The Pretend One

2017, 1080hd

Johnny's comments:

The Pretend One is an Australian drama about Charlie (Geraldine Hakewill) who lives on a farm with her dad Roger (David Field) and her only friend in the world, Hugo (Michael Whalley) who is her imaginary friend all grown up. Things are going along as usual until a documentarian Guy (Benedict Wall) comes to town looking for farmers to interview about looking for love. Charlie is interested in Guy but Hugo becomes insanely jealous of this burgeoning relationship and being increasingly pushed aside by Charlie. In a miraculous twist, Hugo develops the ability to touch and he can now convince Charlie to be with him but Charlie has a yearning to finally leave the farm for the city and Guy may be her way out.

OK fantastical love story that doesn't have much to it than the love triangle and a bit about her father working out his demons but it's fairly watchable thanks to Hakewill.

Geraldine Hakewill film clip (collages below)

The Cleaning Lady

2018, 1080hd

Johnny's comments:

The Cleaning Lady is a horror thriller from the makers of Goddess Of Love about Alice (Alexis Kendra), a woman in a relationship with a married man Michael (Stelio Savante) that she desperately wants to get out of but she can't help herself. Needing to unclog a drain in her apartment, the building supervisor sends along Shelly (Rachel Alig), whose face is heavily scarred from a burn and Alice is very welcoming of her, offering her an off-the-books job cleaning her house a couple of times a week. While Shelly is cleaning her house, Michael asks Alice out again and she accepts but immediately regrets it and decides to take her mind off Michael by having dinner with Shelly and then taking her home although Shelly asks to be dropped off at a path well away from anywhere. Shelly's odd behaviour continues when she ethers Alice and makes a mask of her face to wear and then she increases her obsession with Alice. This comes to a head when Shelly ties up Alice, then ethers Michael,then forces Alice to kill Michael to get him out of her life, then promises Alice something better which may not be what you are thinking.

Deliberately paced horror thriller that feels similar to Goddess Of Love pacing wise but has a far more conventional stalker thriller plot. Not bad but its pacing makes it a much harder watch than it should be and a sub-plot, about how Shelly becomes who she is, ends up being quite disturbing.