VEROTIKA (2019) Movie Review - CINEPOCALYPSE 2019

Verotika (2019) d. Glenn Danzig (USA) (90 min)

Festival filmgoers are adventurous by their very nature, oftentimes experiencing movies that have never screened before (or for very limited audiences). As such, it’s not buzz or marketing driving butts into these particular seats. Viewers are instead choosing to experience a particular film based purely on the director, star, plot description, or because they are excited to see which features the programmers have chosen to populate the festival, assuming that – in order to have been selected – said features must be something special indeed.

Never has that last statement been truer.

THE CLEANING LADY (2018) DVD Review

The Cleaning Lady (2018) d. Jon Knautz (USA) (90 min)

Professional aesthetician and self-described “love addict” (complete with AA-type meetings) Alice (Alexis Kendra) finds herself embroiled in an affair with married man Michael (Stelio Savante) who seems to have no intention of leaving his wife (Elizabeth Sandy). On the advice of her sponsor, she institutes a “no contact” rule and attempts to reset her life, starting with hiring her condo’s maintenance woman Shelly (Rachel Alig) to clean her house. The two begin a tentative friendship, Alice feeling sympathy for her shy and sheltered employee, who bears severe scarring on her facial features, and Shelly reveling in the attention shown her by this immaculately beautiful woman. But when Michael continues to call/text and Alice violates her vow of separation, Shelly’s image of her newfound “perfect” friend is threatened and steps must be taken – cleansing steps – to help.