The Editor (2014) ***1/2
Astron-6 's The Editor (2014) is the comedy troupe's most accomplished work, a ridiculous parody of gialli and poliziotteschi that manages to capture trademarks of those genres while still infusing the film with their particular brand of zaniness (including their hilariously homoerotic leanings). They delightfully play up the casual misogyny, gratuitous nudity, and violence present in those 70s Italian productions to intentionally over the top levels. I'm not always the biggest fan of super obvious callbacks to other films (it can tend to distract by becoming a game of "spot this reference")—in this case the work Lucio Fulci , Dario Argento , Sergio Martino , Brian De Palma , to name a few, plus Nicolas Roeg and David Cronenberg for good measure—but it works in The Editor because of the tone of the piece. Not every joke lands, some scenes drag a touch, and I really wish that Astron had been able to shoot on film to provide a more authentic experience, but up...
