Mubi Monday: Hoard (2024)

A feature debut from writer-director Luna Carmoon, after some time spent honing her craft in a variety of shorts, Hoard is a film as strange and difficult to pin down as the main character hiding in the litter-strewn heart of it. It's about mental health and unhealthy ways of showing affection, and it's about repeating cycles, but it's equally about making major mistakes as you struggle to find your place in a world that doesn't always make much sense.

Saura Lightfoot-Leon plays Maria, a young woman who has spent a lot of her life in the care of a foster mother named Michelle (Samantha Spiro). The opening scenes show us young Maria (Lily-Beau Leach) living her life in the orbit of her spiralling mother (Hayley Squires), and it's clear that her past is full of moments that cannot be easily forgotten and shaken away. In fact, things start to come back to the front of Maria's mind, just as Michelle has a visiting guest in the form of Michael (Joseph Quinn), a young man she cared for as a child. Michael and Maria start to connect, but maybe they would be best keeping away from one another.

This is a film with some interesting ideas, but those interesting ideas are often sidelined in favour of moments that don't feel worthy of inclusion. Carmoon has something to say, and she has a clear and strong voice with which to say it, but she seems to have perhaps done herself a disservice by assembling a cast that she knows can sell the more theatrical sequences, which also happen to be the least interesting parts of the movie.

Lightfoot-Leon is superb, giving the kind of performance that marks her out as one to watch over the next few years, and both Spiro and Squires are fantastic in very different ways. Deba Hekmat is also very good, playing Maria's friend, Laraib, and there are solid supporting turns from Cathy Tyson, in a very small role, and Tim Bowie, among others. It's Quinn who proves to be the weak link, sadly, but I blame the script for that more than his performance. He's asked to act in a way that never feels natural, and I know that there's a much better version of this film without his character in it.

The look and feel of the whole thing is great throughout, you can really feel and smell every bit of dirt and nastiness that occasionally fills the screen, and there's a third act that defies the odds to become an ultimately satisfying conclusion to a wildly uneven journey, Carmoon and her team, behind and in front of the camera, all deserve a good bit of praise. It's just a shame that everything is undermined by one or two major problems with the plotting, especially when one important event never seems to lead to the expected major consequences.

Certainly not rubbish, but there are times when you will want to wash your hands after rummaging through everything to find the small nuggets of treasure buried amidst the mess.

7/10

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In The Earth (2021)

Written and directed by Ben Wheatley, In The Earth is the typical film you can expect from writer-director Ben Wheatley, which means it is as unpredictable and unexpected as many of his other films.

There has been a virus, and scientists are desperately seeking a cure. One such scientist if Martin Lowery (Joel Fry), who is taken into a forest area by a ranger/scout (Alma, played by Ellora Torchia). They hope to find a scientist who previously went missing in that area, but they also hope to find anything that could help them create a cure. What they find is a stranger named Zach (Reece Shearsmith).

Almost every Ben Wheatley film feels like a natural fit in his filmography while also feeling like a unique work. It's a testament to the man and his ability to always make the most of whatever resources are available to him, be it the right bunch of actors willing to work with him in some experimental work, the right single location for some inventive gunplay, or the idea of a virus-based horror that can make a much bigger impact on people due to recent events. That doesn't mean that everything he does is a success, but it's always at least interesting. 

In The Earth may be the exception, in a number of ways. First, it arguably feels more connected to another Wheatley film (A Field In England) than any of his other films. I think the two would make for a very heady double-bill. Second, it doesn't feel all that interesting. The runtime is 107 minutes, but it feels like a much longer movie, mainly because it doesn't add enough to the central premise to engage viewers.

The cast all do good work. As well as Fry, Torchia, and Shearsmith, there's a small role for Hayley Squires, and nobody can be faulted. Everyone brings something vitally different to the film, creating an interesting and fluid dynamic that adds more to every scene than the script manages. Everyone is very believable, even as their behaviour becomes stranger, and that helps to offset the wilder ideas that come to the fore as things head towards the finale.

This is only my first viewing of In The Earth though. I cannot state with any certainty that my opinion won't change when/if I revisit it. It's a fairly slim film, in terms of the content, yet there are things tucked away under the surface that may well reward a repeat viewing. Maybe it would also help to be even further removed from the events that this brings to mind. No matter how much things have improved over the past 12-18 months, we're still processing a global event that was hugely disconcerting and disorientating, to say the least. 

Let the seasons pass, let the years start to roll by again, let this be forgotten and buried for now. Let it metaphorically go back into the earth. And then, one day, I can dig it up again and see how I feel. It could just be a clod of dirt, or it could be a rediscovered treasure by then.

4/10

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Mubi Monday: True Things (2021)

Although I cannot claim to be the biggest fan of Tom Burke, I AM a big fan of Ruth Wilson. That is why I was keen to see True Things as soon as I heard about it, considering it sounded like an intense drama focusing on a heady physical connection between Burke and Wilson.

The story is quite simple. Wilson plays Kate, a young woman who works in a benefit office, with all of the stress and moments of abuse that can entail. She has been warned about her excessive amount of sick time, but her life seems to be unsuited to maintaining any sense of normality and order. One day, and in what would seem to be a clear breach of rules, Kate feels an instant attraction to a claimant named Blond (no other name is given for the character, played by Tom Burke) and it soon looks as if she has found the escape she clearly desires.

Adapting the book by Deborah Kay Davies, writers Molly Davies and Harry Wootliff (the latter also sitting in the director’s chair) deliver an engrossing character study that feels painfully believable throughout, yet also manages to avoid being so mired in realism that it turns boring.

A large part of that is due to the central performances. Wilson has never been less than great in anything I have seen her in, and this continues here. Her character is sad, lonely, sick, sometimes nasty as she lashes out defensively, and just desperate to have what so many other people have in their lives. As it looks increasingly likely that her best chance for that is happening, she also becomes more nervous and worried, diving into much deeper water before she is able to get back to the surface and properly breathe again. Burke is the polar opposite. Inconsiderate, confident, unconcerned by where others are at in their lives, but able to turn on a fleeting amount of charm that he knows will be enough to keep his current sexual partner happy to have his company. The character isn’t a million miles away from one or two others that Burke has played recently, and he portrays him with ease (with such ease, in fact, that he should be wary of being stuck with too many of these roles). Hayley Squires does well in her smaller role, playing the kind of good friend who will have fun when it’s the right time to have fun, but will also call out some problematic behaviour.

The style of the film is as you’d expect. This isn’t something you would expect to be full of montages and needle-drops. The camerawork is intimate, and also very rarely static (mimicking the constant agitation of Kate), and everything is done to keep things grounded and keep things focused on the performances. Wootliff knows how to soften the edges of the scenes that feature some raw just between our leads, without making them feel completely neutered, and she always does well in criss-crossing the strands of love and sex to juxtapose the reality (seen by viewers long before it is really seen by Kate) with the romanticised version of events.

While obviously not for those who are seeking out a bit of cinematic spectacle or simple thrills, both things I also enjoy (as you should already know), True Things is a satisfying journey alongside a fascinating character. You root for Kate to really open her eyes, to start doing the right things, for the sake of her own health, and you just hope that the final destination makes all of the turbulence worthwhile. I felt that it was. Others may disagree.

8/10

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In Fabric (2018)

Having been a fan of Peter Strickland since I discovered his talent in Berberian Sound Studio, I was excited when I first heard about In Fabric. Well, okay, I was partly excited and partly ready to poke fun at a plot that sounded superficially similar to I'm Dangerous Tonight (a movie directed by Tobe Hopper, and starring Mädchen Amick, that concerns a cursed red dress). Having now watched the film, I am not sure how best to describe it to others, which is going to make this review pretty bloody hard, but I know that I loved it.

There IS a cursed red dress. That is the best place to start. It is purchased by a woman named Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). Things soon start to go awry. The dress eventually ends up in the possession of a washing machine repairman named Reg (Leo Bill), spreading the curse to him before moving immediately on to his wife, Babs (Hayley Squires). There are also a couple of bank management staff members (played by Julian Barratt and Steve Oram), the mysterious shop clerk (played by Fatma Mohamed), and a number of other characters who all act at least slightly odd in this surreal nightmare.

There's too much to unpack here, and I am not sure if it is all intentional or not (although I suspect it is, considering who made it). The first half lays all of the groundwork. As soon as Sheila first became interested in the dress, with viewers knowing it holds some power, I began to think of the irony of a woman being literally destroyed by her choice of clothing. It's a statement used far too often by the ignorant neanderthals who still think that women being dressed a certain way play at least some small part in causing any sexual assaults committed against them. "Look at what she was wearing", "she was asking for it", and "well, she was leading him on" are all statements that need consigned to the dustbin of history, and yet we still have quite a way to go, sadly. So it feels as if Strickland is highlighting the ridiculousness of those sentiments by turning them all into something literal. You also get a lot of sharp commentary on the general competitiveness that affects women every day, either in the workplace (where some people will "inform" on others for brownie points, while the whole workforce probably deserves to be rewarded more for their good work) or just in general contact with other women (there's no denying the double meaning when one character vacates the bathroom for Sheila, telling her "as I know you're desperate").

Things seem to get murkier in the second half, but a lot of the main targets are still exactly the same. It's just that Strickland tries to distract viewers by making the main character male for one portion of the runtime. He's quite atypical though, certainly compared to the kind of men we would usually see in genre movies. Reg is a decent enough guy, even if we first see him drinking too much on a big night out, he's fairly dull, and seems to be completely devoted to his new wife, in a way that makes him absolutely oblivious to the slight teasing from another woman.

I've not even mentioned the wilder moments here, and I won't. Things get pretty crazy early on. Be prepared for a number of moments that don't necessarily make sense, but do add to the atmosphere and collage of impressive imagery. That includes the ending, although there's an obvious interpretation there that allows the whole thing to end on an obvious comment on the fashion industry and consumerism.

Everyone involved does great work, all in line with the atmosphere that Strickland is creating. Highlights include the turns from Gwendoline Christie, who gets some great dialogue, any moments involving Barratt and Oram, the constant spookiness of Mohamed, and the weary turn from Jean-Baptiste as she navigates her work life, a home occupied by her son (Jaygann Ayeh) and his lover (Christie), and the dating world.

The visuals are lush, there's a wonderful selection of music by Cavern Of Anti-Matter (yeah, I've never heard of them either, but they work perfectly here), and everything is just spot on. There are no negatives I can think of, aside from a few moments that don't really nail down the tone, but that doesn't mean everyone will love it. If you DO love it then you will LOVE it. Many others could end up hating it though. I can't see there being much middle ground.

9/10

Buy the movie here.