make others’ dreams come true. Need someone to cry at a funeral? Laugh at a bad movie? Get beaten up by your boyfriend for show? Call Special Actors.

After a hodgepodge of cheesy but charming scenarios that further illustrate the line of work Kazuto is to take part in, Special Actors is called upon to help a young woman Miyu (Yumi Ogawa) whose sister has come under the influence of a cult. Her family’s inn is at stake as the cult is quickly sinking its claws into it as a home base. In order to save the inn and her sister, Miyu employs the troupe to infiltrate the cult and expose its lies.

It’s easy to tell those involved in the making of Special Actors did so with a sense of camaraderie and loyalty to director Shinichiro Ueda’s brand. That being said, not all players are created equal. The film’s slapstick comedy falls short more often than not due to a limited performance by the lead, and the plot’s attempt at twists and turns is more tired than exciting.

Those looking for light-hearted comedy may be impressed with it’s hijinks, goofy music and dialogue. As a follow-up to One Cut of the Dead, Ueda’s surprise cult-favorite of 2019, Special Actors unfortunately disappoints but is not without heart.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Becky Belzile is a freelance writer living in Vancouver, Canada. She has contributed to film writing for Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bloody Disgusting, and Audiences Everywhere. When she’s not cooking, she’s devouring horror movies or napping competitively.

Revenge movies have enormous popularity. We’ve all seen the victim get retribution against the evil stranger who lurks in the dark. But what is it like outside of the fantasy, when revenge is raw, and real, and against someone you might love?

Violation aims to answer that question by placing us in the middle of a dissolving family unit. Miriam (Madeleine Sims-Fewer) and her husband Caleb (Obi Abili) are on the unspoken verge of divorce; we see it in their body language and the words they’re not exchanging on their way to Miriam’s sister, Greta’s, house.

Greta (Anna Maguire) and her husband Dylan (Jesse LaVercombe) seem to be the opposite of Miriam and Caleb, fully and actively in love with each other and demonstrating it for all to see. As we watch the two couples interact, the complexities of their relationships become apparent. When Miriam lets her guard down with Dylan, an unforgivable act is committed.

Rape revenge is often exploitative of women regardless of their eventual victory. The criminal act and subsequent revenge is shown with equal lurid detail, often compromising the strength and integrity of the story. Violation turns the tables and blinds the male gaze, instead lingering on full-frontal male nudity, allowing the viewer to confront and compare their own reactions to what is so commonly seen with women in the genre.

The film features real conversations full of emotion and nuance, and they are delivered by a competent cast who remain grounded and raw in their performances. Miriam and Greta’s sisterly bond is summarily challenged not only by the acts committed in the plot, but also by a very complicated and genuine history that seems to be shared by them. Conversations between Miriam and Dylan reflect realistic miscommunication and gaslighting that is commonly done between perpetrator and victim.

Which is to say, victimhood is a complicated term to use in this scenario. Miriam is never just a product of what happens to her. She is raw, quietly brutal, and transgressive throughout the film. The story is somewhat non-linear, so the shock of violence is compounded with a sense of confusion. Miriam’s plan is thought-out and well-executed even as we see the emotional and physical toll it takes on her person, and we watch her transform as a result of it. The camera often focuses on the minute details of the nature and insects – especially spiders – that surround Miriam, suggestive of the plan she is weaving unseen, and for the squeamish, only adds to the constant dread the film employs.

While not an easy watch by any means, Violation is a fresh take on the revenge genre. Well-written and superbly acted, it’s certainly worth a watch for those interested in the darker parts of the human condition.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Becky is a freelance writer living in Vancouver, Canada. She has contributed to film writing for Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bloody Disgusting, and Audiences Everywhere. When she’s not cooking, she’s devouring horror movies or napping competitively.

Awash in the familiar blues and greys of Polish cinema, Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Fugue follows up her lyrical fantasy The Lure (2015), with no less attention to the complexities of feminine identity. When Alicja (Gabriela Muskala) seemingly returns from the bowels of the earth with no recollection of her past, it’s up to her family to nurture her back to remembering the woman she once was and recollecting what happened. But what if the past doesn’t want to be remembered?

Smoczynska’s slow burn drama examines the nature of guilt, identity, and the role of motherhood. Gabriela Muskala, both star and writer of the film, effectively portrays a woman who exists in two worlds with her detached coolness. She understands and depicts the necessary selfishness that is part of recovering from trauma.

What some may consider a personal disaster, Alicja uses as a painful tool to rebuild a life that she can find meaning in. She takes an unthinkable situation and learns a new way to survive and communicate with the world around her.

The most important conversations in Fugue are the ones that happen in the looks and silences between characters. Alicja’s husband, Krzysztof (played by Lukasz Simlat) waits in quiet desperation for her to return to a version of a wife she never really was, lost in his own guilt.

The addition of a potential romantic interest and mother figure for her son brings even more uncomfortable silences and boundary pushing. Smoczynska uses sound wonderfully, amplifying natural bodily noises and using dream sequences deep in the earth to add to the discomfort and underlying eeriness.

Despite the atmospheric, bleak world Alicja exists in, there are no twists or dark secrets to be found. As a whole, the film is as unsurprising and at times mundane as life itself. Perhaps that was the point, that some things can’t be fixed, and some pasts aren’t worth remembering.

Taste of Cinema rating 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Becky is a freelance writer living in Vancouver, Canada. She has contributed to film writing for Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bloody Disgusting, and Audiences Everywhere. When she’s not cooking, she’s devouring horror movies or napping competitively.

Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) has done it again, adding yet another absurdist gem to a collection that shows no sign of slowing down in quality and fanfare. In The Favourite, he reimagines the reign of Queen Anne and the periodically playful, somewhat sexy competition between her two ladies-in-waiting, Lady Sarah Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) and her cousin Abigail (Emma Stone).

Avoiding the common pitfalls of the set-up, Lanthimos manages to earn sympathy for each of the characters, no matter how low they’re willing to go – if only because they’re doing it to survive.

It’s easy to cheer on every player when the game is as cutthroat as the 18th century could be, especially for women. A trifecta of talented women dominate the screen; Olivia Colman – no stranger to leading a kingdom – is legendary as Queen Anne, at once a drooping, fading monarch with remnants of the hopeful young woman she once was, and a spoiled child flying into fits of hysteria. We are given ample time to enjoy and pity her in her madness and she takes every opportunity to impress with her range. Weisz plays her current ice queen manipulator who melts seductively into the nooks and crannies of politics but also claws her way through anyone who stands in her way. Stone arrives and offers deadpan delivery on a silver tray, ingratiating herself to us more than anybody else in the film even though she’s an obviously sticky cog in an already precariously running machine. Forgiveness and favour comes easily with her wide-eyed and saucy disobedience. All three are at the top of their game creating an absolute guilty pleasure of a storm that’s impossible to turn away from.

Lanthimos loosens the corset strings in the most surprising ways, creating room to breathe in a period piece that could have been stuffy and heavy-lidded. Every frame is a treat for the eyes and its razor-sharp comedy and precise editing delivers a near-perfect film that is not soon to be forgotten.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Becky is a freelance writer living in Vancouver, Canada. She has contributed to film writing for Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bloody Disgusting, and Audiences Everywhere. When she’s not cooking, she’s devouring horror movies or napping competitively.