THE RELIC
Relic, the elegantly creepy debut film from writer-director Natalie Erika James, may not be the film to watch if you have an aging parent in distress. That’s the dilemma facing Kay (Emily Mortimer), whose mother, Edna (Robyn Nein), briefly disappears from her Australian country home only to return and begin acting out in strange and unnerving ways. Edna is clearly struggling with dementia but Kay and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) begin to wonder if Edna, or her rambling old house, or the family itself, is being taken over by a malevolent force.
In this house, the walls groan like a sailboat adrift at sea, a shadowy figure hovers at the end of hall, and everywhere, black mold is growing, including, most disturbingly, in a round patch on Edna’s chest. Aided by Brian Reitzell’s jangly score, director James and cinematographer Charlie Sarroff slowly build a sense menace and dread, even as the three gifted leads dive deep into the tangled emotionality of this fractured family.
In the last half hour, all hell breaks loose, with Sam trapped in a hidden, shape-shifting part of the house and Kay forced to battle her mother, who’s evolving into something else, something other. The film’s last moments, which shift daringly from the horrific to the tender, may frustrate horror fans in need of a clear explanation for all that’s come before, but anyone who’s watched a loved one age and fade is sure to feel a resonant ache.
DIVOS!
Of course, Ricky Redman (Matt Steele) will land the lead role in this year’s San Fernando Catholic Church high school musical. He does so every year. A proud show queen, with epic plans to be a Broadway star, Ricky is a true diva, but wait, who’s the hunky blonde boy walking into auditions, the one backlit like Jesus?
That would be Josh (Timothy Brundidge), the school’s injured baseball pitcher who’s decided that he too is destined to be a Broadway sensation. Ricky takes him under his wing but a bitter rivalry ensues, and Divos!, a deft indie comedy written by Steele and directed by Ryan Patrick Bartley, takes off.
If the cast seems a bit past high school age, no matter, their energy and general fabulousness carry the day. Steel’s script takes some unexpected plot turns, including a mid-turn shift to Josh’s home life, and a welcome avoidance of opening night clichés. A trifle to be sure, but an accomplished one, Divos!, is a charming surprise.
BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS
“When nobody don’t want your ass, you can come in here and have a good time,” says a patron at the Roaring 20s, a dive bar on the outskirts of Vegas. It’s just after lunch on a shimmery hot desert day and the bar’s regulars, young, old, and culturally diverse, are already arriving for what will be the joint’s last day.
In the sneakily haunting Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, filmmaking brothers Bill and Turner Ross (Contemporary Color), who make documentaries that redefine the term, roam the bar with their cameras, capturing snippets of conversation, song, and lament as a never famous Vegas staple prepares to close its doors.
For a good long time, nothing much seems to be happening. Folks greet each other fondly. Bad jokes are told. The bartender curses Jeopardy on the big TV.
And people drink, but never sloppily. Drinking, you come to realize, is what these folks do. They know how to stretch out the day, just as they know to lean in to humor and intimacy, for surely that’s the payoff for living your best hours in a bar.
Nothing happens in Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets except funny, quotable conversation — “You’re sweet on me now but just you wait. I’m a destroyer.” — and the passing by of a dozen lives filled with enough love, fury, and regret to fill three Hollywood movies. This is a scruffy, gorgeous movie.
Chuck Wilson