One Night Only (2026)

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

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

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

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

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

5/10

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Inside Out 2 (2024)

Just to be clear at the start here, I was one of many people who figured that we really didn't need a sequel to the wonderful Inside Out. The first film was another instant classic from Pixar, although it was released in between a few movies that people might argue rank as some of the weakest from them, and the story felt complete. There's a great hook here though, and a natural progression that allows the film to feel as insightful and brilliant as the first film.

Here's the simple, and simply brilliant, premise. Riley Andersen, the lead of Inside Out, is now starting her journey through her teenage years. Her emotions now also take care of her sense of self, an important area that uses her memories and experiences to help her turn into the kind of person that she wants to be. Joy (Amy Poehler) wants to keep everything positive, and get rid of all the negativity, but she ends up with a much tougher job when the core emotions are joined by some new emotions - anxiety (Maya Hawke), embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and envy (Ayo Edebiri). This extra turmoil happens inside Riley as she is heading with her friends, Bree and Grace, to a weekend ice hockey camp that she hopes will lead to her joining the team.

This isn't as good as the first movie, but the criticisms I could list here seem to work for it. The animation and plotting feel a bit messy at times, which is perfectly in line with how everything feels as a teenager. Writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein (developing a story idea by LeFauve and director Kelsey Mann) do a good job of further developing an internal world that perfectly correlates to the external attitude and behaviour of the main character. Mann came up through the ranks of Pixar in the standard way, and he shows that he's been taking plenty of notes while making his way up the ladder. This is so good that I am tempted to forgive both him and LeFauve for their work on The Good Dinosaur.

As expected, the voice cast all work brilliantly in their roles. Poehler remains perfect, as do Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Lewis Black (Anger), and Tony Hale (Fear). Hawke, Hauser, Edebiri, and Exarchopoulos are great additions, as is Liza Lapira (getting a couple of fun moments as Disgust), and it's also worth praising Kensington Tallman (Riley), Grace Lu (Grace), Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green (Bree), Diane Lane (Mom), Kyle MacLachlan (Dad), Lilimar, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ron Funches, James Austin Johnson, and everyone else involved in bringing this bright and surreal story to life.

If you enjoyed the first movie as much as I (and many others) did then you can be happy that people found a way to craft a sequel that feels natural and absolutely in line with the first film. It's not quite as sharp, not quite as tidy, and not quite as emotional, but teenagers rarely are. There's no need for a third instalment, but I'm very happy that we have two Inside Out movies of near-equal quality.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: Maestro (2023)

There's a joke that I vaguely remember, featured in at least one sitcom (but perhaps not unique), about someone spending so much time obsessing over something, a skill they want to perfect or a mammoth task that they want to complete, only to then see their achievement completely surpassed by someone who seemed to do better in a way that also felt quite effortless. The character was obviously devastated, regretting all of the time and energy that now seemed wasted. I suspect Bradley Cooper may feel the same way if, as I suspect may happen, Maestro goes through the busy awards season without adding too many paperweights to his trophy cabinet.

Although this is all about the life of celebrated conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper), with a strong focus on how he was supported by his wife, Felicia (Carey Mulligan), it's a strange and cold experience that allows Cooper to create a parallel between himself and his subject. As the end credits rolled, I found myself wondering whether or not Bernstein had lived a life that seemed worth turning into a 2+ hour movie. With the greatest of respect to his fans and loved ones, I don't think he did.

From the use of Bernstein's music throughout to the unnecessary directorial flourishes, from the black and white sequences that lead in to the colour of the second half, everything here signifies a star seeking approval. "Look at all of my great work," Cooper seems to be crying. "Look at the make-up on my face to make me look more like Bernstein and honestly not intended to offend people". "Look at what I can do to make this story as cinematic as possible." "Look at how I handle this complex character." It's desperate, and it's not enough to distract from the fact that the film just doesn't really work.

While both Cooper and Mulligan have been on the publicity trail, they have both been at pains to frame the film as being just as much about Felicia as Leonard. They might believe that, and they might believe that Felicia was strong and supportive to a husband who needed her in his life, but the film doesn't quite convey the relationship as well as intended. Leonard Bernstein was a selfish man who spent a lot of time having his cake and eating it, all while gaslighting a woman who seemed to put up with him because the circumstances sometimes suited her.

None of these failings would seem as bad if the lead performances were good enough, but they're not. It doesn't give me any pleasure to say that, having enjoyed Cooper and (particularly) Mulligan in numerous other films, but their performing here feels more like caricature than anything else. The film doesn't know this though, staying focused on them for almost the entirety of the tiring runtime, which is the fault of Cooper the director, working from a script co-written by Cooper and Josh Singer. The supporting cast are all wasted, which makes you wonder why Cooper even bothered casting Matt Bomer, Sarah Silverman (who tries admirably to make the most of her limited role), and Maya Hawke as extra flotsam and jetsam left bobbing in the wake of Leonard Bernstein's callous carelessness.

A lot of people will enjoy this for what it is. It's an old-fashioned film that has the benefit of being able to pluck various tunes from the many works of Bernstein. It's a shame that Cooper tried to show everyone that he was delivering the greatest work of his life, both behind and in front of the camera. I was bored, sometimes angered, and never once happy to be learning about a manipulative narcissist who I would prefer to always identify through the fine body of musical work that he left behind.

3/10

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Shudder Saturday: Ladyworld (2018)

I was really hoping to start 2022 with a great movie. Well that didn't work out. Nope, not at all.

Although it sometimes depends on the mood I am in, I am always up for a horror or drama that tries to do something a bit different. I am especially keen to try and avoid pigeonholing movies into any one genre, something that saves me from the anger and disappointment I see people experience when something doesn't go along with certain standards that they themselves have imposed upon it. 

That's my way of saying that I was open to the idea of Ladyworld. I read the brief plot summary - a number of teenage girls become trapped after some mystery act of nature, they then start to unravel and turn on one another as their resources dwindle - and I figured that I might enjoy it. It may fit in some horror elements, it may just be a drama, it had the potential to showcase some great young actors and be a bit different from hundreds of other horror movies I have seen.

Sadly, the biggest difference this movie has from many other movies is how absolutely terrible it is. I ended 2021/started 2022 with one of the worst movies I saw/will see that year, which really isn't how I wanted things to go.

I'm going to blame director Amanda Kramer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Benjamin Shearn (although it feels like a film with a lot of improvisation between people who don't have enough experience in improv). At the most basic level, this is a gender-flipped riff on Lord Of The Flies, bringing the female experience to the material, but it does absolutely nothing of worth with the premise. Characters aren't developed well, dialogue is painfully bad at times, and the most interesting element, a potential male threat in their midst who attacks when individuals are away from the group, is so badly mishandled that it is too often forgotten while the young women go back to arguing with one another (which may well be a point being made, but it's still not one that is well done).

The cast generally don't seem up to the task of carrying the movie, with three of the main players providing varying degrees of irritation. Ariela Barer, Annalise Basso, and Ryan Simpkins are left out to dry by Kramer, who I suspect could have achieved much better results if she'd managed to create a more focused storyline. Maya Hawke and Tatsumi Romano barely manage to rise above the material, but they do enough to warrant being mentioned here as the only two positives I can think of.

As for the ear-damaging score from Callie Ryan, obviously crafted to create an atmosphere of growing tension, insanity, and a sense of inescapable confinement, I would have much preferred to watch the film with that bizzare "pen pineapple apple pen" song from a few years ago playing alongside the visuals.

Not even visually interesting enough to make it worth your time, there's almost nothing here to help any viewer want to watch the whole thing. A mess, and one that obviously thinks it is being artistically impressive and thought-provoking. I won't be rushing to seek out anything else made by Kramer.

2/10

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