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‘Riot Girls’ is a Punk Rock Call to Arms [REVIEW]

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Riot Girls

In an alternate version of 1995, a mysterious plague has wiped out all the adults and left one town’s teens in a violent gang war. This is the premise for Jovanka Vuckovic’s Riot Girls, a punk-infused teen-focused flick with surprisingly dark undertones. 

In the film, the town of Potter’s Bluff is divided into the poor East side and the rich West side — punks vs preps, essentially — with each group rallying behind an alpha male. When the Westside Titans (clad in letter jackets and doused with school spirit) capture an Eastsider, it’s up to two punk rock riot girls — Scratch (Paloma Kwiatkowski; Bates Motel) and Nat (Madison Iseman; Annabelle Comes Home) — to swoop in, bash some skulls, and save the day. 

Directed, written, edited, designed, and produced by women, the film puts a solid focus on its strong female characters. They’re all presented in a realistic and relatable light that the audience can really connect with. These girls have genuine friendships, fears, vulnerabilities, and strengths, and they can be heroic without the mystical skills of sci-fi kung fu.

via Route 504

Riot Girls is washed with a light, youthful energy that polishes over the film’s dark nature. For a film that focuses on a bunch of teenagers, there’s a fair amount of bloodshed. It’s a bit surprising to see kids straight up murdering each other, but there are no real consequences to deter them — no authorities to keep them in line. With the right “us vs them” attitude, you can see why these kids would believe that it’s the best solution to their current problem. 

The issue with the “no real consequences” part is that death carries very little weight — these kids play pretty fast and loose with murder. When someone is killed, we move on almost immediately. Death has been normalized — though perhaps seeing all of your parents die from gut rot will do that to you. It takes away some dramatic edge, but it speaks to the true dystopian nature of the film. 

That said, tonally, Riot Girls is a bit of a mess. It skips back and forth between heavy stakes and lighthearted adventure, and ends up feeling rather uneven. Because we’re picking up in the middle of the story with an already established set of warring societies, it can be difficult to connect to the reasons why this all matters. 

But as flippant as the film can be with its treatment of death, Riot Girls handles the topic of sexual assault with the appropriate gravity. Scratch clearly has some trauma in her past that keeps her on edge. Her anxieties betray her carefree attitude when things start to get heavy.  

via Route 504

On the West side, the Titans are led by Jeremy (Munro Chambers; Turbo Kid, Harpoon). Jeremy is coiled like a snake, ready to strike. His volatile nature gives Chambers a lot to play with, and he appears to relish in the stoic intensity. That said, the character of Jeremy perhaps isn’t the best fit for him. Chambers is extraordinarily talented, but the character is a bit too restrained when you really want to see him go off the rails. 

Kwiatkowski really leans in to Scratch’s punk rock attitude, and it seems to come naturally for her. Perhaps it’s the script, but there are times that her performance doesn’t tonally match with the action. It forces a specific reaction from her that doesn’t quite gel with the overall tone, so the performance comes off as stilted — at no fault to the actor.

via Route 504

When Riot Girls isn’t rebel yelling or not giving a damn about reputations, it has a very sweet and queer-positive love story. Nat and Scratch show their close connection throughout the film, building up to a heartwarming confession that embraces the spirit of young love. 

Riot Girls is a spunky and energetic film, infused with early-90s sensibilities. It focuses on teens who must survive with no parental help (the era of latchkey kids) and has a distinct comic book aesthetic that sprinkles a youthful unreality into the film. 

Though there are some hiccups with pacing and tone, Riot Girls is a punk rock feminist call to arms. With a cast of strong female characters — including Caine (Jenny Raven) and wise-beyond-her-years Lucy (Jordana Blake) —  it rallies rebel girls and shows us that we can kick ass in the face of male entitlement and classism, and emerge victorious. We are the heroes of our own stories, and we don’t need to be rescued.

Even in a post-apocalypse, we can claim the world as our own.

 

Riot Girls will receive a limited theatrical release starting September 13, 2019.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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