Something in the Dirt first published by Little White Lies, 23 Jan 2022 In Something In The Dirt, fifth feature of filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring, The Endless, Synchronic), we hear wind chimes before we see anything. These chimes hang outside a somewhat dingy apartment building in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, where…
Breathing Happy has its European première at Soho Horror Film Festival 2022 “I’m at one year sober today. I dunno, technically I’m not gonna get it until another hour and 40 minutes, but even I can’t fuck that up, right? I miss you guys. Merry Christmas.” This is the voicemail message that Dylan Bradley leaves…
After Midnight (aka Something Else) first published by Little White Lies, as entry 105 in my Cinema Psychotronicum column A wide shot shows a grassy grove with leafless trees on either side, as the soundtrack plays discordant synth tones and the sounds of a detuned radio. A woman in a dress, Abby (Brea Grant), staggers…
Set in New Orleans, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead‘s latest continues exploring the idea of eternity that has been the focal point of all their features, whether the looping time-traps of their debut Resolution (2012) and its sort-of sequel The Endless (2017), or the immortal woman at the centre of Spring (2014). This time, the…
Resolution first published by Little White Lies, as the 60th entry in my Cinema Psychotronicum column Resolution comes with the strong sense of an ending. In fact, this is true right from its title, which points towards the notion of narrative complications resolved with a satisfactory dénouement – even as it simultaneously alludes, through a play on words, to the relative clarity of mediated images. In fact the film opens…
The Endless first published by Sight & Sound, July 2018 Review: Bound as it is by its linear shape as a feature film, The Endless comes with a beginning and an ending, which it marks formally with introductory text and closing credits. Yet from the outset the film conjures its central idea of endlessness by plunging us…
The Endless first published by Little White Lies when it had its world première at Tribeca Film Festival, 21 April 2017 “I don’t know why we haven’t been able to make a living, or make friends – meet girls.” During a regular ‘deprogramming’ session with a counsellor, Justin is wondering how, ten years after he managed…
First published by Sight & Sound, June 2015 Review: Writer/director Justin Benson and his co-director Aaron Moorhead have established themselves as specialists in the cross-breeding of genres. Their low-budget debut Resolution (2012) took a familiar cabin-in-the-woods scenario for a Pirandello-esque spin, sending its principal characters on a quest to meet their maker; and ‘Bonestorm’, their…
First published by Grolsch FilmWorks – although this is a much longer, and frankly messier ‘cut’ of my Skype conversation with filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring), here published in full ‘for the record.’ They were very funny interviewees – something which perhaps does not come across so clearly in the bare transcript – and…