REVIEW: THE BURLESQUE ASSASSINS (World Premiere Toronto)

                                    Sizzle, Seduce & Destroy: The Burlesque Assassins
The Burlesque Assassins, an independent Canadian production directed by Jonathan Joffe, is the story of Johnny Valentine (Armitage Shanks) and his three protégées, Koko La Douce (Missy Starlight), Bombshell Belle (Rosalind Porter) and the new, initially hesitant, addition to the team, Bourbon Sue (RoxiD’Lite). Koko La Douce, a very sophisticated German spy and the English Bombshell Belle are both more experienced agents having worked alongside Johnny Valentine for years, whereas Bourbon Sue, although new with no proper training or mission experience, sensually surprises the audience very much with her confidence, traits and immense talent as the story unfolds.

In the film, the notion of the burlesque assassins is shown to be founded in 1941 by Johnny Valentine and his fair love Katarina Molotov (Carrie Schiffler) as part of a top secret joint operation and powerful defence strategy to bring to justice those that threatened the general freedom, especially during the Nazi regime. It was believed that packaging the burlesque assassins with the proven irresistible charms of femininity would help The Agency and The Soviet alliance to spy on and gain access to those in powerful positions in order to help the break down and eventual abolition of the Nazi regime and any others that had gained too much power.

The film is set in the 1950’s, with occasional flashbacks of years past, attempt to connect the tale of an evil world domination plan that may now come to fruition. Through the use of tactful espionage and armed with the sultry goodness of beauty, intelligence, talent and a whole lot of cleavage, the burlesque assassins go on the sole mission to seduce and destroy the communist villains who are assumed to have acquired a deadlier-than-ever weapon that could cause destruction on a massively grand scale. This weapon of mass destruction that had until now been lying dormant was constructed using Leonardo Da-Vinci’s paintings shortly after WW2, when the Nazis’ teamed up with the Italians. It has now come to Johnny Valentine’s knowledge that the codes to arm and launch the deadly weapon may have been acquired by the Nazis’.  Ergo, Johnny Valentine, along with the help of his remarkably dazzling trio of deadly enchantresses embarks on this undertaking of finding and killing the two main targets, the first being the Italian dictator’s son Mussolini Jr. and the other being the clone of Hitler himself.

Without giving away the rest of the story, which at this point I’m burning to get more into, I’ll just state now that the story is consistently full of intensity and intrigue,  keeping you interested, involved and always wanting more! The comedy-action-dance has a very Charlie’s Angels less Tarantino-esque feel to it and even goes above and beyond to add more through the use of strong backstories on each of the main characters, along with the use of amazing musical instruments and the visual aspects make you live, feel and believe you are in that era . No amount of praise would be enough for the absolutely marvelous performances by the artists on stage!

Working under a modest budget and shot completely in Calgary last year in 2011, the film was spectacularly well done; everything from the background score, the choreography, the action, to the costumes, props and set. Having only been recently introduced to this sort of art form used in film, The Burlesque Assassins has completely won me over, wanting to explore other such presentations. Heck, I even want to get a hoola-hoop and try some of those Bourbon Sue moves!

In recent years, Burlesque, a sassy form of art, has been garnering a lot attention and the film’s successful incorporation of this art technique has a lot to say. Besides, there is no deficiency of beauties wearing just pasties and fighting crime! It surely doesn’t get more entertaining than that. The film is currently touring Canada and has generated a lot of buzz as of late in the social media world and elsewhere, and rightfully so! After its Canadian tour, the film will makes its international screening abroad in Sydney, Australia. Be sure to check out the Gala Screening of The Burlesque Assassins as part of the 5th Annual Toronto Burlesque Festival at The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on July 20th. I highly recommend this film as one you do not want to miss! The screening will also have a pre-show burlesque event featuring performances by international artists. To purchase tickets to the pre-party at the Gladstone and for the Toronto Premiere visit: http://torontoburlesquefestival2012.eventbrite.com/ and follow them on Twitter:  @BA_Film

-Myra Rehman
@myrawales

2012 Toronto After Dark Summer Screenings – Summary & Wrap!

        

The Toronto After-Dark Film festival brought something new to the plate this year in advance for fans of the genre by screening 2 days of summer “Spotlight Presentations”  ahead of the main festival that takes place in October every year. This event or “mini festival” was a great opportunity to experiment and gaige the level of interest of current  and new audiences to see if they would actually attend this genre event outside of the main festival during a different time of the year. And what an experimental success it has been for the festival as it brought out crowds to the Bloor Cinema and even had a sold out theatre which fits some 700+ people for its final screening of V/H/S.  The festival quality event has not only been a treat for the loyal fanbase of the genre but also a great opportunity for those new to the festival and its films to actually experience what they can expect from the main event that will take place in October.  The 4 features that screened on June 27 and July 11 this summer included: Juan of the Dead, The Pact, Detention and V/H/S. Both screenings were followed by an after-party pub night at “Paupers” which was an all inclusive perk for ticket and pass holders alike to mix and mingle and get that opportunity to analyze, wow and bash their likes and dislikes. And incase you want to disguise your fear under the pretext of blaming your memory for being “oh so weak” here is a quick re-cap of what went down:

Day 1:

The first feature that screened on day 1 was “Juan of the Dead” by Alejandro Brugues which is a funny, clever and very entertaining zombie flick from and shot in Cuba. The script is fresh, keeps you involved wanting to know what will happen next as nothing feels as you would expect it to be.  This is the story of Juan who is a pretty useless, lazy fisherman and absent father who simply spends his days having an affair with a married woman and/or hanging around with his very good friend Lazaro on his building rooftop patio drinking. While they live their days all of a sudden we see something strange and noticeable that begins happening to the people of Havana island. Zombies begin to appear and then some more as the infection starts to spread rapidly. Instead of making a run for it to a safer haven, Juan comes up with a money making idea to work along his pals and become rich. The services provided would include to quote “killing your loved ones” i.e. killing zombies and training fellow citizens to defend themselves against zombies. Although it does not seem like a very big budgeted film, the zombie lovers will not be disappointed as there is ample gore, slashing and smashing of brains and even the good ol’ fashioned cannibalism going on throughout the film. The film is mostly hilarious, almost burst out laughter funny for me personally in parts, as the humour used is both personal to the characters as well as a mockery of the political system in Cuba under Castro. Eventually however Juan’s business plans fail when things start to get out of control and this is where the audience really begins to get their fill of zombies as herds of them begin to appear feasting on guts. If you have a weak tolerance for too much blood and nibbling on raw human flesh then perhaps this is not for you. Zombie lovers, this will be a treat for you!  

The second feature that screened on day 1 was “The Pact” by Nicholas McCarthy, essentially a ghost film is nonetheless a mix of genres , both horror and mystery. The story revolves around two sisters Nicole and Annie who have had a rough and abusive childhood under their mother’s care. Nicole returns to her family home after her mother’s death to take care of funeral arrangements and insists that Annie come and help her but she refuses. Later that night, Nicole disappears. Shortly after, the rough and tough bike rider,Annie arrives on the scene at the house and begins to witness the creepy and odd noises, doors opening and shutting, things falling. The first half of the film is solid and scary keeping you on the edge of your seat not knowing what to expect next. However the film slows down a bit as we transition a bit from ghostly horror to a mysterious story that eventually leads to the big reveal. Steering away from the conventional horror films, The Pact felt like an experimental cross over of genres with very clever and unexpected writing which might not be for everyone but still makes it quite an interesting watch.

Day 2:

Detention, by Joseph Kahn, the first feature to screen during the second set of screenings at The Bloor cinema was probably one of the summer favourites which had a handsome set of whole-hearted giggles originating through satirical comedy based on teen flicks over the decades, pop culture and a lot of references of the 90’s. It would be fair to say that unless you are well attuned to the pop culture, know and have seen teen flicks over the decades it would be a bit hard to get the fairly fast paced jokes and humour. The story which is a mix of comedy, gore, slasher, time travel, and everything else that could possibly exist, follows a group of teenagers in their final year who play a very exact reflection of their character, a mockery so to say which makes it all the more hilarious to watch. Amidst the usual ho-pla of teenage drama that already exists the group also has to deal with the fact that there may very well be a killer amongst them. It would be unfair to summarize the story of this film in a few lines as there is so much going on in there that it would almost feel disjointed. What I enjoyed the most was when they played two songs from the very famous 90’s boy band The Backstreet Boys in setting where the group of teenagers are in detention trying to figure out who the murderer is. Another highlight was the Canadian character Gord, a passionate meat lover who only wears a sports jersey and quite possibly might’ve even stolen the show here in Toronto per his outrageously hysterical personality. The film definitely has the potential for a re-watch especially if you want to do true justice to it and also if you a bit slow like me to get all the jokes the first time round!

          

The second and last screening of the festival was the greatly hyped V/H/S, an anthology of isolated found footage films, 5 in total, that play against a back drop of a sixth story. A group of crooks hired to break into a house to steal a vhs tape, boldly film their break in and find a collection of VHS tapes which they begin to watch one by one. The first tape which was quite interestingly shot through a pair of glasses is the story of some drunk, drugged out jocks who pick up some girls to get laid and get laid they do! The second is a slasher cum weird story about a couple who are on a road trip taking breaks at motels when someone enters their locked room to film them. The third almost shot in the blair-witch style is the story about four friends who go into the woods where a killer awaits to slice them all up. The fourth and one of my favourites especially since by this time I was in a position to appreciate the motionless camera setting, is the story of a haunted house told through a webcam conversation of a couple. The last film, another one of my favourites is a Halloween story where a group of guys break into a known haunted house for some thrills and actually come to face to face with a she-devil!

All the films were well done in their own respect, with a proper start and finish to their own individual storylines, without any connection or transition to each other. This might or might not have worked in their favour though as it almost affords the audience an opportunity to re-coup from the scares they just witnessed. I quite enjoyed the film overall as it was very different and apart from what I have seen, although the scares didn’t completely live up to the hype that I had originally expected it would. There were definitely some good scares with dark setups and encounters with the devil being my personal favourites that played out in the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th, film. The only thing that could make this film a little difficult to watch for those with motion sickness is the constantly shaky camera and often times authentic yet unclear picture quality that could really give you a headache. Other than that I feel this is an interesting concept and there definitely is a potential films to be made this way.

With that the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2012 summer screenings wrapped up for now. A little something new and exciting that was announced by the founder of the festival, Adam Lopez on the closing night of the last summer screening is the introduction of indie video game submissions for the main festival that are scheduled to be played at an after party venue of the main event this year. This is in addition to the roughly 20 feature presentations that will screen this year along with a much talked about set of amazing shorts to name a couple of programs. If you weren’t already, I’m sure by now you are just as excited as I am, anxiously awaiting the upcoming festival in October that will bring more horror, sci-fi action, thriller and cult films to Toronto audiences.  Be sure to check it out this year, you wouldn’t want to miss it!

Myra Rehman

@myrawales