Benjamin-Rider

With a consistently sharp image, Fading Petals unfolds as a rewarding British independent drama film with several strong core performances.

There's a great awareness for the impact of sound in this film, you can really feel the uncomfortable tone when The Old Woman turns up the psychological torture or the agony of cries.

I loved the use of colour and camerawork in this film, there's a great visual story here.

This one reminds me of Altman's Images.

The film has a great consideration for how our lives unfold and in terms of the impact of decisions on the eventual outcome of our destinations... for this ethical dilemma, this one's a keeper.

Crap. Worst of the franchise, borderline unwatchable. Barely understands or cares what made this franchise so great. The comedy is flat, there's no tension... God only knows what made Jennifer Tilly come back for yet another Chucky film - her performances in these films have gone from jaw dropping self aware and smart to tired and caricature like. Let's not bother with the script - a mental hospital with four or five patients, and even less staff? What a wasted opportunity... This franchise started to derail with Cult of Chucky when the photography went funny... But this was the nail in the Coffin. Bye Chucky.

This feels like a pumped up version of Sally Potter's Orlando. It's charming, original, funny, loveable and rather smart.

This short film is like something cooked up by old school Billy Wilder, though rather en route via the likes of retro affectionados like Guy Maddin and Atom Egoyan (there's a touch of My Winnipeg meets Where The Truth Lies in this). Basically - it is quite great! There's a fuzzy black and white image, cropped sides, strong performances and stark light... not to mention the engaging whodunit plot.

There's a sort of great creativity thrown into this particular project. The colours which fill Cam-Girl, often bursting into the scene, help break up its overly micro budget indie vibe. That's not to say that its production scale is overly felt, after all, the film is well written, and well thought out. Quite thrilling too... look forward to the next effort by this filmmaker, 'Slasher-Cam'.

There's much to love about 'Cu lapte, fără zahăr' ('Milk, no sugar'). The film, much like Atom Egoyan's work, treads carefully between the thriller and drama genre, generating a great tense narrative, one which is flavoured with emotion and great characterisation. The film also utilises time and space beautifully, making full use of some key cinematic tools to tell its story. The performance by the lead, Victor Rebengiuc, is also very layered, and realistic. Great short film, highly recommended.

Anthology feature films are quite rare these days, and this one - with its large ensemble and creepy hotel setting, is a winner.

Sure, the film's plotting at times is a bit muddled, and the characters a tad repetitive.

But you can't fault the cast and crew behind 'Horror Hotel' for attempting to put together something unusual, fun and retro.

With its constant progressing from one situation to the other, with a very particular nighttime setting, and eerie motifs, it reminded me of 'Night on Earth' (1991, Dir. Jim Jarmusch) and 'The Company of Wolves' (1984, Dir Neil Jordan).

Scattered images and textured sounds collage 'Bare Romance' into a Tarkovsky stylised realism. Its a bold short film, paced carefully and beautifully shot with an intention to really place the viewer into the filmic space it captures.

It features a rare cinematic beauty among short films - the wise decision to tell the story through what it shows you and for how long, instead of simply firing away quick edits of narrative based dialogue sequences.

I look forward to seeing what writer/director Karel Tuytschaever will go on to make, and hope it will be a feature in this wonderful experimental taste. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to see another 'Le Quattro Volte' or 'In The City of Sylvia' styled film reach our screens at last.

Ben Rider, independent filmmaker & judge for The Monthly Film Festival

10/10 for One of the better short films of the last few years, original and sharp 'Thinning the herd' is a dark gem, with precise and tantalising procedure by the director and star Rie Rasmussen, the authentic environment, cinematography, mood/feeling and carefully built tension in the montage and various low camera angles intertwined with the 'thinning of the herd' make a great evened out viewing of 10 minutes with a perfect twist awaiting the viewer at the end. It is well worth a watch (or even two), it provides a small insight to what we (the spectators) can expect from the 'Angela' with her debut feature, 'Human Zoo', in the upcoming year.

B.Rider