FILLMORE DISCOS 65

Wow, can't believe Vice even had translated the first giallo reviews I did into French. Anyway, never mind that, here's a mixed bag of more recent releases.

Bedevilled (*****)
another modern Korean masterpiece; the beautiful Hae-won is forced to take a vacation on a remote island after troubles at her workplace and reunites with a childhood friend - the drama that unfolds is as unflinchingly violent and shocking as it is poetic and beautiful, whilst the film's ending is extraordinarily moving in its quiet nuanced symbolism; highly recommended

The Jail The Women's Hell (**)
even though the golden era for Italian sleaze cinema has, sadly, long since passed, it hasn't stopped Bruno Mattei, and you can't help admiring him for that; unfortunately, TJTWH never really transcends its cheap shot-on-video values despite an inordinate amount of women's prison fetishism, game participation by the Filipino girls used as extras, and even some nostalgic Deodatoesque elements of the cannibal genre thrown into the mix towards the end

Re-Cut (**)
you can't beat shaky-cam horror at its best, even the not-so-good ones are watchable, something I guess that has a lot to do with the self-imposed obstructions placed upon the format by definition (as with the Dogma rules, for example) - Re-Cut gets so much right for the first tense hour, as three film-makers go to investigate a macabre killing in Wisconsin, but when a simple resolution to the proceedings would suffice, everything gets very silly in an orgy of implausibility; interestingly, you can tell the that the movie's going to implode when a musical score is sneakily incorporated as the protagonists are rooting around an abandoned house

The Super (*)
dreadful worthless attempt at making old school grindhouse with a group of porn quality actors as totally unbelievable tenants of a New York tenement; also, if you're going down the retro path then at least use original film stock, the digital application of those grainy filters should be outlawed

Burlesque (*)
ever seen one of those SMS 'competitions' along the lines of: what is the capital of France a) Tokyo b) London or c) ***PARIS***? well, Burlesque is as insulting in the same way; the only reason for checking it out was for its frequently quoted comparisons to the incomparably brilliant Showgirls - and well, no, Showgirls, it most definitely ain't, and Aguilera and Cher are laughingly miscast as the female leads; by the way, still ranting, I call bullshit on burlesque - a practice for women (and men) who want to be ogled on a stage but are too self-conscious or ugly to strip

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