OMNI LOOP Defies Expectations

OMNI LOOP (Blu-ray)

2024 / 110 min

From Magnolia Pictures

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😽

Omni Loop turns out not to be the movie its premise suggests. Depending on your expectations, that’ll be either a pleasant surprise or a depressing disappointment.

On one hand, it’s an oddball science-fiction film in which its main character, quantum physics author Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker), is diagnosed with a black hole growing in her chest. No explanation is offered, though it’s suggested that this phenomenon occurs from time to time like a rare form of cancer. She’s given a week to live before the black hole completely consumes her, during which time her loving family plans to make her as comfortable and happy as possible.

However, Zoya is stuck in a time loop - triggered by mysterious prescription pills she found as a 12 year old - so she keeps reliving that same final week over and over. Feeling personally and professionally incomplete, Zoya is determined to figure out how these pills work to order to alter her past, eventually enlisting the help of a young researcher, Paula (Ayo Edebiri), with access to a college campus lab…as well as a “nanoscopic man,” who’s kept in a box and continually shrinking.

On the other hand, Omni Loop is a somber character study of Zoya herself. With every time jump, it’s revealed that her life has not turned out how she (and others) once expected. Through flashbacks and encounters with people who impacted her life, such as Professor Duselberg (Harris Yulin), her invalid mother and ex-colleague/old flame Mark, she views her past as a series of missed opportunities and failing to achieve her potential. Consumed by revisiting (and maybe fixing) her past, Zoya neglects the present, namely husband Donald (Carlos Jacott) and daughter Jayne (Hannah Pearl Utt).

Paula adds Zoya to her shit list.

Both aspects of the film are pretty well conceived. The effects of “time looping” are intriguing, each jump providing an essential piece of the narrative (including a sobering revelation about Paula’s motives for helping Zoya). The logistics behind the science are intentionally murky, and one of the film’s strengths is that we simply accept the concepts of personal black holes and microscopic men without further scrutiny. But it also reflects what the film is really about…Zoya’s personal journey and her epiphanies along the way.

These themes eventually dominate the film, and while affecting, they cause a big shift in the overall tone. Not that Omni Loop was ever a barrel of laughs to begin with, but it grows more dispiriting (if not meandering) as the story progresses, the sci-fi elements taking a backseat to a gloomy sense of inevitability, to the point where the audience is likely to know the outcome before it actually plays out.

Still, Omni Loop is a thought provoking experience, even if some viewers may not necessarily appreciate the thoughts it provokes. A small film with weighty themes, what it lacks in mind-bending thrills is compensated by a relatable protagonist and a haunting denouement. But viewers expecting another low budget brain scrambler like Primer or Coherence should take a pass.

BLUE DESERT: Looks Aren't Everything

BLUE DESERT (DVD)

2013 / 92 min

FROM INDIEPIX

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Baffled😾

This Brazilian sci-fi film is visually striking, both naturally, with numerous scenes of red desert hills vividly contrasting a piercing blue sky, and through creative production design, depicting a future world of ethereal technology and aesthetic eye-candy.

However, looks aren’t everything.

Blue Desert is an utterly baffling film about a young man named Ele (Odilon Esteves), who’s tormented by his mundane daily existence and seeks to find transcendence. Also serving as the narrarator, Ele is repeatedly reminding us of his quest as he goes through life trying to empty his mind of societal clutter. He also has visions of an old man in the desert, whose goal is to paint it all blue. Hence the title, I guess, though the significance of these scenes are never clear…

…nor is anything else, really, including a lengthy and interminable sequence in a nightclub that we’re forced to endure twice. This is where he meets a mysterious woman, Alma (Maria Luisa Mendonça), who leads him through a perplexing conversation about love before making out with him. Then she disappears. Later, the same sequence is played again, only with their roles reversed. The entire time, an MC spouts pretentious gobbledegook about…well, your guess is as good as mine. Ele's best friend pops up now and again to verbally spare with him, but neither he nor Alma have any discernible relevance to the narrative.

Ele loses his beach ball.

I'm saying 'narrative' like I could actually follow it. I don’t have a problem with ambiguity, or even a filmmaker’s attempt to leave viewers completely perplexed. However, director Eder Santos should at least keep things interesting. Not only is Blue Desert confusing, it’s a colossal bore and moves at a snail’s pace. Characterization is almost non-existent and the only significant thing revealed about the main character is he likes to tinker with robots. It’s just a series of hallucinatory sequences strung together by indecipherable dialogue that sounds profound, but maybe someone smarter than me can explain what the hell any of it means. Speaking of which, some of that dialogue is apparently lifted directly from a book by Yoko Ono, which should tell you something. 

The film ends as it begins, in the barren desert beneath a blue sky. There’s no climax, no discernible resolution and absolutely no clarity. Ultimately, watching Blue Desert is like going on a date with someone who’s drop-dead gorgeous, but might be the dullest person you ever met.

TERROR FIRMA: Edible Insanity

TERROR FIRMA (Blu-ray)

2023 / 84 min

FROM DARK ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Strange film, this one…mostly in a good way. 

The feature length debut of director/co-writer Jake Macpherson, Terror Firma is a micro-budget horror film set in a dilapidated old house in Los Angeles. For reasons never explained, the entire city is in lockdown and people are forbidden from leaving their homes under penalty of arrest. 

Lola (Faye Tamasa) is a down-on-her-luck artist who manages to avoid authorities and arrive at the house, which is owned by her adoptive brother, Louis (Burt Thakur). Also living there is his weird roommate, Cage (Robert Brettenaugh), who immediately becomes unnervingly fixated on Lola. When a helicopter lowers food and supplies to them, Lola discovers an unlabeled seed package. 

She plants one in the yard, and the very next day, there’s a hole that produces brownish goo, which not only smells enticing, the three discover the taste is irresistible. Whatever it is, this stuff appears to induce madness while also opening black portals to…well, it’s never fully explained, though Louis ends up buried in his own yard, while Lola traverses inexplicable tunnels to try and save him. Meanwhile, Cage grows increasingly unhinged, his obsession with both the substance and Lola reaching perverse levels…

…and I gotta say, Cage is an extremely creepy and repulsive character, depicted by Brettenaugh in a performance that can accurately be described as brave. Considering the film’s budget, I can’t imagine his salary was anything to write home about, yet he goes all-in to an uncomfortable degree, making Cage the scariest part of the film.

Damn gophers.

Elsewhere, Terror Firma is often surreal and intentionally ambiguous. The origin of the goo & blood-red flowers (which begin to pop up everywhere) is never elaborated upon, nor are numerous other hallucinatory sequences. But since Macpherson is obviously more concerned with achieving a dark tone and growing sense of dread (which he accomplishes quite well), narrative clarity ain’t all that important. However, I’m still not sure how the citywide lockdown aspect is relevant to the story.

Terror Firma is also somewhat noteworthy for being the first release from Dark Arts Entertainment, a new label created by filmmakers Brian Yuzna and John Penney, no strangers to the horror genre. Overall, they’re off to a good start, because this is a moody, creepy and claustrophobic little film.

EXTRA KIBBLES

EXTENDED DIRECTOR’S CUT - This version runs 95 minutes, though the additional scenes don’t really impact the film too much.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Jake MacPherson

BEHIND-THE-SCENES GALLERY

TRAILER

SPLICE HERE: A Love Letter To Film Itself

SPLICE HERE: A PROJECTED ODYSSEY (DVD)

2022 / 128 min

FROM GRAVITAS VENTURES

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Bonnie😸

Just in case you don't get out much, most feature films these days are shot digitally. A majority of theaters worldwide have since replaced traditional film projectors - and the need for people skilled at using them - with high-tech machines not unlike those in elaborate home theater systems. When we go to the movies, we’re aren’t actually watching film anymore, but projected computerized data. And most of us don’t notice the difference. 

Rob Murphy does, though. A former projectionist himself, he’s the director, star and narrator of Splice Here, a charming, somewhat bittersweet documentary that’s part personal journey, part history lesson and part love letter to a bygone era. He travels all over (mostly America and his native Australia) to interview projectionists, filmmakers, historians and owners of independent theaters that still actually have film projectors, including the Hollywood Theatre in my hometown of Portland, Oregon (a wonderful place).

Splice Here also delves into the history of film itself, particularly its flammability and susceptibility to rapid deterioration, the latter being a chief reason so many older movies have been lost forever (and not just those from the silent era). Other historical innovations are also featured, such as the three-projector Cinerama process, which was short-lived but revolutionary for its time. Part of Murphy’s journey involves not-only trying to locate any remaining Cinerama projectors, but hoping to experience watching a film in that format. 

Then there’s the semi-underground movement of cinema purists and former projectionists who’ve collected and kept reels from old films, doing their best to preserve them. Though what they’re doing is technically illegal, Hollywood has long since stopped caring about such archaic technology, though studios have occasionally benefited from these people when seeking lost footage to preserve certain films. 

Assembled without instructions.

Speaking of which, preservation is obviously a major theme, and ironically, saving older movies depends largely on the digital technology that rendered film obsolete. That’s an important aspect of Splice Here, because Murphy’s not a crusty old boomer lamenting about the good ol’ days, nor does he overtly champion celluloid over digital technology. The movie acknowledges digital filmmaking is not-only cinema’s future, it’s what will save its past.

What Splice Here does best is provide the strong argument for simply keeping film alive, as exemplified in the final act. When it’s announced that Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (which was shot on film) will be shown in selected theaters in 70mm Panavision, Murphy joins his old colleagues at an old Australian cinema to restore the projector, which includes the daunting search for an existing 70mm lens. In a surprisingly affecting climax, Tarantino himself shows up to present his film to an eager audience while expressing to gratitude to Morgan’s team. 

Though maybe a little overlong, Splice Here is an entertaining documentary that’s not only informative, it frequently connects with viewers on an emotional level. The total extinction of film is probably inevitable and it’s doubtful most of us will even notice, but meeting so many folks dedicated to keeping it alive (even as nostalgia) is genuinely heartwarming.

SASQUATCH SUNSET: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Bigfoot But Were Afraid to Ask

SASQUATCH SUNSET (Blu-ray)

2024 / 89 min

FROM DECAL RELEASING

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Bigfoot🙀

Sasquatch Sunset is one of those “what the hell did I just watch?” movies. Depending on how one is wired, that could be a good thing or bad thing. It also makes giving the film an unqualified recommendation either way a futile task.

One thing is certain…good or bad, you've never seen a Sasquatch movie quite like this. It’s amusing to picture someone buying or renting Sasquatch Sunset for a family movie night...without noticing the R rating. Directors David & Nathan Zellner serve up gobs of scenes of the mythical beasts fornicating, playing with themselves, vomiting, pissing & shitting, smelling their own genitals and giving birth. The males’ dongs are always hanging out, sometimes erect, while milk seeps from the female’s breasts as she’s feeding. One of them even attempts to have sex with a mountain lion.

For a while, it appears that grossing-out the viewer is the filmmakers’ primary agenda. With no dialogue, no discernible plot and only a family of four Sasquatches for characters, this is almost like watching an unflinching nature doc, only with actors in elaborate make-up (which is impressive) displaying nature’s most primal instincts. Taking place over the course of a year, the episodic narrative’s only real exposition consists of title cards indicating each season.

"Hey...does this look infected?"

But upon closer inspection, there’s a bit more here than meets the eye (or the gag reflex). Not much, mind you, but perhaps just enough to elevate Sunrise Sasquatch beyond plotless primate porn. Taking place in an unspecified forest, we never actually see humans, but their presence is increasingly (and ominously) felt as the film unfolds. That, coupled with the suggestion that this family might indeed be the last of their species, adds a layer of subtle poignancy during the final act.

Still, Sunrise Sasquatch will be tough sledding for anyone expecting traditional character and story elements, exacerbated by a somewhat meandering pace and plethora of scenes that seem calculated to shock (or tickle the funny bone of a 15 year old). Others might find the film amusingly audacious, with thought-provoking underlying themes. As for this writer, it was an interesting experience, but one he’d probably never feel compelled to relive.

EXTRA KIBBLES

“SASQUATCH BIRTH JOURNAL #2” - An early four-minute short by the directors, which consists of a Sasquatch standing in a tree, pushing out a baby.