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SXSW 2025: REDUX REDUX is Tense Lo-Fi Sci-Fi
The pitch for Redux Redux is something like Saulnier’s Blue Ruin but with a sci-fi twist. It’s a low budget, grounded meditation on grief that erupts in shocking violence committed by someone that isn’t fully comfortable with committing it. It’s a prime example of taking the core of a tense character piece and making it feel fresh with a lo-fi sci-fi wrapping.
If that sounds like it’s up your alley, add it to your watchlist and read no further – I’ll tread lightly on spoilers but I’ll discuss the overall concept. Just know this movie gets the highest of recommendations from me, and while it isn’t reliant on twists I enjoyed going in blind.
The movie focuses on Irene, our Sarah-Connor-like heroine. She’s a multiverse traveler, hopping between different realities to see if there’s one where her daughter hasn’t been murdered by a serial killer. When she inevitably finds out that in every universe her daughter has indeed been slain by the same man, she hunts down the killer and brings him to vengeance, then hops on to the next universe to repeat the cycle. Eventually she comes across a foster kid trapped in the killer’s web, which upends her routine and forever changes both characters’ lives.
The bones feel familiar but the execution is stellar, and there’s enough inventiveness and craft in the production to keep you on the edge of your seat. The core concept isn’t for the faint of heart – the serial killer is nasty and Irene’s repeated revenge is frequently commensurate. There’s plenty of gore and violence, but it didn’t feel gratuitous. Like the aforementioned Saulnier, the violence is executed in a practical, messy, straightforward way.
Redux Redux is a family affair. Writer-directors Kevin and Matthew McManus are brothers, and lead actor Michaela McManus is their sister. It’s clearly a small production but the world doesn’t feel small. It’s packed with show-don’t-tell details while not getting bogged down in exposition. The score is propulsive and loud, the cast is naturalistic and feel like fully lived in characters, and the writing is sharp. The McManus brothers are ones to watch.
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Disney’s New Version of SNOW WHITE is One Bad Apple
“Can you point me in the right direction?”
By now there have been so many different iterations of the classic Snow White story that I literally don’t know where else filmmakers would be able to take it. There have been four reworkings of the story in the last 12 years, including White as Snow, the modern French take starring the great Isabelle Huppert. After reviewing the first (maybe) Snow White spinoff, The Huntsman: Winter’s War in 2016, I thought I had seen the last of this story. I was wrong. With the wave of live-action remakes coming in the form of everything from Pinocchio to Mulan, it was only a matter of time before the studio gave one of its earliest classics the same treatment. Well, the time has come, and anyone who finds themselves walking into a theater to see 2025’s Snow White is in store for such a chore, they may as well be humming “Heigh-Ho” on the way into the theater.
Directed by Marc Webb, Snow White stays close to the classic tale of the titular beautiful princess (Rachel Zegler) who lives as a prisoner in her own castle thanks to the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), a woman with dark powers who has presided over the kingdom for years. As the magic mirror she possesses declares Snow White the fairest in the land, the Evil Queen orders her killed. However, Snow White manages to escape into the forest where she encounters handsome bandit Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) and seven dwarfs who come to her aid.
The quality of live-action remakes of classic Disney animated films has been all over the place. Talking to other people about the subject, it’s easy to forget that there have been more entries into this sub-genre than we realize. Naturally, with so much revisiting, the range is all over the place from the good (The Little Mermaid) to the bad (Dumbo) and plenty in between. Interestingly, Snow White falls into neither category as it’s just too lifeless and uninspired to register in any way. The movie is so even-keeled that there’s on occasion the need to check for a pulse from time to time. Snow White‘s lackluster quality stems from its plentiful problems. The pacing is beyond deliberate, the comedy is completely flat, and all of the new songs are just abysmal. The fact that one of them is called “Princess Problems” says a lot. Elsewhere, the use of modern-day speech patterns gets in the way, especially in a half-hearted attempt to get laughs. “Is the dungeon still an option,” Jonathan asks at one point. Animals with CGI personalities and a mo-cap animation design that makes the dwarfs look like older versions of The Garbage Pail Kids only bring the movie down further.
Some instances come about now and again when reviewing movies when a critic must concede that what’s ultimately wrong with the movie they are having a negative reaction to is that it simply wasn’t made for them. Snow White definitely would have fallen into this category were it not for the fact that even the kids at my screening seemed bored as there were little-to-no gleeful reactions among the mostly silent audience. This could possibly be because Webb feels kind of out of step with the project as a whole. There are some bright spots: the movie’s reimagining of the two classic songs does work, and the overall aesthetics of Snow White are stunning, with the feeling of classic Disney coming alive in a way it hadn’t in years. Yet despite being a director who showed great promise with his feature debut, 2009’s (500) Days of Summer (potential that came back around with 2017’s Gifted), the time Webb served in the comic book world with his two Amazing Spider-Man movies saw the same sort of by-the-numbers approach that prevented Snow White from ever having a chance.
As the title character, Zegler is a lovely enough presence on the screen. This has certainly already been proven. But despite the camera loving her, and radiating genuine warmth, even she can’t help but succumb to the movie’s kryptonite-level of blandness. She’s at least better suited to the world of Snow White compared to Gadot, who is beyond miscast and turns in a performance so misguided that you can’t even have fun watching her be bad. Burnap as Jonathan was most likely cast because he’s attractive (and probably because he fit the costume), but otherwise brings nothing to a nothing character. If there’s anyone who manages something in the way of emotion, it’s Andrew Barth-Feldman’s sincere turn as Dopey, who somehow carves out a surprisingly moving arc for himself.
I have to stress that a version of Snow White starring a Latina actress in the lead role cannot be dismissed. It’s both a milestone and a revelation that reinforces the notion that representation will always matter and that strides like these should be applauded. What shouldn’t be applauded are performers of color being placed in features that are clearly beneath what they are capable of. Zegler’s mesmerizing turn as Maria in 2021’s West Side Story earned her a Golden Globe nomination and truly was the kind of A Star is Born moment for the young actress. It’s hard to call her presence in Snow White a total misstep simply because of what her visibility in the role will mean for young girls who look like her, but there’s certainly something better out there for an actress of her caliber. I’m excited to see what Zegler does next and, after breaking through one of the most unbreakable glass ceilings in the industry, that could almost be anything.
500 Days of Summer, A Star Is Born, Andrew Barth-Feldman, Andrew Burnap, Disney, Dumbo, Evil Queen, Fairy Tale, Gal Gadot, Gifted, Heigh-Ho, In theaters, Live action, Marc Web, Movies, Mulan, Pinocchio, Rachel Zegler, remake, Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Garbage Pail Kids, The Little Mermaid, West Side Story -
Two Cents Revisits Neverland with 1991’s HOOK
BANGARANG!
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
Flashing blades, roaring cannons, daring rogues swinging through the air to the aid of their true loves and to battle dastardly villains – there’s a definitive image, however ephemeral in exact detail, that comes to mind when you hear the word “swashbuckler.” Stories of romantic adventure in this vein stretch back at least to the days of Alexandre Dumas’s Musketeers, Baroness Orczy’s Scarlett Pimpernel, and Sir Walter Scott’s Wilfred of Ivanhoe, and they’ve been mined for cinematic adaptation and inspiration almost since the birth of the medium, and their influence can be seen from Jack Sparrow’s Caribbean to galaxies far, far away. This month sees Cinapse’s team looking at nearly a century of swashbuckling sagas from their black-and-white roots to the brand-new reinventions of the form to examine why these tales are so enticing, so timeless, and who told them the best.
The Pick: Hook (1991)
When I first proposed Hook as my contribution to our swashbuckling month, I was met with some definitive opposition, noting that it’s not even the best Peter Pan film for the theme. But as a 40-something Xennial, Hook was a vital part of my childhood and – even if it’s simply nostalgia goggles – it’s my favorite Pan story, period. I thought the actual swashbuckling was pretty fun. But… I guess we’ll have to see what others think below.
Featured Guest
Devindra Hardawar
Filmcast Co-Host and Senior Editor for Engadget
Hook was a movie of many firsts for me. It was my introduction to the Peter Pan story at the age of probably seven or eight. It was the first time I saw a bad-ass brown kid – Dante Basco’s Rufio – in a big Hollywood movie. And it was my first taste of seeing the difficulty that adults have of maintaining their child like innocence, and also being present for their own kids.
Come to think of it, Hook was probably the first time that I saw a story that dealt with a haunting sense of loss. I think back to the idea of Grandma Wendy being the one who originally loved Peter, but who couldn’t stay with him, and who had to sit and watch him marry her granddaughter. He gave up his free-wheeling life for his granddaughter and not for her. I think of Tinker Bell, who also loved Peter, but could never really be with him and was ultimately abandoned. I think of the Lost Boys who lost their leader and then just had to fend for themselves against a murderous pirates. And I think of Peter’s real parents, who lost their infant child one day without any explanation.
I was shocked to learn as I got older that was considered a complete failure for Steven Spielberg. As a kid, it was a movie I watched countless times after I recorded it from HBO on an old VHS tape (and ultimately had to re-record after I wore that down). Looking at it now as an adult who dabbles in film criticism, I can absolutely see Hook‘s flaws. But I don’t think it’s a complete failure, even if Spielberg himself believes it is. And as a father myself, it hits even harder now. I used to be a kid who never wanted to grow up – now, at the very least, I want to be an adult that always has a soft spot for Hook.
The Team
Brendan Agnew
What a gloriously messy “one that got away from everyone” Hook is. This is clearly Spielberg back in the same “maximum everything” mode that capsized 1941, and while this movie is more successful that his WWII farce, it’s still unbalanced and bursting at the seams. For a film with such a relatively streamlined premise – Peter Pan has to return to Neverland to save his kids – there’s so many wacky asides and elongated subplots that the through line almost gets lost. And you can still see the scissor where huge sections were clearly cut (I know it’s insane to ask *more* from a 2½ hour movie, but I really wanna see the deleted material about what Maggie was doing).
But for all that, “the Ultimate Family Blockbuster Director making a Peter Pan movie with Robin Fucking Williams as The Eternal Youth” still delivers mostly what you want from that pitch. Williams relearning how to fly remains one of the great exhilarating sequences of 90s cinema with John Williams adding an entire extra star with his score, the cast may chew too much and too loudly on the scenery but it never stops being enjoyable to watch them do it, and the production design overdelivers with some truly unforgettable locations on those massive sets.
I could (easily) pull apart the saggy screenplay or the overstuffed cast (and I’ll admit the ’90s skater boy version of the Lost Boys is kinda laughable), but when Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams are swashbuckling around a T-rex sized dead crocodile, all the negatives kinda melt away. HOOK never fully coalesces into the perfect version of itself that it should be, but it’s still low-key a bangarang followup to one of my favorite stories ever.
Frank Calvillo
What if Peter Pan grew up? That was the original concept that set the ball rolling on this movie which defined a whole generation’s childhood and came to represent one of the lesser moments of director Steven Spielberg’s career. Much has been written about Hook’s journey to the big screen. There were the various script problems, the project itself changing hands, Kevin Kline being replaced by Robin Williams due to scheduling issues, the friction between Spielberg and Julia Roberts, and the danger of the whole movie getting away from its director due to a ballooning budget and a runaway schedule.
It’s sad to say that the problems still show up on the screen. The creation of the lost boys’ lair, the haphazard fleshing out of their characters, and the various hijinks that the script gives them were fun at a certain point in time, and, might still be for kids today. But it’s clear that, despite having an imagination like Spielberg’s, the intended pleasures of Hook only have so much milage. The jokes aren’t plentiful (despite Williams’ efforts), the magic itself feels halfbaked, and the death of the central lost boy Rufio feels equally in poor taste now as it did in the early 90s.
But if the problems are there, so too are the aspects of the original vision that do work. Reflecting years later, Spielberg commented how he thought the bookends of Hook, as well as the middle flashback sequence, all worked. Indeed, he’s right. It’s interesting seeing an adult Peter Pan in his grown-up element thanks to Williams’ performance as a grade-A yuppie. Meanwhile, the alternate take on how one of the most famous storybook characters came to be (especially concerning his relationship with Wendy) is both surreal and magical.
More than anything else, it’s the trailer that lingers in the memory when it comes to Hook. Seeing Peter’s kids taken from their bedroom gave off feelings of both fear and chills that were eventually replaced with vigor and curiosity as Tinkerbell dragged our hero on his adventure. It was the perfect setup for what promised to be the ultimate take on a classic tale, made even more enticing when that very same question popped up on the screen again. What if Peter Pan grew up? Well, for both better and worse, we got our answer.
Jay Tyler
Hook is one of those films that is nearly impossible for me to judge objectively. I was seven years old when it came out, obsessed with Peter Pan (nothing to unpack there) and a giant Robin Williams fan. It was the first film I remember hotly anticipating, waiting for months for it to be released.
But all that is preamble. What actually lives in my mind is the scope to which it was made. Giant sets with hundreds of extras is ridiculous costumes. A world that is filled to the brim. Objectively it is all a bit busy. But in my mind’s eye it was a fully realized world, brimming with childlike wonder. It is probably the most ersatz version of Spielberg’s childlike wonder, intentionally aligned to a sense of the new 90s aesthetic. The Lost Boys day-glow, skater pseudo apocalyptic vibe is seared into me brain as the height of a punk rock aesthetic that is immediately dated and corny, but goddamn if it doesn’t work for me.
But the real magic of Hook is Hoffman. Unlike Williams, who I knew through his work on Mork and Mindy reruns, I had no connection with Dustin Hoffman. But his performance, histrionic and unbridled, was precisely the kind of living cartoon I craved. I feared him and loved him as a child, and now as an adult I love how he and Bob Hoskins match the outrageous aesthetics of the film with their outsized performances. For any creakiness the movie may carry as an artifact of early 90s vibes, Hoffman’s understanding and meeting the assignment will always hold a special place in my heart.
@jaythecakethief.bsky.social
Justin Harlan
I feel pretty vindicated choosing this film for a few reasons… first, it seems that everyone had a good time rewatching it. This makes me happy, because the world is burning down around us and we need some form of escape every now and then. Second, the final battle is a damn blast. Third, the cast is brilliant. And finally, because it gives me an exc use to talk about two of my absolute favorite actors ever.
The first of those two actors is the obvious one – the late, great Robin Williams. His death still gets to me sometimes, but when I see him on screen I can’t help but light up. His presence is so powerful and he’s incredible as Peter Pan(ning). There’s so much emotion in him in this role, from disdainful anger to pure joy and everything in between. Robin Williams is an icon and one that means alot to me as a film fan that came of age in the 90s. This is among the most iconic roles he portrayed in my youth, so I will always look at it fondly.
The second of those two actors is another late, great legend – Dame Maggie Smith. While the role that really made me want her to be my grandma was her incredible portrayal of Professor McGonagall, I really love her in this… as limited as her role is. I forgot that she was Wendy going into this rewatch and what a pleasant surprise it was. She embodies every role she is in and this is no different. She is magical when she’s on screen – and, particularly, the scenes between she and Williams are just pitch perfect for me.
So, in other words, this was a great rewatch for me. Bangarang!
March: Swashbuckling Adventure On and Off the High Seas
Our month of Swashbuckling continues all March, culminating in the two-part adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel!
March 24 – The Court Jester (Digital Rental / Purchase – 1 hour 41 minutes)
March 31 – The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan (Hulu – 2 hrs 1 minute) / Milady (Hulu – 1 hour 55 minutes)
And We’re Out.
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Reb00t: ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (2005) Drops the Political Message, Keeps the Mean-Spiritedness!
Does the 2005 film hold a candle to the original? Well, no, but it’s still a pretty fun, gnarly time!
Welcome to Reb00t! A series (with no set schedule!) where I dig deep through the 2000’s to find all the horror remakes that we were inundated with over that weirdly bleak decade. Sometimes they’ll be good, sometimes they’ll be terrible, sometimes they’ll be great. In a few, rare times, they’ll be better than the original! These are all my personal views, obviously, so feel free to tell me I’m insane in the comments.
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This week, the inaugural week, I dove head first into the Aughts remake cycle, starting with 2005’s Assault On Precinct 13. This article will contain spoilers for a 20-year-old film and a 50-year-old film. You’ve been warned!
Now, the original needs no introduction. The film that kicked off John Carpenter’s career*, 1976’s Assault On Precinct 13 is arguably the greatest exploitation film of all time. It’s gritty, it’s mean, it’s violent as hell. A modern retelling of Rio Bravo, we follow a ragtag group of police officers, criminals, and civilians stuck in a decommissioned police station, fighting off waves of gang members attempting to break in and kill them all. It’s a film that could’ve been a lot of sizzle and no steak, but Carpenter shows right from the start that he is a world-class filmmaker, infusing the film with intense racial tension and views on police brutality. It’s a film that is still as potent today as it was in 1976.
Then, in 2005, Assault got its remake. Directed by Jean-Francois Richet (Blood Father, Plane), 2005’s Assault shifts quite a bit away from the source material. The decommissioned police station stays the same, as does the ragtag group of survivors. Where the script differs, though, is in the race politics and the aggressors. Gone is the racial tension between the black police officer and the white criminal; here, the police captain is played by Ethan Hawke, and the criminal by Laurence Fishburne. What was a simmering flashpoint in both the film and America at large in ‘76 was completely erased in the ‘05 remake.
Additionally, the change in the aggressors is also a complete departure from the original. In the ‘76 film, the gang members trying to push their way into the police station are faceless entities, more like insects trying to find a weak point in the wall, bordering on supernatural in their resilience. In the ‘05 film, they’ve been wholly replaced by corrupt cops, hellbent on killing the one man who can rat them all out. Instead of them just being darkened faces in the shadows, we spend a good amount of time with these cops, learning about their motivation and how far they’ll go to get the job done.
So, the big question here is; is it any good? Before I answer that, I think the most important thing here is to be able to take this as its own thing. Sure, it’s a remake, but you still want to be able to judge it on what it singularly is, as best as possible. ‘05 Assault, in particular, is good at never really giving any callbacks to the original. Many of the remakes from this era are so hellbent on referencing and giving homage to the originals that you can’t help but judge them against one another.
So, if we are to strip away the bias of comparing it to the original, what are we left with? Honestly, it’s a pretty solid and incredibly mean-spirited siege film that really doesn’t have any deeper message beyond “corruption is bad.”
The ‘05 film has a surprisingly deep roster, cast-wise. There is the already mentioned Hawke and Fishburne, but you’ve also got Gabriel Byrnes, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, and Ja Rule. Pretty much everyone either shooting or being shot at is a recognizable face. It also makes sure to put these pretty faces through the wringer, as ’05 Assault is essentially wall-to-wall action sequences once the first “assault” occurs. Everything from automatic machine gun fire, grenades, assault helicopters, Molotov cocktails, a Tommy gun, and even a samurai sword makes an appearance during all of the violent mayhem.
It’s also incredibly mean-spirited. I’m not saying the ‘76 film is soft, but the ‘05 film rides right on that line of being straight-up nihilistic, as our cast of characters is put through the meat grinder. There is one character in particular, therapist Dr. Alex Sabian (Maria Bello), whose experiences and her reactions to them feel genuinely cruel all the way up to her shocking demise.
This harshness, this nihilism, actually falls in line with my theory that ‘70s horrors remade in the aughts work a lot better than from other eras. The very specific dark mood of the ‘70s, caused by Watergate, Vietnam, and civil unrest, is not all that different from the trauma of the aughts, where filmmakers were working through their anxieties from 9/11, the War On Terror, and the market crash of ‘08. The same streak of nihilism connects the two eras of horror cinema, and their connector points are these remakes. As we continue this series, we’ll see how this theory pans out.
Now, to the narrative change which I can’t tell is a political message or just something the screenwriter thought was cool: the corrupt cops. Historical context would lead me to believe that this is truly just a “this sounds cool” change to the script (in ‘05, post 9/11, the police were still viewed as borderline angels in this country). That being said, what it is saying here is still very pointed, as the lead corrupt cop, played by Gabriel Byrne, keeps repeating that the loss of a few lives is worth it to keep his men safe. It’s admittedly an extreme way of saying it, but that’s essentially just “The Blue Wall,” where police will turn a blind eye or stay completely silent about police corruption and brutality. It might not have landed in any sort of way in ‘05, but if this was released in 2020, I think ’05 Assault‘s reception would be a whole hell of a lot different. This is all to say that, sure, the ‘05 film drops almost all of the politics of the original, but that’s ok because it’s still doing some politicking of its own (and, you know, the original still exists, too).
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As we come to the end, the real question now stands: Is this worth a watch? My recommendation is a pretty resounding Yes. Yeah, it’s not as good as the original, but it’s still doing a lot of its own things that are unique and fun. I never felt bored or wanted to roll my eyes at how badly they had tried to reference something. Your mileage may vary, based on your love of the original, but this is still a fun, grisly ride.
*Yeah, sure, Dark Star was his first film, but I’m sorry, I’m not counting a student film that got kicked into a dozen drive-ins as his “breakout” moment. It’s Assault. Deal with it.
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TRICK OR TREAT: Synapse Films & Red Shirt Home Video Bring A Holy Grail of Near Lost Cinema to 4K!
The lost-on-VHS slasher has finally made its way onto disc, and it’s never looked or sounded better!
Stills courtesy of IMDb. One of the great things about being a physical media collector in 2025 is that we’ve steadily seen the release of “lost films” over the past decades–films that had collected dust on DVD, or even VHS, have been given loving restorations by a collection of different physical media companies who look to bring these forgotten gems back into the light. There are those select few films, though, that take on a borderline mythic status in the media limbo they exist in. They’re films that seem to have fallen between the cracks, complete mysteries that only exist on old fullscreen DVDs or janky VHS tapes; films, like The Keep, Martin, or Near Dark, that have never gotten the respect they are due. One film that stood on the Rushmore of “hidden gems” has finally found a home, though, as Red Shirt Home Video and Synapse have released Trick Or Treat on 4K UHD!
Released in 1986 (and languishing on VHS ever since), Trick Or Treat is a solid post-Nightmare On Elm Street slasher that fully understands the appeal of both slashers and rock n’ roll. Trick Or Treat follows metalhead Eddie (Marc Price) as he goes through his miserable life; constantly picked on by the bullies at school, a nonexistent love life, and thoughts of suicide abound. The only thing keeping him going is his love and admiration of Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), a satan-worshipping heavy metal singer who Eddie feels a kinship with. Eddie’s life seems to come to an end, though, when Sammi dies mysteriously in a hotel fire. To his great fortune, Eddie is given the only pressing of Sammi’s new album, but soon, strange messages start to come from the record, instructing him on how to get back at all his tormentors.
While never breaking any new ground, Trick Or Treat’s greatest strength is leaning into the straight coolness of heavy metal. The soundtrack is just straight shrieking guitars and pounding drums, and Sammi himself is a solid Freddy riff who knows how to blast out a badass guitar solo before blasting fools at a school dance. Two legends of rock also appear on screen, with both Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne making an appearance–Gene as a smooth-talking rock DJ, and Ozzy playing against type as a moralistic TV crusader against rock music.
There’s also something fascinating about the context of the era Trick Or Treat was released, as well as how hindsight has so thoroughly changed its genre. The film focuses a large part of its energy on the fear of both heavy metal and satanism. Outside of the bad influence rock music was seen to have back then (that party boy image has all but disappeared in 2025, huh?), 1986 was right in the thick of the Satanic Panic. It seemed like the entire country was terrified of Satanists, believing they were always just around the corner, looking to snatch up your kids and pets for sacrifice. The most famous case, which essentially ran throughout the 1980s, was the McMartin Preschool trial. It’s also no surprise that, less than a decade after Trick Or Treat’s release, the injustice of The West Memphis Three occurred.
In hindsight, watching something from this era of the late ’70s through the late ’90s, you almost forget that all these slashers almost always took place in a high school. Sure, there are a few outliers, but the majority of slasher victims were high schoolers. Then, 1999 comes around and Columbine happens. Seemingly overnight, this entire subgenre disappears. Even in its current form, the ages of pretty much all the victims across the board have been shifted up to college-age or early 20’s. I specifically kept thinking about that as we watch the town outcast vow to get his bullies back, and then starts hearing voices demanding he seek violent retribution. It’s very much not the type of film that gets made in 2025.
Specs:
I’m almost glad we had to wait this long to get this release, because the wait for 4K was well worth it. This thing is gorgeous and borderline unrecognizable for any of us who initially watched this on a worn-out VHS. The same goes for the sound, where you can clearly hear every last guitar riff, exploding amplifier, and killer vocals, versus the classic reverberating feedback you’d get from those ancient cassettes.
Along with a stellar presentation, this thing is genuinely chock-full of extras. There’s a lot of great stuff here, including several interviews, making-of docs, trailers, and even a music video. However, my favorite has to be Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, an ongoing series hosted by Sean Clark, who revisits filming sites of horror classics. Always fun to see where the (horror) magic happened.
Full extras breakdown:
- Audio commentary with director Charles Martin Smith, moderated by filmmaker Mark Savage
- Audio interviews with writer/producer Michael S. Murphey and writer Rhet Topman, moderated by film historian Michael Felsher
- Audio conversation with Paul Corupe and Allison Lang, authors of Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in The 1980s
- Rock & Shock: The Making of “Trick Or Treat”
- In The Spotlight: A tribute to Tony Fields featuring interviews with the late actor’s family and friends
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: The Filming Locations of “Trick Or Treat” With Sean Clark
- “After Midnight” music video
- Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots
- Still gallery featuring option audio interview with still photographer Phillip V. Caruso
- Vintage electronic press kit
If you’re a horror fan worth their salt, you know how monumental this release is. Trick Or Treat has been a Holy Grail of nearly-lost films for a while now, and Red Shirt Home Video and Synapse outdid themselves in bringing this to the masses.
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Screen Comparisons: GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE, Criterion Restoration vs 2012 Blu-ray
This article contains several comparisons which contrast Criterion’s new 4K restoration against Echo Bridge’s 2012 Blu-ray of the film. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches, but should give a solid indication of the visual differences.
Before Godzilla Minus One, before Shin Godzilla, before any Hollywood remakes. The original reboot to bring Godzilla back from pure camp into a grittier, more realistic modern day setting was The Return of Godzilla, alternately known as Godzilla 1984 or Godzilla 1985. It famously ignored all other sequels and instead inserted itself as the direct sequel to the original 1954 film, with Godzilla returning to wreak havoc thirty years after his original rampage.
Godzilla vs Biollante (1989) was its direct sequel, carrying on in the same new continuity (the Heisei series). While both films do have some campy elements, Biollante arguably went even darker, with more intense action and violence in comparison with the franchise’s past. The new creature, Biollante, a mutant genetic creation born from combining Godzilla’s DNA with a tropical flower, remains a highwater mark in Godzilla creature design and established an example for films that followed, which pitted the Big G against bigger, badder, cooler foes like Space Godzilla and Destroyah.
Screen Comparisons
Godzilla vs Biollante was previously released on Blu-ray by Echo Bridge in 2012. It was a decent package (even notably including an English dub, which is missing in the Criterion edition) but its softer, washed out image has been given a major upgrade.
The “slider” images below allow for a quick comparison of the stills from both discs by color, cleanliness, framing, but are downscaled and not representative of the full 1080p resolution. These are only illustrative of differences, and not definitive, especially in terms of resolution and clarity.
Keep in mind these are Blu-ray to Blu-ray comparisons. So this certainly does not demonstrate the additional resolution and color palette of the 4K UHD disc!!
For a truer direct comparison, it’s recommended to download the image files and view them at full size on a large monitor with 1080p or higher resolution. You can download all images at full resolution via the zipfiles below:
Before going into wider differences, a couple quick observations:
Different distributor logos precede the feature, natch:
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion Here’s something I found surprising. The Japanese subtitles, which appear in scenes with English dialogue, have visibly changed position. This suggests that they were a separable element from the film; one might speculate this means a conscious decision was made to include them in this new US release. (But I could be wrong, perhaps both presentations are different generations of older sources).
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion Across the entire presentation, the improvements are largely consistent throughout, so I won’t try to break out the images to highlight certain points. It’ll all be pretty apparent.
- Much better clarity – the 2012 edition was quite soft with high noise, which is especially apparent when compared directly to the newer transfer
- As a result, textures are far more discernable, which matters a lot when it comes to creature effects
- Contrast is much more refined now – the 2012 release looks dull by comparison.
- Both prints are very clean of scratches and random specks.
- The framing is almost identical but you can see there has been a correction to a slight vertical stretch which made the older transfer appear a little taller.
- Some small differences in color, not much. I think much of what might be read as color correction is better contrast and less digital fuzz.
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion 
Left: Old Echo Bridge / Right: New Criterion
Image improvements aside, Criterion’s edition dwarfs the prior release in terms of content, including both of the vintage features from the Echo Bridge disc and a tone of new and vintage content.
The only setback to Criterion’s release is in the sound department. It’s missing the English dub (and corresponding dubtitles).
The Criterion release also lacks SDH captions. This might not sound important since the film is subtitled, but there’s quite a lot of English dialogue in the film, and this is not entirely a friendly release for the deaf and hard of hearing.
A couple points:
- People who are hearing impaired are often more likely to seek out foreign films because of the expectation that they will be subtitled.
- Much of the English dialogue in this film is spoken by Japanese characters with thick accents which can make them more difficult for people with hearing loss to understand.
Aside from these audio and subtitle points, this is in all other ways a vastly superior presentation of the film.
Plus, incredible cover and and a foldout insert by one of my favorite comics artists, Eric Powell (The Goon, Godzilla) make this a gorgeous looking package.
– A/V Out
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SXSW 2025: 40 ACRES Has a Fresh Take on the Post-Apocalypse
The post-apocalypse genre has almost exclusively been a white fantasy, with real life doomsday preppers occupying the American consciousness as a mostly rural caucasian phenomenon. Bunkers, guns, food stockpiling on a farm… these images in popular culture have been consistently portrayed as a certain type of person in a certain type of class, and the stories allow white people to imagine what would happen if they were to lose everything. A fantasy that used to seem far fetched, but the further into the millennium it becomes more and more plausible.
That fantasy has been generally one-sided. Black and indigenous people don’t have to fantasize about the apocalypse; their apocalypse has already happened through slavery and genocide, stripping not only lives away but culture and history. What is unimaginable to some of America is just a fabric of the marginalized existence.
40 Acres is a post-apocalypse story centered on black and indigenous American characters and experiences, and flexes well worn tropes in this genre through a fresh point of view. How would someone react to the apocalypse if they have already lived through their own?
The name 40 Acres comes from “forty acres and a mule,” referring to a Civil War order to allot parcels of land to some freed families. The movie focuses on a blended family living on a farm after a fungus-based pandemic wiped out almost all animal life on the planet, causing famine and societal collapse, leading to society’s most prized possession becoming a farm. The family’s mother, Hailey Freedman (played by Danielle Deadwyler) is former military and runs her house as such. They function primarily as a matriarchal unit, with her acting as the general to her children (3 girls and the eldest teenage boy).
Most of the story is relatively simple and conventional, focusing on the mother-son relationship at the heart: the teenage boy wants to chart his own path in life (and meet girls), the militant mother’s traumatic past closes her in and makes her not trust others, and her strict protective nature clashes with his burgeoning adulthood. Maybe something happens that threatens the farms safety? Sounds familiar… but the strong point of view and quality filmmaking makes it shine.
The movie is beautiful to look at and the action is tight and inventive. Meanwhile, the texture of the storytelling makes everything feel lived in and authentic, such as taking time to pause at the dinner table and go over the kids history lessons, or letting the character interactions develop naturally before shocking violence erupts. Danielle Deadwyler is spectacular and the rest of the cast is no slouch and their dynamic feels authentic.
It’s hard to believe this is R. T. Thorne’s debut feature. It’s confident and assured, has a strong point of view that it clearly communicates, and has tight action, vibrant characters, and looks great. The fresh take on a post-apocalypse story is refreshing and feels essential in 2025. Watch out for 40 Acres.
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A Chat with the Cast and Crew of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live – a 2.5D Musical
One thing that might surprise some, is that America is not the only one that’s been turning pop culture properties into shows and musicals. While as of late this trend has been a bit more popular stateside with the likes of Back to the Future and Beetlejuice hitting Broadway, it’s also equally as popular in Japan where it’s also used as a way to bridge the gap between the theater crowd and the pop culture obsessed. While for us fans in the US it’s more common to see these Japanese adaptations on a procam in the theater, a la Fathom Events. Sometimes, just sometimes, they do get popular enough to tour, like in the case of the stage production of Spirited Away and now Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live – a 2.5D Musical as it is known by its full moniker, is a mashup adaption of the anime and the manga’s narrative of friendship and justice that has been going for nearly a decade in Japan. Starting last week however, it started its 21 city American tour that will be going through April 24th. I got a chance to chat with not only Sailor Moon herself, Riko Tanaka, but choreographer Satomi Toma and lead producer Makoto Matsuda before their Austin gig, to dig into not only what makes this property so iconic, but what in fact is a 2.5D musical?
Makoto, firstly for American audiences, what exactly is a 2.5D musical?
Makoto Matsuda: So it’s based on the idea of bringing the two dimensional world of manga and animation or even gaming, the characters that are portrayed in 2D brought to life in a 3D living human actor, like Riko over here. It’s a inbetween world of expressing the 2D in the best way of 3D.
Okay, along those lines, can you describe “Super Live”?
Makoto Matsuda: So if you could see it, there’s a cute image as well, but you’ll know when you see it, basically. But it has the regular songs, music, dance, technology, visuals, projections, so much more than a normal, conventional musical. So we wanted to kind of honor the situation by naming it and giving it a new category name. And it’s almost kind of like a manifesto to call it a new thing. That is our intention of calling it something not a musical, but the “Super Live”.
This is a format you’ve been pioneering in Japan for decades, how has it evolved over the years?
Yes, I have been doing this for a while. But what’s really interesting about this is that before 2.5, I think musicals in Japan were something with more of a conservative audience, it wasn’t necessarily young. It was more geared towards a certain demographic that was more stable, but not necessarily all encompassing. But once we started doing 2.5 and we incorporated more comics and animation as original stories, their fan base came to see it. So we now have a robust group of young audiences, many of whom have never been to a musical before and have been starting to come see the productions.
The cast of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super Live rehearse on stage at Outernet, Tottenham Court Road, London. Picture date: Monday 3rd February 2025. Picture credit should read: © DavidJensen Riko, what was the audition process like?
Riko Tanaka: Short answer is, I want to know why they chose me to begin with. I don’t even know, but it’s something that ‘s been a very, actually long process. There have been people who were in the selection side even saying how it was an unusually, uncharacteristically longer than usual, but very carefully thought through process. But I will say that I applied on the musical side first domestically, and then this opportunity came about, and I was surprised myself, that I could apply for this beloved character – Sailor Moon’s position. I’m very honored and still in awe of the fact.
Makoto Matsuda: So actually, in Japan, there’s very few auditions, not as much as you think.
But that being said, every young actress in Japan wants to be Sailor Moon So there’s a lot of people who apply. So she’s very casual about it, but this is a really big deal that she won the Sailor Moon position. When she was selected everybody’s was so impressed and excited that she is crowned the position of Sailor Moon.
Satomi, what’s the rehearsal process like for an international tour like this?
Satomi Toma: So as a choreographer, I’ve been involved in the Japanese production of Sailor Moon for 10 years, so it’s not new to me. But it was interesting to think about how it would translate by bringing it to the overseas audience globally. But it does immensely help that the actresses, the performers and the production team, all of them, they’re very experienced by doing the best job, bringing the best world of the pretty Guardian Sailor Moon in a musical format domestically. So it was about thinking about how to translate that overseas. And as a choreographer, I felt comfortable doing what we do best in that format.
Makoto Matsuda: I do want to say this is the first time a Japanese production has made a 21 city US tour. So there we’re kind of a pioneer on its own for being able to do this. So we are excited to be doing it, leading the way so others can follow our footsteps, but we take this responsibility with excitement and honor.
Riko, the Super Live is sort of an interesting format, what’s your favorite part of the performance?
Riko Tanaka: For the musical and the Super Live, the format of the production is actually that they have the Super Live, and then at the end there’s a second part, which is a concert, and they play all the classical hits from Sailor Moon. So it’s kind of a different setup, and that part, when you switch to the concert, is really exciting, because, you know, up to that point, they’re doing all this storytelling and everything, which is great as well. But then once you switch to the concert, the beloved characters come out and do their music.
Even in the back, when they’re waiting and listening to Tuxedo Kamen and Queen Beryl, these characters have their numbers where they’re belting it out. Sailor Moon and everybody in the back are enjoying it and cheering them on, so it’s like a really fun part, and I think that kind of resonates with the audience as well.
The cast of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super Live rehearse on stage at Outernet, Tottenham Court Road, London. Picture date: Monday 3rd February 2025. Picture credit should read: © DavidJensen Satomi, Pretty Guardian sailor is known for its action. How do you approach translating the essence of these sequences into live choreography that captures the source material, while also creating a fresh experience theatrically?
Satomi Toma: What I do is realistically, the actors are all young females, and not only physically how they can move, in the outfits. The costume is not like protected gear or anything. They have a lot of exposed parts of their body, so you want to be safe. And also they’re wearing high heels, doing this, which is crazy when you think about it. So there’s like a limitation to what they can do. But what I do care about is, not only doing something difficult, but doing something that would appear beautifully and elegantly, like as a movement. So not just making it into a strong fight scene, but to make it visually look attractive by doing so.
I care about the links between how it appears with the projection and other elements that are visually happening around as well, and to kind of add a little bit of a sense of a pop, like a joyfulness that comes to it as well. So just kind of keeping the feel of the movement in sync to what can realistically be done. But to kind of bring it all together, making it a realistic fight and something that is attractive to be shown on stage is something that I care about.
Riko, that’s got to be a huge responsibility, what’s it like playing such a beloved character as Sailor Moon?
Riko Tanaka: So it’s really exciting. I’ve always loved Sailor Moon since I was a small kid. I’m, you know, a little too young to have experienced it live, but there was an era where I would go rent Sailor Moon at a rental video shop and watch it. That’s how much I loved Sailor Moon. Now that I am portraying the character, I feel so much love from throughout the entire world. Everybody loves Sailor Moon, and I feel that so much playing that character myself.
What were your first experiences with Sailor Moon?
Riko Tanaka: So I was like three or four years old when I first came across Sailor Moon and I think I saw it in animation first, but you know, it was at that age when you kind of play the character with your friends. And since then, actually my favorite character was Sailor Jupiter. So that was kind of my first, first time with Sailor Moon.
Satomi Toma: I don’t want to say exactly when I first came across Sailor Moon, because you’re going to be able to calculate how old I am. But that Joking aside, once I got involved in this production, I had the opportunity to reread the original manga, and I was so moved and impressed by these elegant lines, the beauty of how it’s being portrayed. So it kind of relates to what we were talking about before, when I was talking about choreography, but how her hair moves, how her skirt flitters. I want to keep that in the production as well, so that impression that it had on me was very strong. I feel like the line work is something that left an impression on me when I was looking at the original comic for the first time.
Makoto Matsuda: I didn’t watch it when he was growing up. But I have an older sister, so she has been live watching and growing up. So I knew about it, but I never really had a chance to really see it until he grew up and saw it in the theater. That was his first time really watching Sailor Moon. And you know, there was somebody that was already doing a musical version of it. So I’m the second lead to create this world in theater production format. But I was watching and I was like, this is amazing, so interesting. But at the same time, it’s like, I would do this differently if I were doing this. So that’s how I encountered Sailor Moon.
The cast of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super Live rehearse on stage at Outernet, Tottenham Court Road, London. Picture date: Monday 3rd February 2025. Picture credit should read: © DavidJensen What do you think it is about Sailor Moon that allows it to resonate with so many?
Riko Tanaka: I think it comes down to how the main character, Usagi, is a really charming, kind of little clumsy, fun character that people want to just kind of reach out and help. And then there’s Sailor Moon, which is the fighting, really powerful, strong, enigmatic character that is unbeatable.That contrast between the two makes it very interesting and attractive. I feel like keeping that gap is something that makes it very interesting to people.
Makoto Matsuda: Sailor Moon, the main character, especially, has all this contrast, it shows how even the almighty, unbeatable character is actually a normal girl that is in this lead fighting position. There’s a lot of scenes where they’re fighting, but it’s not because it’s an action, action show, it’s because the fighting is about friendship. It’s about love and trust and the building of the human connection between those characters, and it’s a story about portraying what it means to honor peace and love in this environment.
It really is also about pointing out how it is not in its best state to be fighting actually. So it’s not like encouraging people to fight, but it’s more about pointing the other direction of how wonderful it is to honor the message of love and peace through this production. And I think, personally, that might be one of the reasons why we could relate to it and why it’s been so loved for over three decades.
We’re very proud about being able to bring this musical and beloved story throughout the world. That this is a story that’s set in Japan, and the character Usagi is a Japanese girl, portrayed by a Japanese actress is something we’re very proud of, that is very special to us.
The cast of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super Live rehearse on stage at Outernet, Tottenham Court Road, London. Picture date: Monday 3rd February 2025. Picture credit should read: © DavidJensen Finally, what do you want people to take away from the show?
Riko Tanaka: So in Pittsburgh, it was so amazing! The audience was so incredible. I felt the love from them so much. And you know, I came from Japan, doing this for the first time, doing it outside of Japan. And you know, I felt how America is so loving of this production and I’m very honored, and I want to make sure that this sense of how people look up to and love the beloved character of Sailor Moon can be portrayed in the best way so all 21 cities going through America. So we are really excited to bring that sense to everybody.
Satomi Toma: You know, when we were in Pittsburgh, the audience was amazing. They were all prepared and ready. They’re wearing the costumes and were ready to enjoy Sailor Moon, so it was really exciting and amazing. But we are very honored to be portraying that amazement that the Sailor Moon project has, but we are ready to do more than what is expected. We will go beyond that expectation. We are ready to show that. So I hope people would expect something really exciting, coming to Sailor Moon, not just seeing what they know, but something more!
Makoto Matsuda: There’s three things I want people to take home. The first message is this is a message about peace, but how important it is to how precious peace is. The second thing is a message of love. Sailor Moon is loved by generations of people, and we see mothers and daughters that come together, different generations that come together and are very happy about it. We want people to feel the sense of love, doesn’t have to be just like certain partners or anything, it could be just to call my mom and say hello. That kind of love as well, a message of love and compassion.
And this is probably the most important thing, I want people to feel energized. So we get energized from the feedback from the audience, the love that we receive is something that’s so contagious. We hope that the audience feels that love and excitement and feel really fresh and energized through seeing our production as well. So those are the three things that I hope the audience can feel when they come to see the super live.
Get info or tickets here: https://sailormoonsuperlive.com/
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SXSW 2025: Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd are a Match Made in Hell in FRIENDSHIP
Andrew DeYoung’s biting look at middle-aged male bonding evokes raucous laughs and existential dread
Tim Robinson has carved out a prominent niche in 2020’s comedy with his maniacally abrasive, mountain-out-of-a-molehill reactions to life’s most absurdly relatable situations. Sometimes we’re out to find love, other times we’re just in it for the zipline; sometimes they move that one work meeting to lunch; sometimes you think for a brief moment there’s monsters on the Earth, but at least you don’t have to go to work if you get eaten. If anything compares to the volume-shredding insanity of Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave, it’s the work of fellow cinematic absurdist Yorgos Lanthimos–both Robinson and Lanthimos crank the most inane situations to eleven while playing them completely straight, highlighting the naturally bemusing contradictions between human impulse and societal expectation.
Andrew DeYoung’s TIFF hit, Friendship, marks Robinson’s first major film since his breakout Netflix sketch success–and it effectively and excruciatingly translates his signature chaos to feature length. Bolstered by Paul Rudd’s weaponized charisma, DeYoung channels Tim Robinson’s relatable rage into an oddly touching experience that finds destructive harmony between genuine connection and alienating, anarchic self-interest.
Craig (Tim Robinson) is a middle-aged suburban father who leaves little room for social interaction between his morally ambiguous app job and a stiflingly dull family life. When he’s not searching for new ways to make addicts out of app users, he’s desperately trying to persuade his wife Tami (Kate Mara) and son Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer) to watch the new Marvel (“I hear this one is nuts.”). A misdelivered package introduces Craig to his new neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd), who embodies everything Craig seemingly admires. He’s effortlessly cool, armed with a repertoire of charming quips; he nonchalantly brushes off authority while enjoying his Weatherman gig on the nightly news; he’s a guitarist in a punk band.
Importantly, while Craig’s family and friends find reasons to avoid him, Austin wants to be friends with Craig. A spontaneous day off spent mushroom hunting and urban exploring in the sewers sets up the new bond between Craig and Austin for success. Unfortunately, a string of painfully awkward encounters when Craig meets Austin’s other friends prompts Austin to distance himself, leaving Craig feeling desperate and willing to do anything to regain Austin’s friendship.
As one might expect from a Robinson/Rudd pairing, Friendship excels at being a charmingly grating endurance test for audiences. Nearly every scene centers on Craig’s attempts to connect with the people in his orbit, only to get lost in some minutiae he feels is the key to a successful conversation or relationship–blowing situations viscerally out of control. DeYoung’s direction and screenplay effectively trap audiences in the horror and hilarity of each bizarre interaction, all of which play directly into Robinson’s honed strengths as a comedian.
Though Craig’s reactions can go to deeply unpleasant extremes–there’s always some kernel of relatable truth to every knot-twisting moment. In Friendship‘s case, it’s the uncomfortable reality that friendship is hard work as we get older, especially if meeting new people also forces us to confront the roads we never took in getting to where we are today. DeYoung also makes room for trenchant insights into spousal regret and how we cling to specific items or hobbies as totems of personality the more our work and family obligations swallow up any other time to explore who we are, or how we’re changing.
In refreshing contrast to Robinson’s earlier work, nearly every character exhibits some degree of Robinson’s near-fourth-wall-breaking exasperation. Rudd portrays Austin as an embodiment of Craig’s imagined ideal of a “cool” person, with almost every line of dialogue resembling an inspirational sticker slogan about individualism and positive masculinity. Rudd’s unmistakable charm elevates this on-the-page absurdity to fantastic comic heights, whether it involves one of Austin’s guys’ nights or several bizarre excursions into city sewers in search of a pathway to city hall. Kate Mara stands out as Craig’s wife Tami, playing things as straight as possible while remaining true to the strange world created by DeYoung, Robinson, and Rudd. Her earnest and strained attempts to cope with her husband’s alien behavior provide Friendship with necessary dramatic weight, creating another painful emotional fuel Robinson’s Craig feeds on in his quest for the approval of those he cares about.
Alongside Mara’s gravitas, Friendship’s cinematography by Andy Rydzewski and editing by Sophie Corra also help temper the film’s comedic extremes. From the audience reaction at SXSW, Friendship elicited the kind of screams brought out by horror films as much as crowd-pleasing comedies. Thanks to the uncomfortable amount of commitment by DeYoung’s creatives both behind and in front of the camera, Friendship becomes a unique genre experience you’ll love as much as you’ll hate.
Friendship had its US Premiere at SXSW 2025, with a theatrical release coming on May 9, 2025 from A24.
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SXSW 2025: SXSW Jury Award Winning Doc Short WELCOME HOME FRECKLES Hits Deep
The South By Southwest Festival is massive and complex and messy, but somewhere deep down in its core, beyond corporate sponsorships and red carpets, it’s still about making connections. A massive swath of humanity descends upon Austin, TX to learn, to share, and to press on. In classic SXSW fashion, my wife’s coworker mentioned that a friend of his had shot a short doc and was looking for lodging during the festival, and that is how director/cinematographer Benjamin Kodboel ended up crashing in our house for SXSW. I didn’t catch the shorts block containing the film he lensed, Welcome Home Freckles, but was stoked for he and his team when they ended up taking the special jury award for documentary shorts, and decided to check the film out on the SXSW screener library. I think it’s worth giving all this background for a couple of reasons, one being that there’s still a ton of humanity, relevance, and connection made possible by the massive entity that is SXSW. Another is that in all honesty, I personally don’t often give short films a fair shake. Life is busy, the market is crowded, and there’s never enough time to see all the movies I deeply want to see. So it’s easy enough to skip short films altogether. But there’s much value in shorts and I’m pleased I took the time to check out Welcome Home Freckles, even if it took the cinematographer literally staying in my house and the film winning jury recognition to convince me that hey, maybe I should press play on this thing.
Director and subject Huiju Park tells some of her own story here, returning home to South Korea after much time away in order to unpack some of the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, and some of the enablement that her mother offered to her father. In a mere 25 minutes we’re introduced to Park as she has a series of extremely vulnerable and challenging conversations with her mother, her grandmother, her father, and even reflects at the gravestone of his father. Park proves a brave soul indeed, probing and questioning and sticking up for herself as family attempt to downplay the abuse that she suffered thanks to drunken rage in the household.
How we’re introduced to Park is part of the brilliance of the short. There are no talking head set ups here. There’s not much in the way of on screen text to ease us into this powerful moment. In fact, it seems Park (and Kodboel) almost set out to create a documentary that feels like a narrative. I legitimately questioned for a moment if I was watching the right short because it felt so… non-documentary in its style. This creates something powerful, though. And you quickly realize that with a documentary this intimate and personal, you’re not going to get multiple takes and professional lighting and sound set ups in order to have profoundly personal conversations. You’re likely only sitting down to ask your abusive father about his memories of when he began hitting you once. You can’t exactly shout “cut” and reset to get a better angle of your dad’s face as he struggles to remember how he hurt you. So the short almost has to feel like a narrative in a way that many docs do not.
There’s a core bravery to what Park is setting out to do here. She’s putting her own trauma and the generational struggles of her own family out into the world for audiences to see. And while most families wouldn’t allow their skeletons to come this far out of the closet, it’s clear that Park is drawing a line in the sand that the abuse will stop with her and that this film represents part of her effort to break the cycle of generational abuse that her own grandfather set into motion with the drunken abuse of her father, which passed along to her.
A repeated theme throughout is that the abuser often forgets, but the abused remember everything. This becomes clear in her vulnerable conversations with her grandmother, who was abused by her grandfather, and her father, who was abused by his father. Park’s dad remembers well the fear and confusion that his father inflicted upon him, but gets hazy in the details of how he himself hurt her.
Beautifully shot and constructed, filled to the brim with aching vulnerability and a desire to break the cycle, Welcome Home Freckles is a brave work not simply offering a therapeutic exercise for its subject and director. Rather, the short exposes for its audience the hard work that can be involved in honestly confronting traumatic abuse and the lengths one must often go to in order to end intergenerational violence.
And I’m Out.
