My Brother the Devil

Mo idolizes his big brother Rashid (played by the ridiculously handsome James Floyd), who is in a local gang called DMG (drugs, money, guns) and smuggles drug money into their mother's purse to help the family get by.

But when their friend Izzy gets killed in a run-in with another gang, Rashid starts to reconsider his actions and wants to get out. Mo, on the other hand, wants to get in on the action and doesn't understand his brother's change of heart. What's more, he one day realizes that Rashid is gay. This he also does not know how to handle. When he is pressed by his friends to tell them what's on his mind, he tells them his older brother is involved in some terrorist stuff. He would rather have a brother who is a bomber than a 'homo'.

Rashid, who always tried to protect his little brother from the gang culture and wants to use the money he made to put him through college finds out that Mo is involved with the drug business. To get him out again he is even willing to kill Izzy's murderer as a means to buy him out of the business.

The other gang members, who also do not want to associate with a homosexual, try to set him up. When their first attempt to kill Rashid fails they try to use Mo to locate him at his lover's apartment. On the way there it Mo realizes what their plan is and he saves his brother's life, taking a bullet instead of Rashid.

A bleak portrait of gang culture in the outskirts of London, beautifully shot.

9/10

The Interrupters

This documentary shows a year in the streets of Chicago, among some of the desperate youths and the people trying to talk them down when they are about to erupt into violence.

The task the members of the CeaseFire initiative (aka Violence Interrupters) put upon themselves is a heroic one - and a constant uphill battle. Nearly all of them know what it is like to be in these young people's shoes and nearly all of them have done prison time, for crimes varying from hold ups to murder. So when they speak to the kids, they absolutely know what they are talking about. They get right into the middle of arguments that threaten to turn violent and possibly deadly and try to talk sense into everyone involved.

But that is not where the job ends.

They help out and speak at vigils and funerals, using all platforms to transport there message of non violence, telling potential killers to be the bigger person and walk away. The group is respected in the community and kids will listen to them at times. They get in touch with families of murdered youths to mourn with them or provide a shoulder to cry on. They assist with community projects that provide healthy environments for children and are simply there when someone needs to talk.

Such bravery and dedication.

The film was directed by Steve James, who also made the lauded Hoop Dreams, that many people believe was robbed of a best documentary Oscar. This strong piece of film making wasn't even nominated, which raised a lot of eyebrows.

I watched this with a lump in my throat throughout. It ends with a Solomon Burke song, very fittingly called 'Don't Give Up On Me'.

9/10

Performance

Sadistic thug Chas (James Fox) has to lie low for a while after an unplanned hit. He hides in the guest house run by the eccentric Turner (Mick Jagger), who is initially all but happy about the new house guest.

Chas finds his new surroundings rather laughable and doesn't approve of the bohemian life style he considers degenerate. While waiting for his new passport so he can leave the country, he gets caught up in Turner's strange world. Turner himself is a performer that has 'lost his demon' and now lives as a reclusive.

The film also includes a quasi Rolling Stones music video for the song "Memo from Turner" which is really kind of cool and actually fits right into the film.

Mick Jagger basically playing himself (I imagine) and James Fox puts in one of his best performances (IMO).

Awesomely weird.

Weirdly awesome.

9/10

Rollerball

The year is 2018, the world is run by corporations and the preferred sport is Rollerball, which claims several victims in the name of entertainment. The superstar of the sport is Jonathan E. His career is singular in its longevity and brilliance. This poses a problem for the big bosses of the corporations, because singularity is frowned upon. Jonathan E is asked to retire from the sport, which he refuses.

Over the course of the season, he starts to question not only the way things are done but also the sport, that made him a hero to the masses, itself. The rules of the game get more and more lenient, in hopes that Jonathan will not make it out of an upcoming game, so as to solve the problem of his refusal to succumb to corporation's wishes.

In the end, it all boils down to the showdown between Jonathan's team Houston and New York. Fittingly, for any 1970s action film, the hero gets his revenge by surviving.

It's always adorable what filmmakers of the 1970s (and before) imagined the future to look like and the items and gadgets they thought would evolve and the ones that would not - like, you know, roller skates.

4/10 

V/H/S

Another "found footage" film. Just what we've all been waiting for, right?

A group of bad guys steal a collection of video tapes for some unnamed source. All the little films are, like, totally scary and stuff.

One is about a female vampire (I think) that first has sex with a trio of friends and then starts to kill them. Not that they deserve any better, those idiots. Personally, I would not hang on to the video camera I am carrying when I am already injured and trying to escape said vampire.

But, hey, that's just me.

Then there is this couple on a road trip who film the most trivial and boring things. Then they are the ones being filmed while asleep in some cheap motel room. The couple is predictably boring and the tape mostly is, as well. At least, there is a nice twist. The guy dies.

Oh good, tape no. 3 is of a group of young people going to some lake in the woods. After two minutes of first seeing them you can't wait for them to die, they are such assholes. They do. And...here is a little something I will record whenever I come across it:

DEAD CHEERLEADER ALERT!!!

Wait, the next segment is a video chat, not a VHS tape. How would this have ended up on a tape. This is cheating! One feed comes from inside a hunted apartment. There may be aliens involved. Or ghosts. Or something.

Lastly, the obligatory Halloween segment.

This is oh so bad.

1/10

Srpski film (A Serbian Film)

This is as sick as you have heard it is.

An aging porn star gets offered some serious cash to participate in an 'art film' without knowing any details beforehand. It features hardcore sex, initially, and gets worse as the filming progresses - torture, real murder, necrophelia, 'Newborn Porn' (which is as horrifying as it sounds) etc.

The reason I think this film is so hard to handle is that we all suspect than none of it is as far fetched as we would like it to be.

7/10

À L'Intérieur (Inside)

This is among the most out-of-proportion bloodbaths I have ever seen on film.

A very pregnant Sarah loses her husband in a head-on collission. The day before she is to deliver her baby, a strange woman (Béatrice Dalle playing a totally insane bitch) attacks her because she wants the baby.

What follows is an orgasmic outburst of violence and gallons of blood.

It's not like it is just Sarah vs. the crazy bitch. No, Sarah has alerted the cops of an intruder and they make sure "she is gone" before driving off and promising to have a patrol swing by later to check on things.

Jean-Pierre, who is scheduled to drive Sarah to the hospital next morning, comes by to check on her - he gets stabbed, chocked with a pillow and stabbed some more.

Sarah's mother comes by and gets killed by her own daughter, who simply hacks away at the first moving thing outside the bathroom she is hiding in. By this time her water has broken, but she stays rather active for some time after.

The night patrol comes by - two of the cops get suspicious and investigate further. One gets stabbed in the neck, the other has his face shot off. Cop no. 3 hears the shots, chains the prisoner in the backseat to himself, takes him with him into the house and does. Not. Call. For. Backup. Cop gets shot, prisoner takes a pair of scissors in the skull.

By this time, Sarah has a gun lying beside her on the bed and when crazy bitch comes to make out with her (just because) she does. Not. Shoot. Her. Also, she choses not to leave the house when she has the chance.

Crazy bitch gets her face burned badly thanks to the ever-helpful can of some cleaner or other and her smoking habit. It is at this point that Sarah gives herself a tracheotomy (yes, yes she does). Then cop no. 3 - who is not dead after all - starts hitting Sarah, or rather her belly for no reason. Crazy bitch - who lost her own baby in the car accident that killed Sarah's husband (and here is where it all suddenly makes perfect sense!) - kills off the cop and cuts the baby out of Sarah.

Seriously? WHAT. THE. FUCK?

2/10