Movie Review: "A Feral World" (2020)

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Movie: "A Feral World"
Director: David Liban
Year: 2020
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

The "post-apocalypse" genre has been a favorite for big-budget studios and independent filmmakers for decades. Maybe it's because using abandoned, dilapidated buildings and limitless desert landscapes make for relatively inexpensive film shoots. Maybe it's because vast tundras devoid of people make excellent cinematic eye candy. Perhaps, it's a little of both. Over the past few years, we have seen numerous small-scale, human-centered stories told in post-apocalyptic settings, including "It Comes at Night" (2017), "The Road" (2009), and "Cargo" (2018). "A Feral World" (2020) also attempts to do the same. The film is written and directed by David Liban, a film professor at CU Denver's College of Arts and Media, who clearly made the movie on a shoestring budget. It was shot over several years. We believe this had more to do with the previously mentioned budget restrictions rather than it being a conscious "Boyhood"-esque artistic choice, but who knows. Liban manages to weave the time delays into his story to his advantage, making it seem intentional as the child actors age in real-time. The story centers on a young boy named Sonny (Caleb Liban, the director's son), who has been orphaned during a global fallout. He soon pairs up with a woman named Emma (Danielle Prall), who has been searching for her daughter, who was abducted from their home during the dissolution of society. Together, they must help each other survive long enough to figure out where Emma's daughter may have been taken.

Caleb Liban and Danielle Prall in "A Feral World." (Image Source)

The apocalypse in "A Feral World" (2020) seems that it was caused by technology gone awry. Tiny, flesh-eating, building-destroying nano-bots appear on-screen as a swarm of insects that look as though they've been yanked straight out of a poorly CGI-ed "made for sci-fi channel movie" or some tech-savvy child's homemade YouTube video. We don't enjoy the prospect of hating on a movie for its graphics, especially when it was so clearly someone's passion project, but the CGI in this movie is really bad. Luckily, the goofy CGI is offset by some competent camerawork. As we mentioned above, it's not hard to make the right landscape look incredible, even when your movie is being made on the cheap. The narrative itself is a simple one as Sonny and Emma form a familial bond while they look for her abducted daughter. They walk, walk, walk, and they talk, talk, talk, and occasionally, they come across other desperate, sometimes violent people who are looking for a fight in this changed world. Eventually, Emma and Sonny come to a point where they may have to save her daughter from the person who snatched her, even if they might get hurt in the process. Unfortunately, we never felt the danger or passion or tension these situations should have held. If a mother is looking for her abducted daughter, we should feel the sadness, rage, and concern that she's feeling. We shouldn't feel bored. The script lacks nuance and emotion, and it feels derivative as a whole. It doesn't help that the characters themselves aren't written with a lot of depth. We're sorry to say it, but the acting in "A Feral World" (2020) comes off as bland and overly-scripted. We know that most of the individuals in this film are not professional actors, and the ones that are aren't very experienced, but for us, the stiffness brought the movie-watching experience down a peg or two.

Drew Barrett plays Maddy in "A Feral World." (Add caption)

We certainly appreciate the effort and the dedication put in by those involved in the making of "A Feral World" (2020), but heart and drive will only get you so far. You still have to engage your audience, and sadly, we just weren't all that captivated by this story. There are a couple of interesting elements that could've worked out had they been explored more in-depth, but overall, the film is seriously lacking.

My Rating: 3/10
BigJ's Rating: 3/10
IMDB's Rating: ~3.2/10
RT Rating: ---%
Do we recommend this movie: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!

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Movie Review: "Assassins" (2020)

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Movie: "Assassins"
Director: Ryan White
Year: 2020
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

In February 2017, Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was murdered in broad daylight in an airport in Malaysia. He was killed with a chemical nerve agent called VX, one of the deadliest nerve agents in the world. It instantly became international news, even more so when it was discovered that his killers were two young women in their 20s. BigJ and I didn't know much about this new story beyond these few facts. The women accused of the assassination were Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam. They were caught on CCTV cameras at Kuala Lumpur International airport, rubbing a substance on Kim Jong-nam's face right before walking away from the scene.

It seems like an open and shut case, right?

Wrong.

Doan Thi Huong and Siti Aisyah mugshot photos from the 2020 movie "Assassins." (Image Source)

Ryan White's documentary "Assassins" (2020) digs deeper into the story of the two women who purportedly assassinated the half-brother of one of the most notorious leaders of one of the most mysterious countries in the world. Siti Aisyah grew up impoverished in Indonesia and had to drop out of school at a young age to begin working. She eventually came to Malaysia with the hopes of finding a job to earn money for her family, though she wound up being employed as a sex worker. Doan took a different path to Malaysia as she had aspirations of becoming an actress. She even had a short and somewhat embarrassing stint on Malaysia's version of "American Idol." The ultimate question this documentary seeks to answer is how did these two women from different countries and different backgrounds who had never met each other both wind up carrying out the assassination of Kim Jong-nam on the same day at the same airport? Were they really just cold-blooded killers, or were they unwitting pawns duped into an accidental assassination by agenda-driven secret agents from North Korea? The latter choice sounds almost too wild to be true.

Ryan White explores the overwhelming evidence showing that, despite its immense improbability, that is precisely what happened to Siti and Doan. These two random strangers were set up months in advance to take the fall for Kim Jong-nam's murder so that Kim Jong-un could not be implicated by the international community in the assassination. Perhaps the worst part of this ordeal is that the country of Malaysia was willing to let these women take the fall, all so it could maintain a strong political relationship with North Korea. It's downright despicable that the lives of these two women meant so little that two entire countries were prepared to let them go down for a crime they didn't commit all to service the cold, calculated manipulations of men craving to please their master.

CCTV footage from the murder of Kim Jong-nam from the documentary film "Assassins." (Image Source)

Since we had not followed this case beyond the initial news report, "Assassins" (2020) gripped us from start to finish. We sat in awe as attorneys and journalists poured over the evidence in the case and the politics surrounding it. It's a comprehensive documentary full of an abundance of background information, as well as unexpected twists and turns. Everything that happens feels like it was ripped right out of the screenplay of a spy movie, one that you might think was too unrealistic if you didn't know it was true. "Assassins" (2020) is absolutely worth watching, especially if you're not familiar with this international case. We found it to be as compelling as any fictional crime thriller. It's one of the best documentaries we've seen this year.

My Rating: 8/10
BigJ's Rating: 8/10
IMDB's Rating: ~7.5/10
RT Rating: ~100%
Do we recommend this movie: Yes!

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Movie Review: "We Are Columbine" (2018)

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Movie: "We Are Columbine"

Director: Laura Farber
Year: 2018
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 18 minutes

Survivors of the Columbine massacre reflect on their experience that day.

Movie Review: "Chained For Life" (2018)

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Movie: "Chained For Life"

Director: Aaron Schimberg
Year: 2018
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

On the set of a movie about a disfigured man who falls in love with a blind woman, the beautiful lead actress contemplates the treatment on her co-stars, and whether or not the movie they are making is exploitation or art.

Movie Review: "Unlovable" (2018)

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Movie: "Unlovable"

Director: Suzi Yoonessi
Year: 2018
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

A sex and relationship addict seeks help and finds real friendship with a reclusive man who has issues of his own.

Movie Review: "Little Woods" (2018)

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Movie: "Little Woods"

Director: Nia DaCosta
Year: 2018
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

A woman on parole for smuggling prescription drugs across the border is trying to walk the straight and narrow. When life, and her sister, bring a lot of problems that require immediate attention, it forces her back into a life she thought she left behind.

Movie Review: "The Favourite" (2018)

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Movie: "The Favourite"

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Year: 2018
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 59 minutes

Lady Sarah Marlborough is the best friend and 'favorite' of Queen Anne, giving her strong political sway being so close to the Queen's ear. When Sarah's cousin Abigail comes to work for her, Abigail starts to endear herself to the Queen and tries to usurp Sarah as the favorite, setting off a frenzy of political maneuvering to sway Queen Anne to their political favor.

Movie Review: "Cam" (2018)

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Movie: "Cam"

Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Year: 2018
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

A cam girl who is trying to make her way into the top rankings on the website where she has her shows gets her account jacked by a doppelganger. Now, she must find a way to get her channel back at all costs.