"Sinners" - Review

The year is 1932, and during the height of both Prohibition and Jim Crow Laws, wayward twin brothers Smoke (Michael B Jordan) and Stack (Michael B Jordan) Moore return to their home city of Clarkdale, Mississippi, with a bounty of wealth and alcohol from their time with the Chicago Outfit. Intending on setting up their own Blues Bar, they meet up with old friends, including their brilliant Blues-prodigy cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) and Stack's passing ex-girlfriend (with a bone to pick with him) Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), and begin to assemble the dream team for running the joint: legendary Blues musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo, always fantastic); sharecropper and big bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller); Smoke's superstitious wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku, who I'm happy to see coming a long way since "Moses Jones") for the position of chef; married shopkeepers Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li and Yao) as their in house staff; and the brothers running the day to day affairs - things are coming up roses! But opening night coms around, and a strange guest will bring different worlds together...

Ryan Coogler has, quite rightly, performed some sort of twisted sorcery with the brokering/distribution deal for the film: managing to gain ownership of it after 25 years (a truly fucked up commentary on the state of the film industry as a whole, when one comes to think about it), as well as first cut at profits, in return for allowing Warner Brothers (the norovirus of companies) to distribute. This is fantastic news for the industry as well as Coogler, and a much-needed win for artists.
Also, the film is fucking great, which is a welcome relief and bonus.
Clocking in at just over 2 hours, Coogler's film tells a tale of black identity, grief, "passing" and the spiritual, transformative power and history of black music for the first half; and is such a fun, well observed character/period piece sumptuous with emotion and detail, that when the supernatural elements kick in during the second half and (without spoiling much) it turns into a cross between John Carpenter and a certain Lance Henriksen movie musical, it fels not only seamless but like getting two fun movies for the price of one. I could happily just watch these guys (excellently played by Jordan, though the entire cast are wonderful, and Caton is a hell of a find) simply run a bar; so when the blood starts flying and everything hits the fan, it's beyond cathartic and engaging. The big swings work (musical numbers like a barn-burning and rambunctuous rendition of "Rocky Road to Dublin", playing with time, and even a sweet cameo from a Blues legend at the end to cap it all off), because the characters and the themes do, it's an audcaious and perfectly crafted work. Sterling work from one of the better films allowed to work and have visions today.

"The Surfer" - Review

A man (Nicolas Fucking Cage) moves back to his childhood home in Australia, hoping to buy it and relive his surfing days on a picturesque beach with his son (Finn Little) and ride the waves. Unfortunately a possessive hyper-masculine local big shot named Scally (Julian McMahon) and his insular tribe of toxic lunatics aim to drive away any non-locals from the spot, and a war of wills and ever-spiralling madness escalate as macho meets morality and our surfer loses himself in the outback.

A 70s inspired psychological mind bender (right from the font of the bright yellow font of the opening credits) very much taking a few leaves from the blood and fluid spattered book of "Wake in Fright" as Nicolas Cage is put through the wringer and brought to his lowest depths. It's impeccably made, with sweltering scorching heat and wide angle fish eye lenses as reality distorts, and it morphs into a beast discussing masculinity and the feral, primal urges of onsters which society simply lets happen, and how it gives way to cult like behaviour. It's not for me (and indeed, "Wake in Fright" is the sort of movie I watch once and say "yup, not for me as great as it is!") but has a lot to love. If you're here for the Nic Cage madness/memes, it's relatively restrained in that regard (outside of him force-feeding a man a rat) and instead focuses on a damn good performance from him. The "Straw Dogs"-esque catharsis is never quite there, and it's never as bleak as something like that, but the film works tightly. It could lose the "missing identity, gaslighting into believing you're that other guy" plotline and could honestly have been tighter without it, but works with it regardless.

"Drop" - Review

Violet (Mehann Fahy) is recovering from a traumatic incident in her past and works as a single mother and therapist. She finally manages to snag a hot date with sexy photographer Henry (Brandon Skelnar), and heads to meet him at a fancy high-tower restaurant. But though the pair of them manage to hit it off, Violet starts receiving anonymous messages and images on her phone and before she can attempt to parse who they are from, they start to show pictures of her house, and demand that she murder Henry... Now she must keep the date going, keep it secret from Henry, and figure out who is sending these messages to her...

A fine effort from Mr Landon, as usual! I'm a long-standing defender and advocate of the man's works, and he's been on a tear: from writing the fanatastic "Heart Eyes" and directing a tight, fun little thriller as this, he's been on a tear this year. One heck of a one-two punch. It embraces the inherent silliness, and leans upon the dated memes angle for it all, and stays on course to be a fun little mystery, and a "how shall this character escape the situation?" kind of movie. Fahy (the first thing I have seen her in) is excellent, and Reed Diamond shows up for a little bit, hell yes! Skelnar is lovely too, and has, most essential for this kind of movie, smooth and fluid chemistry with Fahy in this. Everybody who shows up is good: the movie does that thing I really appreciate and respect where it has hired good, solid, experienced and unknown actors to really sell the piece rather than rely on big names and make money disappear, instead saving its budget for some creative little asides and camera angles to show off how far Landon (definitely up for Sweeties this year) has come as a filmmaker. I rather enjoyed it and the mystery's reveal works. Violett Beane is delightful in this as Violet's sister, and everything seems to come together nicely enough and tightly enough that I wasn't picking holes in it, enjoying it so much as I was, which is what it's out to do. Another cracker to the Landon canon, though "Heart Eyes" remains the one to beat this year.