The Wolf of Snow Hollow
Sundance has become a parody on top of another parody to the extent where even studios that blossomed from that legendary Utah festival have become self-parodic, looking at you A24. However, every now and again, something genuine slinks out of that scene. Enter Jim Cummins. Following his heartfelt debut, Thunder Road, is the Wolf of Snow Hollow, a film that was snowed under a wave of independent American horror that is about a decade overdue exhibiting some solid quality control. In Wolf Hollow, Cummings stars as well as directs, in the lead role he plays a cop who is dealing with a lot of trauma and depression in his life as he tries to deal with what is blatantly a werewolf attack. At least, that’s how everyone else sees it, he refuses to acknowledge the reality of the grizzly evidence. As well as being screen legend Robert Forster’s final film, it is also the best werewolf movie in about a decade. The wolf of snow hollow is the exception to the rule that all “dissolution of the family unit” indie dramas are the same, the exception to Sundance being self-parodic, the exception to American indie drama being white noise, as well as making the police procedural a worthwhile hook to hang a movie on, something which has been nigh on impossible for the last 2 decades. Rob Simpson
Wolfwalkers
Animation… if it is not Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks of Studio Ghibli, all of it is overlooked. So, Tom Moore’s (who we are fans of) latest debuting on Apple TV made it destined for this list. Moore, co-directing with Ross Stewart, tells a story of 1650’s Killkenny, where a young girl who previously enjoyed total liberating freedom is now trapped inside a dank castle, the lord protector wants it that way while he kills off the wolves that control the surrounding woods. Obviously, she doesn’t pay the slightest bit of attention and in her adventures, she happens upon another young girl, one who can turn into a wolf. Yes, that’s right, we are talking about a werewolf movie made for the whole family. With Wolf of Snow Hollow, that’s two new classic werewolf movies to the add to the pantheon, only in this one we have a celebration of ancient folk traditions, a love of the natural world, and gorgeous animation. Seriously. Tom Moore’s movies are the most beautiful things, if ever I manage to see one on the big screen it might just be too much for me. I’m not joking. Rob Simpson
You Don’t Nomi
Depending on your viewpoint, Showgirls is either a satirical hand-grenade exploding the hypocrisies of 90s America or a misogynistic piece of trash that stains the careers of all involved. The brilliance of Jeffrey McHale’s lively, artful retrospective is that it establishes these two camps early on, then moves past them into more interesting territory. As dense a cinephilic collage as Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, You Don’t Nomi briskly, wittily yet even-handedly spotlights every chapter of the Showgirls cult. We hear from critics who sincerely love it, the drag queens who ironically celebrate it, and those people who hate it yet inexplicably can’t stop thinking about it. The interview with April Kidwell, whose role in an off-Broadway parody of the film became an unexpected way to deal with her PTSD after being raped, gives McHale’s work a sensitivity that the film it’s documenting can only dream of. Graham Williamson
Now you’ve made it through the films you might not have seen, check out our Patreon (its a freebie) podcast where Graham and Rob look at the highlights and a few low lights of 2020. Listen by Clicking on the image below.
