"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves" - Review

Bard and daring scoundrel Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and his best friend, the blunt and exiled barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez) recruit a crew of misfits to break into the tower of their old friend Forge Fairchild (Hugh Grant) so that they may retrieve a magic tablet to resurrect Edgin's deceased wife. Teaming up with self-conscious and nervous sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), Tiefling nature advocate and shapeshifting Druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) and hot-sexy-Paladin who fucks, Xenk (Rege-Jean Page): they find themselves involved in planning a heist which unfolds into a plot to save the world...

Like your favourite game of "Dungeons and Dragons" come to life, when you try to tell that story to other people it can lead to an excruciating marathon of cringe. But here, the writers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (the kid from "Waiting"? Okay...) have thread the needle wonderfully with a good hearted heist movie where the humour comes not solely from quips or 4th wall breaking snark (though they allow themselves cute moments, like "that seems arbitrary" for spells) but from solid scripting, character interaction, punchlines and pacing. The cast bounce wonderfully off of each other and the events of the movie, rattling along wonderfully not quite at a breakneck pace but a fun, endearing one. Pine is pitch perfect in the most Chris Pine performance as the most Bard, channeling his inner Rick O'Connell; and Justice Smith is endearing as the sorcerer with self-esteem issues, basically being his character from that God-awful "Jurassic World" sequel but written well. But it's Michelle Rodriguez and Rege-Jean Page who were my favourites: the former I knew would be, and the latter in his first performance I have seen. Rodriguez was always going to be great as the blunt, plain-talking Barbarian who has a wonderful joke about a deer and is not merely a foil to Pine's bard, but genuinely good and a sweetheart companion/brother in arms, and refreshingly there is no romantic subplot between the two of them, instead being more a "two bimbling bisexuals have to babysit" situation. Page absolutely steals the show as not just a pitch perfect portrayal of a Paladin, but an inspired piece of casting which has the naturaly charismatic, handsome actor playing a brilliant, dashing, handsome, super-competent warrior who is also a complete and utter dullard in social situations. He gets some excellent laughs, and manages to make a walk amusing, and it is a shame he is not in the movie longer... Lillis is somewhat underused, as the "only competent part of the plan" but works well as the only idealist and genuniely decent one in the party. I'm happy to see her getting more work. Then there's Hugh Grant. I for one welcome a return of our beloved English treasure, here hamming it up and being deliciously, delightfully devillish and relishing the material at hand. If anything, he overshadows the actual villain of the piece, and the 3rd act loses a bit of steam with him out of the way, but the brisk and breezy and delightfully creative fights manage to save it. The set pieces are lively and effervescent: from a portal-gun sequence with flipping and rotating cameras (a nice little bit of scripting to how in EVERY D and D game the players will obtain a magic item and COMPLETELY fuck the difficulty curve with a soldering iron, using creative thinking which makes you want to end them... Side note there. Apologies), a fight with a fat dragon, a colourful wizard duel, a good punchline with the Owl-Bear, and a stand-out piece of comedy in a grave yard. Everything thrown into play comes back later in what is depressingly rare scripting in today's movies (a slingshot, a love of Halflings for a sweet gag at the end of the movie, an Owl Bear, the portal stick, even Simon's useless spells and a lute), and the end result of all of this is a comedy which works both on its own merits and as a sweet little love letter of sincerity to the source material for fans. It captures the silliness, the chaos and the energy of it all perfectly without having to resort to condescension or overwritten gags or awkward riffing and sneering at stuff. It's helped by the sincerity and how clear it all is in its intentions. Settle yourselves in for a nice, lovely time, with some fantastic performances. Oh, and keep an eye out for the other gang in the cage sequence, you'll recognise them if you enjoy shit cartoons...
End credits song slaps too

"Don't Worry Darling" - Review

In a picturesque 1950s American town in the desert, Alice (Florence Pugh) lives an idyllic life with her husband Jack (Harry Styles) who, along with the other men in town, goes to work on "Project Victory" deep in the desert. They refuse to talk about what they work on, so in the interim she makes do with life as a housewife, alongside other residents in the town. But something nags at the back of her mind, and she wants to know what "Project Victory" is all about.
So Alice begins to go down the rabbit hole...

From one of the writers of the brilliant "Booksmart", the pieces of Wilde's directorial sophomore effort seem familiar on the surface, and you're waiting for how they come together, how they click, what they do with them. There are hints of "Stepford Wives", "Get Out", "The Truman Show", "Antebellum" and more (spoilers maybe...) all bubbling under the surface as we try and figure out how the inevitable twist will come into play.
So in the interim we have to focus on the performance of Pugh, which is good, and the supporting characters around her, who are also good (Nick Kroll is in this for some reason.). Harry Styles is an odd choice of casting (especially with the extended, "Annette"-style cunnilingus scenes) and is stilted and off, but later on when he puts on a different accent that is not his own he's actually a better actor. So it has to be intentional, and it works for the part. There's a scene in a car where he's pretty good.
Others float in and out of the movie, though it's mostly Pugh's performance, notably a criminally underused Gemma Chan (dressed as a school teacher and wielding a stick if that's your thing) as Shelley, the real queen bee and power behind the throne due to her husband, and Olivia Wilde herself as the alcoholic neighbour and mother of two, something of a climber and gossip in the social circle.
Chris Pine plays Frank (married to Shelley and in charge of this town... subtlties are not required) and threatens to steal the show despite his limited screen time. He channels his natural charm and charisma, and plays Frank as a cult leader. More specifically, he is uncannily like Jordan Peterson, which is fucking hilarious. Once you hear it, you won't be able to "unhear" it. Apparently Peterson is unhappy with being portrayed as a shallow, vindictive, pseudo-intellectual, spiteful mysoginist who holds cult-like devotion from men unhappy with their lives and believing he has all the answers.

Pine's bloody excellent here, as good as Pugh. He truly shines, as does the film, at a dinner party scene, where it becomes two actors trying to outsmart each other in a social circle, and power dynamics and control and gaslighting lead the way.
But whilst the performances are good, the rest of it becomes a little wobbly.
The first scene transition/edit is jarring and messy, but thankfully not quite "Suicide Squad" or "House of Gucci" levels, and though the movie feels over-tightened in later parts, it's never terribly done after that. There's some good imagery of eyes and spirals (I'm pretty sure that I want this cinematographer to just remake "Uzumaki" and they'd crush it, as it's the same guy, Matthew Libatique, who did "The Fountain" and "Requiem for a Dream", and fucking "Venom" apparently!) and a pastel colour palette which I rather enjoy. It's a contrast to the horror around them.
But some of the directorial choices are a little off, the tension is never quite there. A few excellent sound design choices (the meat early on being fried) and visuals (a finger tracing patterns over the town's roads and a slow overhead zoom from the middle of the model of the town) save it from being too "off", and make this more a diamond in the rough which never quite soars. I think that it would have benefitted from a more sparse, ponderous, intimate style like Scandanavian noir or a kitchen sink drama or "45 Years".
I like it, with all it juggles and its central message/twist, and want to see Olivia Wilde direct more things and work on her craft. It would be fun to see what she makes next.
But watch "Booksmart", for the love of Christ.