Films round-up
Wow, it has been a very long time since I last posted one of these, hasn't it? Better catch up...
Another round - A Danish film about alcohol addiction that could never have been made in America. The excellent Mads Mikkelsen stars as Martin, who, along with several mates, experiments with the idea that maintaining a blood alcohol level of 0.05% makes humans more relaxed, creative and better at their jobs. Perhaps not the best idea, when their jobs are as school teachers and they are all (to a greater or lesser extent) going through various mid-life crises. This is billed as a black comedy, and it's certainly that, but there are scenes of tragic drama intermixed. It's a film with an ambiguous message, both celebrating the delights of social drinking and warning of the destruction caused by alcoholism. Funny and thought-provoking at the same time.
Jungle Cruise - Imagine a mash-up of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the first two Pirates of the Caribbean films, and you've got a pretty good idea of this gloriously silly adventure. Though even that won't prepare you for the incongruity of Metallica playing over the Disney Castle tag at the start. Set in 1916, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Emily Blunt and Jack Whitehall join forces to battle a German submarine crew and undead Spanish conquistadors as they search the Amazon for a magic tree. No, really. If you like your movies big, loud and cheesy, full of terrible puns and completely implausible action scenes, this is for you. It's a great example of summer blockbuster entertainment, with such likeable characters and such a sense of fun, you can happily accept all its silliness.
Free Guy - A post-Ready Player One adventure in which Guy (Ryan Reynolds) comes to realise his whole life is just a video game, in which he's merely a background NPC. There's shades of The Matrix as well as The Truman Show, but this isn't really a profound commentary on the nature of existence. It's a goofball action comedy, buoyed along by Reynolds's inherent likeability and a fun supporting cast, including Jodie Comer (as the PC object of Guy's affections), Lil Rel Howery (as his best buddy cop) and Taika Waititi (as the unstable CEO of the game company). It's a lot of fun, boosted further by some fun references to varius franchises (no licensing issues due to Disney owning pretty much everything these days!).
Censor - A British psychological horror, which starts out more intriguing than it ends up. Enid Baines (Niamh Algar) works as a film censor. While reviewing a horror film by Frederick North (Adrian Schiller), she notices close parallels with her sister's disappearance many years earlier, when they were children. Enid determines to find out what happened and whether her sister is alive. But North seems to be playing a twisted game with her. As investigation turns to obsession, Enid starts losing her mind. As the film goes on, it starts to resemble more and more the slasher films Enid censors for a living, and it becomes increasingly unclear what is "real" and what is in her head. Unfortunaltely, this results in the film degenerating into a bit of a mess. There are some clever and original ideas here, but it doesn't quite hang together.
Candyman - Jordan Peele (of Get Out and Us fame) brings us a reboot / sequel to the early '90s slasher that got us all scared of looking in the mirror. In a very efficient 91 minutes, Peele brings the haunted neighbourhood up-to-date, recaps the entire supernatural myth of the original, adds new twists, including his signature brand of horror-as-allegory-for-racism, starts the killings all over again, and takes his new lead characters (artist Anthony McCoy (Yaha Abdul-Mateen II) and his gallery director girlfriend Bri Cartwright (Teyonah Parris)) down a very dark path in the final act. The film as a whole is scarier than it's titular hooked bogeyman, whose plight we get to sympathise with, but I'm still not going to say his name...
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Marvel's "Phase 4" gets properly underway. It starts out with the familiar martial arts film set-up of an ordinary guy, doing an ordinary job, getting caught up on the receiving end of a criminal gang plot and fighting his way out. Sure, there's a fantasy backstory and magical MacGuffin, and the fight sequences are the heightened choreography you'd expect, but we're reasonably grounded in the real world. Fast-forward two hours and we're in a fantasy location, dealing with huge armies (all armed with magical weapons) battling each other and giant monsters over the fate of the world. None of it goes further than many other Marvel films, and it may just be me, but I found the genre-shift jarring. On the plus side, the lead duo of Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) work well together and there's the welcome surprise return of a few minor MCU characters.
The Green Knight - This is a weird, weird film. Dev Patel stars as Sir Gawain, committed to seeking out his own doom at the hands of the titular Green Knight, after taking on a reckless challenge at court. Along his quest, he encounters strange people and even stranger phenomena. This isn't, in any way, an action film; it's all about mystery, introspection and symbolism. Patel does a good job in bringing humanity to it, which is a good job, since the film is largely him on his own. I can't recommend it though. It's what, in Film Unit, we used to refer to as an "arsehouse" film - one which is arthousey and adored by critics, but is so far up its own arse, it's an impenetrable bore for ordinary viewers. I found out later it's actually surprisingly accurate to the legend, although the ending has been tweaked to make it unnecessarily (even more) confusing.
No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final Bond outing, and it just about lives up to the hype after all the long, long delays. From the action-packed opening chase, to a fun infiltration of a Spectre gathering, a suitably-OTT doomsday weapon, and a showdown on an island lair, this is big Bond action as we know and love it. But it's also much more character-driven and breaks a few Bond conventions along the way. This is mostly for the better, although it leaves the villain with little chance to shine, and the biggest break in convention felt too forced for my tastes. The 163m running time is definitely excessive - there are too many minor characters clogging up the plot, and at least 30 minutes could've been cut out of the baggy second act. Not up there with Skyfall, but certainly better than the rest of Craig's run in the role.
Dune - It's a long time since I read the book, but this feels like a good adaptation. It's pretty faithful, and the few changes (mostly) make sense for the screen. The casting is brilliant: Timothée Chalamet makes a moody Paul Atreides, along with Jason Momoa (Duncan Idaho), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Charlotte Rampling (Reverend Mother), Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto), Stellan Skarsgård (Baron Harkonnen), Dave Bautista (Beast Rabban) and Zendaya (Chani). My one quibble is (like Denis Villeneuve's other recent sci-fi, Blade Runner 2049) there are far too many long, ponderous shots with nothing happening and REALLY LOUD MUSIC to remind you you're watching an epic. You need some of that to add grandeur, but you don't need it slowing down what felt like *every* *single* *scene* of the film. They fit 2/3 of the book into this "Part 1"; with a bit of editing they could have done the whole thing.
The French Dispatch - Wes Anderson does more of what Wes Anderson always does, with this quirky collection of three loosely-related stories about an American publication in a mid-20th Century French town. As usual, he has assembled an incredible cast, chief among them Frances McDormand, Adrian Brody and Bill Murray. If you're not a fan of Anderson's voiceover-driven montages, deadpan delivery, and very staged, theatrical shots, this isn't going to win you over. Even as someone who normally loves his work, I fear he may have gone slightly too far this time. The stories and characters are all interesting enough, but I felt too far removed from them as an audience to really engage. It's not bad by any means, but not one of his best. For major WA fans only.
Venom: Let there be Carnage - I didn't see the first Venom, but this one got better reviews and looked fun. It is. Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson face off as Eddie Broak and Cletus Casady, two guys stuck sharing their bodies with murderous alien symbiotes. Michelle Williams and Naomie Harris play their respective love interests (the latter almost as psychotic as the aliens). That's about it. Okay, so there's a bit of plot about journalist, Eddie researching serial killer, Cletus's backstory, but essentially this is a tight 97-minutes of pure comic book entertainment, ridiculous action sequences and even more ridiculous arguments between the symbiotes and their human hosts. It pretends to be nothing more, and is a lot of brainless fun.
Last Night In Soho - Writer/director Edgar Wright is on top form yet again with this stylish, time-jumping thriller. Eloise (Thomasin McKensie) is a shy fashion design student, out of her depth in the big city. She is also psychic and, at night, finds herself slipping back in time and reliving the life of Sandie (Annie Taylor-Joy), a wannabe singer in the Swinging Sixties. At first, Eloise enjoys the sights, sounds and escapism, but then Sandie's relationship with Jack (Matt Smith) takes a darker turn, and her nighttime visions start to bleed into her waking days. For all the supernatural elements and full-on slasher final act, it's the human evils of misogyny and sexual exploitation which create the most disturbing scares. But Wright isn't interested in setting the world to rights, just putting his characters through the mill. Style and atmosphere abound, with a wonderful soundtrack, as you'd expect from Wright.
Eternals - The critics have panned this, but I actually enjoyed it more than Shang-Chi, which they loved. Go figure. Yes, the concept is very "out there", featuring giant celestials and main characters older than human civilisation. It's also true that it's a very busy film, with a lot of characters and backstory to take in. But writer/director Chloé Zhao keeps it all grounded in the drama of these characters. They may be superpowered and immortal, but they have a vulnerability and humanity which helps us connect with their trials and tribulations. Top marks also for their unremarked-upon diversity. Like all Marvel films, it mixes action, humour and drama, and plays a lot of the tropes, but it feels fresher than most recent MCU entries.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Jason (son of original director, Ivan) Reitman brings us essentially a love letter to the original 1984 movie. Following Egon Spengler's death, his estranged daughter and grandchildren trek out to the farm where he lived out his days. But there's something strange in the neighbourhood... The familiar score brings back the '80s nostalgia, as does the set-up, "misfit kids investigate spooky goings-on in small town, rural America" (with more than a hint of Stephens King and Spielberg). It's not an outright comedy like the rest of the franchise, though the dialogue provides many chuckles. The critics are unimpressed and, to be fair, there are flaws. It takes too long to get going and token adults, Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd, don't have enough to do. Fortunately, the young leads (Young Sheldon's Mckenna Grace, Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim and Celeste O'Conner) all do a sterling job - Grace in particular, and it's a joy to see a film with a science-obsessed, mildly autistic lead heroine.
Another round - A Danish film about alcohol addiction that could never have been made in America. The excellent Mads Mikkelsen stars as Martin, who, along with several mates, experiments with the idea that maintaining a blood alcohol level of 0.05% makes humans more relaxed, creative and better at their jobs. Perhaps not the best idea, when their jobs are as school teachers and they are all (to a greater or lesser extent) going through various mid-life crises. This is billed as a black comedy, and it's certainly that, but there are scenes of tragic drama intermixed. It's a film with an ambiguous message, both celebrating the delights of social drinking and warning of the destruction caused by alcoholism. Funny and thought-provoking at the same time.
Jungle Cruise - Imagine a mash-up of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the first two Pirates of the Caribbean films, and you've got a pretty good idea of this gloriously silly adventure. Though even that won't prepare you for the incongruity of Metallica playing over the Disney Castle tag at the start. Set in 1916, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Emily Blunt and Jack Whitehall join forces to battle a German submarine crew and undead Spanish conquistadors as they search the Amazon for a magic tree. No, really. If you like your movies big, loud and cheesy, full of terrible puns and completely implausible action scenes, this is for you. It's a great example of summer blockbuster entertainment, with such likeable characters and such a sense of fun, you can happily accept all its silliness.
Free Guy - A post-Ready Player One adventure in which Guy (Ryan Reynolds) comes to realise his whole life is just a video game, in which he's merely a background NPC. There's shades of The Matrix as well as The Truman Show, but this isn't really a profound commentary on the nature of existence. It's a goofball action comedy, buoyed along by Reynolds's inherent likeability and a fun supporting cast, including Jodie Comer (as the PC object of Guy's affections), Lil Rel Howery (as his best buddy cop) and Taika Waititi (as the unstable CEO of the game company). It's a lot of fun, boosted further by some fun references to varius franchises (no licensing issues due to Disney owning pretty much everything these days!).
Censor - A British psychological horror, which starts out more intriguing than it ends up. Enid Baines (Niamh Algar) works as a film censor. While reviewing a horror film by Frederick North (Adrian Schiller), she notices close parallels with her sister's disappearance many years earlier, when they were children. Enid determines to find out what happened and whether her sister is alive. But North seems to be playing a twisted game with her. As investigation turns to obsession, Enid starts losing her mind. As the film goes on, it starts to resemble more and more the slasher films Enid censors for a living, and it becomes increasingly unclear what is "real" and what is in her head. Unfortunaltely, this results in the film degenerating into a bit of a mess. There are some clever and original ideas here, but it doesn't quite hang together.
Candyman - Jordan Peele (of Get Out and Us fame) brings us a reboot / sequel to the early '90s slasher that got us all scared of looking in the mirror. In a very efficient 91 minutes, Peele brings the haunted neighbourhood up-to-date, recaps the entire supernatural myth of the original, adds new twists, including his signature brand of horror-as-allegory-for-racism, starts the killings all over again, and takes his new lead characters (artist Anthony McCoy (Yaha Abdul-Mateen II) and his gallery director girlfriend Bri Cartwright (Teyonah Parris)) down a very dark path in the final act. The film as a whole is scarier than it's titular hooked bogeyman, whose plight we get to sympathise with, but I'm still not going to say his name...
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Marvel's "Phase 4" gets properly underway. It starts out with the familiar martial arts film set-up of an ordinary guy, doing an ordinary job, getting caught up on the receiving end of a criminal gang plot and fighting his way out. Sure, there's a fantasy backstory and magical MacGuffin, and the fight sequences are the heightened choreography you'd expect, but we're reasonably grounded in the real world. Fast-forward two hours and we're in a fantasy location, dealing with huge armies (all armed with magical weapons) battling each other and giant monsters over the fate of the world. None of it goes further than many other Marvel films, and it may just be me, but I found the genre-shift jarring. On the plus side, the lead duo of Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) work well together and there's the welcome surprise return of a few minor MCU characters.
The Green Knight - This is a weird, weird film. Dev Patel stars as Sir Gawain, committed to seeking out his own doom at the hands of the titular Green Knight, after taking on a reckless challenge at court. Along his quest, he encounters strange people and even stranger phenomena. This isn't, in any way, an action film; it's all about mystery, introspection and symbolism. Patel does a good job in bringing humanity to it, which is a good job, since the film is largely him on his own. I can't recommend it though. It's what, in Film Unit, we used to refer to as an "arsehouse" film - one which is arthousey and adored by critics, but is so far up its own arse, it's an impenetrable bore for ordinary viewers. I found out later it's actually surprisingly accurate to the legend, although the ending has been tweaked to make it unnecessarily (even more) confusing.
No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final Bond outing, and it just about lives up to the hype after all the long, long delays. From the action-packed opening chase, to a fun infiltration of a Spectre gathering, a suitably-OTT doomsday weapon, and a showdown on an island lair, this is big Bond action as we know and love it. But it's also much more character-driven and breaks a few Bond conventions along the way. This is mostly for the better, although it leaves the villain with little chance to shine, and the biggest break in convention felt too forced for my tastes. The 163m running time is definitely excessive - there are too many minor characters clogging up the plot, and at least 30 minutes could've been cut out of the baggy second act. Not up there with Skyfall, but certainly better than the rest of Craig's run in the role.
Dune - It's a long time since I read the book, but this feels like a good adaptation. It's pretty faithful, and the few changes (mostly) make sense for the screen. The casting is brilliant: Timothée Chalamet makes a moody Paul Atreides, along with Jason Momoa (Duncan Idaho), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Charlotte Rampling (Reverend Mother), Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto), Stellan Skarsgård (Baron Harkonnen), Dave Bautista (Beast Rabban) and Zendaya (Chani). My one quibble is (like Denis Villeneuve's other recent sci-fi, Blade Runner 2049) there are far too many long, ponderous shots with nothing happening and REALLY LOUD MUSIC to remind you you're watching an epic. You need some of that to add grandeur, but you don't need it slowing down what felt like *every* *single* *scene* of the film. They fit 2/3 of the book into this "Part 1"; with a bit of editing they could have done the whole thing.
The French Dispatch - Wes Anderson does more of what Wes Anderson always does, with this quirky collection of three loosely-related stories about an American publication in a mid-20th Century French town. As usual, he has assembled an incredible cast, chief among them Frances McDormand, Adrian Brody and Bill Murray. If you're not a fan of Anderson's voiceover-driven montages, deadpan delivery, and very staged, theatrical shots, this isn't going to win you over. Even as someone who normally loves his work, I fear he may have gone slightly too far this time. The stories and characters are all interesting enough, but I felt too far removed from them as an audience to really engage. It's not bad by any means, but not one of his best. For major WA fans only.
Venom: Let there be Carnage - I didn't see the first Venom, but this one got better reviews and looked fun. It is. Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson face off as Eddie Broak and Cletus Casady, two guys stuck sharing their bodies with murderous alien symbiotes. Michelle Williams and Naomie Harris play their respective love interests (the latter almost as psychotic as the aliens). That's about it. Okay, so there's a bit of plot about journalist, Eddie researching serial killer, Cletus's backstory, but essentially this is a tight 97-minutes of pure comic book entertainment, ridiculous action sequences and even more ridiculous arguments between the symbiotes and their human hosts. It pretends to be nothing more, and is a lot of brainless fun.
Last Night In Soho - Writer/director Edgar Wright is on top form yet again with this stylish, time-jumping thriller. Eloise (Thomasin McKensie) is a shy fashion design student, out of her depth in the big city. She is also psychic and, at night, finds herself slipping back in time and reliving the life of Sandie (Annie Taylor-Joy), a wannabe singer in the Swinging Sixties. At first, Eloise enjoys the sights, sounds and escapism, but then Sandie's relationship with Jack (Matt Smith) takes a darker turn, and her nighttime visions start to bleed into her waking days. For all the supernatural elements and full-on slasher final act, it's the human evils of misogyny and sexual exploitation which create the most disturbing scares. But Wright isn't interested in setting the world to rights, just putting his characters through the mill. Style and atmosphere abound, with a wonderful soundtrack, as you'd expect from Wright.
Eternals - The critics have panned this, but I actually enjoyed it more than Shang-Chi, which they loved. Go figure. Yes, the concept is very "out there", featuring giant celestials and main characters older than human civilisation. It's also true that it's a very busy film, with a lot of characters and backstory to take in. But writer/director Chloé Zhao keeps it all grounded in the drama of these characters. They may be superpowered and immortal, but they have a vulnerability and humanity which helps us connect with their trials and tribulations. Top marks also for their unremarked-upon diversity. Like all Marvel films, it mixes action, humour and drama, and plays a lot of the tropes, but it feels fresher than most recent MCU entries.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Jason (son of original director, Ivan) Reitman brings us essentially a love letter to the original 1984 movie. Following Egon Spengler's death, his estranged daughter and grandchildren trek out to the farm where he lived out his days. But there's something strange in the neighbourhood... The familiar score brings back the '80s nostalgia, as does the set-up, "misfit kids investigate spooky goings-on in small town, rural America" (with more than a hint of Stephens King and Spielberg). It's not an outright comedy like the rest of the franchise, though the dialogue provides many chuckles. The critics are unimpressed and, to be fair, there are flaws. It takes too long to get going and token adults, Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd, don't have enough to do. Fortunately, the young leads (Young Sheldon's Mckenna Grace, Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim and Celeste O'Conner) all do a sterling job - Grace in particular, and it's a joy to see a film with a science-obsessed, mildly autistic lead heroine.