Bungle in the Jungle

There has long been a history of films that deal with isolation and seclusion – some being big budget blockbusters while others are low-budget flicks. Movies such as The Shining, Cabin Fever and The Thing each created a sense of impending dread by using these two themes effectively. The low budget Canadian film Black Mountain Side continues the tradition.

It is not often that I am able to review a movie that claims to be an Irish Shakespearian Western, but that is simply, or perhaps complexly, what Patrick Ryan’s feature film directorial debut Darkness on the Edge of Town is.

I was lucky enough to cover the inaugural St. Lawrence International Film Festival, a four day event that premiered world class films in two countries (the United States and Canada). The cities of Ottawa, Brockville, Canton and Potsdam had the prestigious honour of hosting the first film festival to ever run in two different countries at the same time. Over the next sixteen days, eight of the films I was able to watch will be reviewed.

In 2002, writer/director Brian De Palma once again put pen to paper and created another one of his unique homages to classic cinema (the first in ten years). Titled Femme Fatale, the director lets us follow his own take on the legendary film noir bad girls of old.