Saturday, 15 February 2025

Shudder Saturday: The Breach (2022)

Based on a book by Nick Cutter, The Breach is a pleasingly entertaining slice of cosmic horror. It could have done with some more hard work from writer Ian Weir and director Rodrigo Gudiño, but there's enough here to please most horror fans.

Allan Hawco is John Hawkins, a Chief of Police who ends up investigating a case with a strangely mangled body at the heart of it. He hopes to clear everything up quickly enough, tying up loose ends before he leaves his position, but some people have other plans. Ending up at a fairly remote house in the middle of some woods, accompanied by Meg (Emily Alatalo) and Jacob (Wesley French), it soon becomes clear that some dangerous scientist chap has been doing some dangerous scientists stuff.

While this is a big move away from the last film I saw from Gudiño (that was The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh), it's obvious that this is a man more interested in quiet moments of anticipation than any obvious scares. Which means that some people will have their patience tested by just how long it takes to present some enjoyable and traditional horror movie moments here. Thankfully, the thrills work really well when finally delivered in the third act.

Maybe we should be thankful that Weir has decided to pace things in the way that Gudiño prefers, considering the fact that he could have made the mistake of turning his first full feature screenplay into a hodgepodge of homages and clumsy jump scares. While I wasn't wholly satisfied by this, I prefer it to many other ways the material could have been presented.

The cast help, all of them being very watchable as they start to piece together the gruesome puzzle they end up in the middle of. Hawco is a solid lead, very much giving off the air of someone who can be depended on to do the right thing, and both Alatalo and French provide different kinds of tension in the way they interact with one another. Adam Kenneth Wilson has the right look for his scientist character, and Natalie Brown is very good as his wife, someone who perhaps knows more than she is letting on while the investigation seems to be leading the police no nearer to any answers.

Some decent practical effects here and there prove to be enjoyably distracting, and there's enough horror running through it to keep most genre fans interested, but there could have been just a bit more done to improve the pacing. Maybe adding one or two more characters, with one or two more people being put at risk, would have helped. By the time you get to the wilder moments, it makes you wish a few more shocks had been interwoven throughout the quieter sections. It's still a good time, but it's not a great one.

6/10

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Friday, 14 February 2025

Babygirl (2024)

You've got to hand it to Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, the stars of Babygirl. This isn't an easy gig, as it never is when trying to explore adult sexual dynamics in a way that feels authentic and intriguing, but they rely on writer-director Halina Reijn to help them avoid looking like idiots. I'm not sure Reijn manages that though.

Kidman plays Romy, a powerful CEO who is dedicated to her job, has a loving husband (Antonio Banderas) and two daughters (Esther McGregor and Vaughan Reilly), and generally seems to have her life exactly as she wants it. She's unfulfilled sexually though, missing something that she can't define. And that's how she ends up risking a hell of a lot when she becomes drawn to a young intern, Samuel (Dickinson), who seems to make her want to submit control to him.

There are things to like about Babygirl, even things to admire. It has moments that show two people figuring out exactly what they want in a way that is as awkward and funny as any communication can be when individuals are exploring their sexual preferences and how they want to best complement one another. Occasionally embarrassing, and definitely bewildering to those who have gone through their life in complete vanilla mode, the film shows a good selection of conversations and situations that inform the consent and power-sharing between the two main characters. This subsequently allows the moments of passion to feel more heated, and it shows an escalation as they push for an ever-increasing thrill.

Reijn is clever enough to know that there are an awful lot of nerves and wariness before reaching the level of trust and confidence that these people need to have in one another, and that's where Babygirl excels. It's a lose-lose situation though, because those scenes have an inherent cringe factor for anyone simply looking on from the sidelines, as we all are while the movie plays. Where Reijn really stumbles, however, is in the ongoing, and quite tiresome, trope of always aiming to defend/support an extra-marital affair when the lead character engaging in one is female. There's no doubt that Kidman is causing harm, to herself and the ones she loves, but it's also seen as stemming from her lack of fulfilment, which is supposed to make it understandable. 

Kidman and Dickinson are excellent in their roles, especially when navigating their more vulnerable moments, but their work is undermined by other elements in the script. The timeline gets a bit murky, some tensions don't really seem too bothersome in the grand scheme of things, and it's hard to remember that sensation that they're after, tied to the subterfuge and coding of their indiscretions, while they both become so relatively brazen in their behaviour. Banderas does well as the emasculated husband, helped hugely by the fact that he's Antonio Banderas, McGregor and Vaughan are fine as the two daughters who inevitably sense when things start to go sour, and Sophie Wilde does very well in the role of Esme, a PA to Kidman's character who wants to go to the next stage in her career.

It's, ironically, hard to put a finger on just why this doesn't quite work. The performances are all very good, there's an eclectic and enjoyable soundtrack, and it's refreshing to see someone even attempting to seriously explore this subject matter in a way that is responsible and quite authentic. Maybe it can't ever work in a straightforward film though, and that might be why we should be happy when we get wonderfully strange delights like Secretary and The Duke Of Burgundy.

5/10

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Thursday, 13 February 2025

The Marvels (2023)

I have spent most of the last week or so finally getting around to watching Ms. Marvel, the TV show that gave us a 6-episode storyline introducing viewers to Kamala Khan AKA the titular Ms. Marvel (played by Iman Vellani). That's why I am now, FINALLY, getting around to seeing The Marvels. I think I'm almost up to date on my official Marvel entertainment, with only Secret Invasion and season 2 of Loki left to catch up on, but I have to say that it's odd diving back into the MCU after such a fairly extended hiatus. I didn't remember exactly who was who, in terms of enemies and villains, I wasn't sure if there was other stuff I should have watched before this, and there was no feeling of this being an essential piece of a much bigger picture. It was a bit of fun though.

Zawe Ashton plays Dar-Benn, the main villain of the piece. She is the leader of a race who saw their planet effectively sentenced to death by Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Dar-Benn wants revenge, and her chance comes along when Captain Marvel is stuck with a confusing problem that sees her often swapping places with young Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). It seems that using their powers somehow brings about the switcheroo, and all three need to learn to turn the potential negative into a positive if they want to stop Dar-Benn and co. from destroying the ones they love. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is also on hand to help, but he's still much more grounded and vulnerable than the superheroes he tries to advise. 

The first half, maybe even the first two thirds, of The Marvels is good fun. The entanglement of powers causing the characters to literally crash into different environments is enjoyably hectic, the dialogue between the main characters (and also the bemused members of Khan's family) is enjoyable, and everything feels enjoyably lightweight, with no need to focus on any potential Earth-destroying threat. Then you get to the third act, which has to focus on a potential Earth-destroying threat, and it becomes sadly tiresome. That's without even mentioning the strange scenes set on a planet where everyone tends to sing instead of just speaking in a normal cadence (unless they're . . . bi-lingual).

Larson continues to cut a fine figure as arguably the most powerful superhero in the galaxy, and she is always helped by having her serious nature juxtaposed alongside some more light-hearted people around her. Parris is very good with what she has to do, although she feels ultimately short-changed by a fairly rushed journey as she makes various discoveries on the way to a final scene that once again serves as a reminder of just how often Marvel wants to have its cake and eat it. Vellani is the one who makes this all worthwhile though, a fantastic bundle of nervous energy and cute awkwardness, she is as good here as she was in her TV show, and the film does well to ensure that she isn't sidelined when it comes to action sequences featuring our main trio. Jackson does his Nick Fury schtick as well as ever, and Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, and Saagar Shaikh are great fun as the other Khans who end up dragged into the middle of the action. Ashton is stuck playing a disappointingly predictable villain, and you also get a few cameos from characters that, well . . . just don't pack the punch they may have a few years ago.

Highlights include the music by Laura Karpman, some fine editing that is showcased in a hugely entertaining montage/training sequence, and more ridiculous fun with Flerkens.

I'm a big fan of director Nia DaCosta, and love the fact that she also worked on the screenplay with Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik, but there's definitely a feeling that she was handed a poisoned chalice with this gig. The MCU was on a downturn, Captain Marvel is one character who seems to be a lightning rod for crybaby fan-boys all around the globe, and there didn't seem to be any cohesive vision at this time for wherever the MCU went next. This had the misfortune of feeling like a place-holder, a disposable bit of fun. But that place-holder just happened to cost over $350M, which meant that it really should have delivered a bit more.

6/10

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Wednesday, 12 February 2025

Prime Time: The Order (2024)

With Justin Kurzel in the director's chair, a cast that includes Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and Marc Maron (in a small, but pivotal role), and some gritty subject matter that relates to dangerous idiots who want what they see as a more pure version of their country, I was absolutely certain that The Order was a film to put high on my list of viewing priorities. I wasn't wrong.

Law plays Terry Husk, FBI agent, a man who believes that a number of robberies are being committed with some extra motivation. The robbers want the money, of course, but that money is for a very specific purpose. Sheridan is Jamie Bowen, a young officer who ends up helping him in his investigation. There are a number of bad people needing chased down here, but the one who ends up being the most dangerous ring-leader is Bob Mathews (Hoult), a white supremacist who plans to declare war on what he sees as a misguided and damaged America.

Based on a book, "The Silent Brotherhood", by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, The Order benefits from a great screenplay by Zach Baylin that ties everything together and shows how these ignorant racists have spent decades working from the same playbook (literally, considering how a work called "The Turner Diaries" seems to be a common link between a number of acts of domestic terrorism). It also has an excellent main cast doing some A+ work.

Law is as good as he's ever been, playing the standard cop who won't stop following the trail that we've seen many times before. He doesn't really care about himself, but he soon shows that he does care about how others around him may be hurt, especially if they're unprepared. And almost everyone around him seems relatively unprepared. Hoult does well to feel constantly dangerous and menacing without turning himself into a moustache-twirling villain. He's undoubtedly the big baddie, but he's also a normal man who believes that he's doing something for some noble purpose. Sheridan is a pleasing mix of good instinct and vulnerability, and Jurnee Smollett does well to shoulder her way through all of the testosterone for one or two little moments. As for Maron, his casting is perfect, and his voice is used well for a number of scenes before we see him, briefly, in the moment that made his character, Alan Berg, a shocking chapter in the ongoing history of white supremacist violence in the USA.

Kurzel seemed to lose his way slightly after making such an impact with his phenomenal feature debut, Snowtown, but he's certainly found his way back in over the past few years. I hope that he continues to make films as good as this one (I've also heard great things about Nitram, but have yet to see that one), which has a great blend of commentary, tension, and even standard action thrills here and there. I may even forgive him one day for the two major mis-steps he made with Michael Fassbender as his leading man.

8/10

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025

Den Of Thieves (2018)

If you're going to emulate a modern crime thriller then Heat is one of the best that you could aim for, and that's exactly what Den Of Thieves does. The opening crime is a barrage of high-powered gunfire, and then things settle down a bit as we watch a number of professionals try to do what they're best at doing.

Pablo Schreiber plays Ray Merrimen, a professional robber about to lead a team on the biggest score of their lives. It's an audacious job, and he'll be helped by the likes of Enson Levoux (50 Cent) and Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.). Donnie is the wheelman, but he's also the weak spot, having had his collar felt by 'Big Nick' O'Brien (Gerard Butler). First being shown at a crime scene where he takes a doughnut from a blood-spattered box, Nick is the kind of cop who will let his life fall apart around him while he focuses on getting his man. Ray Merrimen is determined not to go back to prison though, but he starts to feed Nick information about their upcoming score. Is he that confident, or is it all a bluff?

Written and directed by Christian Gudegast, making his debut in the big chair, Den Of Thieves often feels like a film that shouldn't work. And yet it does. The main character is quite ridiculous, as is the game being played between him and the villains, there are a number of implausibilities that build up as everything plays out in the third act, the 140-minute runtime is too long, and there should be some more familiar faces sprinkled throughout the substantial amount of supporting cast members. The main players seem to be relishing their roles though, and that goes a hell of a long way to helping make this worth your time.

Butler is a lot of fun, playing someone who is only one or two steps away from an irredeemable Bad Lieutenant (although, crucially, he always seems to be attempting to do his job properly, albeit in unorthodox ways), and he's the main draw here, but Schreiber is very watchable and intense, Jackson Jr. continues to build a good selection of acting performances, and Curtis Jackson (AKA 50 Cent) proves himself able to work well alongside the leads. Evan Jones, Brian Van Holt, Mo McRae, Dawn Olivieri, and Cooper Andrews are also worth mentioning.

Created by Gudegast and Paul T. Scheuring with no attempt to be coy about their main influences, this feels somehow both like a standard action thriller and something quite a bit more bonkers than that. There's a vein of sly humour running throughout many of the scenes, and the very end is enjoyably amusing for how much it seems to directly lift from another classic '90s movie (which I won't mention here, that would spoil the impact). I'm not sure I would choose to rewatch this, but I am sure that I had a pretty good time while it was on. And, as much as I love McAvoy in the role, it kind of makes me wish that Butler had been given the lead role in Filth, because some of the same rules apply to his character here that apply to that reprobate. Oh yes, the same rules apply.

7/10

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Monday, 10 February 2025

Mubi Monday: The Man Without A Past (2002)

I wasn't planning on reviewing another Aki Kaurismäki movie here, mainly because I try to keep things varied when reviewing older world cinema titles, but it turned out that The Man Without A Past just seemed like a good choice. I wanted some of that deadpan brilliance that Kaurismäki can deliver, although I didn't check any of the plot details ahead of time. I'm glad I picked this, because it made for a surprisingly timely, and surprisingly delightful, treat.

Markku Peltola plays the titular character, a man we see being beaten up and left for dead in the opening scenes. When he comes around, he is unable to remember anything. He has no ID on him, no money, and not even the smallest clue to his name. Helped by the goodwill of some other individuals, this man eventually starts to piece together a whole new life. He also falls for Irma (Kati Outinen), a Salvation Army worker who also spends some time helping him to get back on his feet. Is a completely new start possible, or will the past eventually crash into the present?

Considering the blunt nature of the opening, I was very pleasantly surprised by how sweet this was. Kaurismäki could have gone in any number of different directions, but he shows how a life can be completely changed by the accumulation of small kindnesses from strangers. While the immediate effect may not always be so obvious, this is why people should not stop caring for one another, ever. Everyone needs some help at some time in their life, even if it's not to this degree, and whether that is a bit of food, money, clothing, or just trust, it can make a huge impact. 

Don't worry though, Kaurismäki doesn't forget to include a lot of his usual humour. A number of conversations are enjoyably ridiculous, and the second half of the film features at least one sequence that is almost Kafka-esque in the way our main character is questioned and doubted while he tries to explain his state of near-complete amnesia. Anyone familiar with other films from this man won't be disappointed.

Peltola is perfectly fine in the lead role, although he spends a lot of the runtime moving like a leaf blown around by a breeze. His performance is in line with many others throughout Kaurismäki's filmography, wonderfully deadpan and slow, no matter what other forces start to whirl around him. Outinen is just as good, and their connection is believable, rooted more in curiosity and consideration than any grand yearning or romantic gestures. Others provide great support, including Juhani Niemelä, Kaija Pakarinen, and Sakari Kuosmanen, but they are very much in orbit around the central figure/couple.

A lesson in benevolence wrapped in the trappings of absurdist humour and occasional off-kilter surrealism, this is another fine film from a director who may not have any duds in his entire filmography (although maybe that's just down to me having seen his best films first).

8/10

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Sunday, 9 February 2025

Netflix And Chill: Kinda Pregnant (2025)

When I saw the trailer for this latest Amy Schumer comedy I must say that I wasn't keen to see it. It didn't look good, but I knew I would inevitably get around to it sooner or later. Well, here we are, much sooner than I expected. And let me start off by just saying that Kinda Pregnant is actually kinda funny.

Schumer plays Lainy Newton, a woman who is thrown for a bit of a loop when her best friend, Kate (Jillian Bell), falls pregnant as Lainy sees her life fall apart. Her boyfriend (Damon Wayans Jr.) turns out to be no good, and Kate ends up sharing a lot of her time with another mum-to-be, Shirley (Lizze Broadway). Trying on a fake maternity bump, Lainy is immediately uplifted by the reactions of strangers around her, which is why she decides to repeat the experience, eventually heading to a yoga class for pregnant women, where she meets Megan (Brianne Howey). The pair fast become firm friends, which means that Lainy has to keep up the charade of being pregnant, even when she starts to develop a relationship with Megan's brother-in-law, Josh (Will Forte). 

Co-written by Schumer and Julie Paiva, Kinda Pregnant is directed by Tyler Spindel, who seems to have generally improved with each subsequent feature that he's helmed (although he's also been the director on a Rob Schneider TV special, but bills have got to be paid, I guess). It clocks in at about 97 minutes, paces the gags well on the way to a predictable third act, and actually has something running underneath all of the comedy that speaks to how women are treated differently, and have different expectations placed on them, when they have, or are about to have, children.

Schumer has fun in the lead role, whether being in appropriate in front of the classroom full of children she is teaching or being forgetful about the pregnant status she is showing to the world, and many laughs are shared with Bell, Howey, and Broadway. There's also a bit of scene-stealing from Urzila Carlson, who is hilariously blunt and ridiculous for a lot of the runtime, and Wayans Jr. is a very amusing jackass. Forte gets to be super-sweet throughout, and he does a great job of that, while Chris Geere, Alex Moffat, and Joel David Moore are all good fun as three very different husbands/expectant fathers.

A lot of the jokes are obvious, and most of them revolve around pratfalls or people saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but they still made me laugh, and one or two made me laugh hard (a silly little gag about a restaurant band name was my favourite, I won't spoil it here, despite it just being very silly). This is easy enough to throw on and enjoy for the disposable entertainment it is, and it is the best thing that Amy Schumer has been Amy Schumer-y in for years.

6/10

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Saturday, 8 February 2025

Shudder Saturday: Dark Match (2024)

A wrestling horror movie may not sound like a lot of fun, but I suppose if you like wrestling and/or horror then you may get something from it. That would be the theroy anyway, and the presence of Chris Jericho certainly shows that writer-director Lowell Dean wants wrestling fans to have fun with this. I'm not sure they will.

A group of wrestlers are signed up for a job by their pretty useless manager (Rusty, played by Jonathan Cherry) that will leave them fighting for a small crowd in the middle of nowhere. The pay seems decent though, but only until everyone figures out exactly what is going on. This isn't just a series of wrestling matches. It's all designed to appease a cult and progress their nefarious plan. 

Aside from Ayihsa Issa and Steven Ogg, who I am picking as nominal leads here, Dark Match suffers from the fact that too few of the characters are worth caring about. Cherry plays his part with gusto, and he's fun, but you don't care about him. Mo Adan, Sara Canning, Michael Eklund, Stephanie Wolf, Jonathan Lepine, Justin Lawrick, and even Jericho himself don't have enough to work with in order to stand out. Okay, the latter gets a scheming panto villain moment here and there, but it's not any fun. And this film should have at least aimed to be fun.

Despite the fact that I am not into wrestling, I see why people are drawn to it. The athleticism, the showmanship, the ongoing soap opera that sets up so many different battles with different stakes. Those who are really into it tend to be DEEP into it, which is why no 94-minute movie could hope to compare. There's no attachment to anyone here, despite some of their recent history being mentioned or hinted at, and that means it's hard to really feel invested in any of the wrestling matches.

Dean does okay with his budget and resources, I guess, but it doesn't take long to notice that the two main sets are the wrestling ring and a dressing room area. Things are shot clearly enough though, and the action is visible and easy to follow, if also disappointingly dull.

I didn't find this painful or overlong, but I did spend a lot of time just waiting for everything to be wrapped up so I could end it and get on with the rest of my day. And the ending was pretty dire, considering it just reminded me of a Tenacious D music video. So I won't ever want to rewatch this, and I cannot think of anyone I would highly recommend it to. Issa, Ogg, and Cherry are the highlights. Everything else is just a bit . . . blah.

3/10

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Friday, 7 February 2025

Eraserhead (1977)

While I was as saddened by the news of the passing of David Lynch as many other film fans, the silver lining to that very dark and sky-filling cloud is the fact that it finally gave me the motivation to check out a couple of long-standing blindspots in my journey through cinema. One of those movies, The Straight Story, didn't feel like such an embarrassing omission, although I am now kicking myself for not having made time for it sooner, considering how moved I was by it. The other one, however, was Eraserhead, a film that many would consider part of any Lynch 101 course.

Jack Nance plays Henry Spencer, a man who ends up fathering a child with Mary (Charlotte Stewart). The two adults end up stuck in Henry's very small apartment, struggling to deal with the constant crying of a newborn that resembles something far removed from the usual images of cute babies seen in the real world. Mary doesn't want to stick around, but Henry at least seems to find temporary respite in daydreams that soon start to warp into nightmarish visions bleeding into his reality.

The debut feature from Lynch, this has everything in place that would become commonplace in many of his later works. Despite the fairly low budget, the sound and visual design is constantly impressive, there's an atmosphere of oppressive fear and horror, and Nance is the kind of actor clearly able to work well under Lynch's direction. It also helps that the central creation here, the child, remains a horrifying and mind-boggling piece of work. Other practical effects also work well, but that baby is as nightmare-inducing now as it was back in 1977 when it was first seen.

It's hard to really discuss the performances, things are already so firmly set in a Lynchian style (from the performances to the content), but Nance is superb throughout, Stewart also does very good work, and Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates are effective as the parents of Mary, Judith Roberts is an extra point of interest (credited as Beautiful Girl Across The Hall), and Laurel Near was able to cement her place in cinema history while portraying the unforgettable Lady In The Radiator. Perhaps the best performance comes from the mind of David Lynch, who always remained secretive on exactly how the practical effect for the baby was created.

Eraserhead is about the loneliness of modern life, even while you're with a partner. It's about the fear of parenthood, both before it happens and when it takes over your life. It's also about much more than that. But, essentially, it's very much about announcing the incredible talent and vision of David Lynch. It's scary, it's upsetting, it's sometimes life-affirming, and you don't want to lose it once you have it in your life. And that's another way to cast off the shrouds of grief that have covered so many film fans in recent weeks. Because we may have lost the man, but his work will be with us forever. Even if that leads to you having an extra nightmare or two caused by his images.

9/10

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Thursday, 6 February 2025

Thelma (2024)

I would usually be upset by an action movie that didn't have a decent amount of full-on action in it, but Thelma is an exception to the rule. It's a film that makes great use of some action movie tropes, delivering laughs and genuine tension throughout, and proves wholly satisfying, despite also making time and space for some moving commentary on the pros and cons of growing old.

June Squibb plays the title character, a 93-year-old woman who ends up giving thousands of dollars to a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, Daniel (Fred Hechinger). Not only does this affect her finances, it starts a conversation about whether or not she is still able to live on her own. Determined to prove that she isn’t ready to be placed in a nursing home, Thelma embarks on a quest to retrieve her stolen money, reluctantly accepting the assistance of Ben (Richard Roundtree) on the way.

Written and directed by Josh Margolin, making his feature debut, this is a film full of unexpected delights. Whether it’s a chase sequence involving mobility scooters or a Mission: Impossible style mini-heist showing an elderly woman dealing with a carpeted set of stairs before trying to reach the top of a wardrobe, the juxtaposition of action movie elements with the advanced age of our main character makes for wonderful entertainment. The film manages to deliver much more than that one joke though (and it should be noted that the joke is about the genre standards, not about our main characters). What Margolin does with the messaging of the movie is intertwine it deftly in a way that makes it all very clear and obvious without it ever feeling unnecessary or unwelcome. The fun and the commentary are like two strands on a firmly bonded double helix.

It helps that Squibb is such a delight in the lead role. She may not completely convince as a badass, but she does enough to get by, and she absolutely convinces as someone unwilling to let her lifestyle be dictated by her advanced age. Her body may not always act in the way she wants it to, but her mind is almost as sharp as ever. Roundtree does very well alongside her, also struggling with his situation, albeit in a different way, and showing a vulnerability that is accompanied by his much less vulnerable essence of the macho man we've seen him play in films over many decades. Hechinger is very sweet and likeable as Daniel, Parker Posey and Clark Gregg are Thelma's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, and both spend a lot of the movie being very concerned about an old woman they seem to constantly underestimate, and there's a fantastic role for Malcolm McDowell by the time we get well into the third act.

As long as you know that this is going to be more Moderate & Agitated than Fast & Furious then you should find a lot to enjoy. It shouldn't really work as well as it does, I certainly didn't expect to sometimes be tensing up or to feel so satisfied as the final scenes played out, but Margolin shows that thrills and set-pieces don't need big budgets or global stakes. They just need to have the right character in the middle of everything, and that will guarantee that you will be seriously invested in how they navigate the perils around them.

8/10

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Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Prime Time: Don't Worry Darling (2022)

Now that we've all moved on from all of the behind-the-scenes madness that seemed to plague the production and release of Don't Worry Darling, it's possible to watch the film and review it simply for the film it is. Okay, I still remember the wild speculation when everyone thought Harry Styles spat on Chris Pine, look it up if you somehow missed it, but it was very easy for me to clear my mind (insert "far too easy" gag here) and finally find out whether or not the movie was deserving of any of the compliments and criticism it received.

Florence Pugh plays Alice, a 1950s housewife who ensures that the household is an oasis of domestic bliss for whenever her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), returns from his daily work at a mysterious desert-based facility. This is all done in service of Frank (Chris Pine), a benevolent leader who Alice starts to view with suspicion. Then things start getting strange, leading to Alice questioning her entire reality.

The second film directed by Olivia Wilde, reteaming with writer Katie Silberman (who also worked out the story with Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke), Don't Worry Darling is actually, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, painfully derivative and crushingly dull. Many viewers will spend the runtime waiting for one or two reveals that, when they do come along, lead to shrugs, at best, ahead of any wide eyes and dropped jaws. In fact, the third act is so bad that I almost willed it to be a parody.

Pugh is as good as she always is, so that is a plus, and Pine is enjoyable in his role, and there are decent supporting turns from Wilde, KiKi Layne, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Timothy Simons, and Sydney Chandler. You also get a very brief cameo from the legendary Dita Von Teese, who adds a touch of burlesque elegance for just a few seconds. The weak element is Styles, who is unable to show the full range that is required for his character. He's perfectly fine when in the mode that has him closest to a '50s gent, but not so good when he is required to show cracks in his facade.

There's a good idea buried in this, one about some people preferring to be controlled in a way that allows them to maintain a personal bubble of domestic bliss, but it's far from original, and the 123-minute runtime isn't justified by such a disappointingly thin plot. I could recommend you half a dozen films much better than this, and I could even recommend you a few worse films that are at least more entertaining. It turns out that all of the drama that happened when this was released was actually more interesting than anything that Wilde put into the film, sadly.

4/10

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Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Nosferatu (2024)

I'm not going to start this review of Nosferatu with any plot summary for Nosferatu. If you're a horror movie fan then you should already be aware of it. And if you don't think that you're aware of it then, rest assured, if you're at all familiar with the classic tale of Dracula then you're aware of it. The names are changed, but the essence of the tale (a vampire heading overseas to deliver death and destruction as he also seeks out a woman he loves) remains the same.

There have been at least two previous Nosferatu movies (a 1922 film directed by F. W. Murnau and a 1979 film from Werner Herzog being the two main features referenced by fans), but this version comes courtesy of Robert Eggers. That means some stunning visuals, of course, and maybe one or two ingredients added to the recipe that haven't been used before. Maybe.

Cast-wise, Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult play the ill-fated Ellen and Thomas Hutter, newlyweds who find their marital bliss interrupted when Thomas is asked by his workplace to head overseas for the benefit of a treasured new client, Count Orlok (an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgård). While Thomas is away, Ellen resides in the home of Anna and Friedrich Harding, played by Emma Corrin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Ralph Ineson is a local doctor, Willem Dafoe is a Professor with some unorthodox ideas (aka the Van Helsing of this escapade), and Simon McBurney is Knock, this film's version of Renfield. Most of these people do very good work. Hoult fits his part well, as do both Ineson and Dafoe. Taylor-Johnson is also very good with the role given to him. Corrin isn't quite as comfortable here, but that may be tied to the fact that she has a number of scenes with Depp, who is sadly the weakest performer onscreen. Although Skarsgård does more than enough to make up for the dullness of the woman his character is supposed to covet, it's hard to watch this and not think of how greatly it would have been improved by any number of other actresses in that main role.

It's worth mentioning the efforts of everyone involved in bringing such a sumptuous version of this tale to life, but I have to single out the music by Robin Carolan, the editing by Louise Ford, and the beautiful cinematography by Jarin Blaschke. They, and many others, have worked hard to present something that is both very much a Nosferatu film and also a Robert Eggers film.

What else does Eggers bring to the mix though? What are those extra ingredients that he has added? Actually . . . nothing. And that's where the film falls down slightly. This is 132 minutes of very familiar moments (even the scenes showing Orlok travelling by sea to his new lair just made me remember how much I recently enjoyed The Last Voyage Of The Demeter). While it may be worth watching for the visuals alone, Eggers is enraptured by the source material(s) in ways that leave him hamstrung. This is often incredibly cinematic, but it's also, in a number of ways, the safest and tamest film we've had from someone who has previously managed to both entertain and challenge viewers with all three of his previous features.

Not a bad film, but it sits behind the versions from Murnau and Herzog, and it ultimately feels a bit redundant. I'll certainly rewatch it a number of times though, and I wish all redundant movies were this much of a treat for the senses.

7/10

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Monday, 3 February 2025

Mubi Monday: Queer (2024)

I have some big problems with Queer, and writing this review may help me to figure out if the problems stem from myself or from director Luca Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes. Actually, it may be the fault of William S. Burroughs, who seems to have filtered elements of his life through his books in ways that become repetitive and self-cannibalising.

Daniel Craig plays William Lee, a slightly older American man who now lives in Mexico City and spends a lot of his time trawling bars for younger men he might enjoy some nights of sexual activity with. I have deliberately used the word "trawling" there because Lee is a man very much casting a wide net in order to catch the occasional prize specimen. He believes that he has found a winner in Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), the two of them ending up in a relationship that allows them to explore their bodies, take some drugs together that may help them explore their own minds and souls, and generally develop different kinds of dependence.

Hot and sweaty, and often soaked in booze, this is the kind of film that emanates a heat you can feel coming off the screen. Whether sitting in the humid bars or being naked and hungry in bed, the main characters always seem to be coated in a sheen of perspiration. This is what the film does well, conveying that sense of heat (both external and internal), and the feeling of someone moving through it with only occasional moments of real connection that distract them from their own repeating cycle of numbing alcohol and sometimes-equally-numbing sex.

Craig and Starkey are both very good in their roles, with the former managing to deliver an accent that he keeps just far enough away from his iconic cadence he has made part of his character in the Knives Out movies. The supporting cast doesn't have too many familiar faces scattered throughout, but there's room for Jason Schwartzman, Henrique Zaga, and Lesley Manville, as well as some fine work from those who are less recognisable.

I don't think the problem here lies with me, although that's not something I get to say too often. I think the main issue with the film is that everyone seems to be repeating themselves. Guadagnino has covered very similar territory in a number of his previous features, and Burroughs, well, his exploration of himself is less interesting, cinematically, than, for example, Charles Bukowski's exploration of others who end up sharing barstools alongside him, or Hubert Selby Jr.'s exploration of those chasing a high to block out the trashheap around them. And you can get a much more interesting journey through his hazy and fractured mind by choosing to watch/rewatch Naked Lunch, which I highly recommend.

There's some good atmosphere and some good performances, and I am sure that some will appreciate the themes of sexuality and looking for companionship, but there's just not enough here to recommend it ahead of many other films based on the works of those namechecked here, or even ahead of most other films from Guadagnino.

5/10.

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Sunday, 2 February 2025

Netflix And Chill: Blonde (2022)

Based on the biographical fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates, although many moments feel close to some kind of a reality that we've all since become aware of, Blonde is a look at the wild and tragic life of Marilyn Monroe. Director Andrew Dominik also took on the job of adapting from the page to the screen, and there are plenty of choices made here that suggest he may not be a fan of the woman at the heart of the story.

Ana de Armas takes on the main role of Norma Jeane AKA Marilyn Monroe. She's first shown as a child (played by Lily Fisher), dragged through a number of painful and tragic moments by her ill mother (Julianne Nicholson). These moments will resonate through her entire life, as will the objectification and abuse that occurs on her journey to becoming one of the most iconic movie stars on the planet. There are various sexual encounters, there are horrible procedures based on the decisions of others treating her body as her only commodity, and there are two very famous marriages depicted (one to Joe DiMaggio, played here by Bobby Cannavale, and one to Arthur Miller, played by Adrien Brody).

I have really enjoyed a number of features from Andrew Dominik. His films generally range from the good to the great (Chopper), and he has made at least one modern masterpiece in the form of The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. I took my time getting around to Blonde because I heard a lot of negative opinion about it when it first appeared, but I knew I would get around to it one day. After all, it's often important to check out something fully to form your own opinion on it. Well . . . the majority who spoke out against this were correct. It's pretty bad.

De Armas is superb though, and I am surprised that she didn't get even more praised heaped upon her for this performance. She doesn't quite nail the accent, but she mostly delivers an interpretation of Marilyn that is uncannily close to the real person. There are also great performances from Cannavale, Brody, and Toby Huss (playing a friend/enabler as Marilyn starts to spiral into ever-bleaker depressive episodes). Some of the visuals are also worthy of praise, especially during many of the sequences shown in black and white, as are the moments that blur fiction and reality by making use of famous moments from Monroe's filmography. Those are all the compliments I have though.

In a problem similar to the overuse of CGI in modern cinema, or in the way Jurassic Park was created, there are things shown here that feel as if nobody stopped to question them. Dominik was too busy realising what he could do that he didn't wonder about whether or not he SHOULD. The prime example of this is a POV shot from inside our main character's cervix. Yes, you read that right.

I understand wanting to do something that shows the ongoing battle between the beloved figure of Marilyn Monroe and the insecure and sad reality of Norma Jeane Mortenson, and there are things that became known to people only after her tragic death in the early 1960s, but both the icon and the real woman overshadowed by the stardust deserve better than this. A couple of moments come close to making a great point (particularly a sequence showing the famous subway grate updraft in The Seven Year Itch), but things inevitably keep returning to a narrative that makes our central figure an abuse victim with serious daddy issues. That may or may not be an accurate portrayal, and there's certainly truths scattered throughout this, but deciding to show her character as defined ONLY by these elements, and doing that for over two and a half hours, feels unfair and simply malicious.

I'm still glad that I finally watched this for myself, if only for that astonishing turn from De Armas. I'll never watch it again though, and I would actively discourage anyone else watching it if they lack either my compulsive viewing schedule or patience.

3/10

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Saturday, 1 February 2025

Shudder Saturday: Grafted (2024)

The directorial feature debut from Sasha Rainbow, who also co-wrote the screenplay with three other people, Grafted starts off with promise. There's a moment of science-based horror that calls to mind numerous classics from years gone by. You see someone take the plunge with a major breakthrough before their eyes widen and their expression of terror conveys that they just made a big mistake. I was absolutely on board with the movie at that point.

That initial moment of horror is witnessed by a young girl, Wei, who grows up to be obsessed about the work of her late father. She just wants to get rid of the birthmark that has made her feel uncomfortable in her own skin for all her life, and there's a chance that she may be able to surpass his own work with the help of a professor who sees the potential in her. Nobody really knows just how far Wei might go though, not even Wei herself, until people start threatening her as she seems on the very edge of scientific success.

Although it never feels as if it escalates in a way that is expected, and the ending is surprisingly predictable once you see things being lined up, Grafted is a very enjoyable body horror that delivers a few enjoyably gnarly moments of nastiness alongside a standard messages about body image and how society treats those viewed differently.

Although four people all helped to write this, it doesn't feel as if there's a struggle to stay on point. Things move from one beat to the next with a decent consistency, and viewers will soon start to get a bad feeling about everyone who gets too close to our main character. It's just a shame that there aren't more moments of bloody and gloopy "fun", with the third act falling slightly flat compared to the middle section.

Joyena Sun is perfectly fine in the role of Wei, but both Jess Hong and Eden Hart make a bit more of an impression with how they end up acting after being caught up in her experiments. Turner is disappointingly neutered in the role of Paul, the professor who can be friendly or hostile, depending on how things are going with the lab work. Sepi To'a makes a good impression with her smaller role, Xiao Hu is very enjoyable as Aunty Ling, who ends up providing a home and support for Wei, and Mark Mitchinson gets to be involved with a couple of the best scenes in the movie.

Good, but not great, Grafted is another debut that serves as a clear declaration of an emerging talent who we should keep a very watchful eye on. There's enough here to keep most people entertained and engaged, even if some scenes don't knit together as neatly as the, well, as the skin grafting on to skin that features in every main experiment.

6/10

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Friday, 31 January 2025

Conclave (2024)

I never thought that I would rate a movie all about religious figures trying to form a majority vote for the new pope as highly as I have rated Conclave. I don't care for religious institutions, especially not the greedy and notably-prone-to-moral-corruption Roman Catholic Church. I view that particular entity as an appalling blight on the modern world, considering the wealth it has amassed over the years and the abuses that it has covered up. So, before I started hearing good word on this, I initially thought that I would much prefer to watch The Pope Must Die.

Based on a book by the excellent Robert Harris, this is a surprisingly gripping and intense drama that makes great use of a very talented cast, all helped by Peter Straughan's superb screenplay (and a quick look through his filmography shows him to be, while far from infallible, a writer with a selection of features well worth your attention). Playing out like a legal drama, it also manages to comment on the image of the church, and what can be done to improve relations between those who want to best serve their god and the public who may no longer have trust in them.

Ralph Fiennes is Cardinal Lawrence, a man who ends up leading a sombre and vital voting session when the Pope dies of a heart attack. A new successor must be found, and they have to be in a good position to lead the church forward in the modern world. Top contenders are Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a liberal choice, Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), a moderate choice, Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), and Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). There's also a surprise addition in the shape of Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), someone the Pope seemed to favour, although nobody in attendance was previously aware of his existence.

While it would be almost impossible for director Edward Berger to surpass, or even equal, his previous film, he has at least managed to show that he's a consistently interesting and formidable talent. There's no world war onscreen this time, but we still get a number of important skirmishes between opposing factions. Making great use of some twists and reveals to help the pacing, as well as a sense of the outside world heating up in a way that reminds all of those present of just how important the church figurehead is, Berger allows the talented cast to enjoy Straughan's dialogue without needing to add too many bells and whistles to every scene. There's enough to keep viewers hooked in the performances and the small details of the process.

Fiennes is quite flawless in his lead role, a potentially one-note character turned into a well-rounded and fascinating heart hoping to keep life pumping through the veins of a body in serious need of the right medical treatment. Tucci is equal to him, all the more enjoyable for showing some of the frustration that Fiennes seems to somehow keep harnessed deep within himself. Lithgow livens things up a bit, and has a bit of fun with the development of his character, and Msamati, Castellitto, and Diehz all do well just to share the screen with some of the bigger names. Isabella Rossellini seems to be a bit unnecessary, but only until she isn't, and I'm glad there was room for even the smallest of female roles in this male-dominated space, and Brían F. O'Byrne does great work as the assistant to our leading man.

Quiet and contemplative for most of the runtime, but also punctuated by moments of blustery anger, Conclave is a confident and beautiful chamber piece. There's lovely music from Volker Bertelmann and beautiful cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine, but the whole thing really boils down to a talented cast making the most of a smart and interesting script. Some viewers may not appreciate the very last scenes, but I think it all felt like a wonderful way to illustrate the huge chasm that currently exists between the old ways of the church and the new world all around us. Highly recommended, as long as you know that you're going to be watching a film based around a group of men voting on who will be the next Pope.

8/10

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Thursday, 30 January 2025

Werewolves (2024)

If there's one classic monster that has been underserved by modern tech in movies it is the werewolf. Vampires can take on many forms, as can Frankenstein's creation. Zombies can look much more rotting and emaciated. But werewolves have always worked best when presented as a practical creation, which means we've seen far too many that have been ruined by attempts to harness CGI. That's why I kept my anticipation for this film in check, especially after watching a trailer that had me thinking it could easily be a SyFy Channel release. Not that it didn't look fun. It just didn't look as if it had the money to make the most of the fun central premise.

What you have here is, basically, The Purge with werewolves. A supermoon event caused most humans to turn into werewolves one night. Another supermoon event is about to occur, which isn't good for anyone who wants to stay indoors and avoid being eaten by the howling predators. Frank Grillo is Wesley Marshall, a military man who ends up out on the streets with Dr. Amy Chen (Katrina Law). The two of them have a spray that stops you getting hairy and wolfen for about an hour, and they have some weaponry they hope will help keep them alive as they head to the two people that Wesley cares about, his sister-in-law Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera) and her young daughter, Emma (Kamdynn Gary).

Werewolves is a lot of fun when it's all about Grillo being tough and trying to work his way through city streets that could have werewolf danger around any corner. It's also pretty good when it makes things personal, in the shape of a neighbour who is turned furry and is identified by the body armour he is wearing. Matthew Kennedy can write in broad strokes, and director Steven C. Miller can deliver some treats for genre fans, but both of them get quickly out of their depth when things require either a little bit of intelligence from the main characters or a sequence which isn't full of lighting and lens flare that can guarantee headaches in all but the hardiest of viewers. Seriously, Kennedy seems intent on making Hadera portray the stupidest person to ever wander around a werewolf movie and Miller makes J. J. Abrams look positively anti-flare with his display here, and it never improves the visuals of the film. 

Grillo is as good as he usually is. I always believe that he can handle himself, he could certainly knock me into next week with one light slap, and he's allowed to play his part with skill and confidence. Law doesn't suffer too much alongside him, although she's clearly not allowed to outshine Grillo, and has to be saved once or twice (of course). Poor Hadera though, who has to go through most of the movie doing almost the exact opposite of what she has been told to do in the earlier scenes, and pretty much the exact opposite of anyone with a shred of common sense. Gary has to be sweet and vulnerable, which she manages, and she's excellent motivation for all of the adults willing to risk lycanthrope attacks as they try to keep her safe. James Michael Cummings and Lydia Styslinger do fine in supporting turns, as do the many performers credited as some of the various wolves.

The cinematography is bad, the effects aren't great (although one or two moments work well), and nothing in the movie really lives up to the potential of what we're shown in the first few scenes (all about the upcoming supermoon event and people creating various home defence systems), but there's still enough individual moments here to enjoy if you're after a werewolf movie that at least tries to show you one or two things that you may not have seen before. Or if you just want to see Frank Grillo ready to punch a werewolf in the snout.

5/10

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Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Prime Time: The Killer's Game (2024)

The second feature film directed by J. J. Perry (after the enjoyable Night Shift), I have to start this review by saying that there was a lot here that seemed to be appealing directly to me. I like both Dave Bautista and Sofia Boutella, who have main roles here. I like a lot of movies about hitmen, of which this is one. And I like a lot of people in the supporting cast, from Scott Adkins to Terry Crews, and from Alex Kingston to Pom Klementieff . . . and I suppose that Ben Kingsley does okay in the right role. So it's a shame that this was so awful. 

Bautista plays Joe Flood, one of the best hitmen in the business. He meets a beautiful dancer named Maize Arnaud (Boutella), and that makes him start to consider retirement. Retirement isn't always a luxury afforded to hitmen though, especially when they have been as busy and successful as Joe. But when he is given bad news by a doctor, Joe decides the best thing to do is to put a contract on himself. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that he has a big reason to renegotiate, but Antoinette (Klementieff) isn't interested. She's sent out the call and a number of flamboyant killers have answered.

Apparently based on a book by Jay R. Bonansinga, The Killer's Game has a screenplay, written by Rand Ravich and James Coyne, that is one of the most derivative and tired I have encountered in the past year or two. The hitman ordering a hit on himself is standard stuff now, as is the change of circumstances coming along too late to stop the onslaught of greedy mercenary murderers, and everyone involved having their own quirky style makes it feel like something that would have been much more fun about twenty years ago, before that choice was used in far too many other movies.

Crews is a lot of fun in his role, and Scott Adkins has fun putting on a Scottish accent to work alongside Drew McIntyre, but they are the only ones who liven things up. Okay, Dylan Moran is an unexpected delight in his small role, playing a priest who receives quite the confession, and Kingston has a couple of amusing moments, but nobody else seems to stay awake in front of the cameras. Bautista seems very stilted and slow, and he has no chemistry with Boutella, who is hampered by being the love interest kept in the dark for most of the runtime. Klementieff fails to make her potential villain truly menacing or memorable, Kingsley is so low-key that he seems to have wandered in from a much calmer movie, and that covers the people who actually made any impression on me. 

Perry can showcase some action that feels visceral and impactful, but he even undermines that aspect of the film by trying to make everything more fun and funky with each main fight sequence choreographed to some pop song that, at best, ensures the film has zero tension and, at worst, reminds you of whenever tht song was used in some other, much better, movie.

The pacing isn't bad, some of the scenes look nice enough, and I am easily entertained by groups of people descending upon one another to engage in a mass brawl, but this is generally not worth your time. It's a huge disappointment, and every single main cast member has a handful of better films that you could enjoy checking out instead of this.

3/10

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Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Kraven The Hunter (2024)

Now that I have FINALLY got into reading some of the many comics that have proven to be such fertile ground for Hollywood, I tend to know a number of the characters I would have never even heard of years ago. Which explains why I ended up looking forward to Kraven The Hunter, another of the Sony movies making use of a Spider-Man character without having Spider-Man actually in the movie. I have read the earliest comics to feature Kraven The Hunter, and I thought that he was an entertaining character who could be placed in a fun movie. Of course, that opinion was affected by knowing that he was to be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (I'm not really a fan), but I still decided that I would try to have some fun.

The plot is tosh, a mess of a script written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway (all the more disappointing because of how much I love some of Richard Wenk's directorial work), but it essentially gives us the origin story of the title character, someone who uses his powerful animalistic skillset to hunt poachers and villains. Once he sets his sights on someone, that person is as good as dead, and the highlight of this film is the determination and savagery with which Kraven despatches those who end up on his bad side.

Director J. C. Chandor isn't used to working with this kind of material, but he does a decent enough job with some of the action moments. Maybe I'm just worn down from the bad stuff that we've seen from Sony over the past few years, but this never seemed as bad as anything else they've given us. The CGI is uneven, but not completely awful, and Kraven feels as if he has proper teeth and claws. There just isn't enough here to distract people from a fairly wea script, and a large part of that is to do with the eminently forgettable villains (there are at least three, but only one works, and that's Russell Crowe, enjoyably hamming things up with another accent in the role of Aleksei Sistevich, the father of our "hero").

Johnson is okay in the role, trying to maintain a serious face in the middle of some ridiculous moments, but there's always someone better available for pretty much every role he gets. Someone with a bit more charisma, and maybe someone better able to convey humour, would have been welcome, although I'm not sure I could give any specific examples. As I've just said, Crowe is fun, but that's all the praise I can offer. Poor Ariana DeBose tries hard in a thankless role, as a woman named Calypso who ends up helping Kraven more than once, Fred Hechinger barely registers as Dmitri (Kraven's brother), and both Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott play the other two main villains, forgettable as soon as they're offscreen).

This isn't great, but it's polished and entertaining in a way that the previous film in this flop-tastic movie series wasn't. I didn't have a terrible time, and the fact that this ended up taking even less at the box office than either Morbious or Madame Web feels slightly unfair. It's certainly not anywhere close to being as bad as the latter. I wish some better decisions had been made, but I also know that I could easily sit down and rewatch this without feeling the overwhelming urge to rip off my own head. How's that for a ringing endorsement?

6/10

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Monday, 27 January 2025

Mubi Monday: The Girl With The Needle (2024)

I only started to hear some good word about The Girl With The Needle a month or so ago. Since then, it seemed to be snowballing from one positive review to the next, making it a very high priority on my watchlist. I am very glad, however, that I didn't decide to put any stock into how some people were trying to categorise it. I would say this is a psychological drama, a dark film with moments that will upset some people, but please try to approach it without thinking about any particular genre you may want it to be.

Vic Carmen Sonne plays Karoline, a woman in 1919 Copenhagen who is struggling to make ends meet. She has tried to claim payment as a widow, having not heard from her husband since he left for the war, but that's made harder by the fact that he has not been declared dead. Finding some small happiness in a relationship with her boss, Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), things are made even more difficult when Karoline falls pregnant. She and Jørgen have very different ideas on the viability of their relationship. As things become more and more dire for Karoline, she meets Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm). Dagmar may be able to help her. 

Director Magnus von Horn has an interesting filmography worth exploring, and The Girl With The Needle may well be his best film yet. Having helped to co-write it with Line Langebek Knudsen, there's a nice balance between the obvious darkness of unfolding events and how much viewers are actually shown. It's not heading toward any happy ending, clearly (and even more clearly to those familiar with the real-life inspiration for the tale), but there's still something about the placement of Karoline at the heart of everything that will have most people hoping for at least some silver lining in all of the gathering clouds.

While the performances are excellent across the board, with both Sonne and Dyrholm easily matched by young Ava Knox Martin (playing Erena, the daughter of Dagmar), it's a shame that Von Horn decided to keep the focus on the central strand of the story we follow to an inevitable conclusion that allows one character to deliver a brilliantly scathing comment about hypocrisy as they stand accused of the most heinous acts. I think the last scenes make the journey worthwhile, but there's also so much else that could have been done with the scenes that show Karoline and her husband (Peter, played by Besir Zeciri) in a world happy enough to use them up and then leave them on a fast-growing heap of discarded souls.

The cinematography from Michael Dymek is often gorgeous, but also offset with grit and darkness that befits the content, and everything onscreen feels authentic to the time and place being depicted. That sense of realism is essential, allowing viewers to think about everything in the context of everything else going on around the main characters, and the end credits will bring a palpable sense of relief too many who found themselves immersed in the film.

Falling just short of greatness, this is still very good stuff. I would recommend it to people who have an idea of what they're about to experience (and the title certainly implies something close to what you get, in my view). Possibly destined to fade away soon enough though. There's nothing here that's truly memorable enough to make me think that it will be cropping up in film conversations a year or two from now.

7/10

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Sunday, 26 January 2025

Netflix And Chill: Back In Action (2025)

A Netflix action comedy that stars Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, the latter coaxed back out of retirement for it, Back In Action is the kind of glossy entertainment that seems designed to upset cinephiles while entertaining many who just want an easy option to start watching on a Saturday night. While it is silly, and very slick, it's also quite a bit better than the trailer would have you think, thanks to some fun casting and enjoyable running gags.

Foxx and Diaz play Matt and Emily, a couple of talented spies who end up in a relationship. Their latest mission goes spectacularly awry just after Emily tells Matt that she is pregnant. They decide to get out of the spying game, knowing that both could be assumed dead anyway, and start over for the sake of a calm and normal family life. Fifteen years later, that seems to be happening. They have two children, Alice (McKenna Roberts) and Leo (Rylan Jackson), and no worries, aside from how their kids view them. Alice is in a bit of a rebellious teen phase. Leo enjoys his videogames and just embracing his nerdiness. Then there's an incident, and Matt and Emily end up being shown around the internet, which brings trouble to their doorstep. 

There are certain things that you can expect from this type of fare nowadays. It's very easy to spot who the villain is. There will always be someone shown in a bad light who has something in their history that puts a different spin on things. At least one big stunt sequence will make use of technology that can make it seem as if our main stars are actually in the thick of the action (I miss the days when you could point out the huge differences between actors and the stunt performers who would take over for the more dangerous moments). Oh, and everything set up in the opening sequence will be brought back into the plot for the third act.

Considering that standard checklist, Seth Gordon and Brendan O'Brien do a decent job on this screenplay. Gordon is also the director, another role he handles well, and this is a huge step up from his last feature, Baywatch (not counting the TV movie he did back in 2018, Dan The Weatherman). It's often generally amusing, if rarely outright hilarious, and the action beats are surprisingly well-done and satisfying, if a bit prone to repeating one particular tag-team move that the main characters enjoy utilising.

Foxx and Diaz have a great rapport together, and they feel equally suited to the spy action as they do to the moments of being fretting parents. They're so good together that it almost makes you forget the fact that, once again, they can never share an onscreen kiss (because this is mainstream movie entertainment, and the USA would still be shocked to see a loving relationship that has a black man and a white woman kissing one another - sad, but true). Roberts and Jackson both do well as the children who end up majorly surprised by the skills of their parents, although the latter has a ridiculous sub-plot that makes no sense, unfairly positions him as being superior to his sister in one important way, and ultimately goes nowhere. Kyle Chandler is someone I enjoy seeing in movies, and he's fine here as the "handler" named Chuck, Andrew Scott is a British agent who is in pursuit of our leads, but also has a bit of an obsession with Diaz's character, and there are a few scenes stolen by Glenn Close and Jamie Demetriou. I'm going to mention Demetriou again because he's the person who provides most of the biggest laughs in the movie.

There are some decent tunes throughout the soundtrack, as well as a suitable score from Christopher Lennertz, and the mix of action and humour remains consistently distracting enough to help you avoid picking at any plot holes, including a huge misunderstanding of just what the Thames Barrier is used for. I had a lot of fun with this while it was on. I'm unlikely to ever rewatch it, but at least it meets that bar set for undemanding Saturday night entertainment featuring stars being stars.

7/10

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