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Asylum Seekers

USA 2009
produced by
Molly Conners, Alex Twersky, Gill Holland (executive), Christopher Woodrow (executive) for Crowned Heart Pictures, Kinetic Arts
directed by Rania Ajami
starring Pepper Binkley, Bill Dawes, Daniel Irizarry, Stella Maeve, Camille O'Sullivan, Lee Wilkof, Judith Hawking, Ken Jennings, Joseph McKenna, Mackenzie Milone, Noble Shopshire, Gordon Joseph Weiss, Edward James Hyland, Remy Auberjonois, Julie Leedes, Karin Duseva, Jay Smith
story by Rania Ajami, Jake Pilikian, screenplay by Rania Ajami, music by David Majzlin

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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6 people want to check themselves into an insane asylum: Model housewife Maud (Pepper Binkley), perverted Doctor Raby (Daniel Irizarry) - who's eventually to be revealed to have a mortal fear of sex -, androgynous rapper Alan (Bill Dawes), hardcore computer nerd Alice (Stella Maeve), introvert exhibitionist Miranda (Camille O'Sullivan) and self-proclaimed terrorist Paul (Lee Wilkof).

Problem is, this asylum is a very exclusive loonie bin, and there is only one vacancy - so the six of them have to compete each other to determine who's the maddest of them all.

The other problem is ofcourse that at this place, the loonies seem to have long taken over the asylum, it's a truly weird place where the Doctor in charge never actually shows but watches over everyone by his all-seeing beard (!). And the worthiest of our sextet is determined by a series of bizarre tests, one of them being a talent competition. Eventually, Dr Raby and Maud revert to some kind of normalcy, actually, when they embark on a relationship while the rest of the gang, led by Paul, want to take over the asylum as such. They even think they are winning, not realizing that this is all part of the beard's plan.

Eventually, all of the contestants are put into some kind of machine that visualizes their warped fantasies. Among other things, it shows Doc Raby trying to leave the asylum and Maud shooting him before he can in some kind of joint fantasy ... and this seals it, both Maud and Raby are allowed to stay, not so much as patients but as companions for the person behind the beard - whcih turns out to be a little girl.

The other loonies are released onto the real world once more, which might be much loonier than the asylum, so all of them make big careers ...

 

Asylum Seekers is not a film to be taken seriously - at all. Actually it's more of an exercise in madness, and even though plotwise it makes some sort of sense overall, isolated segments don't and aren't even supposed to - which doesn't mean that these segments aren't at times hilarious. And at its best moments, this film is almost a masterpiece of surreal humour ... but unfortunately, this film is not made up exclusively of best moments, it has its shortcomings, too, like an uneven ensemble cast - while some characters are great and greatly acted, others are as clichéed as they are pale - or episodes that are either too childish or too wannabe-intellectual to actually work.

All that said though, on the whole the film is still a fun ride, it just could have been a masterpiece and isn't.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!