Knuckles Deep

Already LOLing at my mum's comment

I love it.
A great throwback, great work on the lenses and overall tight post. All the standard boxes are checked.
What resounded well with me is the story at its core is about aging out and becoming irrellevant. An extremely meta approach and very relevant as the film is one big reminder of puppy guts' big win and how much the competition has changed over the years.

For me, a sequel is often not satisfying. I remember with Jack and Jonie 2 it just left me thinking about how good the original was. Oringinality and edging boundarys it what I crave from this competition and although arguably the sequel is technically much better it's hard to make a sequel feel original. The sound design was good but I could feel it wasn't mixed well.

That said, a few years back puppy guts would have wiped the floor. This comp has gone so far and they have achieved all the standards. no visable vfx, no dropped or out of sync sound and a good edit with good camera.

Peformance 4/5
Production 4/5
Production Design 3/5
Post Production 3.5/5
Execution 4/5

So the cat's out of the bag here, yes Puppyguts have made a sequel to a previous grand national winner, and yes it's bloody good. Having taken the competition by storm with a thumping finger dancing classic all those years ago, here we have a film where dance is very central to the core of the film, but a whole lot of different themes are explored in detail.

By not repeating themselves the film is all the better for it.

I love how in this film it's reflective of how people have changed, not just in terms of this competition, but in terms of media consumption and creation. No longer do we have teams going balls to the wall with V-fueled hyperkinetic energy level films as the norm, we have teams using this competition as a platform to try and say something and emotionally resonate with their audience.

Here Puppyguts explore this through several avenues, such as Reagan Morris (in a spectacular performance) playing a washed up champion of yesteryear, who still tries to stay relevant by hopping onto the latest fad, and trying to teach new pups some of his old dog tricks with a twist through phone consumable social media.

But in a fan service homage to the glories of yesteryear, complete with mirror shots of their grand final winner that brought more than a wry smile to this 48 hours old-timer, we got introspection about how fame and success will only get you so far. It is impossible to live on past glories forever, and whilst you can use them to fuel and develop further, different life progression, it can be hard when you have peaked to scale another mountain.

The film was filled with genuine laugh out loud dialogue, such as fingering being for everyone, mocking of the old not being able to keep up with new technology like green screen for showing off and influencing.

Pacing on the film's progression was so good, characters allowed to breathe, the story developing organically and nothing ever feeling rushed with the beats of the film playing at almost exactly the right moment.

Well, almost every moment. There's a rather large elephant in the room on this one that is going to have it headed for huge success at the pointy end of the competition, or prove to be rather divisive. I'm still torn whether the ending here, Bruce Campbell-inspired and all, was rushed and didn't have the weighting to earn its payoff in full.

On the otherhand it was absolutely outrageous and a huge point of difference to other films and most certainly stood out, and on reflection was the resolution a culmination of the leadup, verging on the point on the heaviness of things such as mental health? Maybe a leap on my part there but really makes the film severely heavy rather than just grotesque if viewed in that light.

Technically I loved it, I thought the cinematography was sublime, lighting in particular so good. Edit super smooth, and script killer. I think I'd probably also agree that sound whilst super clean wasn't perhaps the highlight it could have been for a dance-themed film, but it was still good.

Full marks for elements. Non figurative gatekeeping was unreal on reflection. Take heed, other teams, this is exactly how you don't go with the first idea that comes in your head with the elements.

Story: 4.5/5
Technical: 4/5
Elements: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

This was a tough one... knew them as past winners and was clear the were going for a sequel and its was goooood! Really got me straight away, cinematography is awesome, acting is great... sound, music... all there... the whole thing liked like a complete short, super intriguing , will the hero over come the obstacles, he faces... 1st one... no, but he gets back up, he tries again... gets kicked down... he's found a new lease on life, gets knocked down... then finally he gets back up... how will it all end, how's he gonna deal with all the challenges - I'm rooting for him AND...yeah, na... ending was (unfortunately - and I really mean super disappointingly... because up until this point, I thought they had nailed everything superbly, would take this years competition and would win the whole thing with this film ) ... but the ending, yeah na... felt like a cop out! Can see some people liking it, but just was expecting more... was a major downer and kinda...hmmm pointless? I mean yeah, might just be me, but the bar she so high with the 95% of the film, I was expecting something more... I don't know what, but wasn't this ending? Prediction: Regional and National Finalist

Concept / Story: 3/5 (would have been 5/5 if the ending was different)
Production Design: 5/5
Cinematography 5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Editing: 4.5/5
Acting: 5/5
Overall 4.5/5