The Scary of Sixty-First

Neither suspenseful and self-aware enough to be a gallo film nor clever in its psychological distress of the stripe of Argento, nor as conspiracy-addled as Eyes Wide Shut (despite the material lends itself to a serious search-no Aquino, no Wexner Ohio police force, none of the threads re: Epstein's being a tapped gifted student the likes of Sarfatti; an episode of Subliminal Jihad will take you much further). Nor is the film willing to hurl itself into experimentation and formal editing proper (a Brakhage-esque experiment in conspiracy qua audio-visual editing, like a Project Wandering Soul meets Paul McCarthy, would be genuinely interesting). This is a film that loses its thread early on and lapses into clichés that do not embrace their being clichés, which means the film refuses to be self-referential. It loses the thread in a way that is similar to Jacques Rozier's Maine Ocean, but is not as smartly edited or funny. This ends up looking like the director made a poor film not as a critical exercise with which to playfully challenge but because they simply could not make a good film. The sole saving grace is, at certain points, the lighting. A pity, because the Epstein matter lends itself to cinema. Go watch Francesco Rosi for much more accurate and affecting cinematic portrays of conspiracy. I do hope the director's subsequent film takes up the challenge of making a genuinely good film.

Two roomies score a suspiciously cheap apartment in Manhattan, but after a first night of disturbed sleep the nightmare never ends ...

Strange shoe-string budget production, written by two of the actors. It's well edited and paced, cinematography pretty rough, probably too much dialogue, but the score has a nice synth vibe here and there, and the sensibility is reminiscent of pervie '70s stuff, from the era when New York was a nutters' paradise.

The shape of it is intriguing, with three overlapping delusions fuelled by pharamceuticals. I say three, because there are three principal characters, each of whom has gone off the deep end in her own way, but the delusions are inseparable from each other.

The intro makes a point of figures and faces in the lofty architecture overseeing the madness that's about to break out below, and there's a sense of a demiurge in charge of an evil world, personified by the media characters of those involved in the Jeffrey Epstein affair. In the climax, which involves a protective magic crystal, there's an insert of what looks like Epstein's face, tying him in with an occult force at work. Reviews emphasizing the reality of that affair are missing the point entirely.

The performances are energetic but patchy, failing to give meaning in any subtle way - that's probably down to a naive reliance on dialogue and lack of experience in the direction and acting. Mind you, the mental breakdown of the Jewish girl is worryingly authentic. The sex scenes have a certain JNSQ - or maybe they're just porn. There is humour in the air, but the only time I got a sniff of it was when the boyfriend is dragged along to witness the aftermath.

In the end the story didn't seem coherent to me, either pychologically or emotionally, but still an engaging mystery of why we insist on mysteries.

Noelle (Madeline Quinn) and Addie (Betsey Brown) rent a spacious Manhattan apartment. The realtor seems suspicious. A girl (Dasha Nekrasova) walks in claiming to be a realtor. She's actually investigating and reveals to Noelle that the apartment was owned by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. This takes place after his suicide while in custody.

The boyfriend sucks. Noelle is not a nice friend. Addie's radar is broken. I don't care much about these people. The only one worth rooting for is the girl and she comes in later. This is an indie horror bordering on experimental. The Epstein saga is traumatic for some and could be compelling for horror material. The second tier actors try to do some spooky acting but it comes off a bit comical. I can appreciate the attempt but the indie filmmaking does not quite achieve true spooky atmosphere.

This movie is outrageous, purposely offensive, gross, stupid, and overflowing with conspiracies and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I am not sure I have laughed so hard in my life as I did to some of the more outrageous scenes. I can only assume the bad reviews here are from prudish folk who either wandered into the wrong film or just are not capable of understanding a joke, albeit, a wildly offensive one.

If you love goofy conspiracies (Epstein, Clintons, etc) and can stand an offensive joke and some seriously whacky sex scenes, and would like it all wrapped up in the style of a 70s Italian slasher flick, you will love this movie.

I watched this at Summer Berlinale. It's like a bad student film, or like mocking bad student films. References: yes. Competence: no. At 80 minutes it's way too long. Which doesn't mean there's not enough plot. This would be much better with just btches screaming on and on and on, like an art loop.