For It Is Man's Number

Thursday, 8 February 2024

Rodan (1956)

While it may feel like I am marking numbers off a bingo card just now, my quest to cover the films of Godzilla this year, as well as connected kaiju creations, has already been satisfying for making me watch the first appearances of creatures I have either seen already in other movies, or at least heard of. Getting to Rodan this week was a pleasant surprise, particularly because I wasn’t sure if every movie would already be locked into the same template I am quite familiar with.

There’s a disturbance in a small Japanese mining village, which should be enough to put everyone on their guard against potential giant monsters. Sure enough, there are soon giant monsters on the rampage. These take the shape of overgrown insect larvae, looking like a cross between a giant wood-louse and a giant bluebottle, but they are only a precursor to the main event. The main event is Rodan, in case the title didn’t make that clear. Not just one Rodan, but two, causing panic as they fly around and start to kill people. The military might have the firepower to stop them, or they may have to rely on the force of the local volcano to help re-affirm the status quo.

Putting things once again in the capable hands of Ishirô Honda, this is a creature feature that works almost as well as any of the other big touchstones in the kaiju cinematic timeline, thanks to more great design work and a way of delivering familiar beats without it all already feeling overdone and tired. Writers Takeshi Kimura and Takeo Murata have fun with the story, especially as the first batch of beasties puzzle everyone for a while before the Rodan attacks start to confuse the situation.

The cast of human actors once again play second fiddle to the kaiju stars, but Kenji Sahara does well in the role of Shigeru, a mining engineer who ends up stuck underground when the Rodan are about to hatch. He convincingly portrays memory loss and trauma until galvanized in time for the big final battle. Yumi Shirakwa is also a good onscreen presence, playing a woman named Kiyo, and the main figures of authority are well-played by Akihiko Harata (the expected scientist figuring out what this new enemy is) and Akio Kobori (a police detective).

If you like either of the other famous films in this vein then you should like this. I cannot imagine any kaiju fan hating it, although it suffers slightly in comparison to both Godzilla, which came before it, and Mothra, which arrived about five years after. Still, it is to be appreciated for adding another name to the “rogue’s gallery” as it is appreciated for what it delivers in terms of cinema.

8/10

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Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Prime Time: Role Play (2023)

I like Kaley Cuoco, and have done for some time. As unpopular as it seems to be nowadays, I enjoyed The Big Bang Theory, and I enjoyed her in it. I am, however, happy to see the variety of roles she has taken on since that show ended, roles that have had people belatedly realising she can do more than just one type of acting.

For as much as I like Kaley Cuoco, I loathed Role Play, a film that feels lazy and predictable from start to finish. It is a mix of action, comedy, and drama that does none of those individual elements as successfully as it should. In fact, it does absolutely none of them well, only coming close during the few scenes that feature a wonderful turn from Bill Nighy.

Cuoco and David Oyelowo play a married couple, Emma and Dave, who get a babysitter for the kids and head out for a fun date night at a hotel, with a bit of fun role play on the cards. Unfortunately, Emma is frustrated by her work getting in the way. Her work, unbeknownst to her hubby, involves killing people. And so begins a trudge through some familiar tropes that have been done so much better in so many other movies. It’s so tiresomely dull that I can barely find the energy to write this review.

Writer Seth W. Owen is the person I want to rush to blame, considering the humourless and flat script, but director Thomas Vincent does an equally poor job of steering the ship. The fact that the cast cannot elevate the material is more of a testament to how bad that material is, as opposed to the skills of the actors.

Cuoco isn’t allowed to shine, with the exception of those scenes that have her interacting with Nighy, and there’s a disappointing lack of any chemistry with Oyelowo (although that is a plot point, the night of role play stems from them wanting a special date night to give them a bit of a spark again). Oyelowo plays his character as Mr. Dependable, but he’s left with nothing meaningful to do, apart from needing saved by his wife. If I spend much more time praising Nighy then people will start to rightly notice my overwhelming love for the man, but he absolutely steals the film with his few minutes of screentime. Connie Nielsen is wasted, although you can tell that she is trying to make a steak with the minced meat she is given, as is Rhudi Dharmalingam. Nobody else is worth mentioning, for good or bad, because the rest of the cast could just have easily been filled out by Sims.

Although technically competent, there’s something about this that makes it feel worse than many movies that don’t even get the camerawork and audio right. It’s depressing, mainly because it seems to have been thrown together with a minimum effort that shows a real disdain for potential viewers.

3/10

Tuesday, 6 February 2024

The Beekeeper (2024)

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this Jason Statham vehicle, especially with director David Ayer working from a script by Kurt Wimmer, and, as the credits rolled, I still wasn’t really sure what I had just watched. Was it good? Was every choice a deliberate one? Was I supposed to care about a twist I could see coming a mile away? I was sure of one thing though. I had fun with it.

Statham is the titular beekeeper, minding his hives and minding his own business. He is invited to dinner by a kindly woman he knows (Phylicia Rashad), but only finds a corpse when he gets there. The woman has been scammed by hackers, losing all of her money and all of the money that belonged to a charity organisation she worked for. Raging at the injustice, Statham decides to return to his role of Beekeeper aka a super-deadly agent who works to protect the hive. The bodies soon start to pile up as the beekeeping analogy is used over and over again, and Statham has to face overwhelming odds on the way to his final target.

What you get here is ridiculous, but it is all being handled by people who seem to know it is ridiculous, whether they are onscreen or behind the camera. As often as I rolled my eyes, I was also smiling at the mix of extreme violence and goofy plotting.

Wimmer should never be a first choice for any screenplay, I won’t traumatise anyone again by mentioning some of his past “glories”, but his material is improved here by a game cast all very aware of what they have gotten themselves into.

Is Ayer a safe pair of hands when it comes to the action? I would say yes. Set-pieces could be smoother, but there is some inventiveness in each main sequence, and he doesn’t allow for the film to be over-edited into incomprehensibility. He could do better, but we have seen the results of him doing a lot worse.

It’s worth remembering, however, that neither Wimmer nor Ayer will be the big draw here (although they do have their fans). This film is being sold as a Statham vehicle, and it delivers on that front. Our leading man has a lot of fun here, doing his usual gruff and deadly schtick, and there’s a real feeling of glee as he throws subtlety to the win at the very start of the film, portraying a character so sure of himself that he will often just enter any confrontation head-on, even telling villains exactly what he is planning to do next. On his tail are two cops (played by Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi), one being the daughter of the deceased, and they are good extra obstacles for The Stath, who doesn’t want to harm anyone innocent. Both Raver-Lampman and Naderi do well in roles that could have been eminently forgettable, especially when interacting with the villains. Ahhhhh, the villains. This is another big plus for the film, especially when Josh Hutcherson swaggers around as some kind of ultimate douche-bro. If you start to suspect that Hutcherson’s character belongs in a ‘90s movie, you will have that suspicion confirmed in a final act that brings on a character named Lazarus (Taylor James) who could have easily been in one of the first two Lethal Weapon movies. Although playing very different types of baddies, Hutcherson and James are equally fun for every minute of their screentime. The same can be said of David Witts, and there is some amusing scenery-chewing from Jeremy Irons, Minnie Driver (in a brief cameo role), and Jemma Redgrave.

Not necessarily an essential cinema viewing, The Beekeeper is an entertaining action flick that feels enjoyably “old school”, in terms of the characters and plotting, without also feeling as if it is trying too hard. Funny and violent, making much better use of Statham than a couple of other recent releases I could mention, this might just give you the action movie buzz you seek.

7/10

Monday, 5 February 2024

Mubi Monday: The Falls (1980)

While I certainly don't want to dismiss the entire filmography of writer-director Peter Greenaway, especially when he has helmed at least two films that have stayed seared into my memory since I first saw them, he is someone you should point others to if they keep complaining about just how cold and cerebral Stanley Kubrick was. Because, whatever else they offer, Peter Greenaway movies often feel like they have been designed to amuse and test Peter Greenaway. Some are more intricate than others, but almost all of them focus on design and intellectual sport ahead of any real attempts to explore the human condition.

I was wary before I started watching The Falls for two reasons. One, the very lengthy runtime (approximately 195 minutes). Two, the fact that someone on a website had decided to describe it as "a dazzlingly ambitious sci-fi epic of singular wit and imagination." Some people may agree with that assessment. I couldn't disagree more. It doesn't feel ambitious to me, let alone dazzlingly ambitious, and I didn't find it witty or imaginative. It does feel singular though, I'll give it that.

Presented in the style of a staid TV documentary, The Falls gives viewers a peek into the lives of 92 people who were affected by a Violent Unexplained Event (VUE). Each person shown here has a surname starting with the letters "Fall", but that isn't the only common denominator. Many of them also share new characteristics that cropped up post-VUE (immortality, disabilities, speaking new languages, obsessing about birds), but they also have less common quirks and distractions that the film explores.

Despite the extensive cast portraying the various characters, and despite the music by Michael Nyman, The Falls doesn't ever feel like a film. It's effective in recreating the dry documentaries of the period, I'll give it that, and even the most ridiculous elements are treated with complete seriousness and a gravity that is obviously being used to underline everything with the wit that some (particularly Greenaway himself) have appreciated.

This could have been a weird and fun film that I enjoyed, but it needed to be even more absurd. It also needed to have a much shorter runtime. Over three hours can be a hard sell for any film. It’s interminable when you quickly realise that some people are enjoying humour that really isn’t working for you.

A film I hope to never rewatch, The Falls is coincidentally able to make you fall asleep, make you temporarily fall out of love with cinema, and could even lead to some of your brain cells dying off and falling out your nose (unlikely, but not impossible, it really is THAT bad). Tiresome, indulgent, messy, this is the worst of Greenaway. I give it some kudos for the presentation, but the actual content isn’t worth your time.

3/10

Sunday, 4 February 2024

Netflix And Chill: Nyad (2023)

The start of any year is always the time when I try to catch up on all of the movies that have been doing well in the journey to the Oscars, which often forces me to watch films I can't get enthusiastic about. Nyad was one of those movies. I just didn't see what I might find to enjoy in the true story of swimmer Diana Nyad, an open-water swimmer who attempted multiple times to swim between Havana, Cuba and Florida, with her final attempt also being hampered by the fact that she was then aged 64.

As has happened before, and will undoubtedly happen again, I was wrong. Nyad had me riveted from start to finish, despite me knowing about the outcome, thanks mainly to the performances from three main cast members (Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, and Rhys Ifans).

There's nothing here that is a surprise, whether you're considering what is shown onscreen or who is behind the camera, but it's all put together very effectively, with just the right reverence for the central characters accompanied by an acknowledgement of the self-mythologising that has been a part of Diane Nyad's character as long as she has been a figure in the public eye.

I would write a plot summary here, but it would just be repeating the end of the first paragraph. That's all you need to know. Bening plays Nyad, Foster is her coach, Bonnie Stoll, and Ifans comes onscreen just in time to be the integral third, a navigator/boat owner named John Bartlett. As well as the standard problem of swimming such a distance, Nyad has to deal with the weather, which can seriously affect the path taken through the sea, potential shark attacks, and dangerous jellyfish. There will also be a moment or two when such conditions start prompting hallucinations, something Stoll is well aware of and ready to deal with, as and when they occur.

Even if you know how this story ends, and I think everyone will have some idea of that (I mean . . . if I knew what happened, considering my limited knowledge of sports and athleticism, it must have been given some fairly substantial world-wide coverage), this is a great story of not only individual determination, strength, and courage, but the fact that it takes a whole team of like-minded people working together to help anyone even come close to achieving their life-long dream.

Both Bening and Foster have been deservedly nominated for awards already, and have already won a few accolades for their performances, and the film is carried along by both of them. With footage of the real Nyad and Stoll interspersed throughout the feature, there are easy points of comparison, and both leads feel like a perfect embodiment of their real-life counterparts, as well as a perfect embodiment of the main themes of the film. Ifans gives one of his most low-key turns, even dealing with an accent that he handles well, and his outsider view of the Nyad/Stoll dynamic is a great way to explore the good and the bad of the whole situation.

Co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi bring their skillset from a background in a number of celebrated documentaries, writer Julia Cox adapts Nyad's own book with a liberal attitude towards pesky things like truth and facts, "minor details" that would just get in the way of the cinematic journey, and the end result is as easy to dissect and criticise as it is to sit back and enjoy, or you could say . . . just go with the flow.

I was really impressed by this. And whether I completely believe Nyad, or whether she got away with printing her own legend, I was equally impressed by her journey (not just through the water, but moving from being so self-involved to realising how much help and support she received from others). I hope others end up feeling the same way, even if this is just a step on the way to discovering other athletic swimmers, and some documentaries looking at similar challenges (e.g. The Deepest Breath).

8/10

Saturday, 3 February 2024

Shudder Saturday: Sorority House Massacre (1986)

I think many of you will be able to understand why I mistakenly assumed that I had already seen Sorority House Massacre. I'd seen The Slumber Party Massacre movies, and I had seen The House On Sorority Row, but I hadn't actually seen any of the Sorority House Massacre movies. This weekend seemed like the right time to change that. But would the film be worth my time?

The story is simple, and not too dissimilar to one of the all-time great slasher movies, by the time everything is clarified in the third act. Beth (Angela O'Neill) is a new college student who starts to feel strange about her new living environment. It's like she's been there before, and the imagery that invades her mind isn't pleasant. She also seems to have some telepathic link with an escaped killer (John C. Russell), which makes things a bit stressful as she tries to settle in to college life and have some fun with her sorority sisters.

Written and directed by Carol Frank, her only directorial feature (after working in assistant roles on a couple of movies before this), this is a seriously underwhelming experience. It's always good to be wary of any slasher movie that came along in the second half of the 1980s. While not a golden rule, the sub-genre was certainly already showing signs of fatigue after the "halcyon days" that saw so many flood the market in the start of the decade. Sorority House Massacre brings nothing new to the table, but also doesn't do well enough with the basic elements that can provide simple entertainment for slasher movie fans.

I'll be generous enough to say that maybe one of the kills stands out, because of the way it leads to one character quickly figuring out that they need to flee if they want to stay alive, but even that is undermined by being one of the few moments that also throws in some gratuitous nudity alongside some of the most savage violence shown in the film.

You don't watch slasher movies for the acting, of course, but there isn't anyone here standing out, for better or worse. O'Neill is decent enough in the lead role, especially when you consider what she has to do with her character, and she's ably supported by those who float in and out of the main narrative (Wendy Martel, as Linda, being one of the more memorable). Russell has to look like a deranged killer, even when he's not actually shown in the act of deranged killing, and he does just fine. He's not the most memorable killer, but nothing about this is memorable.

I can't quite pin down why this fails. Although Frank does nothing special in the writing or directing department, she also does nothing horrible. The silly plot is paced well enough, the short runtime certainly helps, and there is some occasional interesting imagery, but it's hard to get excited about a finale that feels overshadowed by a real classic that most horror fans would prefer to be watching instead of this. Ironically, the familiarity experienced by the main character is a sensation ultimately experienced by most viewers, and I believe that most of us would rather watch something that tries to be different, even if it fails, than something that tries to repeat the success of work that it cannot hope to rival.

4/10

Friday, 2 February 2024

The Color Purple (2023)

I was worried about making this my first full experience of The Color Purple, but I felt that my experience of the story was long overdue. Having not read the book by Alice Walker, nor seen the previous film adaptation by Steven Spielberg (I have to be in just the right headspace to watch something I anticipate being so heavy-going, which is why I have STILL yet to watch Schindler’s List), I was vaguely aware of the fact that it had also been turned into a successful musical, but I had no idea how that would work with the disturbing content. Having now watched this film, an adaptation that uses numbers from the musical, u still have no idea how the two elements are supposed to work together. Because they don’t, not for me anyway, but some others disagree.

Here’s a very basic plot summary. Celie (Fantasia Barrino) has been abused by her father, and has subsequently given birth to children that were almost immediately taken away from her. She is then handed over to be married to Mister (Colman Domingo), an abusive and horrid man who just wants a woman to look after his older children and keep the house in order. Mister is angered when his son, Harpo (Corey Hawkins), becomes involved in a serious relationship with the confident and outspoken Sofia (Danielle Brooks), but his mood is lifted by the arrival of a woman he obviously prefers to his own mistreated wife, a singer named Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson).

With writer Marcus Gardley translating Marsha Norman’s stage version of the material into movie form, it’s hard to be overly critical of a film that has the hurdle of such a strange mix at the heart of it. The script has moments that still work, powerful moments that remain as effective and shocking today as they did when they were first written, but viewers know that the tone and flow of the narrative will eventually be spoiled by some musical numbers. Which is easy to accept if the musical numbers are memorable and impressive enough. With perhaps one exception, these are not.

Director Blitz Bazawule hasn’t done anything else that I’m familiar with, but his relatively small filmography has at least a couple of entries pointing towards the reason for putting him at the head of this production. He does well enough, although I do wish the visuals throughout had been more interesting, if they had made a stronger choice on how to depict the world we’re taken into, but is as hampered as the writer by the source material.

The cast, thankfully, do great work with what they are given. Barrino may be depressingly passive for most of her journey, at least until she finds even deeper reserves of courage amidst the ongoing abuse and indignities, but she remains sweet and easy to root for throughout, showing someone trying to make the best of a situation that is seemingly destined to never improve. Domingo plays a loathsome figure, supported in his choices by his own father (Louis Gossett Jr.) in one or two scenes, and he doesn’t try to sugar-coat his brutishness, for the most part. Hawkins is good, playing an entitled young man who seems to be very much poised between turning out good or bad, and a number of other supporting cast members do solid work. But it’s Brooks and Henson who stand out, both portraying women who refuse to stay in whatever pigeonhole the world wants to put them in. The film rises up whenever one of these two women appears onscreen, and they ultimately make the whole thing feel bearable. They let the viewers remember that things can change in much the same way that they inspire hope in our lead character.

It’s all put together well enough, this certainly doesn’t feel lazy or careless, but The Color Purple still remains, for me, a powerful story that shouldn’t be rudely interrupted by occasional songs. I look forward to anything that these cast and main crew members do next. I just really hope that it’s not another musical.

5/10

Thursday, 1 February 2024

Mothra (1961)

Okay, first of all, I need to apologise. In making 2024 a year of Godzilla on the blog, I soon realised that I wanted to cover every connected kaiju film. It's a task as momentous as the creatures themselves, and I have already missed out some key movies I wanted to cover on the journey. So there will be a little bit of backtracking before we move further forward. And this is my resource for planning the rest of the year (or however long it takes to cover the movies I want to review here) - https://www.tohokingdom.com/genre_movie_lists/kaiju_listing.htm - and any input, especially from those who know much more than I do, is always welcome.

Go ahead and make all the jokes you want (particularly if you are already envisioning the size of the giant bulb you would need to lure away a giant moth), but Mothra holds up very well today as another fantastic Japanese kaiju film. Based on a book by Shin'chirô Nakamura, it's the tale of greedy and exploitative individuals who bring the titular beast upon their heads when they fail to heed warnings against uprooting two tiny young women from their island home. These "twin fairies" aka Shobijin (played by Yumi Itô and Emi Itô) don't lash out at their captors, but they make everyone aware that the situation will lead to dire consequences. Those dire consequences start off in the form of a giant egg, which hatches a giant caterpillar, which eventually builds a cocoon and prepares to become, as you may have surmised already, Mothra.

Another film from the kaiju master, AKA Ishirô Honda, Mothra is everything you want from this kind of film. The screenplay, by Shin'ichi Sekizawa, mixes the usual messaging with a good smattering of atmosphere throughout the first half before delivering the fun spectacle in the second half. It somehow manages to deliver the goods without feeling like a lazy retread, thanks to the use of the Shobijin, and Mothra makes a hell of an impact in both main, destructive, incarnations.

The cast make much less of an impact, although both Yumi and Emi Itô are delightful every time they appear onscreen. Jerry Itô is the evil capitalist, Clark Nelson, Hiroshi Koizumi plays Dr Shin'ichi Chûjô, someone who might come up with whatever plan is needed to deal with/placate Mothra, and Kyôko Kagawa is a photographer named Michi Hanamura. They all get one or two decent moments, but the film always steps up a notch when showing us either the Shobijin or Mothra.

I don't have much more to say. Although I was familiar with the titular beast, I'd only ever seen the modern Mothra in the American "monsterverse" movies, which is a different, but beautiful, visual feast. Finally seeing the original creature in the original film was a real treat, and I was smiling from start to finish as the pieces of the plot were moved into place, paving the way for the expected third act of panic and large-scale catastrophe. Mothra deserves to remain such a beloved film (and I know it is, considering how many friends of mine are fans of it) so I encourage others to avoid delaying a viewing of it for as long as I did.

9/10

Wednesday, 31 January 2024

Prime Time: Bottoms (2023)

A comedy from the same people who delivered the acclaimed Shiva Baby to many happy viewers, Bottoms is the perfect mix of smart and silly that had me laughing from start to finish. It is the kind of film that I will unreservedly recommend to everyone, and if you hate it then I will know that we just don’t share the same sense of humour. Which will make me sigh. Because humour might be highly subjective, but it’s always nice to find something that allows you to share smiles and laughter with other people you know are on your wavelength.

Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri play PJ and Josie, two uncool high schoolers who want a chance to turn things around. They’re not sporty, they’re lesbians, and they seem to be the only people rolling their eyes at a school system that treats douchebro football team members as unimpeachable royalty. So it’s hard to think of how they will improve their situation, but a fight club ought to do it. Yes, PJ and Josie start a fight club, a plan created just to help them get closer to the girls they are crushing on. But it soon starts to grow, giving club members more than a simple excuse to lash out and learn some self-defence.

Co-written by Sennott and director Emma Seligman, Bottoms has a great mix of characters, satisfying plotting that actually hews close to the standard plot of any well-known teen movie, and numerous lines of dialogue and individual moments that had me bursting out laughing.

It helps that the cast all feel so perfect in every role. Sennott and Edebiri can do no wrong at the moment, and the fact that they work so well together here is a huge plus. Kaia Gerber and Rose Liu do well as the cheerleaders not necessarily realising they are being crushed on by our leads, and Ruby Cruz steals a few scenes as the bomb-obsessed and brilliantly raging Hazel. When it comes to the guys, Marshawn Lynch has a lot of fun as a teacher who views himself as an ally, but wants to make as little effort as possible, and both Nicholas Galitzine and Miles Fowler are great as the two main football players who cause problems for the young women who don’t idolize them.

Seligman directs with great energy and a knack for balancing the silliness with very real and identifiable concerns, and there are moments here that were clearly conceived as both hilarious and cinematic, thanks to the shooting style and/or the soundtrack choices (and here is where I also congratulate Leo Birenberg and Charli XCX on a great selection of music to accompany many main sequences).

Easily one of the best outright comedies I have seen in the past ten years, Bottoms is brilliant, hilarious, violent, and deserving of becoming a firm favourite for those who appreciate it. The more I think about it, the less I can find to fault. In fact, yes, it’s perfect entertainment.

10/10

Tuesday, 30 January 2024

All Of Us Strangers (2024)

Whether it's conscious or not, we are all in constant dialogue with those who came before us, specifically our parents. Sometimes those conversations are satisfyingly fluid, changing as you grow up and the people around you adjust to the changing world around them. Sometimes those conversations are crystallized and kept within a snowglobe of a memory, something you think about again and again while knowing that the outcome wasn’t what you had hoped for, either because you didn’t know how to word things better or the people you were talking to weren’t quite who you hoped they were.

All Of Us Strangers explores this, allowing the central character (Adam, played by Andrew Scott) to process his memories and longing for conversations he never had with his dead parents (played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) by allowing him to meet them at the age they were when they died. There’s no explanation for this, and everyone decides against overthinking it, but the chance is there for everyone to have a kind of closure that reality denied them decades ago. Meanwhile, Adam also meets a young man named Harry (Paul Mescal), someone he starts growing very close to after initially refusing his awkward attempt to enter his life.

Director Andrew Haigh has been helming great films for quite some time now, but I am tempted to hail All Of Us Strangers as his masterpiece. Based on a novel by Taichi Yamada (this isn’t the first time it has been adapted for the screen), Haigh uses the supernatural framework to look at different kinds of love, different regrets, and how people might change their lives if they realised the butterfly effect caused by many of their actions. He also crafts a delicate love story between Adam and Harry that reminds every viewer of the kind of connection we want with those we care about.

The central quartet are all quite flawless. Foy and Bell play their parts well, young enough to be open and just old enough to have some insight and wisdom (possibly, bear in mind that they might just be projections), even while their view of their son is being reframed. Mescal is a sweet and welcome presence, an apparent chance of very real hope and happiness in the here and now. Then you have Scott, a man who has found a delicate gift he doesn’t understand, but doesn’t want to mishandle or break. Scott goes through a full range of emotions here, and Haigh knows how to complement the insightful and warm script with moments that just show everything via Scott’s face. The man can deliver dialogue brilliantly, but he also knows how to often say everything without saying anything.

There’s great use of a few classic pop hits, a visual style that mixes the everyday with heightened moments that celebrate a life suddenly buoyed by love, and a potentially-divisive ending so heart-achingly beautiful that it moved me to tears as the credits started to roll and I realised that this was going to be an early contender for one of my favourite films of the year.

9/10

Monday, 29 January 2024

Mubi Monday: My Sole Desire (2023)

When you make a film set largely in a strip club then you are, for better or worse, inviting comparison to a film so notorious that I don't even need to write the title here, especially for those reading this who Nomi so well already. This is a French film though, and the French can do much better with this kind of material. At least, that's what you would hope.

Louise Chevillote plays a young woman, Manon, who decides to try working at a strip club to make some decent money. She soon starts to enjoy herself, thrilled by the creativity and ability to control and manipulate the punters, helped by a colleague (Mia, played by Zita Hanrot) she starts to develop a strong connection with. Problems start to arise when it becomes clear that Mia already has a partner (played by Thimotée Robart), and when Manon starts to succumb to the seductive allure of higher earning potential from work outside the club.

Directed by Lucie Borleteau, who also worked on the story and screenplay with Clara Bourreau and Laure Giappiconi, this is a great mix of melodrama and eroticism. The lifestyle is shown in a surprisingly positive way, but it’s not completely safe and cosy. There are threats scattered around everywhere, from within and without the central group, but the way that the women deal with those threats allows viewers to see how they work together, maintain control, and grow closer as they metaphorically “circle the wagons” to ensure their safety.

Despite the obstacles and pitfalls placed in the script, the film generally feels like a positive one, in terms of both the sex work and the various ways in which the characters are motivated (some others frown while our lead keeps striving to earn more and more money, but she also does her best to help out someone she might not have any future with).

Chevillote and Hanrot are great in the lead roles, equally adept at handling the drama and the front and centre sexuality of their characters. They are always very believable, and the script allows them to be flawed without making them awful people, although I am sure some would argue that point. Robart also does well, but he’s saddled with a less interesting part to play. Everyone else works well. A handful of actresses portray other dancers in the club, each with their own style and/or problems, Pedro Casablanc runs the club with a steady and careful approach, and Sipan Mouradian is able to fall in love with our leading lady without seeming like a clueless schmuck.

A hugely satisfying experience from start to finish, My Sole Desire weaves a lot of artistry throughout what could have easily just been a sweaty and stain-covered mess of tired tropes and exploitation. Kudos to Borleteau, and all of her collaborators, for producing something far removed from that. This is, in fact, quite brilliant, and it’s just as equally about love and friendship as it is about sex and dancing.

9/10

Sunday, 28 January 2024

Netflix And Chill: Maestro (2023)

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

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

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

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

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

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

3/10

Saturday, 27 January 2024

Shudder Saturday: Amigo (2020)

I sometimes use other movies as reference points in my reviews, but it's a tricky proposition. You want people to get a sense of something, you want to convey certain elements, but you don't want everyone to start comparing every aspect. Which is why I almost decided against mentioning Caveat here, a film that kept popping into my mind as I watched Amigo.

This is the tale of two friends living together in a remote lodge. Javi (Javier Botet) is a man who can barely speak or move, and he is being cared for by David (David Pareja). There's been a bad accident, that much is clear, but the details are kept hazy, leaving it up to viewers to figure out if these two men are actually still friends, if someone is in danger, and what will happen as one, or both, start to question the reality of their current circumstances.

A feature directorial debut from Óscar Martín, who also co-wrote the script with Botet and Pareja, Amigo is an interesting and atmospheric thriller that manages to move around in very familiar territory without feeling tired and tiresome. A lot of that is down to the casting of the leads, but Martín has a superb visual eye that delivers scenes mixing beauty and grit filtered through a lens worked by the talented cinematographer Alberto Morago (trust me, keep an eye out for his name on other projects).

You may not recognise Botet here, but if you're a horror movie fan then you have most likely seen some of his work already (he's been in numerous big horror movies throughout the past couple of decades, including portraying THAT character at the end of [Rec]). He's not hidden under a lot of monster make-up here, but his physicality is still used to great effect, emphasising just how weak and vulnerable his character is. Pareja isn't quite as unnerving and captivating as an onscreen presence, but he works brilliantly alongside Botet in what is, for the most part, a taut two-hander. There are a couple of other people who pop in and out of the narrative, but everything stays tightly focused on the see-sawing dynamic between Botet and Pareja.

The runtime is a lean 83 minutes, and that's just about as long as it should be. There's not too much substance here, although the intriguing puzzle of the backstory is there for viewers to piece together and consider, but atmosphere and tension are poured over every main scene, leading to a finale that is as dark and satisfying as you might expect.

I look forward to whatever feature Martín helms next, and this is recommended to anyone who wants some nightmare imagery punctuated by fleeting moments of very, and I do mean very, dark comedy (because it is there). Unspectacular, but solid and chilling fare.

7/10

Friday, 26 January 2024

Bait (2019)

Finally getting around to this acclaimed debut feature from Mark Jenkin, I can now join the chorus of voices singing the praises of it. Okay, it's all too late, most people will have heard about this already, and rushed to see or avoid it, depending on their personal preference.

The film focuses on Martin Ward (Edward Rowe), a fisherman who is working with the distinct disadvantage of not owning a boat. He can still just about get by, but things are getting tougher as the Cornish village he grew up in keeps moving focus slightly away from the sea in favour of a new way of making money, renting properties to people looking for scenic and unique holiday homes. This increases tension and leads to a number of confrontations.

Bait has a number of different meanings, and all of them apply to this film. It can be the morsel placed on a hook to entice fish. It can be an annoyance or a taunt, something used to anger someone. There's also an older spelling, "bate", that means "an angry mood". And if Bait can be boiled down to one emotion running throughout most of the runtime, it's an angry mood.

I'm not going to go through the technical side of things that Jenkin has explained elsewhere (you can find statements from him all over the internet, and both Wikipedia and IMDb have more information about the making of the film), but this is a unique experience, managing to be visually crude in a way that also feels beautiful and unusual, and making an interesting feature of the audio being recorded separate from the visuals. This isn't just a film. It's a texture-rich visit to a world that views interlopers as necessary evils, and Jenkin keeping us placed right alongside Ward clarifies exactly why resentment has built up over time as other ways to make a living fade away under the creeping shadow of seasonal tourism.

Rowe is fantastic in the lead role, such a natural fit for the role that it makes me think he was just a Cornish resident Jenkin persuaded to take on the role (he was actually trained at RADA before spending time as a stand-up, performing under the name Kernow King). He's intimidating in a number of key scenes, but there are many other moments that show him struggling to carry a burden that everyone else thinks he should just shrug off and leave behind him. The rest of the cast also do great work, even if they don't all feel like such a natural fit with the style of the film, but the other standouts are Simon Shepherd and Mary Woodvine, playing the couple currently residing in the childhood home of our lead.

It may sound a bit cheesy and pretentious, but Bait is an astonishing feature because it's more of an experience than a film. Jenkin has a surprisingly extensive filmography to explore, many shorts and a few other features in the mix, but it's hard to think of any of his other films matching this one. You can taste the saltwater spraying in the air, you can smell the sea (as well as the sweat and the blood), and you can imagine being handed a bagged-up selection of freshly-caught fish. Not quite perfect, but it comes pretty damn close. I'm already looking forward to rewatching it, even if I feel the urge to put on a waterproof coat and a big pair of wellie boots.

9/10

Thursday, 25 January 2024

Dream Scenario (2023)

Nicolas Cage plays Paul Matthews, a fairly bland and passive professor who hasn’t ever pushed himself out of his comfort zone. His career path seems steady, his home life likewise, if a bit tired, and he tends to see others making progress while he stays in the same spot. This all changes when he starts to appear in the dreams of other people. He doesn’t do anything in these dreams, not initially anyway, but he becomes a presence in the nocturnal slumberland of many people, giving him a strange kind of celebrity. That is all well and good while the dreams are pleasant enough, but it’s not so good when things turn darker.

Although it makes great use of dream logic and enjoyably cinematic vignettes, Dream Scenario is a very clever way of exploring the modern problem of “going viral”. If everyone views you in a certain context then they start to think they know you, and anything changing their perception of you, real or imagined, can lead to a real backlash. Keep being successful and many people will want to watch you fail. Make one mistake and many people will rush to judgement, a whole tide of opinion turning against you quicker than you can send out a carefully-worded video apology.

Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli has crafted one of the best movies of 2023 here, a clever and pointed exploration of our modern society that has us all putting ourselves into the lives of others, eager for connections and validations that can appear or disappear with one keystroke or touch of a phone screen.

Borgli is helped by another fantastic Nicolas Cage performance, once again performing the kind of schlub he has shown us in one or two of his other films. Cage perfectly embodies the full journey of his character, from curiosity to cockiness, from nervousness to narcissism, and the various dream incarnations of his character allow him to consider his waking life in ways he would never have done before. Julianne Nicholson and Lily Bird are very good as the affected family members, wife and daughter respectively, and there is an excellent supporting cast that includes Kate Berlant, Tim Meadows, Michael Cera, and Dylan Baker, but the film rests on the shoulders of Cage, and he admirably carries it with ease.

I thought I was going to like Dream Scenario since I heard of the concept. The trailer just made me even more keen to see it. It absolutely surpassed my expectations, and is a perfect blend of humour, drama, commentary, and movie magic. I would hope that people are now well aware of how great Cage can be onscreen (he is enjoying a recent renaissance, but I have been a fan of him for decades, regardless of the times when the bad movies far outweighed the bad). If you somehow still doubt his talent, this may very well convert you.

9/10

Wednesday, 24 January 2024

Prime Time: Primal Rage (1988)

You can be forgiven if you haven’t heard of Primal Rage before now. I certainly hadn’t heard of it until a friend messaged me about it just a few days ago. Then I wondered how it had stayed off my radar for so long. Perhaps it was the generic title, two words that feel as if they have been mashed together at least a dozen times for a dozen different movies (there’s certainly at least one more recent film with the exact same title). Perhaps it was the fact that the plot was buried by a certain other horror movie that used the same starting point to go in a wildly different direction.

There's a lab in which some monkeys are being tested with some kind of rage virus. One monkey escapes a cage and bites a man who is there trying to investigate the situation, and that starts off a chain of events that will lead to more people being attacked, and the virus spreading. Which is going to make the upcoming Halloween party quite a lively one.

Directed by Vittorio (son of Carlo) Rambaldi, making his feature debut, this is hugely entertaining nonsense. The runtime is a perfectly-paced 90 minutes (give or take), the characters are memorable enough to identify throughout, but not so good that you would mourn them if they succumbed to the effects of the virus, and there is a fun third act that brings all of the main characters together for a violent confrontation that shows off some more of the makeup and effects that have been utilised well throughout the rest of the film.

The script, written by Umberto Lenzi and James Justice (credited together as Harry Kirkpatrick), is as silly as you want it to be. Our hero is a bit smug, but the featured bullies (yes, there are Neanderthal bullies) are so despicable that you automatically keep rooting against them, and the two featured female leads are good enough to hold your attention.

Patrick Lowe and Mitch Watson play their roles in a way that makes you wish more charismatic performers were chosen (especially true in the case of Lowe, who is the nominal hero of the piece), but Cheryl Arutt and Sarah Buxton help to make things more watchable, and Doug Sloan is a great presence in the role of Lovejoy aka leader of the bullies. There’s also a fun turn from Bo Svenaon as Ethridge, an unethical scientist, and at least one fake monkey has a feature role in one of the most memorable scenes.

I had even more fun with this than I thought I would. It sets up the plot and characters briskly enough, leaving plenty of time to have fun with the main concept (as well as also having time to insert scenes with a sleazy professor being sleazy). Who would have thought that a film about rage-infected monkeys spreading a virus to unfortunate humans would be so good?

7/10

Tuesday, 23 January 2024

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

I watched, and reviewed, King Kong vs. Godzilla many years ago, a very basic couple of paragraphs that summed up my thoughts without me knowing quite as much as I do today about the enduring cinematic legacy of the Godzilla movies. So if you get a sense of déjà vu while reading this review, there’s a reason for that.

Let's get the simple plot out of the way: Godzilla wakes up and starts heading towards Tokyo, where everyone knows he will just start tearing the place apart, so Japan decides to "borrow" King Kong when he is discovered living on a small island just off the coast of . . . ummm . . somewhere not TOO far away from Japan (the exact location escapes me even though they show it on a map quite a few times during the movie). King Kong is set upon by the mighty lizard, and it's a smackdown to see who will be left standing.

Director Ishirô Honda returns to helm this new instalment, although you wouldn’t think this was the same person who gave us the darker and brilliant first film. This isn’t as concerned with the potential lives lost, nor does it take much time to explore the ramifications of the destruction wrought while two giant monsters fight one another, but it tries to give decent moments to each of the fighting beasties. And if you need to see King Kong picking up a tree and ramming it into Godzilla’s mouth then this if the film for you.

The cast all do what they need to do, there’s a young woman in danger while a couple of men fret and plan to keep her safe (that’s all they need to do), and the plotting makes use of them to position the titular characters ready to fight one another.

If you're a fan of this type of stuff (and I never even realised that I was until I found myself enjoying this so much) then this is just more happy viewing for you. The charmingly unrealistic miniatures, the rubber-suit monsters, the mix of poor trick photography and re-re-recycled footage. Many moments in the film provide laughs (some intentional and some unintentional) and there's never a dull moment, but it's like the cinematic equivalent of a Marmite sandwich; cheap and not very filling, but you either love or hate it.

7/10

Monday, 22 January 2024

Mubi Monday: Fallen Leaves (2023)

My second Kaurismäki film in a fortnight, and one that many had near the top of their lists of favourite movies of 2023, Fallen Leaves is another strange alchemy that has the writer-director mixing together the bleak and the bad into something that becomes sweet and affecting. Containing less black humour than some of his other works, this still manages to navigate some treacherous territory without making viewers feel too nervous. Because, wherever he ends up taking us, Kaurismäki is a considerate and careful "ship's captain".

Alma Pöstyi plays Ansa, a lonely woman who also ends up struggling to stay in full-time employment. In the same situation, but for quite different reasons, is Holappa (Jussi Vatanen). Meeting by chance, Ansa and Holappa seem to find a connection, and perhaps see a chance to grab some fleeting happiness with one another, but fate has other plans. Viewers aren't given detailed backgrounds on each of the main characters, but there are little (and some not so little) details to notice and extrapolate from.

As low-key and gentle as so many other Kaurismäki movies, Fallen Leaves is the kind of film you might get if Ken Loach was tasked with delivering a romance that showed some silver linings in the many clouds gathering overhead. It’s grounded in a daily drudgery that could easily subsume someone, a struggle that many will be able to at least partly identify with, and news reports detailing the war in Ukraine serve as a reminder to enjoy the small breadcrumbs of happiness that are sometimes laid down for us. The radio is delivering bad news, but it's also a voice available to people who may not hear from anyone else throughout their day.

Pöstyi and Vatanen are both fantastic in the lead roles, the two of them showing their characters dealing with their pain and loneliness in very different ways. Although others appear for very brief moments of screentime, this is essentially a two-hander for most of the runtime, making it vital that the leads are up to the task of carrying the film. They certainly are.

Whether or not you are familiar with Kaurismäki may help you to decide whether or not to bump this one to the top of your viewing schedule. I would recommend it though, as long as people approach it with some idea of what style and commentary the director likes to serve up. He puts scar tissue under a microscope and magnifies it until it looks like a moving and surreal work of art. The more I think about this since seeing it, the more I appreciate how delicate and perfectly-crafted it is.

9/10

Sunday, 21 January 2024

Netflix And Chill: Lift (2024)

I don't dismiss every movie that debuts on a major streaming service. I believe, at least most of the time, that people keep trying to do their best to make a proper movie, and if their budget for it comes from a major streaming service then so be it. But there are some times when the films feel much more like "content" than actual movies. Lift is content, and it feels as if it has been worked on to cover every possible main demographic quadrant that Netflix wants to lure in.

Kevin Hart stars as Cyrus, a master thief leading a team of talented, but good-hearted (of course), criminals. Cyrus is so good that he is always three steps ahead of everyone, never getting caught with his fingers in the cookie jar, until he's caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. And he's caught just in time to be forced to conduct a major robbery on behalf of a government agency looking to screw up a deal being brokered by a dangerous criminal named Jorgensen (Jean Reno). Looking to get some extra insurance for his team, Cyrus agrees to take on the job as long as they are also joined by Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an Interpol agent he has some history with. And blah de blah de blah blah blahhhh.

The second film written by Daniel Kunka, who started his film career with the screenplay for the mediocre 12 Rounds (although maybe I will be more favourable to that film if I revisit it one day when in a better mood), this is flat and predictable throughout. Every time some obstacle cropped up to throw off the plan, I was able to figure out how it had already been considered, and incorporated, by our lead, because this is the kind of film in which the main character is always the smartest person in the room and the best person to be beside when the journey gets turbulent AKA the kind of role that Vin Diesel loves to play.

Although slightly better than the awful Heart Of Stone, the fact that F. Gary Gray is the director means that I should warn people that this is even worse than The Italian Job remake from 2023 (a film I know many people actively dislike, although I don't mind it). The action isn't staged well, the massive implausibility of each main sequence is glossed over with the standard editing techniques you'd expect and moments of the characters being cool, and a lot of the comedy falls flat.

Hart can be a lot of fun in movies, but it all depends on who he spends most of his screentime with. Put him alongside Dwayne Johnson and you get some great blockbuster entertainment. Put him in the midst of this motley crew and . . . not so much. Mbatha-Raw is a welcome presence, but saddled with the thankless role of being the authority figure who has a love/hate relationship with our lead. The other women (Úrsula Corberó and Yunjee Kim) are also slightly underused, with better moments written for the likes of Vincent D'Onofrio, Billy Magnussen, and David Proud. Jacob Batalon also does well, thanks more to his sheer force of personality than anything in the screenplay, but Sam Worthington, Jean Reno, Burn Gorman, and Paul Anderson all seem to be present to do nothing more than mess up the robbery in ways that Hart's character has already accounted for.

I'm sure that this will be an easy viewing choice for people who are browsing their many options and looking for something simple, fairly inoffensive, and entertaining. It's certainly simple, but I would argue that it's offensive in how it treats the viewer, and it's sadly not that entertaining. But I'll be generous with my rating, taking into consideration how much I enjoyed some of the smaller moments for the supporting cast members.

4/10

Saturday, 20 January 2024

Shudder Saturday: The Passenger (2022)

Quite a few people have been praising a film called The Passenger lately. It's a 2023 film that features Kyle Gallner in a central role, and I am very much looking forward to seeing it. That's why I clicked on the thumbnail for this when I saw it on Shudder. It didn't seem to be any imagery I'd seen previously, but I was curious. It soon became clear that this film titled The Passenger was not THAT film titled The Passenger, but the image and summary had me intrigued.

Ramiro Blas plays Blasco, a driver who has offered his services as a driver for people who then realise they may have made a mistake as soon as he pulls up in what looks like far from the most reliable transport (a slightly older and beaten up minivan). His first passenger on this particular trip is Mariela (Cecilia Suárez), but he then picks up Lidia (Crisitina Alcázar) and her daughter, Marta (Paula Gallego). Tensions quickly rise as Blasco manages to upset everyone in turn, but he's so unremittingly uncaring about what others think about him that young Marta starts enjoying his behaviour. And then they hit someone in the middle of the road. Putting her in the back of the van starts a wild night for everyone involved.

Co-directed by Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez (the former making his feature debut), The Passenger is a really fun and enjoyably gloopy sci-fi horror. Luis Sánchez-Polack, Asier Guerricaechebarría, and Javier Echániz are the main writing team, and they have a wealth of experience between them. In fact, Guerricaechebarría should already be known to Spanish horror movie fans for his work on the absolutely superb Errementari: The Blacksmith And The Devil, where he is credited with a slight different spelling of his surname. The dialogue throughout the first half of the movie is entertaining enough, developing each character in little ways that helps to add a bit of impact to the third act, and a final scene that feels hugely satisfying thanks to the constancy of one character's attitude to everything around them.

Blas gives an excellent performance (there's a hint of Luis Tosar about him, which is no bad thing), but he's easily matched by Gallego, who becomes the main person that he interacts with most during the journey. Both Suárez and Alcázar are very good, but they have to spend a lot of time eye-rolling to underline the ridiculousness of what Blas is saying throughout the first half hour.

I don't want to name the many similar titles that are better than this. That would give you even more of an idea about how things play out, and it would make it seem as if I didn't really like this. I had a lot of fun with this, more fun than expected, and I'm glad I stumbled across it. The special effects are great, the pacing is perfect, the characters are rounded enough to keep you interested, and there are one or two moments of real tension. It doesn't quite do enough to be great, but it's very good. I highly recommend it to people looking for something that hasn't been put on everyone's radar already.

7/10