This Is Christmas (2022)

Director Chris Foggin is at the helm of this Christmas movie, another in a line of modern British rom-coms that add all of the festive trimmings, lots of familiar faces, and the kind of busy city life that keeps hustling and bustling without being anywhere near the misery of commuting and working in non-movieland Britain. Writer Alastair Galbraith may not have a lengthy selection of screenplay credits, but he knows how to work his premise around a great central cast.

Alfred Enoch plays Adam, a young man who holds on to the strange belief that commuters might just find their day improved if they chat to one another and communicate about their talents and lives. In fact, he believes that this applies to all people. We'd all have better lives if we just made more connections. And he's willing to throw a Christmas party for his fellow commuters to prove his point. He is helped by Emma (Kaya Scodelario), but everyone has something to bring to the occasion, whether it's a particular skill or a particular story to reveal as the third act plays out.

Although it may seem completely implausible to anyone who has experienced a long train ride through parts of London, Christmas is a time of miracles. That allows This Is Christmas to be an enjoyable and diverting piece of work. It's a complete fantasy, and that much is clear from the very beginning. Commuters DON'T want to make accidental eye contact with one another, let alone start conversing and forging meaningful connections. 

Enoch is a likeable lead, all good manners and good intentions. Scodelario is very good opposite him, feeling like a natural pairing even while both leads have partners who need to be moved out of the picture before everything can be fully consummated (not in THAT way, this is still a Christmas movie, after all). Timothy Spall handles a Liverpudlian accent well enough, and his story pairs him with young Jack Donoghue, both doing much better in the scenes they share than the few moments they go solo, and Joanna Scanlan, Ben Miller, Sarah Niles, and Clinton Liberty do good work when they get to add to the intertwining story strands. There's also a welcome, if far too small, role for Steve Oram, playing a conductor who helps the commuters initially band together against "a common enemy".

It may be a bit overlong at 111 minutes, and some of the more bitter moments feel a bit too spiky for this kind of thing, but This Is Christmas is, overall, a safe and enjoyable bit of winter warmth to enjoy on a cold evening. It won't necessarily make it into the annual rotation for anyone planning their viewing schedule, but it's worth a watch. Once.

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: Wicked Little Letters (2023)

Based on a true story, one that scandalised at least parts of the UK, Wicked Little Letters is all about, well, exactly what the title says. It's the 1920s, and people in the Littlehampton start to receive anonymous letters full of choice insults and hatred. Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) is the pious spinster who seems to be targeted by these letters, which makes her foul-mouthed neighbour, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), the number one suspect. The police believe they have their criminal, although one officer (WPC Gladys Moss, played by Anjana Vasan) thinks there may be cause to look elsewhere.

Having been documented in the press of the time, and subsequently in a couple of books on the subject, writer Jonny Sweet has a good central premise to work with. I don't know how close to the truth this gets, it may be as far removed from it as we are from the moon, but there are many moments that certainly play out as you can imagine, reflecting prejudices and behaviours as sadly prevalent today as they were decades ago.

Director Thea Sharrock knows the value of her talent pool, in both the writing and the cast, and everyone involved knows the value of some cracking swear-words sprinkled liberally throughout every scene. I am not saying that swearing is big or clever, but it can be bloody funny, especially when the words are being uttered by people seemingly unable to comprehend the flavour of the language being used.

Both Colman and Buckley are very good, as you would expect. The former gets to act very still and oppressed for the majority of the runtime, the latter is an enviable free spirit looking to enjoy a new life that should make things more comfortable for her daughter (played by the very talented Alisha Weir). Vasan is on par with the two leads, her expressions often showing her true reactions to the prejudice she has to deal with on a daily basis. There are also wonderful performances from Timothy Spall (being entertainingly loathsome), Hugh Skinner and Paul Chahidi (as unimaginative members of the police force), and Eileen Atkins, Lolly Adefope, and Joanna Scanlan, playing women who also want to help uncover the true identity of the letter-writer. Malachi Kirby also does well, and has some surprisingly sweet moments amidst the rudeness, and viewers will spot familiar faces such as Gemma Jones, Tim Key, and Jason Watkins joining in with the profane fun. 

While it is all about letters filled with rude words, this is a film also all about the danger of jumping to conclusions, and just how easily someone can use their position in society to demonize and ostracize someone they view as being a lesser member of the community. It shows how little it takes to turn people against others, while using some truth, some half-truths, and a whole lot of lies. Sound familiar? Because it does to me, especially during a time when the UK has seen such rioting and disruption caused by almost the exact same tactics. Wicked little social media posts, you might say.

8/10

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The Heist Before Christmas (2023)

It's no big surprise to see that the director of The Heist Before Christmas has spent most of his career working on TV shows. That's not to denigrate the work of Edward Hall. It's just a generalisation that most Christmas movies, whether made for TV or not, feel more restricted than movies that aren't delivering the festive trimmings and a seasonal message. What is a bit more surprising is the fact that this is written by Ronan Blaney, who also did the superb A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. That does help to explain the grit and grime mixed in with the snow and Santa Claus outfits though.

Bamber Todd stars as young Mikey, a young lad who seems to have a chip on his shoulder. He spends his time trying to cause mischief and steal some odds and ends (spray snow, food, etc), which makes things even harder for his mother (Patricia, played by Laura Donnelly). Mikey also has a younger brother, Sean (Joshua McLees), and he is torn between being protective of him and wanting him to realise exactly how crappy their current situation is. Their mother is struggling to hold on to a job that doesn't pay her enough, but keeps her away from home for far too many hours, and Santa is unlikely to bring that bicycle that Sean has been wanting for so long. Or maybe he will, especially when someone dressed as Santa (James Nesbitt) robs a bank and then hides in some nearby woods with a bag stuffed full of cash. Mikey comes up with a plan, but things are complicated when he heads into those woods and finds another Santa (Timothy Spall). And that Santa believes that he is THE Santa.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone after something distracting and heartwarming for this time of year. In comparison to many other dramas set over Christmas, including the classic Dickens text reworked many times over the past decades, this is grim stuff. There are children in peril for almost the entirety of the runtime, albeit in different ways, neither of the two Santas feel safe, and there's a second main storyline regarding Patricia and her boss (played by Lloyd Hutchinson) that is as tense and downbeat as any Ken Loach movie. 

That dark tone is all done to Blaney's script, but Hall directs it in a way that refuses to allow too much light to be seen at the end of the long tunnel. I understand the idea of keeping everything harsh and dark on the way to an ending that most will hope is light and satisfying, which makes it all the more disappointing when the final scenes don't quite do enough to make up for everything that came beforehand.

Both Todd and McLees do good work in their roles, and I believe both are newcomers to acting, although Todd has much more work to do, considering how abrasive his character is throughout. Donnelly is excellent, and her scenes with Hutchinson allow both to dig into the best and worst of the nature of Christmas for those already struggling, and both Nesbitt and Spall are as good as you expect, even with the latter putting on a strange accent in line with what he considers a more authentic portrayal of Santa Claus. The other characters worth mentioning are the main police officers on the case, played by Bronagh Waugh and Peter Rethinasamy. 

It's not that this is a waste of your time, and it's not that this is a bad feature. It's just that everyone has forgotten to make the destination worth what is quite a cold and difficult journey.

5/10

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Dream Demon (1988)

There were a number of movies in the 1980s that tried to successfully sell a premise plunging lead characters into a world where nightmares and reality blurred together. It's not hard to think why, considering that Freddy Krueger was the slasher icon who came along in time to rule the decade. Unsurprisingly, none of these movies could equal A Nightmare On Elm Street, but some did better than others. Dream Demon is one of the others.

The basic plot here concerns Diana (Jemma Redgrave), a young woman about to get married to a young celebrated military hero, Oliver (Mark Greenstreet). The wedding has many interested, especially two horrible paparazzi types (played by Jimmy Nail and Timothy Spall), and Diana's mind is a messy mix of stress and fever dreams, with her nightmares bleeding into reality. She also encounters a young woman, Jenny (Kathleen Wilhoite), who ends up being pulled into all of the madness.

Directed by Harley Cokeliss, credited here as Harley Cokliss, Dream Demon may be a strange film, but it's nestled nicely in a filmography that includes such varied treats as The Glitterball (1977 Children's Film Foundation movie) and the John Carpenter-written Black Moon Rising. Cokeliss also co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher Wicking, a genre veteran also responsible for a few of the later Hammer movies. The emphasis throughout is on atmosphere, which would be fine if Cokeliss and co. didn't think that every dream felt like you were wandering through a Meatloaf video.

Redgrave does okay in the lead role, following the direction that asks her to look scared and/or a bit out of sorts, and Wilhoite brings some welcome energy when she enters the storyline. Greenstreet is essentially there to be an unworthy potential spouse, and both Spall and Nail are pretty over the top from their very first scene, pestering Redgrave in their normal guise before becoming main elements of her panic-filled nightmares.

Although you can see everyone involved trying their hardest to sell this, Dream Demon just never works that well. The nightmares don't really delve enough into the potential surrealism and strangeness, the main characters aren't really that interesting, even as you learn more during the third act, and nothing here is actually scary. In fact, the best moments look as if the crew have found some old sets from Hellraiser (just the areas that are shown behind the walls) and quickly grabbed some footage while they could.

I can't really say that it's ultimately worth your time, yet I found it fascinating as I watched it all unfold. It's an oddity, and oddities are always at least more interesting than, well, . . . non-oddities.

5/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Party (2017)

Black and white, very stagey, without any major special effects, lacking any major brand recognition, The Party is about as far removed from most of your blockbuster movies as it is possible to be, and yet it proves to be just as enjoyable and gripping as any of them, for two simple reasons. A very good script and consistently great acting.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Janet, a woman who has just been promoted to a major position in her political party. Things aren't that good between her and her husband (Bill, played by Timothy Spall) but they will keep a polite smile pasted on and enjoy the party they are set to host. Well, that is the plan. It starts to unravel quickly, however, when the guests arrive and interact with one another, trading sweet barbs and not-so-subtle digs as secrets come to light and tension starts to build and build, to almost unbearable levels.

Written and directed by Sally Potter, with Walter Donohue credited as a story editor, The Party uses some standard melodramatic staples to show what happens when individuals start to forget how their beliefs, be they philosophical or political or religious, impact upon the lives of others. There's a lot going on here, either intentionally or unintentionally (I suspect the former), that underlines both the danger of trying to maintain the status quo while major upheaval is causing the ground to undulate and crumble beneath your feet and the pain that can come from making sudden decisions that will reverberate throughout the whole circle of people around you.

I'm not going to bore you by repeatedly saying how great everyone is. I'll just list the cast and who they play. Aside from the leads, both seeming to relish such great roles, you have Patricia Clarkson and Bruno Ganz as a married couple hoping that this is their last friendly engagement before they divorce, Cherry Jones and Emily Mortimer are a lesbian couple, with Mortimer pregnant with triplets, and Cillian Murphy is a banker who turns up without his wife, as she has been delayed, and seems intent on causing some trouble, considering the fact that he has a gun secreted on his person and is stuffiing cocaine up his nose within minutes of his arrival. Everyone does fantastic work, and all feel perfectly suited to their roles, but my personal favourite was Clarkson, who I wish could be present at every polite party I have to attend for the rest of my life.

Very cleverly done in the way that a number of points are made while also leaving plenty of blank spaces to be filled in by whatever viewers want to project there, The Party is a thought-provoking comedy that also holds up as something brilliantly entertaining. If you appreciate films that focus on quality dialogue and acting then this is a high priority. There are times when the experience of watching it is almost sublime.

9/10

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Prime Time: Early Man (2018)

It was only a matter of time until Aardman delivered a movie that left me even slightly disappointed. The fact that it took this long, and that Early Man is still an enjoyable enough bit of fun, if not one I will rush to rewatch, is testament to the quality of their work. From Chicken Run to the Wallace & Gromit movie, and then the wonderful The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! I even really like Flushed Away, and enjoyed the slightly lower-tier movie outing for Shaun The Sheep. And I couldn't even begin to narrow the gags down to a Top 10 if we were to discuss the many wonderful short films they have made (although Gromit laying down enough track ahead of himself as he speeds along on a model train will always be my favourite of the lot).

Early Man is the story of a group of cave-dwelling people who end up being displaced from their valley by some giant machines, all controlled by men who are living it up in the Bronze Age. When one man (Dug, voiced by Eddie Redmayne) goes to find out more, he ends up challenging the more advanced people to a game of football. Winning will get them their valley back, but losing will see them used as miners.

Director Nick Park, who also developed the story idea with Mark Burton (and Burton wrote the screenplay with James Higginson), doesn't seem to be too sure of what he wants here. There are the usual wonderful visual gags, although not as many of them as we've had in his previous films, but the combination of the prehistoric setting and football match challenge makes for a strange combination that doesn't quite work. Some people will be wanting more dino-centric gags, others may want some more time with the football, and neither group will be wholly satisfied with the end result.

There's another problem though, and that is the voice cast. It's just not very . . . good. Eddie Redmayne is perfectly acceptable in the main role, but that's all he is. Never the most charismatic or warm performers, his voice work is at least better than most of the roles that utilise his entire physical presence. Tom Hiddleston and Maisie Williams both do okay, the former as an enemy and the latter as an ally, but they're hidden behind some pointless and silly accents (unless my old ears have started to deceive me). Timothy Spall is a welcome presence, Rob Brydon does well, Miriam Margolyes is an amusingly stern Queen, and there are a number of familiar British celebrities making up the rest of the main troupe.

Despite those story and cast issues, Early Man still does enough to make for a fun 90 minutes (well, closer to 80 minutes before the end credits roll), and I am sure that younger viewers will appreciate it more than I did. It does, after all, have dinosaurs, cute rabbits, a helpful boar named Hognob, and a cast of obvious heroes to root for and villains to boo and hiss at.

6/10

Early Man can be bought here.
Americans can buy it here.

Mr. Turner (2014)

Written and directed by Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner is a film that looks at the artist known as Turner (don't you know). Although it's far from a definitive look at the life of the man, it certainly feels like it. This is a hefty investment of your time, clocking in at about two and a half hours, but those minutes fairly fly by.

Timothy Spall gets the title role, and if you can tell me a bad performance that he's given in the last two decades then I'll be interested to hear your thoughts. As far as I'm concerned, Spall is one of those actors who always seems to be on top form, and this film gives him what could be considered his best role yet. Gruff and grunting, yet also amusing, learned and polite, Turner is always shown to be equal parts man and artist. He may mingle with the upper-classes, but seems to prefer avoiding recognition in favour of anonymity during times when he is free to live his life, seek out inspiration, and not have to worry about exhibitions or sales.

I don't know exactly how much of this movie is true, or based on truth, but it certainly feels authentic. This is a world in which works of art are enhanced with a little bit of spit mixed in to the paint. It's a world in which you can smell, and even almost feel, the materials.

A great cast lends Spall their full support, with standouts being Paul Jesson (as William Turner), Dorothy Atkinson (as Hannah Danby), Marion Bailey (as Sophia Booth), and Martin Savage (as Benjamin Robert Haydon). All of these people contribute something important to Turner's life, even if it's just a healthy sense of perspective afforded by seeing the failings and misfortunes of a fellow artist.

Like all good biopics, this keeps the viewer engaged throughout and encourages further exploration of the subject once the end credits have rolled. The times may have changed, of course, but the drive remains the same in the mind of all artists. As does the turbulent times that can alternate between feast and famine.

Leigh may have produced a movie that seems to wander aimlessly from one seemingly disconnected moment to another, but the broad strokes do eventually receive some fine detailing. You can really start to appreciate how everything falls in to place in the second half. The full picture IS here. You just have to take a few steps back to fully appreciate. Which is often the way with great pieces of art.

9/10

Eager to pick up Mr. Turner? Then this UK disc is the only option for now - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Turner-Blu-ray-Timothy-Spall/dp/B00OZJ2W0I/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1420306412&sr=1-2&keywords=mr.+turner

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The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

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As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

A remake of a Spanish film that I have still, sadly, not yet seen (Abre Los Ojos by Alejandro Amenabar), Vanilla Sky couldn't really be any further removed from the last movie that paired director Cameron Crowe up with star Tom Cruise - Jerry Maguire. Then again, there are more similarities between the two when looked at in a bit more detail. For now, to keep things simple, I'll be keeping everything quite shallow. That's my level, and I'm comfortable there.

Tom Cruise plays David Aames, a very rich and successful young man who gets himself in a fair bit of trouble when he fools around with the gorgeous and successful Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz) before falling instantly and absolutely in love with the spirited Sophia (Penelope Cruz, reprising her role from original version). David goes from a dizzying high to an unbelievable low as his face is disfigured and his spirit crushed. He starts to push people away with his behaviour, including his best friend, Brian Shelby (Jason Lee), and ends up forced to speak to a psychiatrist (Kurt Russell) in an attempt to make sense of events that he doesn't understand. Reality and fiction intertwine, making David fear for his sanity.

Crowe is credited with writing the screenplay as well as directing this movie. As already mentioned, I've not seen the original, but I'd imagine that his screenplay work is more in line with an adaptation than any wholly original work. Regardless, he does a good job. As well as the dialogue, there are so many fantastic little touches in every scene, both front and centre and just noticeable in the background. The detritus of these characters' lives is something that rewards repeat viewings, and the film may veer too unevenly between the highs and lows - especially after such a good opening 20 minutes - but it ultimately makes it all worthwhile for the audience by the time the credits roll.

The cast are a bit of a mixed bag. Cruise does okay in his role, and perhaps enjoyed performing half the movie with his face either covered up or disfigured, while Jason Lee and Penelope Cruz are both very good at portraying . . . . . . . very good people. Cameron Diaz doesn't do quite so well, but then she never really does (bless her). Kurt Russell is enjoyable in his role, and other roles are filled by people such as Timothy Spall, Tilda Swinton, Noah Taylor, Michael Shannon and Johnny Galecki.

It may be a bit self-indulgent in places (the excess of pop culture references, the Spielberg blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, the sense of smugness during the final third), but it also has so many great moments and dark, albeit glossed over, ideas in the mix that I still like it a lot. And, typically from Cameron Crowe, there's a cracking soundtrack accompanying the visuals.

7/10

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