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366 UNDERGROUND: WHEN THE SUN STANDS STILL (2024)

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When the Sun Stands Still is currently streaming free on Fawesome.

DIRECTED BY: James Edward Newton

FEATURING: Georgie Harriet-King, Paul Richards, , Kimberley Findeis-Sparkes, Pierce Connolly

PLOT: Diana disappears in the woods: the police know nothing about the case, a paranormal investigator knows less than he might hope, and Diana’s step-father knows more than he lets on.

Still from When the Sun Stands Still (2024)

 

COMMENTS: There’s a sensation of ensnarement in this corner of England. Widower Kenneth is trapped by dread and lingering grief, having lost his step-daughter Diana in the nearby woods nearby. A burly stranger repeatedly circles a seven-pointed star inscribed upon the ground. A local police detective is trapped by lack of insight. And quite literally, something is trapped in a valise, in a shed. Somehow a pattern emerges from this near-stasis, and ambient clues and portents conspire to trap a psychic who could be the key to the greater mystery.

This mystery, whose nature I couldn’t fully reveal even if I wanted to, seems to be both of ancient Earth and far-flung æther, and James Newton uses this unlikely MacGuffin to bring about a stylish thriller-in-miniature. Feeling alternately theatrical and abstract (and during the brief color sequences, both), When the Sun Stands Still is a delight to gaze upon as the sound design ushers the viewer in. The movie opens on Diana wandering through a copse into a clearing, with sound cues distracting our eyes as hers eventually gaze upwards into the splashy sky, and the world shakes. Crisp framing floats amid an inky void as Kenneth is interviewed by the suspicious inspector, the harsh tone of the dialogue muted by the darkness. Clock-ticks accompany the troubled father, and suddenly we hear his name—and he hears his name—and a cryptic visitor augurs the events’ unravelling.

The pieces don’t add up, and probably can’t, but this is no criticism. James Newton (with co-writer Paul Richards) are not here to tell a commonplace story. As with their previous collaboration, Katernica, there are events that can be explained, and events that cannot—and the viewer must be comfortable in the face of a deep, otherworldly inscrutability.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

No other reviews found at time of publication.

I think this movie is weirder than average
I think this movie is better than average

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When the Sun Stands Still

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    CAPSULE: BOUCHRA (2024)

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    Bouchra is available for purchase or rental on-demand.

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    DIRECTED BY: Orian Yani Barki, Merriem Benani

    FEATURING: Voices of Yto Barrada, Marriam Benani, Dounia Berrada

    PLOT: A New York-based Moroccan coyote film director develops an autobiographical movie exploring her relationship with her mother.

    Still from Bouchra (2024)

    COMMENTS: Directors Barki and Benami built a reputation for cinematic weirdness with their previous collaboration, the 2020 short-film series “2 Lizards,” which was featured on ‘s surreal mixtape program “Off the Air.” Bouchra, the team’s animated feature film debut, centers on the titular heroine, a young Moroccan woman living and working as a film director in New York City. The narrative alternates between her present life and her past in Casablanca, blurring reality with reconstruction as Bouchra attempts, through her work, to process her relationship with her semi-estranged Moroccan mother. The tensions between them stem from taboos surrounding Bouchra’s sexual identity that went unaddressed and ignored for years. Through calls with her mother in the present day, and reconstructions/reminisces of a short lesbian affair in Casablanca, these issues gradually come to light. Plus, the characters are all anthropomorphic animals of various species.

    Like Endless Cookie (2025), Bouchra stands out due to the dissonance between its stylized animation and its grounded themes. The aesthetic—furry-inspired anthropomorphic animals in a neon-soaked, almost cyberpunk-like urban environment—can be off-putting at first. But this isn’t sci-fi or high fantasy. Naturalistic dialogue, overlapping and full of awkward stuttering, hints at something closer to reality. This is, essentially, a tale of familial ties, sexual orientation, and the way traditional societies consciously exile whatever disrupts the status quo. It is an empathetic tale, eager to show compassion and understand easily-disturbed norms. The furry aesthetic reveals the queerness of the bodies, their hairy, androgynous nature. This is especially apparent in two short, tasteful yet erotically-charged intimate segments. The dark color palette of New York contrasts with the warmer tones of Casablanca. Often, the uncanny, detailed digital character animations are juxtaposed against real background photographs of Morocco, for a documentary-like feel.

    In the end, this movie can be viewed not only as American independent cinema, but also as Moroccan Diasporic Cinema. And since Moroccan cinema isn’t that common, this work can be recommended to fans of world cinema adventures.

    WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

    “Bouchra is filled with… small incidental details that dominate one’s attention, puncturing the otherwise fairly banal sheen of the piece as a whole and revealing a distinctive, weirdly effective work struggling valiantly against its miniscule [sic] budget.”–Grant Watson, Fiction Machine (festival screening)

    I think this movie is weirder than average
    I think this movie is better than average

    List Candidates

    APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: UP THE CATALOGUE (2024)

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    DIRECTED BY: Alastair Siddons

    FEATURING: Lyndsey Marshal, John Macmillan, Morgana Robinson, Anastasia Hille

    PLOT: Hailey, the lead presenter for a shopping network, is forbidden from suspending her performance on a set where it’s always still morning.

    Still from "Up the Catalogue" (2004)

    WHY IT MIGHT JOIN THE APOCRYPHA: Hailey’s journey to the end of the film is by turns comical, confusing, and surreal, culminating in a quick-but-profound moment of “hmm.”

    COMMENTS: Judging from the dreams I suffered after watching this, I’ll advertise that angle first. An eager makeup artist preps protagonist Hailey for broadcast, interrupted by odd exchanges with an unseen Dave who runs hot and cold: snippy one moment, flattering in the next. “Forever Bread,” the invention of a gruff fellow in military-style fatigues, is among the never-fully-explained items for sale on 4QTV (quality, quantity, quintity, and never any Q’s), and we learn of Hailey’s aversion to bread mold and of her son, whose name she can’t quite remember. Derek—a regular caller, it seems telephones and goes on to confess his fear of dying (not unreasonably for a nonagenarian). Quick break, and on to the next item.

    Alastair Siddons skewers one of television’s more ridiculous and unsettling genres, home shopping programs, through a ridiculous and unsettling little film. Up the Catalogue never goes anywhere; first Hailey’s is unable to leave the production set, then the building, and the finale is an extended pursuit down a repeated cycle of stairwell. Her boss, Dave, is the hellish counterpart of a Chris Morris TV producer, dangling the promise of implied freedom in front of Hailey only if she agrees to the terms of the rent-to-marry companion owl, Maureen, who used to be the network’s star hamster.

    Up the Catalogue left me with a feeling of “Whelp, that just happened”, followed thereafter by a none-too-restful bit of sleep. The film cruises along the comedy-cringe line in true British fashion, adding a hearty dose of cramped infinity-space as the story unfolds within an endless backstage labyrinth. By the end, I wanted out as much as Hailey did, and I was relieved that my visit to this world wrapped up in only a little over an hour. That said, I strangely enjoyed the distressing journey—a sentiment which leaves me as confused as the climax did.

    Rolling again in Five-Four-Q-Two-Action!

    WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

    “Up the Catalogue is unquestionably weird, offbeat and surreal right out of the gate. There’s a palpable awkwardness and Alastair Siddons builds a great atmosphere of intrigue.” — Rebecca Cherry, Film Carnage (contemporaneous)

    Up the Catalogue [DVD]

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    CAPSULE: PARVULOS (2024)

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    Párvulos: Hijos del Apocalipsis; AKA Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse

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    Parvulos is currently available for purchase or rental on video-on-demand.

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    DIRECTED BY: Isaac Ezban

    FEATURING: Carla Adell, Mateo Ortega Carsillas, Leonardo Cervantes

    PLOT: Three brothers struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world while caring for two zombies caged in their basement.

    Still from Parvulos (2024)

    COMMENTS: A tale about family in times of extreme change. Isaac Izban, the Mexican auteur of films like the mind-bending and space-bending Incident (2014) or the deeply-layered Similars (2015), known for its political undertones, returns with a slightly more conventional, yet still eccentric combination of family drama and zombie apocalypse. But let’s take things from the start.

    We follow three brothers—two kids and their older teen brother—struggling to survive in a world where the rules have changed dramatically. Everything seems typical to post-apocalypse fans, at first. A pandemic has decimated the population, while a not-fully-tested vaccine had serious side effects, creating hordes of zombies. Parallels with the recent Covid pandemic haunt the story, but there is no explicit analogy, just a new take on common tropes of the genre.

    The twist brings something new to the table. In their basement the boys are hiding two zombies, scavenging and collecting food for them. Who could they be? When the youngest brother Benjamin discovers they are his parents, the boys begin an effort to tame the dead and remind them who they are.

    The film could develop as a parable on toxic family dynamics, with the parents being wild zombies, but it doesn’t want to go there. It remains, even at its grossest moments, a wholesome combination of family drama and post-apocalyptic themes, targeted at a teen audience of the main protagonist’s age. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but it’s not as deeply layered or rich in allegory as Ezban’s earlier works.

    Parvulos is formally inventive. The faded color palette, resembling black-and-white photography, gives an eerie and melancholic tone. Wide shots along with distorted audio underline some of the tensest moments. There soundtrack is rich: composers Edy Lan and Camilla Uboldi, close collaborators of director, creates a wide range of tones, from ominous orchestral music to uplifting beats with lyrics in English.

    The story continues through a series of encounters of the boys with other survivors. A picture of the new state of the world gradually emerges, with deadly cults roaming around (another common trope of apocalyptic fiction). But the tale remains fresh by keeping the family dynamic between the kids and their zombie parents at its heart. It is an intriguing premise, and there are even some WTF moments here, as when the zombies have sex or, chained to their seats, attend a festive Christmas dinner.

    WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

    “…an ambitious, eccentric, ultimately memorable tale of juvenile brothers’ survival after civilization’s death by plague.”–Dennis Harvey, Variety (festival screening)