Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • THE PHOENECIAN SCHEME Movie Minute Review
    • KARATE KID: LEGENDS Movie Minute Review
    • FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Movie Minute Review
    • THUNDERBOLTS Movie Minute Review
    • BALLERINA Movie Minute Review
    • THE LIFE OF CHUCK Movie Minute Review
    • Kevin Smith on DOGMA: A Career-Defining Hail Mary
    • RJ Cutler and Esports World Cup: Level Up
    AMFM Magazine.tv
    • Features
    • Movies
      1. Movies – Indies
      2. Movie Reviews
      3. Movies- Wide Release
      Featured
      June 4, 20250By christine

      Jai Courtney Emerges As Gnarly New Villain in Sean Byrne’s Shark-Infested Horror Thriller

      4 Mins Read
      Read More
      Recent
      June 7, 2025

      THE PHOENECIAN SCHEME Movie Minute Review

      June 7, 2025

      KARATE KID: LEGENDS Movie Minute Review

      June 6, 2025

      FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Movie Minute Review

    • Photography
      1. Event Photos
      Featured
      August 23, 20240By christine

      JANE’S ADDICTION At The 713 Music Hall, Houston August 19, 2024

      1 Min Read
      Read More
      Recent
      May 1, 2025

      DISTURBED, DAUGHTRY and NOTHING MORE Photo Collage for 25th Anniversary Tour of “The Sickness”

      November 26, 2024

      ARIZONA Opening For Yellow Card and Third Eye Blind at Dickie’s Arena, Nov. 15, 2024

      November 26, 2024

      CHARLIE CROCKETT At Dickie’s Arena, Nov. 15, 2024

    • ABOUT US
    • Music
      1. Indies
      2. Majors
      3. Reviews
      Featured
      November 25, 20240By christine

      Asia’s #1 Rock Guitarist Tak Matsumoto Talks New Supergroup TMG Release “Crash Down Love” (Interview)

      4 Mins Read
      Read More
      Recent
      May 20, 2025

      Singer Colin Blunstone of Iconic 60’s Rock Band THE ZOMBIES On Release of Documentary HUNG UP ON A DREAM

      May 7, 2025

      SCOTT PAGE: Blending Music, Tech, and the Future of Blockchain

      May 5, 2025

      Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen Illuminate the Shadows with “Black Light”

    • The Wire
    • Literarians
    • Great Conversations Reprised
    • Movie Minute Reviews
    • AMFM Studios LLC
    AMFM Magazine.tv
    You are at:Home»World News»Movies»Movie Reviews»Fantasia 2018 Review: CHAINED FOR LIFE Exposes The Carnival Of Life

    Fantasia 2018 Review: CHAINED FOR LIFE Exposes The Carnival Of Life

    0
    By amfmstudios on August 1, 2018 Movie Reviews, Movies, Movies - Indies, Movies - Reviews

    By Bears Rebecca Fonte

    There is no point in the running time that CHAINED FOR LIFE is an easy film. Writer-director Aaron Schimberg fills every minute with a sort of uncomfortable tension that assaults the viewer with their own prejudices. It is a fairly active viewing process that forces the audience to constantly reassess their own emotions as well as interpret what is actually happening on screen.

    Set against the backdrop of a 1940s exploitation film about what the director of the film within the film can only refer to as freaks, Schimberg’s drama captures the on-screen and off-screen interactions of a hastily assembled cast of real life outsiders. Framed as it is by an opening quote from Pauline Kael about actors having to be attractive, CHAINED FOR LIFE plays around with the audience’s preconception of beauty as embodied by the lead character Mabel (Jess Wexler). Wexler plays an actress playing a character who is blind — the only professional actress on set to suggest a medical condition — amongst a cast collected, admittedly, straight out of the carnival. She strikes up a friendship with her co-star, a man with neurofibromatosis by the name of Rosenthal, played by actor Adam Pearson, who has the same condition. Rosenthal turns out to be the most charming and friendly everyman so it’s easy to see why Mabel seems to spend all of her off-screen minutes with him. However, the audience is never quite sure if Mabel is actually charmed by Rosenthal or is just trying to be polite. And honestly, for this viewer, I wasn’t sure if Wexler was charmed by Pearson or just trying her best. It’s the sort of uneasy reality meets story that the film confronts you with.

    From a technical standpoint, the film is gloriously shot and looks amazing. The scene design and costuming completely capture the aesthetic of the Hollywood B Movie. Charlie Korsmo gives a fantastic performance as the German auteur director, his first screen appearance in over 20 years. The script playfully jumps between reality and scenes shot for the film within a film, more than once fooling the audience, but not in a gotcha way. Instead the film is a confident expression of theme over plot, the kind of experience that stays with you for several hours after your first watching. I’m not going to say the film is perfect by any means, but it is definitely something of a statement about perspective. So few films bother to even attempt to make a statement anymore, especially in the genre space, that you must applaud a film like CHAINED FOR LIFE that is overflowing with actual difficult ideas, and putting actors in places where they have to confront their own prejudices.

    1940's Bears Fonte Chained For Life Review Fantasia Film Festival 2018 Freak Show Carnival Indie Film
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleFantasia 2018 Review: LIFECHANGER Or The Ephemeral Nature Of Skin
    Next Article Fantasia 2018 Review: MEGA TIME SQUAD’s mini time travel heist
    amfmstudios

    Related Posts

    Movie Reviews

    THE PHOENECIAN SCHEME Movie Minute Review

    Read More
    Movie Reviews

    KARATE KID: LEGENDS Movie Minute Review

    Read More
    Movie Minute

    FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Movie Minute Review

    Read More

    Comments are closed.

    SEARCH BY CATEGORY
    • MOVIES
    • Music ICON
    • AUTHORS
    June 6, 2025

    Kevin Smith on DOGMA: A Career-Defining Hail Mary

    June 4, 2025

    Reagan To: The Voice Behind the Deadly Doll in SQUID GAME

    May 30, 2025

    Tudum LIVE 2025: Netflix’s Ultimate Fan Event Lights Up Los Angeles

    April 9, 2025

    Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup For The Soul) And Children’s Book Author Miriam Laundry On “I CAN Believe In Myself”

    April 8, 2025

    Astrophysicist, Author and Social Entrepreneur Alan Lightman On Achieving Goals And Non-profit Harpswell Work in Southeast Asia

    April 3, 2025

    Wrongfully Imprisoned For 36 Years, Judy Henderson Talks About New Book “WHEN THE LIGHT FINDS US”

    AMFM INSTAGRAM
    Recent Posts
    • THE PHOENECIAN SCHEME Movie Minute Review
    • KARATE KID: LEGENDS Movie Minute Review
    • FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Movie Minute Review
    • THUNDERBOLTS Movie Minute Review
    • BALLERINA Movie Minute Review
    Archives
    Movie Reviews
    June 7, 20250By christine

    THE PHOENECIAN SCHEME Movie Minute Review

    2 Mins Read
    Review by Paul Salfen This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters this weekend is the new Wes Anderson film, The Phonician Scheme, and it's, well, very Wes Anderson. It's perfectly designed, pretty to look at, awkward, and full of stars like you don't usually see them. While not up to par
    Read More
    Movie Reviews
    June 7, 20250By christine

    KARATE KID: LEGENDS Movie Minute Review

    2 Mins Read
    Review by Paul Salfen This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters this weekend is Karate Kid: Legends, the new film that carries on the tradition of the beloved film series in a very '80s way that's quite different than Cobra Kai in feel but still hovers in that universe. It's a
    Read More
    Movie Minute
    June 6, 20250By christine

    FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Movie Minute Review

    2 Mins Read
    Review by Paul Salfen This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters this weekend is Final Destination: Bloodlines, the reboot of the popular gruesome franchise and it hasn't lost its teeth at all - it's as bloody as ever. While it was always impressive how many ways the filmmakers came up with
    Read More
    Movie Minute
    June 6, 20250By christine

    THUNDERBOLTS Movie Minute Review

    2 Mins Read
    Review by Paul Salfen This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters this weekend is Thunderbolts, the new Marvel flick that sees a second-rate group of superheroes having a second-rate adventure and guess what? It's pretty second-rate. Now of course there's a whole more serious plotline that goes into the dark psychological
    Read More
    Copyright AMFMSTUDIOS LLC
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    • Cookie Policy (US)
    Copyright AMFMSTUDIOS LLC
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    • Cookie Policy (US)

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.