One Night Only (2026)

A raunchy rom-com based in a society that only allows single people to have pre-marital sex on one night of the year, and protection must be used, One Night Only is as ridiculous as that sounds. Well . . . it would be if it actually tried to be raunchy and fun. What you actually get is something relatively tame, something that also delivers the standard rom-com tropes, and something that forces you to buy into the concept that both Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro are two attractive people who just cannot find themselves a willing sexual partner on the one night of the year when sex is on the cards.

Turner plays Owen, a pizza shop owner who finds himself at a loss when his girlfriend (Malika, played by Maya Hawke) decides to use this special one night to try sleeping with someone else. Barbaro's character, Allie, has a plan, but it requires her to find someone who she is sexually available AND a genuinely nice guy. As the clock counts down what should be a night of pleasure and sexy time, Owen and Allie find themselves on parallel paths, often helping one another, but insisting they won't have sex. I think you can tell where things end up heading.

Written by Travis Braun, who seems to have a bit of TV work to his credit already, this is silly and implausible fluff. It's not entirely unenjoyable though, thanks largely to the nice interplay between Turner and Barbaro. Director Will Gluck knows his way around a rom-com by now, having delivered a decent handful of them, but this isn't anywhere near his best work. It's hampered by the central premise, one that would seem perfectly fine if mentioned in a rambling conversation between friends, but fails as a viable movie concept, and also hampered by the inability to lean fully into the sheer sex of it all. The sweetness helps to make up for the shortcomings elsewhere, but I'm not sure most people will hear what this is about and then look forward to something sweet.

Aside from the leads, who are both doing very well with the weak material, there are enjoyable supporting turns from Hawke, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, Julia Fox, Andrew Burnap, Michelle Hurd, Charlie Gillespie, and Ella Loudon, as well as a number of amusing cameos. 

A couple of set-pieces work well, but the film peaks quite early on when people start to battle one another over ownership of a condom that has become ridiculously expensive thanks to an opportunistic vendor and surge pricing. There are a disappointingly low number of good laughs, and I have to suspect that the surprisingly tame approach to the subject matter is at least partially responsible, but at least you get a consistent amount of mild amusement throughout. Your enjoyment of the film will ultimately depend on how you respond to the charm of the leads though.

5/10

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Prime Time: Scared Shitless (2024)

The story of a plumber (Don, played by Steven Ogg) and his germophobic son, Sonny (Daniel Doheny), Scared Shitless is the kind of horror comedy you can easily imagine being pretty good when you think about the main elements. It has decent lead cast members (including Chelsea Clark and Marcia Bennett in main roles), it largely keeps all of the action in one location, and there are some decent practical effects bringing the central creature to life. 

Everything starts when Don and Sonny head along to an apartment building for a standard job. Don is trying to get Sonny to conquer his germophobia, and he thinks having him as his apprentice might just help. It turns out that their job isn't actually your usual plumbing job though, not when a creature seems to be moving around some of the pipes. Patricia (Clark) works in the building and wants discretion, but she may end up helping Don and Sonny when they all realise just how big a problem they might have on their hands.

Written by Brandon Cohen, expanding his short from a few years ago, Scared Shitless isn't helped by the fact that it's just a bit too under-written. Cohen has a fun idea at the heart of things, and benefits from the casting, but there's nothing here that's as funny or gruesome as it could be. Director Vivieno Caldinelli does well enough with the material, but what was needed was a much bigger selection of disposable characters and some more moments of bloody mayhem. Or maybe even some excessive amounts of fecal waste.

Ogg is a lot of fun in his role, being amusingly dry and dour for most of the runtime. Doheny plays his part well, being squeamish and jittery without spending every other minute fainting at the sight of anything that could contaminate his safe personal bubble. Clark is very easy to warm to, Bennett is a sweet and lovely resident who you don't want to see come to any harm, and the few other main characters are played by Lorna Wilson, Marty Adams, Donald Tripe, Mark McKinney, and Brynn Godenir. You may think that presents a decent selection of victims, but the film needed more bodies to be put in serious danger.

Undemanding horror comedy fans will find enough to enjoy here, especially when it comes to the presentation of the creature effects, but those who have seen a lot of films in this vein (and I count myself in that demographic) will be disappointed by the lack of creativity and style on display. Everything is okay, but nothing ever becomes more than okay. You can pick something better for your first choice when lining up an evening of viewings. If you're in a good mood then you could pick this as a secondary option. It might turn out to be a decent number two. 

5/10

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Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (2026)

I have to start my review of Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma by reminding people that I didn't love Censor as much as most people. Why bother saying that? Well, the two films have a hell of a lot in common, although they're also easily set apart by the differences. Both features have a very firm foundation built upon the wild years of the '80s VHS horror boom, making use of a nostalgia that I said years ago was already wearing thin, both have numerous moments that play around with reality, and both do a very good job of recreating some fun period details.

The big difference, however, is that Prano Bailey-Bond, the co-writer and director of Censor, for me, felt detached from, and somehow looking down upon, the horror genre works that she was referencing. Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun, threading a needle here that mixes meta fun with complex identity and sexual journeys, feels like someone who is happy to be immersed in this world, and spends almost every minute of the runtime referencing horror tropes and observations in a way that feels equal parts authentic and slightly bonkers, in the best way.

The main plot here concerns a hotshot young director, Kris (Hannah Einbinder), who has been tasked with resurrecting and rejuvenating a tired slasher movie series. To really get things right, Kris decides that she should seek the blessing of the reclusive actress, Billy (Gillian Anderson), who played the final girl in the original movie. Billy now lives at the camp that provided the setting for that film, ensuring that Kris soon starts to become fascinated by just how thin the fabric can be between movie moments and reality. And that fabric certainly won't protect anyone if the movie killer, Little Death (Jack Haven), manages to slash their way through to our world.

I really don't have all the words available to me when it comes to the many ways I want to praise Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma. While Schoenbrun has made personal statements with her previous two films, and certainly inserts enough details and moments here that feel autobiographical at times, this feels like a huge step up, in terms of the scope and the conversation it has with viewers. Because, as with all Schoenbrun films, this is a film that relies on viewers actively responding to how things play out. 

Einbinder is fantastic in her role here, even if it feels like she's only a step removed from her character in Hacks at times, but it's Anderson who has the most fun, helped by an over the top Southern drawl and a selection of enigmatic speeches. She's not only the most important character in relation to Einbinder's entry point to her potential upcoming movie, she's someone who can help to explain what power and positivity can remain in many horror movies that are often reframed and re-contextualised by modern viewers. This feels like the thread that Schoenbrun is most interested in pulling at, especially when it comes to how representation and acceptance of sexuality on a spectrum have changed so much in the past few decades, but there's also something worthwhile in the way that horror movies would still, for better or worse, give prominent roles to characters you wouldn't often see in other genres.

There's a lot more to enjoy here, whether it's the obvious brilliance of the potted history we're shown that presents the Camp Miasma series as an obvious Friday The 13th proxy or the supporting performances from the likes of Kevin McDonald, Patrick Fischler, Zach Cherry, and Amanda Fix (playing the younger version of Anderson's character), but it's the layered and rewatchable nature of it that will ensure satisfaction for so many viewers, whether they're moved by the journey of the main characters or amused and entertained by the slasher movie moments, or both. Although she has her very own style, her very own perspective, and her own relationship with the movies referenced here, Schoenbrun uses her platform to give others a safe space to explore their own emotions and histories. Problematic creatives and problematic content can still become part of the fabric of who you are, part of everything that you grow to love and vouch for, without those problems necessarily having to be erased or excused by those with different views. And, if we're being as honest with ourselves as the film wants us to be, sometimes those problematic elements can be part of the appeal. It doesn't make fans bad for wanting to spend some time immersed in a fantasy.

Others may think I have completely misread this film, and they could be correct, but I'm happy to have had my own personal reaction to everything it served up. And I'll be happy to read the different interpretations of it from other people. That's the beauty of it, and it aligns perfectly with the multi-faceted nature of horror fandom, and indeed the multi-faceted nature of us humans and our messy sexual explorations.

10/10

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Mubi Monday: Group Marriage (1973)

I initially thought that I hadn't seen any other movies from director Stephanie Rothman. I was wrong. It turns out that I have seen two of the films she made before this one. Whether or not they could be considered better examples of work remains to be seen (I'll be checking out another couple of her movies in the near future), but I am happy to now try to keep her name stored somewhere in my foggy memory banks.

Group Marriage is basically summed up by the title. I'm not going to go through every character onscreen, but the main ones are Chris (Aimee Eccles) and Sander (Solomon Sturges), Dennis (Jeff Pomerantz) and Jan (Victoria Vetri), Phil (Zack Taylor) and Elaine (Claudia Jennings). Each of these individuals ends up finding something attractive in someone other than their primary partner, which leads to them eventually settling on the idea of living together in one house and creating one unusual, but effective, group marriage unit.

As well as taking on her directorial role, Rothman also helped to co-write this screenplay with Richard Walter and Charles S. Swartz. Although it may be difficult to point to the elements added by each individual writer, it feels as if Rothman was happy to use the potential sex comedy premise to make some important points about consent, the gap between love and sex, and the ways that society judges and mistreats those who don't conform to a set of apparent norms that were established by people who probably didn't want to have sex unless it was scheduled and purely for the purpose of procreation. There's still some comedy here, especially in scenes that show people figuring out boundaries, and dealing with others who may assume that the situation gives them a free pass to do whatever they like, but it's smarter and sharper than the "ooh, I've tripped and my clothes have fallen off" nonsense that could have been scattered throughout.

The males do well to avoid being too irritating, and it helps that they're often a step behind the women when it comes to planning some consensual non-monogamy, but both Eccles and Vetri are constantly captivating. Not only are they both obviously appealing to the men around them, but their attitude is pleasantly interesting and fluid. They're allowed to become cautious once they decide to open up the parameters of their relationships, they're allowed to still feel jealousy and resentment, and they're allowed to push back at others when being side-eyed for simply allowing themselves to add more pleasure to their lives. 

Entertaining, sometimes titillating, and certainly progressive during the moments that have characters figuring out how to balance their personal harmony with everyday living, Group Marriage is the sort of fascinating curio that should make you keen to check out other features from the film-maker. That's how it affected me anyway.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Whisper Man (2026)

I get it. I want to start this review by clarifying that I totally get it. A crime thriller that stars Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan doesn't seem like a great prospect. And when you have credited roles for both Robert De Niro and Michael Keaton, it's safe to assume that neither of those bigger names will be breaking a sweat. Add to that the fact that this was released straight to a streaming platform with little to no fanfare and you may have already decided to give it a miss.

Despite everything going against it, The Whisper Man isn't actually that bad. It's all about a series of child abductions and deaths that replicate the M.O. of the titular killer. The odd thing is that the killer (Michael Keaton) is in prison. He was put there by Peter Willis (De Niro), a retired cop haunted by that case. But Willis ends up back in action when his grandson (Jake, played by Acston Luca Porto) becomes a target. This leads to Willis struggling to repair some broken bridges with his own son, Tom (Scott), as they work hard with the lead officer on the case, Amanda Beck (Monaghan), to find Jake before the clock runs out.

While I haven't read any of his books so far, I am aware of Alex North, the writer of the source material used here. I've also seen a few other things written by Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer, who have both had varying degrees of success with some big properties. A lot of people celebrated director James Ashcroft for his previous outing (The Rule Of Jenny Pen), although I was a bit cooler on it than most, but he somehow feels like a much better fit this time around. He clearly knows his way around the tropes of the crime thriller, he introduces one or two supernatural elements in a way that doesn't unbalance the whole thing, and he's happy enough to occasionally pay homage to the title that arguably casts the longest shadow over the modern examples of this sub-genre (The Silence Of The Lambs, of course).

Scott and Monaghan both do fine in their roles, but they're both very much a step down from the bigger names they sometimes have to share screentime with. Scott suffers a bit more, considering how this role hews very close to someone he played in a much better movie from earlier this year. Keaton gets to swagger and exude the kind of menace and confidence that he can do so well, and his Whisper Man is an interesting addition to the overstuffed collection of movie serial killers we've had throughout the decades. It's De Niro who proves to be a pleasant surprise though, giving a performance that at least feels as if he's not just sleepwalking through something that has been pinned on the coat-tails of his past glories. He's both vulnerable and determined throughout, and his complicated relationship to the case, and the killer, provides a number of the more interesting moments in the film. Young Porto does well enough, Hamish Linklater gets to overact in a couple of main scenes, and Owen Teague is impressively unnerving when he finally gets to be front and centre in the tense and dark third act.

If you think you might like this then you're probably right. The 111-minute runtime goes by quickly enough, it tries hard to distract you from the more implausible moments, and there's a feeling of real threat to the main characters throughout. This isn't a cosy and slick thriller that you know everyone will survive. It's nothing new, but it does well with the familiar trappings of the sub-genre, and it might even win over those who, like me, skimmed some of the plot and casting details and assumed the worst. 

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: Penny Lane Is Dead (2025)

This feature debut from writer-director Mia Kate Russell is a bit of a mess. In fact, it's only when I checked on some details before writing this review that I saw it was described in some places as a comedy horror. While I could recognise some moments that work in darkly comedic ways, the biggest problem here is the tone, which needed to be handled much better than it is handled here.

It's 1986. A trio of young women head to a quiet beach house to have one last fun time together before parting ways, but they're soon joined by an unwelcome fourth, Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn). Think of mid-1990s Fairuza Balk and you get the essence of Kat. Kat soon invites in some extra uninvited guests, the night turns dark and deadly, and the whole thing becomes a bloody battle between a plucky potential final girl and those being manipulated by Kat.

There's just nothing about Penny Lane Is Dead that is actually good, sadly, and it just feels a bit lazy and ill-conceived. Why is it set in 1986? No reason (none that I could figure out anyway, aside from the obvious mobile phone issue that could have been resolved some other way). Why does Kat come up with such a wild plan? Because the movie requires it. Why do the girls even allow Kat to join them for a while and add tension to their night of fun? Again, just because the movie requires it. It's hard to care about any of the characters, it's impossible to even view Kat as a fun psycho villain, considering how erratic her mood swings are, and any fun to be had is offset by the genuine unpleasantness of the central premise.

Wright-Mendelsohn isn't good in her role, but it's hard to pin down how much of that is down to bad writing and how much of it is down to her performance. I'll wait to see some more acting work from her before I really make up my mind. Considering Ben O'Toole (playing a dangerous idiot named Angus) is also quite bad, and I've known him to be good in other features, this wouldn't seem to be a showcase for any of the main cast members. Tahlee Fereday, as Toni, and Steve Le Marquand, as Merrick, both do much better than anyone else onscreen though, but they benefit from not having to play people who are as dumb as they are vicious. Alexandra Jensen and Fletcher Humphrys are both just fine, and Bailey Spalding, as the titular Penny Lane, makes a good impression, but is understandably not given too much screentime.

The more I think about it, the more bemused I am by how bad this is. It completely mishandles things, and I think that mishandling is summed up by the nastiest and darkest moment being presented in a way that stops it from making any impact, mainly because viewers have yet to be shown just how awful some characters are as soon as they appear onscreen. Russell might have amused herself while making this, and there will be others who will find this blend of violence and stupidity just right for them, but she certainly didn't create something that amused me. Hugely disappointing. Although it proves how important it is when you're aiming to balance dark deeds and dark comedy.

3/10

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Super Troopers 2 (2018)

The gang all return for this comedy sequel that pits our titular troopers against some hostile Canadian counterparts. If you enjoy the shenanigans of the Broken Lizard comedy team then you'll find enough to amuse and entertain you here. If you don't then this won't convert you.

Having been removed from the force due to a ride along incident involving Fred Savage, the troopers have a shot at redemption when asked to help a small Canadian province transition to America. It's on the border, you see, and the border marking was wrong. So all they have to do is keep order, avoid upsetting locals who don't want to be forced into "becoming Americans", and generally avoid making any major mistakes. Oh dear.

As well as co-starring and co-writing with the rest of the team, Jay Chandrasekhar once again sits in the director's chair for this Broken Lizard feature. He's a very experienced pair of hands by now, and he's always done well enough with handling their own material anyway, which means you get a well-paced comedy that knows how to pack extra laughs into every main sequence.

Alongside Chandrasekhar is Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, and Paul Soter, all reprising their central characters with ease. There's also time to allow Brian Cox, Lynda Carter, and Marisa Coughlan to return, and a number of the main Canadians are played by Rob Lowe, Hayes MacArthur, Tyler Labine, Will Sasso, and Emmanuelle Chriqui, most of them leaning hard into the "sorry, eh" and "that sounds aboot right" comical exaggeration of the Canadian accent.

The plot works well enough, particularly when it starts to become about more than just the rivalry between the Americans and Canadians, but it's also, like the first film, slight enough to allow more space for jokes and skits. It suffers a bit, in the way that most sequels do, but it's surprisingly good, especially when you consider that the guys decided to revisit these characters over 15 years after the original proved to be such a cult comedy success.

This is all being said by someone who really likes almost everything that Broken Lizard does though. Even Quasi. They may not be the most sophisticated, or cine-literate, when it comes to their movies, but they tend to maintain a consistently satisfying gag rate. And I'll continue to reference a number of my favourite lines from their films, even if nobody else tends to get my references. I rewatched this now to get myself primed and ready for the upcoming Super Troopers 3, and I'll be very happy if that manages to be as good as this. 

7/10

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Ocean's Eight (2018)

While it may not be as cool or witty as the first instalment of the series it is a part of, Ocean's Eight seems to have been yet another enjoyable slice of entertainment now reframed/erased by those who become enraged when women have the audacity to enjoy some more representation onscreen. It's silly and implausible, but the fantastic cast help to make it an easy pleasure from start to finish.

Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, related to a certain Danny (of course). We first see Debbie as she's being released from prison, and it's not long until she's hatching what she believes is a foolproof plan for a legendary robbery. It's going to take place during the Met Gala. She'll need the help of her partner, Lou (Cate Blanchett), and the plan will rely on various skills brought to the table by a fence named Tammy (Sarah Paulson), a nible-fingered pickpocket named Constance (Awkwafina), a fashion designer named Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), a hacker nicknamed Nine Ball (Rihanna), and a jewellery maker named Amita (Mindy Kaling). They also need to manipulate and make use of a vain actress, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), and it would be a big bonus for Debbie if she could find a way to get revenge on Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), the man who was responsible for her being caught and sent to prison years ago.

Directed by Gary Ross, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Olivia Milch, this is a fine caper, absolutely in line with the other instalments in this movie series. A lot of the appeal stems from the charm of the leads, the big score is impressively audacious, and a couple of twists and turns on the way to the end credits will keep viewers on their toes without them feeling cheated. You get a lot of celebrity cameos, all helping to ensure that the Met Gala feels just busy and glamorous enough to make it believable, and there's a good attempt to replicate the energy and cool style of the other movies, particularly when it comes to the unflappable nature of our main character reacting to fluid and precarious situations.

Bullock allows her star power to shine bright in the lead role, and she's a fantastic lynchpin for the entire cast. Blanchett works well alongside her, equally calm, but also slightly more cautious as some of the risks are being calculated. Paulson and Carter both have a lot of fun in their roles, Awkwafina feels like perfect casting for her character, and both Kaling and Rihanna are just the right personalities to round out the core group. Hathaway seems to enjoy playing someone so egotistical and vain, Armitage is allowed to play his part in a way that makes it very easy to root for his downfall, and there are amusing little moments for Elliott Gould and James Corden.

As is the way with many sequels, the main thing working against this is the large shadow cast by the original. It still proves to be worthwhile though, and the way in which our main characters rely on women being ignored feeds nicely into the main scheme. It shows that there could be one or two extra features in this series yet, and I'd certainly be happy enough to one day sit down to watch an Ocean's Nine.

8/10

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Prime Time: Slotherhouse (2023)

It's quite ironic that I was very slow to get around to this horror comedy, but I'm happy to say that I finally made time to enjoy the sheer silliness of this. While written and directed by a bunch of people I am not familiar with, Slotherhouse shows how much fun can be had when people commit to some entertaining stupidity, especially when the technical side of things is done well enough to keep it looking professional and made with at least some small amount of care.

Lisa Ambalavanar plays Emily, a young woman who wants to become the president of her sorority. She has a major fight on her hands to usurp Brianna (Sydney Craven), but soon discovers that a cute pet can help to win over many fans. Which starts to happen after she takes ownership of a sloth. The sloth isn't always as slow and cute as it appears though, and it's not long until the killings begin.

Writers Bradley Fowler and Cady Lanigan do everything they can to encourage viewers to lean into the ridiculousness of this. They start off with little moments of sloth-induced murder and mayhem, provide a montage at about the halfway point, and then deliver a third act that is all the more entertaining for being completely implausible (by the time the sloth is posting to Instagram with niche hashtags and another victim then you're either laughing or ready to turn the thing off).

Director Matthew Goodhue keeps everything looking and feeling as it should. Shot choices and framing allow for a lot of enjoyable practical effects and puppeteering, overlaid imagery use social media snapshots to deliver main character traits and developing tensions, and there are a number of fun homages throughout (some much more obvious than others, but Gremlins feels like the biggest influence at times). 

While the cast is made up of lesser-known actors, I think they deserve some praise for being so game about the whole thing. They play everything pretty straight, with the humour coming more from their Mean Girls antics than the murderous sloth, and do well at either portraying a character going through a journey (Ambalavanar) or fully embracing their stereotype (Craven). Bianca Beckles-Rose is a lot of fun as the hyper Zenny, Olivia Rouyre is good as the young woman who warns our lead against the path she seems intent on walking, and Tiff Stevenson provides some extra laughs as Ms. Mayflower, the "house mother" who secretly wants another chance to have a better position in the sorority hierarchy.

If you've been as slow as me to get around to this one then make time for it now. I'm not going to say it's an overlooked modern classic, nor am I guaranteeing that you will chuckle as often as I did, but it's a lot of fun, and I would definitely watch Slotherhouse 2: Locked In The Zoo.

7/10

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Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

If you don't know the background to this movie, if you've somehow been buried in the earth after some huge boulder landed on you a couple of years ago and are only now just regaining consciousness, then it's well worth looking into. I'm not going to repeat it all here. Suffice to say that David Zaslav is a tasteless moron, and Warner Bros. Pictures are continuing to do a very good job of making themselves into strong contenders for the position of the least likeable and least ethical of the major film studios releasing blockbuster hits today. Maybe I am biased, having never liked them since they continued to keep the DVD of Batman Returns being sold here in the UK with incorrect information on the packaging about a commentary track that wasn't present, but I'm sure that I'm not alone. 

Anyway, let's get to the entertainingly simple, but brilliant, plot. Wile E. Coyote is fed up. He's never going to catch the Road Runner, and he has spent decades being hurt and humiliated by faulty ACME products. So he ends up hiring a lawyer, Kevin Avery (Will Forte), to help him sue ACME. Of course, if Road Runner ends up being called as a witness then it's a win win, especially if he can finally trap and eat his nemesis.

Based on an article by Ian Frazier, published in the February 26, 1990, issue of The New Yorker, a number of people were tickled by the idea of our put-upon cartoon creation finally heading down a legal path to find some kind of restitution. James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch worked on the story, and the screenplay credit here is given to Burch. The film feels like something that could only have been made thanks to the co-operation and collaboration of various Loony Tunes fans, but Burch deserves credit for maintaining a strong central narrative strand that allows for various set-pieces full of expected cartoon anarchy.

Director Dave Green has a a few other projects to his credit, but not too many. This is easily his best work, and it's absolutely on a par with the film that casts the largest shadow over it, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now that it's out in the world, and hopefully set to do some good business, I'd love to see everyone figure out how to come up with a sequel. And Green would be a very safe pair of hands for that, considering how well he does here at seamlessly blending the live action with the animation, and how he packs multiple great gags into every scene.

Forte is very good in the lead human role, portraying a cynical sad sack who can eventually see how the plight of Wile E. Coyote runs parallel to the plight of so many others unable to take on some of the giant corporations determined to keep screwing them over. He's supported well by Lana Condor, as well as Tone Bell and Martha Kelly, and the whole team feels like just the right mix of people to debate the various approaches to what many view as a hopeless case. John Cena is a lot of fun as Buddy Crane, the slick ACME lawyer, and his main assistant, Bill, is another chance for P. J. Byrne to deliver the kind of performance he can do so easily. Luis Guzmán is enjoyable as the Judge presiding over the case, but viewers will arguably be more excited to see cameos from the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and a few other cartoon favourites (some of them being more pleasantly surprising because of them not being the obvious and expected choices).

While I laughed a lot at this, and laughed hard, I was also surprised by one or two moments that somehow managed to make me slightly emotional. Although I know I would be right in the target demographic for this, there's a part of me that hopes that this can do what other features haven't ever really managed: convert younger viewers into fans of the full-on brilliance of the Loony-verse. Whatever happens, I am beyond delighted that we have this to enjoy anyway. It's as close to a perfect Loony Tunes feature film as you could hope for. 

9/10

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Mubi Monday: The President's Cake (2025)

Although you may be aware of this already, there are times when the leader of a country will insist that people go out of their way to show their forced (and often fake) adoration and respect for them. They might have lots of statues and tributes placed around the country. They might want lots of buildings named after them. They may even try to reshape historic buildings into something gaudier and more in line with what they view as a permanent legacy. In 1990s Iraq, Saddam Hussein was celebrated on his birthday by people who could barely afford to feed themselves. This film follows young Lamia, a schoolgirl tasked with baking a cake as her part of the celebrations.

There have been many films showing children on adventures, every obstacle amplified by the fact that they're so young and innocent, and often ill-equipped to deal with the world around them. The President's Cake mainly keeps viewers alongside Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyef) and her friend, Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem). The other main character is Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat), Lamia's frail grandmother. And, of course, Saddam Hussein, who casts a large shadow over the proceedings, considering the fact that he is the reason for the upcoming celebrations, and also the reason for the heavy sanctions that make it so difficult to buy things like cake ingredients at a decent price. 

This feature debut from writer-director Hasan Hadi is a moving and clever look at the impact dictatorial misrule can have on every struggling citizen. It causes economic hardships, which makes it much easier for the poor to be hurt and exploited, but it also causes mistrust and division among those seeking to maintain their simple right to exist as a citizen of the country they were born in. This feels like something worth reminding people of right now, and if I have to explain why then you're just not paying attention (or you're being willfully ignorant).

The performances from Nayyef and Qasem are natural and winning, helped immensely by the fact that they're wide-eyed and nervous children navigating their way around adults who aren't necessarily averse to taking advantage of their ignorance. Khreibat is very good, maintaining a sense of weariness as she portrays someone trying to ensure that her granddaughter will be safe as she feels less able to be there with the energy levels and strength required. Everyone else appearing onscreen, whether for a minute or an entire scene, also maintains a high standard, and every interaction feels so organic and unaffected that I would be curious to find out how many non-actors Hadi made use of throughout the whole film.

While it may lag behind some other countries when it comes to cinema from the Middle East, Iraq seems to be another area that deserves more exploration (certainly by myself, but also perhaps by others exploring different regions through the medium of film). The President's Cake is a film I would highly recommend as a starting point, and I hope to see more from Hasan Hadi in the future. Meanwhile, I'll try to remind myself to look back and find some other notable titles to help me expand my knowledge of Iraqi cinema. 

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: Enola Holmes (2020)

AKA The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Sister. Okay, maybe not quite. But that's what they're going for sometimes.

Millie Bobby Brown plays the titular character, younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft, in this adventure mystery based on a book by Nancy Springer. There's the obvious source material from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be acknowledged, but writer Jack Thorne delivers a screenplay that keeps the focus on the spirit of sleuthing and being curious, instead of staying far too beholden to the many exploits of Sherlock himself.

Things really get going when Enola's mother (Eudoria Holmes, played by Helena Bonham Carter) goes missing. Once her brothers have returned home and made little effort to solve what appears to be a great mystery, Enola decides to set off and find her AWOL parent. That's how she ends up encountering a young man named Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), which brings her to the attention of some dastardly villains, particularly the murderous Linthorn (Burn Gorman).

Director Harry Bradbeer works well enough with easygoing escapism that relies on the star power of Brown, as well as the familiar faces in supporting roles (Henry Cavill is a considerate Sherlock, while Sam Claflin plays the more abrupt Mycroft). The runtime is predictably nudging right against the two hour mark, but it has just the right levels of energy and fun to make everything pass by briskly enough. 

And a large part of that energy and fun comes from Brown herself. I am not always a big fan of her work, and think she got lucky to land her Stranger Things role that fast-tracked her to stardom, but she’s very good here as a young woman with the brains and strength to make things very complicated for the many men who would rather she just stayed quiet and stayed out of their way. Partridge is a good pairing for Brown, the two work well enough in the scenes that they share, and Gorman makes a reasonably fun baddie. While Cavill is a bit too caring and considerate for a typical portrayal of Sherlock, he does well enough to make his casting work, and Claflin is enjoyably aloof as Mycroft. Carter is enjoyable in her relatively short amount of screentime, and you have support from the likes of Frances de la Tour, Susan Wokoma, Claire Rushbrook, and Adeel Akhtar (playing the familiar character of Lestrade).

I had fun with this while it was on, but it doesn’t quite do everything it sets out to do. The puzzles are a bit too easy to figure out, the action is never as thrilling as it could be, and viewers have to accept the fact that the main character often breaks the fourth wall to deliver extra details and exposition. I doubt I will rewatch it any time, but I am definitely happy enough to watch the sequels.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: What Happened To Dorothy Bell? (2024)

While not strictly adhering to the form throughout, as far as I could tell, What Happened To Dorothy Bell? is essentially another in a long line of found footage horrors. It's a surprisingly good one though, helped by the technical side of things being as good as you could hope for, especially when it comes to the quiet soundscape and low lighting throughout most of the runtime.

Ozzie Gray (Asya Meadows) decides to embark on a project to find out what happened to their grandmother, Dorothy Bell (Arlene Arnone Bibbs). There are a number of fond childhood memories, but there's also a very dark and dangerous episode that seemed to mark the beginning of the end for Dorothy. Ozzie doesn't find many people willing to help them, but they also try to spend some time discussing their feelings on the subject in online appointments with Dr. Robin Connelly (Lisa Wilcox).

The second full feature from writer-director Danny Villanueva Jr., this contains enough solid scares and impressive atmosphere to make him well worth keeping an eye on. It's so good that I am keen to look back at his past works (an anthology titled I Dream Of A Psychopomp and a number of shorts), and I definitely want to see what he does with access to a bigger budget and better resources. There's nothing here that feels cheap though, but it's obvious that Villanueva Jr. is working within certain limitations.

Meadows is a decent lead, and delivers a very convincing performance even as things start to get weirder and spookier. Bibbs is haunting, and does so well that her presence looms large throughout every scene, as it should be. Villanueva Jr. may have done well with his writing and shot choices to keep viewers on their toes, but Bibbs is an important part of why we can believe that Ozzie wants to keep hoping for the best even as things don't look destined to have a happy ending. Wilcox is a very welcome addition, and she must be pleased to have been involved in the most memorably scary sequence in the whole film.

Ultimately a good choice for anyone after some thrills and chills, the only real downside is the way that Villanueva Jr. seems to have one or two extra ideas that he can't satisfyingly wrangle into the plot. I think, though others may disagree, that keeping this one more focused on scares and atmosphere, instead of developing a background lore that ultimately falters, could have left this a much better film. But it may have been even shorter than the 80-minute runtime, which may have been a factor in Villanueva Jr. trying to add in something wholly unnecessary.

This is one of those occasions, however, when the mistakes just add to a sense of positivity. If he learns some valuable lessons from this then Villanueva Jr. could easily deliver something even more impressive and scary with his next outing. I wouldn't even mind if he reassembled the same cast and decided to rework some of the better moments from this.

7/10

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Confessions Of A Window Cleaner (1974)

While I have done my bit to fight back against the erasure of the British sex comedies that helped to boost the box office numbers for a few years in the 1970s, I am far from an expert on the topic. I will persevere, however, even if it means continuing to see far more of Robin Askwith than I ever wanted. I'm not going to claim that these movies have enduring appeal, nor am I going to say that many of them have an artistry and sophistication unjustly ignored by snobs, but they have earned a place in the history of cinema that remains worthy of note.

Based on a book by Christopher Wood (as Timothy lea), this is the tale of a young man (Askwith) who finds out that being a window cleaner is about more than just cleaning windows. He has to go out of his way to ensure that every client is happy. That's easier said than done though, especially when our young lead ends up taking a proper shine to a female police officer named Elizabeth Radlett (Linda Hayden).

Adapted into screenplay form by Wood and director Val Guest, this is silly and horribly dated stuff. It's based around the idea that all attractive women are really desperate for horny men to help take care of their needs, and also tries to convince viewers that Robin Askwith can often become the main object of their desire. Askwith works in his role because he's very much an everyman, but that also works against him, considering how he is supposed to be able to stir up such a passion in a number of the featured female characters.

The most fun here comes from the supporting cast. Aside from Askwith, who simply has to look cheeky and chirpy, and always ready to jump into bed with someone, there are turns from Anthony Booth (the man who shares the lore of the mystical window cleaner lothario), the aforementioned Hayden, John Le Mesurier and Joan Hickson (sorely underused as the parents of Hayden's character), Bill Maynard and Dandy Nichols (the parents of our randy lead), and a number of other faces familiar to fans of British TV and cinema.

Guest may be very aware that he's not making any kind of absolute classic, especially in contrast to some of his much better work throughout the '50s and '60s, but he knows exactly what he's helming. There's a lot of titillation (despite the extra raunch factor of both this and the "Adventures" series, things are still presented with the emphasis on sauciness ahead of anything truly pornographic. It may be a bit more full-on than the seaside postcard humour of the Carry On movies, a series that fell by the wayside when it tried to balance the milder sensibilities and comforting companionship of the main stars with the more liberal attitudes of cinema-goers, but it's still trying to offer a bit of something for everyone (no pun intended).

People will continue to roll their eyes at me, and they'll pull my leg about my reasons for watching films like this, but I'll continue to bang the drum for the inherent value of these relics. They're a fascinating snapshot of one facet of British cinema, and I'm absolutely delighted to now own many of them in home media releases that also contain a wealth of supplementary features and information providing important context for them. 

Oh, this isn't one of my favourites though, but it's better than any of the instalments in the "Adventures" movie series. 

5/10

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Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (2025)

Based on a web series, and a subsequent TV series, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie should appeal to fans of those involved. I would say, however, that I ended up liking it a lot, despite my ignorance of the property. And hearing about how the show used to play out, I might not have wanted to give this my time if I thought it might end up feeling too focused on various improvised encounters with members of the public (as was common in the show).

The plot starts off simply enough. Musicians Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol (played by . . . Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol) are trying in vain to get their band booked into a venue named the Rivoli. They just want one chance, but it hasn't happened in the many years that they've been trying. No worries. The answer is clearly time travel. What starts as an unlikely joke soon turns into something quite serious when Matt spills juice over his own home-made flux capacitor, which makes it work just as it does in Back To The Future. Things can now be changed for the better, but only if our two leads can stay friends and stay focused. Which seems unlikely.

With Johnson also directing, and both he and McCarrol crafting a screenplay featuring input from pretty much everyone in their core creative group, this is very much a small-scale indie flick in all but the actual budget (which seems to have been about $2M). For better or worse, and despite the very obvious shadow cast over it by BTTF, it's quite unlike anything else I've seen in recent years, and it's all the better for being so unique.

While there is a lot of improv on display here, kudos to the film-makers for making use of most of it in a way that works in service of a surprisingly complex main narrative strand. It's one thing to go out and about, filming hours and hours of footage to get the snippets of actual material required, but it's another thing entirely to assemble everything into a feature that feels both anarchic and finely-tuned.

Johnson and McCarrol also do very well in their main roles. They may not be the best actors, but their special skillset lies in working in a way that allows them to keep many options available to them as they dance and whirl around a variety of key sequences. Nobody else onscreen may have as much work to do, but they're all very good, whether getting directly involved in the action or simply showing how they have to hang back and blend in with the surroundings.

I don't think I'll rush to watch this again, and I'm certainly not won over to the idea of checking out episodes of the show, but this was a fun time while it was on, and there were a couple of moments that felt genuinely impressive (the main one being a wild set-piece within the first 10-20 minutes). I laughed enough, I appreciated the sweetness that became more apparent as things started to move to the inevitable conclusion, and I actually started to hope that maybe one day, just maybe, these guys would get to play their dream gig at the Rivoli. 

7/10

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Prime Time: Return To Silent Hill (2026)

A friend of mine recently watched Return To Silent Hill and commented that it was somewhat akin to a number of the cut scenes from Silent Hill 2 being stitched together without any real care or consideration for other standard movie elements. I'm paraphrasing slightly, but that seems to have summed up her opinion. I can't really disagree, but I somehow enjoyed this much more than I expected to.

Jeremy Irvine plays James Sunderland, a man who enters the town of Silent Hill as he spends time looking for his lost love, Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson). Once there, he starts to see some very strange and disturbing sights, and also meets a few other lost souls, one of them looking VERY similar to Mary.

A return to the movie series for director Christophe Gans, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sandra Vo-Anh and William Josef Schneider, this is a ambient mood piece that probably works best as background noise for fans of Silent Hill 2. I've just started exploring that videogame world, although I have some recollection of my time playing the very first game back on the PSOne, and even I felt a comforting familiarity as soon as the early scenes of the movie made it clear that the plot here was sticking very close to the popular game.

The environment is well-rendered and feels very much how it should be. It's mist-filled, many buildings look spoiled in some way, and the more creepy creations move and threaten as they should. It's just a real shame that I cared less about the main character here than I did when he was under my control on my videogame console.

Irvine has his work cut out from him, with most of his performance relying on him to look either bewildered or sad, but he doesn't help himself. Maybe it's the direction, but Irvine feels even more lifeless and noncorporeal than anything else onscreen. Okay, that feeds into some of the main themes of the story, but it doesn't make for an engaging and watchable main character. Anderson does much better, perfectly embodying a welcome bit of light in the encroaching darkness of the town. As for the other cast members who appear, the best ones are the physical performers who end up credited with descriptions like "armless", "spider lady", "nurse", and, of course, "Pyramid Head".

It's a shame that this does nothing interesting with the property, and I can understand people being annoyed by how relatively hollow and dull it is, but I must say that it worked for me. Maybe that's because it just felt like playing through the game without the risk of frustration or unexpected death, two things which happen to me often when I am attempting to overcome my serious videogaming limitations. I can still see that it doesn't work well as a movie, but it works well enough as a collage of Silent Hill 2 highlights.

6/10

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Mutiny (2026)

Some days you spend over three and a half hours rewatching, and re-evaluating, something like Heaven's Gate. Other days you end up enjoying the latest slice of action nonsense built around the heroic Jason Statham. Variety is the spice of life.

Variety is also something you tend not to get with Jason Statham movies. Not that I am saying that in any majorly critical way. I watch most Jason Statham movies to watch Statham punch and kick people in the face, powered by his athleticism and a righteous fury, and most Jason Statham movies deliver exactly that. Some are a slight side-step (and I wish he would try more comedy, he's genuinely very good at it), but most give you exactly what you're after.

Mutiny, if you have seen any of the advertising, has been marketed as Statham's Die Hard on a freighter ship, and that's all you really need to know. After the murder of his boss, Cole Reed (Statham) ends up nosing around on a big boat that happens to be involved in some horrible human trafficking. Assisted by a member of the crew, Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis), Cole starts getting rid of the bad guys while trying to protect the vulnerable victims on board the ship. He's got a number of decent foes to battle, but it soon becomes clear that Captain Marko Madsen (Roland Møller) may be the final boss.

Originally envisioned as a sequel to Plane, and it may have been named "Ship" at that point, this was reworked and Statham-ised by writers Lindsay Michel and J. P. Davis, who have delivered a screenplay that feels self-aware and knowing without ever deigning to fully wink at the audience. Our hero has a background in various forces, of course, and doesn't always get along with people who want to make compromises for the sake of politics. And while it's hard to avoid comparisons to the mighty Die Hard, one or two shots seem constructed to specifically reference that action movie classic.

Director Jean-François Richet knows that he's now helming something very different from Plane, and he does good work in setting up an interesting environment and ensuring the action is crunchy and entertaining enough to make up for the fairly weak dialogue and paper-thin characterisations.

While Statham may not win any awards for his acting, he consistently looks like someone that could easily punch my head clean off without breaking a sweat, and that's what's needed here. It might be easy to mock his particular brand of cinematic violence, but I would argue that he's currently one of the best in his field when it comes to this enjoyable nonsense. Wallis isn't too bad alongside him, although I don't think I've ever seen a performance from her that has convinced me of her being worthy of any star billing. Adrian Lester and Steven Blades do well in much smaller roles, but Møller is the only other real standout, especially when he has to begrudgingly get his hands dirty as he realises that the rest of his crew aren't up to the task of taking down one pesky interloper.

It might not feel like a film you should rush to the cinema to see, Statham would have been an amazing straight-to-video stalwart a few decades ago, but Mutiny is a bloody good time. And sometimes showing your support for something that's a bloody good time helps people to raise finances for other movies that turn out to be a bloody good time. I'm not going to rate it too highly though, considering the predictability and weaker elements, but fans of solid action will definitely want to check this out. 

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Heaven's Gate (1980)

I've seen Heaven's Gate before, but it somehow made no impression on me. I remember thinking that it wasn't as bad as others might have you believe, but that's been a general opinion for many years now, considering the softening effects of the passing of time and the reappraisal this has received since the longer cut became more widely available.

This second viewing has me creeping closer to the view that this is close to being a real great. It doesn't get there, not quite, but it's a fascinating mess.

Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston, and Brad Dourif have main roles here, all of them playing a part in telling a tale of unrest and deadly fighting among the various citizens of Wyoming. Some of them feel themselves more deserving than others when it comes to the land and their positions, and there's a plan to write up a list of names of people who have to go. 

Written and directed by Michael Cimino, I could write thousands and thousands of words about the making of Heaven's Gate, but many others have already done that. It's well-documented as one of the most bloated and damaging directorial features of all time. There's such a stink all over it that I am always surprised to see that Cimino was allowed to make other movies after it. I'm less surprised to find that none of his later efforts come close to the strange magnificence of this.

Every cast member mentioned, whether playing a stereotype or a more well-rounded character, does excellent work here, and the hefty runtime of the movie also allows time for appearances from Joseph Cotten, Jeff Bridges, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Masur, and a number of other familiar faces (keep your eyes peeled for Tom Noonan, Mickey Rourke, and Terry O'Quinn, among others) in both credited and uncredited roles.

I'm not sure it really matters about the people in front of the camera though. As good a job as they do, this is Cimino's vision, and he seizes the opportunity to put the United States of America under a lens that shows how those once-glorified "Wild West" years were full of violence, mistrust, bigotry, and huge divisions between the rich and the poor that make the current climate of the country much easier to understand, especially when so many people living there still think that life was better in what they like to view as a simpler time, despite the evidence to the contrary.

The 219-minute runtime is a hell of a commitment, but I encourage people to make time for it. There are moments that could have been trimmed down, but it's a large beast full of life, with teeth and claws that can occasionally hurt, compared to the sad and neutered pet that the more heavily-edited version resembles. I'm unlikely to now put aside another entire afternoon for it, but I am definitely glad that I took the time to give it one more chance to impress me, and impress me it did. At times.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Deep Impact (1998)

Despite becoming known at the time as "the comet film that isn't Armageddon", I have long been curious about whether or not my opinion of Deep Impact would be the same as it was when I first saw it. I thought it was a bit dull, suffered from some mis-casting in a couple of main roles, and basically proved to be a much harder sell due to it being, in technical terms, "a bit of a bummer" in comparison to the woohah jingoism and blockbuster silliness of Armageddon.

It turns out that my opinion remains almost exactly the same as it was. 

A huge comet is heading to Earth. Young Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) is happy to have spotted it in the sky and had his name attached to it. Unfortunately, it's on a collision course with our planet. This becomes known to the President Of The United States (Morgan Freeman) before most of the population are informed, but a hungry reporter (Jenny Lerner, played by Téa Leoni) also stumbles across the story. She uses her knowledge to advance her career, which gives her a front row seat as plans are established to either destroy the comet or, failing that, ensure the survival of humanity.

Having now made a comfortable living in the world of television shows for the past few decades, there was a time when director Mimi Leder was arguably primed to be one of the few female directors entrusted with delivering big-budget blockbuster entertainment. She helmed the first film to be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures (The Peacemaker, which I don't recall being lauded as a great success), and was then in charge of this, a film simply overshadowed by something with a similar premise and less concern for filling the runtime with too much personal drama and weighty considerations about the endurance of the human race. Leder handles everything well enough, but she's hampered by the screenplay (from Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin) and lack of proper star power.

Rubin and Tolkin really want to balance the big stakes with smaller personal moments here, and the film starts to drag every time we have to return to watching Leoni's character deal with her divorced mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and father (Maximillian Schell). None of it feels that important, considering the looming threat, but it has to be viewed that way because that's what we're told, right up until a horribly dissatisfying final scene for two of those characters.

As much as I like Leoni, she's not a good fit for a main role in this kind of fare. Especially when her character has to be emotionally and physically buffeted by converging events happening around her. Freeman is a much better fit for his role, a trustworthy and good-hearted POTUS, and young Wood brings a good bit of energy to his scenes, often sharing them with a young Leelee Sobieski, but often interacting with Richard Schiff, Betsy Brantley, Gary Werntz, and Denise Crosby. There's some excitement when we're spending time with the space shuttle crew (headed up by Robert Duvall) hoping to destroy the comet, but even that is weakened by the presence of Ron Eldard being one of the worst cast members inevitably given more focus than some of the others (Blair Underwood, Mary McCormack, and Jon Favreau among them). Others to look out for are Kurtwood Smith (working down on the ground for NASA), Laura Innes (a White House correspondent displeased when her colleague usurps her), Dougray Scott (a cameraman), Charles Martin Smith, Mike O'Malley, and James Cromwell.

What's here is generally well done, even if it cannot overcome the weaknesses in the material and some of the casting, but it never feels like a fun time to spend two hours. There's some spectacle, and it may make you think about how you would want to spend your last moments if you knew the world was going to end, but most people, myself included, would much rather stick on a film that has some Aerosmith on the soundtrack and Steve Buscemi going a bit stir crazy in space.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: Hellcat (2025)

I can see why writer-director Brock Bodell thought Hellcat would work well for his first feature. It's a twist on a familiar scenario, it mainly features two characters together in one location, and the focus stays on dialogue ahead of any gore or set-pieces. Unfortunately, it's not very good.

Dakota Gorman plays Lena, the young woman who wakes up in the back of a spacious vehicle being driven by Clive (Todd Terry). Lena is understandably upset and afraid, but Clive keeps trying to reassure her that he's only trying to help her. She's been bitten by something, and Clive aims to get her to a medical professional. There's no reason to trust Clive, but his actions generally seem to back up his claim of not wanting to hurt Lena. 

There are a number of ways to take Hellcat, considering the material. On one level, it's a straightforward thriller with a dangerous man having kidnapped someone who has to fear for their life. On another level, it's exploring some well-known horror lore, and seeks to play around with a couple of tropes on the way to a risibly awful ending. And in some ways, it's another one of those recent movies that shows a figure being proven right in some belief he has that would be derided by the vast majority of the population. Maybe I'm giving it too much credit with that interpretation, but I can certainly say that no one version of this tale is presented in a satisfying way.

Gorman and Terry both do well enough in the lead roles, but they're at the mercy of a screenplay that forces them to go round and round in circles for the majority of the runtime, only verbalising a number of truths when it's time for the plot to creep forward as slowly as if it's being pushed through thick molasses. Jordan Mullins plays a cop who seems immediately untrustworthy, and Liz Atwater is Clive's daughter, Ollie. Both are fine, but neither get to do enough to make their inclusion truly worthwhile. It's almost as if Bodell came up with a lean, and fairly simple, premise and then didn't have faith in his ability to hold the attention of viewers with just two main cast members and his one main idea at the heart of the story.

I had my concerns about this as soon as I started it, but I was still hoping for the best. Sadly, this isn't one to recommend to most people. It's just not strong enough, nor is it helmed by someone capable of making up for the weaker elements. And I cannot stress just how bad the final scenes are. It's enough to undo any good feeling created by the rest of the film, and I'm surprised at just how much Bodell seems to pile one bad creative decision onto another, like some unstable Jenga tower of incompetence.

I hope he does better with whatever he may have lined up next. He can't do much worse, but if enough lessons were learned then I'll still make time for any upcoming features. 

3/10

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Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)

If I didn't have this little comedy drama recommended to me by someone then I doubt I would have ever though to seek it out. After all, the fact that it was both written and directed by the young man who then cast himself in the lead role makes it seem like so many other vanity projects I have either endured or avoided over the past few decades. I'm very thankful to the person who recommended this though, because it's a proper little gem of a film.

Cooper Raiff is Andrew, a young man without any real plan for his life, other than saving up enough money to travel and reconnect with a girlfriend he suspects may already be doing quite well without him. Struggling to retain the will to live in his day job, things take an upturn when he discovers that he has a marketable knack for being a party host. He ensures that things go well, and he tries to get everyone taking their turn on the dancefloor. It's at one of these parties that he meets Domino (Dakota Johnson), mother to an autistic young girl named Lola (Vanessa Burghardt). And that's when things soon start to get a bit messy.

Although I was unfamiliar with Raiff before seeing this, I'm now keen to see whatever he's attached to. Both the writing and direction here show an admirable amount of talent, and he's also genuinely good enough to handle a lead role that allows him to be intermittently likeable and loathsome, depending on how he is reacting to a complex world that he would much rather keep carefree and simple.

It helps that Raiff assembles a fantastic supporting cast around him, and everyone feels as if they responded well to the material. Johnson shows once again how much better she does in movies that aren't part of any franchise meat-grinder, Burghardt is very good in her role, although you could argue that there are a few too many affectations in her performance (but I think they work well), and Evan Assante is very sweet as our lead's younger brother, just at the right age to continue idolising his sibling even as he starts to see the obvious flaws and mistakes. Leslie Mann is a wonderful and caring mother, Brad Garrett is her partner, and his character is the butt of many jokes until Andrew starts to realise how good the man is for his mother, and Raúl Castillo is the other main man in Domino's life, much to the chagrin of Andrew.

The 107-minute runtime may feel a little long for what could be such a slight work, but I would have happily spent more time in this world with these characters if possible. Raiff judges everything perfectly, especially during a few scenes that look set to become very uncomfortable, only for Raiff to defuse the situation with a perfect punchline or some interaction that proves to be surprisingly satisfying.

A film about a young man unable to plan the next phase of his journey through life would be okay, I guess, but Cha Cha Real Smooth works as well as it does because it's about a young man who finds a very strong connection with someone that knows he has the opportunity to make so many more connections with people he could have much more in common with. It's also a glimpse at someone who, like so many of us, finds a way to relight the spark of his personality by focusing on doing something he genuinely enjoys, instead of staying stuck in a job that offers him no fulfilment whatsoever. 

Give this one a watch when you can. Not every moment works, but the highlights are so well-crafted and beautiful that you may well become as big a fan of Raiff as I now am.

8/10

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