Netflix And Chill: The Outrun (2024)

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

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

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

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

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

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

8/10

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Genie (2023)

While I knew that Genie wasn't going to be anything too groundbreaking or unpredictable, I didn't realise that it was simply a remake of Bernard And The Genie, a 1991 TV movie starring Alan Cumming and Lenny Henry. And I doubt many others will realise it, considering how many people seem to have forgotten all about the original version of the tale.

Paapa Essiedu plays Bernard, a man who is about to have a miserable Christmas when his wife (Julie, played by Denée Benton) decides that they need a break. Bernard just seems to be too busy and inconsiderate, so she leaves, taking their young daughter, Eve (Jordyn McIntosh), with her. Bernard wants to fix things, and he wants to ensure that he and his daughter enjoy quality time together, but that is easier said than done. Things might get a lot easier, however, when Bernard accidentally released a genie (Melissa McCarthy). And there isn’t just three wishes to be granted. Oh no, you can have as many wishes as you like. But wishes have consequences, especially if you decide to do something like decorate your apartment with the Mona Lisa.

This should have been an imaginative and fun flight of fancy, especially as it seems to be a second go at the concept for writer Richard Curtis. I may be entirely wrong, although he is also listed here as a producer, but this appears to have been made precisely because Curtis realised he could get some star power and a bigger budget to showcase his central concept. Director Sam Boyd, helming only his second feature, feels like a hired hand, someone who will simply enable Curtis to get his words onscreen in the way he prefers.

There’s nothing here that works as well as it should though, with both the humour and the heart falling a bit flat. In fact, this struggles to improve upon the first version of this tale, especially when it doesn’t have the excuse of being a smaller production made for British television.

Essiedu is a bright spot, playing his character with the right mix of bewilderment and acceptance, and he is easy to root for when things start to go wrong. McCarthy is also very enjoyable, although she gives a performance here that isn’t going to win over any detractors. I like her onscreen presence, and always tend to enjoy her performances. Benton and McIntosh are fine, the former doing the essential job of providing the biggest obstacle that our lead has to overcome on his journey of personal growth, and there are very welcome supporting roles for Marc Maron (playing a concierge who takes a liking to the genie) and Luis Guzmán (a cop who ends up perplexed by an international incident).

Undemanding viewers will find enough to enjoy here, but only just. Someone should have really forced Curtis to sit down and work with someone who could improve the material, but the cast all do well enough in roles that don’t call for subtlety (and it’s particularly fun to see Alan Cumming, who played the original Bernard, being the mean boss this time around) and there are brief moments that have that pleasing sensation of Christmas magic. Very brief, but they are there.

5/10

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Men (2022)

Men. Men, men, men, bloody men. Some might rush to say "not all men". But it is. It is all men. We know that it's all men. Not all the time, and perhaps not all with bad intentions, but, yes, all men. It is, I hope, a situation that is improving over time, but I would suspect that many women might disagree with me there. The best we can hope for is that attitudes continue to be checked and adjusted in ways that just weren't even considered a generation or two ago. There will still be those who just can't accept change, but they can wallow in their tar-pits and wait for extinction like the dinosaurs they are.

Now let's get to this film. Men is the story of a woman (Harper, played by Jessie Buckley) trying to enjoy some vacation time in a small English village. Unfortunately, she cannot seem to escape the main problem that she is trying to forget. Men. And, just in case you didn't understand the size of the problem, writer-director Alex Garland has nearly ever male character in the film played by Rory Kinnear (assisted by either make-up or CGI trickery). What unfolds is a nightmarish journey through a landscape plagued by awful men. Even the ones who don't seem overtly awful are quite awful.

Although not entirely successful throughout, and I think the central conceit is just a bit too clumsy and obvious, there's so much to enjoy and admire in Men that I am surprised by the opinions I have seen from people who have claimed to be pretty disappointed by it. I knew what to expect, pretty much, as soon as the film began (the trailer certainly made the premise obvious), but it was still able to surprise me, from the increasing level of dread throughout to the moments of wince-inducing gore. And when I started to wonder if we were being shown a reality or a vision filtered through the fevered brain of the central character, as I wonder often with horror movies full of such startling imagery, I realised what a wonderful extra little button Garland had put on his material. Accept the horrors, empathise with the lead, and consider the implications of every awkward exchange and encounter . . . or doubt the lived experience of the woman who is suffering in the midst of various problematic men.

Buckley is superb in her role, giving her best performance so far (although I am basing this on my own exposure to only a few of her movie roles, some), and she is more than up to the task of plumbing the depths of pain that her character has gone through, and carries around with her. It would seem rude to praise Kinnear more than Buckley so I will try not to, but he certainly deserves a lot of credit for allowing his visage to be used as a universal symbol of patriarchal problems and the predatory male gaze. Paapa Essiedu has a small, but pivotal, role, and he's very good, and Gayle Rankin allows viewers an occasional sigh of relief whenever she is onscreen, being a friend to Harper, despite having to settle for being on her phone screen as opposed to physically being there to provide extra comfort and support.

I agree with some who have mentioned that it may have been even better for Garland to write this script and then hand it over to a female director, but he certainly handles everything with an effectiveness that makes up for the lack of subtlety. And maybe the time for subtlety is long gone, so why not put together a collage of potent horror imagery that gives just a hint of the many micro-aggressions and 24/7 nightmares that women go through every single day. And if you're rolling your eyes and wanting to yell "not all men" at this review then you're part of the reason WHY subtlety had to be thrown by the wayside. Because it is. It is all men. We know that it's all men. Even if a lot more are trying to change for the better. I'm qualified to say that, being a man who has worked hard on changing my own language and attitudes over the years, and there are billions of women around the world even more qualified than me to correct your wilful ignorance.

8/10

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