"The Wild Robot" - Review

Introducing the ROZZUM Unit 7134: for all of your needs! Do you have a task which needs accomplishing? Then contact your Rozzum 7134 (Lupita Nyong'o), currently operating on an island free of humans - where the unit ends up interacting with all kinds of animals, and adding all new elements of her programming along the way...

Dreamworks are back, baby!
I went into this knowing nothing about the source material (a children's book which apparently director Chris Sanders loved) or the film proper, wanting something a little more relaxed after the emotionally knotted roller coaster of "Anora".
I cried 3 times.
From director Chris Sanders (of "Lilo and Stitch", "The Croods" and "How to Train Your Dragon" fame, as well as co writer of "Mulan"), this thing thus has some pedigree and experience: all of it put to magnificent use. The film looks like a watercolour, building upon that previous strong of 3D CGI Dreamworks stuff, making it look a lot more pleasant than films of late, and there are some absoultely breathtaking images throughout, almost ripped straight from a picture book or an art gallery (as cliched as that may be) and used to spectacular effect. It's a seriously pretty film: not "Kubo" pretty, but lovely nonetheless. The score by Kris Bowers (his first for an animated film) is the highlight: soaring and beautiful music, got me choked up frequently. Nyong'o is a treasure, as always, and absolutely carries this film with her performance, but the supporting cast are no slouches: Kit Connor does a good job, Pedro Pascal is always wonderful, Matt Berry plays a beaver who makes a "bullshit" joke, and Stephanie Hsu almost steals the show as a fellow robot. It's a tad rushed in parts, but its central story about teaching a goose to fly, and how kindness and coming together should be seen as survival instincts rather than weaknesses, makes up for it. It's a lovely film.

"Anora" - Review

New York stripper Anora (Mikey Madison) is hired by Russian oligarch's son Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) as an escort, due to her ability to speak Russian. A whirlwind romance follows, told as a fairy tale fable through the lense of Sean Baker...

Spellbinding.
Bold, audacious, beautiful, emotionally complex, and far funnier than I was expecting: it is an absolutely wild ride which leaves you breathless. When the wool falls from Anora's eyes and the spell is broken, it is not in some vast overly-verbose monologue, but a silent awkward car journey through the cold and bustling night. A love story ripples beneath the surface, but not the one you expect. We strive for human connection, we all deserve to be loved.
Is Anora a grifter, an idealist, a professional, or a fairy tale dreamer? Maybe she's all 4... By the end of it, on a pragmatic sense, she is better off: but was any of this worth her pride, her dignity, the raw emotional scars which will develop from this? It's messy, clean, bright, dark, loud, quiet, funny, sad and exactly what I wanted and needed it to be. It's about the human experience, and a pitch perfect examination of life on the lower rungs of society.
And of all the things I expected to see, Take That was maybe rock bottom, but much appreciated.
I get chills thinking about this movie

"Heretic" - Review

A pair of Mormon missionaries, the droll, sensible veteran Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and the bubbly wide-eyed idealistic optimist Sister Paxton (Chloe East), find themselves at the precipice of the home of "Mr Reed" (Hugh Grant), who has expressed interest in their church. Attempting to convert him, they step over the threshhold, and are in for a long night of the soul.

Marketing and selling a horror movie around the continued comeback of beloved English actor Hugh Grant is a bold movie, but something which pays off. There has always been a sense of malice and menace behind that stuttering, sputtering quaint English stammer; and here Grant uses it to excellent, enthralling effect. He's hypnotic and relishing the part, relishing the chance to be part of his "freak show" era as an actor. He's well worth the admission, and is genuinely putting in one of his best turns: he has a fantastic conversation about Monopoly which had me grinning ear to ear and gripping my seat.
This isn't to say that the film suffers as a result of him not being there: the script stands on its own as a tightly focused bottle movie, where I can happily watch our leads discuss religion and dogma and faith, before they even get to the spooky stuff. The 2 leads are solid and believable without being charicatures, and the movie has a lot of fun with deciding and subverting and flip-flopping on who its final girl is. I appreciate the baroque square and box imagery too (a visitor framed by the gate, the walls of Grant's home, the jumper our big man wears...)
The movie wobbles after 40 minutes (kudos though, that is some juicy build up!) when the 2 girls enter the doors, but quickly regains its feet after a while, about the same time that Grant takes centre stage again. It is fun and has a whale of a time discussing faith, and manages to stick the landing with a well-planted arc about a butterfly...
Come for Hugh Grant, stay for Hugh Grant, and have a tight 3-act play. Oh, and Topher Grace has a surprise cameo in this, and I like seeing him in things.