"Babylon" - Review

The year is 1926, and at a raucous party held in the soon-to-annihilated mansion of a studio executive: a quartet of characters cross paths, soon to be destined to a life in the Golden Era of Hollywood. Manuel Torres (Diego Calva) is a starry eyed dogsdody who wishes to work on a movie set just once in his life; Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) is a woman destined to become a star by any means necessary; Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) is the biggest star of the era, and riding high at the prime of his life; and Sydney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) is a quick-witted trumpet player keeping his band in line so that they get noticed at this party and maybe get a few gigs... These disparate character cross paths, part ways, rise, fall and follow dreams both lost and found, theirs and other people's, as we see that maybe Hollywood is not what they or we expected it to be...

Raucous carnage and a shattering of the rose tinted lense. That is the fastest way to describe this movie, but also doesn't quite do it justice. Damian Chazelle has taken a flamethrower and a belt of hand grenades to his chances of making a mainstream Hollywood film, all on his own terms: it's decadent, disgraceful, perverted, long, ambitious, bitter, cynical, sneering at the studio system, and very, very, very funny.
Opening with a truly deranged, lunacy and cocaine fuelled 30 minute party scene of debauchery (after an elephant taking a dump on a man), the film doesn't really let up. It's an assault on the senses, and on the mind itself. It takes us to dizzying heights, terrifying lows, and more than a few creamy middles... It's relentless, with several fantastic highlights: an excruciating rehearsal sequence which, whilst hilarious, is nail biting in its frustrations and ends on a dark note; a chaotic back lot shoot with a hysterical director based on Erich Von Stroheim; and a surprise guest appearance from a very fun against-type Tobey Maguire as a mob boss pitching movie ideas, which takes a descent into the horrifying, nightmarish bowels of the city and a consuming maw mirroring the studio system - but that part does go on a bit long and come out of left field, largely. It is made up of fantastic scenes and embraces its layers of tragedy (frequently cutting from something horrific to something uproarious or jazzy, which never gets old) and has Eric Roberts in it (you hire Eric Roberts, you GET Eric Roberts!), which is always a bonus, and follows through on the ideas it presents - the ending in particular is an assault on the senses and a message about how we still enjoy the spectacle of Hollywood (though - fuck James Cameron). It's the little details which really shine through (Sydney being given a tin of polish is a standout, but the chat between Conrad and a columnist about his job also hits home). But the length will be a turn off, as will its deliberately off-putting material. People are going to tune out at different parts, and enjoy different parts, but Chazelle made something.
I highly doubt Hollywood wanted him to make this, but tha makes it all the more special.

"M3GAN" - Review

After losing her parents in a car accident, Cady (Violet McGraw) is sent to live with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams). Gemma is struggling to adapt, especially since she is being pressured by her bosses at toy company Funki to create a new cheaper version of their killer apps. She finds a seemingly perfect solution in "M3GAN": a sentient, perpetually learning doll (Amie Donald, in physical form, and voiced by Jenna Davis) who will be the only toy that Cady would ever need...

Finally a January horror movie which gets it, and is not terrible. Oh don't get me wrong, it's not particularly frightening or full of many surprises (and is somewhat hampered by its 15 rating), but it works as a fun, breezy satire on technological obsession and addiction, and its replacements for genuine connection and attention. "Child's Play" this is not, but it is fun and humorous enough that you can tell it's from the wonderful Akela "I Wrote Malignant, so Deserve More Attention" Cooper. Plus a detective shows up for a single scene, and got perhaps unintentional laughs from me for being the most James Wan cop character outside of Detective Kokoa "Malignant" Shaw and Detective Donnie Wahlberg in "Dead Silence".
Good fun stuff

"Glass Onion" - Review

During the great lockdown of 2020, a selection of puzzle boxes arrive on the doorsteps of various members of high society: men's rights Twitch streamer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), current Governor and environmental candidate for the Senate Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Junior), fashion icon and socialite Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), and mysterious business mogul Andi Brand (Janelle Monae). When solved, they reveal invitations to the private island reunion of laid-back billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), who meets with his "disruptors" every year for the last 10 years for fun, thrills and games. This year he has prepared an intricate, weekend long murder mystery for them to solve! But things are not as they appear: in addition to the tensions and awkwardness amongst the group, they are joined by another guest: the debonair and dashing detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). And when something goes very much awry on the island, his services may be required...

To say that I was excited for this is an understatement of unmeasurable proportions. "Knives Out" is a slippery, playful, fun, endless delight of a film which holds up to many a repeat viewing, and may be the best thing Rian Johnson will ever make. This is not quite that, but gives us so, so, so much more of what that movie had to offer. It's so MUCH more, it's the "bigger and better" kind of sequel, another excellent murder mystery to boot. The characters are an utterly delight to follow: watching a bunch of high-society shitheads bicker and bond and pull apart and keep secrets, all under the gaze of the biggest shithead of all: Bron. The characters are a delight to follow, and the actors relish in their parts: chewing on dialogue and scenery alike, just like in the first mystery. The grander scale allows for slightly more eccentric folks, but in the context of obnoxious success and the ultra rich on a desert island, they don't come across as charicatures, rather the same examinations of upper-middle-class arrogance from the first film but filtered through EVEN MORE money and just escalated. Dave Bautista as a men's rights activist (living in his mother's basement) gets a lot of laughs (especially in the beginning), but for me the highlights were Kate Hudson as a constantly cancelled, posting racial slurs, airheaded fashion designer; and her put-upon straight-woman assistant Peg (an excellent Jessica Henwick, who gets a flat "what" at one of Benoit Blanc's lines, which absolutely kills me) - consistently getting laughs and stealing the show. The rate of humour and jokes and witty asides, observations, callbacks and planting-payoff is awe-inspiring, and this is some magnificent scripting work across the board.
It remembers that it is a murder mystery, and it's a damn good one. I was happy to call it, remembering that the "Glass Onion" in question is something with many layers, but the core is visible at all times...
Yet despite the FREQUENTLY funny moments, at its core (hah!) there is still a story about how we idolise billionaires for absolutely no reason, and when you peel back that layer of idiocy, you see the stupidity was always there. In its explosive, bombastic conclusion, where the murderer is revealed, we are happy to have been hoodwinked by the film, yes, but there's also a righteous anger to it all.
100% recommend

"Confess, Fletch" - Review

Investigative journalist Irwin M. Fletcher (Jon Hamm) is renting a house in Boston, and upon returning to it discover the corpse of a young woman in the living room. Immediately calling the police (who are perplexed as to why he is reporting his own rather obvious crime), our sharp-talking journo investigates what the hell is going on and who is trying to frame him...

This movie is electrifying script-work on display. Matching its protagonist's razor wit and rapid-fire neurons, it is a throwback to 50s screwball comedies of old, akin to something like "His Girl Friday" or fellow throwback and favourite of mine "Big Trouble in Little China". Every scene is a rapid-fire joke-fest, and not simply quips or put-downs but genuinely witty wordplay, interplay, barbs and verbal spouts. It's a fine return to form for Greg Mottola (director of "Superbad" and "Adventureland"), and for comedies in general: relying on wit and rapport rather than awkward improv and just a breath of fresh air. It's tightly paced, well-written, and the sheer number of jokes (not seen since "Booksmart") mean that it never flags or falters, and if you don't like one then then next will likely land. Or more accurately, as you are halfway through giggling your tits off at one, you'll miss the set-up of the next and try to calm yourself just in time for the next zinger. It goes along so rapidly and wonderfully that I forgot Robert Picardo was credited in this until he showed up, you have to be a great movie to do that.
Hamm is wonderful in this, and very much not Chevy Chase: which makes him 10x better for any project, including being Chevy Chase.
Izzo is great fun and always welcome in movies, and Marcia Gay Harden has been soreley missed in movies: here playing a deliciously campy Italian countess. Cameos and supporting parts aplenty have fun (Kyle MacLachlan is an art dealer who has raves to EDM in his house, which may make this the best film of the year), and whilst there is a funny role for Annie Mumolo as a stoner neighbour (who bounces off of Fletch wonderfully) and Lucy Punch and Roy Wood Jr (a socialite and slow cop respectively), Ayden Mayeri threatens to steal the show as Junior Detective Griz. Naturally, being a funny and sharp movie which casts talented performers over big names, and relies on jokes and tight scripting rather than memes, it is bombing hard.
This is criminal.
Please watch this, if only because it will REALLY piss off Chevy Chase.

"Watcher" - Review

Julia (Maika Monroe) moves to Bucharest with her partner Francis (Karl Glusman), as he has gotten a promotion. Whilst Francis goes to work, for many an hour, Francis is left alone with her thoughts. In a foreign country with no friends, no connections, not speaking the language and in a rougher part of town; Francis starts to believe that something is very wrong, and that one of her neighbours is watching her. And reading about a serial killer on the loose certainly doesn't put her mind at ease...

This is a well-crafted, slow burn, minor key pot boiler. More specifically it is a better rehash of Giallo flicks than Edgar Wright's "Last Night in Soho", with an emphasis on paranoia and the genuine dread that comes from being in an unknown land, all alone and feeling like you are constantly in danger.
The cinematography is gorgeous, director Chloe Okuno has an eye for windows and the simple touches of paranoia, and there is something intrinsically sinister about a silhouette in the window. It's not attempting to reinvent the genre, so it simply plays it bloody excellently.
Monroe is, as always, excellent and welcome in any film.
The camera lingers, lets the scene breathe, and the dread is always there, always creeping in, always present. We really get in the shoes and mindset of Julia, and feel that same feeling.
Look, if you're going to just remake "It Follows", I'm not going to complain! Hell, this one puts a spin on it.
Burn Gorman shows up in the opening credits, so you know who the villain is. And as good as the last act is, I'd have much preferred him to just be a weirdo!

"Drive My Car" - Review

Yusuke Takafu (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is a stage actor and director who specialises in multi-lingual productions of classic works. His world is shattered when his bloved wife and muse Oto (Reika Kirishima) passes away, and he tries to move on. Years later, suffering from glaucoma in his eye, he is brought on to direct an adaptation of "Uncle Vanya", and assigned a young driver named Misaki (Toko Miura) to transport him. Despite his misgivings, he loves the project, and this guarded man comes to terms with his grief and secrets of his path through bonding on the frequent car journeys with the mysterious but dependable Misaki...

The synopsis is simple, but the movie is deceptive like that. Yes, it is a character piece between these two adrift, lonesome souls on long car journeys, but that's only a piece of the puzzle. This movie is getting a lot of hype, and indeed picked up a "Best Picture" nomination and victory for "Best Foreign Language Film" at the Academy Awards (apparently "Parasite" is enough, we've had our fun with "non-English" movies, they should know their place), and I can see why. It's bloody long, but (refreshingly) doesn't drag. We're not talking "Zack Snyder" here.
It's pensive, slow, and deliberate, with lingering shots and marvellous cinematography (it's particularly good that director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and his cinematographer Hidetoshi Shinomiya don't make us feel trapped or claustrophobic in the car, but quite the opposite: quite free and open, oddly) so it should be a wank-a-thon mile-a-minute pretense ride.
But I loved it. It's a mesmerising movie about sadness and communication (a lovely dinner table scene with Park Yoo-Rim's sign-language fluent actor is just wonderfully sweet) and how it leaves us adrift. It's about loneliness and happiness in equal measure. Simple gestures like our 2 leads trailing cigarettes together through the sun-roof, or sharing a quiet drink in a tiny noir-bar are immeasurably important to them. It's affecting, touching, and deeply engaging. Yes, it's bloody long, and only tends to drag in the third act slightly, but everything up here is still warm and all too human. Particular shoutout goes to the 50 (!) minutes of build up so that we understand the relationship between Yusuke (Nishijima is a subdued and marvellously understated actor) and Oto (Kirishima makes her far more likeable and complex than would be the case in lesser works), and the pensive ending gives way to an emotional stage montage which is really, truly earned.
I genuinely get the hype, and was happy that it lived up to it, and it's going to affect different people in different ways. I recommend it.

"Castle Falls" - Review

Castle Heights hospital is finally being torn down, years after being officially closed. But inside this decrepit old monument is a stash of $3,000,000 belonging to the imprisoned crime boss Damian Glass (Robert Berlin). Berlin has made a deal with prison guard Richard Ericson (Dolph Lundgren) - Ericson can have the cash (which he needs to pay for his daughter's treatment) if he gets him a better cell with fewer stabbings. Ericson comes to grab it, but has 2 complications: out of work cage fighter Mike Wade (Scott Adkins) is on the demolition team, and has discovered the money, and ruthless gang of Neo-Nazis have arrived on site to seize the money, which they claim to be theirs... As the explosives are planted and the building evacuated, these 3 parties have a mere 90 minutes to get the money, and with this ticking clock there will be explosive confrontations...

A direct-to-DVD action movie directed by our star, Dolph Lundgren (who has earned the nudge-nudge wink-wink "Lundgren Construction" banner on the wall, touche my man) which is exactly what you want it, need it and expect it to be. It's competently made, overcoming a shoestring budget with a fun central premise and the always welcome legendary Scott Adkins (who I am delighted is keeping the action-movie star line alive, and is the one shining star of straight-to-DVD movies nowadays, actual legend that man is) to liven things up. The villains are fun and whilst it's nothing you've not seen before, it's actually going above and beyond what you expect from the usual dreck that the likes of Seagal is pumping out. You can tell that Lundgren wants to be here and wants to do this, and Adkins is great in anything. Ida Lundgren turns in a surprisingly sweet and nice performance too.
It's cheap, cheerful entertainment, and honestly I'm just happy to be getting another action movie this year, they seem few and far between