The Greasy Strangler (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Jim Hosking (The "G" segment of The ABCs of Death 2)
	Actors: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo
	Country: USA
	Genre: Black Comedy, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 06.07.2016, Cinema Arcades NIFFF2016
Synopsis: Big Brayden (Elobar) lives and works with his father Big Ronnie (St. Michaels). He feeds him the greasiest food available so that at night he can become the Greasy Strangler. Things change when Big Brayden falls in love with Janet (De Razzo).
Review: The word that comes to mind to describe this movie is: Gross! All the characters are made pretty disgusting, sometimes dressed in oversized disco suits but more often in their underwear when anything at all. You don't want to watch this movie while of just after eating. It is a very colorful Z movie and the trailer made me fear the worst, so I sat near an aisle to be able to escape in case I got too bored. I have seen this happen many times with this kind of movies like Hobo with a shotgun or Zombie hunter: you can normally tell that you have seen in the trailer all the best moments. But I was positively surprised as The Greasy Strangler keeps on being... I wouldn't say good but at least constant in quality. Note that it was produced by the Elijah "Frodo" Wood's company, which also gave us Maniac and Open Window for example. Not too bad choices. Also note some apparitions by Abdoulaye NGom that you may remember from the TV-series My Name is Earl with Jason Lee. The repetition of the same jokes keeps entertaining for a while. For how long do you think two persons can call each other "Bullshit artist" or its derivatives on a movie? Well guess again. It is also funny how after each crime the Greasy Strangler washes himself (and his huge sexual appendage) in a car-wash. And when you get tired of those greasy jokes then the story gets weirder and weirder, the father stealing the girlfriend of his sons and this kind of absurdities. A totally absurd and gross movie not to put in the hands of the faint-hearted, and for the other better watched under influence and surrounded by friends in the same state, or at the midnight screening of a festival like the NIFFF or BIFFF where people do not hesitate to shout at the screen.
Rating: 5 /10

Seoul Station (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Sang-ho Yeon (The King of Pigs)
	Actors (voices): Seung-ryong Ryu, Joon Lee, Eun-kyung Shim
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Animation, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 08.07.2016, Theatre Temple du Bas, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: A girl finds out that her boyfriend is advertising her as a prostitute to pay their rent, while around the main Seoul train Station a bloody old homeless dies.
Review: This zombie / infected movie strictly follows the rules of the genre, including ignorance from the protagonists of what a zombie is or how to kill it, no surprise at that level. But it is an animated movie from Korea, taking the opportunity to criticize the current society and local politics. The animation is not perfect but has a certain style, and uses a technique that seems to blur the images when in motion for a more dynamic effect (or to be able to draw fewer frames per second). The story is very crude and dark, as was already The King of Pigs from the same director, and from what I understood all his other movies, long or short. This is very nice to see as it is far too rare to find an animated movie for adults. And make no mistake, many deaths may occur just off-screen (director a bit shy? censorship?) but the faces of the undead are very scary, it is still a pretty gruesome movie and it is definitely not intended for kids. However in spite of the movie's qualities I found its pace to be too slow, and this is not limited to some scenes but the whole movie in general: the characters walk too slowly, take too much time to react or to explain something that is already obvious. For me this is unfortunately killing the interest of yet another zombie movie.
Rating: 5 /10

Mi Gran Noche (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Álex de la Iglesia (Witching and Bitching, El Crimen Ferpecto, Accion Mutante)
	Actors: Raphael, Mario Casas, Pepón Nieto (Witching and Bitching)
	Country: E
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 06.06.2016, Cinema Temple du Bas, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: Behind the scenes of the shooting of a New Year's Eve TV-show.
Review: After being slightly disappointed by Álex de la Iglesia's Balada Triste de Trompeta, I loved his next movie Witching and Bitching (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi), hilarious mix of comedy, romance and horror (or fantasy). The following Mi Gran Noche is a pure comedy, so much that if you didn't know the past of its director you would wonder why it was presented at the NIFFF2016. Starting from the apparently normal shooting of the TV-show interrupted by an accident, we follow different participants deeper and deeper into what appears to be a madhouse: couples who formed during the shooting, a young and old singers in competition for the prime time, a couple of competing TV-hosts, an Extra called at the last minute to sit at the table of a jinx, a TV-producer, a lesbian couple of editors, a regular Extra that sells anything under the table... and many more. As usual with de la Iglesia, Mi Gran Noche is full of energy to the point of bursting. I don't know how he manages to keep this pace for the full 90 minutes but he does it without a glitch. Crispy dialogs are non-stop and told in a fast Spanish so that I probably didn't see half of the images of the movie, too busy to follow the jokes in the sub-titles. I am very hard to satisfy when it comes to Comedy movies, but Mi Gran Noche is a delight to watch, and I had pain in my cheek muscles after the movie because of laughing too much. I strongly recommend to watch this over the repetitive re-heated stuff constantly produced in France like the recent Bis or Pension Complète for example.
Rating: 8 /10

Detour (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Christopher Smith (Triangle, Creep, Severance, Black Death, Labyrinth)
	Actors: Tye Sheridan (X-men: Apocalypse), Emory Cohen, Stephen Moyer
	Country: GB, ZA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 07.07.2016, Theatre du Bas, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: Harper (Sheridan), young student of the law, meet Johnny Ray (Cohen) on an drunken evening. He tells him about his mother in a coma and how much he hates his father-in-law. On the next morning Johnny Ray shows up on his doorstep.
Review: Christopher Smith is one of those directors whose movie I now go to see blindly, without any idea about their story. Thus I couldn't miss Detour presented at the NIFFF2016, and which turned out to be a good Thriller, very different from the previous work of Smith showing the various talents of the director, now at ease also with a road-movie. Detour is quite minimalistic with its three main characters only, and some could call it naive at times, but the fact is that it remains tense all along. Even when you think you are accustomed to the pace and start to know where it is going, some clever editing makes you question everything you have seen. It also uses some split screens for more dynamic scenes, and is constantly good look whether shot indoors, in the desert, on the road or in Las Vegas. Yet another excellent example of the good health of Genre cinema in the UK.
Rating: 7 /10

O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão (1968)

	Also Known As: The Strange World of Coffin Joe
	Year of first release: 1968
	Director: José Mojica Marins
	Actors: Luís Sérgio Person, Vany Miller, Mário Lima
	Country: BR
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 07.07.2016, Cinema Bio, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: A dollmaker and his four daugthers, a beggar in love and a critic journalist all come incontact with sex and death.
Review: This movie was presented at the Neuchatel International Fantasy Film Festival as part of a retrospective on the Genre cinema in South America. The young Mexican director Adrián Garcia Bogliano, also part of the movie selection committee, introduced the movie by emphasizing the influence it had on the following generation of directors on the continent, and replacing the movie in its context at the end of the 60's. Quickly looking for movies from the same period reviewed on JoRafCinema, I found for example 2001, A Space Odyssey, True Grit and Torn Curtain from the USA, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Europe, Branded to Kill from Japan and The Hunchback of Soho from Germany. It is thus surprising to see the poor image, sound and storytelling qualities of O Estranho Mundo... making it look like it was released in the 20's or 30's. But it has that other quality of a content ahead of its time: a bizarre mix of sexuality, horror and religion that unsurprisingly made it extremely controversial at the time. It is in fact an anthology composed of three 30-minute segments: The Dollmaker including very naked scenes and rape, Tara, very slow, mute and of the poorest quality but disturbing its its revelation of necrophilia, and Ideologia, poorly acted but delivering a message about the power of reason vs. instinct. The gore in the movie actually reminded me of Blood Feast by Herschell Gordon Lewis, first of its kind, released 5 years earlier. In summary, a movie behind its time in form, but ahead in content. A must-see for any amateur of History of the genre. Probably better avoided by anybody else.
Rating: 4 /10

A conspiracy of Faith (2016)

	Also Known As: Flaskepost fra P (original)
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Hans Petter Moland
	Actors: Nikolaj Lie Kaas (In China they eat dog, Old men in new cars, Angels and Deamons), Fares Fares (Kops, Jalla! Jalla!), Pål Sverre Hagen, Søren Pilmark
	Country: DK, D, N, S
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 06.06.2016, Arcades cinema, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: The office from Assad (Fares) and Carl (Kaas) is put in charge of investigating a message found in a bottle. This will lead them on the trail of missing children in ultra-catholic families.
Review: I was glad to see again Danish actors like Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Søren Pilmark that I discovered 15 years ago in less renowned local movies. This movie is the third one in a series inspired by books by Jussi Adler-Olsen, but you don't need to see the two other ones before, although you feel that there is a deep background story between the characters and I would thus be curious to see them. The realistic dark polar style reminds of course of The Girl... trilogy, also inspired by Nordic best-sellers. The couple of main characters is well played by Kass ad Fares, and their opposite views on religion (one atheist, one Muslim) is well used and put in contrast with the ultra-catholic families they meet. I liked the way the character of Carl evolves throughout the movie, fighting a trauma probably described in the previous stories. The interaction between the characters is well rendered, and the tension culminates with a chase on board a train, successful on the technical level (helicopter shots, ...) as well as on the story and emotional one. I found some scenes supposed to be tense a bit flat in fact, but in general this is an excellent polar, refreshing in the current landscape dominated by a Hollywood that is not capable of producing one like that.
Rating: 7 /10

The Lure (2015)

	Also Known As: Córki dancingu (original)
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska
	Actors:  Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Kinga Preis
	Country: PL
	Genre: Music, Drama, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 06.07.2016, Cinema des Arcades, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: The two sirens Golden and Silver (Mazurek, Olszanska) are hired in an adult entertainment club where their sex appeal and shape shifting capabilities are appreciated.
Review: A surprising Polish take at the mermaid legend. The movie is quite weird, as much in its story as in the acting or the lyrics of the songs that punctuate the whole movie. That is an interesting thing about this movie but also a slightly boring one. The songs cover a variety of styles and are well sung, but in fact I stopped reading the translation for the lyrics pretty soon, after realizing that it was a lot of non-sense not bringing much to the story. It is also intriguing to see the two sirens discover the world of humans and its good and bad sides, and not only because they are topless half of the time. In summary, some weird moments make the movie interesting but I found the pace too slow and the ending expedited.
Rating: 4 /10

Now you see me 2 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Jon M. Cgu (G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
	Actors: Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers 1&2), Woody Harrelson (The Hunger Games, Zombieland), Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 04.07.2016, Omni Cinema, Edinburgh
Synopsis: One year after their exploit in revealing the malversations of an insurance magnate, the Four Horseman are waiting for a new assignment that makes use of their talent as magicians. But when the show comes, they are outdone by an unknown adversary.
Review: Now you see me showed an original concept that pleased the audience. For this sequel the same ingredients are used. I didn't remember all the details of the story of the first movie so I was a bit lost for a while at the beginning of that one, until it slowly came back to me after watching how the characters interact with each other. As I have just wrote in my review of Independence Day: Resurgence, it is interesting to notice that a large part of the movie takes place in China to please the growing local moviegoers audience. The tricks used by the magicians are more and more far-fetched and unrealistic, but they still help giving the movie its fast pace during the "action" scenes, reminding of Ocean's 11 for the robbery parts. Special mentions go to Woody Harrelson playing his own twin brother, eccentric like the roles he had at the times of Ed TV, and to Daniel Radcliffe in the first role in which I find him at ease and playing differently since he was Harry Potter (unlike in The Woman in Black). The presence of Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine also help in delivering a good quality movie, but I cannot say I liked it more than a little, partially because of a predictable third act and ending.
Rating: 5 /10

Independance day: Resurgence (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Roland Emmerich (Stargate, 2012, The Day after Tomorrow)
	Actors: Liam Hemsworth (The Expendables 2, The Hunger Games), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassik Park 1&2), Bill Pullman (Lost Highway), Maika Monroe (It Follows)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 02.07.2016, Omni Cinema Edinburgh, 2D
Synopsis: During the 20 years after defeating an attack from Aliens, the countries of Earth have rebuilt themself with the help of new technology. They have also built preventive defenses against a second attack which is coming.
Review: I can't believe the first Independence Day is already 20 years old. I still remember vividly watching it in the cinema because I had been expecting it for a long time, and it was one of the first movies I saw after starting college in a big town with many theaters where I could start to nurture my love for cinema. In a nutshell, I can say that the movie is as I expected, and re-uses elements that we liked from the first one, sometimes in a disturbingly similar manner, making it look like a hidden remake. The main cast of the first movie is present with the notable exception of Will Smith although Independence Day is really the movie that made him enter Hollywood and getting recognized as a big movie star and action hero. To them is added a new generation, actually their children in the movie, played by Liam Helmsworth, Jessie T. Usher and the beautiful Malika Monroe that Roland Emmerich likes to show from up close during extended shots, for our greatest pleasure. A word about the story: well when you go watch this movie you have to be ready to accept tons of inconsistencies in the timeline, science or reaction of the characters. Putting that aside, the movie is quite easy to watch especially if you like alien invasion stories like I do. The special effects are great and culminate with a massive destruction scene reminding actually more of 2012 than of Independence Day. Note that as in many recent movie, a place is given to a Chinese actress to please the public from that country, an increasingly larger contributor to the world box office.
Rating: 5 /10

Hungry for bugs (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Luis Patron
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 26.05.2016, Mousonturm Studio 1, Japanese with English subtitle, NCF2016
Synopsis: A group of Japanese cuisine pioneers cook insects in creative ways to convince people that bugs are a nutritious and sustainable source of food.
Review: This screening is proposed by NHK world, broadcasting from Japan promoting Aisa and especially Japan. More info on http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ The innovation of cooking insects is explained by following the cooks in their creation. From the field or forest where they find the insects to the kitchen and the table. We meet several Japanese cooks. These cooks present from traditional family recipes to experimental ones. It is good to see that it is not just a programm pushed by the FAO (Food A Organisation) to convince poor countries to eat insects, it is also based on Japanese recipes.  By following the way to hunt some insects, I was wondering about the sustainability of cutting a few bambou trees to fin one insects of type larva. But the farming was quite interesting seeing that the food for insects is basically herbs and grains, like the traditional food for cattle. Thus the destructive production of soja and mais (used as food for cattle) would not be increased by the current insects food production.  The insight is quite complete from the recipes to the farming and hunting techniques, to the economy. But the conclusion is a bit too unequivocal.
Rating: 5 /10