For It Is Man's Number

Friday, 11 August 2023

Where The Crawdads Sing (2022)

I am not going to pretend that I didn’t enjoy Where The Crawdads Sing. I did. While it was on, I thought the acting was fine and the storyline was engrossing enough to keep me actively engaged from start to finish. The magic started to fade after the end credits rolled though, and I am now bemused by the fact that it managed to win me over for most of the 125-minute runtime. Let’s put it down to the fact that it was a pretty comfortable “date night” movie choice. If you are after that then you could do worse than this. Otherwise, you would probably do best to avoid it.

Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya Clark, a woman who lives alone in the marsh area of North Carolina. Flashbacks show us exactly how she ended up in this situation, and more flashbacks will show us how she ended up in trouble. Because Kya could be in a lot of trouble, all thanks to the discovered corpse of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). Standing trial for murder, Kya is defended by a local lawyer (Tom Milton, played by David Strathairn) who has to convince the local town residents that their own prejudices should not be enough to find this young woman guilty. Is Kya a murderer though, or is she a victim of some horribly coincidental circumstantial evidence?

Based on a popular book by Delia Owens, this was adapted into screenplay form by Lucy Alibar (her third feature), and the non-chronological structure works well for painting the big picture and keeping viewers on their toes. Director Olivia Newman presents everything well enough, it all looks picturesque and pretty, even while the setting isn’t really the prettiest place on the planet. This is only Newman’s second film, having amassed a body of work that includes a short or two and some episodic TV work, but the relative lack of experience behind the camera doesn’t seem to affect the final product, although I suspect both writer and director decided to stick closer to the source material than someone more confident in their own abilities (and this is just me speculating because, as you may have guessed, I haven’t read the book).

Edgar-Jones is good in the lead role. I haven’t seen her in too many movies so far, but I have liked what I HAVE seen. Strathairn is always worth your time, and he gives a typically enjoyable performance here. Dickinson gets to be a bit of a douchebag, which he does very well, but at least his character development is less ambiguous, and subsequently more enjoyable, than the other main man in Kya’s life, Tate (Taylor John Smith). Smith is a typical bland, safe, option popping in and out of the film, but some of his words and actions are enough to have you hoping that Kya realises she can just stay happy in her own company until meeting someone genuinely deserving of her affection. Garrett Dillahunt has a few scenes, and is excellent, as a resentful and violent “Pa”. Michael Hyatt and Sterling Macer Jr. are the last two people to mention, giving very enjoyable supporting turns as a married couple/shopkeepers who do their best to help and protect a young girl (oh, I should show some appreciation for Jojo Regina, playing young Kya) they realise is fending for herself.

This is escapist fare, and some of it works well enough, but it’s all very superficial, from the legal proceedings to the cherry depiction of a life of poverty that equates to a carefree young girls walking barefoot around some marshes. Nothing is as grubby and painful as it should be, and the twists and turns feel redundant when you start to figure out the foregone conclusion of the finale. It’s okay though, absolutely okay, although I doubt anyone would want to rush to rewatch it.

5/10

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Thursday, 10 August 2023

Babylon (2022)

I keep forgetting that Damien Chazelle also made First Man, a feature film about Neil Armstrong that I own, but have yet to watch. I mention it here because after seeing Babylon, I immediately commented that Chazelle seems intent on turning every movie he makes into a musical, even if they are non-traditional presentations. I would like to stand by that, but I guess it all depends on how the content of First Man is presented.*

Babylon is about the Hollywood of the 1920s. It’s a place of great excess and debauchery, where the alcohol and drugs flow as easily as the sexual partners. Brad Pitt plays a classic Hollywood star named Jack Conrad, a misbehaving manchild who knows how to keep playing the game. Margot Robbie is a super-talented amateur named Nellie LaRoy, ready to take the world by storm, but not actually aware of how she needs to stay in line to compensate for the times when she can be way out of line. And then there’s Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a young man who gets himself in the right place at the right time, gaining an opportunity to rise from “fixer” to a main role in the studio system. These three people are the main focus of the story, but they aren’t necessarily prepared for what is about to change their working methods. Sound is coming. It’s going to be huge. And it’s going to cause a number of problems.

Many have mentioned that Babylon starts with a sequence that has an elephant defecating all over a couple of people. You see this in stomach-churning detail, with one shot pretending to be from inside the elephant, looking directly out of the pulsing anus. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I would write. Anyway, people have said that this sums up the experience of the film, with Chazelle pouring a lot of stinky effluence over viewers. I disagree with the second half of that sentiment, but it certainly seems to be in line with everything you get throughout the rest of the 189-minute runtime.

Chazelle is actually using one or two VERY familiar cinematic touchstones, overtly referenced in the beautiful final sequence of the movie (I am not going to mention them here, realising how close they align is part of the joy), but he ensures that this particular narrative journey is one dizzying high followed by a slow and bumpy ride down to hellish low points. Making use of a brilliantly propulsive score (Justin Hurwitz shining once again), Chazelle whisks viewers from one dazzling and dizzying sequence to the next, only faltering in a third act that changes the rhythm to something almost unforgivably downbeat.

Pitt and Robbie are both excellent in their roles, the former convincing as the star he is meant to be, even when the shine starts to dim, and the latter acting brilliantly crass and gung-ho while she is full of beliefs in her own natural talent. Pitt gets even better as the storyline for him winds down, but Robbie sadly ends up mired in an overwrought bit of melodrama. Calva, the connective tissue between those two stars, as well as a few others, gives a performance that should bag him some more roles in features of this calibre. Whether it does or not, considering how divisive this film has proven to be, remains to be seen, but I will certainly be checking out some of his previous work in the meantime. Jean Smart is as good as ever, playing a showbiz columnist named Elina St. John, and she works beautifully with both Pitt and Robbie in two of the best scenes in the film. Jovan Adepo also gets some great moments, playing a black musician named Sidney Palmer who has to decide how much he will put up with in the name of fame, and Li Jun Li lights up the screen whenever her character, Lady Fay Zhu, appears, although I wish she had a bit more screentime. And I have to mention Tobey Maguire, giving a creepy and wonderfully weird portrayal of a character that feels like a degraded and toxic portrait of his character from The Great Gatsby.

I really liked a lot of Babylon, and I absolutely loved some moments, but I am not sure I ever want to watch it again. Chazelle, indulging himself as excessively as some of the onscreen characters, albeit in more acceptable ways, doesn’t get the balance quite right. I think there were better ways to tie these stories together, perhaps even bringing in more supporting characters to bear the brunt of the harsher plot points. Regardless of the mis-steps though, I view this as quite an achievement. I doubt many will even like it as much as I do, but I am happy for the few who will end up absolutely loving it.

*EDIT: I have now been reliably informed that (sadly?) First Man is absolutely not a musical. So that is that.

7/10

Wednesday, 9 August 2023

Prime Time: Project Wolf Hunting (2022)

I heard some high praise for Project Wolf Hunting when it first started to appear at one or two festivals. Then things started to even out slightly. There were a number of people who found it a bit disappointing, or just didn’t think it lived up to the hype it had gathered. That wide range of opinions meant that I had no expectations when going into this. I knew the very basic premise, and I knew it was super-bloody. I could only hope that it was also really enjoyable.

It’s alright. Not great, not even really good. Just alright.

A group of dangerous criminals are being extradited from the Philippines to South Korea via a large cargo ship. Some police officers are also on board, of course, and things are tense from the outset. An escape is planned, but it soon becomes clear that there is something else dangerous on the ship. Something that might start tearing through cops and criminals alike.

Written and directed by Kim Hong-Seon, this is a fun premise that is sadly ruined by an overlong runtime and too much unnecessary plotting. Yes, I said it. Project Wolf Hunting has too much plot getting in the way of the carnage. It’s not that the details revealed are bad, and they are often accompanied by more bloodshed, but what this needed was a more streamlined approach to the backstory. I guess viewers are supposed to care more about the final outcome, and the fate of one or two main characters, but it doesn’t work, which means keeping things even simpler, and shortening the runtime, could have been a better way to go.

Seo In-Guk and Jang Dong-Yoon do well enough in main roles, and Choi Gwi-Ha is a formidable presence, playing “Alpha” (the super-powered killer turning the ship into even more of a bloodbath), but the other performers, whether cops or criminals, or shady corporation staff members, are overshadowed by the geysers of blood and crushed bodies. This is a Resident Evil adventure by way of Ichi The Killer.

I did worry that, like one or two other recent gorefests, Project Wolf Hunting would start with an insane level of gore that would soon become tiring, but that wasn’t the case. Although it still becomes a bit tiresome, there just isn’t enough variety in the characters or kills, there is at least an escalation in the violence. This helps to make the film enjoyable enough, but some inventiveness, and more style or humour, would have greatly improved the viewing experience.

Good, but not great, although I am currently undecided on whether or not I will be interested in the potential sequel teased at the very end of the film. I am sure gorehounds will rate this slightly higher than I do. I just wanted something a bit better.

6/10

Tuesday, 8 August 2023

Joy Ride (2023)

Despite my enjoyment of the Joy Ride trailer, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the movie. There was enough good word about it to make it something I wanted to prioritise, but I worried that I might have already been made aware of all the best bits. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

Ashley Park plays Audrey, a young woman with a successful career who is tasked with heading to China to complete a major business deal. Although everyone assumes that Audrey should have no problems in China, due to her being Asian, the fact that she was adopted at a very young age means that she isn’t necessarily well-equipped for the trip. As she doesn’t speak any form of the language, she heads there with her best friend, Lolo (Sherry Cola). Lolo ends up bringing along her awkward, K-pop-loving cousin, “Deadeye” (Sabrina Wu), and Audrey turns the trio into a quartet when she connects with another friend, Kat (Stephanie Hsu). Kat is a successful actress, having made her reputation as a wholesome and virginal “good girl”, despite some very raunchy episodes in her past. The business deal is the focus, but Lolo also tries to convince Audrey to seek out her birth mother.

Directed by Adele Lim (who helped to write a little film you may have heard of called Crazy Rich Asians), this is an enjoyably bawdy comedy that also manages to insert some interesting commentary and genuinely moving moments without everything feeling forced. There are at least a few big laughs, one gag prompting me to laugh louder than I have in the cinema in years, and plenty of dialogue and moments that manage to both entertain and allow viewers to consider the way society treats race, gender, sex, and family.

The screenplay, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao (neither of whom have the biggest body of work, but both seem to have worked together well on the TV show “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens”), fleshes out an idea that Lim helped to create, and uses a familiar comedy feature template to give equal time and space to each of the four main characters. Although a lot of the beats are fairly familiar and predictable, there are enough little moments that stray from the formula to make this feel a bit more special than other films in the genre. It would have been very easy just to make this into another Bridesmaids with some different wardrobe choices throughout, but it manages to avoid feeling too indebted to that film, despite it being the closest cinematic touchstone.

Park is a good lead, able to play the “straight” acting more than the others, but certainly not without the ability to play into the comedy, but kudos to her for often just being present in scenes where the others shine. Cola, Wu, and Hsu get the majority of the laughs, with each one seemingly dealing with their own hang-ups as the fun trip that was planned starts to turn into one mishap after another. Or perhaps the hang-ups belong to other people, and those other people should just let people be their natural selves. Ronny Chieng has a fun few minutes of screentime, and there are sweet, and all-too-brief, moments for Daniel Dae Kim and Michelle Choi-Lee.

No matter who you are, if you have ever wrestled with your own identity (in terms of your family tree, in terms of your sexuality, in terms of a fandom you are part of, in any way) then I recommend Joy Ride. It has plenty of food for though, some big laughs, and a big heart. It could have been trimmed slightly, there could have been a few more jokes dotted throughout, but it’s a fun time that should have you smiling broadly as the end credits roll.

8/10

Monday, 7 August 2023

Mubi Monday: Room At The Top (1958)

A British film from the late 1950s that I somehow knew absolutely nothing about, aside from the phrase being used in other ways (including the pop single by Adam Ant), Room At The Top is a film that has immediately become a new favourite of mine, thanks to the way it drags viewers through some very dark and bleak territory without having it all seem too unbearable.

Laurence Harvey plays Joe Lampton, a young and ambitious accountant who goes through life with an eye on the ladies and a chip on his shoulder. He sets his sights on the lovely Susan Brown (Heather Sears), the daughter of a fairly rich and powerful man, but also keeps himself busy by having an affair with the unhappily married Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret). As time passes and feathers start to become ruffled, Joe becomes bolder in his behaviour while distancing himself from the home and working-class background he came from.

Adapted into screenplay form by Neil Paterson, from the novel by John Braine, this works brilliantly as both a character study and a look at the class system. There are times when Lampton seems to be careening towards self-destruction, but there are also times when his attitude and actions only seem worse because of how the upper-classes judge him. Everything is relative, for better or worse, and this is strongly underlined in an astonishingly impactful finale.

Director Jack Clayton may be more celebrated for his next directorial feature, a classic of the horror genre (The Innocents, 1961), but this deserves an equal amount of praise, particularly with regards to how Clayton seems to get as close as he can to what was permissible and acceptable onscreen back at this time. Maybe I am misjudging the era, but this still feels very much like the main character, full of pent-up resentment and aggression. Morals are discarded in favour of social progression, many characters are used as stepping stones, and there are a couple of moments that deliver the cinematic equivalent of a slap to the face.

Harvey is impressive in the lead role, delivering a fine performance that leaves vanity at the door. His character is very easy to dislike, even outright hate at times, but viewers are allowed to start piecing together the backstory that turned him into what he is. In the role of Susan, Sears is a delight for every moment she’s onscreen, as she has been in other movie roles, and her bubbly naïveté is nicely juxtaposed alongside the pragmatism and weariness of the character portrayed by the excellent Signoret. Donald Wolfit and Ambrosine Phillpotts are both very good, playing the parents of young Susan, and Donald Houston is a friend/colleague who often tries to be the voice of reason for our leading man. Other familiar faces crop up in small roles, but the only other one I will mention here is the wonderful Allan Cuthbertson (star of many films and TV shows, but arguably known to many for his appearance in the Fawlty Towers episode that has Basil Fawlty thrashing his car).

If there’s one criticism to be made here, I would say that I wish there had been a way to coat the bitter pill with a bit more sugar. That isn’t something I always consider, which maybe says more about how much I wanted to stay aligned with the central character, but I felt that the third act was as disorientating as it was effective, teetering on the edge of being a terrifying journey into a very particular realm of purgatory that is only available to those with enough money and not enough consideration for others.

9/10

Sunday, 6 August 2023

Netflix And Chill: Asvins (2023)

Here I go again, diving into a slice of cinema from an area I am not too familiar with (this time it's a horror film from India). That's never stopped me before though, and it won't stop me in the future. The only way you get more knowledgeable about cinema from different countries, different genres, or different eras, is to keep making time in your schedule to watch them. I may find reviewing such movies a bit more daunting, but maybe I won't feel that way one day. Or maybe I'll always feel that way, but I'll be happy to roll up my sleeves and try my best anyway.

The story here is fairly simple, at least for the first half of the film. After being told a folk tale about a father losing two sons, having the chance to have one returned to him, and the 2 idols that are crucial to this situation, viewers end up joining a group of people who are investigating a supposedly haunted mansion. It doesn't take long to realise that the haunting is very real, and everyone seems doomed to disappear. There's a bit more to it all though, and viewers are then taken back a few hours to watch exactly how everyone ended up in such dire straits.

Written and directed by Tarun Teja, expanding their 2020 short into this debut feature, Asvins is a fantastically creepy and well-made horror movie that falls apart in a third act that goes for the standard approach of having a lead character trying to unlock various clues that they hope may lead to some kind of escape from the clutches of evil entities. As other characters are moved offscreen, we're left with just one person to figure everything out, which they do by looking around them while their inner monologue plays over the soundtrack. Despite my limited exposure to the rich and varied tapestry of cinema from India, the inner monologue feels like quite a common trope, but it's unfortunately irritating here when it becomes the main source of exposition for almost the entirety of the third act.

Vasanth Ravi and Saraswathi Menon are two of the leads, playing a husband and wife named Arjun and Ritu, and they're accompanied by the younger Rahul, played by Udhayadeep, and Rahul's older brother, Varun, played by Muralidaran. There's also Grace, played by Malina, completing the main quintet. Everyone does a decent job, although Ravi suffers from the fact that he's sometimes involved in a number of moments that seem to take a step away from the building horror, and they all do well at acting convincingly terrified when faced with something that is out to terrify them.

Teja puts together some superb scares throughout the first half of the movie, even if some of them are easy jump scares. It's all reminiscent of some top notch J-horror content (an approaching figure with long black hair, tech that starts to fail in a way that makes you think someone/thing else is controlling it, the backstory that viewers suspect is due to be explored during the finale), but it's unsustainable for the 111-minute runtime. What should be a barnstorming conclusion instead ends up turning into a hard-going slog through to the end credits.

I'd still recommend this to horror fans who are after something that might be completely new to them, and I hope to see more from Teja in this vein, but I'd put the odds at 50/50 on whether you end up liking it or not.

6/10

Saturday, 5 August 2023

Shudder Saturday: ManFish (2022)

I tried, I really did, but I guess I should start this review by stating that I immediately thought of referring to this movie as The Shameless Of Water. There. Done. Now that's out of the way, and it's not the worst short-hand description of this low-budget comedy oddity, I can focus on more properly critiquing the film without that phrase being at the forefront of my mind.

This is the tale of Terry (Dean Kilbey), a man who has spent a lot of his life being pushed around and berated as a loser. His partner, Tracy (Emma Stannard), has very little actual love for him, and spends more of her time getting frisky with Terry's criminal brother, Nigel (Liam Noble). Terry doesn't want to get involved in that lifestyle, and he would much rather sell his hand-made, seashell-adorned, trinkets, but he may be forced into making some major changes when an aquatic creature, the titular ManFish (Matty Noble), comes into his life. Tracy immediately starts to think of how they can profit from the situation. Terry, on the other hand, starts to find a connection that he's never had for most of his life, if at all.

An enjoyably bonkers feature debut from writer-director Marc Coleman, ManFish is a great example of how to do the best you can with an incredibly low budget. The main premise may be too silly for a lot of people, and I'd love to see the faces of anyone picking this and expecting a standard creature feature, but those willing to approach it with an open mind should find the end result surprisingly satisfying, as well as surprisingly . . . maybe emotional isn't the right word, nor is heartwarming, but it's certainly somewhere in that area.

Part of the beauty of the film is the juxtaposition of the strange creature and the mundanity of what could be viewed as everyday British life. There are no obsessive scientists here, no hidden worlds being brought into view, and no big set-pieces. There are also no decent special effects or creature design, but this is a potential negative turned into a positive when comments are made about the various expressions of the ManFish, despite viewers seeing that there are NO various expressions available on his obviously fake face/head/mask.

Coleman does well with the writing and direction, using an enjoyably brief runtime to develop various characters in a way that helps to make the ridiculousness all seem more grounded and realistic. While anything with the ManFish at the heart of it is inherently silly, every other main interaction feels familiar to anyone who has encountered the kind of eccentric characters you can sometimes find in a British seaside town.

It helps that the cast do surprisingly good work (and I only mean that it's surprising in relation to the title and tone of the film). Kilbey gives a performance so great that it had me scratching my head as the end credits rolled, trying to figure out how the hell he managed to do so well with material that could easily have left him hanging in the wind. Stannard is also very good, playing her sneering part with gusto, and Noble is very believable as the standard "big fish in a small pond" crook. David Alexander is fun, playing Nigel's friend/henchman, nicknamed Choc Ice, Monica Gaga and Eloise Dale are perfectly cast in smaller roles, and Jon Campling tries to steal a scene or two, playing an old, and maybe wise, pub patron who provides some extra backstory about recent history of the local area. Oh, almost forgot, Matty Noble does wonderful work hidden under the ManFish guise.

I don't want to unreservedly recommend this to people, it's just not the kind of film that will appeal to the majority of casual film viewers. I do want to recommend it though. It's a film with plenty of good humour, a fair amount of heart, and a lot of people working together to make the best of material that could have easily been turned into something MUCH worse. I sense more good things in the future from Coleman, and I hope at least one or two other people check this out after reading my review.

7/10

Friday, 4 August 2023

Play Dead (2022)

While director Patrick Lussier may not be a make many people pick when asked about their all-time favourites, he generally makes films that keep me entertained (especially with the extra fun of 3D formatting). So when I started hearing good things about Play Dead, I knew that Patrick Lussier directing it meant that I would most likely agree with those who had already enjoyed it.

Bailee Madison plays Chloe, a medical student currently going through a very tough time. She and her brother have recently lost their father, the insurance company is reluctant to pay out, and they could end up losing their home. Her brother, T. J. (Anthony Turpel), ends up attempting a robbery with a friend, which leads to his friend being shot and ending up in the morgue. Unfortunately, his friend being in the morgue means that there’s also a vital piece of evidence there, the only thing tying T. J. to the crime. Making use of her medical knowledge, Chloe fakes her own death to end up in the morgue. Once she comes to, she starts to figure out how to retrieve and remove the evidence, but it doesn’t take her long to realise that she is now stuck in a building with a coroner (Jerry O’Connell) who is up to no good

Written by Simon Boyes and Adam Mason, who have been working together now for a number of years (on films I have somehow completely overlooked), this is a slice of ridiculousness that focuses on contrived tension and thrills ahead of plausibility and logic. But, and this is always a major factor to consider, the tension and thrills work so well that it makes it easier to overlook the silliness of the plotting.

The two leads help enormously. Madison is someone I have enjoyed onscreen since she first made an impact as a talented child star, and I hope, at the very least, to see her continue delivering solid performances like this one. O’Connell has had fun in a variety of roles over the past few years, but he ends up being surprisingly well-suited to the cold psychopath he gets to portray here, and is rewarded with a number of very satisfying, and darkly comedic, moments. Turpel is fine, as is Chris Lee (playing the fated friend), but the other fun moments come from Chris Butler, playing a local Sheriff, and Jorge-Luis Pallo, playing a kind of “bag man” for our killer coroner.

Although the runtime is about 106 minutes, this feels like a slick and well-paced film, with Lussier making good use of a script that scatters around just enough details before taking us quickly into the dark heart of the premise. Everything is interesting and tense enough from the start, and then O’Connell steps in at just the right time, revealing just how much of a predicament our heroine is in.

The use of one main location helps to keep us rooting for characters trying to escape a trap, the cast are all used perfectly, for their characters and the pacing of the screenplay, and this turns into an impressive example of how to make the most of fairly limited resources. I don’t want to give this too much hype, but I am struggling to think of a better non-theatrical chiller from the last few years. Some implausibility drags it down a notch or two, but I was able to push that to one side while I was watching the whole thing play out.

7/10

Thursday, 3 August 2023

She Came From The Woods (2022)

Although I had heard some horror fans say good things about She Came From The Woods, I was hesitant to check it out because I wasn’t a big fan of the last horror movie from this director-writer combo. That film was Ten Minutes To Midnight, and if you liked that a lot more than I did then you may be much more interested in the career paths of the people who made this.

The story is enjoyably simplistic. It’s a simple campfire tale, people trying to scare one another at the end of the summer camp season, but everyone is unpleasantly surprised when the telling of that tale actually summons up the vengeful spirit of a killer. People start to get slashed up in a variety of ways, the camp kids (who were all due to be taken home) turn into evil accomplices, and the only solution could be to try righting a historic wrong.

Director Erik Bloomquist, who also co-wrote the screenplay once again with his brother, Carson Bloomquist, shows that he is capable of delivering some straightforward slasher fare in a way that feels affectionate without drowning the storyline and characters under layers of references and in-jokes. This is surprisingly uninterested in being cool or ironic for most of the runtime. Unfortunately, it’s also uninterested in being all that memorable. I watched this a few days ago and can hardly tell you anything about the characters and the main sequence of events. There were some decent kills, with a fun and bloody finale, but nothing else really stands out.

That is especially true of the younger cast members, although I will say right now that nobody is bad here. They just don’t get to really stand out from one another, despite a few of them playing a slasher movie archetype. Clare Foley and Spencer List are good enough to have you hoping they survive, but I enjoyed scenes involving Cara Buono a bit more, even while she was just playing a standard “concerned mother”, and any scenes making use of the great William Sadler were the best of all . . . more due to him being the great William Sadler than anything in the script.

There are one or two decent songs on the soundtrack, and the technical side of things is all well and good (some of the production design is genuinely impressive when setting up a slasher movie moment tableaux), but the Bloomquist brothers still have a way to go before they fully realise their potential. They need to get better at the writing, finding a way to complement their obvious love and knowledge of the horror genre with an energy and creativity that will seriously improve the final product, but this is an enjoyable step up from their last outing, and I hold out hope that their next feature will be another marked improvement.

6/10

Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Prime Time: Dune (2020)

It's a bit of a running joke sometimes, but I tend to mention the fact that I've not yet read the source material in a lot of my movie reviews. Films and books are two very different mediums, of course, but knowledge of one can inform your opinion of the other, which is why I try to let people know the full context of my opinion. And it feels even more important than ever to mention it here, considering how many sci-fi fans seem to love the franchise kick-started by Frank Herbert back in 1965.

With the memory of the 1984 film still looming large in my subconscious, I kept delaying a viewing of this film for as long as I could. The cast seemed good enough, the visuals looked great, and I hadn't yet been disappointed by director Denis Villeneuve. I just couldn't bring myself to give it 2 1/2 hours of my life though. Until I could.

Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, the son of Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson) and Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). This noble family are sent to the planet Arrakis, a hostile environment that also happens to be the home of the most valuable resource in the universe, spice. Spice makes interstellar travel possible, among other things. Arrakis has some hostile native inhabitants, in the shape of both humanoids and the huge sandworms, but the House of Atreides hope to use diplomacy and respect to make the best of their situation, ignorant to the fact that they have been set up for failure. Aside from the political manoeuvring, Lady Jessica spends time helped Paul develop his power, known as "The Voice", and preparing him to fulfil his prophesied potential.

Adapted for the screen by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth, the latter two with very mixed filmographies that wouldn't necessarily lead you to think of them as first main choices for this, Dune is a dense viewing experience that admirably does enough throughout to keep viewers up to speed with the developing intrigue and treachery. It's part one of two, and that was definitely the right choice. In fact, the more of the source material that comes through in each main scene, the more you realise what a fool's errand poor David Lynch was on when he tried to pack everything into one feature back in the mid-1980s.

Packed with gorgeous visuals from start to finish, Villeneuve makes sure to once again build a completely believable and fully-formed environment for the characters to inhabit. The production design, make up, wardrobe, etc, are all absolutely stunning, and displayed beautifully by cinematographer Greig Fraser, and there's a superb Hans Zimmer score to accompany the flawless visuals.

While Chalamet plays the lead role, it's an extra delight to have the rest of the cast so stacked with great performers and familiar faces. Not that Chalamet is bad, but his character is, certainly in this first half of the tale, a bit weak and passive, for the most part. Ferguson and Isaac are effortlessly impressive though, and they have a couple of reliable advisors/warriors in the shape of Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin (both excellent, the latter disappointingly under-used). Stellan Skarsgård is almost unrecognisable, at first anyway, as the repugnant and cold-blooded Baron Harkonnen, Dave Bautista turns up just long enough to play his nephew, and there are excellent contributions from Chang Chen and Sharon Duncan-Brewster. You also have small roles for Javier Bardem and Zendaya, both playing different Arrakis natives who could end up helping our lead to fulfil his promise.

This is the kind of big-budget sci-fi that fans deserve. It feels more mature and intelligent than the usual mainstream releases, it has been crafted with a real care and attention to detail, and Villeneuve and co. have taken care to punctuate the ethereal and meditative mood with enough livelier set-pieces to ensure that the lengthy runtime doesn't feel like an unendurable slog. Many fans will have already seen this, and been won over by it, but I recommend it to anyone else who has been as hesitant as I was. It's worth your time, and I hope everything comes together for a satisfying concluding instalment.

8/10

Tuesday, 1 August 2023

The Relic (1997)

One of those films I tend to revisit every ten years or so, mainly because my memory of it is slightly better than the reality, The Relic is a creature feature that is as enjoyable as it is silly. It’s a mess, both visually and in terms of the stupid plotting, but it’s an enjoyable mess.

Set in the Field Museum Of Natural History, in Chicago, this is your standard template. People start dying, police investigate the deaths, evidence eventually leads to some creature being to blame, the finale relies on a plucky cop and plucky scientist saving the day. Oh, but some VIPs need the museum to stay “safe” and usable for a bit charity gala do that is set to go ahead - giving the film an obvious “the beaches are open” riff - and there is a bit more work to be done before the scientist figures out EXACTLY what the creature is before it can be destroyed.

Based on a popular novel, co-written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (sadly, no, I haven’t read it), The Relic may suffer from a number of failings, but a dearth of writers isn’t one of them. Four other people worked to adapt the source material into a screenplay, which is pretty astonishing when you think of how laughable and formulaic it is in places. I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone, but there are one or two “revelations” that prove to be completely unsurprising, and the ultimate solution to the big beastie problem is something that would have worked on almost every other creature on the planet.

Director Peter Hyams doesn’t distract from the simple pleasures of the main story structure, although the scene in which a SWAT team tries to enter the building remains a glorious highlight, but he is slightly hampered by the fact that he has to blend practical effects and mid-‘90s CGI. Everything holds up a bit better than expected, but that’s down to the low lighting levels used in many scenes and plenty of canny editing keeping things only partially-seen until the outrageous third act.

Stuck in the midst of the madness are Penelope Ann Miller (plucky scientist) and Tom Sizemore (plucky cop), who both try their best with the cheesy dialogue. Sizemore fares a bit better, his natural air of pessimism and slight grumpiness offset by the determination and strength of his character (helped by a fun little conversational thread about him losing custody of his dog in divorce proceedings). Miller gets more exposition, and she is easy to root for when she is uncomfortably backed into a dangerous space as “the relic” looks set to defeat everyone around it. Linda Hunt and James Whitmore are enjoyable in supporting roles, as are one or two others, but things would have been helped enormously if we had been given a much larger ensemble cast of great character actors to watch being placed in peril.

If you remember enjoying The Relic many years ago then you will still enjoy The Relic now. Unlike the mutation at the heart of it, it is pleasingly constant and unevolved. Neither the best film of this kind, nor the worst, it’s still a great choice for whenever you are having a lazy evening in and after some undemanding entertainment. The 110-minute runtime goes by quickly enough, the setting is used well, the John Debney score is another plus point, and it’s just a shame that Hyams and co. didn’t decide to throw some more blood and guts around.

6/10

Monday, 31 July 2023

Mubi Monday: Return To Seoul (2022)

There are some well-known phrases that I just have no time for, and actively warn people against them when I can. The whole idea of “blood is thicker than water” and “you can make friends, but you can’t choose your family”. Ask anyone who has struggled to extricate themselves from a toxic family environment for years, probably decades, and I guarantee you that they were told the same thing over and over again. It’s a genuinely harmful false assertion, and being related to people doesn’t guarantee any life-long strong connection. If you are reading this right now while struggling with someone related, whether it’s a grandparent, parent, sibling, or even an adult child, do yourself a favour and make more distance between you and them. Or remove them from your life altogether. You will soon be able to monitor an improvement in your life.

I am revisiting this oft-visited well once again because of the plot of Return To Seoul, which shows the impact of adoption, and the attempts by one adult (Frédérique aka Freddie, played by Park Ji-min) to reconnect with her birth parents. Having been brought up in France, Freddie impulsively travels to South Korea to seek some answers, and is helped in her journey of discovery by a young woman named Tena (Guka Han). She can only be helped so far though, and the possible resolution will be decided by her parents, contacted by the adoption centre with a request they can acknowledge or ignore.

Mainly written and directed by Davy Chou, his second full-length narrative feature, Return To Seoul is largely informed by the life experience of Laure Badufle, who also helped shape the script, and the central performance from Ji-min, a visual artist making her acting debut. Those involved seem to have a real sense of material that needs carefully handled, and the film weaves between moments of great cinema and moments that show people struggling to communicate everything roiling around inside their hearts and minds.

It’s hard to discuss the most powerful aspect of Return To Seoul without spoiling anything, but let’s just say that the whole film plays thematically on what I just said in the opening paragraph here. A storyline involving adoption is a storyline that can show familial bonds being strenuously tested, as well as showing how that act can reverberate through the lives of everyone involved in the process. It also ponders just how much influence someone should have on your life if they have been absent from it for decades, and how difficult it is to figure out boundaries and relationship standards when there have been no previous examples to compare.

Ji-min is astonishingly good in the lead role, somehow managing to be strong, defensive, vulnerable, and cool all at once. I will be very surprised if she hasn’t already been picked for at least one or two more main movie roles. Everyone else does very good work, especially Han, Oh Kwang-rok (portraying the father who seeks reconnection with, and some understanding or forgiveness from, his daughter), and a surprisingly pivotal character played effortlessly well by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. but they are all orbiting the shining star that is Ji-min. Kim Sun-young and Yoann Zimmer also deserve a namecheck here, both holding their own in at least one or two scenes that have them, obviously or not, confronted by Ji-min.

Although the score has some lovely motifs here and there, and the visuals throughout are clear and aesthetically-pleasing, this is a film that is very much focused on handling the subject material with maturity and sensitivity. Having picked the best person for the main role, Chou takes viewers on a journey that will prove to be bittersweet and full of small surprises. A couple of time jumps in the narrative may throw some, but they are announced immediately, and allow us to watch the main events in a substantial life chapter that is packed into just two hours. The more I think about it, the harder it is to find any fault.

10/10

Sunday, 30 July 2023

Netflix And Chill: Riding High (1981)

1981 may not have been an absolute classic year for movies, but it was the year that saw film fans presented with the first Indiana Jones movie, The Evil Dead, Possession, Mad Max 2, Escape From New York, An American Werewolf In London, The Howling, Das Boot, Clash Of The Titans, Blow Out, Time Bandits, and many other notable titles. It was also the year in which Riding High was released. Riding High is a star vehicle for British motorbike stunt driver, Eddie Kidd, a young man who was marketed in the UK for a while as the British Evil Knievel.

Written and directed by Ross Cramer, developing a story idea from associate producer Derek Ford (arguably best-known for his sex romps of the '70s, although he would go on to write the brilliantly bonkers Don't Open Till Christmas), this is a simple and predictable tale of a local boy with a chance to achieve greatness that will turn him into, at the very least, a local legend. His chance is given to him by the brilliantly-named Judas S. Chariot (Bill Mitchell), but Judas will do anything to avoid actually paying this kid for a stunt that most people deem too difficult to even attempt.

Having started his motorbiking career at a very young age, Eddie Kidd is a credible young star here (he was about 22 years old when this was released). That's not to say that he's a natural onscreen performer, but he has the looks and charisma, to a degree, and has the skills that are showcased in a couple of enjoyable motorbike sequences interspersed throughout the storyline, all leading to a stunt so genuinely death-defying that it was filmed last, enabling the film-makers to create a positive or negative ending, depending on the outcome. If you're of a certain age, if you're familiar with the antics of Kidd, then there's definitely something here to watch. It's a fascinating time-capsule, and it helps that the soundtrack is full of some absolutely belting tunes, from a variety of acts including The Police, The Boomtown Rats, Chic, The Pretenders, Squeeze, Gary Numan, and more.

What doesn't help is the rest of the cast. Giving Kidd a central role would make you think that those making the film would surround him with distracting talent. That doesn't happen. The main cast seems to be full of people who were either available, affordable, or (most likely) both. Irene Handl is quite delightful, playing the typical and lovely Gran, and both Lynda Bellingham and Daniel Peacock are probably the most recognisable faces in supporting roles, but Mitchell overacts terribly, and the likes of Murray Salem, Marella Oppenheim, and G. B. Zoot Money can't overcome the weak script to make their characters more appealing and entertaining. Ken Kitson fares a bit better, playing The Halifax Hellcat, but this film was in dire need of a much better roster of names and faces to distract from the clunkiness of Kidd any time he's not on his bike.

Amazingly, as much as I assumed I was going to spend my time laughing through most of this, this holds up in a couple of different ways, much more than you might think. There's some great footage of some small British stunt shows, showing just how the amateurs and pros work together to keep crowds entertained, and you do get that typical feeling of the driving ambition that could hopefully take a young man from a small UK town to at least one moment of stardom. It's also worth stating, in no uncertain terms, that the final sequence is genuinely impressive, heart in your mouth, stuff. Yes, the main stunt is given enough coverage to be replayed about half a dozen times, but it's well worth the respect it's given, and you cannot tell whether or not Kidd will actually land his bike as it needs to be landed for a relatively clean finish.

This is unlikely to be remembered fondly by film fans in years to come, and I doubt it's remembered fondly by film fans now (it's wild to think that it's just over 40 years old, but somehow seems so much older), but it actually remains now what it was intended to be back then: a testament to the skill and courage of a young British man who set out to become a hugely famous stunt bike rider, and who may have inspired many to follow in his tyre tracks.

6 /10

Saturday, 29 July 2023

Shudder Saturday: Sharksploitation (2023)

I didn't want to spend this week writing about a documentary, but there were two reasons to do so. First of all, it was the latest release that I was most looking forward to watching on Shudder. Second, I figured that it was only fair to share my love of this documentary after indulging myself when I felt the urge to rant against certain other, much lengthier, documentaries.

In case you weren't immediately clued in from the title, Sharksploitation is all about the popular sub-genre of creature features that put sharks front and centre. There's an obvious "rosetta stone" for this, of course, and that is Jaws, a film that is impossible to set aside when discussing the shark movie, but Sharksploitation impresses most by not spending so much time discussing Jaws (which, as much as I love it, has been discussed plenty elsewhere) that other films are sidelined. Jaws is a very important date on a literal timeline that is shown onscreen, with the documentary reminding us that a few shark movies were even made before Jaws, but the big cinematic shark hunt really started after that landscape-changing blockbuster.

Writer-director Stephen Scarlata has had his fingers in various tasty movie pies for some time now, and even those genre fans unfamiliar with his name will find something of interest in his relatively small filmography, where he has a few writing and producing credits showing him carving out a decent career that allows him to harness his passion for cinema. This may be his directorial debut, but it’s the work of someone experienced and impressively informed on their subject matter.

The format doesn’t stray too far from what we might expect from this type of thing - a variety of talking heads, numerous clips, conversation contextualising various key movies and moments - but it is a perfect example of how to take a subject like this and cram anecdotes and information into a very entertaining and digestible runtime (this clocks in at 106 minutes, or approximately 1/12 of that bloody “In Search Of Darkness” trilogy). Similar clips from shark films are displayed onscreen at the same time, with the screen split into four quarters, as the tropes are discussed, entertaining tales from “behind the scenes” are relayed with humour and the benefit of hindsight, and it feels as if Scarlata has assembled together pretty much anyone who has ever helmed a film about swimming creatures trying to rip our limbs off.

Okay, Spielberg has probably said all he ever wants to say about Jaws, and it’s worth mentioning that he’s not here, but that feels more like a deliberate choice to not rehash every anecdote that you have already heard a hundred times before. It also helps to avoid that feeling of the documentary being too focused on the one film that continues to be held up as THE shark film, although you get input, in different ways, from Peter Benchley, Wendy Benchley, and those who appreciated the incredible underwater cinematography of Ron and Valerie Taylor. But you also get great moments with Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Anthony C. Ferrante, Johannes Roberts, Chris Kentis, and Mark Polonia, all responsible for various watery creature features, as well as commentary from film fans/writers who have an interest in the sub-genre, and a number of non-movie people involved in oceanography.

Shark movies can be great. They can be awful. They can be very realistic. They can be completely ridiculous. I still prioritise viewing any movie with a shark in it, and I know I am not alone. Sharksploitation feels as if it was put together by a group of people who all feel the same way. It is never mocking, it is never looking beneath the surface with rose-tinted glasses on, and it’s an absolutely perfect example of how this kind of thing should be done. I hope there will one day be some physical release with extended snippets and interviews included. Or maybe even a sequel . . . just when you thought it was safe to go back into the documentary section.

9/10

Friday, 28 July 2023

The Dungeonmaster AKA Ragewar (1984)

A 1984 anthology horror/fantasy movie that uses a sci-fi premise to frame the fantastical stories, The Dungeonmaster feels far less dated nowadays than you would expect, mainly due to the main character simply using his computer to give himself what we would now recognise as a fully-loaded smart home. He even wears smart glasses to help him when outside his home. I am not saying this is as prophetic as 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it does feel more ahead of the curve than many other films from this time, even if the tech is still quite slow and clunky.

Jeffrey Byron plays Paul Bradford, the tech whizz at the heart of this. He is very happy in life, and he’s ready to take the next step with his girlfriend, Gwen (Leslie Wing). Gwen knows she risks always coming second to his computer though, so she wants some understandable reassurances. The competition for Paul’s attention turns fierce when a dangerous figure drags our leads into another world, with Paul having to pass a number of challenges set by the dungeonmaster, aka Mestema (Richard Moll), in order to keep Gwen safe and alive.

Although this IS an anthology film, with many different segments written and directed by different film-makers, from Charles Band to Ted Nicolau, it doesn’t actually feel like an anthology film. There’s a steady through line that keeps each segment, bar one, feeling strongly connected to the overarching storyline, and our hero and main villain are a constant. But it still has the advantage that every anthology horror has . . . if you aren’t enjoying one tale then you shouldn’t have to wait too long until something comes along that you might like more.

It also helps that there are various creations from John Carl Buechler on display here. He helms one segment in the film, but his fingerprints are all over the thing, with some of the wonderful puppetry and texture that any fan of the man should find absolutely delightful.

While they are not troubling anyone for awards, all three main performers do a good job with the schlocky material. Byron is a likable dweeb discovering plenty of courage for the sake of the one he loves, and uttering ridiculous lines of dialogue with conviction en route to what he hopes will be an ending that has him victorious. Wing is often left to be the damsel in distress, but she also gets to have fun in one or two other incarnations, and she remains steadfastly plucky in the face of impending doom. Then you have Moll, clearly having a lot of fun as the deadly Mestema, strolling around the sidelines like a wrestling champ waiting for his opponent to be worn down before he enters the Royal Rumble melee.

If you are after a horror movie with genuine scares then this isn’t for you. If you want a fantasy film that aims for gritty and realistic violence in a world created with high production values then this isn’t for you. Want something that makes any sense? You should also look elsewhere. But if you want something that’s a lot of fun from start to finish, has decent performances, a great panto villain, and a segment that makes use of W.A.S.P. playing one of their songs while our hero tries to get through the concert crowd to save the woman he loves . . . you know what film you can rely on. While some may view this as not as polished, or as much fun, as something like Waxwork, I would say it’s comparable, and deserves to be just as appreciated by fans as that movie is.

8/10

Thursday, 27 July 2023

Prime Time: 1984 (1984)

I remember when I first read 1984, having heard of it as an essential text for many years. I thought it was impressively grim, but I also thought it was a bit far-fetched. That was almost 30 years ago, and I was younger and much more ignorant. Even if I had known about the various real-world factors that influenced the book, I probably would have shrugged with an attitude of “it would never happen here”. And just look at where we are now.

Written and directed by Michael Radford, based on the George Orwell book, this was filmed and released in 1984, allowing everyone involved to make use of the once-in-a-lifetime marketing opportunity. But a film needs more than just canny marketing, and 1984 sadly falters elsewhere.

Radford has taken a couple of great actors, and a timely release schedule, and seems to have neglected almost every other part of the film-making process. There’s no creativity on display, no strength put behind what should always be a gut-punch of a story, and no passion. I understand that the material might work against such an approach, considering how it’s all about breaking spirits and reshaping truth into whatever best serves the leader, but there’s no excuse to film something that feels just like a presentation by a local amateur dramatic society.

For those unfamiliar with the tale, John Hurt plays Winston Smith, a man who falls in love with Julia (Suzanna Hamilton). That love is dangerous, distracting both of them from their main roles, servants to the machine that is the totalitarian society ever-grinding around them. Things become more dangerous, and a happy ending looks increasingly unlikely, especially if anyone ends up in the dreaded Room 101.

Hurt is the best thing onscreen, followed closely by the commanding presence of Richard Burton, past his prime, but still undeniably riveting. Hamilton isn’t quite as good, although she does have the tougher main role, but there are some nice exchanges between herself and Hurt. One or two other familiar faces appear, including Gregor Fisher in a rare dramatic role, but the focus stays tight on our three leads for most of the runtime.

The downside to watching any standard interpretation of 1984 nowadays is that we have had a number of better versions of the tale from people who have used the novel as inspiration. Brazil is the obvious one to mention, but there’s also V For Vendetta, various episode of Black Mirror, The Matrix franchise, and even the gun-fu silliness of Equilibrium. Those are just the titles I can think of right now, but they are all better viewing options than this.

There is one thing about watching 1984 nowadays though, or anything similar to it. The fact that it all feels less like fiction with every passing day should serve as a reminder to call out manipulative nonsense like “alternative facts” and anyone attempting to rewrite even very recent history.

4/10

Wednesday, 26 July 2023

Barbie (2023)

Prime Time will be here on the blog tomorrow. This felt like it should be scheduled immediately after my Oppenheimer review.

"If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you." That was the tagline being used in some of the advanced marketing for Barbie, a pink-drenched film based around a crisis for the titular doll. The people who came up with that slogan seem to have underestimated the extreme emotions that the film would create in film snobs who seem to be viewing this as a harbinger of the death of cinema. It was always going to be hilariously upsetting to viewers with fragile male egos, but I didn't expect to see such "righteous anger" from people who seem to think that Barbie is the blockbuster to take to task for marrying product placement to a central narrative. It's almost as if these people missed, well . . . *gestures to every other mainstream release from the past four decades*. Look, films sell other products. Arguably more than any other art form, they focus on the business in show business. And, yes, something like Barbie is more inextricably intertwined with a product that represents disposability and capitalism than most, but it's also very smart, very funny, and very much made for audiences who have already helped to turn it into such a special event (with a very positive knock-on effect for Oppenheimer that shouldn't be under-estimated).

Margot Robbie plays Barbie, living a very happy life in Barbie-land alongside a multitude of other Barbies, as well as a multitude of Kens (with the main Ken played by Ryan Gosling), and one Allan (Michael Cera). Oh, and Midge (remember Midge? she's played here by Emerald Fennell). Every day is wonderful, with the Barbies all happy to have done their part in helping to please and inspire women in the real world, doing their bit to dismantle the patriarchy and ensure equality for all. Yeah, you might have noticed something there that doesn't quite add up. We all know the reality of the world we live in, and it's far removed from how Barbie imagines our world. As things start to go awry for Barbie (her feet go flat, she starts to get cellulite), she is told that the only way to get everything back to the way it was is to visit the real world and help her "owner" to rediscover some positivity. Barbie, with Ken tagging along, commits to this journey, and she eventually meets Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). She also meets sexism, capitalism, and a patriarchy that she thought she'd helped to end. It's not good for the women. Ken sees the upside of it all though.

Directed by Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the screenplay with her partner, Noah Baumbach, Barbie is an absolute delight from start to finish. It's the first film I have seen in the cinema in many years that ended with people giving it a round of applause. Not everyone will respond that way, of course, but even those who notice a few mis-steps should be able to view it as a resounding success. What could have been an easygoing and lightweight confection is instead a smart blend of celebration and condemnation of the figure at the heart of it. It's also just as much about Ken as it is about Barbie, and Ryan Gosling unexpectedly emerges as the real star of the show (his big musical number is one of the most enjoyable sequences I have watched in modern cinema, period). Gerwig sets up the characters and the rules quickly enough, helping herself with some witty and knowing narration from Helen Mirren, and the escalation of the surreal silliness feels very natural once you have accepted everything presented in the opening act.

It also helps that the cast are all fantastic, all feeling like a great fit for their roles, and all very much game to go with the camp and kitsch of the crowd-pleasing set-pieces. I could spend hours writing about Robbie and Gosling, but I would much prefer you to see the film and enjoy every little character detail that they include in their performances. Simu Liu is a lot of fun, playing a Ken who always seems to be ready to have beef with our lead Ken, and Cera gets to effortlessly steal a couple of scenes, even while he's just watching the main action from the sidelines. Kate McKinnon is another highlight, playing "weird" Barbie, and there are fun turns from Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, and others (including some fun cameos). As for the actual human characters, both Ferrera and Greenblatt are easy to root for, with the former allowed to deliver a barnstorming motivational speech that proves pivotal to the third act, Will Ferrell is a despairing Mattel CEO, and Rhea Perlman delights as Ruth (you should know who she is, but the film clues you in quickly enough).

With Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt taking care of the music, crafting a soundscape full of appropriately upbeat score and great pop songs, as well as those unforgettable Gosling moments, and everyone behind the camera doing flawless work when it comes to set decoration, makeup, costume design, and other artistic choices, there isn't much to be critical of. The only weaknesses are couched in the script, with an unnecessary chase sequence feeling a bit out of place and scenes featuring Mattel executives not quite landing the jokes as well as expected, but the good far outweighs the bad, and it's much easier to celebrate everything that Gerwig managed to slip into a mainstream blockbuster than it is to pick at the minor blemishes.

"If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you." If you cannot get a chip off your shoulder, or feel that your masculinity is threatened by such a deluge of pink . . . well, maybe this movie isn't for you. But feel free to let the rest of us enjoy it without having to sneer and dismiss it, especially if you haven't actually seen the thing.

9/10

Tuesday, 25 July 2023

Oppenheimer (2023)

A lot of the conversation around Oppenheimer has been as extreme as I thought it would be. Some are inevitably claiming that it is the best film yet from Christopher Nolan (which is saying something). While I wouldn't rush to agree with those people, I also wouldn't rush to disagree with them. This is the kind of polished and eye-popping cinematic experience that we've come to expect from Nolan, but it also contains a fair few "Nolan-isms", even if some work better here than they have in some of his past works.

Based on the book, "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer", written by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, Nolan uses his typical non-chronological approach to show us some key moments in the life of Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). As fused with a man named Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) as he is with the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer is portrayed as a complex and flawed figure, a man who didn't really treat the women in his life well, didn't bother to be discreet about opinions that would have had less valuable individuals ostracised, or worse, and didn't seem to fully keep the full ramifications of his actions in mind as he pursued a once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn theory into deadly reality.

Bizarrely, despite almost everyone onscreen here doing great work, the cast ends up being the aspect of this film warranting the least discussion. Murphy is excellent, giving a performance that could be considered the best of his career. Downey Jr. is also excellent, doing the kind of work that I last saw from him before he helped to kick-start the MCU. Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh also do well, although both have to work a lot harder to overcome a script that, accurately or not, boils them down to something akin to the grit helping to form the pearl. Matt Damon gets some great moments, playing the military man who essentially serves as the boss to Oppenheimer, Josh Hartnett continues his upswing (after impressing in his Black Mirror role, in the best episode of the most recent series), and Tom Conti is an absolute delight as Albert Einstein, but there are also supporting roles for the likes of Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Clarke, Dane DeHaan, Macon Blair, David Krumholtz, Kenneth Branagh (who may never act in anything close to his more natural accent again), and MANY others. It’s a veritable cornucopia of familiar faces, sometimes shown in unfamiliar ways, and it feels as if Nolan did this to ensure people stayed attentive throughout a film made up of scenes full of dialogue and mathematics.

Knowing what the film is about, and knowing how things ended up (spoiler - it doesn’t go well for the Japanese), Nolan actually does himself a great favour here by taking his standard non-chronological approach to the material. There are three main strands being woven together here - the one that everyone expects and two that may be much lesser-known - and it’s a testament to the screenplay that the ending is as gripping and cinematically satisfying as it is, considering that most of us would assume to know the ending.

The visuals throughout are clear and beautiful, although sometimes showing some moments of real horror as characters consider what has been born into the world, and I must single out cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, who has been excelling in that role for over two decades now. Different visual styles are used for different plot elements, but each one is about as perfect a match as you could ask for.

Dialogue is also, and it brings me much joy to say this, clear throughout. Part of my problem with a few of the recent Nolan blockbusters has been his misjudged (in my view) attempts to use the audio mix in a way that sometimes makes the dialogue difficult to understand. That issue could have made Oppenheimer a chore to get through, as every exchange feels loaded with information and characterization, but there’s no need for concern. The audio is still used in interesting and impactful ways though, not least when explosions and aftershocks (literally and figuratively) are shaking viewers in their seats. There’s also another superb score accompanying the visuals, this time from Ludwig Göransson, who previously worked with Nolan on Tenet.

Despite some of the pre-release hype and marketing, I didn’t come out of Oppenheimer shaken and speechless. Nor did anyone else attending the packed screening I was at. I will give Nolan his due though, this was an experience that seemed designed to be both a front row seat to the moral quandary of the 20th century and a character study of someone who was almost equally respected and reviled. I certainly had to gather my thoughts for a while before even starting to write this review. The fact that it works so completely, and is an epic that many will want to rush to rewatch, is a brilliant achievement. Like the central figure, it’s imperfect, but impossible to dismiss. And if you don’t come out of it needing to spend some time fully considering the complexity and weight of what you have just witnessed . . . well, your cinema should still have more palatable entertainment available on a number of other screens.

9/10