Alice Goes to Sunday Lunch

A widowed French girl named Alice (Souheila Yacoub) overcomes her anxieties and reservations to have lunch with her dearly departed partner's ragtag family, to learn, live, laugh, and love again.

(Credit: Mastermind)
Not quite as tight as "Evil Dead Rise", due in part to a rather stop-start first 20-30 minutes (despite a rather fun boiling lake sequence) which deny the film the momentum it needs. The French turn at the helm of the series, however, begins to show a lot of premise with its uncomfortable family dynamic (though perhaps could have been stronger had it not shown the reality of the marriage at the start, and let it bubble as uncomfortable subtext and implication... though who am I to expect subtlty and build up in an "Evil Dead" movie?) and, as always, an excellent performance from Tandi Wright as the proud mother. When it hits its stride and the blood, guts and violence kick in: it's supremely fun. Again, not quite as white-knuckle bonkers as Aunt Beth's Babysitting Adventure, but it has an excellent top-down brawl, a fantastic bathroom sequence and (in keeping with my need for/cynical doubt that they can shock me or make me wince at this point) a part with a pen. It falters with its focus on lore from "Ash's Cabin Vacation" and a focus on Hunter Doohan's brother character, to the extent that you think that he's going to be the lead and they're doing a bait-and-switch; but it finds its feet once again in the last half, goes full throttle and gives you what you want from an "Evil Dead" movie: blood, guts, mayhem and carnage with a goofy sense of humour.
It's not as good as "Aunt Beth's Babysitting Adventure", but a solid and fun enough time. A good Evil Dead movie, not quite a great one.

"Backrooms" - Part and Parsons

Divorced architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) can feel his life falling apart and slipping away, and is attending therapy with Dr Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) to find some way to resolve this. When he finds a strange portal to an impossible world in the cellar of his shop, he finds a solution...

(Veronica Superguide)
An audaciously surreal character piece, and a bold debut which does not outstay its welcome. A reflection on trauma, crumbling psyches, the impermanence of place which uses its 90s aesthetic nicely: both as a meta-take on our misremembered idea of that decade, and to make for an unsettling, uncanny time period to play around in. The performances are uniformly excellent: Ejiofor is forever on fine form, and Reinseve continues her hot streak. I was surprised that a first time director (even with cameos from common indie/small-budget winner and reliable legend Mark Duplass) managed to nab such esteemed talents for what was essentially marketed as a spooky internet meme made into a horror film, but the script is actually sterling stuff: well thought out, coming full circle with its setting and use of stone-tape theory to create themes of decaying mental states and how we approach rebuilding ourselves after trauma and misery, with excellent recurring imagery and parallels with architecture and furnishings. It's clever.
It's the sort of script the two can devour as actors (there is a dinner scene which fucking rules) and it's a credit to the filmakers that I was perfectly content following the life of Clark in the 90s as it fell apart and he tried to sell furniture with his two disinterested employees. When the scares came, they were built to well, and sequences with a Christmas tree and a pirate (as surreal as they are) were spooky highlights. I loved the deaths, and its atmosphere was well-constructed, spooky, engaging, involving and never outstayed its welcome. It's an assured debut and the sort of thing not only worth the hype, but which we need more of in the ecosystem.

"The Invite" - Living on a Reza's Edge

Angela (Olivia Wilde) and music teacher husband Joe (Seth Rogen) have the house to themselves, so Amanda has (to his chagrin) invited their noisy neighbours Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) for a dinner party, something she has never done before.

(Slant Magazine)
A return to form for Olivia Wilde, getting her and her co-stars' teeth stuck into some truly juicy scripting and dialogue (by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack of all people!) reminiscent of "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza (there's a funny little nod to "Art" with Olivia Wilde and Edward Norton discussing identical shades of paint on a bedroom wall) tackling relationships and manners in a witty, extremely funny 4-hander. It has its stumbles (the soundtrack bumbles in at clunky moments) but the acting and writing are top notch, and Olivia Wilde directs it so as to not simply feel like a televised play adaptation (I rather liked the 70s style opening credits), and keeps a tight reign on things so it doesn't feel like farce. It's a far better examination of marriage and awkward character drama than that last fucking awful Bradley Cooper project.
A good, funny, clever time, and Rogen in particularly has never been better.

"Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie" - The Review

Struggling nerd band-duo "Nirvanna the Band" dream of playing at The Rivoli Theatre in Toronto. Matt Johnson conjures yet another crazy scheme to advertise their as-yet unbooked gig, and when it goes south yet again his buddy Jay McCarrol becomes further disillusioned with this seemingly futile enterprise. With the band at breaking point, another scheme is hatched by the hare-brained Matt, but this one goes horribly right, putting the band onto two very different paths...

(Credit: Instagram)
I was not familiar with the show, I went into this blind off the title alone, and am elated that I did:
A post-modern, punk piece of filmmaking ingeniously blending mockumentary, 2008 footage, internet show, riff track and comedy into an audacious puree of love, friendship and revellry for adventure and the best parts of the early internet anarchy. A mad, wild, very funny ride and the creative antidote to the ailments of cinema.

"Effi o Blaenau" - Wales Watching

Effi (Leisa Gwenllian) spends her days getting shitfaced, and her nights clubbing while shitfaced, in the quiet poor Welsh town of Blaenau. A chance encounter with a quiet, handsome stranger at one such club (Tom Rhys Harries) upends her life and offers her hope...

(Film Hub Wales)
An excellent, intimately observed portrait of poverty, hope and bleakness in North Wales, an old school 70s kitchen sink drama with an absolutely fucking phenomenal lead performance from Leisa Gwenllian. It's human, dark, hopeful, and more in equal measure, but maybe not the cheeriest of films despite the uplifting, glimmer of hope and rebirth it ends on. Be warned.

"Jackass: Best and Last" - Pontius of No Return

A ragtag bunch of aging misfits, now accompanied by new friends and allies of their last adventure, embark on one final quest: one trip to round off their illustrious, respectable careers in debauched lunacy, one last ride onto the hysterical hellish highway of hijinks, looking back at just how far they haven't come...

(Credit: Entertainment Weekly)
As a send-off and epilogue to the elaborate, disgusting and gloriously unhinged war of escalating frat-house hazing rituals and painful shocks to the genitals: the movie does a fairly good job. It has a lot of affection for these lovable goofball idiots, and acts essentially as a clip show and look back at their best stunts, with a couple of new ones thrown in for good measure. I could have done with more of the new stuff, and some more screen time for the newer members (Poopies and Rachel Wolfson are absolute treasures, and apparently a wet-suit stunt involving the two of them was cut, I'm fuming), but what's here is funny, and I got a little glee from hearing Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius and Steve-O reminisce on the old times and how they'd be having to hang up their hats this time around, I'll miss this sort of lunacy. They've grown older with their audience, and as gross and disgusting and purile as their actions are, it's ultimately not done in any mean-spirited nastiness, and there is a primal glory to seeing this happen: I cannot pretend that I was too good to laugh at grown men drinking enema-inducing laxatives and proceeding to play Twister. As I said: I wish there was more of the newbies and new skits (though the "Escape Room from Hell" and the side-splitting "Marionette Theatre" capture the series' spirit wonderfully, and had me crying) or that we had a more pensive, soulful reflection like in part 4, or even that Rachel Wolfosn and Poopies and Zack-Ass got more stuff to do; I understand that this was a send off to the gang, and it works. I'm happy for them, we even get unused footage of Bam Margera, and Johnny Knoxville's first stunt which landed him the "Jackass" gig. It comes full circle with a bigger, louder re-enactment of the famous shopping trolley sequence of the first film, and has a sense of finality to it. I'm happy for the gang.
I'm not a big "clip show" guy, but still laughed, it's fun.
The opening sequence, wherein everybody bedecked in white suits enacts a violent prank-fuelled rendition of the "Virtual Insanity" music video done to "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonie Tyler (a sentence I had to type: I'm so happy she's out of her coma, good job Queen!) is, free of hyperbole, actually inspired creative genius. It's my favourite intro for these movies, and favourite opening credits I've seen in a long, long, long time. The movie never matches that impeccable standard set by that (and I get to hear Johnny Knoxville say that line one... last... time...)
Here's to you, gang.

"Supergirl" - Helen Sleater-Kinney

Lost, adrift and orphaned Kryptonian Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is celebrating her birthday away from her adopted planet of Earth by having a week of getting shitfaced on a planet with a red sun: the only place where alcohol will affect her. But her carefree, avoidance-based life with her lovable dog Krypto is interrupted when she is forced to embark on a quest for vengeance with recently orphaned girl Ruthye (Eve Ridley) against the space trafficker, bandit and all-round shit Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), who made our orphan what she is, and poisoned Krypto in the process...

(Credit: Kino Check)
The script is ropey, and definitely could have used some work, with the movie feeling a tad flabby as well as undercooked, like a half-stretched spaghetti. But the building blocks are there, and the central performance of Alcock as the jaded, cynical, absolute disaster of a lead with a heart of gold is a winning one, and the film breezes along nicely enough under Gillespie's direction: he's a director I like ("I, Tonya" rules), and the tone mostly works. Its framework is a solid one, and I enjoyed the setting (particularly the cute space bus and grimy, dingy diners, it was fun) and the buddy-cop set up is simple and clear enough to not only follow, but sets it apart from "Superman" (though the excellent Corenswet shows up to remind us that he too is perfect in this part). The villain is dog rough: functional for the plot, but otherwise an empty vessel and bland charicature despite much sneering and snarling from Schoenaerts, who gives him the quirk of constantly snacking to try and make him pop. The themes could use some development and focus.
However, the whole thing is amiable and good fun, and there is a wonderful use of Jimmy Eat World in a fight towards the end (tailor made for me: I adore that song), with an also excellent, soulful, actually pretty powerful performance from David Krumholtz: though I am getting old enough to see the kid from "Numb3rs" and "Addams Family Values" playing dads now, and that scares me...
It's fun, breezy, and a good time. I refuse to engage in bad faith "takedowns" of the film, it's a solid enough work with its own problems, and that I have to clarify that is a sign of how disgusting the poisoned well of discourse has become.
I look forward to more Milly Alcock, she's excellent.

The Van Dammeathon - "Cyborg"

I've delayed this one partially because of work and partially because my thoughts on it are going to be extremely telling not only of my taste, but of how the rest of this is going to go. That, and the stream I initially found of this wouldn't allow screen-capture (oh the joys of modern watching...), and surprisingly I do not own this, but did own "Black Eagle" at one point. Go figure.

(Credit: City on Fire. Man, posters used to be FUCKING AWESOME)
A post-apocalypse knock off in the same vein as "Salute of the Jugger", "1990: The Bronx Warriors", "Yor: Hunter from the Future" (hey Spoony fans), "The New Barbarians" and "Hell Comes to Frog Town", we know we're in for a good time right off the bat because it's from our old friends

CANNON, baby!
Clearly wanting some of that sweet, sweet "Mad Max: The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" runoff money, they decided to have "Mad Max" at home, the Cannon way! I am so excited for more Cannon!
Let's get to it!
Concept:
It is "The Future"

And with a virus known as "the living death" running rampant, things are pretty bad. A scientist named Pearl Prophet has not only cybernetic implants (making her some sort of... "cyborg" if you will) but also a cure, and is on the run with it. To help her not die at the hands of these charming fellows representing me and the boys on the way to watch this:

Pearl hires a "slinger" named Gibson Rickenbacker (played by our man) to protect her across the wastelands. Gibson is reluctant, despite initially saing her life, but soon comes to realise that her quest may line up with his own hunt for revenge...
Concept:
Jean Claude Van Damme protecting a cybernetic lady and a magic virus vaccine across a post-apocalyptic wasteland?

I like it. I mean, it's the sort of movie idea I would have come up with at the ages of 13 and 47, but I like it. It's the perfect vehicle for the man, his talents, some bloodshed and some lunacy, expect kicks, cheese, Canon madness and blood galore. Plus it's a man named after a guitar fighting cyborgs after the apocalypse, that's just awesome.
Concept: 4.
Excellent work so far!
Onto the next part:
Execution:

I'm only partially joking.
The movie wishes to be a "Mad Max" knock off from Canon, and essentially boils down to a vengeance-fulled Van Damme (whose family were slain by the villain, whom I shall get to) pursuing some coslpayers across the wastelands accompanied by an equally vengeful bandit girl orphan:

In practice it's a series of brawls in old, run down buildings, which is a fine way to hide the low budget, but the true crime is the mean-spiritedness of it all. It wants to be about cyborgs and high-kicking mercenaries taking on bandits and having fun, but it also wants to show brutal murders and the barbarous senseless cruelty of a species circling the drain. So there's going to be bloody, unpleasant senseless murder of families, with an admittedly quite good shot of a burning centrepiece in parallel:

Followed ever so shortly by fight scenes with dummies like this:

And fights like this:

Then, spoiler, alert, the cheap nature of it all really showcases the meanspirited nature of the kills and the deaths at the end when his fellow traveller goes to get revenge on the man who killed her family only to die.
It's lower budget, but did give us this gloriously horrifying prosthetic which resembles me whenever I look up Libertarians:

On the whole it's competent enough, but never quite rises above that.
Execution: 2
Now then, Charm!
The lower budget does give us some fun filmmaking mayhem, like the aforementioned sets. We do get this absolutely disgusting haircut:

Followed rather swiftly by this one:

Disgraceful. It's the attempted dark tone which lets it down, because "Gibson Ridenbacker" fighting crime in the Apocalypse is fucking awesome:

Charm: 2.
The Villain!
Vincent Klyn, a profesional surfer apparently, plays Fender Tremolo, and does a servicable enough job roaring and snarling lines about how much he "likes the virus" and "likes the hatred" with a baritone almost parodying Dolph Lundgren.

The real star of note is an early cameo from Ral Moeller as one of the boys.

Villain: 3.
Score standing at 9.
Bonus round!
Future collaborators:
Michel Qissi (from "Bloodsport" and soon to be seen in "Kickboxer" and "A.W.O.L")
So that's 1 point.
Splits!

Final Score: 12.
A mediocre effort Van Damme seemed to not really get behind and regret, but don't worry: soon he'd turn a fucking corner, this was merely a stumble...

"Lesbian Space Princess" - Review

On the planet of Clitopolis, winner of "Most Boring Royal" Princess Saira (Shabana Azeez) is dumped by her bounty hunting, adventuring partner Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel) of two weeks. Despondent, miserable and once again alone: she receives a message from a trio of aliens who have kidnapped Kiki. Unless she brings them a valuable weapon within 24 hours, Kiki will be dumped into acid! Forced into action, and seeing a chance to win her back, the sheltered, self-conscious and anxiety ridden princess must take a ship (Richard Roxburgh) on a quest to find and rescue Kiki, and maybe learn a little about herself in the proces...

(Credit: QNews)

An unashamed celebration of queerness and identity, feeling like a lost 2000s Adult Swim cartoon. The humour is tailor made for me, with rat-a-tat jokes at an excellent pace from all corners of humour: visual gags, puns, background gags, one-liners, insults and screaming incandescent rage about "lesbian phones"; its madness and irreverence are front and centre, and hark back to that "era" of mad fun cartoons and whimsy. Some of the jokes are low hanging fruit (the villains are "Straight White Maleians", bisexuals "don't exist" and Clitopia is "hard to find unless you know what you're doing") and some are tailor made for the "online" (I hate that I understood the joke about the name of Roxburgh's ship...) but criticism of those tends to come from bad faith, so I'm happy to ignore that well of poisoned discourse in a world where queerness and anything differing from the norm is seen as an assault on fascists. Its funny, daft, ludicrous, a blissful ninety minutes which also impresses with its refreshingly mature ending: a thoughtful and all too often overlooked examination of relationships and how maybe it's best we don't leap into them just because we've been denied kindness all of our lives, combining it with a funny but real look at mental health and anxiety.
Highlights include Gemma Chu-Tran as a non-binary Goth musician with absolutely no thoughts and an empty head; Richard Roxburgh (because it's an Australian film: he is legally required to turn up) as the foul-mouthed starship behind the times; Auntie Donna as the villainous trio, who got some of the biggest belly laughs from me, a niche gag about drunk girls in toilets and the powerful wisdom they dispense before vanishing into the ether, and the performance of Shabana Azeez as our titular heroine, who handles her growth and insecurities excellently.

"Masters of the Universe" - Skeletorture Porn

Forced to flee his realm of Eternia after an attack by the skeleton wizard Skeletor (Jared Leto), young prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) resides on Earth as a human relations manager in an ofice, mourning the loss of his sword and home planet... But when his quest leads him to his sword, he finally sees a chance to bust free of this office job and seek his destiny!

(Credit: Kotaku)
An enormously expensive Amazon-backed romp attempting to emulate the camp of the original TV series (and actually rather fun movie), which largely floats by thanks to a breezy tone, pastel coloured backdrop punctuated by "Flash Gordon" style riffs and music (Brian May chips in, weirdly, which does explain some of the budget) and a fondness for its material which verges on the cloying, but remains relatively ernest despite some digs (there's a fairly niche, funny laughter gag/mockery right towards the end, and the naming of characters like Fisto and Ram Man does earn well earned laughs without getting homophobic, and pays off rather well) at the silliness of the material: hell they even have the titular character dressed from that video (you know the one) in his pink shirt, and play the original song from it. It's charming and perfectly amusing fare, and I giggled a fair bit: the film feels like something made with love and affection for the source material. This is a film made by guys who love "He-Man", damn it! Even the cameo early on is from a fantastically game icon, and passing of the torch. It's overly long but for every joke that doesn't land there are at least 3 or 4 which earn a mirthful chuckle, even if they're about memes regarding the show (I rather enjoyed Camila Mendes role as the straight-woman Teela proclaiming that Skeletor "has a skull for a face. It's not that complicated"), and the cartoony buouyancy is in safe hands with Travis Knight of Laika. I'm not sure anybody was rooting for a 40+ years overdue adaptation of "He-Man" (at least, not as many people as the OUTRAGEOUS budget banked on), which cost around 200 "The Raids", but the central performance by Nicholas Galitzine is a legitimately funny joke: a musclebound himbo who wishes to resolve conflicts amicably and with empathic, healing language; only to be granted enormous muscles and galactic power. That central gag is great, in my mind.

"The Last Viking" - Far from the Mads-ening Crowd

After a 15 year prison sentence for a daring bank robbery, supposedly reformed Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) returns home to collect his hidden bounty of stolen kroner. Unfortunately the only person who knows where it now is is his brother Manfred (mads Mikkelsen), already unstable but now diagnosed with disassociative identity disorder and believing that he is John Lennon. The mismatched pair return to their mother's lake house to begin their search, for more than the money.

(Credit: IMDB)
A delightfully twisted, offbeat comedy of manglings, maimings, nail guns and Ikea-obsessed physicians (Lars Brygmann) played with a stony-faced Nordic sensibility (particularly by the excellent, dry and wallpaper Nikolaj Lie Kaas) as its off-kilter premise mashes together buddy-cop road movie, crime thriller (Nicholas Bro plays a thug on the tail, he's good in "Brotherhood", and that I know that is a sign I've watched way too many God-damned movies), heist-movie bust-out from an asylum, and darker angle of a family-reunion in the vein of something like "Festen". It's a wild, weird mash of genres but writer and director Anders Thomas Jensen balances the razor's edge wonderfully, and is actually pretty fucking hilarious to boot. There's a genuinely funny Holocaust joke here.
The movie then becomes a uniquely toxic examination of family breakdown and masculinity, and the dangers of miscommunication, but with the sheer brass fucking balls to then be a somewhat hopeful tale about accomodating and accepting flaws and imperfections rather than forcing others to be the same.
It may drag a bit towards the end with its multiple epilogues, but its outrageous mashup and mish mash is daring, deranged, dark, and uniquely weird. I liked this a lot.

"Madfabulous" - Ar Hyd y Nos and Daughters

In the late 19th centure, Anglesey, in the greenest country on Earth, is about to receive a shock to the system when Henry Cyril Paget (Callum Scott Howells) arrives to take up the resplendent mantle of the 5th Marquess of Angelsey.

(Credit: The Guardian. Also this one is getting extra large photos, because I feel this is going to be in my top five of the year)
A romp and showcase for the talents of an absolutely spellbinding Callum Scott Howells (whom I am sorry to say I was unfamiliar with before this) telling a lesser known piece of outrageous queer Welsh history, featuring fucking legends of the Welsh acting scene (Stephen Speirs as a jeweller who gets one of the best chest-pumping parts towards the end, a delightfully devillish Paul Rhys; reliable Ian Puleston-Davies as an Ian Puleston-Davies character, and a fantastically cunty-shithead Tom Rhys Harries NOT playing a Welshman and it annoys me), as well as English stars allowed to have fun (Kevin Eldon puts on a pretty good Welsh accent actually, playing the local photographer, he's supremely underrated; Rupert Everett gives a beautifully understated performance in the vein of "Remains of the Day"; the excellent Louise Brealey has a vomiting scene which had me giggling; and a weaselly up-and-comer Louis Hynes is fantastic); as it weaves a tale of a non-conforming and all-too-fabulous eccentric wracked with consumption and making it his mission to burn thrice as bright for but a moment. It weaves a sweet tale of his complex relationship with his wife/cousin/best friend Lily (Ruby Stokes, also excellent here) and the knotty things that entails, whilst they make a splash in the community at large and high-society and the community around them. It juggles a lot of plates, and when Lisa Baker's script goes pedestrian in the centre (most crucially around the lowest point of that FUCKING SHITHEAD Nick's big fuck-you moment... though that I hate him so much is a testament to Tom Rhys Harries and Callum Scott Howells) it perhaps doesn't quite soar as it should with Celyn Jones' understated direction and period-piece accuracy; but by the time of the bold and audacious ending heist/bust-out/redemption arc/Ffion the Maid (Greta Jones') finest hour - there is just so much passion and love and joy on screen that it's infectious. The ending credits are Callum Scott Howells dancing to "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer in the mansion in a fuck-you to "Saltburn", and such a pure, joyously wonderful celebration of this film and its history and such a love leter to the character that I got misty eyed leaving the cinema.
Fuck yes.
Fuck fucking yes.
Support Welsh cinema.
Happy fucking pride motherfuckers.
Yeah, it may not land as well as it did for me, but I am ranking this movie on the fact that I felt something, this piece of art spoke to me on a personal level, it made me feel anger, joy, sadness, sorrow, whimsy, delight, an effervescent glee at being oneself and remaining true to it (the best line is "I should be myself, because everybody else is taken!") ESPECIALLY in an era when that sort of thing brings ruin and disgrace to false portraits of baroque "manners" and "society".

"Passenger" - Na-Na-Na-Na Nanana

A young couple (Jacob Scipio, the guy who yelled a "Mean Girls" quote in "Expend4bles", and Lou Llobell) embark on a road trip to begin "the van lifestyle". But before every normal person can kill them for their pretentious hipsterdom, a demonic entity may beat us all to the punch...

I'm going to show my hand here and get this one out of the way so I can get to the film I want to talk about.
All I remember from this bland nothingness of a horror film are the following:
1. The house they move out of looks like Lisa Loeb's in the music video for "Stay"
2. The Sheriff from "Willy's Wonderland" shows up in it.
3. The only scare came from me approaching some noisy teenagers, telling them to be quiet, and one of them jumping at the sight of me.

"Tuner" - Big Fish in a Small Pond

Nik White (Leo Woodall) is a piano tuner, tutored by Hary Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman) in a simple enough life, accomodating his hyperacusis with this job he is good at. When Harry falls ill, however, Nik takes up the offer of a shady security expert Uri (Lior Raz) to take up a new job he is equally talented at: cracking safes.

(Credit: Mama Scrapelle)
By the time the credits rolled on "Tuner", I was basking in the warm afterglow of a satisfyingly well-made pocket watch, piano or concerto (hah), and "Project Hail Mary" was just beginning its plot and giving a woman their first line of dialogue.
Absolutely my shit: an immaculately edited, crafted timepiece of a film where I'm so gripped by just the day-to-day life of this piano tuner (a rather good Leo Woodall, whom I used to get confused with that blob of actors popping up at the same time: Jack O'Connell and Jack Reynor, namely, that "type") and his budding romance with Havana Rose Liu's Ruthie (as it is with "Booksmart": casting anybody from "Bottoms" improves a movie immensely) that it's almost a shame when the safe-cracking and life of crime kick in. But subsequent aforementioned crime shenanigans are more on par with "Emily the Criminal" than "Rififi" (please watch both), and it keeps its momentum going through the edits, jazzy soundtrack (fantastic use of Dave Brubeck and a Herbie Hancock gag which pays off) and great central performances from its lead duo, all the way through to a welcome Jean Reno appearance (for all of 6 minutes, but it's still "Leon" so...) and a full-circle coda to its finale. It really rather enjoyed this.

"Obsession" - Curry Barker's Books of Blood

Music store employee Baron "Bear" Bailey (Michael Johnston) is smitten with his cool, sassy co-worker Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette), but she seems to only see him as a friend. Taking a chance, after dropping her home on trivia night, he decides to break a "One Wish Willow" stick: wishing that she would love him more than anyone in the world. Things go swimmingly.

Well worth the hype and praise it is getting, a deliciously twisted and mischievous take on the classic "caveat emptor": with a sick sense of humour and gore effects aplenty (a car scene in particular...). It refreshingly takes the angle of acknowledging the consequences of this wish: Nikki loses her identity, is a prisoner in her own body, the flesh prison of male gratification keeping what he truly longed for locked deep within. It's a horrifying situation, and by a similar metric Johnston keeps Bear likable by realising that this is a horrifying moment, he does not want to take advantage of this person, this is not Nikki, he wants to back out.
The star of the show, in many eyes, is Inde Navarette, but he deserves praise for this too:

(Credit: Bloody Disgusting)
She is phenomenal here, a star making turn all heavy on the eyes and jarring shifts.
Pretend the film is Michael Stuhlbarg and Olivia Rodrigo, and it becomes even funnier.
A riotous turn, and an excellent look at (hah) obsession, free will, consent and relationship dynamics.
Cracking ending

"Mortal Kombat 2" - Despite All My Rage I Am Still Just Johnny in a Cage

The realms must do battle to decide their fates, the first to win ten tournaments gains dominion over the other. The evil "Outworld" under brutish emperor Shao Khan (Martyn Ford) have gained dominion over Edenia, and its princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph); and now seek to bring Earthrealm under their bloody banner. Lightning God Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) has gathered five champions for the tournament: legendary martial artist Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), super-powered soldier Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), her cyborg colleague and pal Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) and previous champion and zero-to-hero Cole Young (Lewis Tan), but requires a fifth: the Universe has set its sights on fading 90s karate champion and movie star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), who is reluctantly roped into a tournament to decide the fate of the entire human race...

(Photo credit: Reddit)
An absolutely wonderful time.
The film is a gleefully daft, enjoyable buffet of bloodshed, bollocks, Baraka and bullshit. It embraces the videogame aesthetic (the costumes, finishing moves, structure, arenas including an honest-to-Gibson acid pit and even a camera shot going side on to display the two fighters squaring off) and the ludicrousness of its premise: glowing lights in the sky denote when a character has been defeated, blue for the good guys and red for the villains. It goes full throttle into the blood, guts and mayhem (how it is not an 18 is unclear, maybe because it lacks titties?), yet in a fun, cartoony way: bright colourful costumes to clearly mark each character apart, each one with a different superpower and enough character and charm to them to bring some colour to proceedings even if the crowded ensemble and focus on the spectacle means that characterisation takes second place. Despite that the film manages to keep them from being bland: Jessica McNamee's Sonya Blade returns and is good fun, with a delightful pit fight against banshee Sindel; Princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) is a highlight this time around as arguably the conflicted central character, with a delightful lesbian-subplot with her bodyguard Jade (Tati Gabrielle), without either of them being sexualised (the movie even has the sheer brass fucking balls to pass the Bechdel Test); and her arc competently mirrors the larger than life professional loudmouth shithead Cage (Karl Urban on a continued tear with this, "Dredd", "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Star Trek") discovering his heroism in the final act, with some cool edits. Hell, I felt myself getting hyped up despite the stupidity of it all when Kitana made her big choice in the final act and the music swelled: I had embraced the Mortal Kombat way and was relishing in the filth it had baptised me in. Cage gets a supremely fun buddy cop "Mentor/Mentee" arc with Baraka (CJ Bloomfield) I wanted more of; Hiroyuki Sanada returns and is such a class act that with two minutes of screen time manages to make the line "I am Hanzo Hasashi. Hell bends to my will." land with gravitas; the always excellent Tadanobu Asano comes back, and whilst there is less of he and Chin Han than I would have liked, they were still welcome. Star of the show, once again, however was Josh Lawson as Kano: clearly the writers knew that they had struck gold with him in the last film, and write him back in to bully, snarl, swear and be a raging fucking cockbag who is absolutely the best part whenever he is on screen: bullying the villains, spouting solid gold with every line, and even having the audacity to participate in a truly, deliciously ludicrous hell-heist to turn off Cheat Mode in the 3rd act, cementing redemption and rising to become heroes in a film where Sonya Blade spears a banshee's skull on a floor spike and Liu Kang kills a man with a hat (by the way it's worth it for those two fights alone).
Stellar, stupid stuff. Absolutely wonderful in terms of "bang for your buck".

"Normal" - Weatherley With You

Ulysses (Bob Odenkirk) is the interim sheriff of tiny, snowy Minnesota town "Normal", after the previous Gunderson died. Holding the place down until the election, Ulysses only expects to be here for a couple of months. But when the bank is robbed during a a snowstorm, Ulysses twigs that there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye...

(London.net)
I was on the fence for the first 30 minutes. The film has a bloody rough start ("Hey, it's me, your husband, Ulysses...") and I was unsure what it was aiming for, and why Ben Wheatley (a rather distinctive director, the voice of such oddball fare as "Down Terrace" wherein a crime family are portrayed as petty, bickering, working class British shitbags in a terraced house; and the absolutely jaw-droppingly ominous and terrifying "Kill List", as well as quirky serial killer romcom "Sightseers"; the elongated gunfight and bloody good time "Free Fire" and psychadeic nutball time "A Field in England") was selected for this rather ordinary (hah) action movie. Sure it had some quirks, like the paint-dripping moose and the mayor (Henry Winkler, rather good in this), but you're waiting for the penny to drop, and the odd one liners and humour feels out of place.
Once the first of several twists at the bank kick in, the film finds its groove, and the script (written by Derek Kolstad) feels less like a knock off of "Nobody" or "John Wick" and more like something Wheatley would have written himself: characters fall down, miss, murder each other with household objects (a yarn shop is particularly fun) and has a sense of bloody mischief to it all. Much like "Nobody 2", it's an outsider's perspective on Americana, the trappings of it all and a pisstake on the classic American action movie: the diner uses an old school record jukebox and is adorned with a comic number of guns; the ice cream parlour has the 50s style hats and chairs; and Fonzie is the Mayor! Only here, Wheatley makes it all come together in service of an out and out ridiculous comedy, after a particularly funny bloody death at the bank. By the time of its excellent finale (a massacre set to "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman", a choice so bizarre that it has to have been a send-up of the newer trend of pop-music massacres, and it being Dr Hook makes it tailor made for my tastes), caused by a piece of comedic slapstick genius, I was absolutely engaged, and it had surpassed its ludicrous nonsense story of Yakuza money laundering in the Mid-West to become a fun litte afternoon movie, a continuation of Odenkirk's little action movie crusade, and had risen above some of the clunkier dialogue on display. Plus, great to see some non-binary representation in the form of Jess McLeod's deputy.

"Hokum" - Parks and Recreational Drugs

Upon a visit to Ireland to scatter the ashes of his parents, grouchy and curmudgeonly prick of an author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) finds himself stuck within the walls of the quaint countryside hotel with his own dark past, and that of the hotel. Is it magic, or much more mundane?

(Photo credit: IMDB)
Somewhat wonderfully, the trailers are far different to the actual experience here, and not in a disappointing "Dead Man Down" kind of way. Man when was the last time you heard "Dead Man Down" in a sentence? Anyway, the film is less "Longlegs" or ghost story, and more an unpredictable kind of folk horror and character piece, sharply written as it focuses on the backstory of Ohm (played wonderfully by Scott: channelling Ben Wyatt if he had been through a miserable divorce and lost custody of his children), giving compelling reasons for him being at the hotel (complete with a few neat, unavoidable nods to "The Shining" along the way) and having him honestly make all of the best decisions he can when it all starts going wrong... It feels as if it lacks confidence in its scares early on, relying on jump-chord violin cliches rather than letting the otherwise excellent scares (figures in the background, a rightfully terrifying bunny man who'd be all over the marketing in a lesser film, wisely used sparingly) but once it settles into its groove and has trust in both itself and the audience it soars. It's more spooky and interesting than out and out terrifying like "Undertone" was (still the benchmark for horror this year) aside from an absolutely brilliant, fucking nightmarish lift sequence and aforementioned videotape, but I was gripped by the film even before that so it was clearly doing something right. Tight, sharply written, clever and concise, it ends nicely too.
Great time.

"The Drama" - Review

Charlie (Robert Pattinson) is about to get married to Emma (Zendaya). After a few too many wines, they play a game with the absolute worst possible person in the universe, future bridesmaid Rachel (Alana Haim) where they and best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) each state the worst thing they have ever done. Mike starts, Rachel easily has the worst and laughs it off, Charlie plays along, then a nervous Emma reveals hers, and things take a turn...

(Photo Credit: Amazon Prime)
An excruciating little movie about communication and our own moral standards, as well as how we perceive them. I'm not a big "no spoilers" guy, though I shall say the marketing and premise revolve around the initial shock of the secret and how everybody reacts to it. Though, unlike the rather similar and far lower budget "Sleeping Dogs Lie" (where the title kind of gave away the secret...) it's harder to guess this one. The film is an interesting, knotty little drama (hah!) from the maker of the rather good "Dream Scenario", where characters raise the interesting idea early on that had the characters not known something, would they find it so heinous? Now that they do know, is it fair for them to react to it? The characters are fun and interesting, and I enjoy following them, as the situation gets complex and awkward and darkly hilarious to watch, whilst never really resorting to characters being mouthpieces: Emma (impeccably played by Zendaya) never actually did the thing she is so pilloried for, merely planned and considered it, so it's easy to sympathise with her, but the genie is out of the bottle now... Meanwhile Charlie (a delightfully droll, very late-stage Hugh Grant Pattinson) is a delight to follow as he gets into his own head, overthinks things, and reads into the little details with self doubt. Rachel, played wonderfully by Alana Haim, is definitely the cat amongst the pigeons here: if there are a million Rachel haters, I am one of them. If there are no Rachel haters, it is because I am dead. She is a fucking nightmare: this situation is all about her, even when other people are affected by it, she was clearly looking for a reason to hate Emma in the first place (though to the film's credit that is maybe something I am reading into, with my hatred of this vile, festering paint-drinking shit head of a human antithesis), her behaviour in her secret is infitely worse and something she laughs at and glosses over, and she's all about weaponinsing empathy and progressive language without practicing a thing about what she preaches.
The movie is funny, and a hard rough watch, and I enjoy the discomforting questions it will raise. Maybe rinse the mouth with "Sleeping Dogs Lie" after this one for a double bill. Poor Misha: she didn't deserve any of this.

"Exit 8" - Dentist, Escher, Judicial Scrivener, Review

On the underground, an indecisive young man (Kazunari Ninomiya) receives a phone call from his ex girlfriend informing him that he is to be a father. As he reels from this information, he finds himself in a corridor which loops. To escape, he must turn back when he finds an anomaly, and proceed when he does not. A surreal odyssey ensues...

(Source: Heaven of Horror)
I didn't even catch a trailer for this, so had the fortune of going in completely blind, being unaware of the videogame it was based upon (I'm still getting through the ".hack" quartet on the Playstation 2). Honestly that's the best way.
Its escalation felt videogame like, in the traditional sense, and helped with the 90 minute runtime, but holy shit we did it guys: We got a fantastic videogame movie which stands on its own, no caveats!
A clever and unpredictable little mindbender, immaculately edited (made to look like it's done in minimal takes. I particularly liked the looping structure coming full circle at the end, as simple as it was, and the cut to our protagonist's ex girlfriend as he sought an exit. Simple but effective) and committed to wrong-footing the audience whilst retaining a consistent logic, showing you all of the clues and letting you capture background details (fabulously shot too) before the protagonist does. As it settles into its time-loop, "Spot the Difference Puzzle" groove, it keeps finding ways to keep it fresh, with a stirling second act twist which had me grinning ear to ear (HAH!) and a wild swing in the third act which just about connected. If it's not quite as out-and-out terifying as "Undertone", it has surreal imagery and bold, creepy little parts to it, whilst being elevated by a genuinely clever, cerebral little tale of fatherhood, guilt, and choosing the right path by paying attention to the world rather than locking oneself in to the prisons of our own design. It's a better "Silent Hill" movie than most movies... A cracking time.

"Lee Cronin's: The Mummy" - The Movie: The Review.

Egyptian based journalist Charlie (Jack Reynor) and his physician wife Larissa (Laia Costa) are bereft when their daughter Katie goes missing one day. Years later, with another daughter, and still reeling, they receive a call from the Egyptian embassy and a detective assigned to their case (May Calamawy) telling them that Katie has been found...

(Credit: New York Times)
I'm ecstatic that Cronin can get his name in the title denoting this as a "Lee Cronin Project", and it certainly feels like that to the greater extent. Namely it splits the difference between his previous two works: the subtle kitchen sink Fae-tale "The Hole in the Ground" (with its uncanny, "the children are awry" focus on maws and bodily parts and eyes and big grand homes) and the balls-to-wall bloodbath "Evil Dead: Rise" (Lily Sullivan even shows up for a bit in a cameo role, probably thankful to be having an easier time of it here), with some spectacular gross imagery and wonderfully visceral gore. My favourite part was a creative, disgusting part with a scorpion in the final act (fuck scorpions, man). It juggles genres, not quite meshing with its detective adventures (honestly a highlight for me), haunted/possessed child narrative and horror of home care (which it could have gotten enormous mileage out of); though the final act comes together in a wonderfully gory, bloody display after a great funeral sequence and some flashes of blood and guts throughout. The old house they're in makes me wonder if Cronin wanted to originally do a period piece... It's a perfectly fun little horror which drags a little, come for the gore and some interesting fun bits, though it's not as mischievous as "Evil Dead: Rise" nor is it as intriguing and sinister as "Hole in the Ground". But on its own merits, it's alright.

"Project Hail Mary" - Lord and Miller of All They Survey

A man (Ryan Gosling) awakens on a spacecraft. The ship's computer (Priya Kansara! Fuck yes! 10/10 for that alone!) informs him that he is the only survivor, and he struggles to remember who he is or how he got here. Our man has a job to do...

(Credit: AZ Family)
A pleasant, perfectly cromulent and cheery little film, which pinballs between ideas with something of a smooth grace (using "Lost" style flashbacks throughout, though these are welcome in the first half they become superfluous and perfunctory in the second, despite good performances and being useful on paper), buouyed by a lovable performance from Gosling. He's certainly a better performer than Matt Damon, even if his character is only marginally more interesting than the bowl of glue that was "The Martian's" Mark Wattney. When the film settles into (spoilers I guess) buddy cop shenanigans, it really finds its groove and is enjoyable, though some of the methodical stuff beforehand, whilst nothing we've not seen before, is competently executed. At its core the movie is about communication through boundaries, co-operation and working together to solve an existential environmental crises across boundary lines (side note: there's a beautiful episode of "Planetes" called "Boundary Lines" which I highly recommend). It really drags and slows in the final act, and the token woman (Milana Vayntrub is dead before the film begins and gets two, maybe three lines. What a waste), the incredibly talented Sandra Huller, (Holy shit is "Zone of Interest" incredible) is given the stereotype of a German ballbuster who does not understand human emotions and is entirely focused on results and science, not these petty human "feelings". It is a jarring experience in the year 2026, though from what I understand the character is given even less in the book, so once again it fall to Drew Goddard to pull somebody's nuts out of the fire. Weir still can't write a character to save his life, but the performances are still good, and it's a light hearted film.

"Undertone" - Right Through the Night...

Evy (Nina Kiri) runs a horror themed podcast as a skeptic where, alongside her London-based believer friend Justin (Adam DiMarco), she receives, debunks and discusses various supernatural phenomena and media. Currently she lives with her dying mother (Michele Duquet) and the timezone difference is compounding her stress, so when Justin forwards her an unusual email loaded with audio files - she leaps at the opportunity to take her mind off of things. Then the night takes a turn...

I have watched a lot of horror films.
I've proselytised their wonders, their power and their effectiveness with a zeal bordering hagiographic.
I've seen the great ("It Follows", "The Thing", "House of the Devil", "The Blair Witch Project") the fairly spooky and good fun ("Insidious", "The Changeling", "Haunting of Hill House"), the bloody ("Rabid", "From Beyond", "Society"), the downright fucking dreadful ("Fear Dot Com", "Cry Wolf", "Imaginary"); horror movies of all stripes, every creed, every colour, every type. I've been in the trenches of dogshit. I've been the proclaimer of greatness, I've been the champion of atmosphere, of unique ideas, of gimmicks and flair; I've been a celebrant of trash, a connoisseur of crap, and that guy who will sit down and mock the dreadful and dissecting the good and the bad. I've had contrary opinions, I've had controversial takes, I've stuck by my guns. I like a good spook, I like a good scare, I meet movies halfway, I'll forgive a lot of junk. I think my credentials are on full display here, I'll chat with anybody about what works, what doesn't, what I enjoy, what I don't, and am generally a jaded, methodical, clinical cynical bastard when it comes to horror fims.
My partner met me 2 minutes after I left the screen.
My hand was shaking.
I needed a drink to calm my nerves.

"California Schemin'" - Title Contender of the Year

The year is 2003 and Dundee natives Gavin (Seamus McLean Ross) and Billy (Samuel Bottomley) work at a call centre alongisde the latter's girlfriend Mary (Lucy Halliday) but aspire to become the next big thing in hip hop. After an audition gets them mocked for their Scots accents, an insecure Gavin and more outgoing Billy get the idea to act American on their demos, send them in, get signed and expose the whole charade live on air at first opportunity to humiliate and expose the labels. But when their demos start taking off as "Silibil and Brains", they take to the life of fame and success...

(Photo credit: Rolling Stone)
A sweet little working class ode to Scotland and hip-hop (I like the frequent shots of the estates and skylines, and the graffiti) which uses the heist (I like the introduction of Jimmy pulling up in a car to rescue his friend: a true heist movie staple in addition to introducing this guy as a loyal free-wheeling friend) and backdrop to weave an interesting spin on the politics of identity and stage personas in hip-hop; and has an affection for its two characters. They're lovable scamps, and carry the film well. Seamus McLean Ross is the child of Ricky Ross and Elaine McIntosh, making him maybe the most Scottish man - though he does look like Sam Lake. It's a pleasant enough film, and the period piece setting is a sucker punch to me. It loses steam in the 3rd act almost entirely due to the nature of the story being told (which has been done a lot) but it's well acted - in particular the film really suffers when Lucy Halliday is not in it. She is one hell of a fucking find and absolutely steals the show. The true flex, however, is that James Corden shows up for some fucking reason, but James McAvoy manages to wrangle an acceptable performance from him. Kudos Jim.

"They Will Kill You" - Remar or Not...

Fresh out of prison and looking for her younger sister, Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz. Also: har-har) gets a job at a high-rise apartment complex named "The Virgil" (har-har) as a maid. But it soon becomes apparent that she is intended as the sacrifice for the wealthy residents and their Lord Satan, and she must battle her way out.

(Credit: The New York Times)
It's an action movie knock-off of "Ready or Not", and not just from the trailer and basic premise of rich people being demonic and embarking on a "Most Dangerous Game": beat and moments occur pretty much in the same place (from a 3rd act betrayal and a helper amongst the rich, to a hand stabbing and a dark revelation), there is a comedic emphasis on the incompetence of the violent rich (here with the additional twist that they are immortal and come back to life) and their tomfoolery, and even some contract law towards the end. Holy shit, it even does the "what happened?" and a retort of "rich people"...
It's all done with an action movie bent, however, so despite some of the more glaring flaws (some superfluous repetitive dialogue for the second screens, a rather shallower cast of characters) the overly stylised and Samurai-adjacent shots which would otherwise be distracting are done in service to some fairly fun and well-choreographed fight sequences: I particularly enjoyed the sick as fuck burning axe sequence.
Meet it halfway on its own trashy terms and you'll enjoy it as an uneven but fun enough film just the right side of camp: Patricia Arquette is given a rather flat villain but makes her memorable with a dodgy Irish brogue; Paterson Joseph gets 4th billing (huzzah!) and James Remar shows up as a pig man, meaning that I am legally obliged to watch it; Tom Felton also shows up and is just dreadfully bland and forgettable.
Weirdly, however, there's a bizarre little foot fetish in the film. At first I thought it a little "Die Hard" homage, what with the towering building and the pursuit, but when the cult were introduced with a lingering licking of them, and then a large part of the film was Zazie Beetz in vents being followed from behind, and then fight scenes with frequent lingering kicks and pinning/stomping people (her shoes were destroyed, see, and the film makes a point of showing us this), I started to wonder... You do you, man, no shame here, but really? Is it necessary?

"Ready or Not: Here I Come"

Moments after surviving a bloodsport with her now very dead in-laws The Le Domas Family, blood-drenched bride Grace (Samara Weaving) awakens cuffed to a bed with her emergency contact, estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) pissed at her ridiculous story of demonic cults. Before they can bury the hatchet, however, both are kidnapped for a "double or nothing" game for a seat at the table which rules the world from the shadows. Now hunted across a golf course by the wealthiest families on Earth, the siblings must bury the hatchet... into the blue-blooded necks around them...

(Source: Film Yap substack)
This was a fucking excellent time.
There was never really a need for a sequel to the rip-roaring bloodbath of "Ready Or Not" and its tale of how the rich really are demonic, vile losers; but as far as unecessary sequels go this is the most fun I've had in years. The makers (the seemingly always great collective "Radio Silence", behind the first film and the absolutely magnificent "Abigail") double down on the humour and throwbacks to the original (corpse pit, explosions of blood, and primal screaming from the always-excellent Samara Weaving. Watch her in "Mayhem" and "Guns Akimbo"), with the added twist of a fun buddy-cop framing with the ever-excellent Kathryn Newton. By the way: having both her and Kevin Durand (here playing a coke fiend knife-maniac called "Bill Wilkinson", perfection) alongside Weaving means that the lovable folks at Radio Silence are starting to form their own stable of fun fiends, and I am all for it. I just want Dan Stevens in it...
The movie was fun, extremely enjoyable stuff: we get a blind fistfight in a wedding hall to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" ( a highlight of the movie, great stuff which had me howling with laughter), suitably ludicrous bloody gibs, swords and rocket launchers, Nestor Carbonell bumbling around with a sniper rifle, Sarah Michelle Gellar dressed like a member of the landed gentry as she cavorts with an excellent Shawn Hatosy and a handgun on a quadbike, and Elijah Wood weaselling his way through it all. It's great fun, and the stakes keep getting slipperier and slipperier as Wood's unnamed Lawyer rattles off more by-laws, clauses and demonic caveats the families must abide if they are not to explode into ludicrous gibs.
The makers could not have predicted the arrival of the Epstein Files, however.
So this film is a perfectly timed, snarling indictment of the vampiric upper classes: pathetic bickering losers who were born into privilege, revel in sadistic depravity, and would kill entire bloodlines for a grasp as more power, but couldn't be trusted to guide piss up a wall. It's immensely satisfying watching them squirm and die, and there is no more apt visual for the time we live in now than the wealthy scrabbling within a pit of the rotting corpses of their sacrifices for a token of power, whilst the very world they have created burns and dies around them...
It's fantastic fun. Great time.
Oh yeah, David Cronenberg is in this! Hell yes!

"Arco"

In the distant future, when humanity lives in houses among the clouds, a young boy named Arco (Juliano Krue Valdi) defies his parents by stealing his sister's time-travel rainbow cape and crystal and flies back in time, despite being too young to do so. He ends up in the year 2075, a world of increasingly extreme weather, robot assistants and a young girl named Iris (Romy Fay), who finds him injured in the woods and brings him home. With her parents away, the two bond. But this peace cannot last: Argo must return to his own time, a strange trio of brothers (Andy Samberg, Will Ferrell and Flea for some fucking reason) are converging on them, and a wildfire looms.

(The Hollywood Reporter)
A charming little film, a lot better than fellow "Best Animated Feature" nominee "Little Amelie and the Secret of Rain", it's a pleasant fable about the gulf of technology between humanity, but also how it can bridge those gaps. Iris only sees her parents (Marky Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman, the latter of whom produced it) through holograms, a robot with the voice of both raises her, Arco's parents sleep suspended in the air untouching and detached, and humanity is so used to climate change and how deeply they've fucked the planet that they construct biomes and bubbles around themselves for protection. There's a lot said for connection and humanity in it, be it the central relationship between Arco and Iris, their rather sweet robot protector, or even the reasoning behind the bickering trio's pursuit of them (Andy Samberg's one gets the best line, for my money, when he says that "if you love somebody, you want to make them happy even if they never know it", which leads to the soaring act of heroism for a character): it's an enjoyable enough little film, and ends a tad darkly and poingnantly, whilst never overstaying its welcome.
(Note: I only got the dubbed version)

"One Last Deal" - Dyer Another Day

On a sweltering hot day in London Town, the trial of a football superstar Matt Gravish for rape has concluded and the media awaits a verdict. None await it moreso than his foul-mouthed agent Jimmy Banks (Danny Dyer), who tries to secure a lucrative contract for his meal-ticket should he be found innocent. As he waits for the verdict and spins multiple plates, he contends with a mysterious blackmailer, his messy private life, and that client himself...

(Credit: The Guardian)
Dyer is fantastic here, genuinely great in this odious, snarling, chomping, foul-mouthed burn-out who's hitting the end of this rope. I'm elated to see him at this point in his career, subverting and aging with his audience of "lads and hard men" into something like this: Jimmy Banks is the kind of character I love follwing in that he's just an awful, empty and hollow human being doing his job really well, as the emptiness and the void slowly consume him, because without this job he's nothing. It's long overdue and between this and "Marching Powder" Dyer is proving adept at capturing that man trying to wriggle free of his own darkness, and when the movie swerves into darker elements of the story (for it is a swerve despite the set-up) he is not the problem: he aquits himself wonderfuly. It's a movie carried on the performance of Dyer, and he's fucking great here: good job there!
Plus he dances to "Football's Coming Home" shitfaced and off-the-wagon: which I read as a wonderfully dark send up of his earlier works. Context matters!
The script starts strong, it sets up the plates and juggles well for the first half, but its swerve into darkness in the second and here falters: it's all a tad too contrived and staged, aiming for a serious message and odyssey into the heart of darkness but coming across as a "message play" as a result, thus not quite earning its dark parts. I appreciate the swing, and the structure is solid and doesn't overstay its welcome or stretch, but maybe stick around for the performance of Dyer rather than the second half scripting.

"Scarlet" - Review

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The kindly king Amlet (Masachika Ichimura, the voice of Mewtwo) is betrayed and slain by his cruel, scheming brother Claudius (A towering Koji Yakusho) in front of his kindly daughter Scarlet (Mana Ashida); and when her plan for vengeance is foiled, she finds herself in a strange realm between the living and the daughter. Single minded in her quest for vengeance, she seeks out Claudius in this dark and unusual land, and finds herself not only tracked by his minions, but stalked by a terrifying dragon, and travelling alongside Hijiri (Masaki Okada), who calls himself a "paramedic", on this odyssey into mortality and the soul...

(Photo Credit: Crunchyroll. The only context you'll see me credit them. Fuck Crunchyroll, absolute state of that fucking place.)
I have always preferred Mamoru Hosoda to Makoto Shinkai, the two big anime "auteurs" going today, and had a cracking time with "Belle". As expected: the style is rather striking. In the new world the animation is photographs and real backdrops with shimmering 3D animation over the top of them - reflecting the familiar disonance and disconnect, it's effective (though maybe not really for me in parts? A few of the early 3D shots took some getting used to and reminded me of the newer 3D anime stuff I don't really like, personal preference, though don't worry it's not as bad as shit ike "Exarm" or that incredible helicopter sequence in "Golgo 13: The Professional") and the more traditional sequences are pretty enough. Plus the dragon looks fucking awesome, and kind of terrifying and ominous too - an embodiment of dread and the darkest impulses consuming and looming over all. There's a musical sequence, which is pretty enough, and some energetic and fluid fight sequences I rather enjoy.
The central relationship is a buddy cop adventure between a "softening ice queen" and a gentle pacifist: you've seen it before but it's all fairly competently done, and I did find myself liking these two characters (Scarlet in particular was a fine line to walk, and done well), which is essential. It was fun following the various Hamlet characters and seeing how and when they turn up (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a pair of murder clowns, whilst minor players Valdemar and Cornelius are the burly goons, for example), though the reach and grasp are a touch excessive: I wasn't quite gripped and immersed in the quest and plotline, but enjoyed the themes of vengeance (as well-trodden as they are) are sure to resonate with people, and tie well into the foreshadowing and planted imagery and ideas. It's well-constructed but didn't quite soar personally for me, though I am glad it avoided the excesses of anime peers. Beautiful to look at, and a fantastic Claudius performance from Koji Yakusho, but I wish it were bolder or less-traditional in its narrative. It's good.

"Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" - Leo Grande

One night at the Norms diner in Los Angeles, a stranger clad in plastic and wiring (Sam Rockwell) staggers in claiming to be from the future and ready to detonate the bomb attached if he isn't obeyed: he is here to recruit the various diners for a mission to save the future, by destroying an AI which ruins their future, and their present, but hasn't figured out the right combination yet. A ragtag group of pressganged "volunteers" accompany the stranger on an evening voyage of madness... and possibly to save the future...

(Photo Credit: KCCI)
A slice of much needed gonzo madness, bright, bonkers and a definite return to form for Gore Verbinski (who keeps a tight hand on the reins to stop it from spiralling too far even as the nonsense and layers pile up), certainly his best since "Mouse Hunt". The film certainly owes a big debt to "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once" (I believe that Hollywood would never have released or even considered this were it not for that film doing gangbusters and making all of the money), and captures that same madcap energy. The opening, however, is pure Verbinski, namely "Mouse Hunt" (his best until this one): lots of cleverly synchronised, visually striking shots of spinning things in the diner, swooping parallels to the journey ahead; and it doesn't really let up after that. Verbinski's been doing this for years and I like it, plus I always appreciate a "Sorcerer" style series of vignettes to tell us about the people on this journey. It hops straight in and doesn't waste too much time with exposition, knowing that you're just along for the ride, throwing out "Groundhog Day" as shorthand for proceedings so you know what you're in for; and I respect that. The cast bounce along wonderfully, and I appreciate that the makers have gone for the least obvious names: Rockwell is phenomenal as always, Haley Lu Richardson makes a wonderful impact and indeed nearly steals the show as a princess in combat boots who "creeps out" the stranger; Zazie Beetz and Michael Pena as married teachers are fun, and Juno Temple (giving off Kristen Wiig energy) appears as a single mother, and is excellent. It's genuinely funny, and the gonzo energy keeps it buouyant and enjoyable as it clocks at over two hours. It flags a tad in the final act confrontation, but does have Rockwell doing what everybody wanted to do to The Catalyst in "Mass Effect 3" so earns back so much good will from that. Whilst it takes a lot of satirical swings, most of them land, and are in service to its excellent script by Matthew Robinson (who wrote the delightful "Dora and the Lost City of Gold").
It's exciting, bonkers, different, fresh and original. And thus it's not doing well.