Hot Picks
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Insomnium
USA 2016
produced by Scott Powers, Larena Reyna, Mikel Mansour, Frank Dal Bello, Nathan Kimbrell, Murali Raju
directed by Scott Powers
starring Brad Pennington, Clint Browning, Gena Shaw, Larena Reyna, Leon Shparaga, Alexandra Lavrova, Brian Julian, Barbara Gruen, Sae Imai, Mikel Mansour, Violeta Mallmann, Lori Ann Piscioneri (voice)
written by Scott Powers, music by Joel Jorgensen, Stephan Bica, Larena Reyna
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Recovering from injuries in his apartment, George (Brad Pennington) is
really dependent from others, like his girlfriend Kim (Gena Shaw) and
especially his roommate Phin (Clint Browning) - but the latter has
problems of his own, as he suffers from insomnia and takes medical
marihuana to get at least some rest - but during these resting periods, he
acts totally weird, as if he'd sleepwalk, and he even tends to get freaky
when in these states ... and he freaks everyone out, especially Kim, who
grows more and more frustrated, also because George can't perform sexually
at the moment, so on a businesstrip has sex with one of her colleagues
(Mikel Mansour) and even admits it during a drunk Skype call - which of
course crushes George ... but it also makes him very determined to find
out what's going on with Phin, and he soon finds out Phin speaks Russian
when in one of his states, a language Phin claims to have no knowledge at
all ... and George believes him. George soon picks up a clue leading to
their Russian landlord (Leon Shparaga), who apparently hides his daughter
(Alexandra Lavrova) away in his apartment (for whatever reason), and she
might use Phin as her telepathic link to the outside world. But then Phin
is gone, the landlord and his daughter are gone, and George has to realize
his insistance to find out what's going on has made everything only all
the worse ... Insomnium is a quite atmospheric little
film that quite cleverly links its mystery to the supernatural and refuses
to spoonfeed the audience explanations in easily digestable chunks, and
it's kept alive by solid performances and a moody directorial effort - but
ultimately, the movie is lacking. Basically, as good as the movie might
look and feel, the ending leaves a lot to be desired and seems to come at
a random point of the story, while it's never really explained what's so
threatening about Phin's behaviour. Sure he's sleepwalking and he creeps
people out when doing it ... but that's about it. So eventually George's
panic about his roommate's state begins to wear a little on the audience.
Pity, because this is a well-made and well-played movie, and it could have
done with only a bit more narrative stringency to be really good!
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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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!!! |
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