Prime Time: The Green Knight (2021)

A green knight confidently strides into the court of a king. He puts forth a challenge. Someone needs to face him in combat. But whatever injuries they cause will be returned to them in exactly one year. Step forward Gawain (Dev Patel). The fight is over when Gawain beheads the green knight. No need to wait a year for a return injury if your opponent is dead, obviously. Except there is no death here. Reattaching his head, the green knight reminds his opponent of the terms of their duel, and leaves. The clock is ticking.

Written and directed by David Lowery, taking inspiration from a 14th-century poem entitled “Sir Gawain And The Green Knight”, The Green Knight is a fantastical drama that benefits from sterling central performances and gorgeous cinematography throughout (from Andrew Droz Palermo, who collaborated with Lowry on A Ghost Story). It is loaded and layered with intriguing imagery, in line with both the tone of the film and the main themes, but manages to be both dense and accessible.

Also, and I feel this is important to note here, The Green Knight is cinematic and entertaining for the entire runtime. I say that because I wasn’t sure if it would be, which is why I didn’t get to it sooner. I expected/hoped to enjoy this, but I assumed it would be a film that I would need to then spend more time digging into and contextualising. While there is a bit of “further reading” you can seek out, Lowery puts everything in the film that you need, with every well-considered detail available to piece together into a number of fascinating character studies.

Patel is brilliant in the lead role, happy to show his character in a poor light as he wrestles with situations that allow him to either realise his full potential or find an easier, less courageous, way out. Alicia Vikander plays two roles here, both equally important in different ways, and she is just as good as Patel. And disguised as The Green Knight himself is Ralph Ineson, putting his memorable timbre to great use. There are also enjoyable supporting turns from Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan, Joel Edgerton, and Sarita Choudhury, all playing a crucial part in Gawain’s journey. There’s also a gorgeous bit of VFX work that allows Patel to share the screen with a helpful fox for a number of scenes.

Alternating between moments that are intimate and moments that are epic, this is a film that has clearly been made with a great deal of love and care, and it shows. It could have ended up in any number of final incarnations, but I am glad we got this version. Cinematic, thoughtful, and one that will reward rewatches as much as it rewards patience. Having taken inspiration from a poem, it translates the material into cinematic poetry, to hopefully be appreciated and enthusiastically examined by film fans for many years to come.

9/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Banishing (2020)

I was optimistic when I started watching The Banishing. Director Christopher Smith is someone I have been a fan of for many years. Sean Harris is a superb actor. And Jessica Brown Findlay is someone I have been a huge fan of since her star-making turn a decade ago in Albatross. All of those people working together in a horror movie about a haunting . . . sign me up. 

What you have here is the tale of a young reverend (Linus Forster, played by John Heffernan) who moves into a haunted manor with his wife (Marianne, played by Findlay) and daughter (Adelaide, played by Anya McKenna-Bruce). They have been placed there by Bishop Malachi (John Lynch), a man aware of the troubled past of the property. As things start to become troublesome, to put it mildly, the Forsters may end up seeking help from a local named Harry Reed (Sean Harris), although there's just as much chance of him making things worse.

With a script from David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich, and Dean Lines, The Banishing is a huge disappointment for anyone who watches it for the same reasons that I had. It's a creaky and hokey horror movie written by people that seem to think they're serving up a great mix of the old and the new. They're not. They also seem to think the third act will surprise and impress viewers. It doesn't. In fact, this is a film that would probably be improved by removing any twists or turns. Making a more traditional haunted house movie could have led to it standing out more from the many Wan-iverse-inspired movies we've seen over the past decade or so.  The period setting helps, as the film is set in the 1930s, but nothing else really makes any impression. Even the cast, sadly.

Findlay is as watchable as ever, once again proving that she will add value to any project, but neither Heffernan nor McKenna-Bruce do anything of note. Lynch is the brooding figure who knows what's going on, but reveals nothing. Worst of all, Harris is completely left out to dry, portraying someone who is defined by his whispery voice and the constant knowledge that he is ultimately right while everyone else around him tries to make out otherwise.

Even Smith wastes the talent of Smith. This is the man who delivered a fantastic mix of chills and head-scratching drama with the likes of Creep, Triangle (my personal favourite), and Black Death. You wouldn't know that from this, a barely competent chiller that takes some of the mythos of the infamous Borley Rectory haunting and turns it into something you would expect to be helmed by a stumbling first-timer.

Interested in haunted house movies? There are many others that are more worthy of your time. Interested in  Borley Rectory? You could always read a number of fascinating articles on the place, or treat yourself to the superb Borley Rectory (written and directed by Ashley Thorpe, and a film that feels like the definitive Borley Rectory experience). And if you're simply after a great horror movie then you could always delve into the earlier filmography of Christopher Smith. I hope he comes back soon with something that once again shows off what he is really capable of.

3/10

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Possum (2018)

A dark psychological thriller starring Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong, and a creepy dummy/puppet that makes occasional appearances, Possum is a slow chiller that starts to turn the screws from the very first scenes and doesn't let up until the very end.

Harris plays Philip, a man who heads back to his childhood home after some incident that has temporarily (?) halted his puppeteer career. Perhaps reflecting his mindset, the house is gloomy and in some disrepair, shaded in greys and nicotine-yellows, and the presence of his stepfather (Armstrong) doesn't seem like a plus. There's another presence too, always another presence, but that doesn't seem to be too good for Philip either.

Written and directed by Matthew Holness, still best known to genre fans for Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Possum is a stylish and constantly creepy piece of work. Adapted from his own short story, Holness sprinkles in just enough elements to take it to feature length without adding anything that ruins the sense of dread and mystery. There are moments here that will ensure Possum stays in your memory, but no individual scenes steal power away from the overall experience. Holness shows his love and knowledge of genre, as he has done for many years (even when working with the tropes comedically), but it's impressive that he creates such a subtle and shifting nightmarescape, rather than a more obvious bag of horror tricks. Having said that he took influence from public information films that he saw in his youth, as well as some classic movies, Possum is a film just slightly out of phase with our reality. If it had to be pinned down to one location then that would surely be Scarfolk.

The viewing experience here will be more uncomfortable for those who dislike, or are creeped out by, dummies. Although used sparingly, praise must go to whoever came up with that design, and the visual unease is heightened by a cracking, equally unnerving, score.

Harris does a brilliant job in the lead role, but anyone who has seen him in any other role will know what to expect from him. He can always deliver intensity, but here it is mixed in with confusion and vulnerability. Armstrong, although not onscreen for too much of the runtime, does equally good work in his very different role. Both men are written to be alternately potential victims or aggressors, depending on what viewers imagine having happened in their backstories until the truth is finally revealed.

Not a film for the unsuspecting viewer after a bit of mindless entertainment, this is Holness effectively poking at a fractured psyche with a sharp stick, seeing what numbs certain areas and what leads to sudden jolts. The end result is an original and unique bit of British horror, something for genre fans to savour, and I look forward to whatever he does next.

8/10

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is available here.
The short story of Possum is available here.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

You may have already seen clips of Tom Cruise in action for this latest Mission: Impossible movie. He dives out of a plane. He races through the streets of Paris. He flies a helicopter in a manner not to be found in the "Guide To Being A More Responsible Helicopter Pilot". He does all of that and more. You may have also already heard the glowing praise. A lot of people are calling this the best of the franchise. A lot of people are calling it a new action classic.

Yeah, about that. Let's take off the rose-tinted IMAX glasses and turn things down just a notch.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a very good film. There are times when it is great. The stuntwork is often bordering on the insane, making it insanely entertaining, but this isn't the best action movie in years. I'd say that it even falls just below the previous two entries in this series, and I'll go into just why that's the case in a little while.

Cruise is Ethan Hunt once again, of course, and he's flanked by Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames) as they try to recover some stolen plutonium cores that they don't want falling in to the hands of The Apostles (who have remained at work despite the loss of their leader, Solomon Lane, played by Sean Harris). Henry Cavill is a CIA agent, August Walker, tasked with keeping a closer eye on Hunt and his team, Rebecca Ferguson returns as the kickass Ilsa Faust, and a few other familiar faces pop up to join the fun.

Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (now on his third film with Cruise and his second in this series, the first director to return) knows how to sketch characters, dynamics, and the potentially complex plotting of a good spy caper. It's great to see a number of threads picked up and expertly manipulated. Plot points drop in and reverberate through this movie, and even the events of the past movies, with the impact of a fly that just found itself unexpectedly caught in a spiderweb. And this all happens in between, and sometimes during, those magnificent action set-pieces.

The cast all slip back into their roles with ease. Cruise is, as we all know nowadays, either fearless or completely insane. He won't rest until one of these films allows him to escape a space-set shockwave as he glides down to Earth on the back of a toothy creature a la "Ace" Rimmer from Red Dwarf. Pegg and Rhames are great support, their characters bringing just a small amount of comedy while reinforcing the few bonds that connect IMF with individual lives instead of just faceless masses to be saved. Ferguson is slightly underserved by the script, but does very good work with what she's given. Harris remains a menacing figure, Vanessa Kirby is good fun as a "broker", and Cavill is absolutely brilliant as the sledgehammer who may break our heroes if he thinks things aren't going to plan. You also get some nice work from Alec Baldwin, again, and Angela Bassett. There's even some screentime for Michelle Monaghan.

That covers most of the fun stuff. I could mention how exhilarated I felt watching Cruise ride a motorbike the wrong way around the Arc de Triomphe. I could try to describe the sheer joy I felt while Cruise called Cavill a prick. You get the idea. There are lots and lots of fun moments. And I won't deny that some of the action beats are next-level in their scale and choreography, for a mainstream blockbuster release. The finale is especially adept at jumping from one white-knuckle moment to the next.

The non-fun stuff is also very good. The subtitle here may be Fallout but I suspect that's because Weight just wouldn't sound as good. Believe me, however, when I say that this film is all about weight. The weight of responsibility, the weight of constantly making decisions based on murky and fluid morality, the weight of the practical effects, the weight of emotions. People may remember the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few but this film reminds us all that the choice weighs just as heavily on the person having to make the call, and also that sometimes the end games are one and the same. It also makes an interesting point about the war on terror and how the good intentions can create even more dangers and enemies. I would argue that the two moments in this film that completely sum up Ethan Hunt are a scene in which he apologises to a wounded police officer in French and a scene in which he tells the other team members that he won't let them down, even as everyone realises that they can no longer hear one another. Even with his team, Hunt alone feels the total weight of the job, especially while maintaining a moral code that others may lack.

Where the film falls down slightly, certainly in comparison to the previous missions, is in the scenes which allow it to remind us of the past. McQuarrie ties up loose ends that few people were all that bothered about. He does it well, or as well as he can, but it still feels unnecessary. The same goes for some of the details and callbacks that make the film feel like some grand sendoff rather than just a grand adventure. I'm not going to namecheck them all, and I am not saying that there are lots and lots, but fans of the series will find some moments feeling far too familiar because McQuarrie felt that he needed to include some extra little nods and winks.

The fourth film had amazing set-pieces without a memorable villain, the fifth film had the perfect mix of both. This film sits somewhere between the two. The villains are great, the action is often brilliant, but it's a bit overlong, a bit happy to scamper back and forth to the same well, and sometimes, even for this series, feels a bit too unbelievably coincidental and convenient.

But I'll be just as eager to see the next mission. And I'll be buying this one ASAP.

EDIT: I have changed my mind slightly on this, the bad doesn’t do enough to bother me on repeat viewings, and I think maybe wearing the rose-tinted glasses can be a nice experience sometimes.

9/10

Your mission can be found here.

'71 (2014)

Okay, now is not the time for a history lesson. Neither is it the place. But to be fully aware of the tension running through '71 you have to at least be slightly aware of the situation that tore apart Northern Ireland, and sometimes spilled over into areas of the UK, known colloquially as The Troubles. It was a war over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, with the Unionists (who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK) on one side and the Republicans (who wanted to break away and form one united country of Ireland) on the other. A heavy military presence, with most soldiers transferred over from the UK mainland, was required, which didn't go down well with those living in the region. Religious views also helped to keep the battle raging, and that's about all I'll say just now. Please take this paragraph as nothing more than an attempt at a VERY brief overview of a complicated situation that scarred Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom for decades. There's plenty of material out there, by much smarter people, for those who want to read up further on it.

'71 stars Jack O'Connell as Gary Hook, a young British soldier who finds himself isolated from his unit on the streets of Belfast. It's 1971, hence the title, and he is in serious danger. The republicans will kill him if they find him, and there's even a chance that some of the undercover personnel on his side will turn hostile if they think that he could undo all of their hard work. It's going to be a long night for the young lad. IF he's lucky enough to survive it.

Director Yann Demange has been doing some great work on TV over the years (including being at the helm of the superb Dead Set) and he makes the transition to the big screen with no small amount of confidence and skill. It helps that the script, by Gregory Burke, is as good as it is. Although it mixes moments of immediate danger with moments showing characters grappling with choices that they must make, the tension remains high for every minute that keeps our main character in such dangerous territory.

O'Connell has been a rising star for a good few years now and this is yet another fantastic performance from him, with the movie making the most of his youthful looks to underline just how out of his depth he is. He carries most of the movie, despite not always being the focus of every scene, but he's helped by some other great actors. Sean Harris lends his usual intensity to proceedings, Paul Anderson and Sam Reid do decent work, and Corey McKinley makes a strong impression, portraying a boy who is shown to be much more than just your average young lad.

'71 is a film that requires patience and concentration, but it rewards viewers with a movie experience that mixes visceral thrills with intelligence and a roster of well-sketched characters. In other words, it's highly recommended.

8/10

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Harry Brown (2009)

Daniel Barber's first full-length feature could, at a casual glance, be seen as a lazy way to fast-track him into the growing collection of great UK film-makers such as Shane Meadows, Danny Boyle, Christopher Smith, Neil Marshall, Guy Ritchie (YES, I said Guy Ritchie), Michael Winterbottom and others. It's a crime movie, it's done with a measured amount of gritty realism and it's got Michael Caine in it. So far so seen-it-all-before. But Harry Brown brings a bit more to the mix than just that.

Michael Caine IS Harry Brown, an old man living on a rather dilapidated council estate, spending his time either visiting his ill wife, playing chess with his friend Leonard (David Bradley) or simply filling the lonely, bleak hours in between such little moments of pleasure while, around him, the local area is going to ruin thanks to local teenagers playing with knives, guns and drugs and terrorising those who try to get on with their daily lives. When things happen that directly affect Harry he is then forced into making a decision he never thought he would make . . . . . . and to start cleaning up the estate. But it's not long before one good policewoman (Emily Mortimer) starts to suspect Harry's hand in the latest, bizarre events.

Michael Caine is an icon, an untouchable living British legend who can get by simply by being Michael Caine nowadays. Which is why it's been all the more impressive to see him put in damn fine performances in recent years and his portrayal of Harry Brown is one of his very best. Vulnerable and weak one moment, tough and dangerous the next, it's all believable thanks to Caine's performance. It helps that he's surrounded by the likes of Emily Mortimer, Liam Cunningham, Sean Harris and a group of young actors who all put in excellent acts, even while playing people you hope to never, ever meet in your life.

The character motivation feels real enough, the twists and turns don't leave you feeling cheated and the script stays truthful (sometimes disturbingly so) within the environment created for the movie so that's a success for writer Gary Young and director Daniel Barber that goes beyond any that a mix of standard crime antics and flashes of style could have provided.

The overall experience may be a little bit cold and bleak for some viewers but this is still a movie worth seeing, one that both entertains and makes you wince while also raising a number of moral questions as events move towards the climax.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harry-Brown-Blu-ray-Michael-Caine/dp/B002XWV3C2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372487268&sr=8-2&keywords=harry+brown