Chris_Docker

One of the better Marvel movies, plenty of tongue-in-cheek, quasi-philosophical entendres and enough Freudian flashbacks to stimulate thinking in any viewers so inclined. Two post-credit scenes: a short, humorous one after the main roll and then a much longer epitaph-cum-sequel teaser following the rest of the credits. All good fun.

Remember that feeling when you saw the first Terminator movie? Or the stand-off between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill? That maybe indicates just how far my jaw dropped watching Redux Redux at a festival screening.

Irene (Michaela McManus) and Mia (Stella Marcus) are such feisty characters they'd blow their own feet off rather than work as a team. Irene is a hardened fighter, killing on a regular basis to avenge a brutal kidnap, sickening torture and grisly murder of her daughter. Mia (also Irene's daughter's age) is on a risk-everything, nothing-to-lose learning curve that catapults her into combat or compact with the older woman.

The solidly used plot device that thrusts them together is the multiverse - parallel versions of reality with occasional differences - plus a heavy-metal, grungy-chic lump of hardware in Irene's pick-up truck to jump between parallels.

Revenge that will stop at nothing is complicated by the gruesome resourcefulness of psycho-kidnapper Neville and the pervy designs of some hardware maintenance techs. At what point can merciless revenge and self-preservation cave in to some sense of humanity?

The multiverse idea works as metaphor (as with all the best sci-fi). We all make life-decisions at points in the present, often based on how we 'perceive' reality. My takeaway from Redux Redux is this: Have you found a 'version' of 'reality' that works for you? If you have, stick with it. It might not come back. (And see Redux Redux in festivals or cinemas while you can!)

If you squeezed the stomach-churning scenes from Trainspotting into 15 minutes with a massive dose of hallucinogenic drugs and transported the characters (now gay) into a world of S&M dungeons digging inside Grindr to deal with excessively sleazy personal baggage while searching for true love then you might get an idea of Sleazy Tiger.

Man meets date in a pub, struggles with best intentions/temptations. (Saying much else about the plot would give it away.)

To get this lurid (with depths of what to most people, gay or not, would be unspeakably gross) and without any actual genitalia on display, is quite an achievement. The editing is so fast and precise, the rapid succession of scenes so expertly designed, the sheer grossness so overwhelming while still being cinematic, all of it draws my admiration. The worst I can say about it is that it is not to my taste, but it's a laudable effort of film-making - and did I mention it's funny? In fact the humour saves it from being almost downright offensive, but it is one hell of a ride for a 15 minutes short.