Netflix And Chill: Woman Of The Hour (2023)

Based on the strange true story of a woman being matched up with someone on a TV dating show who turned out to be hiding a lifestyle of horrible rape and murder, Woman Of The Hour is the directorial debut of Anna Kendrick, who also takes on a lead role, and it's good enough for me to already want to see much more from her.

Kendrick plays Sheryl Bradshaw, an actress struggling to find any job opportunities in the 1970s. She doesn't want to conform to what every male studio exec seems to be looking for though, which means it may be time to give up on her dream. Her agent convinces her that appearing on a TV dating show will be a bit of a boost for her, at least getting her onscreen and raising her profile slightly. That also requires conforming to certain expectations, however, and Sheryl soon annoys show host Ed (Tony Hale) when she starts to cut loose and have more fun questioning her potential suitors, highlighting their weaknesses and misogyny with wit and intelligence. One man manages to stay ahead of the others though. That's Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), but a female audience member (Laura, played by Nicolette Robinson) believes that he is responsible for the rape and murder of someone she used to know.

What could have been an enjoyable, but fairly simple, idea - woman meets man on dating show without being aware of his horrible crimes - is turned into something much more, thanks to both the screenplay by Ian McDonald and the direction by Kendrick. This isn't just a look at a horrible series of crimes, nor just an exploration of circumstances that led to a now-infamous TV appearance. It's a look at double standards and sexism, and how those things have contributed to, and continue to contribute to, the abuse and deaths of so many women.

Kendrick allows viewers to notice and become bothered by every slight dig, every micro-aggression, and every moment of discomfort, laying down a path that she clearly illustrates can take someone vulnerable right into major danger. I cannot think of one man here who comes out of this looking like a good guy, but that's very likely to be something that can be said by most women, particularly back in the 1970s, but also here and now.

Playing to her strengths in front of the camera, Kendrick allows herself to become stronger as she becomes emboldened by one or two supporting comments and reactions from others. Her character has clearly gone beyond some kind of breaking point when it comes to her mistreatment at the hands of men, and it's a cheering victory to watch her make some guys squirm while she starts asking them questions with more depth and challenge than the usual TV show fluff. Zovatto is chilling in his role, but also able to turn on some charm for moments that have him getting close enough to his victims until he's ready to strike. Hale is an enjoyable bundle of 1970s prime-time misogyny, Robinson does a great job of portraying her traumatic reaction to the reveal of the dating show contestants, and both Matt Visser and Jedidiah Goodacre do a very good job as the other two bachelors made to look bad by Rodney. It's also worth mentioning the fantastic performance from Autumn Best, playing someone who was pivotal to the eventual case made against Alcala.

I knew about the main "hook"for this film, and hoped I would enjoy it. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by how well it showcases and criticises the many every day pitfalls of the female experience. And it really helps that Kendrick plays her role in a way that allows her to subtly move further offscreen as we eventually get to know someone who is equally deserving of the spotlight and the honorific title used by the film.

8/10

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Prime Time: Another Simple Favor (2025)

The simple addition of one word to give the title of this sequel could be seen as a relatively amusing and clever bit of work. Or it could be seen as unimaginative and lazy. Considering the film itself, I am going to go with the latter option.

I enjoyed A Simple Favour when I caught up with it about six years ago. The leads did good work, and it was a pleasant distraction. I have never spent any time since wishing that it had a sequel though. But it seems that director Paul Feig wanted an excuse to spend more time with the characters played by Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, which explains why writers Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis came up with this load of nonsense. 

Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) is trying to boost her book sales and stay relevant, which makes a surprise reappearance by Emily Nelson (Lively) both a blessing and a curse. Emily is out of prison on appeal, which means she can go gallivanting around Italy as she prepares to marry Dante Versano (Michele Morrone). For reasons that never quite make sense, Emily wants Stephanie to be a major part of her wedding, which allows both ladies to be put in danger when people start dying.

Lively is the star draw here, revelling in her callous and bitchy persona (even if the first half of the film seems to think it will be hilarious and shocking to have her overusing the word c**t), but it's always good to see Kendrick able to give some shading to her perky and sparkly onscreen persona. Alex Newell is fun as an eager agent, Henry Golding returns to the role of Sean Townsend, but with much more alcohol and bitterness added this time around, and there are a few decent moments for Allison Janney and Elizabeth Perkins. Morrone isn't great though, which is in line with most of his acting performances, and both Taylor Ortega and Elena Sofia Ricci feel sorely wasted. I could mention one or two others, but why bother putting more effort into this review than seems to have been put into crafting the narrative of the film?

Look, it's sometimes hard to really explain the full range of reactions to a movie. I thought that Another Simple Favor was pretty rubbish. It never made sense, it never had any actual tension, and there were too few laughs scattered throughout the screenplay. I wouldn't ever choose to rewatch this. BUT, mainly thanks to Kendrick and Lively, I still kind of enjoyed some of it. Despite the awful plotting, despite the fairly flat direction from Feig, there was some fun to be had here. Not much, but enough to save me from feeling pained.

I'm sure everyone enjoyed spending some time in Italy, and I hope they all enjoyed each other's company, but it doesn't translate to any more fun for viewers. Some of the scenery is nice. It starts to look less nice when blocked by unfolding events that are as irritating as they are illogical. 

You might end up liking this more than I did, despite me somehow still ending up not judging it too harshly (and, trust me, this is me not being harsh), but I would suggest that you do yourself a favour and just pick something else to watch ahead of this.

4/10

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Alice, Darling (2022)

Anna Kendrick stars as Alice, a young woman who heads off for a girls-only break with her best friends, Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku). If that sounds like the start of many other Anna Kendrick movies you could watch then let me try to convince you otherwise. Alice, Darling soon starts to reveal more and more about the central character, and specifically starts to peel away at the layers of her relationship with Simon (Charlie Carrick).

The feature directorial debut from Mary "yes, daughter of Bill" Nighy, Alice, Darling is one of those films that just gets everything right in a way that allows it to become quietly impressive, leaving a strong impression in your mind long after the end credits have rolled. This is partly to do with the script by Alanna Francis, which starts from a very recognisable place before moving towards darker and scarier territory, although the dark and scary parts will still be recognisable to a number of viewers, and it's partly to do with the excellent performances.

Kendrick initially seems to be doing the kind of thing that Kendrick does so well, but she gets to show a lot more range as the film unfurls like some kind of pretty, poisonous, flower. Perfection and happiness are on the surface, but the cracks are visible, and there are deep fault lines running underneath them. Horn and Mosaku are both very good in their roles, dealing with their friend in different ways, but always coming from a place of good intentions. Mosaku is calm and mature, whereas Horn seems to be much more confrontational and seemingly irresponsible. Then there's Carrick, playing a man who is ever-present even when he's not onscreen. He's at the end of a text message or phone call, he's the elephant in the room for a huge chunk of the film. Carrick may overdo things slightly, but his performance is there to highlight the central theme of the film, showing what many people will tolerate while they consider themselves in a loving and strong relationship.

Alice, Darling covers a lot of ground, especially when you think of how slight the main premise is, and both Nighy and Francis should be commended for that. There are moments when this could almost be a full-on horror movie, but there are also moments that just show the pain and anxiety of a woman who has allowed herself to be changed so much that she is unsure of whether or not she can recapture the essence of who she once was. Red flags, boundaries, controlling behaviour, confrontational behaviour, self-care, and self-belief are all examined, and the whole movie serves as a reminder of just how little you often really know about someone’s life and someone’s relationships. You may not come away from this with a big grin on your face, but you will have plenty of food for thought. And perhaps a new-found appreciation for Kendrick.

8/10

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Prime Time: Get A Job (2016)

Written by Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel, and directed by Dylan Kidd, Get A Job is, in many ways, exactly the standard comedy that you think it is. And yet, in other ways, it inadvertently stands out as a melting pot of attitudes and ideas that many people (myself included) want to see changing.

Miles Teller is Will Davis, a young man who thinks he has his life sorted. He has just graduated, his girlfriend (Jillian, played by Anna Kendrick) has got herself a great job, and his friends seem to be poised to fall upwards. Unfortunately, the job that he thought would be there for him, after a lot of hours put in as an unpaid intern, isn’t. Which means he has to decide between doing what he loves and doing what he has to do in order to earn a decent wage. And things get even worse for his father (Bryan Cranston), who finds himself unemployed for the first time in decades.

Work needs done. We al know that. Not every job is going to be fulfilling. But that doesn’t mean anyone should be undervalued. If anything, the “unskilled” jobs that are seen as less desirable should pay just as much as some of the more enviable, cushy, numbers that we see people striving for in movies. Get A Job doesn’t consider that though. It is too busy working with the motto of “find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This is a fantasy film, basically, but it accidentally scatters some reality throughout it.

Here are the positives. You get a reminder of how crappy it is to have someone in an unpaid role. You get a reminder of how disposable you are to any big company (shown in the way that Cranston’s character so suddenly finds himself adrift with no idea of where he might be able to go next). You get to see someone applying themselves to fully show what they are capable of, albeit often in a way that also has them feeling a bit restricted and very bloody tired. And, arguably best of all, you get a nice mockery of that whole “I’ll make sure you never work in this town again” attitude that some employers still think can work. Having been on the receiving end of that line of bullshit myself some time ago, I can assure you that it’s very rarely a serious threat. It is the flailing claws of a wounded predator used to being at the top of the food chain, and you should never let fear of repercussions from an employer stop you from valuing yourself enough to move to a better position (for any reason, be it pay, location, working environment, etc).

The cast do well enough, although the supporting players are a very mixed bag. As the friends of our lead, Brandon T. Jackson is easily integrated into the awful world of stock market trading, Nicholas Braun is a teacher who would rather spend his time getting stoned and playing videogames, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse has a plot all about creating an app that is basically every stalker’s wet dream. These three aren’t great, but there are much better turns from Alison Brie, Bruce Davison, Jorge Garcia, Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Germann, and Iohn C. McGinley, all playing a variety of adults already established in their respective workplaces. Kendrick is completely wasted in her role, which amounts to little more than 5-10 minutes of screentime, but both Teller and Cranston are very good, with the latter having some great moments with a local barista (Cammy, played by Mimi Gianopulos) who turns out to be more supportive than any official employment advisors.

Predictable, cheesy, but also fun, I won’t ever feel the need to rewatch this, but I enjoyed it well enough while it was on. The technical side of things is competent enough, the plotting fits everything together in an amusingly snug way for the third act, and it at least serves as a reminder that you should give your loyalty and time not to a job you may feel worn down and frustrated by, but to the people you care about.

5/10

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Noelle (2019)

Although it's nowhere close to being a modern holiday classic, Noelle is a lovely Christmas Disney film for all the family, and one that you may find yourself rewatching more than the multitude of annual new releases that appear on your TV schedule. It's got a number of familiar faces, for one thing, and it also has a supercute baby reindeer.

Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader are Noelle ad Nick Kringle, respectively. They are the children of Santa, who is shown at the very start of the movie before viewers are then informed of his passing. That means that the role, and responsibility, goes to Nick. He's not sure he's up to the task though, and nothing seems to come naturally to him, from understanding languages to figuring out whether a child is naughty or nice. Which leads to him, well, running away. Days before Christmas. Noelle, accompanied by an elf named Polly (Shirley MacLaine),  must track him down. She enlists the help of a detective (Jake Hapman, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir), someone who is coincidentally in need of some Christmas spirit, even if he doesn't realise it, and races against the clock to get her brother home in time to save Christmas for children everywhere.

This has everything you'd expect from it, all mixed together in a way that is as entertaining as it is predictable (there are very few Christmas movies that aren't completely predictable, that's a part of their charm at this time of year). Kendrick is a natural fit for her role, and Hader is a lot of fun as he is shown numerous times struggling to get to grips with being Santa. MacLaine seems to enjoy being an elf, Julie Hagerty is Mrs. Claus aka Mom, and Billy Eichner has fun as Gabriel Kringle, someone who has ideas about making Christmas more efficient that clashes with the spirit of the season. Ben-Adir is just fine as the understandably sceptic detective, Maceo Smedley does decent work as his son, and there are small, enjoyable, turns from Diana Maria Riva, Shaylee Mansfield, and Michael Gross, among others.

Written and directed by Marc Lawrence, a dab hand at making enjoyable comedies (especially if they star Hugh Grant and/or Sandra Bullock), the biggest disappointment about Noelle is the lack of magic. It's there onscreen, in the form of the many skills you get to assume the role of Santa, but it rarely feels as it should. Magical Christmas movies should feel as if a number of scenes are filmed through a haze of tinsel and twinkling lights, or even just taking place inside a snowglobe sometimes, but this never feels that way. Not even during the sleigh ride sequences. 

There's plenty of fun to be had though, especially as Noelle discovers more about our world, and the cast are all doing their bit to sell the characters and world on display. There are one or two decent running gags, decent production values, and at least one huge hot chocolate to remind you that you need to make yourself one while sitting down and enjoying the rest of the movie. And it also has a SUPERCUTE reindeer.

6/10

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Trolls World Tour (2020)

Honestly, there are times when I just don't want to write a review of something I have watched. But I made my viewing choice, I wanted it to go on my blog, and now I am up at 0530 in the morning to write about Trolls World Tour because there are only 24 hours in a day and I was too tired last night to get this done ahead of time.

Following on from the horribly average, but I guess successful enough, Trolls, this sequel comes along to make you look back on that averageness with fondness, and yearn for those good old times when the worst thing a Troll movie did was rework some classic singalong tunes alongside some kid-friendly visuals.

This is horrible. Really horrible. If it wasn't for the charm of San Rockwell (yes, even in animated form, his charm blasts out of the screen and helps things along), I am not sure I would have given it such a relatively high rating.

The slight plot concerns the fact that our two main trolls, Poppy and Branch, find out they are one of a number of troll tribes. Each tribe is aligned with a certain type of music. You have the ones we already know from the first movie, pop trolls, and you also have ones that enjoy techno, classical, country, funk, and rock music. Queen Barb heads up the rock music trolls, and she wants to collect the one guitar string from each troll territory before bringing everyone together into one big world of rock.

Yeah. Although the main message here is about valuing individualism over conformity, it's hard to see beyond the fact that a) trolls are only individual when compared to other tribes, so that's a stumbling block for the main message, and b) rock is pretty much shown as an evil kind of music over all the others.

Everyone returns to the main voice roles they had in the first movie, and Kendrick and Timberlake are still just fine in the leads, although James Corden still gets a few lines to give him the potential to spoil things by being James Corden. Rachel Bloom is suitably loud and impetuous as Queen Barb, and there are cameo roles for Ozzy Osbourne, Kelly Clarkson, George Clinton, and Mary J. Blige (to show that the makers of the movie DO know some people who sing songs that aren't just upbeat pop tunes). I already mentioned Rockwell, but he's definitely worth mentioning again.

Walt Dohrn returns to co-direct, this time with David P. Smith alongside him (his first feature). Everything is as you'd expect from a sequel to Trolls, although maybe slightly worse in the obviousness of the various design choices and attempts to build different worlds.

Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger are back to write the screenplay, helped along by Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, and Elizabeth Tippet. Five people. It took five people to write this piece of crap, and yet there still isn't enough here to make it worth your time. No great character moments, no funny lines of dialogue to single out, no redeeming value in the muddled message at the heart of it all. Even the soundtrack is just a big mess.

One to avoid, although I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who felt differently about this. It's one of those films that you find hard to consider anyone being a fan of.

3/10

You can buy this shiny set here.
Americans may want to go for this.

Trolls (2016)

I think it's always important when discussing a movie aimed at children to remind people of how immature and childish I can be. When people tell you to try remembering how it felt like to be a wide-eyed child . . . I'm already there. I'm not going to compare a children's movie to, say, Casablanca (although some are gold-plated classics in a different way from that Bogart vehicle), but I am still going to expect it to do a certain job.

Trolls is an odd film in almost every sense. First of all, it's based on those little troll dolls that I thought had faded out of our shared consciousness back in the 1990s (the last thing I remember about them was a console game on the Sega Mega-CD, I want to say). Second, it's a film that patches together a number of horrible cover versions of songs, almost as if every main scene was initially planned to be the standard finale/credit sequence we've seen in dozens of other big animated releases. Third, the story is a bit wild, being all about a race of creatures that believe eating the trolls is the secret to happiness.

You find that out at the very start of the movie. The Bergens are about to have their annual feast of trolls, served up by the Chef (Christine Baranski), but they find that the trolls have escaped. Some years pass by, trolls live in a new area, they sing and dance (which is what they do), and have hug time every half an hour. Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is a most vocal fan of all of this stuff. Branch (Justin Timberlake) is not. He's too busy worrying about when the Bergen will find them and whisk them all away to be eaten. And so, when a load of the trolls are found by the Bergen and whisked away to be eaten, Poppy and Branch head off to rescue their troll buddies.

It's bright, it's full of excerpts from popular songs (with the main theme being that they're all upbeat singalong favourites, from what I can recall), and it has enough to keep younger viewers entertained. But that doesn't make it actually any good. It makes it passable, average, it's the bare minimum to be expected from a mainstream animated release from a major studio. Director Mike Mitchell has films on his CV that prove he can do much better than this. Co-director Walt Dohrn, on the other hand, will have to work harder on future projects to make me forget his name is attached to this.

Writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have been involved with some treats (the Kung Fu Panda movies stand out from their filmography). This seems like a thankless task for them. The characters aren't too bad, although often defined by one main trait, but the script is simply required to hop from one peppy song moment to the next.

The voice cast almost make up for the rest of the negatives. Kendrick is always someone I enjoy onscreen, and her personality is perfectly suited to her character here. Timberlake is very good, and Baranski is superb as the mean Chef. Chriostopher Mintz-Plasse is a grumpy young King, Zooey Deschanel is a staff member who is smitten with the King, Russell Brand is a guru type of troll, Kunal Nayyar voices someone very glittery, and there's a turn from James Corden that is small enough to have him be almost tolerable.

Trolls is average, at best. It's easy to see why kids will enjoy it. The tunes, the bright colours, the cute characters. It's also easy to see that it was put together without any of the care or detail that goes into so many other movies looking to capture the attention of the same demographic.

5/10

Here's a shiny set available.
Americans can buy this disc.

A Simple Favour (2018)

After a string of hit comedies that ended with his take on Ghostbusters (which I liked anyway, even if it failed to live up to its potential), director Paul Feig has returned with something a bit different. It's still in the realm of comedy, but it's a different kind of comedy, and it's mixed into a plot that is decidely . . . well . . . Hitchcockian. And very enjoyable it is too.

Anna Kendrick plays another typical Kendrick role, a single mother named Stephanie who spends her time vlogging, looking after her children, and trying to sign her name up for every school project that requires volunteers. The other parents seem to gently mock her, from a slight distance, but her hyper-busy and efficient lifestyle eventually leads to her meeting Emily Nelson (Blake Livey), a successful married mother who isn't adverse to using foul language and taking a very relaxed approach to home-made happy hours. But the new friendship is not due to last long, mainly due to the sudden disappearance of Emily. Stephanie starts trying to find out exactly what is going on, and uncovers some truths that prove that she probably didn't really know anything about the woman she quickly became firm friends with.

Based on a novel by Darcey Bell, A Simple Favour is a slick film that could have easily gone so wrong. Keep piling on the jokes and you remove any intrigue in the actual mystery, make the mystery too dense and you threaten to lose those who have been enticed by the glossy, easygoing, opening act.  Thankfully, Jessica Scharzer's script deftly balances those two different main aspects, helped immensely by the central performances.

Kendrick is as easy to like as she usually is, but she's almost overshadowed by a ridiculously fun turn from Lively, wonderfully droll, sharp, and giving not one care about anyone other than herself. I did say almost, and the film allows each of the leads to make the most of some great moments. Henry Golding is the other main adult character, Emily's husband (Sean aka prime suspect #1), there's an all-too-short bit of screentime for Linda Cardellini, and the child actors all do well enough.

Strangely enough, despite the sterling work of the writers and the stars, it's hard to take credit away from Feig. He may not have a signature style, or even much style at all, but he's skilled enough to work on this without messing it all up. Much like the script, the direction could have easily unbalanced this. Considering the material that Feig has previously seemed most comfortable with, his ability to stop himself from breaking something that didn't need fixed is admirable.

If Nancy Drew ever became friends with Patsy or Edina from Absolutely Fabulous then the end result would be very similar. And if you like the sound of that then you're bound to enjoy this.

7/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Table 19 (2017)

Weddings can be stressful affairs. Stressful for those planning the whole event, and sometimes almost as stressful for those attending. What do you wear? What gift should you get for the happy couple? What table will you be sitting at? What can you do to avoid the best man, who you were going out with until very recently? Okay, maybe that last one only applies to one or two individuals, including the character played in this movie by Anna Kendrick.

Kendrick is Eloise, a young woman who ends up at the titular table at the wedding of her good friend. She ends up alongside Jo (June Squibb), who used to be the nanny to the bride, a young man named Renzo (Tony Revolori), a married couple (Bina and Jerry Kepp, played by Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson, respectively), and a man recently released from prison by the name of Walter (Stephen Merchant). This ragtag bunch start to learn a lot more about one another as the wedding day goes on, becoming more supportive and defiant in the face of dictated wedding roles. It's likely that these individuals will find themselves changed by the end of their experience, or it's equally likely that they will accept qualities they once thought they HAD to change.

Written and directed by Jeffrey Blitz, based on a story that he worked on with Mark and Jay Duplass, Table 19 is a film that manages to embrace the dramedy/rom-com tropes it is using, while also throwing in one or two minor surprises that should make viewers smile. The tone is pitched perfectly, as is the way in which awkward moments aren't overdone. This material could have easily been far too cringe-inducing, or broad, or too bitter, but it isn't. There's no real substance to it either, mind you - these people always feel like movie characters in movie situations - but it's nice and simple entertainment.

The cast helps a lot. Kendrick can play this kind of role blindfolded, Wyatt Russell adds another solid performance to his growing, impressive filmography, playing the best man who is painted in a bad light by Kendrick (but is that really who he is?). Squibb is lovely, Revolori and Merchant provide a lot of laughs, and Robinson and Kudrow work well alongside one another, with Kudrow delivering a performance that might well remind viewers that she should really be given more roles like this, in terms of screentime and substance.

There's not much more to say about this. It's a small film that never really feels hampered by any of the decisions made (in terms of budget and shot choices, etc), and it's something that should work well enough for any couples looking for a choice to settle on for "date night". But I'm sure it won't often be cast up by anyone involved when they're rattling off highlights of their career. Pleasant and unspectacular would be the two main adjectives to apply here.

6/10

Folks can pick up Table 19 on DVD here.
Americans have the Bluray option here.

Into The Woods (2014)

From my very limited experience of Stephen Sondheim, I have to say that I'm not a big fan. I'm not sure what I'm missing that everyone else gets from his work, but I certainly seem to be missing something. Of course, I've not yet seen any of his works on the stage, where they may shine at their brightest, but this is my second time viewing a movie based on his work. The first time was Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. I didn't love it. Yet I didn't dislike it either. It grew on me. The only thing I still don't love about it was, unfortunately, most of the soundtrack. I left the screening of Into The Woods trying hard not to hate it.

The story is as follows: a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) are unable to have children. They are offered the chance to change the situation by a witch (Meryl Streep), and to appease her they must find a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, a golden shoe, and hair as yellow as corn. The witch then disappears in a swirl of witchiness, leaving the baker and his wife to cross paths with Jack (Daniel Huddlestone), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy).

It's a star-studded affair, no doubt about it, with some lovely production values and competent direction from Rob Marshall. But it's also such a drab, lifeless affair that I can't see anyone being overjoyed by it, except perhaps fans of the stage show (and even they may be disappointed by the handling of the material - as can happen with anything being adapted into movie form). The script, written by James Lapine and Sondheim, seems to spend a lot of time wringing comedy from the fact that it's so amusing and sly and subversive when it's not. People have been reworking and twisting fairy tales almost as long as fairy tales have been around, and this plot throws everything around in pretty haphazard manner that never allows viewers to forget that different elements are being shoehorned in to fit alongside one another.

The cast all do a decent job though, so that's another plus point. Streep is a fun witch, Kendrick is suitably sweet as Cinderella, and Corden and Blunt do their best to make their characters likable (although it's a struggle). Crawford and Huddlestone both feel right for their roles, and they get their fair share of screentime, which is more than can be said for poor Mackenzie Mauzy. She's consigned to little more than a bit part, and is given very little to do when she IS onscreen. Chris Pine steals the show as a dashing prince, Billy Magnussen tries hard as another prince, Tracey Ullman is underused (playing Jack's mother), Johnny Depp has an enjoyable cameo, playing The Wolf, and Christine Baranski, Tammy Blanchard and Lucy Punch prove to be consistently entertaining as the evil family unit that Cinderella is stuck with.

Despite my own opinion of the film, it's worth noting that this is already a big success at the box office, and probably nowhere near its final total haul yet. So perhaps many other people are taking something away from it that I missed. Like an appreciation of Sondheim's talent.

4/10

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Happy Christmas (2014)

Writer-director Joe Swanberg is quite a prolific guy. The last film that I saw from him was Drinking Buddies, which I found to be okay. With an interesting, and diverse, filmography, Swanberg is probably most associated with films that are labelled as "mumblecore" - films with very naturalistic styles and sometimes non-professional actors mixed in. You won't find any major set-pieces in mumblecore movies. The focus is, instead, on the everyday struggles that people go through, the decisions they make and the repercussions of those decisions. Or, as I like to think of them, some Swanberg movies are like feature-length equivalents of Seinfeld episodes. Without the humour. I know that sounds horrible, but it's not really. I'm just emphasising that movies don't have to be about anything in particular.

Swanberg also stars here as Jeff, a young man happily settled down with Kelly (Melanie Lynskey). The two have a baby and they're also about to welcome a new arrival . . . . . . . . in the shape of Jeff's younger sister, Jenny (Anna Kendrick). Jenny has recently split up from her boyfriend and is relocating, which means that she needs a temporary place to live. But it's not long until she shows that she's not always the most considerate person, which causes a few problems as the household tries to adjust to the new situation.

I can't criticise the acting here. Swanberg is solid enough, Kendrick and Lynskey are both as fantastic as they always are, and there are decent supporting turns from Lena Dunham, as Jenny's friend, and Mark Webber, as a man who Jenny may want to get to know a bit better.

It's just everything else that's the problem. None of the characters are that interesting, nothing about the situation creates the tension that Swanberg must think it creates, and a number of moments just feel unnecessary, which is surprising in a movie that only runs for about 80 minutes. It's not that there aren't moments of, say, confrontation. It's just that they don't seem symptomatic of anything major under the surface. Jeff and Kelly are a loving couple who are trying to balance their lives. Kendrick is a bit young and irresponsible. Oh no, good god, how will this group even get through a week together? People drink, sometimes to excess, and people smoke pot. Those things may have been more frowned upon decades ago, but they will barely cause people to so much as blink nowadays.

I've probably given the impression that I really disliked this movie. That's not true. I just didn't like it all that much. It's so just . . . . . . . . . . . . there . . . . . . . . that I can't bring myself to have any strong feelings about it whatsoever. You'd have a better chance of rallying around a group of people to help protest against the colour beige.

Swanberg has talent. There are often, at the very least, individual moments in his scripts that make that much clear. And he knows how to get great, naturalistic performances from his cast. Hell, he's a decent actor in his own right, and good on him for wearing so many hats at the same time without everything turning to complete crap. I just prefer it when he also seems to have something to say, and that wasn't the case here.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Christmas-Anna-Kendrick/dp/B00MEQUO8G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417694014&sr=8-2&keywords=happy+christmas

Rapture-Palooza (2013)

I initially dismissed Rapture-Palooza as nothing more than a retread of material that I'd already enjoyed in This Is The End (a movie that has crept up and up in my estimation after each repeat viewing). Thankfully, I heard from others that it was worth my time so I gave it a watch. And, whaddya know, it was worth my time.

Anna Kendrick stars as Lindsey Lewis, a young woman who ends up living through the rapture. Yes, lots of people have been taken up to heaven, but Lindsey isn't one of them. She spends her days with her boyfriend, Ben (John Francis Daley), avoiding fiery rocks that fall from the sky, trying to ignore foul-mouthed crows, despairing of her parents (Ana Gasteyer and John Michael Higgins), and generally having a pretty bad time of it. Then things get worse when she catches the eye of the antichrist (Craig Robinson).

Thanks, mainly, to a great cast, Rapture-Palooza provides a decent number of chuckles for those who are willing to go along with the bonkers premise. Kendrick is always a likable presence, Robinson is often very funny (and gets to play the antichrist as an amusing asshole), Rob Corddry is a lot of fun as Ben's father, a man who wants to keep his loved ones safe by going along with whatever the antichrist wants, and Thomas Lennon is someone else I always like to see onscreen, so I thoroughly enjoyed his turn as a passive, sweet zombie. Daley may not be on a par with those mentioned, but he does a perfectly fine job with his role. As well as Gasteyer and Higgin, there are chuckles raised by the likes of Calum Worthy, Ken Jeong, Paul Scheer and Tyler Labine in small roles.

Writer Chris Matheson has a lot of fun interpreting the rapture in a way that mixes traditional aspects with twists that provide a lot of little laughs. The movie may never feel bleak, but it does enough to let you know that the characters left alive on Earth are having a pretty miserable time of things.

Paul Middleditch does well in the director's chair, setting up the lunacy without leaving any gaps for viewers to start thinking about the whole thing, and ridiculing it, before settling down to the main core of the plot - a woman with a loving boyfriend who finds herself receiving unwanted attention from an evil, powerful man. The pacing is perfect, the special effects are fun and good enough for the material, and the whole thing deserves to be viewed as more than just a trip back to the well used by This Is The End. So give it a go soon, especially if you've been (like me) avoiding it for that very reason.

It helps, of course, if you like everyone involved. If you do, I pretty much guarantee that this will entertain you for 90 minutes. If you don't, well, you may want to keep this as a very low priority.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Rapture-Palooza-Blu-ray/dp/B00DEKKDPA/ref=sr_1_2_bnp_1_blu?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1406007165&sr=1-2&keywords=rapture-palooza

Drinking Buddies (2013)

There's something about Drinking Buddies that I liked, despite the fact that the film just seems to be an aimless, inebriated, waste of time while it's on. Writer-director Joe Swanberg is happy, as ever, to let things play out in a way that demands patience and no small amount of empathy from viewers. He's helped by a great cast, all working well together, and one or two scenes that sneak up on you with their warmth and, yes, romance. In between the many beers being drunk.

Olivia Wilde plays Kate, a young woman who works in a brewery with Luke (Jake Johnson). She also has a decent boyfriend, Chris (Ron Livingston), while Luke has a girlfriend named Jill (Anna Kendrick), but that doesn't stop both of them enjoying a friendship that keeps them closer than most couples. They work together, they joke around, and they often go out for a few beers. And then a few more beers.

People familiar with Swanberg's work will know what to expect here, some slightly rambling tale that focuses on character interaction above anything cinematic. That can be frustrating at times, but it has to be said that his attempts to capture something that feels more naturalistic on camera results in some moments of great success.

This movie has some very sweet scenes, and numerous moments that ring true. The chemistry between Wilde and Johnson is great, with the pair really feeling like two close friends comfortable enough to joke around with one another, comfort one another, and even chastise one another when one thinks that the other is out of line. Livingston and Kendrick may be slightly sidelined, but they're allowed to affect main events without being reduced to a simple plot device. And there's a fun supporting role for Ti West, who walks a thin line between cocky and just comfortable in the company of workmates.

Drinking Buddies is worth a watch, but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been. Neither the dramatic nor comedic elements work as well as they should, and it's enough to make you want to grab Swanberg by the collar and give him a shake, forcing him to just focus on one way of telling the tale.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drinking-Buddies-DVD-Olivia-Wilde/dp/B00G7M18S8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390170402&sr=8-1&keywords=drinking+buddies