If you don’t know what LARP is, you’ll discover soon enough in “The Wild Hunt,” a parable about the games men play. Live Action Role Playing involves players who dress in costumes and enact epic battles in a land of pretend. We know them best for re-enacting Civil War battles, but in this film, Canadian characters impersonate Vikings and Celts. Both sides speak in mock-Shakespearean imprecations that remind me of Ronnie (Z-Man) Barzell (“Ere this night is through, you will taste the black sperm of my vengeance!”).
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The combatants have constructed an elaborate setting for their games deep in a forest. There is a stockade, a sort of fortress and even a Viking ship with its own moat. They’ve all designed elaborate costumes for themselves, ranging from medieval tunics and animal skins to a full suit of armor. Their makeup seems inspired by Kiss. They have elaborate rules to play by, the most draconian being to maintain “decorum,” which means never steppi
1/1/2021
An imposter joins a support group for unusual-looking people in Alexandre Franchi s drama.
An advocacy drama that doesn t forget it needs to tell an interesting story in order to win viewers over, Alexandre Franchi s
Happy Face sometimes risks going too far in its tale of a support group for disfigured people: Though Franchi and cowriter Joelle Bourjolly have thought their metaphors through, they might have picked, say, either Cervantes
or
Dungeons & Dragons as a window into the trials of those who feel like monsters. The occasional screenwriting surplus aside, this modest production largely succeeds, making the most of performers some established actors, some first-timers who come as they are: Instead of FX makeup, they wear the real results of disease, birth defects and violent mishaps; if we re surprised by their ease in front of the camera, it s likely because we ve spent our lives averting our gaze from people like them. Imperfect but affecting, the pic lea