shenster Reviews

Excision (2012)

Brilliant, One of my favourite films this year

[10/10 · 16 October 2012]

This film is refreshing. After seeing so many horror/psycho-thriller films with the same plot along the lines of off e.g. "A family moves into an old house where strange events start to occur...Blah Blah Blah". Excision is disturbing, exciting, engaging and insightful. The story centers around Annalynne McCord's character Pauline. Its hard to describe her other than creepy, something about the way she moves and looks at people. Shes a pimply, greasy haired teen with a lust for blood surgery and reenactments of her sexual fantasies. Her annoying mother is Traci Lords who constantly nags her in a whiney voice and is a snob trying to get her daughters to be the perfect ladies and mold them into what she wants them to be. Pauline's sister Grace has cystic fibrosis and need constant medical assistance to treat the condition she is perfectly normal to Pauline in comparison.

Pauline is sent to John Walters a minister shrink to help deal with her issues. She hates his religious values and outlooks. In the film there are scenes with Pauline praying talking to God discussing abortion, pre-marital sex and pleading with him to kill her mother. She desires to loose her virginity to Jeremy Sumpter (remember from Peter Pan, good to see him). Her approach is forward and blunt and her loosing her virginity is arranged in a almost regimental manner with a shocked outcome involving menstruation which I will not go into.

The imagery is a nightmarish/ghoulish/ futuristic when it shows Pauline's fantasies featuring corpses, a foetus, half naked women and lots of blood.

The ending is shocking and results from her sisters condition worsening and I honestly couldn't believe Pauline did it. Oh I should mention Malcolm McDowell as the school teacher, this film has a slight A Clockwork Orange tinge. The best performance is from Annalynne McCord, I couldn't believe how good she was before seeing this I thought she was just the hot girl from 90210. Overall thoroughly enjoyed this film, A must see for anyone

Albatross (2011)

Enjoyable and Moving Film (Review contains SPOILERS)

[9/10 · 14 December 2011]

The story centers round the lives of the two girls Emelia played by Jessica Brown Finlay and Beth played by Felicity Jones both extremely beautiful girls, Jessica bears striking similarity to both Megan Fox and Rachel McAdams. Emelia is a girl whose live is filled with bittersweet moments she works in The Cliff House the B&B owned by Beth's parents as a cleaner while living with her grandparents and her grandmother suffers from Alzheimer's. Emelia has a daring and fun approach to life while being sarcastically funny on the way. However she finds comfort in the fact that she believes she is related to the author Conan-Doyle who wrote Sherlock which she mentions on numerous occasions. She goes on to have an affair with Beth's father the struggling writer which makes you feel is due to her lack of a father figure in her life. This part is very well played by Jessica Brown Findlay who is not only beautiful but a talented actress. What really struck me was the scene in which Emelia questions her Grandfather played by the wonderful Peter Vaughan about if her surname is really Conan-Doyle the emotion is very moving to say the least and its a pivotal scene in the film where Emelia starts anew and becomes happy in her life, that everythings going to be OK.

Beth is a studious girl, quiet and composed. She sees Emelia as both a friend and a role model to her. Beth wishes she could be daring and bold like Emelia. She is sandwiched between her bickering parents played by Julia Ormond as the pushy mother and Sebastian Koch her struggling writer father. The hilarious Oxford Scenes were brilliant with Beth and Emelia letting loose (Beth looses her virginity). There is a OMG moment when you're left hanging waiting for the pregnancy test and you ask the question Is her life now ruined? What is she going to do? A part also well played by Felicity Jones and contrasts well to Jessica's Emelia performance the both compliment each others performance.

The scenery is breathtaking the sunsets lights the film and fits the mood that trying to be put across and the theme of the film e.g. The girls are ending one chapter of the their lives and entering another. The ending was OK but I felt the could of shown a lot more, but overall I liked this film a lot my congratulations to Cast,Crew,Producers an Director. A very good film

Killing Bono (2011)

Good God Almighty...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[4/10 · 19 June 2011]

The Good: Well done Ben Barnes with the accent, very well done, good performance. Pete Postlethwaite RIP hilarious performance. Costumes were excellently done.

The Bad: Robert Sheehan where do I start. His acting is disastrous, he looks the part but does not fully convince the audience that he is Barnes brother in the film comes across as a annoying sidekick friend more so than struggling musician.Unlike Barnes, Sheehan has never convincingly played a character without a Irish accent so Sheehan take a note from Barnes. The story as a synopsis had so much potential to be great but promised more than it delivered, on a side-note the trailer for the film makes it seem epic and exciting this is far from what is presented in the film

Overall: Forgettable, there are better films don't waste your money or time