Sunday, April 6

2025 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Saturday, April 5th


Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2025 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

 

 

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711


THE SILENT PLANET – Directed by Jeffery St. Jules

 

In the future, Theodore (Elias Koteas) is serving a life sentence of isolation and hard labor on a distant planet when a new prisoner Niyya (Briana Middleton) arrives. The two are made to confront each other as well as their own pasts through a cloud of confusion and paranoia.

Firstly, if our future selves someday actually find an inhabitable planet, rich with some sort of rare and precious mineral, it’s completely on-brand for humanity to immediately turn said planet into a prison. This part I found quite realistic. I responded quite well to the way the rest of this film played out as well. It gives the audience plenty to chew on, while still propelled forward by a tense and action-packed plot.

Essentially, the film seeks to explore the ideas about the helplessness of self-awareness in extreme isolation and the power of companionship. In this, it does a great job.

The plot and these ideas are expressed through the two very touching performances of Koteas and Middleton. I especially appreciated Koteas’ restraint and vulnerability here. I felt for him and the context clues (or lack thereof) given by the script keep us as confused and distraught as his character is.

I’m sure the film will be seen as a bit too slow for many, but I didn’t mind the pace. I could see myself revisiting it.

 

JOIN THE CLUB – Directed by Kip Anderson and Chris O’Connell

Activist Dennis Peron helms the first cannabis dispensary in the country, daring law enforcement to prosecute in pursuit of the legalization of medical marijuana. This documentary tells the story of his activism.

This was an incredibly captivating and fascinating film. Peron’s story perfectly coincides with this country’s historical battle for LGBTQ rights. Peron, in San Francisco’s Castro District, fought along side with Harvey Milk in the 70’s. Then continued his staunch activism throughout the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s and 90’s. This was the reason for his passion about the medicinal benefits of cannabis. He makes his case convincingly in the film through archival footage of various news reels as well as the last known interview, filmed shortly before his death in 2018.

His story really becomes the perfect vehicle to tell several broader stories about our country’s rich history of failing to ensure equal justice. It works well because he was right in the thick of every fight.

The film also can’t help but tell the story of law enforcement’s long history of staying on the wrong side of justice and compassion. To the film’s credit, it gives plenty of runtime to several members of the police department and federal prosecution to tell their side. They take this opportunity and it’s clear that they still feel as though they did no wrong, even as their own words work against them. I also appreciated how well this film illustrates activism’s necessity to violate unjust laws. It’s something that we may need a refresher course soon.

 

40 ACRES – Directed by R.T. Thorne

 

The family of farmers defend their home against outside threats in a post-apocalyptic world of food scarcity.

The first thing that struck me here was how the group of farmers (women and minorities) was cast as a sort of ‘role reversal’. Then very quickly, I had to check my own inherent biases and realize that it says a lot about us culturally (and me) that this type of casting is seen as ‘against type.’

The family lives a life of isolation and paranoia of any outsiders, all members trained in survivalism and combat. This safety is threatened by groups of roving militia-type raiders, looking to invade their and neighboring farmlands.

The secondary conflict introduced is that their crops are beginning to show signs of rot. This serves as a metaphor for the festering infestation that happens in a community, plagued by tribalistic fear and isolationism. It reminds me of how rural people in this country are force fed twisted views of urban areas, perpetuated by their curated bubbles of social media and right-wing news sources. Perspectives need to be refreshed from time to time with the insights colored by outside experiences. The expansion of community and sharing of ideas is how our species has evolved for the past 200,000 years or so. Restriction of this, because of fear or hatred, proves detrimental to these groups.

But I digress. Even if you’re watching this for no other reason than the visceral effectiveness of the genre, you won’t be disappointed. The third act treats us to a trio of merging showdowns of the most badass and bloody intensity. Both visually and choreographically, the action sequences are well engineered and executed.

40 ACRES has been acquired by Magnolia Pictures and I’ll be looking forward to rewatching it upon its release.

 

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Saturday, April 5

2025 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Friday, April 4th


Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2025 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

 

 

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711


BURT – Directed by Joe Burke

 

Burt (Burton Berger), a 69-year-old street musician and guitarist, suffering from Parkinson’s Disease is approached by Sammy (Oliver Cooper) with the shocking revelation that he is Burt’s unbeknownst son. Burt relishes in the opportunity to be a father, inviting Sammy to stay the weekend with him and his grumpy and suspicious landlord, Steve.

This really is the perfect festival film. It’s small and quaint, with interesting characters and well written dialogue and plot. Overall, it’s a relatively low impact way to spend 80 minutes in the dark, perfectly achieving every note it attempted. I think the point of the film was more to showcase the musical talent and personality of star, Burton Berger.

From what I can gather contextually, Burton is essentially playing himself. He really is a street musician in L.A., struggling with Parkinson’s. And the music showcased in the film are all original songs, written and performed by himself. The music was pretty great and I was quite engrossed with every moment that he was on screen. And I truly hope that this film finds enough of a following to give him the exposure he deserves.

It also didn’t hurt that Burt reminded me quite a bit of my own father, who was also a folksy guitarist. They’re even from the same town, Elmira, NY.

 

 

THE LADDER – Directed by Emilio Miguel Torres


In the not-too-distant future, an aging fisherman, Arthur (Keith Smith) in Ketchikan, Alaska is contemplating restarting his life via a new experimental and mysterious medical procedure.

Meditative and picturesque, Ketchikan becomes the perfect stage to explore the timeless cerebral conflict between nature and technology. This film is deliberately paces, patient and beautiful. It’s a sentimental story about aging and time; how much we have left and our very right to claim it for ourselves.

Unfortunately, the film didn’t really work for me. I think this falls victim to the all-to-common issues when a successful short film is adapted to feature length. I never saw the short that preceded this, but it certainly wouldn’t shock me to find that it’s brilliant. Too often, a concept that works for a 15-minute story is vulnerable to ineffectiveness with the attempt to stretch out the narrative and flesh out the characters. I wish that filmmakers that have already proven themselves in this way, would focus their talents on a new original idea in these cases. The delicate economy of storytelling often does not lend itself to translations and adaptations of this sort.

 

DEAD LOVER – Directed by Grace Glowicki

A lonely gravedigger (Grace Glowicki) with severe work-related body odor issues finally finds the love of her life. But when he dies at sea, she’s unwilling to accept the loss and goes to great lengths of grotesquery to restore her love.

I first have to acknowledge the very strange and unintended trajectory of the three films that I saw yesterday. Working my way from the heartfelt dramedy about an elderly man suffering from a chronic illness, to a slow-burn sci-fi about a man contemplating a new a radical medical procedure that restores his youth, to end on this film about a freaky love affair with a reanimated corpse? Wow! If I could have planned it, I would have planned it exactly like this. So, bravo to me.

I honestly had an amazing time with this romp of artifice and debauchery. The entire film was shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, on a minimally dressed sound stage.

As someone that sees a large quantity of films, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the level of originality and uniqueness that went into this. I think cinema is the most post-modern of all mediums so to see something that’s this distinctive is rare. I got strong Guy Maddin vibes from aesthetic aspects, but even that left tons of room for Glowicki’s creative voice.

There’s something I kind of love about the feeling I get, seeing multiple people walk out of a screening that I’m thoroughly enjoying. I can’t explain why exactly, and I’m happy and confident that this film (that has been picked up by Yellow Veil Pictures) will find its audience. But I love the feeling that this was, in at least some small way, made for me and not for them. I’m pretty sure this is what Kendrick was on about.

 

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Friday, April 4

825 Forest Road Film Review


825 Forest Road Film Review

Halfway to Halloween Presented by Shudder

 

April showers bring May flowers – and the month of April brings us halfway to Halloween! This April, Shudder is celebrating with four new horror films debuting each week this month.

April 4 – 825 FOREST ROAD

April 11 – SHADOW OF GOD

April 18 – DEAD MAIL

April 25 – FREWAKA

I’ll be giving you the lowdown on each film before you tune in weekly.

The first up is 825 FOREST ROAD.


From the creator of the HELL HOUSE LLC franchise, Stephen Cognetti, 825 FOREST ROAD centers on Chuck Wilson starting a new life after a family tragedy when he moves to the town of Ashland Falls with his wife Maria and little sister Elizabeth. But he quickly discovers that the town has a dark secret. The ghost of Helen Foster has terrorized residents for decades, since her own suicide back in the ‘40s.

Finding Helen’s old home is key to ending the hauntings, but the address they have doesn’t match any of the town’s existing streets. When Chuck realizes his family might be in danger of Helen’s wrath, he takes it upon himself to locate 825 FOREST ROAD before it’s too late.

825 FOREST ROAD is slow burn ghost story, featuring three different viewpoints on one timeline before converging in the final timeline for the conclusion. At times, it can feel a bit repetitive but you do get to see varying perspectives of the ghost, Helen Foster.

There are several spooky moments and attempts at classic jump scares, but they left me wanting a little more. However, the use of a mannequin was quite entertaining and the fact that the majority of the intense hauntings occurred during the day helped to drive home the helplessness of the situation.

As the story continued to unfold, it became very hard to root for any of the characters as because they all came off as one dimensional and the ending only left me with more questions.

I felt 825 FOREST ROAD had some decent meat to it but ultimately, it needed more time to cook to become a savory story that would haunt you afterwards.

If you like slow burns with a mystery to solve and take care of, give 825 FOREST ROAD a view to see how it hold ups to your standards and share with me your perspective.