Saturday Night (2024)

True greatness often comes about after things skate perilously close to absolute disaster, and that certainly seems to have been the case for the launch of Saturday Night Live. While it may not be what it once was, and while some may argue that it was never actually the giant cultural totem that others view it as, Saturday Night Live is a hell of a thing to be proud of. It's now been going for 50 years, it has given us a great wealth of comedic talent, on both sides of the camera, and it's undeniably part of any conversation about American TV.

What you get here is a look at the frantic and tense 90 minutes leading up to the very first episode of Saturday Night Live. The man trying to herd a lot of cats is Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle). The stars include Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), and John Belushi (Matt Wood). And those thinking it could succeed are largely outnumbered by those thinking it will fail. Spectacularly.

Co-written by Gil Kenan and director Jason Reitman, Saturday Night is an enjoyable bit of sustained tension, especially impressive considering that we all know how things turned out in the end. There are a couple of main touchstones that keep being used as people rush around, ensuring they are ready for a show that is being rehearsed and timed right up until the last possible moment, and certain characters are introduced at key points to really crystallise the friction between the old guard and the new.

It's no easy task for actors to emulate some comedy icons, but I was pleased to see that the performances here seem to focus on the essence and nature of each main character, as opposed to everyone trying to do a perfect impression of who they're meant to be. The only real exception to this is Nicholas Braun, who excels in two roles, playing both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. Smith is all of the ego and self-doubt that you'd expect from Chase, O'Brien is a jovial Aykroyd, and Wood exudes the kid of erratic energy that always seemed to be part of Belushi. LaBelle is excellent as Michaels, a graceful swan who sometimes goes through water so clear that we can see the feet speedily paddling away beneath. Rachel Sennott, Ella Hunt, Emily Fairn, and Kim Matula are rather sorely sidelined as, respectively, Rosie Shuster, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Jane Curtin, but that is sadly in line with a lot of the women who have been part and parcel of SNL over the years. Nicholas Podany is a decent young Billy Crystal, and the only one to disappoint me was Matthew Rhys in the role of George Carlin. Willem Dafoe has a couple of good moments as Dave Tebet (aka one of "the suits"), and J. K. Simmons almost steals the entire movie as the legendarily-endowed Milton Berle.

I was hoping to enjoy this, despite what I saw as my perceived distance from the cultural impact of the show, and I did. It hints at just some of the troubles that would come along in the few years afterward, but it's largely focused on celebrating the fact that everyone somehow managed to get the bloody thing done, and done in a way, albeit a tweaked and streamlined way, that would then be repeated week in and week out for decades. Do people still watch the full show, or do they simply check out the highlights shared to YouTube and other social media sites? I don't know, but I suspect the latter. I'm not sure it matters though. The fact remains that almost every American is aware of SNL, almost every American has their favourite seasons, or favourite skits, and anyone with an interest in comedy and/or films should be happy that a lot of talent became famous worldwide after surviving their time working for Michaels. We also got Rob Schneider, but you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.*

*said while having to pretend that I did not at one point own both The Animal and The Hot Chick on VHS.

7/10

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The Last Video Store (2023)

Directors Cody Kennedy and Tim Rutherford are passionate about the warming nostalgia of VHS. That should be obvious from the fact that this feature is their third or fourth attempt at presenting a story that not only takes place in a video store, but puts the central characters in the midst of some genre fare very similar to some straight to video favourites of yesteryear.

Yaayaa Adams plays a young woman who wanders into a video store to return some tapes that were rented by her father, but she's unwittingly also carrying a very special artefact, a cursed tape that allows the fictional worlds to bleed through to our reality. It may help that the store clerk, Kevin (Kevin Martin), knows all about the many movies on the racking around him. Or maybe some assistance can come in the form of Viper (Josh Lenner), an action hero veteran of the era.

Although it's Kennedy and Rutherford credited with the direction, and although Rutherford and Joshua Roach are the named writers, The Last Video Store is the kind of thing that feels very much like something in which the roles weren't all clearly defined. Martin may star as the store clerk, but he also runs his own video store, and that locaton inspired the look of the main setting here. I have no doubt that Martin tried to keep adding some jokes and references, considering his passion for film, which makes it all the more surprising that this is a feature barely able to make it to a runtime of just under 80 minutes.

Perhaps those involved hampered themselves slightly by not simply settling on an anthology format, and also not throwing one or two extra sub-genre delights into the mix, but what we get here is amusing and entertaining enough, with all of the love and enthusiasm more than making up for any shortcomings. The main characters end up being stalked by a familiar-but-legally-dissimilar masked killer, which is decent fun, but things really improve when Viper swaggers in to frame. Adding one or two other elements does help, but there was room for so much more here. This needed a character from a strangely dark children's movie, it needed a big puppet/doll figure, and maybe some cannibals. Hell, throw in a Shannon Tweed cameo and it would be near perfect. As it is, sadly, it feels appropriately akin to those many VHS boxes that promised way more than they ever delivered.

Adams and Martin work well together, bringing very different energies that intertwine well as they become caught up in the wild danger unfolding around them, Lenner is fantastic as a character who feels like equal parts Lundgren, Dudikoff, and Van Damme, and Leland Tilden delivers a fine physical performance as Castor Creely, the aforementioned masked killer. There are also a good number of quick cameos, including the ever-welcome Jeremy Gardner onscreen for a fleeting few seconds.

This is an easy sell to those who share the same love for those video store years, the times when you would pick up a big title at the weekend alongside a couple of unknown features that could turn out to be real treasures or real trash, but it's also lacking something to make it as great as it could be. It's perfectly fine, the brief runtime ensures it won't outstay its welcome, and the many nods to other movies work well. It's just not a week one rental. More like something you'd grab in the 3 for £5 deal.

6/10

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Prime Time: Drugstore June (2024)

Whenever movie fans look back over a year just gone by, it's a chance to catch up on all of the overlooked titles that seem to appear in the lists of recommendations from others. Most of those will be things that you were at least aware of - a blockbuster you missed at the cinema, a horror that wasn't showing anywhere near you, or a worthy drama that you just didn't have the energy for - but some fine films remain surprisingly overlooked. Drugstore June is one of those films. I am especially surprised, considering how I view this and Babes (which I have yet to review here) to be up there with some of the best comedy films in recent years.

Esther Povitsky is June, a young woman who ends up with a surprising sense of purpose when the pharmacy that she works in is robbed. June thinks that she has the skills to solve the crime, but she's barely got the skills to remain aware of how she affects other people around her. Or so it seems. The plot winds from one bizarre encounter to the next, including a running storyline about June refusing to let her ex, Davey (Haley Joel Osment), move on from their relationship, but there's always a focus on June trying to finally achieve something that isn't just tied to her usual interests.

I wanted to see Drugstore June since I first saw a trailer that made me consistently chuckle. If you check that out and enjoy it, rest assured that it almost perfectly represents the film that you're going to get. June is a comedic creation to rival the very best, and Povitsky is genuinely brilliant in the role. The fact that she can be so unrelentingly . . . June while somehow not making you want to always throw her into a very deep ocean (although you may well feel that way sometimes, especially in the first act) is a testament to the writing and performance.

Director Nicholaus Goossen helped to work on the screenplay with Povitsky, and it's clear that both of them have a solid grasp of the vibe and character. There are a few neo-noir tropes played with here, to great effect, but the personality of June overshadows everything else going on around her, whether she's trying to get a perfect pic for her Instagram or exaggerating her status as an online influencer to anyone who has a conversation with her. The film couldn't work if that was all she was though, and the satisfaction really comes from seeing just the tiniest amount of growth, in both her detective skills and her maturity.

Povitsky is a star. Although I've not taken note of her in anything else she's done before this, I'll now be keeping an eye on everything else that she's doing. Her turn here is pitched perfectly in between the monstrously narcissistic and the sweetly naive, and it's hard to imagine anyone else getting the balance so right. Bill Lee is amusing, playing June's boss, someone who seems to have a great deal of patience and optimism . . . or maybe just a complete inability to find anyone else to hire in her place, and both Beverly D'Angelo and James Remar are entertainingly exasperated parents. Brandon Wardell is an irritating brother, Al Madrigal and Jackie Sandler are the two detectives trying to do their job properly, despite encountering the whirlwind that is June, and there are fun cameos from Matt Walsh, Bill Burr, and Bhad Bhabie. Osment is also very good in his small role, and Miranda Cosgrove incurs the wrath of our lead by simply being Osment's new partner.

I admit that I might be heaping a bit too much praise on this, trying to do my bit to tip the scales in favour of something so sorely neglected when it came and went last year without anyone really taking note of it, but I also know that I could happily watch this on a loop for an entire day and keep finding different little moments and lines of dialogue to laugh at. It's brilliant, and, in my opinion, should have appeared on numerous lists mentioning the very best films of 2024.

9/10

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Blue Beetle (2023)

I'm not going to try to convince you all that you need to give Blue Beetle a watch because it's a different kind of superhero movie, and I'm not going to make ridiculous claims about it being a reinvention of the many other movies we've already had from Marvel and DC in recent years, but I am going to go to bat for it. It follows a standard formula, granted, but it actually feels like something fresh and energetic at a time when other films in the same wheelhouse all started to stagnate.

Xolo Maridueña is Jaime Reyes, a young man who ends up becoming inextricably entwined with an alien scarab entity/device that gives him superhuman powers. His family all try to help him get the hang of things, but that becomes a lot trickier when Jaime is hunted down by the powerful Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), and her main henchman, Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo). There's also the presence of Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the woman who actually caused the scarab to end up on Jaime in the first place, which allows for a potential blossoming romance amidst the expected action beats.

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, this shows what can happen when you don't throw a team of people on to one project, having them all trying to put extra ideas in the mix and running the risk of too many cooks spoiling a recipe. Soto and Dunnet-Alcocer know what they need to do, and they also know how to make the most of their opportunity to depict some Latinx representation in blockbuster fare. The Reyes family (parents, uncle, sister, etc) bring their own unique perspective to the unfolding events, and the strength of their familial bonds becomes a major strength for our hero. The life lessons here are obvious, but they're no less enjoyable, and come as something of a relief after seeing so many features in which a hero has to sacrifice parts of his life in order to be a saviour of the people.

Maridueña is a really good lead, easy to like and easy to be amused by as he tries to get to grips with his new powers. I know he's been in other things before this, but this might be my first time seeing him onscreen. I'll happily look out for him in anything else. Marquezine is also very good, pairing up nicely with our lead, but the real delights come from those playing the rest of the Reyes family. George Lopez is as much fun as you'd expect, Belissa Escobedo is the typical fun/annoying sibling, and Damián Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, and Adriana Barraza are a perfect fit for their respective roles. Sarandon is a very entertaining villain, Trujillo delivers physical menace for almost every minute that he's onscreen, and there's also room for Harvey Guillén to show his face in an enjoyable cameo.

The special effects are consistently excellent, the score (by Bobby Krlic AKA The Haxan Cloak) is fantastic, and the soundtrack is full of great choices, not least of which is the use of a Cypress Hill hit accompanying a satisfying action sequence in the big finale. Pawel Pogorzelski delivers clear and beautiful cinematography that keeps the whole thing more colourful and visually appealing than the majority of the DC films that tried to stay more in line with the "Snyder-verse" portfolio, and there's something to be said about the joy of watching someone fighting against enemies who aren't threatening to destroy Earth. Blue Beetle has his own life threatened, as well as the lives of his loved ones. That's more than enough to motivate him to keep battling against overwhelming odds. Sometimes a whole world isn't the planet that we live on. Sometimes a whole world is made up of the friends and family around you.

This deserved much better than the fairly lukewarm reception it received, although I know the other factors that all contributed to the unfortunate situation. Do yourself a favour and check it out now. You don't need to have swallowed a whole encyclopedia of comic book characters, you don't need to worry about spotting connections to any other movies, and you can just enjoy an excellent standalone superhero story with characters who actually feel like real human beings, even when surrounded by all of the special effects and advanced tech on display.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Bring Them Down (2024)

I really wanted to like Bring Them Down, an Irish drama featuring a number of actors that I have liked in many other movies. Sadly, it feels like many other films I've seen over the past few years, although it's not as good as any of them. It's particularly irritating to see such a great cast being slightly wasted in something that could have been much better.

Christopher Abbott plays Michael, a young farmer who is trying his best to keep the family business afloat while being overlooked by his father, Ray (Colm Meaney). Times are tough, so tough that a nearby farming family becomes a bitter enemy when young Jack (Barry Keoghan) steals a couple of animals and claims that they died. That lie is revealed when Michael sees the animals displayed at a market, which leads to a confrontation between himself and Jack's father, Gary (Paul Ready). Things start to get worse from there.

Co-written by Christopher Andrews and Jonathan Hourigan, with Andrews also making his debut as a feature director after getting a few shorts under his belt, it's hard to really pin down how this fails. I think it's just too many moments that we've seen before without enough added to the material to make it seem really fresh or worth our time. This is a patchwork movie, and some of those patches are almost identical to other films that you could either revisit or watch for the first time.

Abbott does okay in the lead role, even if he suffers in comparison to almost everyone else onscreen. This is definitely time for people to try to make him a thing, but I'm not sure he's truly deserving of the push. Keoghan, on the other hand, deserves all of the positive attention and praise he's been getting over the past few years, and he delivers yet another effortlessly mesmerising turn here. Meaney is fantastic, Ready is very good indeed, and a couple of excellent supporting turns come from Aaron Heffernan and Nora-Jane Noone.

There's a lot being mixed in to a big melting pot here (family pressure, problems handed down through generations, the difficulties of making ends meet in a vocation where profit margins can depend on one good animal), but none of it is able to come through clear enough. To overuse the analogy, a lot of the flavours overwhelm one another, and you're just left with a load of bland mush. Even the non-chronological presentation of events, we get shown things and then taken back to see them from another perspective, doesn't really add the impact and tension that it should.

If you want some great Irish-set movies then I can give you a good half dozen or so. If you want films set against the harsh life of farming then I can probably recommend a few of those too. Great Barry Keoghan films? Easily done. Better roles for Colm Meaney? Just as easy. There may not be anything here that's awful, but it's shocking that so much of it feels so disappointingly average.

5/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Outrun (2024)

While I was sad that this wasn't actually a film about the arcade machine that took most of my change whenever I was on a holiday trip to the exotic and sun-kissed land of Dunbar, the fact that it was a well-received drama with Saoirse Ronan in the lead role gave me some confidence that I would not regret my viewing choice.

Based on a memoir by Amy Liptrot, The Outrun is about alcoholism, and shows some of the many elements that can factor into that particular monkey that many struggle to shake off their back. Ronan plays Rona, a seemingly outgoing and hard-partying young woman who ends up in a very dangerous situation that serves as a wake-up call to how her drinking has impacted her life. She moves back from London to her childhood home in the Orkney Islands, hoping to recalibrate her life in a way that will allow her to find a spark of passion that was long ago drowned by the alcohol.

Although she has a number of films to her credit already, I am not familiar with the work of director Nora Fingscheidt, who also worked with Daisy Lewis and Liptrot to adapt the source material into a screenplay. Despite the difficult subject matter, I'm impressed enough by Fingscheidt to want to see more of her filmography. Jumping around in time, the film is structured to show the whiplash that can affect those who consider themselves to be having fun until that fun comes grinding to a halt, sometimes in the worst possible ways.

It seems redundant already to say how well Ronan does in the main role, considering how brilliant she has been almost every single time she has performed onscreen. She truly is brilliant here though, and some of her behaviour and erratic mood swings were scarily familiar to me, considering my own experiences throughout my life. Saskia Reeves is also doing her usual great work, playing a caring and concerned mother trying to tip-toe around a tricky issue that she doesn't quite know how to deal with, and Stephen Dillane is a father with his own particular mental health issues that require professional assistance. Paapa Essiedu is Daynin, a young man in London who struggles to maintain a relationship with our lead while her behaviour continues to worsen as she moves from one drunken spiral to another.

I'm currently coming up on five years of sobriety, and that was a choice made because of a pattern of bad choices when I ensured that alcohol was accessible to me. (and people often ask "can you not just have one drink on a special occasion?", to which I always say "yes, no problem, but that occasional one drink will eventually lead to that one big night out when I spend too much, stay out too late, and probably get myself in some sort of trouble") What The Outrun does well is show how things can build in a way that is much more obvious to onlookers than it is to the person just "having a bit of fun". It also works well in showing the rewarding satisfaction of fighting back, the ability you have to find new pleasure in things like a normal day without a hangover, a nice cuppa and chat with a friend or loved one, a lack of embarrassing memories or blackouts, and just a general appreciation of the world around you.

It's about problems stemming from alcohol, but just as equally applies to so many other afflictions that can sit on our shoulders like a crushing weight. I hope others watch it and either recognise how well they are doing with whatever life has dealt them or see what can lie ahead if they grit their teeth and expend even more energy just trying to bat away that little devil that keeps trying to whisper in your ear. It's not easy, and it's often not pretty, but neither is waking up the morning after a big night out with mysterious stains on your clothing, a damaged relationship, and no money left in your bank account.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Bloody Axe Wound (2024)

I was going to be a bit kinder to Bloody Axe Wound, a horror comedy from writer-director Matthew John Lawrence, who also gave us Uncle Peckerhead, but a friend of mine then mentioned a film that it quite closely resembles and now I am less inclined to be as kind as I was going to be. I'm not going to be unkind though. And I'm not going to mention the other film here, for fear of spoiling the experience of the film for others.

Sari Arambulo plays Abbie Bladecut, a young woman who appreciates the fact that her father, Roger Bladecut (Billy Burke), is a prolific serial killer. He always ensures that his list of victims includes every main character type you find in most slasher movies, and that pays off when the more acceptable side of the family business, a video store, receives tapes of films showcasing real murders packaged in a fictional context. Abbie believes it is her time to take over from her father, but he isn't so keen to pick her as his immediate successor. She knows that she can kill anyone though. Well . . . anyone except Sam Crane (Molly Brown), a young woman Abbie soon becomes attracted to.

While fun for most of the runtime, and really enjoyable when we get to see Abbie try to balance her chosen life with a chosen partner who was destined to be a victim, Bloody Axe Wound doesn't really have the focus to work as well as it could. There are some good ideas in the mix, some more familiar than others, but they end up raising questions that Lawrence then never bothers to answer. Which is his prerogative, but doesn't really add anything to the plot, considering we don't see, for example, who makes and delivers the videotapes, how they are being received by film fans in the area, and why the power of Bladecut allows for some impressively unnatural endurance and capability.

I thought there might be some commentary here, something about the clash between generations, but there's nothing. The "meet-cute" element is nicely done, and Arambulo and Brown have great chemistry, but that's about it. Some decent gags aside, the comedy isn't great. Neither are the kills, which would at least help to make up for other weaknesses.

Burke, quite unrecognisable under a heavy amount of make up, is pretty good casting for the role of Roger Bladecut. He manages to exude weariness and disdain in equal measure, accepting his role as an essential one and his victims as simply people made useful once they have met their demise at his hands. Arambulo is fantastic, a great presence, and the film only works as well as it does thanks to the pairing of her and Brown, who is equally good. Eddie Leavy, Matt Hopkins, Margot Anderson-Song, Sage Spielman, and David Littleton help to round out the cast, although it's only Anderson-Song who manages to make enough of an impression to stand out from the crowd, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an extra bit of fun, portraying the killer, Butch Slater, featured in many of the videos that make use of the real-life kills.

I enjoyed Bloody Axe Wound (and, sorry, am I the only one thinking that the title is deliberately referring to a phrase that you can find on Urban Dictionary?), but it never became as good as I hoped it could be. It's just okay, and okay feels much worse than it used to be, due to the never-ending selection of viewing choices being offered up to us week in and week out nowadays.

5/10

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Novocaine (2025)

Jack Quaid plays Nate, a man who has a condition that stops him from feeling pain. That may sound all well and good, but Nate can't eat solid foods (in case he bites off the end of his tongue without feeling it), he has to set a timer to remind him to urinate before his bladder potentially explodes, and his home has a lot of extra padding around some of the fixtures and fittings. He tends to err towards caution, although that changes when he enjoys a date with a lovely bank colleague, Sherry (Amber Midthunder). That makes it all the more unfortunate when Sherry is taken hostage the next day by dangerous bank robbers. Determined to hunt them down and save the woman he loves, Nate decides to turn his apparent weakness into a bit of a super-power. 

Co-directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, both having shown a nice and consistent improvement throughout their joint filmography, Novocaine is helped a lot by a smart and fun screenplay from Lars Jacobson (who is finally on the right path to getting us all to forget that he co-wrote the screenplay for Day Of The Dead: Bloodline). Once the main premise is set up, you know that everyone involved is just running from one situation to the next with a focus on lots and lots of pain. And that's exactly what happens, with everything escalating from a slight case of the ouchies to a major bit of "oh my god, that's not going to be fixed any time soon".

Berk, Olsen, and Jacobson pace the whole thing perfectly, and the action is enjoyably scrappy and inventive. Our hero isn't particularly skilled, but he knows that he can take plenty of hits without suffering in the same way as others around him. He's not invulnerable, but it seems that way to some of the people he encounters. The 110-minute runtime fairly flies by once the action begins, and even a couple of extra sequences at the end of the film somehow don't make it feel as if it is outstaying its welcome.

Quaid is a very good choice for the lead role, once again relying on his slight awkwardness and charm ahead of any muscles or fighting capability. His character is driven by new love, and Quaid has experience in playing that kind of guy, even (especially) when he has to start questioning his feelings and motivation. Midthunder is also very good, and makes such a strong impression in her early scenes that you can easily understand why Nate becomes so driven to save her. Jacob Batalon is fun as an online friend who may need to finally meet Nate IRL, Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh are two cops who start to suspect that our hero may be working with the villains, and Ray Nicholson is entertainingly callous and vicious as the nominal head of the criminal gang.

Funny and violent in equal measure, and with just about the right tone maintained throughout, Novocaine manages to feel relatively fresh and unique while reframing the kind of visceral action that we've seen in many different movies over the past few years. It always feels slightly ridiculous, but that helps to take the edge off of some of the more wince-inducing injuries we end up seeing. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants an action thriller with a fun twist on many of the usual tropes. You'll find it a relatively painless viewing experience.

8/10

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Flow (2024)

It is time, once again, for me to try writing a review for a film that I may not really have a lot to say about. It's not that I don't want to heap praise upon this, but it's a dialogue-free animated feature that is best experienced and enjoyed while it moves and shines, as opposed to dissecting the whole thing once you're away from its comforting embrace.

Co-written by Matīss Kaža and director Gints Zilbalodis, what you get here, basically, is a tale of a cat travelling in a boat with some dogs, a capybara, a ring-tailed lemur, and a secretarybird. They all end up on the boat because the world seems to be inexplicably people-free, and there was a sudden flood causing a major rise in water levels. Not natural bedfellows, this small group of animals end up having to help one another as they go where the tide takes them, hoping to eventually get back to some dry land they can then settle on.

Flow is a sweet and gorgeous look at some animals, and you're more than welcome to enjoy it for that simple and wonderful journey depicted. It's also, however, quite an obvious analogy for anyone fleeing danger, risking their lives travelling across a sea, and becoming part of a small community of survivors, each one bringing their own skill to a newly-formed team that can do much more together than any one individual. But, strange as it may seem, that analogy manages to feel obvious without being delivered in a way that will enrage those who try to pretend that movies shouldn't have any messages in them. 

Created on some free and open-source software, apparently, and taking over five years from start to finish, Flow is a very impressive achievement. It keeps things moving along nicely, the pacing helped by a few key moments that show the major changes happening to the black cat at the heart of the tale, and the visuals are a perfect blend of realism and stylised anthropomorphism (or maybe the anthropomorphism is just the end result of me projecting my own reaction to the events onscreen). Zilbalodis deserves most of the praise, but Kaža and other producers (Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman) should be thanked for delivering this to us, and Rihards Zaļupe presents a beautiful score co-created with Zilbalodis. 

As I said at the start of this review, I don't have a lot to say about the film. I'm amazed I managed to get this far. I'm also amazed that I didn't just repeat the words "beautiful", "sweet", and "moving". A treat for viewers of all ages, although younger children may become a bit restless during some of the more serene moments, Flow is an effective appeal/reminder to help those in need, and to allow yourself to receive help back from others in turn. It's also just a cute adventure with a cat in the company of some other cute animals.

9/10

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Prime Time: Here (2024)

I've said it many times before, and I will undoubtedly say it again, but we definitely lost something when Robert Zemeckis started to become more and more seduced by technology. He was a director once able to use the best special effects to tell wonderful and hugely entertaining stories (having helmed at least two features that could easily be considered absolute classics of the 1980s), but he started to focus more and more on FX-laden movies that just seemed designed to showcase the FX work.

And now we have Here, a film with a couple of gimmicks to attract or repel viewers, depending on your reaction to the main premise. With the camera largely locked off for most of the runtime, Here shows us a house, and the people who have inhabited that house over the decades and centuries. We also see the space as it was before the house was built, sometimes seeing people coming and going from the house across from that space, sometimes seeing people moving through the space when it was just untamed wilderness, and sometimes even seeing a bit of prehistoric action. Although various people come and go, the two main characters are Richard and Margaret, played by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. They are digitally de-aged for certain scenes, and we get to see most of their lifetime play out in front of us. 

Based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire, turned into screenplay fork by Zemeckis and Eric Roth, the visual style here may put many people off, but it's a nice way to keep things moving along and keep jumping in between the various generations. What you see are various panels appearing in different areas of the screen as the image transitions from the present to the past, to the very past, and back towards the present. The visuals sometimes lag behind the audio, but it works to keep viewers engaged in a way that wouldn't otherwise wouldn't be possible with such a static camera set-up.

Hanks and Wright are very enjoyable when they get to be front and centre, but they share a lot of the screentime with Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly (as the parents), Michelle Dockery and Gwilym Lee (a couple who lived in an older incarnation of the house), Ophelia Lovibond and David Fynn (a different couple who also made the place their home at one time), and Nicholas Pinnock, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and a handful of others helping to keep the space busy.

The big surprise, however, is how little the film really rests on the shoulders of the cast. They help, and Bettany and Reilly have some particularly effective moments, but this is a film that actually allows Zemeckis to marry the tech to a strong heartbeat in a way that is unexpectedly satisfying. While it's a technical exercise, one that may only appeal to a minority able to tolerate the use of the format, it's actually more interested in sharing a positive message about the shared experience of life. Birth, love, pain, loss, sacrifice, laughter, tears, and, of course, death.

I don't think I'll ever rewatch this, and I cannot think of anyone I would strongly recommend it to, but I enjoyed it while it was on. Everyone involved, on both sides of the camera, is doing very good work, and there's a lot of sweetness, but, unlike the fixtures and furnishings of the house depicted here, there isn't all that much below the surface. 

6/10

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A Complete Unknown (2024)

Here are the things I know about Bob Dylan. His video for Subterranean Homesick Blues is quite brilliant. A number of his songs have been covered by artists who have sometimes managed to eclipse the original. And his voice is somehow both pleasing to the ear and not unlike a musical vacuum cleaner. Those are the things I know about Bob Dylan. So I wasn't in a rush to watch A Complete Unknown, although the people involved ensured that I would get around to it eventually.

Timothée Chalamet plays Dylan, a young man we first see arriving in New York City as a talented 19-year-old on a pilgrimage to visit a hospitalised idol, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). Dylan meets Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) while visiting Guthrie, and this proves to be one of the first stepping stones on his path to great success. He also gets involved with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), finds a strong connection with the fantastic Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), and becomes more and more selfish as he commits himself to the lyrics and music that will transform him from a complete unknown to an enigmatic musical icon.

Based on a book by Elijah Wald, adapted into screenplay form by Jay Cocks and director James Mangold, A Complete Unknown manages a fine balance of showing the man behind the music while not actually showing you the man behind the music. It quickly becomes clear that Dylan wants his work to speak for him, and there's no denying that he has quite a sizeable discography from which to pull statements from. Mangold is a very capable director, able to turn his hand to a variety of genres, but this is one of his best works, although it come after a decade of him delivering one great film after another (albeit films not necessarily right in line with this one).

Everything is helped by Chalamet being so good in the lead role. Instead of delivering what could have been a clumsy impression, Chalamet really does seem to embody the spirit of the musician that he's portraying. He also convinces with the singing and guitar-playing, however that is performed onscreen. Norton is so good in the role of Seeger that it's a reminder of how good it is to watch Norton in the right role, and I feel as if we have missed some fine work from him for too long. Both Fanning and Barbaro are just as good as anyone else onscreen, and do very well to avoid being overshadowed by the man who ends up, to some degree, being the centre of the musical universe for many. McNairy doesn't get much to do, but does it well, Boyd Holbrook has fun as Johnny Cash, and many more secondary characters are played by a selection of pretty flawless supporting players.

There's not much more to say about this. It's quite standard biopic stuff, even if it is only looking at one key part of Dylan's life. The moments that are tweaked to make them more cinematic retain a core of authenticity, the many truths throughout the film are compelling and thought-provoking, and the decision to keep an air of mystery swirling around the figure being observed works for both the film and the enduring legend of Dylan.

Did I feel as if I knew a lot more about the man once the end credits rolled? Not really, and you could call that a failing. I wouldn't though. I decided that I appreciated the small amount of extra context that gave me even more appreciation for a body of work that I'm now keen to explore. Let's face it, I liked the film so much that I didn't spend this entire review trying to insert a load of Bob Dylan songs and puns. I guess the times they are a-changin'.

9/10

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Mubi Monday: The Producers (1967)

While a lot of people still acknowledge The Producers as a fantastic comedy, and it has since been developed into a stage musical that was also then adapted into another film version, I can't help but feel that it's also slightly forgotten nowadays. When people think of writer-director Mel Brooks they tend to think of Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein (both equally brilliant, in different ways). Maybe even Spaceballs (not quite so brilliant, but full of fun). But if ever we needed a comedy that made Nazis ridiculous, and underlined that ridiculousness in a big musical number, then I think the time is now.

Zero Mostel plays Max Bialystock, a producer of stage plays who has to spend his days getting funding from little old ladies he allows to treat him like a young loverboy. It's a bit embarrassing, and he knows that his life isn't going the way he wants it to. Things look as if they're about to get worse when his accounts are audited by the nervy Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder). Seeing how unsuccessful Bialystock is, Bloom soon figured out that, with a bit of creative accounting, a flop play could make some people very rich. You just get much more investment than necessary, and then keep all of the "profit". The two men then seek out the worst play they can get their hands on, which they find in the absolutely awful "Springtime For Hitler". Written by Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars), a German upset at how the last World War ended, it's a joyous celebration of the Third Reich, the mission to assemble the master race, and Adolf Hitler. (who ends up played by a free-love hippy dippy beatnik named Lorenzo St. DuBois AKA L.S.D.)

I am going to make a general assumption here, and I am willing to be proven wrong. But I don't think I am. Most people think of The Producers and think of the third act. That's where you get the most outrageous moments, some of the biggest laughs, and that aforementioned musical number. It's a strong finale, and arguably one of the best examples of film comedy that is equally smart and silly. There are so many other highlights throughout the film though, from the antics of Mostel and his various investors, the panic attacks performed by Wilder, and one of my favourite quotes delivered by Mars about the painting talent of Hitler. I could go on and on (Lee Meredith as Ulla, almost every line delivered by Mostel), but I fear I would then fall into the trap of simply repeating every gag uttered in the film.

Although layering silliness upon silliness, Brooks always knows exactly what targets he is aiming at, and, whether it's the preciousness and precociousness of artistes or the fetishism of Nazi regalia, he hits every time with superb accuracy, helped by his usual excellent casting.

While I prefer Wilder to Mostel when thinking about a comedic leading man, there's no denying that they both complement one another perfectly here, with Mostel bringing a bone-deep weariness to the role that only starts to fade away when things look as if they might actually work. Wilder has the moments of manic energy, but his nerves help to remind viewers of just how much is at stake as the leads stage what they consider the most sure-fire flop of all time. Mars is very funny as Liebkind, and quite rightly mocked by others for his strange attempts to hang on to a past as it never was, and Dick Shawn is a delight as the cool cat, L. S. D. Meredith makes a hell of an impression in her few minutes onscreen, Christopher Hewett and Andréas Voutsinas are both excellent, and all of the older ladies who ultimately provide the funding for "Springtime For Hitler" are quite hilarious.

Very rewatchable, and I was tempted to give it another viewing immediately when I rewatched it this time, The Producers is absolutely on par with the other classics from Brooks. Some may view it as tasteless, but that tastelessness is part of the point. And I'd rather see people risk being offended by this, while laughing hard, than see people not being offended by public figures who, for example, think it's perfectly fine in this day and age to end their speeches with Nazi salutes.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Electric State (2025)

Based on a book by Simon Stålenhag, and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, The Electric State is a sci-fi drama that packs every scene with numerous robots that seem to exist for no other reason than to justify the ridiculously bloated budget (which I've seen in the range of $275M-$320M). It's horribly empty stuff, not helped by two leads who aren't able to distract from the weaker elements.

In an alternate timeline, robots tried to demand more rights, which started a war between them and the humans. Robots are now held in an exclusion zone, and humans are kept docile and "safe" by wearing headsets that keep them connected to an online world overseen by tech mogul Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Millie Bobby Brown plays Michelle, a young woman who had her life ruined by the death of her parents and brother, and she ends up heading on a perilous journey when approached by a robot that claims to actually BE her brother. Her chances of success in getting into the exclusion zone will depend on enlisting the help of a scavenger named Keats (Chris Pratt), but there's a determined soldier (Giancarlo Esposito) using his remote robot body to hunt them down.

Re-uniting once again with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the Russos show a level of incompetence here that is bewildering to those who know how well they can do with big-budget spectacle. Despite keeping everything busy and overstuffed, nothing here has any impact. It's mind-numbingly predictable, none of the attempted small emotional beats work, and it should be a crime for any film-makers to manage to waste both Tucci and Esposito in such thankless roles.

Both Brown and Pratt can be very good in the right roles. These are not the right roles for them. That would be easier to accept if the robot cast was a better mix of fun designs and canny voice casting, but the voice cast ends up being as wasted as every one of the visible performers. Woody Harrelson is fun, overall, but Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Hank Azaria, Jenny Slate, and Alan Tudyk never get to be as good as they can be. As well as Tucci and Esposito, Ke Huy Quan is also left floundering with the poor screenplay, and both Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander are given far too little screentime.

A film of many paradoxes, this is an epic tale on a grand scale that never really feels as if we are really seeing a big picture. It's a film about technology that rarely feels relevant, but it's also looking at humanity without managing to find the warmth and emotion needed (particularly in the third act). It throws money around in a way that doesn't translate onscreen, completely fails to entertain at the simplest level, and seems to consistently and determinedly dull the potential shine of the stars at the heart of it.

I would compliment the soundtrack, if stretching for something nice to say, but even that is marred by a moment that has a melancholy piano version of Wonderwall on it. I'm sure everyone tried their best, from the production designers to the cinematographer, but it's all mashed together with a laziness and cynicism that easily makes it a contender for one of the worst modern blockbusters I have seen in the past few years (and, yes, that includes every non-Spidey-but-Spideyverse film from Sony).

2/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Seeding (2024)

Having cut his teeth on many music videos, as well as a documentary about a celebrated photographer (Mick Rock), writer-director Barnaby Clay has now helmed his first narrative feature, and it's a wild and interesting ride. It's also far from essential viewing, but if I only ever viewed and reviewed movies that I considered essential viewing then I'd be giving myself a very small "watchlist" indeed.

Scott Haze plays a man named Wyndham Stone who soon finds himself a bit lost and helpless in a deserted and isolated environment. He meets a young boy, but that child is no help, instead preferring to tease him and run away, and then eventually wanders into a canyon that contains the home of Alina (Kate Lyn Sheil). Alina might be able to help him, but there are more children in the surrounding area, and they will just as happily taunt two adults as one.

This is an enjoyable riff on the standard "evil kids" sub-genre, with just a couple of twists to the material being enough to make it feel a step removed from the main reference points (anything with killer kids, basically, but Children Of The Corn is the obvious one). Clay makes good use of the harsh and isolated environment, and helps himself even more by keeping the cast small.

Haze is very good as the bemused wanderer who finds himself in a situation that just keeps getting weirder and more dangerous. Sheil is just as capable, portraying her character as quiet and mysterious without throwing in too many distracting tics and grimaces. The children feel like one dangerous mass, but I'll namecheck both Alex Montaldo and Charlie Avink for their good work.

I might have been a bit dense here, and sometimes all manner of small contributing factors can affect how receptive you are to a movie, but the only main complaint I would have about The Seeding is a lack of any real depth. There's certainly something to be said about the drive and responsibilities of any parental figure, but Clay is happy enough to have his film set within a bit of a vacuum. It's a twisted fairytale, one in which the adults are endangered while the children are setting up the morality and rules.

There's a lot of promise shown in this, there's nothing onscreen that I would consider weak, but I really hope that whatever Clay decides to do next has a bit more meat on the bones, as it were. While it's admirable that he tends to avoid jump scares and obvious attempts to thicken the atmosphere, that approach tends to require something more substantial for viewers to consider and dissect. All we really end up being reminded of here is that the kids aren't alright. And we've known that for a long time already.

6/10

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Love Hurts (2025)

On the one hand, it's unfair to dismiss a film because it compares unfavourably to another film it wasn't necessarily trying to compete with. On the other hand, I ended up watching Love Hurts soon after watching Fight Or Flight, and it was immediately obvious that the latter film seemed to get everything right that this film, sadly, gets wrong.

Ke Huy Quan plays a realtor, Marvin Gable, who seems very content with his life. He's a mild and cheery fellow, happy to have left behind a life that was surprisingly stuffed full of violence and death. But that life won't stay left behind, and Marvin finds his life upended when Rose Carlisle (Ariana DeBose) reappears. This leads to Marvin being hunted down by a number of killers employed by his brother, Alvin (Daniel Wu), which makes it very difficult for him to keep his past a secret.

I am not surprised that this is the first film directed by Jonathan Eusebio. I am also not surprised that writers Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore don't really have many other features of note to their name. That's the main feeling you get when watching Love Hurts, it's a film made by people ready to make the most of a talented stunt team in the hopes of distracting viewers from a very weak and very familiar plot. It's a shame that the stunt team didn't get the memo. 

There's a lot here to appreciate, and I am never going to claim that I could do even a quarter of the physical stuff that many of these performers can do, but Love Hurts is disappointingly repetitive and unimaginative when it should have been an opportunity for everyone to bring some crazy ideas to the table and see how many gags could be squeezed into every main action sequence. As many others said before I even saw this, Love Hurts is a film that you end up willing to do better for most of the runtime. And that's mainly down to Quan in the lead role.

Trying to make the most of his recent success and praise, Quan is someone who is very easy to like. He puts himself across as very sweet and unassuming, and he has a fantastic athleticism that deserves to be showcased in front of the camera. DeBose carries herself through the film with the kind of carefree and cool presence that makes the connection between the leads easy enough to believe in. As for the villains, they're a good mix of real menace (Wu) and quirky killers (Marshawn Lynch, André Eriksen, Cam Gigandet, and Mustafa Shakir). Lio Tipton also has a supporting role, playing a colleague who ends up caught up in the madness unfolding around our hero, but the way that the movie pushes her closer to the character played by Shakir is just far too silly. And it would be remiss not to mention the cameo from Sean Astin, which leads to a genuinely sweet and moving payoff, thanks to the baggage brought to the film by the shared legacy that he and Quan have as lifelong Goonies.

I liked Love Hurts, but I felt as if I had to work hard to like it in spite of itself. It's a mess, it's disappointingly unable to maintain any decent energy or momentum, and many of the fights feel like the same moves being used over and over again (not saying they ARE that way, but they feel like it). Maybe everyone can put their heads together and have another go at making something worthier of Quan's time and energy.

6/10

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Live Free Or Die Hard (2007)

AKA Die Hard 4.0.

I always quite liked this fourth Die Hard movie. It remains a big step down from the classic first film, of course, but it also remains something that looks like an action movie masterpiece when compared to the dross that would follow it. 

Apparently based on an article by John Carlin, this was developed into a movie by David Marconi and Mark Bomback, the latter receiving the main screenplay credit. It was then up to Len Wiseman to sit in the big chair and call "action", but, knowing what we know now, he was probably often guided by the instincts of the franchise star, Bruce Willis.

Willis is John McClane, of course, and we first meet him while he's once again not having a great time. He's concerned about his daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and hopes to ensure that no young man tries to get too fresh with her. Unfortunately, his unique parenting approach is interrupted by a request to pick up and escort a hacker (Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long) who might be able to provide authorities in Washington D.C. with some valuable information about a major cyber-attack. That attack is being carried out by people working under Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), and Gabriel is about to join the long list of people who discover that McClane can be a giant pain in the ass.

While I appreciate that this may not feel as much like a Die Hard movie as some of the other instalments in the series, I would argue that it's an enjoyable and natural progression. McClane doesn't have anyone to match him as he did in the previous film, but this time around he's in full-on protective mode when he starts to remember that the boy he's dragging around from gunfight to gunfight isn't exactly used to the full-on McClane experience. There's also his daughter to be protected, and that can be difficult and frustrating when the enemy seems so invisible and pervasive while making use of the tech that has become part of everyday life. He just needs someone to shoot and/or punch in the face, and the Die Hard films always work best when the villains are charismatic and entertaining. Thank goodness the casting director bagged Olyphant for that role.

Despite what many would view as a growing disinterest and laziness, although we now know that some of his later performances were sadly affected by aphasia what was later diagnosed as frontotemporal dementia, Willis strikes just the right balance here. McClane is very used to this kind of thing by now, but doesn't act like an indestructible superhero. Oh, he ends up doing some ridiculous things, especially in the finale, but he does them all with a shrug and an acceptance of what should be an instant shuffling off the mortal coil. Long is very good alongside him, believably wary and distressed at almost every turn, and he's a fun personality to pair up with our stoic hero. Olyphant, as he so often does, exudes a wonderful mix of charm and swagger, and even looks as if he might get away with his wild criminal plan if he just avoids making things personal with McClane. Uh oh. Maggie Q is also quite a fun baddie, Cyril Raffaelli showcases some of his physical prowess again, and you get decent little turns from Sung Kang, Cliff Curtis, and a before-their-relationship-soured Kevin Smith (okay, his turn is more fun than decent, but it's amusing to watch him work opposite Willis onscreen).

People might dismiss this because it's not on a par with some of the movies that preceded it. I think that's a bit harsh. They might dismiss it because of Len Wiseman directing. I think that's also a bit harsh. Wiseman isn't someone I would rush to defend as an unsung talent, but he had a few years when he did a perfectly good job with big stars in slick action movies (well, he had a couple of Underworld movies, this, and then it all went a bit squiffy with the Total Recall remake). This is one of those movies made during that time, and he does a decent job of trying to hold on to the essence of McClane while trying to escalate each big action sequence, and it all heads to a satisfying finale that leaves the big vehicles and tech burning in the background while the heroes and villains get up close and personal while viewers wait to hear the expected "yippee-ki-yay" punchline.

7/10

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Prime Time: Nickel Boys (2024)

Based on the acclaimed novel by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys is one of the films that would have easily passed me by completely if it hadn't been put in competition for the Best Picture in the 2025 Oscars. I had no idea what it was about, but a quick browse to check the reactions to it saw a lot of discussion about the shooting style making it a more emotional and impactful experience. I would have to respectfully disagree with a lot of those people.

Ethan Cole Sharp plays Elwood, a young black boy with a bright future ahead of him. That all changes when he is hitch-hiking one day and ends up in a stolen car. Although Elwood didn't know the driver, nor did he know that the car was stolen, he is convicted of a crime and sent to the Nickel Academy, an infamous reform school. With clear segregation in the school, and clear preferential treatment for the white students who live there, Elwood soon finds out that he'll be stuck there for a while. The school makes money by using the black students for labour. Elwood befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), and the two try to keep their spirits up as they plan the time when they hope to one day be free, which may be a lot sooner for Elwood if his grandmother (Hattie, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) can scrape together the money for the right lawyer.

Directed by RaMell Ross, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys is a superb tale, and one that is very much worthy of a film that should stir up strong feelings and remind people of how stacked the US system is, and remains, against black people. This film does that, it cannot really fail to affect all but the stoniest of viewers, but it is rendered slightly less effective than it could have been with the choice to shoot things mainly from the POV of the main characters. Maybe it's just my own inflexibility, but that style in modern movies has been used too often for content that usually resembles videogame action, and having it here does the opposite of drawing you close to the characters, in my experience. I felt as if there was a barrier there, something always stopping me from feeling everything I wanted to be feeling. It was a distraction, and it didn't even feel consistent enough to be worth the technical effort.

I will say that Sharp, Wilson, and Ellis-Taylor do good work, but even the performances are difficult to fully judge through that mesh created by the shooting style. Hamish Linklater is effective as the sadistic man overseeing the running of the reformatory, and Jimmie Fails makes a strong impression as Mr. Hill, the schoolteacher who first sees how bright Elwood is, and tries to help him on the way to a better future, but too many other people are only half-glimpsed or shown bumping into the leads like some runaway balloons. That keeps the focus on Elwood and Turner, so it isn't a terrible decision, but I cannot help thinking, once again, that some different choices could have given us a richer, and even more powerful, experience.

I want to read the book this was based on, and (by sheer coincidence) I am currently enjoying something similar, albeit with a supernatural twist, called "The Reformatory", written by Tananarive Due, but I don't want to revisit this film. And while I would still tentatively recommend it to others, I know that they may have to keep working hard to look beyond the distracting shooting style in order to stay focused on the most important ups and downs of the main storyline.

6/10

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The Apprentice (2024)

I understand why people may be less inclined to check out this film right now. All of the warnings have been there for decades, and we've had even more time to watch Donald Trump showcase his incompetence, pettiness, and inhumanity over the past few years, but The Apprentice is a surprisingly fantastic watch, not just because it reminds us all of the fact that nothing the snake-oil salesman who bagged himself a return trip to the White House says or does nowadays is new. He's just repeating from a playbook that he's been using for most of the past half century, and that playbook was written for him by Roy Cohn.

While we all know the Donald Trump of today as a convicted felon, a bully who has been found guilty of sexual abuse, and someone who has allegedly been recruited as a Russian asset way back in the 1980s (according to a couple of different sources), he was once just a pathetic young man who wanted to impress his parents and be one of the rich people that others become desperate to spend time with. He already had his narcissism in place, and a weak nature that would see him beg for help from people until he could get enough leverage to keep his own place at the big table, but he wasn't yet the great monster that he is today. Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Cohn meets Donald Trump (played here by Sebastian Stan) in the 1970s, and they form a friendship and business relationship that basically shows Donald how to keep getting his way throughout his entire life. Attack, deny everything, and claim any loss as a victory. This is a Frankenstein tale, but there are many Victor Frankensteins here, and just as many monsters, each working to reconstruct the other in different ways. 

Although this is the second feature film written by Gabriel Sherman, I have decided not to hold the awfulness of Independence Day: Resurgence against him. This is so good that I absolutely forgive him, and look forward to whatever he's got lined up for future projects. It helps that director Ali Abbasi is at the helm, someone who has spent the past decade making features that range from very good to absolutely superb (I encourage everyone to also check out Border and Holy Spider). Abbasi knows how to handle material that dances between light and extreme darkness, and he puts that skill to very good use here. He also owes a huge thank you to those who helped to cast the film.

Stan is absolutely brilliant in a role that could have easily been mishandled. He somehow avoids being a clown who becomes a complete villain, although his performance is shaded with both. Nothing is shown here to excuse the behaviour of Donald, but there's a fascinating look at how some of his attitudes were shaped and how he would so often look up to, and put on a pedestal, people who many of us would view as absolute scumbags. Strong has an absolute blast playing one of the biggest scumbags, someone so monstrous that he initially makes little Donnie look like a pussycat, but it's interesting that this year saw both Strong and Kieran Culkin receive a lot of praise for film performances that weren't really too far removed from the personalities they had nurtured throughout five seasons of the superb Succession. Martin Donovan and Catherine McNally are the elder Trumps, Charlie Carrick is the lost brother, and Maria Bakalova adds to her impressive body of work with a captivating portrayal of Ivana.

Although we have much more recent history to learn from, people should really watch this to be reminded of just how much time Donald Trump has spent being an inexorably unpleasant and greedy narcissist who will do anything for a bit of power to wield against others. I doubt this will reach the right people, anyone choosing to watch it will probably not be a member of the bizarre cult he has developed in the past decade, but if there's a chance that even one of those people he managed to confound with his tired razzle dazzle routine can have their blinkers removed, or at least slightly damaged, then that would be a huge bonus. Mind you, the fact that it is out in the world, and making the small-minded bully angry and unable to do anything about it, is just as much of a bonus.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Mickey 17 (2025)

It should be obvious to many by now, but Bong Joon Ho isn't really interested in subtlety any more. His most recent movies, as great as they are, are a long way from his superbly uneven and nuanced Memories Of Murder. I still love pretty much everything that he does, but I also know that I don't mind when the lack of subtlety is so front and centre in a way that may put off others.

Mickey 17 is all about the titular character (played by Robert Pattinson), an expendable who is used by a deep space vehicle to take on the tasks that will result in death. Whether being exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation, being placed in environments that may contain elements harmful to humans, or just exploring terrain that is unstable and could house dangerous alien creatures . . . Mickey's your man. Whenever he dies, it's not long until he is simply "printed out"again, his memories uploaded into his brain, and made available for the next dangerous task. He's ended up with this life (these lives) due to being put in a sticky situation by a bad friend, Timo (Steven Yeun), but at least he has moments of happiness with his partner, Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Things become tricky, however, when the latest Mickey is assumed dead and a new Mickey printed out. Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 are both aware that there are strict rules against multiples, but maybe they can figure out a way to take turns dying while they piece together a relatively full life.

Based on a novel, "Mickey 7", by Edward Ashton, this is darkly comedic sci-fi fare with plenty to say about the exploitation of workers, the ways in which those in power continually keep those below them pitted against one another, and the hypocrisy and arrogance of those who decide to make a life elsewhere without proper planning or consideration for the territory they are invading. As you can imagine, it feels very timely, and some may not appreciate how closely it aligns to some current world events. It doesn't help that Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette play their characters, Kenneth Marshall and Yifa, as arrogant idiots who would happily ruin lives and entire ecosystems just to keep maintaining their image of confident leadership. They're definitely doing what is asked of them, but the broad comedy of their performances is at odds with the real and awful repercussions we can see right now because of someone who works in almost exactly the same way. 

Thankfully, aside from the silliness provided by Ruffalo and Collette, everyone else is much better. Again, I don't blame those two stars, but they're apparently hampered by the direction of their performances. Pattinson has no such problems, and has a lot of fun in his multiple roles, specifically when he gets to show a marked difference between the two most recent Mickeys. Yeun is enjoyably sneaky, Ackie is a nice mix of tough and caring, and the rest of the supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Tim Key, Thomas Turgoose, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Patsy Ferran, some getting a fair amount of screentime and some just popping up for all-too-brief moments.

As expected, there's also some consistently excellent editing work and FX work throughout, as well as production design that creates a realistic world in which the building farce can unfold. It's all in service to the themes that Bong Joon Ho is exploring, and it's a shame when the tone occasionally clashes with the grime and verisimilitude of the onscreen world, but it's also loaded with little details that complement the main characters and their journey.

Not wholly satisfying, it spins so many plates that some inevitably fly off and smash before being quickly replaced, but Mickey 17 is still the kind of thing I would rather see ahead of another empty blockbuster with CGI distractions making up for a lack of any real substance.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Fracture (2007)

It's hard to deny that Fracture is quite ridiculous. It's actually not very good. I would also argue, however, that it's hard to deny that Fracture is also entertaining. It's a legal drama with a focus on fun ahead of any pesky stuff like plausibility or reality. Neither of the two leads, Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, are doing anything close to their best work, but they're perfectly in sync with the tone of the whole thing.

Hopkins is Ted Crawford, a man who we see at the start of the movie shooting his wife. He did it. He confesses to it. It should be an easy case. Gosling is Willy Beachum, a smooth and skilled lawyer who really likes easy cases. When he is asked to take on the case, despite readying himself for a move to a more lucrative private practice, he agrees, thinking it will be quickly dealt with. Complications soon arise though, and Crawford may be getting just as much satisfaction from playing with those around him as he got from killing his wife.

Director Gregory Hoblit has been involved with some landmark TV shows throughout his career, but his film work has been a bit more forgettable. There are some treats here and there, and most of his features actually came out between 1996 and 2008, but he's the kind of figure you would be more likely to describe as dependable rather than great. The same could almost be said of writers Glenn Gers and Daniel Pyne, although Pyne started strong with his first theatrical features at the start of the 1990s. It's clear that the draw here needs to be the cast, which is why we get Hopkins and Gosling.

Both of the leading men are working with accents that they would have been better to leave well alone, and both somehow play their parts well while also barely containing a smirk in response to how laughable everything is. Thankfully, there's a great supporting cast to help remind viewers of how actors can be great when not being pushed towards increasing silliness. Rosamund Pike, David Strathairn, Billy Burke, cliff Curtis, Bob Gunton, Fiona Shaw, Embeth Davidtz, and Xander Berkeley are the other names worth mentioning, although some do better than others, and some have much more screentime than others.

I cannot bring myself to make too many excuses for my enjoyment of this. The cinematography, editing, and other technical and production work stays decent throughout, but that's not enough to make up for the script and the hamminess. The script and hamminess are also part of the appeal though, and I have already watched this film twice while many much worthier films sit unwatched on my shelves. I won't rush to rewatch it, but I wouldn't speed by it if I was channel-hopping and saw it playing. Maybe that's down to the fractures in my own mind though.

5/10

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