RAW (R21)
99 minutes/ 4 stars
This startling, gruesome winner of a Critics' Week prize at the Cannes Film Festival stands apart because it strives for poetry as much as it does dread.
In the French horror film, the naive, soft-hearted Justine (Garance Marillier, above) is a freshie at a veterinary college.
She is having an awful time coping with bullying and hazing. Even her older sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf), a senior, is unexpectedly harsh.
It is hard to think of a recent work of horror that mixes the lyrical with the horrific with the same effortless sense of style.
John Lui
WHIPLASH (NC16)
106 minutes/ 5 stars
Before his multiple-Oscar winner La La Land (2016), there was writer-director Damien Chazelle's dazzling 2014 first feature about a young man and his demented tutor.
Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), a drum student at a prestigious music conservatory, lands a spot in the student orchestra run by legendary conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons, left with Teller).
As competition season begins, pressure builds and Andrew finds himself giving up more to become the top-flight drummer that Fletcher thinks he can be.
Simmons' Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor in 2015 is deserved - his turn as the monstrous Fletcher will trigger post-traumatic stress in survivors of the education system here.
WHERE: The Projector, Level 5 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road MRT: Nicoll Highway WHEN: Sunday, 7.30pm ADMISSION: $13.50 INFO: For bookings, go to theprojector.sg
John Lui
NUS ARTS FESTIVAL 2017 SCREENINGS
In Satoshi Kon's anime Paprika (NC16, 90 minutes, 2006, photo), a device allows scientists to wander around the dreams of patients and by offering "dream therapy", the doctors fix psychiatric problems.
If the plot sounds like that of Inception (2010), you join the many who say Christopher Nolan's thriller is an homage to Kon's film.
This year, the theme for the NUS Arts Festival is Brave New Worlds, so the team has picked another anime with a science-fiction bent: Mamoru Hosoda's acclaimed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (PG, 98 minutes, 2006).
Both movies have English subtitles.
WHERE: Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, 01-25 Stephen Riady Centre, NUS U Town, 2 College Avenue West MRT: Kent Ridge WHEN: Today (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and tomorrow (Paprika), 7.30pm ADMISSION: Free with registration
John Lui
JCC CINEMA 54: TADA'S DO-IT-ALL HOUSE: DISCONCERTO (NC16)
In this 2014 Japanese film set in the fictional city of Mahoro, Tada (Eita) and his assistant Gyoten (Ryuhei Matsuda) are general problem-solvers for hire. Tada finds himself stuck in traffic when Gyoten inadvertently ends up on a hijacked bus and needs help.
With English subtitles. WHERE: Japan Creative Centre, Embassy of Japan in Singapore, 4 Nassim Road MRT: Orchard
WHEN: March 25, 2pm ADMISSION: Free. E-mail your full name, gender, age, e-mail address and mobile number with the subject JCC Cinema 54: Tada's Do-It-All House: Disconcerto to jcc@sn.mofa.go.jp
Boon Chan
