Movies
TIFF ’09: Several Clips From ‘Leslie, My Name is Evil’
The countdown to the Toronto International Film Festival is slimming down as the event kicks off this week. One of the many genre films having its World Premiere at the fest is Reginald Harkema’s Leslie, My Name is Evil, which follows the trial of the Manson murders. You saw the trailer last week, now dig on several clips by read on. Click here for all of our TIFF coverage so you can keep up with all of the top indie films coming your way in 2010.
“Reginald Harkema’s incendiary new film Leslie, My Name Is Evil (the follow-up to his celebrated 2006 feature Monkey Warfare) focuses on the trial of Charles Manson and his followers, but it’s far from a conventional re-hash of the grisly details. Leslie is a charged, intensely stylized postmodern analysis of one of the key battles in the culture wars that consumed America for much of the sixties.
The ostensible hero is Perry (Gregory Smith), an earnest, sexually desperate young chemist engaged to Dorothy (Kristin Adams), a devout Christian who refuses to sleep with him until they get married. “I love you, but I love Jesus more,” she explains. When he’s called for jury duty on the Manson Family trial, Perry is exposed to a completely different world, one defined by drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and, most importantly, free love. He’s especially taken with Leslie Van Houten (Kristen Hager), who appears to be the least overtly indoctrinated member of the family.
Though the filmmakers adhere to the facts, the film is fundamentally anti-realist, mixing camp, agitprop and the devices of both courtroom dramas and true-crime shows – a combination that makes for numerous moments of fiercely intelligent and spectacularly uncomfortable comedy. The film forces the viewer to confront both the trial’s sordid celebrity aspects and its political-cultural connotations.”
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform was a massive hit for Netflix back in 2020, becoming one of the most watched original movies in the streaming service’s history.
Coming soon? The Platform 2! Netflix has shared two first look images from the upcoming sequel this morning, which will again be directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.
Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian star in The Platform 2.
Netflix previews, “A mysterious figure has managed to establish a new law in The Platform, but can justice truly be enforced in hell? And who will enforce it?”
No word yet on a Netflix premiere date for The Platform 2. Stay tuned.
The first film is set inside a vertical prison system, where inmates are assigned to a level and forced to ration food from a platform that moves between the floors. Inmates on high floors eat better than those below, and one man tries to effect change so everyone gets enough.
Rafael reviewed The Platform for us at TIFF, raving in his 4.5-star write-up: “The Platform takes full advantage of its isolated setting and small cast to instead focus on a high concept, a tight script, and sharp dialogue that will make you laugh as often as it will make you think. This is a funny, heartfelt, at times disgusting, yet also thought-provoking sci-fi thriller that reminds of Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer, but with way better food.”
The Platform also made Daniel Kurland’s Best International Horror Films of 2020 list.
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