With five writers credited writers, “Jethica” more or less concerns Jessica (Ashley Denise Robinson), and how she is being stalked by a guy named Kevin (Will Madden). Jessica has driven away from her home in California to New Mexico and runs into an old classmate, Elena (Callie Hernandez), who gives her a remote place to stay. But then Kevin shows up, though he looks strange. Elena knows more about what is going on, especially when she considers the ghostly history of her grandmother’s plot of land.
Ohs’ film tells this story with an established visual sense, using the same types of shots to lull you into a confident comfort. It’s a lot of slow pans, and edits that fade one image filled with negative space into the next, while a simple piano motif says more than enough when accompanied with casually gorgeous landscape shots of the purple New Mexico skyline. Atmosphere goes a long way in this sense, to create isolation, countered with the film’s characters who bring their own color and striking yet reserved performances. Nothing seems too, too out of the ordinary in this world, even though it is to us. It’s a striking combination that helps make “Jethica” all the more memorable. It’ll be interesting to see what Ohs does next, but we can be certain it will be the best kind of weird.
Reggie Yates’ lighthearted buddy comedy “Pirates” takes viewers back to December 31, 1999, the night of Y2K. Three rambunctious and close friends (Eliot Edusah, Jordan Peters, and Reda Elazour) decide to find their way to a big London Y2K party, but hit many problems along the way—including how to get tickets to the event that comes with its own mega-sized bouncer, and also how to not lose them. Set over one night and filled with fast-talking dialogue and in-your-face filmmaking, “Pirates” is a sugar rush of a movie that wants to have fun with an albeit familiar coming-of-age concept but charismatic cast.
“Pirates” can be an uneven balance of cheesy ‘90s comedy—references to the Backstreet Boys, or Tamagotchi toys—but it wins most with the chemistry of its three leads. They bounce off each other for the whole movie, joking and teasing and bonding, adding to an already bright visual palette, giving energy to many set-pieces. Sometimes they’re a little too cartoonish, as if playing for a laugh track, but the wackiness of “Pirates” nonetheless makes way for a warming tale of friendship.
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