"The Monkey" - Review

Twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn (Theo James) grew up with a monkey on their backs. When they grow up estranged, Hal is deliberately keeping away from his son Petey (Colin O'Brien) and keeping his head down; but during his week with him he receives a call from Bill, telling him that The Monkey is back and they are the only ones who can do something about it. And they'd better act fast, because people tend to start dying when that monkey is around...

This was funny, a pitch black screwball whackadoodle comedy which reads like Osgood Perkins wanted to lighten up a little after making "Longlegs" (which still absolutely rules); so he smoked a couple of joints and made a "Final Destination" movie. It embraces the absurdity of not just its premise, but death itself, becoming about the insanity and randomness of mortality as well on its road trip father son adventure. The gore is fantastic, and the entire film is shot just like "Longlegs" (which I still prefer, but that's me), which adds a further deadpan nature to it yet still keeps some truly nightmarish and ghoulish imagery. The original short story is straight forward fare, so I actually rather appreciate the unusual direction this adaptation was taken in.
It's very much as "stick along for the ride" funhouse kind of horror comedy, and I rather enjoyed it.

"Heart Eyes" - Review

for the last 4 years, the mysterious "Heart Eyes Killer" has been on something of a tear across 4 different cities in America: killing couples on Valentine's Day at a swift pace. This year they have targetted Seattle: beginning their new reign of terror with an attack on a proposal at a winery. In the midst of all of this, marketer Ally (Olivia Holt) is in hot water because her latest advertising campaign themed around doomed lovers is seen as exceedingly bad taste. Her firm flies in hotshot freelancer and wunderkind Jay (a bloody excellent Mason Gooding) to help right this ship. As the grumpy and cynical Ally and the romantic carefree Jay try to come up with ideas over dinner, they are mistaken for a couple by the killer, and are in for the night of their lives...

This movie fucking ruled.
More than living up to its mish mash of genres (a slasher movie and a rom com), it happily adores and plays up both of them. We get a deliciously bloody, fun opening murder lit and played like every corny rom-com from the 2000s, followed by a legitimately witty and charming odd-couple mish mash with the leads (who have electrifying chemistry) going about their evening, learning about each other and genuinely feeling like endearing characters. Mason Gooding has been wasted in movies up until this point, and relishes the chance to spread his wings, and continues the iron clad rule that cast members from "Booksmart" improve every movie (see also: Skylar Gisondo, Molly Gordon, Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Eduardo Franco and Noah Galvin). God I love Mason Gooding in this - he gets a fucking hilarious scene in a police car... And this is the first project I have seen Olivia Holt in, and I can absolutely see her having a wonderful future in romantic comedies if she wanted to: she bounces wonderfully off of Mason Gooding and carries the movie well. The rom-com is romantic and LEGITIMATELY funny, the writers (of the ever excellent "Freaky" and all time classic "Happy Death Day" and "Happy Death Day 2 U") use every opportunity to add subversive jokes rather than simple quips, and tying them into the two genres: be it a compliment given to Jay merely to justify why he was abandoned to the killer, a romantic smashing of a window turning bloody and painful (side note: watch "The Nice Guys") or both Jay and Ally telling the killer "we're not a couple! Fuck off and kill someone else!"; even the reveal of the killer's identity feels like a pisstake of movies with seemingly arbitrary identities of their murderers (remember "The Raven" starring John Cussack? Of course you don't). It's a good rom-com, then the slasher movie kicks in, and it becomes a great rom-com (my fiancee described the blending of genres as "sterling silver out of regular silver" and I cannot agree more), with a constant tug-and-fro between its leads and a perpetual sense of fun, never feeling like it is dismissive or derisive of the genres it is loving and playing with. Sure, the killer suffers a bit because the economy of conservation of characters mean you have few suspects to choose from, but even that is played for not one but two aforementioned jokes. It's great stuff, a worthy addition to the canon of both genres, and a fine effort from the writers involved. I will happily add this to my Valentine's Day rotation, as well as watch it alongside the ever-fun "Freaky" and "Happy Death Day" (and its arguably better sequel). Highly recommend it for its comedy and energy, great date night movie, and one of the few genuinely great films I've seen this year so far.
There's also a "Hobbs and Shaw" joke tailor made for me.

"The Last Showgirl" - Review

On the Las Vegas strip, an ancient show is drawing to a close. Le Razzle Dazzle is closing down after decades on the strip. Shelley (Pamela Anderson) is concerned for her future, and offended by the end of a tradition; whilst co stars Mary-Anne (Brenda Song) and Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) look to the future. Complications arrive for Shelley in the arrival of her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd), whom she abandoned years ago...

The narrative here is good: Pamela Anderson relishes the part, understands the character inside and out, and has been chomping at the bit for something like this. I'm not actually familiar with Pamela Anderson's roles outside of "Borat" (not being Chandler Bing or Joey Trebbiani), but her image as a "talentless bimbo sex symbol" has been plastered across the world, broadcast and branded into the flesh of popular culture for years now. So honestly this was a long time coming and I'm glad it happened: she plays Shelley well as not some Saint or tragic figure, but a 3-dimensional mess. Shelley is a deluded relic, drifting in the modern day, but also simultaneously aware of her own legend as well as exaggerating it, she's inconsiderate but also maternal to her fellow dancers in place of the daughter she left. There's depth to the character and Anderson plays it well, this was always going to be a showcase for her talents. Shipka and Song are strong too, particularly the former, in their supporting parts and I am happy to see them getting work. Jamie Lee Curtis appears as a properly washed up, gambling addicted cocktail waitress friend of Shelley, given the humorous parts, and almost overplays it but manages to reign it in just enough to threaten to steal the show.
But it's Dave Bautista who gets the finest hour, in my eyes, in another piece of consistently inspired casting: I've loved that he's taken on more dramatic roles and weirder projects, and here gets the scenes which resonated with me the most. He plays the old lighting technician and possible old fling of Shelley, and has a wonderful scene in a restaurant. He underplays the part wonderfully.
[insert snide remark about my favourite part in a movie by and about women being the token man]
I am delighted that Bautista is getting this kind of stuff, great job man!
However.

You knew it was coming! The script betrays its routes as a stage play, and not in a good way.
Some of the dialogue (particularly with Billie Lourd, unfortunately, an actor I like - watch "Booksmart") is stilted, and simply actors describing a scenario and their thoughts on it and each other. Or a few rather clunky exposition lines, dropped like hand grenades.
Combined with the shooting, which is done on film and comes across like a dreamy attempt as Cassavattes movies or Sean Baker (who is thanked in the credits) works with sunny skyline shots, it is a strange brew indeed, but the rawness maybe will add to it for some people? Personally I wanted it to be grittier (it's at its best when it's backstage with the dancers, having them in benign evironments or tearing their costumes whilst dressed so garishly) or emotionally rawer/subtler in its dialogue (Shipka gets an excellent scene on Shelley's doorstep, and the diner scene with Batista is a personal highlight, as is his meeting Hannah). Enough of it works that I think it's going to land (there's a great scene where Jamie Lee Curtis gets hammered and dances on a table to "Total Eclipse of the Heart", capturing her early glory, and it cuts between the asinine, lonely life of Bautista's Eddie and Anderson's Shelley practicing in front of the television, that's the highlight, this baroque over the top celebration of glory over a deep rooted sadness) and it aims for a tragic tone, but the scripting prevents it from truly soaring.
What's here works though. Come for Anderson, stay for her, Bautista and Jamie Lee Curtis.

"Love Hurts" - Review

Marvin Gable (the wonderful Ke Huy Quan) is a jumper-sporting estate agent who loves his life, bakes heart-shaped cookies for his staff, and absolutely adores his job. But he has a secret past which comes a-knocking, when the mysterious "Rose" (Ariana DeBose) returns to his life, on the run from Marvin's evil gangster brother Alvin (Daniel Wu), whom Marvin used to work for. Now, this Valentine's Day, he has to succumb to his old skills in order to fend off assassins and get his life, and his love, back...

I'm delighted to see Ke Huy Quan headlining an action movie, that's wonderful. He relishes the part, they play with his role in "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once" (his glasses and certain scenes are shot like a Wong Kar Wai movie, flashbacks of him with slicked back hair look like a Tony Leung gangster movie, there's a fight with a bubble tea straw) and he is loving life.
The movie is still frustrating and he deserves better.
The first 20 minutes are fun, great even: a mash up of 2000s romcoms and old-school Hong Kong action movies, the shifts in tone are fun, the occasional spouts of blood are not too jarring, and it's pretty funny. Mustafa Shakir turns up as a poetry-spouting, quill tossing assassin named Raven and is good fun; whilst Lio Tipton (whom I love) has carved a niche for themselves between this, "Crazy Stupid Love", "Warm Bodies" and "Mississippi Grind" as "quirky supporting character who is the best bit of the movie", this part would have been Aubrey Plaza 10 years ago, and by sheer dumb luck Tipton happens to feature in every scene which is good. They also get a lovely, fun goofy subplot with Raven, and alongside Shakir sells it. Marshawn Lynch (watch "Bottoms") and European Henry Rollins lookalike Andre Eriksen play a pair of rather amusing henchmen and have a very good fight sequence in a house, one of the highlights and showcases of Ke Huy Quan.
Then the middle of the movie happens.
It nosedives quickly, with some of the absolute worst dialogue and clunkiest exposition of recent memory grinding it to a halt, all in service of a plot simultaneously boiler plate boring, needlessly intricate and complex, and told/done almost entirely off screen. It grinds things to a halt, subtracts from the energy Ke Huy Quan had been bringing, takes valuable time away from the comedy (and Tipton, God Damn it Hollywood!) and fight scenes; it's exceedingly frustrating. A few sessions of rewrites could have streamlined this and made it a lot more coherant and cohesive, but as it stands it's a clunky steam train to tedium. Which is even more of a shame because those glimpses of greatness leap forth in the final act: Tipton and Shakir's act climaxes, there's a bombastic shootout and knife fight in a house, there's colour on screen and wonderful jokes, and it knows what it wants to be in the finale. Unfortunately the wasted potential of Act 2 means that the great stuff is buried and the poorer stuff which would be forgivable or charming (the age gap and lack of chemistry between Quan and DeBose, the non-threatening villain given to Wu who tries his best, the superfluous Cam Gigandet character) comes further to the surface and drag it down.
It's a shame really, it's a frustrating movie I wanted to work a lot more than it does, particularly with its genre mashups.

"September 5" - Review

Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) starts his first day as the control room head at a broadcast studio. The Olympics are happening here in West Germany, the year is 1972, and Mason and his colleagues are in for a long, history making night...

A tense retelling of the Black September attack on the Olympics, told entirely through the news room and its staff. It's a clever way of telling the story, rather unique in its execution, and a boiling pot of dread. It manages to juggle the topics of journalistic responsibility, the legacy of the 2nd World War (one character is increasingly concerned with how her homeland is handling this incident so soon after a blot on history) and sensationalism, all while building a tense bottle movie, with neat and clever little touches where characters have to constantly be improvising and adapting on the fly, inventing things and coming up with solutions. It's ever escalating, believable, and never falls into that standard "period piece" trap of putting characters in thick moustaches and bell bottoms to convey that we're in the 70s; instead using accutely observed period details like "what is a terrorist?" and how the machines and technology work, which also help to keep the pacing rapid fire and buttery smooth. It whizzes by as a film, and I particularly enjoyed the things it had to say and the questions its characters asked ("Are we helping the terrorists by showing this?" "Whose story does this become?", "Is now really the time to be arguing with networks over whose jurisdiction this covers?", "Are we really helping or are we being ghoulish and unpleasant?"); it has earned its reputation and does an excellent job.
Oh, and the actual shots of the situation are done as a horror film, impeccable work, and Corey Johnson is in this!

"Companion"

Josh (Jack Quaid) takes his new, smitten girlfriend Iris (Sophie Thatcher) to a cabin owned by the wealthy, mysterious Sergei (Rupert Friend) for a weekend of fun and relaxation. There the nervous Iris will be meeting Josh's friends for the first time, consisting of Eli (Harvey Guillen) and Kat (Megan Suri), the latter of whom has never liked Iris, and Eli's new boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage). But what starts as a weekend away quickly takes a turn for the worst, as the friends turn on each other in a flurry of confusion, bigotry and entitlement...

After a rather lackluster affair until this point of the year, we finally get something fun, sharp, well written and relishing its concept.
I was lucky enough to manage to go into this blind, so when the twist came after 25 minutes, it was incredibly satisfying.

I recommend that you do the same: go in blind and relish the humour and sense of playful fun. It takes its premise and, after that initial shock twist (which I called as a joke after some, shall we say deliberate and loaded lines) it doesn't run out of steam, instead amping up and stretching the premise, pulling it, playing with it and toying with every angle until it snaps. As the characters (excellent performances across the board, particularly from Quaid as he becomes an entitled, petty, vindictive loser, all the while looking like Sam Lake pulling the "Max Payne" face) degenerate and devolve into panicked plotting, scheming and covering up their escalating mistakes, it remembers to fall back on the mayhem, and things it has hinted at, and stays energetic and funny.

One character gets a well-delivered line about "being an ally, but this is a lot of money!" whilst they attempt to kill another. Thatcher (fresh off the back of "Heretic" which I rather enjoyed) anchors proceedings nicely, getting put through the wringer but also allowed to flex her comedy chops with a funny sequence involving German and the police.

It remembers to stay buouyant and energetic as characters charge through the woods, even whilst covering topics like misogyny, bigotry, the entitlement of male rage (Thatcher has had terrible luck between this and "Heretic") and even that simple, basic awkwardness of being stuck in a house party with strangers you have never met and wondering if you're good enough (not quite as focused on that as the excellent "Bodies Bodies Bodies" was, but welcome at the beginning nonetheless) to be here. Between this, "Smile 2" and "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" I am happy to see Gage doing well too, and Harvey Guillen is always welcome. Rupert Friend is having fun with his part (playing a budget Dan Stevens part and relishing every part of it), and Megan Suri is my favourite, with her casual cattiness and shallow cruelty adding spice to proceedings.
Oh, and it's incredibly B-Movie in its sensibilites too, which is very much my jam.

That last image may technically be a spoiler, but honestly even if you know the twists going in, they're well executed and explored well.
I had such fun with this.