Revelation Film Festival 2025

Revelation Film Festival 2025 - Wrap Up

That's it for Rev this year and I can't help feeling I've missed something... Eight films isn't a bad effort but there were a few that I hope I can catch somewhere later. Anyway, here are the films I saw this year, in calendar order of viewing. First up was:

U are the Universe ★★★½

Ambitious Ukrainian film by Pavel Ostrikov about the last person in the universe after an earth-destroying disaster. Andriy (Volodymyr Kravchuk) is running nuclear waste to Callico, a moon of Jupiter, when he gets the news. His fastidious on-board robot Maxim is his only companion until he gets a message from near Saturn.

There are some lovely moments - 2001 music reveals a replacement office chair floating through space, the Open Me message, the sinister link to 2001 (set up earlier by the music), the tenderness of the burgeoning audio relationship - all leading to a sweet but realistically depressing conclusion. Wonderful pared down, yet grand filmmaking.

Of Caravan and the Dogs ★★★★

The title comes from the saying that 'the dogs bark, the caravan moves on.' This can be taken two ways - either the dogs are insignificant to the behemoth, or they actually provide the impetus for the continual movement. The dogs here refer to the Russian journalists and editors, TV hosts and radio DJs that are trying to keep the bastards honest. Like pushing shit up a hill.

The film is reminiscent of Navalny, 20 Days in Mariupol and Collective and it has a great lead in the boss of the newspaper. It's a sad watch but with surprising hopefulness. As one poet agitator guy says, 'All dodgy empires end with a war' or words to that effect. It's written by Askold Kurov and directed by him and Anonymous. This particular credit permeates the roll at the end of the film, with good reason. An excellent documentary.

Eight Postcards from Utopia ★★★

This is a found footage compendium of Romanian TV commercials from the 80s to the 2010s, I think, with some wild shit going on. The film starts with Adrian Mutu in Roman dress and is broken into 8 categories, such as History, Technology, Money, Masculine and Feminine, Magic, etc.

TV advertising can explain a lot about a country - the Romanians apparently look to Germany with envy, and there's some crazy ads that look to have influenced The Fast Show. Pepsi seems to be the winner of the cola wars in Romania, Dracula Park looks fun, and one ad even had a contest to find the preeminent 'Tits Expert' in the country. The privatisation public service announcements were an interesting document of the times, post cold war. Could have been shorter but worth a watch.

The American Friend ★★½

Wim Wenders adapts a Patricia Highsmith Ripley novel (Ripley's Game). Dennis Hopper plays the lead, though I'd suggest Bruno Ganz is the star of the film. Nothing really felt legitimate about it, I couldn't buy any of these characters, especially not Hopper as Ripley. Maybe a controversial take, but I don't think he's a very good actor - he plays a fine nutter but if he needs to seem 'real', he struggles.

The plot wasn't too bad structurally, especially at the start, but again, I didn't believe the likelihood of the characters' actions within the context of their story. This picture framer family man quite happily becomes a killer? The French geezer simply trusts that he'll do the job? Ripley drops him in the shit, simply because he didn't shake his hand once? Well, perhaps that's the Ripley sociopathy showing out there, so fair dues. But overall, not a satisfying film for me, sadly. I don't have a great track record with Wenders.

Chain Reactions ★★★★

This is a fantastic documentary, right up my alley. Unfortunately, it might have spoiled my enjoyment of the film that followed, as I'd never seen The Texas Chainsaw Saw Massacre before the double bill. This is your basic talking head format where five artists talk about their memories of (or reactions to) the above film. What sets this apart is that the subjects are fascinating and passionate about Chain Saw.

Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama are the people interviewed and they all give great insight into how this film has affected and influenced them since their first viewing. Highlights are Heller-Nicholas talking about Picnic at Hanging Rock and the similarities between Texas and the Aussie bush, and Miike remembering that Chaplin's City Lights retrospective screening in Osaka was sold out so he happened upon Chain Saw. Sliding doors and all that.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ★★★

As mentioned above, this was my first viewing and the forensic analysis laid out in Chain Reactions didn't allow me any surprises in the main event. Maybe it would have been better shown first on the bill but I'm guessing most people had seen it before this screening. I think 50 years is probably long enough for spoilers:) So looking at it like I had seen it before, it seems very dated and not really very scary either. It is iconic, though, and quite well made for a 'slasher' pic, perhaps the benchmark for those to follow.

As some of the subjects in the previous film said, it's not a stretch to feel some kind of sympathy or justification for Leatherface, as these hippy kids are veritable home invaders, and he is clearly disturbed. Not a great film for me but I'm glad to finally see it.

The Thinking Game ★★½

Here's a doco about Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, and his desire to 'solve' AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Hassabis was a bit of a prodigy from childhood, junior chess champion, games developer before entering Cambridge. His interest in AGI and its potential uses is covered in this film. What's not really covered is the danger of letting these fuckers THINK for themselves. I mean, Hassabis and his crew seem to have the best intentions - notably, releasing the code for AlphaFold to the world in 2021. This has almost 'solved' the issue of protein folding, which troubled molecular biologists for years.

All well and good but the ethics angle was only briefly mentioned near the end, and the sale to Google has made this altruism quite murky indeed. I read one local review on Letterboxd that absolutely excoriated the film. It's sits unevenly between a puff piece and an interesting view of where this tech might be going. Polarising, if enough people see it.

Zodiac Killer Project ★★★★½

A brilliant documentary, this one. Charlie Shackleton, a young Brit, optioned the rights to a police officer's book about his hunt for the infamous Zodiac Killer. Just as he was prepping the film, the family of the author/cop (deceased) pulled the rights. So Shackleton made an empty film, along the lines of "If we had made it, we would have started with a car parked here....". He narrates his past intentions to images of semi-deserted streets, empty diners, stand in buildings ("We were going to use this police station. Actually, this is a library, it's much easier to shoot at a library").

About halfway through, Shackelton appears on screen, in a recording booth but before this, there's nobody to associate with at all. This works to the films credit as it's presented as a kind of 'non-film'. Throughout proceedings, he dissects True Crime films and TV, specifically those newish Netflix titillators, by mentioning the tropes used - evocative B-rolls, 3D-ifying crime scene stills, dark country music over the opening credits, etc. He's done his research. In fact, it's probably a boon that he didn't get the rights to the book - I can't imagine a generic doco on this topic would have been anywhere near as good as this.

Comments

The Running Man

This is Edgar Wright's ninth feature, just a smidge over 20 years since his reputation-making second film, Shaun of the Dead . The older folk reading this might remember the Arnie original from 1987, directed by Starsky himself, Paul Michael Glaser. I vaguely recall that film being silly and comically violent, one of a slew of Schwarzenegger pulp films of the era. This remake aims for similar stylings, but with a more po-faced, less ludicrous feel. The premise goes that Ben Richards (Glen Powell) needs money to ensure his child gets the proper medicine for her unnamed illness. He's lost his job due to 'insubordination', but really he's just a top bloke looking out for his co-workers. After promising his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) that he won't try out for the near-suicidal game show The Running Man, he applies for other shows on the sinister Network, and gets selected anyway. Of course, or no movie. The scenes in this part of the film are probably the most succ...

The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

Predator: Badlands

So without me really noticing, this franchise has reached NINE films (if you include the two Alien vs Predator crossovers). The last three have been directed (or co-directed) by Dan Trachtenberg, who's also helmed an episode each of the TV shows Black Mirror and The Boys . I've got to say, carry on lad, because this is probably the best Predator film I've seen (let me revisit the Arnie one before I remove that 'probably'). This film starts as a revenge quest that soon morphs into a discourse on dysfunctional families and finding your groove in life. All wrapped up in a gnarly, bloody sci-fi romp. I say blood, in actual fact, none of it is human blood, all characters being either alien or synthetic humanoid. That in itself is one of the film's credits - none of the protagonists are human, and the nominal lead is usually a villain. Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is from the Yautja race, the original 'ugly mother-fucker' Predator. The preamble n...

Nouvelle Vague

This opening screening of the Perth Festival's Lotterywest Film season is a cinephile's delight. It documents the production of Jean-Luc Godard's seminal feature debut, À Bout de Souffle (or Breathless ). The title refers to the New Wave of French film from the beginning of the 1960s, which railed against the tired, old ways of film-making. Nouvelle Vague actually looks like it was shot on film, it's riddled with scratch marks, there's are many big black dots indicating the end of the reel, and of course, it's in black and white. The director, Richard Linklater, is obviously a huge fan of Breathless . This is a lovingly made, breezy film, that isn't terribly hard-hitting or deep, but is a fine background to one of the classics. The casting is excellent, specifically the Jeans; Godard, Seberg and Belmondo, played by Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin respectively. They all look the part and turn in performances just the right side of parody....

One Battle After Another

Before this film, Paul Thomas Anderson had at least one certifiable classic on his CV in There Will Be Blood . Now, make that two. In saying this, most of his films range from good to brilliant. This is his second adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel (after the uneven but interesting Inherent Vice ) and it looks at the lives of modern American revolutionaries, notably members of French 75. The group are apparently named after a WWI weapon, and then a cocktail, both of which have something of a kick. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, The Rocket Man, who makes the ordnance for the group and is in a relationship with fellow revolutionary, Perfidia (Teyana Taylor). A combination of a run-in with Sean Penn's Colonel Steven Lockjaw, and a rash killing of a security guard triggers more interest in the group, and so a roundup begins. Perfidia is caught, then forced to name names before doing a runner. But not before she has a daughter with Bob, whom he is left to raise on the run. After this f...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

A few years ago, we hit the S.S.P. (Superhero Saturation Point). And the best way for studios to arrest, or even maybe reverse, the law of diminishing returns is to JUST GIVE IT A FUCKING REST. There's enough residual goodwill in the fan base to guarantee profits....for now. But, as Malcolm Gladwell said, there must be a tipping point. So into this cinematic avalanche slips The Fantastic Four: First Steps , the first film of Phase Six and the thirty seventh overall! It's quite dull for the first 30 minutes, setting up the characters, ensuring the audience understands we're on a slightly different Earth (828), and a different time as well. It only gets going when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) appears and promises everyone death by devouring. She's not going to eat them, she works for a massive space turd called Galactus, played by Finchy himself, Ralph Ineson. He'll do the devouring. Here's the thing - this film is a perfectly serviceable entry, not brilliant,...

The Long Walk

I had a bit of time to spare while the car was getting a service so I decided to visit the Greater Union Morley cinemas one last time (it closed a few days after I saw this). I think this was the first cinema I went to when I came back from Japan in 2016 and sadly, it hadn't had a touch up since then, possibly not for a long time before either. Fingers crossed for a brand spanking new cinema complex one day. Anyway, the film I saw was The Long Walk , and it's a bit of an oddity. It's based on a Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) book from 1979. King seems to have a thing for these dystopian 'last one standing' stories (see also The Running Man , an Arnie adaptation was made in 1987, and Edgar Wright has a new version up his sleeve, opening soon). Director Francis Lawrence returns to the theme of his Hunger Games films, riffing on Battle Royale , but also, many of these types of films where characters get picked off one by one, from Alien to Monty Python an...

Hard Truths

It's been six years since Mike Leigh stepped behind the camera for the disappointing Peterloo but this film is a return to tip top form. In fact, by my reckoning, that 2018 historical record was his only career misstep. And in Naked , Secrets and Lies and Happy-Go-Lucky , he has written and directed some of the very best British films of all time. Hard Truths reunites him with one of the stars of Secrets and Lies , Marianne Jean-Baptiste. She plays Pansy, an angry, fearful misery guts who can't help but annoy her family (and members of the public) with her constant, nasty invective. At first, her moaning is quite funny until the realisation that this woman is suffering takes hold. Pansy is married to plumber Curtley (David Webber) and they have a son in his early 20s, Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) who doesn't say much and stays in his room playing flight simulator games. Both these guys deal with Pansy in their own way, in quiet despondency. Her only real friend is her sister,...

Sicilian Letters

This Italian Film Festival offering is a post-mafia story from writer/director pair, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. Ex-school principal and local politician, Catello (Toni Servillo) is released from prison in the early 2000s, only to be co-opted by the Italian Secret Service to help apprehend the last Cosa Nostra boss still at large, Matteo Messina Denaro (Elio Germano). Catello is the perfect patsy. He was a good friend of Denaro's father, Don Gaetano, who made Catello the Godfather to young Matteo. I should mention this is based loosely on the life of Denaro, though it's at pains to acknowledge that much of this story is fabricated (a title card reads "Loosely inspired by real events, though the film's characters are the fruits of the authors' imagination.") In this chunk of Denaro's life on the run, Catello is tasked with writing letters to the fugitive, via a bespoke butcher-based post office. Initially, Denaro is moved by Catello's prose a...

Splitsville

This is the second film I've seen in a row where two blokes wrote the film and also starred in it ( see previous review ). This time round the two blokes are Michael Angelo Covino (also directing) and Kyle Marvin. The coup was signing Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona to play the wives, Julie and Ashley. On the face of it, it's hard to believe that these women would be with these two spuds, but the script allows for a suspension of disbelief. Marvin plays Carey, just over a year into marriage with Ashley (Arjona). On the way to a waterfront weekend with Paul and Julie (Covino and Johnson), Ashley explains that she wants a divorce. The trigger may have had something to do with them being part of a road accident death, a darkly amusing opening scene. Carey leaves the car in a panic and eventually finds his way to the beach house. Distraught, he decides to wallow with his friends until a discretion threatens to blow apart the relationship. To be clear, Julie and Paul's open rela...

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