Tag: Steve Oram

IN FABRIC (2018)

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Written & Directed By: Peter Strickland 

Cinematography: Ari Wegner 

Editor: Matyas Fekete

Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Julian Barrett, Steve Oram, Richard Bremmer, Fatma Mohamed, Gwendoline Christie, Hayley Squires, Jaygann Ayeh 

In Fabric is a haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences.

Visually stylish, surreal, and fashionable. 

I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I adore the director Peter Strickland and this seems like it should be a slam dunk.

As it has its peculiarities it ultimately seems to Try for the director to be too mainstream. Which seems to either dull his impulses or feel like he is holding back. While offering quite a visual feast.

The film feels enriched more like literature. It feels like a truly dark fairytale.

As it tries to say something more Than it is letting on. As an object leads to the owners of it unraveling. After They have never felt more beautiful or special. It’s downhill from there literally.

The film does offer a sense of humor and is self-referential. It also seems to be bizarre at times with little or no real reason. It just wants to be that way. 

In the end, the film seems to be about obsession and fetish. How obsessions with objects can become all-consuming and eventually destroy us. 

Literally, this plays like a storybook. That by the end feels like nothing. As it leaves us with little to care about and still confused. There is not too much to take away from it or the experience.

Grade: C

PAUL DOOD’S DEADLY LUNCH HOUR (2021)

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Directed By: Nick Gillespie

Written By: Nick Gillespie, Matthew White and Brook Driver

Cinematography: Billy J. Jackson 

Editor: Tom Longmore

Cast: Tom Meeten, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, Kevin Bishop, Johnny Vegas, Mandeep Dhillon, Steve Oram, Alice Lowe, Pippa Haywood

A weedy charity shop worker is set on winning the big national talent show. But when the actions of 5 selfish people cause him to miss his audition, he sets out to seek deathly revenge. It’s 1 lunch break and 5 spectacular murders.

This film comes across more of a comedy of errors with macabre violence.

The film is a crowd-pleaser that gets you to root for the character right from the beginning. He tries to murder the characters but they are usually done by themselves or some mistake they make In fleeing.

The characters are over the top cruel and mean. So you really feel no sympathy for them and the nastier they are the gorier their deaths. That is where the film offers its surprises, in how the deaths happen.

The film ends up strangely heartwarming. That seems to want to comment on the predatory nature of social media. Though the films feel good premise of social media justice feels a bit like bad timing. As more and more mentally ill people commit mass murder. Using it to show their handiwork and try to be immortalized in infamy.

The film comes across as the lead character Simple and sweet. Though with a dark side. The character is pure yet the film is cynical. 

The film offers impressive practical special effects. Which is where it looks like most of the film’s budget comes from.

What seems like it will be a vigilante tale of revenge. As each character seems a bit off, It’s more a tale of karma and justice.

Grade: C+